Failing upwards. The right person to be managing the proliferation of low quality flats going up across the borough.

Barnet Post@barnetpost.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Boss linked to Grenfell Tower fire given permanent role by Barnet Council The former Kensington and Chelsea Council housing boss is now group director of development and property at Barnet https://barnetpost.co.uk/2026/08/25/boss-linked-to-grenfell-tower-fire-given-permanent-role-by-barnet-council/

"Heedless of her mother's warning, up to London she had gone..." But in them days the danger was cads and roués, rather than Sharia speed cameras. www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKhc...

Billy Bennett - She Was Poor But She Was Honest / Don't Send My Boy To Prison (1st Versions) (1930)

YouTube video by VintageBritishComedy

youtube.com

LaindonFeminist@viviane49.bsky.social · 9mo ago

I wonder what Londoners know that the rest of the country don’t?

Careful London! You might lose your status as the world's favourite no go zone.

Barnet Post@barnetpost.bsky.social · last yr.

Fewer firearm offences recorded in London The Met Police recorded 1,115 firearm offences in the year to March – down from 1,248 the year before reports Clara Margotin, Data Reporter barnetpost.co.uk/2025/10/02/f...

When you only clean the house every 50 years, you find things like this: 'The Automotive Nightmare', by Alisdair Aird (1972). Great cover, and what's inside mostly still applies. e.g. Ch. 1: The True Cost of the Car Cult. A fun read, at least for this bicyclist. #RoadSafety #CarCulture

Christ was in Clerkenwell today, for the Festa Della Madonna Del Carmine, at the Italian Church. Here he carries his cross in the procession. Later on he appears again, this time being nailed to the cross by a Roman centurion, on the back of a flat bed truck. You don't need a photo of THAT tableau!

What is a photo?

Wendover House, the largest block on the Aylesbury Estate, Walworth, seen from Burgess Park. Now empty, protected by high fences and dog patrols, and awaiting demolition. Mixed feelings. Was the estate poor by design or just poorly managed? Anyway it will soon be gone, to be replaced by something.

6am on a Sunday morning ride in Wapping, a car stopped beside me. The passenger, in his early 20s, engaged me in a friendly conversation. I had no idea what it was about, but we parted on good terms. On reflection I think he may have been selling drugs. Or looking to buy them. Flattering anyway.

Extraordinary folk art/graffiti on top of the river wall at Bermondsey Wall East. It seems to be a commentary of a lady queuing for QEII's lying-in-state (Sep '22). But something's odd. The work is dated Jun '23, and the flippant tone seems incongruous for a royalist. (Who else would queue 36 hrs?)

Over the road, builders have spent a few hours hauling materials up to the roof with a squeaky pulley. It's like having Trump's military parade passing the house.

I am privileged to announce the publication of the Anti-Autocracy Handbook: sks.to/autocracy 1/12

Imperfect symmetry (Dorset House, Holloway Rd). A pair of modest shops perhaps. But look at the decorative features that have survived. The scrolls of the balustrade. The Greek meanders. The dentillated cornices. The finials. Cor! Admire the resolve to maintain the colour split across the plaque.

Continuing the journey along Cycle Route 12 (aka The Earl of Warwick's Anabasis in reverse). After 1/4 of a mile - mostly downhill - along Dancers Lane, I reach a gate. There's a C12 sign. I'm in the right place. Watch the stinging nettles.

Cycle Route 12, at Wash Lane, near South Mimms. There are reasons to think that this is the route followed by medieval travellers between London and St Albans. Watling St was in disrepair for some years, so Barnet, despite its hills, became the preferred option (as seen in the Gough Map c.1400).

This at Teddington Lock must rank among the ugliest Thames-side developments. Show me worse. Three 1990s apartment blocks (Regatta, Fairmile & Admiral Houses). Described by the council as "most distinctive". True. A migraine in ochre and terracotta. Like a cruise ship reflected in a broken mirror.

Berkeley Homes, phoning it in. (Imperial Square, Finchley) Spot the difference.

I think this is the site of Rod Stewart's birth and childhood home. Look - he often behaves like a complete idiot, but he's a great singer with a beautiful soul, and this location needs some sort of monument. The campaign begins here!

Haringey Community Press@haringeycp.bsky.social · last yr.

Council plans new homes on Highgate car wash site The Haringey Council scheme is part of its wider efforts to build 3,000 social homes across the borough haringeycommunitypress.co.uk/2025/05/14/c...

These days the job of school caretaker is one of low wages, split shifts, and a maintenance schedule in the hands of the school bursar. Long ago and far away (in Kensal Rise), things were different. 'Residence', if you please! That's right lah-de-dah, like a proper aristocrat.

South London is a foreign country. They do things differently there.

The top sign, before it fell, pointed to a single address: currently that of a legal adviser, but also subject of a planning application. Can anyone explain why the location merited a street sign? Will there be a paper trail? The sign in in LB Barnet while the address is Haringey.

Squalid chapters to be written about this country - there are enough to fill several volumes. Recent immigration policy wouldn't even make a footnote.

@timenw.bsky.social @mikeyashworth.bsky.social Looking at a planning application in East Finchley, I happened upon that same Metropolitan Water Board corridor we see in Golders Green.

The extravagant ornamentation of this entrance leads archaeologists to believe that Postmen were a high status or priest caste. (Old sorting office, Winchmore Hill) >>>

View south along Stephenson St, Canning Town. A shimmering future viewed from a grotty past. One day there will be no industrial spaces left in the capital. All will be residential (and coffee shops).

For what he did to the parish church, the children of Chipping Barnet learn early to spit on the memory of William Butterfield (1814 – 1900). They sing comic songs about his tasteless Gothic Revival, his flint and chequerboard flushwork. On the other hand, in certain lights, it looks rather nice.

Garage in constant use (Leyton).

Wonderfully euphemistic notice at Barking Riverside. Is the problem tour buses?

Municipal Branding Championship. London County Council 1, Hackney Council 0 LCC played a long game, while Hackney started brightly but faded.

#mushroom #mushroomid Is anyone out there able to identify these mushrooms growing in the salad patch?

Trans-exclusionary builders yard. Wembley.