British International Motor Show - Excel Centre

I've just had a lovely day out at the Motor Show - it only comes to the Excel

Centre in East London only two years. Now I'm not normally a fan of cars (or 'motors' as my Essex compatriots would say), but the Motor Show really is something else. I was entranced by the motor homes - vast houses on wheels, some costing more than my flat! I fell in love with the yachts and motor cruisers (the Excel is adjacent to the old Royal Albert Dock) and I was impressed by the commitment the motor trade seems to have developed to investigating the potential of alternative fuels. I'm not entirely certain that riding around with quantities of hydrogen gas in the boot will ever catch on - I have visions of that famous sequence featuring the destruction of The Hindenberg! There were so many prototypes and products in development on show that maybe there is a future for road transport when the oil runs out.
Despite not being a fan of vehicles this was a really great day out - everything well displayed, lots of activities, things to see and do, and I'd rate it 9/10 as an experience

A Visit to St Pancras

I hadn't visited St Pancras Station since the arrival of Eurostar, and what a transformation! It is well worth a visit, if only to stare at the vast engine shed roof. I was fortunate enough to visit in the early evening so the darkness of the sky somehow made the whole enormous area somehow more intimate. On the other hand it must be magnificent when the sun is shining through the great glass expanse, and glistening upon the sleek lines of the Eurostar trains slumbering beneath. And oh! The Statues - how marvellous they both are. Sir John, lifesize and appropriately staring at the ceiling of the building he did so much to save. The couple in an embrace of greeting or departure under the vast station clock. I love it - go and see it for yourself, this wonderful gateway to the capital.

Gant's Hill Tube Station

I had reason to pass through Gant's Hill tube station - on the Central line. This is one of those

beautiful 1930s design London Underground Stations - this one by Charles Holden and the barrel vaulting illustrated here is supposed to be inspired by the Moscow Metro stations. (Although having seen the Moscow stations, this isn't nearly as luxurious). There is something tremendously satisfying about these structures. The architecture makes travelling more of an experience. This particular station has a special history. Begun in 1939 work was abandoned with the outbreak of war. However, when a nearby Ilford Aircraft and Munitions factory was damaged it was decided to use the existing tunnels linking Gant's Hill with neighbouring stations as not only an air raid shelter (like many others) but as a manufacturing centre. A railway was introduced and hundreds of people worked away throughout the bombing burrowed away underground. The line finally opened for passengers in 1953.