notes.husk.org

Chris Heathcote’s picture of my incoming flight stacking...

Thu, 17 May 2012 18:46:13 +0100

Chris Heathcote’s picture of my incoming flight stacking over north-west London last Thursday.

Don’t go where I can’t see you by Jeremy Wood: GPS...

Thu, 17 May 2012 18:26:06 +0100

Don’t go where I can’t see you by Jeremy Wood:

GPS flight tracks with section of the River Thames in London
1:500 000 Scale, 100 km Grid

Indirectly via prosthetic knowledge. I also noticed his earlier My Ghost in Claire Dobbin’s new book, London Underground Maps, which seems to have some overlap with the previous three Capital Transport books on the map (which I should probably write about), but which also covers some new territory. I may have to buy it.

Two photos from the amazing, huge pickmix.co.uk site, collecting...

Thu, 17 May 2012 16:14:00 +0100

Passenger Route Indicator

Route Indicator Machine

Two photos from the amazing, huge pickmix.co.uk site, collecting photographs from the London Transport Museum’s archive. On the left, in a 1977 colour print by Paul Proctor:

The experimental press-button Passenger Route Indicator machine installed in the ticket hall at Heathrow Central (now Heathrow Terminals 1,2,3) Underground station. The indicator incorporated a TV screen designed to display a diagrammatic route map of the chosen journey.

And to the right, a 1974 photograph by H J Hare & Son:

A passenger consults a route indicator machine at Oxford Circus Underground station. Oxford Circus services Central, Victoria and Bakerloo lines.

You can see more of my favourite images from the site. See also: a similar map in Paris.

Heathrow from the Met Police ASU, from a story at Global...

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 21:28:00 +0000

Heathrow from the Met Police ASU, from a story at Global Aviation Resource, via mondoagogo. Photograph © Geoff Hibbert.

Pan Am’s terminal at JFK is hardly the only relic from the...

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 04:26:00 +0000

Pan Am’s terminal at JFK is hardly the only relic from the age before mass travel that’s passing. The Queens Building (pictured by A380spotter) at London’s Heathrow was demolished over the last year to make way for an expansion of Terminal 2.

One point about that particular building is that it hosted an observation deck:

On its roof were gardens and a viewing platform, which in 1956 became one of London’s most visited attractions. At one stage it attracted more visitors than Windsor Castle, Madame Tussauds and the Tower of London.

(Previously.)

thingsmagazine: The Queen’s Building, Heathrow, by Gordon...

Sat, 16 Oct 2010 01:23:00 +0100

thingsmagazine:

The Queen’s Building, Heathrow, by Gordon Cullen (detail)

There’s a lovely set full of scans of the then London Airport over on Flickr. Well worth a look. (This building, which turned into Terminal 2, is, I believe, either currently being demolished, or demolished entirely.)

"King’s Cross already sees more passengers a year than Heathrow"

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 14:38:05 +0000

“King’s Cross already sees more passengers a year than Heathrow”

- Tessa Jowell, Minister for London, quoted in the TfL press release: King’s Cross St. Pancras Tube station doubles in size as state-of-the-art ticket hall opens.

Of course, that’s “opens” as in “photo-op with Boris” as opposed to “opens” as in “can be used by the public”; that’s on Sunday. I’m looking forward to the posts from the usual suspects already.

"Baggage is a very complex world."

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:41:55 +0100

“Baggage is a very complex world.”

- A BAA spokesman quoted in a boring tunnel article. (via teflon; nice pun there, by the way)

Of course, if you are interested in tunnels at Heathrow, this obituary Sir Alan Muir Wood, who engineered the previous Heathrow Cargo Tunnel, may be of interest. (I’d never have known about him if not for The Last Word; hurrah for Radio 4.)