Funeral of Baroness Thatcher
Central London Wednesday 17th April 2013
The funeral of Baroness Thatcher will take place on Wednesday 17th April. Tomorrow.
To facilitate the security operation for the funeral procession and service there will be road closures in place from early that morning. The route of the funeral procession from Trafalgar Square to St Paul’s Cathedral will be lined with barriers.
Large numbers may attend, and there is the potential that this may include some protest groups.
Road closures will be lifted as soon as is possible but this may not be until after 12noon so please pay attention to TfL information.
It is advisable that people travelling to and around London plan their journeys as their normal routes to work may not be accessible at certain times. Check with Transport for London for the latest travel advice.
The Times Cities fit for cycling campaign in Pimlico
Our city is the City of Westminster, and you can improve cycling in Pimlico by joining the Times Cities fit for cycling campaign and push the 5 points which are relevant to Pimlico:
- Trucks in London should be required by law to fit sensors, audible truck-turning alarms, extra mirrors and safety bars to stop cyclists being thrown under the wheels.
- Road junctions must be fitted with priority traffic lights for cyclists and Trixi mirrors that allow lorry drivers to see cyclists on their near-side.
- Two per cent of the Highways Agency budget should be earmarked for next generation cycle routes, providing £100 million a year towards world-class cycling infrastructure. Each year cities should be graded on the quality of cycling provision.
- The training of cyclists and drivers must improve and cycle safety should become a core part of the driving test.
- 20mph should become the default speed limit in residential areas where there are no cycle lanes.
You can tweet your support for the Times Campaign Tweet #cyclesafe and also write to our MP in support of the Times
Blogging on Pimlico, London, Renting, Property, and Flats – Pimlico
I try to keep this blog tightly on the subjects of Pimlico, Renting, and Flats. It’s not too difficult because I can use the Forum to ramble about other subjects, and this keeps the blog focussed.
I thought that I would stray a little to talk about this blog, and blogging, as a way of thanking my many sources of information, and I have broken the story into three parts.
Pimlico
Renting
Property
Pimlico
Blogging about Pimlico is probably the easiest of my 3 core subjects, particularly since I define “Pimlico” as being anywhere within walking distance of Pimlico Flats – so that covers Central London, and makes:
- Victoria & Belgravia “North Pimlico”,
- Kensington and Chelsea “West Pimlico”,
- Battersea, Vauxhall, Stockwell, Clapham “South Pimlico”
- Westminster, Soho “East Pimlico”
I try to focus on free and little published events and attractions, as the bigger professional things are generally commercially advertised and known about. My biggest source of information is the weekly publication The Pimlico News and Journal which is something that I publish myself and is automatically curated from various feeds. It has been sufficiently successful that I now carry it as a page on this website which can be accessed from the menu on the left.
It’s a great Newspaper but I must give thanks to some of the contributors. There are of course the usual traditional sources of information, BBC, Newspapers, but the purpose of niche blogging is to uncover the real story, and here are the local blogs and websites which I follow in order to reach the news other blogs can’t reach:
London Blogs
- Foremost has to be the Westminster Chronicle just because we need professional journalists and local newspapers in our lives, and if you don’t use them and pay for them we will lose them, and be all the poorer. I don’t know how the power of the internet will pan out, but printed news is under pressure from free blogs like this, and the free “Pimlico News and Journal” that I just promoted. In spite of my competition with the Chronicle all I can say is that we need our local shops, and newspapers, so please buy a copy from your local newsagent.
- Londonist a website about London and everything that happens in it – it’s a professional publication set up in 2004 as The Big Smoker. I like it because, although it is a comprehensive London-wide reference resource, it carries this off with humour and is in touch with it’s community roots (e.g. the Hand Drawn Maps initiative). They provide everything you need to know about the capital, as well as celebrating the quirks, eccentricities, hidden and surprising bits that make up the alternative side of the city.
- Discovering London – which I juxtapose alongside Londonist because Peter’s blog is small, if not tiny, yet it is brimming over with personality, quality, and originality. Peter has yet to reach his 1st anniversary of blogging, but already his website is one of my favourites.
- Tired of London, Tired of Life began in October 2008 as a place to document those moments of inspiration for making living in London exciting & different. Doing the same thing day after day can get anyone down, but our city has an almost infinite number of things to see and do. If you’re not getting the most out of London, it is a sad truth that you have no one to blame but yourself. This site was part of a personal plan for the author to get the most out of the greatest city on earth, and it has worked.
- Going Underground Look at what the mainstream press has to say! The magic, mystery & sometimes maddening shortcomings of London’s Tube are documented with love, enthusiasm & sometimes despair by its unofficial social historian ……. The best blogs have a tinge of obsession about them … On some mornings it can feel like the only reason to be grateful that the Tube exists … one of London’s obsessives
- Young and Poor Cheap/free events, gigs, food & drink, or sales — never paid to mention things so it’s only things worth recommending.
- Ian Visits does NOT list the mainstream music/theatre/film events which are already so well supplied by the major newspapers and magazines – but DOES list the heritage open days, walking tours and mostly, the astonishing array of free (or cheap) lectures that the societies and universities of London provide. It’s a personal resource of remarkable usefulness.
- Boris Watch An act of frustration, at the loss to apparent personality politics, and the accusation that somehow young people are to blame …… but also a great tap into the stories that THEY don’t want you to read about.
- Laura Porter London-based travel writer & VisitBritain Super Blogger, mum, copywriter, tea drinker, afternoon tea addict & all-round London obsessive. She is a professional travel writer for About but I have recommended her twitter feed as she is a model in how to use Social Media. She does so much more than just promote her own writing, and is very generous with the links and information that she publishes. Consequently I would say – if you want to keep your finger on the pulse of mainstream London – follow Laura.
Now publishing any list of recommendations is always fraught – you forget someone important, offend others, and no doubt there are excellent resources that I am yet to stumble across. I have tried to give an honest account of how I produce the Pimlico Blog, but by no means would I say that it is perfect. I would be delighted if readers add their own suggestions in the comments of websites and blogs that we should all be reading and following.
What Can Derail London?
London Armageddon
I avidly follow Property Journalist Graham Norwood (click picture for his blog) and yesterday he examined what it would take for the London Property Bubble to burst. I thought that I would take his premise and apply it to Pimlico.
The top end of the housing market is where it is currently at with developers & agents vying to beat the benchmark £6000/sq ft set by Candy & Candy. Pimlico has never been in that market – for reasons unknown. Pimlico’s location is second to none – as close or closer to any Central London destination as Mayfair, Chelsea, Kensington Pimlico only suffers from having a film about it by Ealing Studios instead of Julia Roberts. The properties tend to be Victorian terraces rather than Georgian or pre-war Mansion Blocks but the fact is that Pimlico is a secret bargain hidden from the Savills’ “ubiquitous billionaires”. Knight Frank’s Private View magazine, described by the firm on Twitter as “full of the best properties available worldwide” actually has details of 32 London homes on sale…and only 24 from the entire rest of the planet, and none from Pimlico ………. Yay!
But what – in the darkest hours of the night when they might find themselves awake – do agents, developers and analysts fear might just possibly cause London to go belly-up? Graham Norwood asked 20 individuals from international and UK sales and letting agencies, what if…just what if…something was to happen.
The industry’s worries are simple, and three fold – Graham reports:
- Euro Crisis: “Frankly no one’s worried about Greece defaulting. But if that happens and leads to Italy and then Spain, that’s Armageddon. British exposure is so great, no one from overseas will want to invest here, and no one from here will be able to afford to invest” says one UK sales agency;
- Another 9/11: “So much of the London rental market is dependent on American corporate executives, a lot of harm would be done if they stopped flying” says one leading London lettings agency;
- More Civil Unrest: “I was in the US when pictures were shown of the London riots. Suddenly the UK became a no-go zone. If that happens again, on a larger scale, where is central London’s buyers and investors?” is the question of a leading developer.
Now looking at these points from a purely Pimlico perspective …….
- Euro Crisis:Well – Pimlico is occupied by insiders – people who know London, and know where to live. Top politicians, Judges, the Establishment, they all either house their mistress here or have a family home. Pimlico is the understated home of the establishment and a Euro Crisis won’t rock any boats
- Another 9/11: The hotels and boarding houses of Pimlico tend to offer value rather than luxury. If Americans stop flying, everyone will feel the pain, but Pimlico will be the least hurt of all London locations. One of the benefits of being the insiders’ preference.
- More Civil Unrest: Well Pimlico’s chavs did indeed go on a rampage in Sloane Square – but regardless of what goes on in the rest of London – the fact is that Pimlico is a haven of peace and quiet in Central London.
So actually my view is that whilst Pimlico may be missing the drama of a London Housing Boom, we are also immune from most of the risks.
Look at the Local Amenities before you Rent a London Flat
How Far – Can I walk?
Everyone knows how important local shops, restaurants, pubs, buses, trains and tube stations are to where you live. The key question when flat hunting is – “how far away are local amenities?” and – “can I walk to them?”.
In order to speed up hunting for a London Flat to rent it’s important to do your research online before you start the time consuming process of booking and attending viewings. Use Google and Google Streetview to look at the property, the street it is in, and how far it is to local amenities.
Fortunately there is a new facility to enable you to automate the process, and I’ve embedded it in this blog, so you can give it a spin.
Here is the amenity report for Pimlico Flats, as you can see we are just about in the top 10% of all locations for walkable amenities. You can put any address into the panel above to compare other locations to us. I am confident that you will find that Pimlico Flats is a better place to rent a Flat than 90% of all other locations in London.
