Archipelago of Truth

I have tended to look upon the shuttering of local shops with quite innocent eyes. I notice when a shop has its shutters down for more than a few days, and wonder if there is a family illness, or a holiday, or more recently, whether the business is in financial trouble. Some I am well aware are closed. I have blogged about empty shops before. I expect I will do so again. On the other side of Pak's Cosmetics from the shuttered IKON I mentioned the other day, there is still the empty shell of Tropical Taste, for instance. There is a large sign on the front giving details of who to contact about renting the place.

Since the closure of Somaliland though, I should perhaps not be so polite as to assume that just because there is a shutter down in front of the place or the windows are covered over to hide prying eyes, that there isn't a business going on in there.

Thus my interest was raised today by the sight of the shutters at Animal Magic being up. This place has been refurbished some time ago now, the chinese work crews have moved on, and yet there is no visible means of economic activity sustaining the place. Maybe, I have been known to speculate, it is is owned by an eccentric millionaire who does not have a mortage to pay for. Imagine my suprise therefore to see that the occupants today were some over-chained hoodies with a rather large dog of the kind we are told are fashionable with posturing street gangs at the moment.

Interestingly, although they had the shutter up, they did not like people looking in at the place, and one of the surly crew even came out into the street with a fuck on his lips and a swagger in his stride. This he used, no doubt with an eye for future custom planned for the venue once it opens, as a means of dispelling as much interest as possible a passing young lady had shown in the establishment's future prospects. The metaphorical scent marking complete, the feral looking group soon set about ensuring that the public couldn't see what they are up to in there, covering the no doubt expensively refurbished plate glass display window and door with newspaper from the inside. Why would they do that I wonder?

They may just be shy at people seeing them in a shop with no stock yet. Or perhaps they are a self-help group for chronic agrophobics who want to meet in the High Street opposite Lidl without having to see the world passing by outside. Squatters? Magicians practicing a routine perhaps? I love a good magic show, the hand is quicker than the eye and all that. They surely couldn't be a proto-version of the Somaliland which the council recently and euphemistically shut down for allegedly 'anti-social behaviour' a couple of days ago. Who knows what they are up to?

So, nothing to see here, move along please. I have no evidence for any of these speculations, and am not pretending I have a clue what these chaps are up to. I am interested, though, that they would shoo someone away from their premises, and that these seem to be owned by someone who may be in no apparent hurry to make tham pay their way.

On a drizzly day like today we either have no planes overhead or hundreds, as they seem to fly over the clouds to where they are going or come down to the bottom of them to sneek a peak. As it happens, today I couldn't hear any for several minutes at a time, which is nice.

Maybe they are staying out of sight and sound for other good reasons. Redbridge Council seems not to have the in-tray problems I recently described in Walthams Forest and has been able to decide what to do about neighbouring Newham's dodgy decision to allow more flights over his end of London without mantioning it to anybody.

Thus Redbridge Council last night unanimously decided to oppose the expansion of London City Airport. The Redbridge councillors agreed to support a motion against increases in flights from the Docklands airport, as well as opposing the rise in 'stacking' large numbers of planes waiting to land at Heathrow.

Redbridge councillors are reported to have criticised neighbouring Newham Council's lack of consultation on the process. Here in Walthamstow the Council are still not sure if they were consulted or not, because apparently they ignore their post and lose things so regularly that the former leader of the Council's word that he was never consulted by Newham is not considered good enough. Such is the confidence of our coucillors in the system of local government they run. If it is any help I can confirm that the important people who matter were not asked. Meanwhile, we wait.

In 1999 there were 10,000 flights using London City Airport every year. By 2008 there were some 95,000.

As in Waltham Forest, it seems that Redbridge council did nothing about the increase in flights until we all woke up like boiling frogs to the noisy reality over our heads.

London City Airport – Fight The Flights are saying they will now take Newham Council to judicial review.

On the opposite corner from Millenium Food and Wine at the junction of Melville Road and Erskine Road there is a slightly shabby building which houses the William Morris Multicultural Day Care Centre. I regret that I am not completely clear if this is the building run by a registered charity called the William Morris Day Care Association (Registered Charity No. 1055442) which is oddly listed on the charity fundraising site Help! as an educational charity.

Publically available information about this building is surpisingly scarce for an institution which has been in operating for some time, if only judging by the grotty exterior paintwork. (It also seems to be known as Centre 124 and is possible to confuse with the William Morris Community Centre, which is on nearby Greenleaf Road).

There is a ramp which less mobile users can stroll up cheerily to gain access. This is via an entrance on Rosebank Grove, taking them past the ugly council rubbish bins which dominate this side of the building. The peeling handrails are livoried in the green corporate colours of the council, which may give some clue as to the reasons for the neglected, low public profile of the establishment.

The information that is provided, by means of a sign on Erskine Road, is in English, Turkish and Greek, hence maybe the word 'multicultural' in the title. This sign, like the freight-container-ike cladding of part of the place, is also a shoddy addition to the neighbourhood. It has been in need of a lick of paint for some years. The faded sign tells people that services are in some way related to an acronym which I take to be an embarrassed reference to social services. These services, which appear to involve lunch, are available to people from the age of 50 onwards. This seems quite young in some ways.

Tel 0208 521 3433

CD Kar Electrics is one of those small car-related businesses whose presence in otherwise mainly residential streets really only seems to make sense when you see that they are living in one of those terraces the late Victorians and Edwardians thought needed provision for stabling for their horses. So it is with the business at 77 Erskine Road that they occupy a terraced house which has a passage through it wide enough for a horse and carriage.

I do not know whether the ancestors of CD Kar Electrics would have fittted out our top and bowler-hatted ancestors with the latest in saddlewares, but the people of this part of Walthamstow at least are able to get automobile electric services, repairs, starters, immobalizers, clutches and all the other kit and kebang required to pass MOTs and keep their automotive steeds on the road. They are opposite the William Morris Muliticultural Day Care Centre near the junction with Melville Road.

Tel 0208 521 7855

Anyone remember The Millennium? I don't. I didn't go to any memorable effort for it at all. It may have been the champagne, but I do not recall a trip down to some corruptly built shed in docklands for an excruciating New Labour pseudo-ceremony.

Nor did I endure a nervous flight on some airplane waiting for the computer bug to strike the guidance systems. There were not even any religious raptures. Nor, come to think of it, do I have any reminiscences at all to recount, of the last time there was an 'end of the world as we know it'.

For some people, I suppose, it was probably something to look forward to, a bit like for the people now getting excited about a load of hockum based on the Mayan calendar. Funny, though, how those people didn't mention the Mayans in 1999 when they should have been telling us to stock up on Koolade and plan where the nearest killing zone would be when the ballooon went up.

There seems so much to wonder at about the whole millennium thing, it may seem odd to concern myself with what the owner of Millennium Food and Wine was looking forward to when naming the off licence at the corner of Erskine Road and Melville Road. It is conveniently situated in a residential district of Walthamstow. This includes not just the kind of 'hard working families' Gordon Brown bangs on about but an awful lot of people who annually churn through the flimsy plywood-divided bedsits which are also a feature of the area. I expect he was looking forward to making quite a bit of money. Maybe he does.

The shop sells fags, sweets and stocks a wide range of booze. There are a few skanty vegetables outside the front of the store (low value items like charcoal and onions that people tend not to nick), and the sign over the door also says they sell greetings cards and even news, but mainly this is a place that sells a great deal of booze as an 'impluse' item. They are open seven days a week, so you don't even need to know what day it is to get served. Over the road from the William Morris Multicultural Day Care Centre.

Tel 0208 503 7846 if you believe the sign on the shop, or 0208 503 7400 if you believe the internet.

At the corner of Erskine Road and Cottenham Road stands a large building with an air of use and vigour about it, called the Emmanuel Christian Centre. It is officially 102-106 Erskine Road.

The group whose building this is have their own website, where people can find out about their religious (generally at 11.00am and 6.00pm on Sundays)and other activities . These include running a day nursery, which does not seem to be used exclusively by Christians. They also run classes for people for whom money may be a bit tight, running a series of classes teaching people how to budget and organise their finances, and operate a high energy activity evening called 'Champions' on Thursdays to help wear out 10-13 year olds.

The Emmanuel Christians also have premises on nearby Greenleaf Road, and in keeping with their presence in a borough of small shopkeepers, promote themselves with the apostrophic slogan "One Church, Two Venue's". The Senior Pastor is Doug Williams.

Tel 0208 509 3128.

Those local readers of this blog who are without the astonishing levels of computing power and other technologies available to Technomist may find the need to use the services of internet cafes. There are a number of these locally, but I can be pretty sure of one place that they will probably not be using (unless they are the owner). Somaliland has been shut down.

This wonderous internet cafe, which did not seem to need to cover the oosts of its shop front floor space or deploy any computers there to function, is today shuttered. There is a notice on the door letting any potential surfers who might have wandered in there at random that the place was shut yesterday due to 'anti-social behaviour'. Readers of this blog will have seen comment that this establishment may or may not have involved the supply of drugs on the premices. I have heard well-informed rumours that the place was also a brothel, but I was not inclined to confirm this from personal experience before its demise.

Where Erskine Road and the High Street meet, the High Street presents this road with the frontages of GSM Mobile, Sedoo Creations, the still schizophrenic Kemer Resturant, (with a sign saying Bunter's is Back trying to lure back the customers they pissed off by their refit) and N&A Fishmonger.

Erskine Road itself has Nationwide and Hundreds Sweet Shop on the two High Street corners, with a bag shop which wishes to remain anonymous tucked in beside the sweeties. From then on the street passes though a phase of white vans and lock-ups before becoming mainly residential. Many of the houses are still intact and occupied by families. Some of them are quite magnificant, with many original Edwardian and late Victorian features, facades towering to three stories and presumably giving what must have once been fine views West down the hill towards the Lea Valley. The sunsets must still be wonderful. Many of these terraces however have been turned into grotty 'houses of multiple occupation', apparently a reflection of a time in the not too distant past when the area was allegedly under the thrall of organised criminals who had a rackmanist sideline in property 'development'. Symptoms of these criminals' infectious influence possibly remain to this day in the high crime rates in the area.

Away from the High Street there are not many commercial ventures on Erskine Road - an off-licence called Millennium Food and Wine, a car workshop called CD Kar Electrics and a couple of day centres, either for children (run by the Emmanuel Christian Centre) or the elderly (by Social Services).

As the crappy decorations twinkle in the same old way in the High Street, and on the shrunken market traders gear up for Christmas, it is worth noting that although Wilkinson's is about to open, the recession is not over yet. Local Charities have their hands firmly outstretched to the Council looking for easier money, apparently to protect the jobs of their workers while the workers, or at least members of the Trades Council, have been digging into their pockets to feed the homeless, or at least £70 to pay the Christian Kitchen to do it for them. "The Trades Council thinks it is outrageous that the government can give billions to bankers and to pay for wars, while many of our fellow residents cannot afford to eat. Any decent society shouldn't need the service that the Christian Kitchen provides.”

They are also organising an event, at the Quaker Centre, in Jewel Road, Walthamstow, on November 28 to raise money for the charity. There but for the grace of God, [and the complexities of the Employment Rights Act 1996 as amended and the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992], go they.

Still, the local world as we know it has not entirely collapsed this year, which we must all be thankful for, even if IKON (shut for as long as I have been blogging) still has Strettons claiming they are trying to rent it out with 'flexible terms available'. A refurbished Animal Magic has not re-openned. Tradicia remains shut and businesses which had previously over-expanded, such as Madina Supermarket, have returned to their basic cores. Up at the top of the High Street, no work is in progress at the Arcade site, which has a boutique ice rink on it, performing the second half of the 'bread and circus' act our government is putting on during the current 'unfortunate' economic down turn.

Who if anyone is doing well at the moment other than the usual oligopolistic chains like Sainsbury's? Well, take-aways selling the cheap food the council tried to shut down last year (no more has been heard of that policy as of late) seem to be surviving as far as I can tell, and the staff at Oakam have a cheerful demeanour. They can be seen some days, balloons in hand, going up to likely marks in the street to lend them money. This suggests that they are finding it even easier to find desperate members of the local poor to grind down to nothing than before. Their supposedly 'market' rate of 442% interest has been a constant since they opened their doors. And of course, anyone who has their fingers in the public pie should be happy for a few months while Gordon Brown prints money at a rate of over a billion pounds every working day. The inflation will kick in after Christmas, I expect.

There have been a few minutes of airtime given to the unsurprising news today that there are a number of shabby stations in England which are in need of improvement. Allegedly the worst is in Manchester, which makes me weep for them given how truly dire Bethnal Green is, an appalling station which doesn't make the list.

The actual report this hoo-hah is based upon has some interesting things in it for locals, including the depressing information that our old mates Keir (famous for dodgy contract bids, partners to our awful social housing organisation Ascham Homes and responsible for street cleaning in Walthamstiow) are deeply mired in the future fate of car parking arrangments at Walthasmstow Central.

In this post, however, I shall just run through where St. James's Street stands. This serves the Western part of Walthamstow, linking us with the City through Liverpool Street. St James's Street is classed as a class 'D' station, one which in the parliance of Sir Peter Hall and Chris Green is a medium-sized station with "a core inter-urban business or a particularly high volume of urban commuting". Trips from stations in this category of station will be typically between 250,000 and 500,000 per annum and ticket revenue £1 to £2 million. Despite this, the station is actually staffed only part-time.

Among the proposals are that there should be clear minimum standards for what passengers can expect of their station, depending on its category. Thus, station priorities should be focused on improving Access, Information, Facilities and Environment in future franchises. It should be "progressively brought up to minimum standards" through franchise tenders. Additional catch-up should be provided beyond the current five year funding by extending both the National Stations Improvement Programme (NSIP) and Access for All funding beyond 2014.

Disabled access is required for all train fleets by 2020, and Britain should match this EU directive by also making all ‘A’ to ‘D’ stations accessible by the same date. There should also be one telephone number for ‘Assisted Travellers’ to ring. Travellors at St James's Street will have noticed that there are no lifts at St James's Street, and access to the platforms can only be gained by climbing very steep stairs. There should be a well-signed taxi rank outside station if possible, street direction signs from main road(s) and pedestrian/cyclist routes and cycle parking space for up to 5% of joining passengers. At present I doubt there is anything like that level of bike parking available, let alone enough people stupid enough to park their bikes unsecurely in this local crime hot spot.

As a 'medium station' it should evolve into something called a 'community hub', providing local services such as small supermarkets, collection points for undelivered mail, sub postoffices and community services (whatever they are).

As with all stations, signage should be standardized in Brunel alphabet and pictograms (to make it cheaper to change the signs if and when franchises change hands).

Facilities should include a staffing presence most of day with opening hours published for ticketing; assisted travel wheelchair and boarding ramps if DDA accessible; ticket gates supervised where installed and operational; staff to give advice/help; toilets appropriate for demand, smart & regularly cleaned to high standard (at present there are none); catering vending machines for hot/cold drinks and cold snacks; a clock on each platform with a scheduled service; ticket machine (Unless derogation); lighting adequate to give security on approaches/platform; shelter or canopy on each platform with a scheduled service; seating on each platform with a scheduled service minimum 12 seats; staff accommodation smart and well cared for. As commuters on this line well know, there are no loos at the station at present, nor are there usually any on the trains.

With regard to the overall environment, the report recommends CCTV security at the station approaches and car / cycle parking areas, with something called 'Secure Stations Accreditation'; the station should be cleaned throughout the day & graffiti free: with litter bins; it should be subject to maintenance, prompt repairs & kept well painted and the station approaches & buildings in use look smart.

It seems therefore that if the report is implemented as opposed to gathering headlines followed by dust, there are going to have to be a few improvements at St James's Street, and more generally, at National Express East Anglia, which runs the line. They will have to raise their overall customer satisfaction rating from the current 61% to an overall 80%.