London has just two streets called Mayday Something. I've been to both. Mayday Road Thornton Heath CR7 This brief Victorian sideroad was once well known across much of south London, indeed you may even have been born here. It's to be found in Thornton Heath (the pond bit rather than the station bit) and bears off London Road about a mile north of Croydon town centre. Look for Coughlans bakery at the end of the street, or else the faded peeling Saints and Sinners pub (which you can tell closed three years ago because it's still advertising a pint for £2.99). Perhaps dodge the ambulances. And ..read more

     Voted for Sadiq; voted for a Labour London Assembly Member         Voted for Sadiq; voted for a Liberal Democrat London Assembly Member         Voted for Susan; voted for a Labour London Assembly Member         Voted for Susan; voted for a Conservative London Assembly Member Elected: Sadiq Khan (Labour) Voted for Sadiq   1,088,225 44%   ↑4% since 2021 Voted for Susan 812,397 33%   ↓2% Voted for Rob 145,184 6%   ..read more

10 Centuries In 1 Day may not have been a very good walk. But can we do it properly and pick one London building from each of 10 centuries? In fact, given London's a Roman city, can we do 20 centuries? Let's give it a try... 16th-21st century This is the easy bit. Far too many buildings to choose from. So I've just chosen one big one. 21st century Tons of London buildings are from this century. To be representative and iconic I want to pick something tall, so whereas I'd have preferred the Gherkin (2004) I'm going to pick The Shard (2013). It's still the tallest building in western Europe ..read more

One of the capital's best places to go walking is the City of London, and what's more they have the wherewithal to have created all sorts of self-guided walks for you to follow. 21 downloadable walks are listed on their old website (although they're increasingly hard to find because most links keep trying to divert you to their new website which is a swooshy atomised disappointment, and all it says there is 'go to the City Information Centre and pick up a printed map', and admittedly they do have six walk leaflets there which is pretty good going, but I thought I'd try one of the 15 other walk ..read more

What does the National Rail symbol on the tube map mean? Obviously it means 'National Rail interchange', it says so in the key. But what does 'National Rail interchange' actually mean? I ask because several stations with a National Rail service don't have the symbol, for example here in the northwest corner of the map. Crossrail's fine. Reading, Twyford and Maidenhead are also served by GWR and Taplow isn't. The Central line's fine. West Ruislip and South Ruislip are also served by Chiltern and the other stations aren't. But the Metropolitan line's not fine. Five of its stations are serve ..read more

    NORTHUMBER LAND AVENUE £160   London's Monopoly Streets NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE Colour group: pink Purchase price: £160 Rent: £12 Length: 300m Borough: Westminster Postcode: SW1 Northumberland Avenue is a young street by central London standards, and a grand one at that. Like the rest of the pinks it starts at Trafalgar Square and in this case cuts down to the Victoria Embankment, pretty much direct. It's also the shortest street I've had to write about so far, being fully walkable in under five minutes, and more somewhere tourists stay than Londoners go. Pleasingly ..read more

30 unblogged things I did in April Mon 1: Three highlights of a day spent at my Dad's in Norfolk: i) going to the local art exhibition and having tea and cake with a sheep farmer. ii) watching a wren repeatedly bringing nest material into the birdbox beside my bedroom window. iii) eating the roast lamb ready meal my Dad inherited from the freezer of a recently deceased villager. Tue 2: Passed a colourful reader of this blog while exiting a DLR station, but I didn't stop to say hello because I've only met them once and they looked like they'd had a tough day at the office. Wed 3: Supermarket u ..read more

20 things we learned from TfL FoI requests in April 2024 1) The annual operating cost for the Woolwich Ferry is £8.9 million. 2) In 2021 there were 305km of bus lanes in London, up from 293km in 2011. 3) Tfl spent £282,945.43 advertising this year's Fares Freeze on posters, in the press and on paid social. 4) On bus routes 366, 462, 488, 499 and U9, where one terminus is on a loop, passengers are allowed to stay aboard at no extra charge to complete their journey. 5) There are no plans to reopen the Pentonville Road entrance to King's Cross station as "the huge cost of bringing it up to stand ..read more

The DLR's youngest station is ten years old today. Pudding Mill Lane opened on 28th April 2014 and remains unnecessarily enormous. Caveat: The station which opened 10 years ago was a rebuild paid for by Crossrail, because the original sat on the precise site where purple trains needed to burst out of the earth on their way to Shenfield. Update: Purple trains on their way to Shenfield now burst out of the earth on the site of the original station. Clarification: The original Pudding Mill Lane station, which was piddly small, opened on 15th January 1996 and closed on 18th April 2014. [blogge ..read more

Nobody wants to read boring old text any more, the moving image is where it's at. So today I'm pivoting to video and bringing you my first thrilling dynamic transport content. Like and subscribe! For those of you without playback capability, I've included a transcript below. Warning, spoilers! THE BIG LONDON AIRPORTS RACE Train versus plane - City to Heathrow Scene - outside City Airport DEEJ: Hi there. Welcome back to the channel and we've got a wild one for you today. What's the fastest way to get from London City Airport to Heathrow Airport. Is it the train? Or could it be flying? I kn ..read more