Myddelton Square is to get a make-over.

Consultation is to start almost immediately, in order to develop a brief for what local people want to see happen, within the available funds.   It is envisaged that there will be a leaflet, some door-knocking by Council staff, followed by a steering group of local stakeholders and residents to oversee the progress of the scheme.

This will be funded partly by about £250,000 “section 106″ funding from the Angel Centre development, and partly by the “Playbuilder” scheme for upgrading kids’ play areas.

This is good news.  Residents in the area have had to put up with a great deal of noise and disturbance from the Angel Centre redevelopment works, now nearing completion at the corner of St John St and Pentonville Road.  The square itself, though well-used, is looking its age.

Consultations on public open spaces can bring out conflicts between different types of user, and we must try to minimise this.  Dog walkers, children and tree-lovers all have legitimate views but the result is always a compromise.

The timescale is intended to result in the works being complete and ready for an official re-opening by April 2011.

The Ghost night club lost its attempt to stay open over Christmas and New Year at a hearing at Islington Town Hall earlier this afternoon (21st December).

David Serlui asked the Licensing Committee to reinstate his licence - suspended after the summary closure by the Police following a shooting in the early hours of 13th December.

Cllr Marisha Ray and I are seen here outside the Club this morning with a group of concerned local residents.

Mr Serlui’s lawyer told the Committee that:

• the previous security firm had been sacked;
• all events at the premises would be promoted by himself, so there would be no more events “promoted” by other organisations;
• the club would stop serving alcohol at 2.30am and close at 3.00am.

He also offered more than 20 new conditions, to be attached to his licence, most of them dealing with the details of how registered door staff were to be managed and regulated.

Questioned by the Committee and Council officers, Mr Serlui’s proposals started to look a bit shaky.  In particular:

• the club would close at 3.00am - but open again at 6.00am.  So his 24-hour licence would merely become a 21-hour one instead;
• many of the security measures were said to be already in place - but if so, why had they not worked before the shooting on 13th December?
• was there any real difference between a “promoted” event and one organised in-house?
• why was an event at the club on New Year’s Eve still being promoted on a  promoter’s web site?  (The Police said they could not resource the policing of such an event on New Year’s Eve if people had to be turned away.)

After a 20-minute adjournment to consider its decision, the Committee decided to make no change to the complete suspension of Ghost’s licence imposed by a (differently-constituted) Licensing Committee on 14th December.

The Committee’s ruling made it clear that they still had “grave concerns” about the failure of Mr Serlui to manage the premises, and that they did not accept that the measures proposed would promote the licensing objectives laid down in the Licensing Act 2003.

It has emerged that the man shot inside the club was taken to hospital by the security staff, who did not inform the police or ambulance services or, it is said, the management of the club.

I had asked the Licensing Service to ask the Committee to open the meeting to the public and press, and it agreed to do so.   Regulations state that hearings such as this have to be in public unless the public interest is better served by having it in private (eg if there is sensitive Police evidence).

I welcome this decision.   The one regret I have is that it has taken a shooting to make the Police take the problems with Ghost bar seriously.  Most residents in the area have had bitter experience of the poor management of the club, making the shooting just a matter of time.  The summary review, and the conditions put forward by Mr Serlui, were all about door security, rather than the endlessly repeated problems of the behaviour of the clubbers, which Serlui has shown himself incapable of dealing with.

The closure will last until the full review triggered by the Police action - likely to be early in the New Year and possibly 6th January.  Representations from people living within 300 yards or so have to be received by the Islington Licensing Service by 30th December.

If you live in this area, please either write to the Service at licensing@islington.gov.ukon or before 30th December or follow this link and sign our “Ghost must Go!” petition.

The Council has installed 350 new cycle racks in the last year – putting Islington streets ahead of other London Boroughs in providing safe places for people to lock their bikes. Locally, new bike stands have been put in on Clerkenwell Close, Amwell Street, Exmouth Market, Goswell Road, Myddleton Street, Hardwick Street, Green Terrace, Tysoe Street, and St. John Street.

In August 2007 there were 420 racks in Islington.  By August 2008 the council had doubled that number to 880.  Today there are over 1230 cycle racks on roads all around Islington – more than double the number than in neighbouring Labour-run Hackney.

A June 2009 report by the London Assembly found that 45% of people would cycle more if there was better cycle parking.  Research conducted by TfL showed that the availability of cycle parking and the security of parked bikes remain the two biggest cycling-related concerns.

Councillor Greg Foxsmith, Islington’s Liberal Democrat councillor responsible for transport and the environment, said:

“I cycle, and would recommend it as a great way to get around Islington.  The Liberal Democrats want to support people to take up cycling, and people need to know that they have somewhere secure to park their bike when they visit the shops, the doctor, church, or while they’re at work.

“That’s why this Liberal Democrat council has tripled the number of cycle racks on our streets in the last two years.  We’re committed to making Islington one of the most cycle-friendly boroughs in London.”

The Farringdon area is turning out to be “geotechnically exciting and every bit as challenging as we thought”, Crossrail’s Tim Grimshaw told a large meeting of the Community Liaison Panel on 24th November, called to discuss the latest developments in the huge construction projects now in progress around Farringdon station.  A picture of the completed western end station is shown here.

The meeting was chaired by my colleague Cllr Marisha Ray and here are the highlights:

Thameslink say they are progressing normally.  They are doing underpinning work in Turnmill St, while the Cardinal Tower has been scaffolded prior to the imminent start of demolition. The southern bit of Farringdon station has now disappeared, as has Steve Crosby’s former meat shop in Charterhouse St.

Work will start soon to divert services to allow the rebuilding the bridge which constitutes Cowcross Street outside Farringdon Station.  This will take much of 2010 and involves hoardings blocking much of the space.  The security and safety aspects of this caused us some concern, particularly during peak hours for travel and clubbing.

There will be major track closures between Christmas and New Year, to coincide with other major work at Blackfriars.  Keep an eye out for signage advising of these.

On Crossrail,  the rather mixed news is that the extensive drilling of boreholes in the area for the last six months is going to continue in January 2010 in the St John’s Lane/ St John St/ Eagle Court area.

The “geotechnically exciting” nature of the area explains why some of the boreholes will be within feet of the previous ones.  Crossrail is trying to locate a geological fault running through the area, and to plan the “dewatering” of some of the layers they will have to drill through.  This has obvious implications for the stability of buildings in the area during and after tunnelling starts.

Planning of the replacement building for Cardinal Tower is advancing with developers Cardinal Lysander, but there is nothing to be consulted on yet.  The owners of adjacent Caxton House are considering demolition soon but there are no details on this yet.

Property is being acquired in the Charterhouse St/Lindsey St area to enable work on the eastern ticket hall to start.  The Moorgate branch will be de-commissioned in the New Year.

Tim drew our attention to a major supplement on Crossrail from New Civil Engineer, which has a feature on Farringdon here.

An “outreach” exercise by both projects found that 73% of businesses in the area feel they know what is going on in the area.  Sadly of course some of them will be closing soon as part of the work - notably all the shops currently in the station building in Cowcross St.

Malcolm Cree of Islington Council told the meeting what steps the Council is taking to keep the area clean during the works.  Litter bins outside Farringdon are emptied 7 times a day, he said.  The new pop-up urinal is working well and the City Corporation is considering putting some up on its site of the boundary.  55 people have been issued with fixed penalty notices for littering in Cowcross Street in the last 6 months and the message is starting to get through.

The next Liaison Panel will take place in March 2010 - date to be decided. Presentations will include those on accessibility issues,  the skill training opportunities and an update on things geological.

It looks as though we are all going to hear more about what the engineers think is going on under our feet and how confident they are about its effects on our familiar buildings over the next 8 years!

Residents of Clerkenwell have overwhelmingly supported a move to make all roads in the ward - other than the main through routes - subject to a 20mph limit.

The area between Rosebery Avenue and Pentonville Rd in Clerkenwell is already a 20mph “zone” - ie, complete with road humps - but the new proposal was to make the remainder into 20mph “areas” - subject to the same limit but without the humps.

The Council’s South Area committee unanimously agreed to this proposal at its meeting on 23rd November 2009.  The new limit will affect all of Clerkenwell other than Kings CrossRd/Farringdon Rd, Clerkenwell Rd, Goswell Rd, Rosebery Ave and Pentonville Rd.  St John Street will thus be subject to the new limit.

I voted for this, and I am immensely encouraged by how far we have come since I was first elected.  Ten years ago, some drivers seemed to think it was OK to travel at 60mph along our streets, angrily hooting at anyone impeding their progress.  Now, drivers often give way voluntarily to pedestrians at road junctions.

The plan is part of a borough-wide initiative which may well result in all residential roads in Islington becoming 20mph.  The existing 29 20mph zones have already halved the number of people - many of them children - killed or seriously injured on Islington’s roads from 227 in 2001 to 112 in 2007.

Council highways engineers explained that the thinking is that through traffic will stick to main roads rather than have to slow down to go through residential areas.  Because the new areas are not self-enforcing, the effect on actual speeds will be monitored and humps will be considered if necessary.

The papers for the meeting are available here.

Many thanks to everyone who signed the Clerkenwell Licensing Petition, which was presented to the Council on 8th October.

As a result, Islington Council is going to consult Clerkenwell residents and businesses on declaring the area “saturated” with licensed premises.  If adopted, this will mean that anyone asking for a new licence - to sell alcohol - will have to show special reasons why it should be granted, in view of the 135 licensed premises we already have.

In a separate move, a Controlled Drinking Zone around Vernon Square is also to be consulted upon, following a variety of problems there (see separate post coming shortly).

The announcement about saturation was made by Cllr Greg Foxsmith, Executive member for the Environment, at last week’s full Council meeting, in response to a question from local resident Martha Burnige of Wharton St.  (There is a 40-minute “question time” for residents to ask Executive members a question submitted in advance, plus a “supplementary.”)

Earlier, I had presented the first instalment of the Clerkenwell Licensing Petition, in which over 100 residents had signed up on the doorstep, or on-line, backing our calls for a saturation policy, controlled drinking zones,  endorsing the Clerkenwell Charter for licensees and asking for reforms of the infamous “Temporary Event Notice” system.

Later in the meeting there was a debate on a motion I had put down, denouncing Labour’s Licensing Act 2003 for its top-down, one-size-fits-all policies which made it virtually impossible to respond to residents’ legitimate expectations of controls on licensing.  This was passed by the Council, which rejected half-hearted Labour attempts to water it down.

Many local publicans support the “saturation” move.  Maybe it will limit the scope for additional competition; maybe it also reflects a recognition that things have gone too far.

We’ll give further news here about the consultation as it develops.

A very well-attended Farringdon Community Liaison Forum meeting on 15th September heard presentations from both Thameslink and Crossrail about what they will be doing over the next few months.  These are the highlights.

September 2009

Crossrail will be continuing its programme of trial trench-digging on Saturday mornings, using pneumatic drills etc.  They are supposed to start at 9.00am but have been starting at 8.00am according to local residents.

A crane will be installed at Cardinal Tower in late September to assist demolition.

Monday 21st September: Thameslink starts the demolition of the shops opposite Farringdon Station in Cowcross Street, and also some demolition in Turnmill St, which will be closed over the weekend of 26th/27th September for crane operations in support of this. The Vine Street complex of offices will have an access ladder installed down to track level.

October

Crossrail starts demolishing Cardinal Tower.  This will be done using mechanical diggers equipped with “jaws” which will gradually move down the building, always behind a protective scaffolded screen.  It will be down to ground level by Christmas and foundation level by March 2010.  Similarly Steve Crosby’s meat shop in Charterhouse St will be demolished by Christmas to prepare for the creation of a lorry ramp down to the tracks.  Demolition work itself won’t take place at night but some scaffolding activities will.

In Turnmill St, auger-piling operations will begin in October and there will be a further road closure on 30th October/1st November.

December: the station will close on Christmas Eve for a period but trains will continue to run through it without stopping.  There is further demolition work in the station and the Moorgate branch will be decommissioned.

As always, if you have having problems with noisy or inconsiderate working, call the Network Rail helpline on 08457 114141.  This operates 24/7

The next Liaison Forum meeting will be in late November/early December, and we asked for presentations from Thameslink on (a) the management of the Cowcross Street bridge (which is to be removed and replaced in stages) and (b) the information and signage available to the clubbing fraternity, who may not always realise that that the trains that brought them to Farringdon station may not start running as usual the following day!

A big “Thank you” to everyone who has signed our petition - either on your doorstep or by electronically, or by signing a version downloaded from the web site.

We have been out on the doorsteps of Clerkenwell gathering signatures, which are now building up, and we’re still going. Virtually everyone we have asked on the doorsteps of Clerkenwell has agreed to sign.

We’re planning to take it to the Council meeting on 8th October, where I will say a few words about it at the start of the meeting.

Licensing has been much in my mind recently.  There was a major incident at the Ghost nightclub in Farringdon Road on 31st August - Bank Holiday Monday - at about 2.00am, when 10 police cars and 3 ambulances attended an incident later described as a “bottle-throwing and stabbing”.   Ghost has certainly fulfilled early predictions about the disruption it would cause, and I am now considering options for action on this, with various local residents.

Residents in the vicinity of Vernon Square have had a hard time with street drinkers and backpacking teenagers staying at nearby hostels, with some football tourists from the Travelodge hotels in the area, drinking and playing football into the early hours of the morning.  Council officers and Police in both Islington and Camden are giving thought to what can be done about this.

Today, Clerkenwell’s Lib Dem Councillors start a campaign to tighten up the rules on the sale of alcohol in Clerkenwell.

The ward has 135 licensed premises, and we think that’s enough.  Anyone coming along with a proposal for yet another bar, club, pub, restaurant or cafe wanting to sell alcohol should have to have a very good reason for it.

We’ve started gathering a petition - both on paper and on-line.  We will be out on the streets gathering signatures, and knocking on doors throughout the summer.

If you would like to support us, please go the campaign web page here.

You can also sign up there for news on how the campaign is going, and leave comments for us.

This is one of the most important factors affecting the quality of life in Clerkenwell, so please help us!

If you enjoy watching demolition, Clerkenwell is the place to be for the next few months!

Currently, there is not much going on  but that is about to change, big time, a meeting of the Farringdon Community Liaison Forum heard on 6th July.  This meeting brings representatives of local residents together with the Islington, Thameslink and Crossrail staff directly concerned with the operations around Farrringdon.

Charterhouse St and Farringdon Road will see more destruction than they have since the infamous V2 rocket  landed at this spot in March 1945 killing 110 people.

That’s why I am calling the next few months the Clerkenwell Festival of Demolition, with Thameslink and Crossrail as the main sponsors.

Unlike other festivals, this will play to a rather reluctant audience of residents, commuters and other workers in the area.  The opening event will be the relatively minor demolition of Steve Crosby’s meat shop in Charterhouse Street, in the next few weeks, to give access to the track area.

The main event will be the demolition of Cardinal Tower, the unlovely 1960s block in Farringdon Rd,  and the warm-up has already started with “soft” stripping-out.  August will see the erection of scaffolding - plastic wrapped - and a tower crane, before the serious demolition of the structure starts in late September.

It’s a double bill.  The owners of adjacent Caxton House (another unlovely 1960s block, seen here) have said they will also be demolishing their building at the same time.  September will also see internal  demolition work at Farringdon Station.

A planning application for a new “integrated ticket hall” serving both Thameslink and Crossrail in Cowcross St will go to the planning committee on 8th September and I understand that it will not be demolished until then.

As a sort of “fringe” event nearby, contractors for the Goldsmith’s Company will be demolishing part of the former Eagle Court school shortly, for their new craft centre there (see previous post).

Noise control

Islington Council pollution team member Dan O’Sullivan told the Liaison meeting how Islington will be monitoring the noise, dust and vibration issues from Thameslink/ Crossrail.  Airborne dust monitors are being installed in Charterhouse Square and Greville St.

His team can be reached via 020 7527 3340 or Contact Islington  on 020 7527 2000 (24/7).  In the event of complaints, his team needs to have basic details such as when an incident happened, where, what it was and how long it lasted.  Camden residents should ring Islington as the works will all be on its side of the boundary.

National Rail Information & Complaint Line

National Rail (who are in charge of the Thameslink work and most of the above-ground work at Farringdon) have a 24/7 information line on 08457 114141. If a problem is clearly related to Thameslink work (including Cardinal Tower) then ring this line first and Network Rail claims this will resolve the complaint faster than via the Council.

In the longer term, Crossrail will start drilling a pilot tunnel for the new station platforms in 2011, long before the 4 main tunnelling machines arrive at Farringdon (where they will eventually be dismantled and removed.)

If you live near Farringdon Station in a block of flats you probably already have a representative on the liaison panel but do contact me to check.  The next meeting is scheduled for 15th September,  just before Cardinal Tower and Caxton House finally start coming down.

In due course, there will be a replacement building for Cardinal Tower - but there are no proposals for this yet.  A replacement for Caxton House has been given permission.

Another week, another few awards!

Last week, Islington won the prestigious 2009 Municipal Journal award for Energy Efficiency, some details of which are here.  The citation was for “its pioneering programme in reducing carbon emissions, being the first to include a carbon dioxide reduction target in its Local Area Agreement.”

Last week’s haul also included one from English Heritage, which I went to receive from Baroness Kay Andrews, Chair Designate of English Heritage.  This was for the London Council that had done most to improve its conservation areas, with particular reference to those in Whitecross Street and Kings Cross.

Transport for London (TfL) has recently produced a plan for improving the dreadful corner of Margery St, Lloyd Baker St, Farringdon Road, Calthorpe St and  Kings Cross Road.   I have published the plan they have produced here.

Here I am showing the problem to Caroline Pidgeon, Lib Dem Greater London Assembly Member, on the spot.

“Five Ways” is a typical Victorian triumph of laissez-fair planning:  bring 5 streets together at the same point and then wonder why chaos results.

The Story so Far

Since 2006, I and my fellow Lib Dem councillors have been badgering TfL, Islington, successive Mayors (Livingstone and Johnson) with petitions, questions etc. The snag was that TfL never answered their e-mails direct but merely gave occasional (unfulfilled) promises of action to Islington officers and just didn’t get on with it.

In November 2008, Mayor Boris told Caroline Pidgeon, that work on the junction was “at an early stage” and TfL would keep in touch with us.

Then – silence.  More unanswered e-mails.  Now – in June 2009, news has filtered though via Islington officers that TfL had produced the scheme shown here, and that work would start  “in July”.

TfL is reported - indirectly - to us as saying that there will be no consultation with the public, because the scheme is in response to concerns about pedestrian conditions- and as the scheme improves these, consultation is “unnecessary”.  So it’s gone straight from an early stage to final scheme without the benefit of local opinion!

What the scheme does

The scheme:

• creates “build-outs” round the junction, widening the pavements slightly
• introduces a yellow box junction and a defined lane for traffic turning right into Lloyd Baker Street and Calthorpe St; and

• introduces tactile surfaces and pedestrian advisory signals.

And, er, that’s about it.  It may restrain some of the wilder manoeuvres such as the heart-stopping 180-degree turn some drivers make from Margery St into Lloyd Baker Street.

But it doesn’t do much for cyclists, who are put at risk by the excessive speed of traffic from Calthorpe Street into Lloyd Baker St or out of Margery Street, and by the huge size of the junction which means southbound cyclists can be half-way across the junction (and going slowly uphill) when conflicting traffic emerges from the other streets, on a green light.

So there we are then!  Naturally, we’re protesting about the lack of consultation but this scheme is a bit like buses – you wait along time for one, then they call come in a rush.

Mayor Boris has yet to do anything which starts getting Transport for London away from the unaccountable and beurocratic habits it has learned throughout the decades while it was the GLC, then the Highways Agency, and now TfL.

If there any further developments, I’ll post it here!

At

At last, at very long last, Transport for London’s contractors are on site at the junction of Pentonville Road and Penton Rise.  They are installing a new design of junction intended to stop the sickening number of accidents there.

Here we are - Cllr Marisha Ray and me - hearing from Sean the contractor what he and his team will be doing there up to the end of June.  Only a few days ago, we were protesting at the lack of action.

The only snag is - cyclists are continuing to expose themselves to serious danger by riding through the coned-off nearside lane, then dodging down Pentonville Road while the rest of the traffic turns left into Penton Rise.  Sean is thinking of ways to discourage this.  He tells us he’s already seen two near-misses likely to have been fatal- in four days of work at the site.

The scheme creates a bus/cycle only lane on the offside of the southbound carriageway, into which bolder cyclists can filter, some distance back from the junction.  Less bold cyclists will be able to continue in the nearside carriageway, but come off onto a new bike lane on the pavement, then cross the junction at a “Toucan” cycle/pedestrian light-controlled crossing, then rejoin the bus/cycle-only lane a few yards away.

Virtually all the paving will be brought up to modern standards.   There’s no news however on the timing of the green-man phase at this junction, which was discovered recently to be non-compliant with national standards.  See a BBC TV item on this problem filmed at this junction.

So - a big thanks to Caroline Pidgeon, Lib Dem GLA member and transport spokesperson, seen here with me and our petition calling on Boris & Co to get work started here.

I will even raise two cheers to TfL.  The third will come when the work is complete and cycling and pedestrian safety are much improved!

Three more accidents took place at the junction of Pentonville Road and Penton Rise in 10 days in late April/ early May - but there is still no sign of work starting on Mayor Boris’ long-promised works to make the junction safer.

Two of the accidents involved cyclists and the third a schoolgirl who was hit by a bus, and who was taken to UCH with what looked like serious injuries but have mercifully turned out not to be.  The two cycling accidents were the all-too-familiar collisions between forward-going cyclists and left-turning traffic and were only with cars; those with lorries are almost invariably fatal.

A group of us gathered at the scene on 5th May, pictured here.  Further near-misses continued to happen while we were there.  As previous posts on this blog have documented, Transport for London has been dragging its feet in starting work, despite constant pressure from us and Caroline Pidgeon, Lib Dem Assembly member.

We have now been told that the works will take place “between May and August” this year.  They cannot come a moment too soon.  We are holding our breath…

Right now, Clerkenwell’s streets should be alive with the sounds of spring, but any bird trying to raise its voice will have to compete with several teams doing pneumatic drilling. 

Hard on the heels of six months of gas-pipe renewal, EDF have been carving a trench down Amwell Street, while the St John Street/Rosebery Avenue junction is being dug up and various other teams are doing their best to keep us awake.

I’ve been making inquiries about the Amwell Street works. These involve EDF putting in a 132kV cable to St Pancras Station and have been planned for 2 years.  When they finish, Islington Council will then resurface the road.  At least that bit seems the right way round.  The EDF contractors are scheduled to finish by mid-May.

Meanwhile, yards away, Thames Water is building another water tunnel to its New River Head site, this time from Walthamstow, to improve central London’s supply. There is a web site about it here.  Fortunately, this is all happening 150 feet underground and should not cause any serious disruption.

We may fume about these inconveniences, but let’s consider the alternatives.  Last week, Snow Hill on the City side of Smithfield was closed when some mere 11kV electricity cables overheated and started smoking, bringing alarm and disruption to the area; a Gazette report is available here.

So, on balance, it’s better to put up with the pneumatic drilling.  The road engineers assure me that Amwell Street will be safe from further digging-up for a long time:  12 whole months, apparently.  So the sounds of spring will be heard, but maybe just a bit late this year.

Why didn’t work start on 2nd March, as promised by Boris Johnson, on the infamous “death junction” at the corner of Pentonville Road and Penton Rise, scene of many cycling accidents and a recent fatality?

Here’s a further extract from Mayor Boris’ ample bag of excuses:

 Question No: 633 / 2009

Caroline Pidgeon (Lib Dem Assembly Member):

In the light of your Answer to my Question No: 263 / 2009, can you explain why no work appears to have taken place yet at the Pentonville Road/Penton Rise junction?

Answer from the Mayor:

As I outlined in answer to your question 263/2009, some preliminary works at this junction that were due to start in January 2009 were re-scheduled in order to avoid adding to the disruption of Pentonville Road caused by major gas main repairs at the Angel.  TfL’s contractors were due to commence work at the junction on 2 March but on arrival found a number of underground utilities services that had not been identified previously.  These required the scheme designs to be modified, and TfL anticipate that works will recommence in April.

The last-ever train from Farringdon station to Moorgate departed on Friday.  Work starts shortly to extend the platforms at Farringdon, thus severing forever the branch line to Moorgate.  Now passengers will have to change at Farringdon or elsewhere.

So - what do we do with an abandoned half-mile railway track under Smithfield and the Barbican?  And are there implications for local residents?

Let’s first remember that this has happened before, and because I try to learn from previous mistakes, let’s look at what tends to go wrong.

How not to use railway tracks…

A disastrous Royal Commission in Victorian times decreed that railways were not to be allowed south of a line along Euston Road, thus condemning generations of commuters to a miserable life of changing onto overcrowded tube trains.  The line through from Kings Cross to Blackfriars was an honourable exception - but BR closed it in the 1950s and the trackway was abandoned for 40 years.

During the 1980s, I even organised a couple of walks along this trackbed from Farringdon to Blackfriars, and through the former Snow Hill station.  Piles supporting the 1970s offices on Holborn Viaduct had been allowed to be driven through the former platforms, thus rendering them unre-usable.  Fortunately, after a study funded by the GLC, the line itself reopened in the 1990s.

So I am determined that we just leave the Farringdon-Moorgate trackbed just as it is.  After about 40 years, someone will find a need to reinstate it,  usually just after we have allowed someone to build on it,  pile-drive through it, or convert it into a nightclub, bowling alley or whatever.  Fortunately,  National Rail seems to think along the same lines as me.

….and snags for locals

There are, however, some immediate snags which may have a severe impact on the area in a few years’ time.  If London Underground wants to use the redundant tracks as sidings near Farringdon station, then an alternative plan by Crossrail to use the track for a shaft for compensation grouting - needed to stop neighbouring buildings collapsing after it builds its tunnels - will not proceed and Crossrail’s original proposal will have to go ahead, to drill the shaft from a worksite at the junction of St John Street and St John’s Lane (thus causing St John Street to be completely closed for 6 months).

Needless to say, I will be campaigning to avoid this outcome.  Given that London Underground and Crossrail are both ultimately controlled by Transport for London, one can reasonably hope any differences can be resolved.

I have a limited idea of what compensation grouting is but the recent collapse of buildings near a new tube line in Cologne, with two fatalities, has been blamed on the lack of this.

And Finally…

It’s not widely known that there is the remnant of a third abandoned railway tunnel underneath Smithfield - which used to go from the Farringdon-Blackfriars track eastwards towards Moorgate. It was closed many years ago and then destroyed when the new Poultry market building was built in the 1960s.  Who knows what interesting rail services could have been provided if it had been kept!

Transport for London is due to start work this week on an infamous junction - the corner of Penton Rise and Pentonville Road - scene of dozens of minor injuries and a recent fatal collision between a cyclist and a lorry.

I have been badgering TfL constantly to get on with it, with a petition to Boris Johnson, a site meeting, lots of emails and questions from Caroline Pidgeon, Lib Dem Assembly Member and spokesperson on transport matters.

Caroline’s last question - querying why work hadn’t started in January as promised - elicited the following response from the Mayor:

“Design of a new junction layout to improve cyclist safety is complete, and some preliminary works due to start in January were re-scheduled in order to avoid adding to the disruption of Pentonville Road caused by major gas main repairs at the Angel. The gas main works have now moved along Islington High Street so the work at the Pentonville Road/Penton Rise junction is now due to start on 2 March for completion by 21 May 2009”

We must all hope that no further accidents happen before the works are finished.  The new junction will give cyclists a choice between filtering into the correct lane or crossing at at light-controlled “Toucan” crossing, thus avoiding having to make a dangerous manouevre across a lane of fast-moving and heavy traffic.  A “ghost bike” at the scne now reminds us of the consequences.

Meanwhile, there is no response from TfL on another notorious junction in the area, at the junction of Kings Cross Road, Lloyd Baker St, Margery St, Farringdon Road and Calthorpe St….

Thameslink have issued their monthly “notification letter” for March, giving (some) details of the works ahead.  This not (yet) on their web site but previous versions can be downloaded from here (under “want to know more?)

There will be all-weekend works on the weekends of 27th February-1st March and 13th-15th March, from 8.00pm Friday night to 6.00am on Monday mornings.  The works to be done during these weekends “will generate significant noise and disruption to our neighbours”, says Thameslink.

Earlier this month, noisy works were carried out at 12.30am and after intervention from the Islington noise service, Thameslink agreed to carry them out during more normal hours.

April will see the construction of a new temporary exit from the station onto Turnmill Street, and the stripping out of the parade of shops in Cowcross Street opposite Farringdon Station.

Looking further ahead, the demolition of Cardinal House (the big block on Farringdon Road) is scheduled to be in “June - September 2009″.

Islington Council is proposing to install a pop-up “Urilift” urinal at the corner of St John St and Cowcross Street.

This is a response to years of complaints by local people about the sight, and consequences, of clubbers and drinkers urinating in the street and various alleys off them, and recent efforts to get licensed premises to take more responsibility for their customers.  It is quite normal to see drinkers outside pubs relieving themselves in the street - rather than using the facilities inside which are available to them.

The urinal will rise out of the pavement at certain times, and then disappear back after its work is done.

You can get an impression of what it will look like from the manufacturer’s web site here.  Similar installations have been made in Westminster and Guildford. 

I have asked officers to ensure wide consultation of neighbouring residents and businesses.   If you want to make your views known, please contact the Operations Management of Islington’s Street Environment Services, on 020 7527 7644. 

The site is particularly suited for the Fabric queue, and by being visible, will be far better known than the temporary urinals that Islington has been installing on Friday and Saturday nights in the area.

Weekends in the Farringdon area of Clerkenwell are becoming a sort of free-fire zone for engineers. 

First up, there is Network Rail, which is putting on a weekly show by closing Turnmill Street and bringing in a colossal mobile crane there to remove the old footbridge at Farringdon Station.  We’ve had two weekends of this so far in 2009, and we are promised more -  Friday 20th to Sunday 22nd February, 13th-15th March, and again on 19th-22nd March.

Pedestrians can still move along the pavement, “except during lifting operations”, and drivers can go to premises as far as Thackeray Court (after some negotiation with contractors).

In its latest bulletin, Network Rail coyly admits that “at times this work will generate significant noise and disruption to our neighbours,” some of whom are slowly being given secondary glazing to cope with this.

Later on, the bridge forming the carriageway in front of  Farringdon station will be cut up and removed, before being rebuilt.  The parade of shops opposite the Station will also be demolished.  Then Cardinal House will be demolished, probably during the summer, for Crossrail.  I hope you’re with me so far! 

Meanwhile, our friends at Transport for London have decided that weekends just now are a good moment to install a speed table at the junction with Cowcross Street and Farringdon Road, so we have the sight of huge road-rollers and surfacing machines at weekends as well.

Islington’s own officers have just unveiled their own modest triumph in the area.  The hoardings on the north side of the Clerkenwell Road bridge across the railway have at last been removed, revealing…a large expanse of pavement.  This is (almost) the final chapter in the saga of the strengthening of the bridge, which was closed for 3 years (1996-1999) because it required strengthening, causing massive diversions, but the necessary repairs took a long time to be organised.  Then the work was done - partially - but one lane on the north side remained closed. 

Finally, in 2008, after 12 years of closure, the money, track-possessions etc were at last made available and the work done.  It involved underpinning the Victorian bridge and encasing its pillars in concrete, all in the middle of the night and without damaging any of the four electrified railway tracks, inches away from the pillars.

I am now hoping the resulting space will  become a cycle lane in part.  An approach lane was installed in anticipation of this on the west side of the junction  - in 2000 - and has remained unused ever since. 

And if this wasn’t enough, we’ve just had 6 months of gas-main renewals all over Clerkenwell, following on from extensive water-main renewals.  Granted all this infrastructure has to be renewed every hundred years or so but  - maybe, guys, not all at once??