A watery revival

After proposing the return of our Routemaster, Boris Johnson has another equally desirable whim for London.  The new mayor’s advisors want to make the capital more liveable by unearthing it’s lost rivers.

There are over a dozen waterways other then the Thames running through London, most of them however, have been transformed into little more than sewers. Perhaps the most famous of these is the Fleet which rises in Hamstead, flows though Kings Cross and gave its name to the street which was built over it. Another fairly well known is The Tyburn, running from South Hampstead, through St James’s Park to Vauxhall, this leant its name to the ‘Tyburn Tree’ gallows which originally stood by the river’s banks. Another Hampstead river is the Westbourne which flowed through Kilburn, become the Bayswater rivulet then the original Serpentine in Hyde Park before running under the now lost Knightsbridge which gave it’s name to the area. These days the Serpentine is fed by water from the Thames instead and the only sign of the Westbourne that can easily be seen is a large iron pipe running over the platforms in Sloane Square Underground Station.

Less famous in our time but of great importance to the Romans is Walbrook which runs from Finsbury, then under the London Wall, emerging into the Thames beneath Cannon Street station.  

South of the city, the Effra was converted into a major sewer by Sir Joseph Bazalgette, it originates by Crystal Palace flowing through Brixton to meet the Thames near Vauxhall. Lost underground for their entire run are the Falconbrook from Balham to Battersea, the Neickinger from Southwark to Shad Thames. Two rivers ‘channelised’ but already receiving attention are The Wandle, aboveground for most of it’s run from Waddon and the subject or restoration plans by Wandsworth Borough Council; and the Quaggy in Greenwich and Lewisham , subject to re-naturalisation plans since 1990, including restoration in Lewisham town centre.

One of the mayor’s advisors has even touted the possibility of turning Fleet Street into a waterway in the style of a Venetian canal. 

In addition to the rivers, plans first touted by Ken Livingston to link Primrose Hill to Trafalgar Square with a tree lines promenade have been repeated by the new mayor’s advisor Sir Stimon Milton. The scheme would see Portland Place and Regent Street turned into something resembling Barcelona’s Las Ramblas.

Further reading:

• The story of London’s neglected waterways can be read in N.J. Barton’s The Lost Rivers of London: A Study of Their Effects Upon London and Londoners, and the Effects of London and Londoners on Them.

Photographs in this post:

1. Fleet: Knee deep in Old Father Thames by Mr J. Doe
2. Effra: Vauxhall Bridge by Hachimaki

Tube parties and Ancient Greek schools

Photo by Rooney

A month in the job and today was the day of Boris’ first regular press conference, an event that under his predecessor happened once a week, but which the new mayor would rather keep a little less often to allow him to spend more time ‘out there’ amongst Londoners.  On the subject of Ken Livingston, he reserved praise for the ex-mayor’s appointment of an environmental officer, a move he intends to follow.

The questions kicked off with the Tube alcohol ban, following Saturday night’s ‘last round on the underground’ parties. 17 arrests were made on the night, when 50 staff were abused and spat at, three of whom were assaulted. Johnson said the party was “anthropologically misunderstood”, but to be honest he had little to defend. The moment that people began hurling abuse - and saliva - they won the anti-alcohol argument for the Mayor. Boris’ hopes that the move will become self-policing smacks of a little too much optimism however and won’t cheer many of the Underground staff. 

Talking of whom, the Mayor reiterated his belief that a no-strike deal by Tube workers would be in the best interests of London, but doesn’t expand on the plan’s progress.

He was, meanwhile, more than happy to elaborate on language schools and his desires for Latin and Ancient Greek to be properly recognised in the Government’s language school programme.

More apposite for this journal, Boris replied to a question from the Financial Times on the progress of replacing London’s bendy buses, with a statement that it was a two step process, first losing the unloved Mercedes single deckers, before introducing a new ero of Routemaster. For the sake of London’s bus users I hope there isn’t two much of a gap between step one and step two.

 

A crusade against corruption, or simple self interest?

Boris Johnson has written to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to call for a limit to the number of terms a Mayor of London can serve.

In his letter to Hazel Blears, Johnson states that “It’s about time that the Government changed the law to give Londoners a mayoral system which is accountable and open.”

Is the new Mayor fighting ‘cronyism, misconduct and corruption’ or merely planning ahead for the next election? By 2012 the Londoners who cast their votes in support of Boris might have grown tired of him as Olympic costs spiral further under his leadership and election promises go unfulfilled. Meanwhile most of the weariness of Ken Livingston’s two terms may have ebbed away. Perhaps Boris is attempting to insure himself against his most powerful opponent.  

Photo: Bruno Girin

Sunday service

No substantial Boris news this weekend, more a case of little tapas style platters than a full main course. So here’s a brief tasting menu:

New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s came to London on Friday, he brought with him advice and a crystal apple as a gift symbolising the city with which London often competes. In turn Boris gave Bloomberg a piece of London Underground tat, a shirt emblazoned with the Tube map. If Johnson really wanted to give the impression of having bought a gift as an afterthought on the way to the meeting, why not go the whole hog and plump for some petrol station bought flowers or those shell-shaped Belgian chocolates every newsagent sells? The Herald Tribune summarised Bloomberg’s advice Johnson as these three simple tips:

1. Take the time to build a solid team, even if the press is on your case to speed things up.
2. Do the hard, controversial things early. If you’re lucky, they’ll work out in time to help with re-election.
3. Be yourself. Don’t worry about being flavour-of-the-month.

The New York Mayor also gave a lesson on obfuscation, suggesting that when dealing with journalists “you don’t have to match your answers to their questions. If you don’t give the right answers to their questions, they asked the wrong questions.” This from a politician of the country that’s trying to bring democracy around the globe.

Johnson has angered the art world by supporting a campaign to place a permanent statue of Battle of Britain hero, Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Park, on the empty fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square. The space, intended for an equestrian statue that was never created, currently holds specially commissioned sculptures decided by a competition that are replaced every 18 months. This year’s shortlist includes Tracey Emin, Anthony Gormley and Anish Kapoor (pictured).

The LA Times reports that Los Angeles’ top cop Bill Bratton isn’t coming to London, despite recent rumours. Bratton, who has in the past offered advice to Ken Livingston, said: “I have had no conversations with Mr. Johnson, I have not spoken with any members of his administration and I have not been approached to act as an advisor.” That’s a no then.

The new Mayor’s father, Stanley Johnson, is interviewed in The Sunday Times today about his ambitions to succeed Boris as Henley’s constituency MP. Johnson senior gives his son some guidance on how London transport could be improved: “You get on the Underground train and what do you hear? ‘This train terminates at Stanmore’. What complete garbage. Terminate is a transitive verb. You ‘terminate’ someone’s life. I will ‘terminate’ this conversation.” He goes on to boast that when he wrote his novel ‘Tunnel’ the channel tunnel hadn’t even been built, as if the concept had never occurred to anyone else before.

The Sunday Mirror reports that the junior Johnson broke the law as he cycled to work on Friday. Boris was caught jumping 6 red lights, mounting a pavement and failing to stop at zebra crossing.

Finally, the Mayor will today attend The Global Day of Prayer event at Millwall’s The Den, where he is expected to ask churches to help him cut crime.

Tapas image by Freddy

Champagne, oysters, caviar

It’s been quite a long weekend for Boris. Just moments after delivering his victory speech late on Friday night, he was shuttled a mile up the Thames to Millbank for a lavish party. Celebrating with him were his fellow Eton boys and former members of the Bullingdon club, David Cameron and George Osbourne, as well as Chess composer Tim Rice. The Mirror reports Boris’ sister reveling in the opulence of “champagne all night, oysters, caviar,” adding “God knows who paid for it.”

Not content with having delivered these details which will chill the already frosty Labour voting Londoners, Rachel went on to terrify the rest of the nation by revealing that she had quipped to her children that for Boris “It’s going to be City Hall one year and it might be Downing Street another year.”

Saturday then passed as the last Day of Ken’s mayoralty and on Sunday Boris ushered in his term by attending Vaisakhi, the Sikh New Year festival, in Trafalgar Square. After pledging to be “a mayor for all London” and uniting communities, he praised the capital’s diversity, “the whole world in a city.”  Then it was time for more photoshoots, including Boris in his new City Hall office, staring at his computer screen with a rather baffled expression.

On Bank Holiday Monday Boris told reporters that “it is now time to get down to business” and appointed former prison governor and youth crime worker Ray Lewis as deputy mayor for young people. Our new leader it seems will not let little details like the fact that Lewis isn’t eligible for the title get in his way, though afterwards somebody must have pointed out that only London Assembly members can be appointed Deputy Mayor, as a member of the Johnson team later clarified that Lewis was not the ’statutory Deputy Mayor’. Maybe we can look forward to an entire team of non-statutory deputies then, as this week will see Boris assemble the remainder of his team. Meanwhile however, one of his first policy priorities is understood to be banning alcohol on the Tube, so we urge you to enjoy combining the daily commute with an oak-aged single malt whilst you still can.

Bus-watch

No news on the new Routemaster yet, but maybe we should cut Boris a little early slack on this as the banks were shut all weekend and previous estimates on the funding required do seem to suggest he might do well to enlist some sort of financial advice. Rest assured that when there’s progress it will be reported here.

The upper carapace of this wonderful onion

Photo: secretlondon123

After almost falling onto the stage and recovering his composure with a joke that it was “a last-minute booby trap, a final throw!” Boris explained his suprise (perhaps echoing ours) at the result:

“I can’t believe I am the only person in this room who, you know, sometimes in the last nine months thought that I would never actually ascend that brilliantly constructed Richard Rogers – or is it Norman Foster? Sorry – staircase to the upper carapace of this wonderful onion.”

So this is Boris in his own words, his acceptance speech in full:

“Thank you very much Mr Meyer, Anthony Meyer [returning officer] that is. I want to thank you, I want to thank the police of course, and my wife Marina and my family, and my utterly brilliant campaign team, the Conservative GLA candidates — some of whom were extremely unlucky tonight — and of course the thousands of Conservative activists, the ward captains and knocker-uppers who did such an amazing job today, and indeed yesterday, rather.

This has been a marathon election as you can tell with a record turnout and I think it has been good for politics and it has been good for London.

I want to thank Sian [Berry of the Green Party] and Lindsey [German of the Left List] and Alan [Craig of the Christian Peoples Party] and Gerard [Batten of the UKIP], who have sometimes joined us for hustings, but mainly I want to thank my two colleagues in the strange triumvirate who have been trundling around London’s church halls and TV studios violently disputing the meaning of multiculturalism and the exact cost of conductors. On which point I think I’m going to declare victory.

And I want to congratulate you Brian on your great common sense and decency with which you put your case and I do hope that it is not the end of our discussions about the police.

And as for Ken, Mayor Livingstone, I think you have been a very considerable public servant and a distinguished leader of this city.  You shaped the office of mayor. You gave it national prominence and when London was attacked on 7 July 2005 you spoke for London.  And I can tell you that your courage and the sheer exuberant nerve with which you stuck it to your enemies, especially in New Labour, you have thereby earned the thanks and admiration of millions of Londoners, even if you think that they have a funny way of showing it today.

And when we have that drink together which we both so richly deserve, I hope we can discover a way in which the mayoralty can continue to benefit from your transparent love of London, a city whose energy conquered the world and which now brings the world together in one city.

I do not for one minute believe that this election shows that London has been transformed overnight into a Conservative city but I do hope it does show that the Conservatives have changed into a party that can again be trusted after 30 years with the greatest, most cosmopolitan, multiracial generous hearted city on earth in which there are huge and growing divisions between rich and poor.

And that brings me to my final thank you which is of course to the people of London.

I would like to thank first the vast multitudes who voted against me - and I have met quite a few in the last nine months, not all of them entirely polite.

I will work flat out from now on to earn your trust and to dispel some of the myths that have been created about me.

And as for those who voted for me, I know there will be many whose pencils hovered for an instant before putting an X in my box and I will work flat out to repay and to justify your confidence.

We have a new team ready to go in to City Hall. Where there have been mistakes we will rectify them. Where there are achievements we will build on them.

Where there are neglected opportunities we will seize on them, and we will focus on the priorities of the people of London: cutting crime, improving transport, protecting green space, delivering affordable housing, giving taxpayers value for money in every one of the 32 boroughs.

And I hope that everybody who loves this city will put aside party differences to try in the making of Greater London greater still. Let’s get cracking tomorrow and let’s have a drink tonight.”

Day one, act one, scene one

The votes are in, the counting over. At five minutes to midnight, after a day of the sort of drama that only the process of counting crosses pencilled in on sheets of coloured paper can bring, returning officer Anthony Meyer (‘Meyer’, how unbearably apt) pronounced that London has a new leader.

The people of the financial capital of the world, a centre of arts and culture, learning and science, the home of time itself, have come together and voted in record numbers, for a man with a single purpose; a politician with a particular plan; a mayor with a mission. That man is Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, his plan:

To create a new bus for London, with a rear corner open to the outside air carrying on-board a man or woman able to collect tickets and known as a ‘conductor’.

“We should on day one, act one, scene one, hold a competition to get rid of the bendy bus.

“It’s not beyond the wit of man to design a new Routemaster which will stand as an icon of this city.”

This is a plan so bold that it requires a written record of its progress. Welcome then to the Wonderbus, a journal of London’s fantastical voyage to build a new large road vehicle capable of carrying numerous persons. The road we’ll travel will have both hills and valleys for sure, but along the way with luck and a good wind, we might just learn a little more about Boris and perhaps London too. So fish out some change from your pockets and prepare for the cry.

All aboard!