Pimlico News and Free Events

A roundup of some local news, and pointers in the direction of a couple of freebies doing the rounds of SW1, sorry a free flat to rent isn’t one of them, but:

Tickets to see Chelsea at Stamford Bridge

Chelsea FC

If you are you aged between 12 to 19 enter Westminster City Council‘s prize draw to win two tickets to the Chelsea vs. Blackpool Premier League match on Sunday 19th September. I don’t know why our Council Tax is buying Chelsea tickets, but don’t you miss out,

Email the following details to

wow@westminster.gov.uk:

Your name
Your date of birth
Your mobile number
Please specify if you would like to receive activity updates in the future

Get your Bike Security Marked Free

Warwick Ward Safer Neighbourhood Team would like to invite you to a FREE SECURITY BIKE MARKING event on

SATURDAY 4TH SEPTEMBER 2010 at 2pm until 6pm.

This event will be held outside the PIMLICO ACADEMY on LUPUS STREET SW1.

Please attend if you can and bring your bikes with you.

Mayor of London’s Skyride

London Skyride

This Sunday 5th September you will have the rare opportunity to enjoy a day exploring London on two wheels. There will be a wide variety of entertainment to enjoy, from music and fancy dress to sporting challenges and cycling tips and advice from Olympic star Sir Chris Hoy.

This year, the route will be taking in some of London’s most iconic landmarks. Londoners will get the opportunity to experience the heart of the capital with a circular route that will take in the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, St Paul’s Cathedral, Parliament Square, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.

Sky Riders can join the route at any point and ride as many times as you like – it’s up to you – just get on your bike and have a great day!

Mayor of London’s Thames Festival

Thames Festival

For the weekend of Saturday 10th, and Sunday 11th September the Thames will be host to an enormous selection of free activities and entertainment.

The festival stretches right along the Thames through London, and the events in Zone 1 (the Pimlico section) from Westminster bridge comprise:

Festival Freedom Stage

All Eyes on Korea

New European Village

BBC Blast on Tour at the Thames Festival

Photography Masterclasses

Cadbury Spots v Stripes

Southbank Centre – Live African Music

Free Thames Festival screening at BFI Southbank

Festival Market

‘Hanging Gardens of Pimlico’

Image via Wikipedia

Congratulations to the Lillington and Longmoore estate in Pimlico, the only council estate to be awarded a Green Flag as one of the best green spaces in the country.

The Lillington and Longmoore estate comprises 943 flats split between 18 blocks which overlook the central gardens. It is the only social housing estate in the country to have been awarded a prestigious Green Flag Award putting it in the same as class as rival horticultural neighbours such as Regent’s Park, Hyde Park and St James’ Park, all of which also recieved the award this year. Congratulations to the Lillington and Longmoore gardening team and their employers CityWest Homes.

Tags: City of Westminster, London, Tourism, Travel
Posted in London on September 2nd, 2010 |

Victoria at the Center of London Tube & Bus Overcharging

Image by boxman via Flickr

The BBC submitted a Freedom of Information request which shows Transport for London (TfL) has refunded £40,000 this year to customers who have been over-charged for topping up their Oyster Card by faulty machines. The information also shows there have been 2,421 complaints in 2010 about being double charged when adding credit to the electronic travel smartcard, and that the machines at London Bridge, Victoria, Liverpool Street and King Cross stations led to the highest number of complaints.

So don’t take your Oyster charges on trust, check your bank account after topping up, TfL say that they aren’t aware of any over-charging until the issue was reported by a passenger.

As well as checking your bank balance – do you have an old Oyster Card hanging around? A total of 16.5m PAYG cards sat idle during the year from April 2009 to April 2010. The average amount on each card was £1.80, meaning that nearly £30m has been left unused on Oyster pay-as-you-go (PAYG) for at least a year. Additionally last year alone, 31,000 PAYG cards were issued and topped up but never subsequently used, even though they held £246,000 worth of travel on them. That’s a big saving if you can find and use that missing Oyster Card!

Tags: London, London Life, Oyster card, Transport for London, Travel, Victoria
Posted in London on August 12th, 2010 |

One Response to “Victoria at the Center of London Tube & Bus Overcharging”

Sam says:

August 19, 2010 at 12:12 pm

I know I sound like a luddite – but I don’t really trust Oyster. I used to always get a train ticket including an all day pass but then I realised that sometimes I am not using it to it’s full max so should get an Oyster instead. Oyster claim that they will never charge you more than what an all day pass will cost – but it always seems to cost more (when you see the amounts deducted at each station) where Oyster win is in the fact it’s too time consuming for me to check every transaction!

Reply

London Holiday Rental Flats, & Serviced Apartments – Spot the Scam

Image via Wikipedia

When you are renting for a short visit you are most likely going to be renting blind, going off an internet description. Scammers take advantage of this and sadly every week a new visitor to London turns up to find that the property that they have paid for doesn’t exist.

Only the other week I received this question:

I am looking to book a holiday apartment for 9 days during August
I have found a selection of lovely apartments within our budget and just wanted some feedback seeing as the landlord/agent who we are dealing with has stated no viewings are available and they ask for 75% of total rent/deposit to be paid up front.Here is the website

http://unitrusthomeservices.com/

They advertise most of them on Gumtree also but this is the place to handle the booking.

My answer was as follows:

Scam Property is always a steal of a bargain, genuine property just cannot compete on price. This Studio is an absolute bargain. To give you an indication the market leader for serviced Studios in Central London is Dolphin Square who charge £185/night. We compete with them by offering a similar product at half the price – which is in itself an absolute bargain. This studio is in one of the most exclusive addresses there is and is offered at 1/3rd of our price, or 1/6th of the going rate. That screams scam, before you even look hard.

The website looks very genuine, & most impressive. However the phone number is not a landline number but an 070 number forwarding service, and the website domain was registered less than a month ago (5th July).

Personally my interest would end at this point. But you might like to dig further, especially if they are prepared to take payment by some protected service such as Credit Card.

The website was registered by:

Abraham Isaac
31 Queen Anne Street Marylebone
London, London W1G 9DL

There is actually a Doctor’s surgery at that address:

Leonard M Selby
31 Queen Anne Street
Marylebone
London
W1G 9HT

Tel: 020-7636-5250
Business Type: Doctors (General Practitioners)

Sorry to spoil your holiday.

Sadly the message was followed soon after by another reply as follows:

Sorry I have to say that this “unitrusthomeservices” has tricked us.

The past Tuesday we arrived london from Madrid (Spain). We had seen this fantastic flat on Gumtree and it liked us. We booked it for three weeks and they asked us to make the reservation with a money transfer to an account from Halifax, it was 560 pounds. Well, we arrived london and tried to contact the person that e-mail us from unitrust. No answer. We tried with the number in the website and nothing. We have gone to the police station for two days and they have said we should go to the Citizens Advice Bureau, anyway they have taken the address and the name of the person from unitrusthomeservices.
After three days walking about Police Station, hotels and agencies of lettings we have actually rent a room on a shared flat and can be relaxed.

So if you are thinking of renting a London Flat from abroad bear in mind the following points:

Scam Properties are a Bargain. If it seems too good to be true – it is.

Only deal with established businesses. Check out the address. Only deal with a working Landline Number, if there is only a mobile or number forwarding phone number move on.

If it’s a business it won’t be advertising using free ads on Gumtree, Craigslist, et al

Only pay by a reversible method (Credit Card, Paypal).

Tags: Apartment, Holiday, London, Renting, Scam, Travel
Posted in Renting on August 11th, 2010 |

One Response to “London Holiday Rental Flats, & Serviced Apartments – Spot the Scam”

Sam says:

August 19, 2010 at 12:15 pm

Did you see that guy who is wanted for the holiday homes scam?
http://ow.ly/2rM0t

Reply

London Cycle Scheme – the Future of Advertising Flats to Rent?

Is sponsorship a good way of advertising Flats for Rent? Barclays have certainly snapped up a bargain, Barclays are only paying £25m towards the £140m cycle scheme which now bears their name, and they get more than just the name ‘Barclays Bikes’ – they also get 100km plus of road painted Barclays blue – and an advert on every bike. Eat your heart out Foxtons Minis, throw away your canvas bags Marsh & Parsons, have your notepad back Douglas & Gordon, Chestertons & Frank Knight!

Of course Barclays are reaping a whirlwind of negative publicity, anti-war activists who have placed large stickers about the conflict in Afghanistan on the back of bikes to highlight Barclays investment in the arms trade. The activists claim 4,000 bikes got stickers & the messages read:

‘£20M INVESTMENT IN BIKES. £7300M INVESTMENT IN BOMBS’
‘FUNDING DEPLETED URANIUM BIRTH DEFECTS IN IRAQ’.

Other demonstrators left stickers on bikes at Hyde Park Corner in protest at Barclays’ sponsorship of the scheme, unhappy about the bank’s record of investing in defence companies.

The Guardian on the bikes

“London can now claim the dubious honour of hosting what is surely the largest piece of corporate branding in existence. It’s not just the scale, the mind-blowing square footage, that is shocking about this – it’s the principle. We’re not talking about some supersized billboard here: we’re talking about the mayor selling off the very road beneath our wheels – one of the few parts of a city that counts indisputably as public space. Whether they realise it or not, whether or not they even care, from now on thousands of cyclists are doomed to commute on a giant Barclays ad….There is something, too, in the gibes suggesting this is not just Barclays blue but Tory blue. Neither New Labour nor former mayor Ken Livingstone did anything to prevent the growing privatisation of the city, but it is hard to imagine Livingstone selling off a chunk of the public realm in such brazen fashion.”

The Standard calls for a new name:

The Standard calls for a new name for Boris & The Cycle Scheme

London is saddled with the lifeless name for its scheme of “Barclays Cycle Hire”. We badly need a nickname for the scheme. I’ve already suggested the Bozza. All other ideas welcome, the wittier the better

Not good publicity – but then there is no such thing as bad advertising. When Foxton’s illegal and fraudulent business practices became the feature of a BBC TV program their business actually increased.

So Pimlico Flats need to get our company bike covered in slogans, and have George repaint Winchester St. pavement. That will get the tenants renting our flats.

Tags: Advertising, Flats, London, London Life, Renting
Posted in London on August 9th, 2010 |

Pimlico Art Gallery Henry Moore Exhibition to Close

Tate Britain

The exhibition of the works of radical, experimental and avant-garde, Henry Moore (1898–1986), one of Britain’s greatest artists is due to end on Sunday.

The Guardian describe it as ‘The most important exhibition of Moore’s work for a generation’ , so if you haven’t seen it, you may wish to judge for yourself before it closes this Sunday 8 August.

The exhibition takes a fresh look at his work and legacy, presenting over 150 stone sculptures, wood carvings, bronzes and drawings.

Moore rebelled against his teachers’ traditional views of sculpture, instead taking inspiration from non-Western works he saw in museums. He pioneered carving directly from materials, evolving his signature abstract forms derived from the human body. This exhibition presents examples of the defining subjects of his work, such as the reclining figure, mother and child, abstract compositions and drawings of wartime London. The works are situated in the turbulent ebb and flow of twentieth-century history, sometimes uncovering a dark and erotically charged dimension that makes us look at them in a new light. Exhibition Tickets cost £12.50p.

Londonist has prepared a map of Moore sculptures to be seen for free around London generally, with blue pins representing outdoor works and red indicating indoor pieces

View Henry Moore’s London in a larger map

Tags: Art, London, Tourism
Posted in London on August 5th, 2010 |

Free Train Ticket from Victoria Station for Vickie

Another Pimlico bargain to be had – from today Wednesday August 4th for one week (until 10th August) anyone called Victoria can claim a free off peak day ticket from Southern Rail for unlimited travel on their network on any day until 30th August. You need a driver’s license or Passport to prove your name, and if you aren’t called Victoria then you only get 25% off.

Print out the voucher below with proof that your name is Victoria and take it to Platforms 11 & 12 at Victoria Station between 07:00 & 19:00.

Victoria Free Travel Voucher

Tags: London, Travel, Victoria
Posted in London on August 4th, 2010 |

2 Responses to “Free Train Ticket from Victoria Station for Vickie”

Deez says:

August 5, 2010 at 9:22 am

Hi, I’ve I’ve sent a 2 questions by e-mail, and appreciate and would appreciate if you would get back to me.
I’d like to see what other people are asking as well.
Is this a good place to post, or is there a forum somewhere else?
Thanks

Reply
- Nick Parkin (Pimlico Flats) says:
  
  August 5, 2010 at 11:17 pm
  
  Hi Deez,
  
  I’m nothing to do with the offer – just telling you about it.
  
  There are forums click on “Community” on the menu.
  
  Reply

Free Cinema Viewing of Passport to Pimlico

Passport to Pimlico

A free cinema viewing of the famous & much loved Ealing Studios Film “Passport to Pimlico” is to be given by Museum of London Docklands., at the Wilberforce Theatre.

On: Sunday , September 26, 2010, 14 :00

At: The Wilberforce Theatre

Price: Free.

When some local children roll a tractor tyre down a hole, it sets off an undetected bomb left over from the Second World War in Miramont Gardens in the Pimlico district of London. The explosion reveals a buried cellar containing artwork, coins, jewellery and an ancientparchment document. Professor Hatton-Jones (Margaret Rutherford) authenticates it as a royal charter of Edward IV that ceded the house and its estates to Charles VII (“the Rash”), the last Duke of Burgundy, when he sought refuge there several centuries ago after being presumed dead at the Battle of Nancy. As the charter had never been revoked, Pimlico is legally part of Burgundy……

“We’ve always been English and we’ll always be English; and it’s precisely because we are English that we’re sticking up for our right to be Burgundians!”

A much loved film not to be missed

Tags: London, Passport to Pimlico
Posted in London on August 2nd, 2010 |

London Flat Rental Prices Surge

For several weeks now various agencies have been reporting a flood of tenants, but dearth of flats available to rent out. For several weeks we have included a Rental Index Graph in the blog menu (look left!) for the use of our readers, and now Mortgage Introducer has published some figures produced by the owners of several agencies LSL Property Services plc.

The average rent in the UK rose by 1% in June, with rents in London rising by 1.9%. Rents have risen for five successive months, and are 3.2% higher than a year ago – the highest level since November 2008.

Rental Index

Tags: London, Rental, Renting
Posted in Renting on July 21st, 2010 |

How to Rent a London Flat when Times are Tough.

house & garden magazine, december 2007 issue

Image by cafemama via Flickr

Right now it’s tough for tenants in the rental market, and you may wonder what you need to do to get a decent flat. The answer is pretty much the same as you would in easier times, the problem is the same and the answer is the same. Over the last 2 years we’ve published a number of articles aimed at helping tenants get the right flat at the right price. Today I’m going to summarise the whole challenge of renting a London Flat, linking you to the detailed advice for each stage.

Perhaps the single most important point to make, is that desperate people make easy targets for scammers. I’ve written a whole range of articles describing all the scams in operation. Read all my articles about scams, and don’t be taken in, you can use the tag cloud to identify scam articles .

Undertake a thorough search, there are lots of different ways that flats find their way to market, and the more of them that you try, and the more skillfully you filter the results, the quicker you will be at seeing the right property. Our article on searching for a London Flat to Rent , and a discussion on finding that flat of exceptional value.

When you visit a flat that you don’t rule it out on sight, then give it a good going over, upstairs, downstairs in the ladies chamber. Recently a study revealed that the average house purchaser only spent 42 mins examining the house they were going to buy! So look in the loft, check all storage cupboards, make sure taps, radiators and the boiler all work, check the pressure on the shower, open and close windows, look underneath and behind the furniture and turn off the lights to see how much natural light there is. Check services, telephone, broadband and wireless internet. Talk to any neighbours to see if you will get on with them, and if they are tenants of the same landlord find out whether they would recommend the landlord.

Finally when you are sure that this is the flat for you it’s time to negotiate. Negotiating isn’t haggling and we spell out how to get the best deal for your flat in our 10 Steps to a Lower Rent for your London Flat

Good luck!

Tags: Flats, London, Rental, Renting
Posted in Renting on July 19th, 2010 |

A Herd of Elephants Tramples Through Pimlico!

London’s biggest ever outdoor art event has seen the capital taken over by elephants, and they have all marched through London to form a massive herd in Pimlico (at the Royal Hospital).

Elephant Parade was a large scale outdoor art exhibition of baby elephant sculptures, displayed in London from May to July 2010 and was London’s biggest outdoor art exhibition. It is an innovative fundraising and awareness campaign that shines a multi-coloured spotlight on the urgent crisis faced by the endangered Asian elephant. Created to support leading charity Elephant Family, each elephant is a unique piece of art painted by renowned artists and designers.

Elephant Parade’s mission is to become the world’s largest financial support organisation for elephants. Elephant Family has been campaigning for the conservation of the Asian elephant since 2002, and is the only UK charity dedicated solely and exclusively to saving the Asian elephant from extinction in the wild. Within only 100 years the elephant population has shrunk by over 90%, dropping from 250,000 to an estimated 25,000, placing this valuable species dangerously close to extinction. If current trends continue the Asian elephant will cease to exist in the wild by 2050.

If you are interested in attending the Champagne Brunch & Grand Auction on Saturday, tickets are £75 and can be bought from jo@elephantfamily.org

Elephant Parade

Tags: Asian Elephant, London, Pimlico
Posted in London on July 1st, 2010 |

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Tickets to see Chelsea at Stamford Bridge

Get your Bike Security Marked Free

Mayor of London’s Skyride

Mayor of London’s Thames Festival

‘Hanging Gardens of Pimlico’

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A much loved film not to be missed

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