#- Roofing Services Tottenham

[charile0]

Roofing Services in London: Concrete Tiles, Slate, and Domestic Roofing Solutions

When it comes to reliable roofing solutions in London, choosing the right materials and experienced professionals is essential for ensuring durability and aesthetic appeal. Whether you need Concrete Roof Tiles London, Slate Roofing London, or specialized Eternit Roofing Slates, high-quality materials play a vital role in the longevity of your roof. These materials offer exceptional protection against the elements while adding an elegant touch to your property.

For homeowners seeking Roof Tiling London services, skilled roofers can provide expert installation, ensuring your roof is both functional and visually appealing. Whether you're renovating an existing property or building a new one, these services are crucial for safeguarding your home.

If you reside in North London, experienced professionals specializing in Resident Roofing in North London are well-versed in the unique needs of residential properties in the area. Additionally, for those with heritage properties or classic designs, Castle Roofing Houses services can provide specialized expertise in maintaining and restoring traditional roofs.

For comprehensive roofing needs in Domestic Roofing London, working with a team of experts ensures that your roof not only looks great but also provides reliable protection. With the right materials and skilled professionals, your home’s roof will stand strong for years to come.

[horncastleroofing]

Preventative Maintenance: Key Steps to Avoid Costly Roof Repairs ?

Preventative maintenance plays a crucial role in preserving roofs, whether using materials like siga slates, eternit roofing slates, or others, throughout London, including areas like Barnsbury, Tottenham, and more. Implementing key steps in roof maintenance can help avoid costly repairs and extend the longevity of various roofing materials.

Regular roof inspections, especially for slate roofing in London, are fundamental in identifying potential issues like damaged slates, leaks, or worn-out flashing. Scheduling pre purchase roof inspections can be essential for homeowners, ensuring they are aware of the roof’s condition before investing in a property.

Maintaining proper roofing materials is crucial. Whether it’s siga 39 slates, eternit roofing slates, or castle roof tiles, ensuring these materials are in good condition and promptly replacing damaged ones is essential to prevent further deterioration.

Professional roofers in Tottenham, Barnsbury, and other London regions can conduct routine checks and offer necessary repairs to maintain roofs effectively. Additionally, installing damp stack systems can mitigate moisture-related issues, crucial for preserving roof integrity.

Regular roof cleaning and applying protective coatings, especially for flat castle roofing or concrete roof tiles in London, can protect against harsh weather and extend the lifespan of roofs.

Engaging experienced roofing professionals, such as resident roofing in London, for regular maintenance can significantly reduce the need for costly repairs. Scaffolding services in London play a vital role during roofing maintenance, ensuring safe access for inspections and repairs.

By prioritizing preventative maintenance across various London areas and roofing materials like siga slates or castle roof tiles, homeowners can preserve the condition of their roofs, minimize repair costs, and prolong the lifespan of their properties’ roofing systems.

[anteroom-of-death]

Spin in the City, chapter 1

Synopsis: Malcolm Tucker is back in London and trying to gain employment. He grieves and plays himself openly.

A/N: another story from ME! I layer and add symbolism. There's many things wrong with me. Comments and thoughts appreciated...

Malcolm brushed his teeth, a task that got harder every day. Fuck, his depression and his arthritis starting to flare up every day for making it harder to operate this useless sack of cum.

He fucking understood he was sixty-two. He fucking got the message. Loud as the tinnitus he had from decades of screaming into a phone.

The taps stayed on as he paced in his old home. Sam convinced him to keep his Tottenham home when they got married and moved into their cottage in Wick. Storage and they could rent out the parking for a small fee.

His chest began that familiar widower’s ache.

Here he was back in the radioactive shithole that was England, yet alone London, their little home for a few years on the market. He couldn’t bear to keep it. A happy little thatched-roof where he saw his niece married last year. The place where they genuinely tried to live a life far removed from the cunts who framed him and used his existence to pass legislation.

The cozy little sitting room where the best fucking woman to ever exist breathed her last in May. (Possibly even the best fucking human to ever exist, but Malcolm admitted he may have heavy biases.)

He couldn’t bear it.

Fuck that.

Fuck this.

He just needed out and for something to do. Someone else to be for a bit.

He was shocked to find someone who was willing to interview him. Especially so quickly.

Maybe it was just because it was an American woman… no one from this Island or Northern Ireland would probably have him.

She sounded posh and mature, if not a tad bit full of herself.

He googled her separately from the firm she partnered with when he first saw the offer slide through his inbox from the recruitment service.

Confident, blonde and everywhere. She embodied the social elite of New York City. Dated celebrities and moguls, was friends with sex columnists and lawyers, hosted extravagant parties and had an endless string of sexy outfits. She seemed plenty intelligent and had eyes like a hawk with the posture befitting and outclassing any model.

Not particularly his type. He always liked demure brunettes with something deeply wrong behind the surface. Both of his wives were.

Not that Sam and Elaine were anything alike. No, Elaine was some hag bitch journo from hell whom he frequently thought of trying to start some political movement her for the entire goddamn world’s protection. Sam just was both a sadist and a sweetheart at once.

He shoved those thoughts down as he called an Uber and collected the folder he made of his accomplishments over the years.

He didn’t want to cry before his interview.

Or give off the impression that Malcolm F. Tucker was someone who had the capacity to cry.

The suit felt itchy and constricting against his being. Not unlike a noose, it felt so alien to wear one after years of Aran sweaters and jeans with flannels. The man who wore suits was executed for his alleged crimes in 2012. This man? In 2021? No.

This man was a new man, older, tired and more timid than he liked to admit.

He just needed to do something, be something. Anything but some begrieved widower with increasingly dead eyes.

The firm was a stone’s throw from his old stomping grounds in Number 10 and Westminster.

Nonetheless, he trudged onward into the office.

It was modern and luxurious inside. Nothing too ostentatious, but the bright lights and plush chair the receptionist led him to wait for Samantha Jones but his teeth on edge. Her desk was simple and glass, only a small stack of papers, a pen and a sleek laptop were on display.

He would have thought something vulgar, but he was trying not to. He was also on display.

The woman glided in, clad in something that seemed custom-made. He was no fashion expert, Sam always just bought him his suits and gave him the bill to forward to treasury for reimbursement. Once in a while he’d recognize a name from one of the designers on the high streets or the luxury shops in richer areas that were bespoke.

His perfect Sam. Knew him better than he did himself…

Malcolm got up and offered her his hand. She took it, her handshake firmer than any man in politics and twice as assertive. She had a bizarre smile on her face. One that was un-fucking-readable.

Probably some American blow-off look. They did love their meaningless grins and fucking pointless niceties.

It was fascinating to him how an entire country operated on the same system of etiquette as pointless cabinet members with worse agendas.

She sat down and clicked something on her file and looked at his CV. The half-second she held each in her line of vision seemed to go on for eternity.

“Cut the bullshit, Malc. Why does someone like you want to demean yourself working for me?” She leaned back and bore her eyes into his soul, (he highly debated that he had a soul, but if he did, Samantha Jones was staring straight at it…) her index finger resting just behind a broach cleverly disguised as an earring.

Now Malcolm had the luxury of choice. Did he tell the truth or did he fabricate and spin a nice little falsehood?

What did he say to that emaciated Oxbridge twat that stole his place? Rabbits and hats? That rant came barreling back and hit him clearly between the eyes.

He had to act.

“Retirement isn’t what it’s cracked up to be, isn’t it, love?”

She clearly didn’t enjoy that response. Her eyes narrowed and he felt like he was melting quicker than a cone in the hand of toddler with ADHD during a heatwave. He had to amend his statement and do a little backtracking.

“Samantha, can I call you Samantha?” He felt his hand extend and the glimmer of his old self surface.

“Miss Jones.”

“Right. Miss Jones.” He nodded along. “I don’t expect you to care, but I can’t live how I was living. A man’s got to have a purpose. Can’t sit by the sea waiting to fucking pass from Parkinzeimers, can he?” Blatant honesty covered in bravado.

He thought he saw a flash of something behind her eyes, he didn’t want to dig himself a bigger hole. So he left that statement at that.

She was judging him. He felt cornered.

He didn’t like this.

“Don’t play games with me. I know there’s more than- “She gestured broadly towards his entire being, “Being purposeless.”

He deflated and decided to tell an unvarnished truth. No spin, no anything, he even pulled himself back from swearing. “I’ve worked since I was 8. I haven’t not worked my entire life. I spent a few years living a life I didn’t know a boy from Gorbals could get. It’s dead and gone. Give me something to do.” He gave plaintive plea as a firm demand.

He could physically see the gears turning in her mind. He obviously was a risky investment.

She pursed her lips.

“Trial period, I’ll have my assistant send you a temporary contract.”

Thank fuck, he relaxed.

“Don’t pull anything like you did to Mr. Tickel or I’ll have you unable to even run the tills at Iceland.” She levied against him as she got up and offered him a hand. The interview was over and she wanted him out of her office.

“Fair fucking offer.” He took her hand, yet again noticing her grasp and the fact you could feel her obviously well-earned cockiness radiating from the cells in her hand alone.

He felt himself crumple in the lift ride down.

Maybe it was too soon to work?

No, this was the right thing to do. There wasn’t anything for him left. Might as well fucking slide back in the old skin suit and concern himself with every wanker’s business except his own. Would keep his mind torn off of his intelligent, beautiful and loving bride dying from breast cancer than neither of them knew she had. She got the diagnosis too late and the chemotherapy was too rough.

It fucking shattered her.

She took the peaceful route, die with dignity in her home, surrounded by loved ones.

That was the type of woman she was. Quiet, simple and dignified. She did the job and did it well. Even dying was a class-act from her.

He missed her more every moment.

He got home and let himself cry, first time since he watched the life slip away from her eyes. It took hours and he felt literally disemboweled after it.

The email app on his phone pinged.

It was Miss Jones’ assistant. His contract was in for him to review and sign.

He didn’t know how he’d spun this far out of control…

[wongmsrailgallery]

Thursday 5 December 2024 - View of the Southern Cross Station roof from 664 Collins Street. Plus 123 more new photos in the Southern Cross Station office towers, Melbourne tram and train passenger counting, Melbourne Underground Rail Loop Upgrade Project, Melbourne suburban passenger information displays, Metro Trains Melbourne - inner suburban, Metro Tunnel works at CBD North, Yarra Trams - Melbourne CBD and Docklands, Yarra Trams road fleet, Victoria and Swanston Street tram works, Melbourne tram bits and pieces, Metro Tunnel works at CBD South, Melbourne tram stops, Sightseeing Tours Australia, Kinetic Melbourne, City Circle Tram, Vandals and scroats, Southern Cross Station, Failing infrastructure at Southern Cross Station, V/Line at Southern Cross Station, Poor service from V/Line, V/Line - Standard gauge to Albury, V/Line bits and pieces, Railway advertising and promotions, Terre Coaches, Simcocks' Bus Services, Bus stops and infrastructure in Victoria, Southern Star Coaches, Explore Australia Tours, Motorists delaying trams, Excellent Coaches, Melbourne rail replacement bus signage, V/Line workshops, yards and shunting, V/Line trackwork and maintenance, Southern Shorthaul Railroad at Tottenham Yard, Pacific National broad gauge in Melbourne and Melbourne Airport Rail albums https://railgallery.wongm.com/page/archive/2024-12-05/

[grandmaster-anne]

The ‘minor’ Royals are the very best of British

The Telegraph commentary article by Madeline Grant | Published 21 December 2022

A few years back, a BBC documentary shone an unwittingly hilarious light on the lives of the minor working royals. The Queen’s first cousin, the Duke of Gloucester, has been sent to open a new IT department at a school in Croydon. “There are some things that you’re interested in, and some that you’re not” he admits. “It is slightly difficult to feign an interest”. We then cut to some school-children dancing (badly) to a song from Footloose. Trying to make conversation with a teacher, the Duke points to the ceiling of the sports hall and asks, “Is this an insulated roof?”

The Duke’s small-talk proved an unexpected hit on social media; at my birthday I realised to my astonishment that half my guests could quote the scene word for word – perhaps not the most obvious viral sensation among a bunch of 30-year-olds. But there is something rather moving, as well as relatable, about it. While the Sussexes redefine the concept of “service” to mean whatever is convenient to them; those sliding down the pecking order with each new royal arrival continue their efforts on behalf of the institution. No frills, no tantrums, dull events, small-talk galore – and lasting loyalty.

The Princess Royal’s unshowy work ethic has won great public respect. This week the 72-year-old once again topped the list as the most industrious working royal. The Earl and Countess of Wessex carry out public engagements in the background, without fanfare. Royals will often be patrons of the same charity for 40 or 50 years; understanding the DNA of these organisations; and many keep serving well beyond the official retirement age.

The late Queen’s cousins the Duke of Kent and Princess Alexandra, 87 and 85, still regularly perform royal duties. At Queen Elizabeth’s funeral, the Duke joined in the procession, having previously flanked George VI’s coffin as a teenager in 1952. He looked unsteady on his feet at times; but there he was, faithfully serving his cousin as he had all his life. The Duchess of Kent quietly worked as a music teacher in Hull for 13 years and would often be found mopping the floors of a local hospice where she was a longtime volunteer.

The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester have remained working royals well into their 70s, spending decades giving unshowy support to their good causes. A passionate tennis-lover, the Duchess has been Honorary President of the Lawn Tennis Association for over two decades and may well enjoy glamorous occasions, such as appearing in the Royal Box at Wimbledon. But she is much more often found far from the limelight, cheerfully opening public courts in Tottenham or watching unknown British hopefuls battling it out in the dreary fastnesses of indoor tennis centres in Telford or Bolton.

When the couple married in 1972, her husband was working as an architect. Just six weeks later his dashing older brother, Prince William of Gloucester, died in a flying accident and the couple were propelled into royal duties. Their quiet, steady work, plus the wackier gigs – representing Queen Elizabeth at the coronation of King George Tupou V of Tonga in 2008, for example – has never excited much media attention; and were it not for the death of the Duke’s brother, they would have probably led much more independent lives. But they rose to the occasion uncomplainingly. As the Duke explains in the documentary “I don’t expect huge crowds lining the street, as if Her Majesty came. It’s valid, even without a great deal of fuss.”

The King’s aspirations for a slimmed-down monarchy are well-known, but the sheer number of royal duties means scores of lesser lights are surely required to share the load and represent the crown overseas. The monarch and his immediate heirs could never physically fulfil half the commitments requiring a royal presence.

The minor royals don’t just opt for less glamorous causes; but also more historic and esoteric ones. The Earl of Wessex is a tremendous ambassador of the ancient sport Real Tennis, while the Duke of Gloucester is patron of the Richard III Society. They make many charities viable; supporting the quirky sports, passions and amateur pursuits woven into the nation’s social fabric.

Of course, in this sense The Firm is like any other institution: so many of which run through the hard work of unseen individuals doing unglamorous jobs. Churches depend on people giving up their time as wardens, vergers, and church council members. It is their quiet graft that keeps some of our most ancient buildings in good repair. The bishops would do well to remember them next time they pontificate on political matters.

This feels like a generational divide – and one I’ve been thinking about a lot since I lost my grandma this year. She was a stalwart of the community and an indefatigable volunteer who put in countless hours baking cakes for the church, Girl Guides and tennis club, and running the WI and local Country Market. What will happen to civic society without such people around? I am reminded of George Eliot’s beautiful words at the end of Middlemarch, “the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts … the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs”.

We may not hear so much about them, but members of the late Queen’s extended family, well beyond the core royals, continue to follow her example of lifelong duty, as do thousands of community-minded “good eggs” up and down the country. All our lives are richer for their service.

[architectnews]

Populous revamps World's Fair pavilion in Seattle to create Climate Pledge Arena

Photovoltaics and a rainwater harvesting system feature in a hockey stadium in Seattle that has been designed by architecture firm Populous and named after Amazon's Climate Pledge initiative.

Located near the downtown district, the Climate Pledge Arena sits within the Seattle Center – a 74-acre (30-hectare) cultural and entertainment district originally built for the 1962 World's Fair. It is where the city's iconic Space Needle is located.

The Climate Pledge Arena was designed by Populous and is located in Seattle

The project entailed a major overhaul and expansion of an existing arena – the Washington State Pavilion, later known as KeyArena, which was designed by noted architect Paul Thiry and built for the World's Fair.

The revitalised stadium, which opened in October, is home to the National Hockey League's newest team, the Seattle Kraken, along with the women's basketball team Seattle Storm.

The stadium will be used to host concerts and large events including sports

The 17,000-seat venue will also be used for concerts and other large-scale events. The seven-level facility encompasses 740,000 square feet (68,748 square metres).

Populous was commissioned to design the stadium by the City of Seattle and the developer Oak View Group.

Amazon purchased the naming rights and opted to name the arena after the retailer's Climate Pledge initiative, which calls on companies to be net-zero carbon by 2040.

The stadium has a number of sustainable elements

While much of the project involved new construction, certain parts of the original building had to be retained due to landmark status. The team was required to preserve the building's glazed facades and its hyperbolic-paraboloid roof, which consists of standing-seam metal and a concrete ring beam.

"The new construction required the 44-million-pound roof to be suspended above the site while the new arena was built underneath," the team said.

Read:

Watch drone footage of the Super Bowl 2020 stadium

The original facility was about half the size of the new arena. To increase the amount of square footage, the team expanded downward. A large portion of the seating bowl is actually below grade.

Special features within the revamped arena include a 200-foot (61-metre) living wall and a pair of digital scoreboards that are suspended over the rink.

Each floor has a designated colour, ranging from light blue on the top level to a muted orange in the main concourse. Suite and dining spaces were designed by New York's Rockwell Group and feature earthy materials like oak.

The stadium is set across seven levels

Architect Jason McLennan, founder of the Seattle-based International Living Future Institute, served as a sustainability consultant for the project and the arena has an array of sustainable features.

Power is provided by an on- and off-site solar array, along with energy purchased from other renewable sources. Water conservation measures include ice made from collected rainwater that is stored in a 15,000-gallon cistern.

The site has electric vehicle charging stations and bike valet services. Additionally, stadium attendees are offered free rides on mass transit.

Populous incorporated greenery throughout the inteiror of the stadium

Bolstering pedestrian access to the arena was a key concern for the team. In turn, the new facility is surrounded by a large plaza that provides year-round green space on the Seattle Center campus.

The outdoor landscape also features 67 leafy London plane trees that were planted for the 1962 World's Fair and hold landmark designation.

"These trees maintain a massive canopy on the site, aid in carbon capture and connect surrounding neighbourhoods with the expansive Seattle Center campus," the team said.

Power is supplied to the building by a photovoltaic solar array

Populous has designed numerous sports facilities around the globe, including Florida's Hard Rock Stadium, which features a shade canopy made from 15,400 tonnes of steel, and the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in north London, which has a retractable pitch that can host both Premier League football matches and American football.

The photography is by Populous and Climate Pledge Arena.

The post Populous revamps World's Fair pavilion in Seattle to create Climate Pledge Arena appeared first on Dezeen.

[mawidner2]

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Brain Hoot . (2020, September 11). The Hidden Opponent: student-athletes and stigma surrounding mental health. Retrieved from The Brian Hoot : https://brandeishoot.com/2020/09/11/the-hidden-opponent-student-athletes-and-stigma-surrounding-mental-health/

Chen, D. (2020, July 21). The astronomical rise of esports. Retrieved from The Chronical : https://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2020/07/the-astronomical-rise-of-esports

Forbes . (2020). How The Pandemic Could Accelerate AI-Powered Professional Sports. Retrieved from Fobes : https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2020/09/04/how-the-pandemic-could-accelerate-ai-powered-professional-sports/

Greenberg, E. (2019 , December 19). The Story Behind The Virtual Raven that Took Flight at M&T Bank Stadium. Retrieved from Baltimore : https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/section/community/the-story-behind-the-virtual-raven-that-took-flight-at-m-t-bank-stadium/

Group TOurs . (2020). 7 Best Entertainment Districts in America. Retrieved from Group TOurs : https://www.grouptours.net/7-best-entertainment-districts-in-america/

Harder, J. (2020). National sports reach into the community through the arena of sustainable design. Retrieved from USGBC+ : https://plus.usgbc.org/sustainable-stadiums/

Heffer, G. (2020, April 14). Coronavirus: Tottenham stadium to offer NHS services after criticism of club's COVID-19 response. Retrieved from Sky News : https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-tottenham-stadium-to-offer-nhs-services-after-criticism-of-clubs-covid-19-response-11972900

Hulu . (2020, September 10 ). Hulu Has Live Sports: The Deepfake • Hulu • Commercial. Retrieved from Youtube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPCnVeiQsUw

Manners, D. (2018, January 3). Year of the Humanoids. Retrieved from Electronics Weekly: https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/mannerisms/dilemmas/year-of-the-humanoids-2018-01/

McCaskill, S. (2019 , August 30). Future Of Sport: Biometric Technology And Bionics Will Boost Performance And Reduce Injury. Retrieved from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevemccaskill/2019/08/30/sport-in-2050-biometric-technology-and-bionics-will-boost-performance-and-reduce-injury/?sh=76d9482f3fba

Meisenzahl, M. (2020, October 18). Flippy, the $30,000 automated robot fast-food cook, is now for sale with 'demand through the roof' — see how it grills burgers and fries onion rings. Retrieved from Business Insider : https://www.businessinsider.com/miso-robotics-flippy-robot-on-sale-for-300000-2020-10

Mons, J. K. (2019). How will the blockchain impact sports. Retrieved from Sports Tomorrow : https://sporttomorrow.com/how-will-the-blockchain-impact-sports/amp/?doing_wp_cron=1607613495.3986740112304687500000

Play USA. (2020). HOW LEGAL SPORTS BETTING IS SLOWLY INFILTRATING STADIUMS AND ARENAS. Retrieved from Play USA: https://www.playusa.com/sports-betting-stadiums-arenas/

Rawat, M. (2020, August 19 ). Hour One raised $5M to generate AI-driven synthetic characters. Retrieved from Market Tech Post: https://www.marktechpost.com/2020/08/19/hour-one-raised-5m-to-generate-ai-driven-synthetic-characters/

Rogers, S. (2019 , January 1 ). These Window-Cleaning Drones Make Cleaning Skyscrapers Look Easy. Retrieved from Intresting Engineers : https://interestingengineering.com/video/these-window-cleaning-drones-make-cleaning-skyscrapers-look-easy

Seventy Six Capital . (2020). Jessica David . Retrieved from Seventy Six Capital : https://www.seventysixcapital.com/news-all/2019/12/3/jessica-david-named-to-forbes-30-under-30-class-of-2020

VV. (2019, September 28). What is Volumetric Video? Retrieved from VV: http://volumetric-video.com/what-is-volumetric-video/

Wilson, S. (2019, December 9). Dallas Cowboys launch revolutionary 'Pose with the Pros' feature at AT&T Stadium. Retrieved from Givemesport : https://www.givemesport.com/1504010-dallas-cowboys-launch-revolutionary-pose-with-the-pros-feature-at-att-stadium

WIST . (2020). Information . Retrieved from Women in Sports Tech : https://www.womeninsportstech.org

[horncastleroofing]

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Elevate your roofing experience with Horn Castle Roofing, your trusted choice for roofing excellence in Tottenham. Explore our range of services and premium materials at https://horncastleroofing.co.uk/. Our expert roofers in Tottenham specialize in castle roof tiles and flat castle roof designs, ensuring a unique touch to your home. From high-quality concrete roof tiles to SIGA and Eternit roofing slates, we bring precision and durability to every project. Trust Horn Castle Roofing for distinctive and resilient roofing solutions that enhance the aesthetics and resilience of residential properties in the United Kingdom. Choose us for roofs that stand the test of time.

[jaigeddes]

Worker crushed to death on Tottenham demolition site

A construction worker has died after a building collapsed during demolition work on a site in Tottenham, north London on Tuesday afternoon.

The London Fire Brigade said: “Firefighters were called to a partial collapse of a wall and reinforced concrete roof at a two-storey industrial building that was being demolished.

“A site worker was trapped under the concrete and was sadly pronounced dead at the scene.”

The Brigade’s Urban Search and Rescue crews were working alongside the Health and Safety Executive and the Metropolitan Police Service to retrieve the body of the man.

[ebenalconstruct]

Worker crushed to death on Tottenham demolition site

A construction worker has died after a building collapsed during demolition work on a site in Tottenham, north London on Tuesday afternoon.

The London Fire Brigade said: “Firefighters were called to a partial collapse of a wall and reinforced concrete roof at a two-storey industrial building that was being demolished.

“A site worker was trapped under the concrete and was sadly pronounced dead at the scene.”

The Brigade’s Urban Search and Rescue crews were working alongside the Health and Safety Executive and the Metropolitan Police Service to retrieve the body of the man.

from https://www.constructionenquirer.com/2020/08/04/worker-crushed-to-death-on-tottenham-demolition-site/

[grunklejam]

Like many incidents in The Great London Conspiracy, the Tottenham Road Railway Accident is very much real - and was an unusually dramatic crash for the time that exposed many issues with the Victorian railway system and its attitude.

February 20th, 1860.

While travelling at 40mph, the 7:00AM Cambridge to Bishopsgate 'Fast' passed through Tottenham as it had for years; ever-prompt at 9:20AM.

This 2-2-2 Steam Locomotive was a standard of the era and produced for several companies across England and Europe, known almost ubiquitously as the Jenny - a name taken from the first in its class, Jenny Lind - itself named after a Swedish opera singer. These were your typical mid-tier Victorian mixed traffic locomotive, and rather attractive machines - well known for being reliable workhorses in most applications and a regular sight around London's many small railways.

The author found out what class of engine was involved after drawing the illustration - but the similar look does much to illustrate just how standard the engine's basic shape had become by this point in railway history!

The Cambridge - London train followed a standard formation - the locomotive (including tender), one guard's van, eight carriages and a horsebox.

While running at a top speed of 40mph (most reports claim between 30-40mph, but by this part in the journey one would expect it to be going 'full')  the engine suddenly sheared off one of the wheel tires - a ring of cast iron riveted to the locomotive wheel - and jumped upon it, forcing it off of the line and onto the ballast. The crew shut off steam - which only caused the train to smash into the locomotive's tender as she jarred into the ballast. The third carriage - 2nd class, and made of Mahongany - rocked off of the line, and acted as a counterweight. The entire splinting, ramming force of the train broke windows and swung the locomotive leftways onto the line side, where she met the platform ramp.

In a dramatic motion, she was vaulted upwards, fell to her side and then wheel-over-funnel, until she was laid on her back, facing back towards Cambridge. The train followed against her, with the tender breaking free and mounting the engine, then swinging to the right.

The guard's van lost its roof, collapsed and wrapped around the heap, while the leading first class carriage shattered to firewood. A second class carriage behind climbed aboard the platform and the rest of the train came to a standstill - windows broken and passengers heavily jarred. There's no record to my knowledge if there was a horse aboard the horsebox or its condition!

It must have been a spectacular visage to see a 23 ton locomotive vaulting like a toy on a ramp, and a gruesome scene underneath - as her crew remained steadfast trying to control her into a halt - and had, as a result, received the full impact of their locomotive on top of them.

The locomotive - reduced to a giant, hissing lump of scrap - was thoroughly inspected, and the broken piece of wheel tire held up against company standards. It was flawed in two places, one by the wheel tire's weld and the other in a strange fracture. Both were noticed to be almost indistinguishable, and had been turned, worked and inspected for hundreds of miles in the past.

The wheel tire had stretched, spread and bent off of the wheel surface - causing a minor imperfection, leading to a heavily fragile - and incredibly important - operating component. It isn't certain if they were the original tires for the locomotive, or had been fitted by the company since delivery. If the latter is the case, It had not been supplied by the locomotive manufacturers, and instead came from a cheaper machine shop - having being turned repeatedly over 10,696 miles with no major cause for concern - as the visual of the wheel saw no immediate fault.

It was on the weld that the tire broke - springing off suddenly rather than shattering, with substantial enough force to jar the engine onto the ballast. The crew shut off the steam, causing the carriages to then surge against it - and force the engine further into catastrophe.

The brake van did apply but was situated solely behind the tender - a typical layout at the time when an engine was turned and run on the opposite end from a terminus. This meant there was no braking for the actual weight of the train behind it - only, in practise, for the locomotive and her tender.

Without this braking ability at the rear, the train's momentum was simply out of control. The sole brake van - or break van, to use the earlier term, despite the attempts of the train's staff, had no ability to prevent or reduce the scale of the accident at hand. They followed their regulations to the letter.

This insufficient braking and poor guard van placement exacerbated the force of the train with a slight downhill gradient - resulting in a runaway with its head already derailed.

The fracture had occurred some 160 yards from the station platform - no enormous distance, and in practise almost impossible to stop a train within at 40mph. The train did not have a scheduled stop at Tottenham, so the service had no braking preparations underway and wouldn't be braking for the Bishopsgate Terminus for another five miles.

The result was a horrific scene, with an engine facing the opposite direction, balancing on top of its smokebox, with two souls underneath it and a massive of wreckage. The guard and his mate, by miracle, were thrown clear and escaped with only minor injuries, while five other souls were lost in the carriages.

The unusual violence of the incident and dramatic results would shake the industry, and led to a major investigation of the Board of Trade - sadly, with no major rectification.

---

In The Great London Conspiracy, the incident is fictionalised slightly - but only, in practise, to the cause and effect of the incident. William Jacomb was not on the train's passenger list in reality and there is no sign of society meddling.

The Tottenham Road Crash of 1860 was, instead, a result of the institutional failings of the railway system when faced with the opportunity of cost cutting, with a still young industry encountering numerous faults and issues.

The pioneering decades of the railways were a tumultuous, difficult time for companies, passengers and engineers - with the rapid growth of the system and ongoing railway mania, incidents from untrained staff and desperate companies were a way of life.

By 1862, the ECR was amalgamated with its rivals in East Anglia - resulting in a complete network of nearly 600 miles, and the first creation of the Great Eastern Railway.

There is no information regarding the locomotive following the incident.

Tottenham Road now operates as Tottenham Hale - though none of the 1840s railway station survives.

Sources:

https://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/docsummary.php?docID=4636

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tottenham_Hale_station

https://www.lner.info/co/GER/prehistory.php

https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Locomotive:_Jenny_Lind

[lsesu]

London’s best coffee study spots

It is almost surreal how we are over halfway through the Michaelmas term already! As we approach the holidays, you may be getting ready to watch that pile of work on your desk get bigger and bigger. Remember – it’s important to remain productive, but also healthy and refreshed during these times, and sometimes dragging yourself to the library feels quite unmotivating.

On that note, it’s time to reenergise and explore something new! Lots of students find that studying in other (more relaxing) environments are much better in terms of boosting productivity and feeling better about the work they have completed.  

With some of the finest roasts around town, London’s independent cafés boast some of the best studying environments for students. So, to help you out with finding your favourite study spot, we’ve compiled a short list of our favourite coffee shops in London!

(Most of these coffee shops charge the same as, or are even cheaper than, the average coffee chain!)

Denning Learning Café & Weston Café

If you don’t want to venture too far from campus, don’t forget our very own SU Cafés! Perfect for studying during awkward one-hour gaps between classes, here are just two of our favourite LSESU cafés:

In the Saw Swee Hock, we have the Denning Learning Café on the very first floor.  With a large range of drinks and snacks to choose from, access to charging points, and plenty of seating, the DL Café is a really perfect meet-up spot to study with friends on campus.

On the sixth floor of the Saw Swee Hock, we have the fantastic Weston Café. While it is often quite busy, it is definitely worth getting a seat on the top floor and a fantastic view of the campus from the roof terrace. If you’re not that into being a coffee connoisseur, we highly recommend getting the freshly-made smoothies (starting from £2.50)!

Fleet Street Press

Luckily for LSE students, Fleet Street Press (as its name suggests) is an easy five-minute walk from the centre of campus. It’s usually a little bit busy, but service is pretty quick, so you should be able to grab a seat downstairs.

FSP’s seating area has a cosy warmness incomparable with other cafés – with vintage leather armchairs and worn-out coffee tables – it’s like studying in a log cabin!

Kaffeine

For the quirky individuals Kaffeine is a little bit of a hidden treasure and is a further away from campus but is therefore much quieter. Kaffeine’s unique seating layout is essentially minimalist with its simple parallel bench-like structures, but nevertheless makes for a focused work environment.

Kaffeine also prides itself on its top-quality roasts and sophisticated latte art, so you know that you’re getting a delicious coffee. In other words, if you’re more of a coffee connoisseur than most, Kaffeine is for you!  

Le Pain Quotidien

While it is more famous for its brunch, Le Pain Quotidien is the perfect student study spot as it not only has some amazing sweet treats (to give you all that energy to keep reading, obviously), but their large hot drinks are totally worth getting so that you don’t run out of fuel.

(Pictured: a large matcha latte and a large coffee latte.)

Department of Coffee and Social Affairs

Like its very unique and interesting name, the Department is by far one of the coolest coffee spots in London. With its semi-industrial aesthetic, wooden seating area, and beautiful coffee, the Department is a must for any student who hopes to get some work done while enjoying an amazing flat white.

The Shaw Café

Brought to you by the School itself, the Shaw Café boasts a fantastic vegetarian and vegan menu, including hot drinks. The Shaw Café only uses top-quality, ethically-sourced coffee beans from Union Hand-Roasted Coffee – fantastic coffee ON campus!

The Café is the perfect (and surprisingly quiet) study spot for students on campus who want to study with the company of friends, a laptop, and a delicious coffee!

*Some of our other favourites:

The Black Penny

While most people know this place for its delicious hot plates of food, it is also a popular spot for enjoying ‘gourmet coffee’. So, you can also enjoy a quick lunch if you’re feeling like treating yourself before heading back to class!

TAP Coffee

TAP has three locations, all located within the boundaries of Fitzrovia and Covent Garden: Wardour Street, Rathbone Place, and Tottenham Court Road. TAP is a really popular independent coffee chain and is perhaps most known for its rustic décor and delicious snacks.

- Kristy Bryant LSESU Communications Assistant

[publicagency]

Speak Here

Speak Here: The Spa, the Station, the Space in-between

The Spa

A sharp right turn and I depart from the rows of tightly stitched houses into a valley of beige towers and parkland. The pavement switches from grey stone to yellow brick. A line of hedges rises to my waist, cordoning pedestrians away from vehicles. Bollards, bars, and bumps collaborate to narrow the cars to one lane. This bend from The Avenue onto Willam Road leads downhill from an integrated urban fabric to a stark modernist plain. This is the boundary between the private dwellings of Tottenham and the housing estate of Broadwater Farms, known by its residents as ‘The Farm.’ Built in 1967, this complex houses an estimated 3,800 people in a cohort of residential towers and low-rise blocks. The buildings balance on concrete stilts, straddling a hollow ground floor of dimly-lit, desolate parking lots. The excess parking is evidence of an imagined middle class lifestyle, which contrasts from the realities of the low-income families and pensioners who live here. This spatial miscalculation has been adapted by residents as a covered short cut between buildings and a shelter from the rain. I spot a group of teenage boys standing in an empty parking space. They have their hoods up, perhaps to gain privacy from the security cameras perched on nearby lampposts.

I pass two small playgrounds and a grassy courtyard with benches – all are empty. Signs direct me to the enterprise office, community centre, and health clinic, all three of which are closed on this Saturday afternoon. As I follow the curve of Willam Road, I notice a bus stop and directly opposite, a long barn-like building. The drawn blinds and metal doors make it difficult to decipher the interiors. In one window sits an electric “Nail Spa” sign beside a pair of plastic hands, each nail modeling a different colour. I knock on the door and am greeted by a buzzing group of women and girls. The salon owner, Dionne is attaching fake eyelashes to a client, her friend Tony is standing by the microwave heating up a soup, and two young girls are waiting for their mother to return from her errands.

Dionne invites me to take a seat by the girls. I introduce myself and explain that I am researching the march to the local police station in response to Mark Duggan’s death this past August. Tony expresses disdain for the journalists who have been lurking around The Farm, probing for details of the violence and is eager to recount the overlooked peaceful events. Both Tony and Dionne were friends of Mark, and they helped organize the march from The Farm, gathering people in one of the main courtyards make signs and begin the walk (See Fig. 1). They were confident that the police were expecting them as they believe that the Farm is consistently monitored. Tony points to the lamppost across the street, ‘See that camera? The police can see us right now.’ Over the past thirty years, they have lived with a heavy police presence that shapes the narrative of The Farm, witnessing episodes of violence and participating in demonstrations. The women did not premeditate the route, but rather followed their usual path to the High Road. To command attention, they walked down the middle of the road, and upon arriving at the station, blocked vehicles from passing. After several hours of waiting, their demand for a high level officer to speak with Mark’s family members was unmet. Crowds amassed and latecomers set off the violence.

As we talk, chairs are reconfigured as visitors come and go and beauty services shift, the teenage boys I had seen earlier peer in to say hello, and a young woman drops off flyers for her church party (See Figs. 4 and 7). As the only semi-public, hang-out space open on this Saturday afternoon, this small room takes on multiple roles: it becomes a place for people to stop by for a visit, to share food, to publicize events.8 An hour passes, and I leave with the mother who returns to retrieve her girls. They offer to lead me along the same path as they marched to the police station. It is a twenty minute walk that winds up and down narrow residential corridors, avoiding the four-lane, fast- moving traffic of Bruce Grove (See Fig. 6). As we turn off The Avenue onto Sperling Road, we pass a corner with a fish and chips shop and a mini-market, where they stop to buy snacks. We make quick turns down Moorefield and onto St. Loy’s, landing on High Road, half a block north from the station. Along our walk, the built forms and ensuing street life does not seem relatable to the spatial lexicon of The Farm. There are no swaths of unused or empty spaces. Shoulder to shoulder two-storey homes offer ‘eyes on the street’ to the houses they face and the many people walking by (Jacobs 1972). Illuminated corner shops with large glass storefronts and displays that spread onto the sidewalk offer a clear sightline to the activity inside and blur the border between the commercial and the public realms. This walk to the high street frames the Estates as a sealed enclave, with a distinct spatial language not in dialogue with the surrounding area.

The Station

With my back to the police station, I can see identical billboards: one is across the High Road, perched on a roof; the other on eye-level, pinned to the side of small brick building on the corner with Chestnut Road. They feature a close-up photograph of melting margarine in a landscape of green beans, paired with the invitation to ‘go for it.’ The High Road is the commercial vein of Tottenham, the area most devastated by the riots. On either side of the station, the streetscape is pockmarked with storefronts shuttered with plywood, while an assortment of 99p stores, betting agencies and mini- marts are open for business. In this context, the dual margarine ads seem insensitive to the recent physical and economic loss. Lampposts lining the road are dressed with ‘I Heart Tottenham’ flags, part of the local council’s campaign to restore “community, consumer and investor confidence.” I turn around to face the station’s solid, 4-storey red brick mass. Security cameras line the facade and closed beige blinds, similar to those lining the Broadwater Estates shops, belie which parts of the station are currently in use. The building wears a skirt of iron fencing at the street level, with dust ruffle of grey metal grates that block access to its basement. Over the front door, a loose metal gate hangs over the glass like a suspicious eyelid. Upon entering the station, I take a seat on a chair that is attached to the wall. There are two men waiting ahead of me, one lingers by the phone booth in the far corner and the other is seated beside me. The waiting room has a similar footprint as Dionne’s spa, but lacks opportunities for eye contact between strangers (Figure 5). The layout’s control logic and sparse furnishings favor efficacy over intimacy. I face a blank wall, while to my right, a mother and teenage daughter make sobbing pleas to the officer through a plexiglass panel. The young officer explains he cannot take any action, and advises her to consult a private debt collector. As I try to avoid their crying faces, my attention turns to a single stale chip in the windowsill next to me. The bright fluorescent lights overhead and security cameras in all corners do not make for an appetizing place to eat a meal. When my turn arrives, I step up to the counter and speak through a small metal speaker. I ask if I can meet with a Safer Neighborhoods liaison for the Broadwater Estates. While the officer retreats to consult his colleagues, I notice that there is a large sticker branding our communication interface. It reads:

‘SPEAK HERE Sonic Windows Communication Hygiene Security

TEL: (01424) 223864’

The label embodies a modernist design ethos of order through separation, and person- to-person exchange as potentially harmful. When the officer returns, he slips me a memo paper with the address of the Tottenham Station secretary and instructs me to write a letter. She will then pass my request to the appropriate department (See Fig. 9). In this public reception area, both publicness and privacy are in short supply: the space for communication is confined to a sterile metal circle in earshot of others and a prescription size piece of paper is the invitation to speak further.

The Space In Between

Public space can offer a gradient of openness and intimacy. Setback from the total exposure of the street, the spa and the station function as semi-public rooms in response to everyday needs for social exchange and claims of citizenship. In ‘The Public Realm,’ Richard Sennett forwards a concept of closed and open systems that shape built form. He argues that closed systems although ‘harmonious,’ are stagnant and irresponsive to patterns of use. Whereas open systems are ‘incomplete’ and ‘unstable,’ and can lend themselves to adaptation over time (Sennett 2008). Inherent in the open system is the possibility for a conversation between spatial form and individual use: a mutuality that circumvents structures from becoming irrelevant and posits public space as a conduit for expression, exchange and change.

In the march to the police station, women and children appropriated the street as a public communication line, exposing layers of irresponsive systems in built and social form. Learning from this spontaneous appropriation of space between the spa and the station, it becomes evident that a public realm rooted in an open systems approach is needed to offer a more generous invitation to ‘speak here.’ A way to mitigate the hard boundary between the neighborhood and the Estates, the street as a potent form of public space and ‘cityness’ (Sassen 2005). Could a mediating line of communication along this path expand transparency, communication and offer a public form ‘made‘ by its users (Sassen, 2005)?

References

De Sola-Morales, M. (2011) ‘The Impossible Project of Public Space’, In Favour of Public Space: Ten years of the European Prize for Urban Public Space, Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona and ACTAR: Barcelona.

Broadwater Farm Exhibition: Heroes and Homemakers, viewed 20 October, 2011, <http:// www.broadwaterfarm.info>.

Hall, S. (2001) ‘To Economise and to Localise: Austerity and a real life view of the Bankside Urban Forest Project’, unpublished conference paper submitted to the Economy Conference, Wales School of Architecture, 6-8 July.

Haringey Council, viewed 25 October, 2011, <http://www.haringey.gov.uk/index>. Jacobs, J. (1972). The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Harmandswoth: Penguin. Lefebvre, H. (1984) The Right to the City Oxford: Blackwell.

Lewis, P. (2011) ‘Tottenham riots: a peaceful protest, then suddenly all hell broke loose’, The Guardian 7 August, viewed 3 November, 2011, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/07/ tottenham-riots-peaceful-protest.

Low, I. (2011) ‘Elemental Chile: Alejandro Aravena and the South African Experience’, in Architecture South Africa, Jan/Feb.

‘Moving On: Building a Better Future for Haringey’, Haringey People (October-November 2011), p. 16.

Sassen, S (2005) ‘Cityness in an Urban Age’, Urban Age, Bulletin 2 Autumn, viewed 3 November, 2011, http://urban-age.net/0_downloads/archive/Saskia_Sassen_2005- Cityness_In_The_Urban_Age-Bulletin2.pdf.

Scott, S. (2011) ‘The voices of Tottenham are being marginalised’, The Guardian 16 October, viewed 20 October, 2011, http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/16/voices- tottenham-marginalised.

Scott, S. (2011) ‘If the rioting was a surprise, people weren't looking’, The Guardian 8 August, http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/08/tottenham-riots-not-unexpected.

Sennett, R. (2008) The Public Realm, unpublished paper for QUANT.

Space Syntax Limited (2011) ‘First Findings: 2011 London Riots location analysis, Proximity to town centres and large post-war housing estates,’ 15 September, viewed 25 October 2011, http://spacesyntaxnetwork.files.wordpress.com/2011/09 ssx_2011_london_riots_20110922.pdf.

1 Broadwater Estates is built on a river basin of reclaimed agricultural lands. To avoid potential flooding, the residences hover one-storey above the ground, leaving a layer of dank, empty space at the street level. In a Google street map of the area, Broadwater Estates is a grey void – no streets bisect this mass of city, its footprint is proportionate to nearby parks.

2 Originally built for offices, this structure now houses four small shops, which includes a catering business, a hair salon, a grocer and a hardware store, as well as an arts and crafts workshop that is open on weekdays.

3 Haringey Council

4 Inside the spa, there are thresholds of publicness and privacy. Upon entering, you can take a seat in a row of chairs, where you can watch the manicures and nail drying taking place. More private procedures such as piercing and waxing take place on a bed in the far corner, that can be curtained off for privacy. When not in use, the curtains are drawn and the bed becomes another place to sit or lounge.

5 Mark Duggan was a 29-year-old man who grew up in the Broadwater Farm Estates until the age of 13. Although he did not reside at the Farm as an adult, he was integrated into the social life and was regarded as an “elder,” a well known community figure within the estates.

6 Mark’s family learned of his death from a television newscast, rather than being informed directly by the police. The motivation behind the march was to demand an official acknowledgment by high-ranking police officers of Mark’s death in police custody and to draw attention to the police’s failure to communicate with members of his family before releasing his name to the press.

7 In his article about the demonstration outside the police station, Guardian journalist and Tottenham resident Stafford Scott articulates the frustration of protestors with the police’s lack of open communication: “All we really wanted was an explanation of what was going on. We needed to hear directly from the police. We waited for hours outside the station for a senior officer to speak with the family, in a demonstration led by young women,” (Scott 2011).

8 When I return the following Saturday for a manicure, I am able to talk in more depth to Dionne about the history of her shop and the different community functions her business plays. Dionne rents her shop from the Enterprise Centre of the Haringey Council at a subsidized rate. She hopes to relocate to a bigger space so that she can accommodate the number of visitors she has stopping by each day, in addition to her customers. She explains that the teenage girls like to come site at the shop to learn how to paint nails, to get life advice, and to have a place away from their families to socialize.

9 ‘Moving On: Building a Better Future for Haringey’

10The waiting area perpectuates everyday tragedies due to over-determined, under-considered form. For example, there is nowhere to privately to cry and there is no graceful way in which an officer can hand you a tissue.

11 I returned to the police station three times, I wrote one letter, made two phone calls and in total spoke to four officers. Unfortunately, I was never able to speak with an officer able to address my inquiry about the policing strategy of the Broadwater Estates and any community communication strategies.

12 An example of planned optimism is embodied by the public housing design by Elemental in Santiago, Chile, in which half of the house is built to the highest quality that the budget allows, but the infrastructure and footprint will facilitate improvements and expansion as the inhabitants improve their economic status and their housing needs evolve (Low 2011).

13 An initial report by the Space Syntax Group finds a relationship between areas where riots occurred and proximity to post-war housing estates. The Group specifically correlates the outbreaks of violence to the frustration and isolation caused by the “over-complex, under used spaces” of modernist architecture (Space Syntax Group 2011).

[allistonsmiles-blog]

Search Tottenham Dentist

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[gizedcom]

Mysteries of the senses: The boy who broke almost every bone in his body – but didn’t feel any pain

Most young siblings spend their summer holidays building dens together, or imaginary castles out of cardboard boxes. But playtime for Paul Walters and his sister Vicky, from Essex, was somewhat more dangerous – usually landing them in hospital.

Those of a faint disposition may want to stop reading now.

They’d often be found attempting to pull out their own teeth, burning their hands on an open fire or, a particular favourite, sitting directly in front of a swing before it pelted them in the face.

The reason for this shocking behaviour: neither Paul nor Vicky can feel physical pain.

They were born with the disorder congenital analgesia, in which, for a variety of reasons, the messages that normally carry the ‘warnings’ of pain from one place in the brain are somehow interrupted.

Playtime for Paul Walters and his sister Vicky as children, pictured, was dangerous – usually landing them in hospital

Why the condition occurs isn’t fully understood. Sufferers’ other sensory perceptions are completely normal – they perspire when hot and are sensitive to touch. But when it comes to pain, be it a burn or injury, they feel nothing.

It is so rare, just a few hundred people across the world are believed to suffer from it.

And although it may sound like some kind of superpower, it’s far from it. Those with the condition commonly suffer horrendous, disabling injuries.

One reason it’s so rare is that few people with congenital analgesia reach adulthood as, unconstrained by pain, they do ever more dangerous things.

Now 35, Paul, a retail supervisor, says: ‘I’ve broken just about every major bone in my body.’

Their father, Bob, adds: ‘As children, they would place their hands in front of the fire just to listen to their skin sizzling – almost like a steak in a frying pan. Their hands would blister but it only made them laugh. They both broke their nose, had black eyes and needed stitches in their heads. Yet all the time they thought it was funny.’

Paul says that the constant litany of bone-shattering injuries he endured throughout childhood has stunted his growth. Today, he stands under 5ft tall.

‘Psychologically, the biggest effect of the condition has been on my height – I hate being short,’ he says. ‘It happened because I used to do stupid things like jumping down the staircase, or off a roof. There was no downside because I never felt the pain of breaking a bone. All I noticed was that I was getting loads of attention.’

At the end of this month, Paul’s exceptional story will be heard for the first time, along with several other medical mysteries, in a fascinating new BBC radio series.

Presented by leading neurologist Dr Guy Leschziner, it reveals the weird and wonderful things that happen when our senses go haywire. Dr Leschziner travels the breadth of the country meeting those plagued by bizarre conditions that affect how they smell, taste, touch and hear. There are those who can ‘hear’ their eyes moving inside their head, a man who can ‘taste’ words and a woman who sniffs roses and detects a repugnant smell of sewage.

Paul says that the constant litany of bone-shattering injuries he endured throughout childhood has stunted his growth as today, pictured, he stands under 5ft tall

‘Our senses can be surprisingly strange,’ says Dr Leschziner, who treats patients with these types of problems at St Thomas’ Hospital in London. ‘Especially when they malfunction due to injury, disease or genetic abnormalities.’

The reason for Dr Leschziner’s investigations, documented in the upcoming five-part series, is not merely entertainment.

‘These rare cases are vital for helping us to improve our fundamental understanding of how our senses work,’ he says. ‘They may pave the way for new treatments for these and other conditions.’

In the case of congenital analgesia, experts hope one day to create new painkilling medicines by studying the condition.

During the series, Dr Leschziner also meets 61-year-old James Wannerton, from King’s Lynn in Norfolk, who since early childhood has been able to ‘taste’ words. Doctors first dismissed James’ claims as the product of a young imagination. But brain scans showed areas associated with taste become more active when he reads words. Certain sounds even make him feel hunger pangs.

‘My name tastes like chewing gum that’s lost most of its flavour,’ says James. ‘My father’s name, Peter, tastes like processed peas, while my sister’s is blackcurrant yogurt and my grandmother’s was creamy, thick, condensed milk.

‘As a young boy going to school with my mum on the train, I’d read the names of the stations out loud, as we passed through.

‘A particular favourite tube was Tottenham Court Road because Tottenham had the taste and texture of sausage, Court was like a lovely crispy fried egg and Road was like toast. So it was almost like a full English breakfast.’

James’ condition is called synaesthesia – where the senses become jumbled. And it’s not too uncommon, affecting roughly one in 2,000 Britons, to some degree. The stimulation of one sense can cause an involuntary reaction of another – seeing colours when you hear certain words, for instance.

Paul’s exceptional story will be heard for the first time in a fascinating new BBC radio series, along with several other medical mysteries, including James Wannerton, pictured in 2008, who has been able to ‘taste’ words since childhood

Doctors don’t yet know the specific process that causes this but it is thought to involve the misfiring of brain cells, akin to the phenomena experienced by many of feeling physical reactions, such shivers or goosebumps, when hearing rousing music.

For James, not every word evokes a pleasant taste or smell. ‘I was at a social function once where a woman called Maureen asked me to describe how her name tasted,’ he says. ‘I had to break the news to her that it was, sadly, like vomit.’

While this is, ultimately, harmless – if bizarre – other problems can be simply terrifying for the sufferer. Imagine chatting with friends over dinner, and suddenly being deafened by the sound of your own lungs, heaving up and down in your chest. It may sound like a scene from a horror film. In fact, it is 50-year-old Mark Buschhaus’s reality.

The toy shop owner from Crawley in West Sussex first noticed a strange change in his hearing during his 40s.

While in the pub with friends, conversation would be drowned out by one specific bodily noise, such as the sound of his teeth crunching a crisp, or, more disturbingly, the squelching movement of his eyeballs as he glanced around the bar.

‘It was as if someone had turned up my internal volume control to 100,’ says Mark.

‘I felt like I was in a bubble. Every time I took a step, my footsteps sounded like a big bang that sent echoes through my skull. I could even hear my lungs breathing.

‘It got to the stage where I didn’t want to go out and was making excuses about going to the pub.

‘I’ve never felt so low – I was really struggling.’

After years of misery, Mark finally got a diagnosis – superior canal dehiscence syndrome.

The condition, which affects one to two per cent of Britons, is caused by tiny holes inside the inner ear which affects the way internal sound is processed by the brain. Doctors are unsure what causes the holes, but they are thought to be present from birth.

Bob Walters, father of Vicky and Paul, pictured as youngsters, said his children ‘would place their hands in front of the fire just to listen to their skin sizzling – almost like a steak in a frying pan’

Bodily sounds can leak through the small openings in the inner ear and reverberate in the brain, making them appear louder than usual. Some sufferers can hear the blood flowing through their veins, while others are haunted by the thumping sound of their heart beating.

Thankfully, following pioneering surgery to repair the hole, Mark saw an ’80 to 90 per cent improvement’ – and was able to enjoy going to the pub again.

Elsewhere, Dr Leschziner explores the devilish brain tricks that affect all of our senses – those that occur with age.

A quarter of Britons over 65 suffer some form of hearing loss. But, for a small number of these people, the world doesn’t only get quieter, it sounds stranger, too.

It is estimated that roughly three per cent of those in their 60s suffer auditory hallucinations.

In other words, they hear sounds that aren’t there.

Dr Leschziner explains that when we start to lose our hearing, the auditory cortex, part of the brain that processes sound, can become overactive because it is being starved of the input it normally gets from the ears.

My father’s name, Peter, tastes like mushy peas 

This hyperactivity then interacts with memory circuits in the brain – which explains why the phantom sounds are often based on long- held memories.

One noteworthy sufferer is the comedian, musician and avid birdwatcher Bill Oddie, 79, who began hearing phantom jazz tunes two years a go.

‘I was in the house and I thought somebody next door was playing music very loudly,’ the ex-Goodies star tells Dr Leschziner.

‘It sounded like a brass band, with a lead trumpet player and occasionally some male vocals, and even an announcer. But as I went towards the wall it faded. This went on for weeks.’

These bizarre symptoms often lessen if hearing improves, so patients are encouraged to try hearing aids – which Bill plans to do.

lThe Compass: The Senses starts on Wednesday, July 29, at 3pm on BBC World Service.

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[global-news-station]

Britain and Ireland were lashed by howling winds and inundated with driving rain Sunday as Storm Ciara left homes without power, wiped out sports events and disrupted travel around northern Europe.

The bad weather also hit France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany throughout Sunday, causing scores of flights to be cancelled.

In Britain, more than 30,000 homes were left without power, largely in eastern England.

The highest wind speed recorded was 93 miles (150 kilometres) per hour at Aberdaron, on the tip of northwest Wales’s Llyn peninsula.

At Wet Sleddale Reservoir in northwest England’s Lake District national park, more than 150 millimetres of rain fell in a 24-hour period.

Rail companies urged passengers not to travel and operated reduced timetables and speed restrictions.

In Perth, central Scotland, three people were injured after part of a pub roof collapsed Saturday.

Sports events were also hit.

Sunday’s English Premier League fixture between champions Manchester City and strugglers West Ham was called off due to “extreme and escalating weather conditions”, City said in a statement.

The entire Women’s Super League football programme was also called off, including derbies between Arsenal and Tottenham, and Everton and Liverpool.

The north London clash was a sell-out, while the latter had been due to attract a 20,000-plus crowd to Goodison Park, Everton’s home in Liverpool.

The Women’s Six Nations rugby tournament was another casualty of the extreme weather. Sunday’s Scotland-England clash due to take place in Glasgow was postponed until Monday afternoon.

In London, organisers cancelled a 10-kilometre race in which 25,000 runners were due to take part, while major city parks closed. In rugby league, both Super League fixtures were postponed.

Queen Elizabeth II, staying at her Sandringham country residence in eastern England, did not go to church due to the high winds.

– Flights grounded –

Several airports in Germany had to cancel flights as the storm swept in from the north. Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich, Cologne and Hanover were among those affected, while at Dusseldorf, 111 flights were scrapped on Sunday.

German rail operator Deutsche Bahn said it had halted long-distance train services in many parts of the northwest and would extend the transport freeze to the rest of the country.

The Bundesliga football match between Moenchengladbach and Cologne was postponed.

About 120 flights to and from Amsterdam Schiphol, the third-busiest airport in Europe, were cancelled, largely affecting KLM, British Airways, easyJet and Lufthansa services.

The Dutch Football Association announced that Sunday’s four top-flight matches had been postponed, while the Belgian top division also called off its matches.

Some 60 flights departing or arriving at Brussels Airport have been cancelled as a precaution, according to an airport spokesman, who said further delays were possible.

In Ireland, around 14,000 homes and businesses were without power, national broadcaster RTE said, as the republic began counting ballots in its general election.

Ireland’s Met Eireann meteorological service said winds would occasionally reach storm force 10 on western and northern coastal waters.

“Storm Ciara will continue to produce very strong west to southwest winds over Ireland with mean speeds of 50-65 kph and gusts generally of between 90 and 110 kph, higher in Atlantic coastal areas,” it said.

“A combination of spring tides and high seas will result in a significant risk of coastal flooding.”

Saturday’s opening ceremony of Galway’s year as European Capital of Culture, was scrapped due to the bad weather buffeting Ireland’s west coast.

Earlier French forecaster Marion Pirat told AFP that high winds were expected in the north and northwest of the country, potentially strengthening to 120 kph overnight Sunday. In the Vosges, winds could hit speeds of 140 kph.

The storms did not stop Sunday’s Six Nations rugby clash between France and visitors Italy at the Stade de France in Paris.

For British Airways however, there was at least one upside to Storm Ciara — the company recorded its fastest-ever flight between New York and London, thanks to tailwinds from the storm.

According to flights-tracking website Flightradar24, it completed the transatlantic crossing in a mere 4 hours 56 minutes, the fastest sub-sonic crossing.

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