please empty your brain below
And this is the benefit living in London. If I'd go for a long walk and take photos, it could compete for the most boring blog... ;-).

Welcome | 12.02.21 - 7:03 a.m. | #

I am delighted to discover that I am not the only person to consider non-functioning inanimate objects or structures to be dead.

RosemaryT | 12.02.21 - 7:31 a.m. | #

I wonder if that bus stop might start being used again within a few years time. If development in the area picks up, there might be a need for more public transport routes by 2025.

dg writes: Stop wondering, it won't.

P.s. Happy Palindrome Day

Friar Sven | 12.02.21 - 7:39 a.m. | #

I remember the footbridge over the A13 being the only safe way to cross before the underpass was opened in 2003. Though I'm guessing this is the replacement from the same era, as the A13 was widened.

Brendan | 12.02.21 - 7:42 a.m. | #

Love the Human League detail here. I find stumbling across locations of music videos endlessly interesting even when it's just a street after all.

I was very excited when I found out I live not far from the location of the Come On Eileen video.

lockedintheattic | 12.02.21 - 8:35 a.m. | #

The Twelvetrees Crescent Bridge is so elegant and of such a clean design that it could easily have dated from the 1970s, as the caption on Gordon Joly's photo states. And weren't the Human League a stylish band?

Richard | 12.02.21 - 8:48 a.m. | #

Watching that 1983 Human League video made me realise that we are now as distant in time from then as they were from the end of the Second World War. Yet 1983 to me still seems relatively recent. I wonder if people in the 1980s thought of the 1940s as quite so recent.

Alan S | 12.02.21 - 9:04 a.m. | #

Looking at the dockside road picture I am trying to imagine why they didn't build the DLR at ground level.

kev | 12.02.21 - 9:39 a.m. | #

I remember travelling in the back of my dad's car with my aged grandmother, listening to Fascination on the radio. She asked me "What's this one one about? What do they mean?" I couldn't provide an answer then, and still couldn't to this day. Nice tune though.

Arlu | 12.02.21 - 9:46 a.m. | #

Kev. They had to, as the west end of Royal Albert Way was yet to be built. The main route was past Connaught pub and the boxy hotels (the old surface survives under Connaught bridge)served by route 173, but no need for a bus stop as there was nothing to stop for.

scrumpy | 12.02.21 - 10:20 a.m. | #

It's amusing how nowadays you could use a cheap computer to colour everything orange, whereas back then you had to physically do it! Interesting to see the actual location of the video shoot, I hadn't realised that the green line on the map at the start of the video is the Greenway

Mikey C | 12.02.21 - 10:39 a.m. | #

'Evil kind of pedestrian crossing'...um. As a ped I have not encountered one of these.
I'll be honest and say what I do like, as a road user. Those junctions where the red lights work for traffic, but the pedestrian lights need a finger push, only after about 8/9pm.
Sometimes frustrating when pedestrian lights automatically go green later of an evening, with not a soul thereabouts. Especially when you've caught several in a row!

Dave | 12.02.21 - 11:51 a.m. | #

This is a great area to walk and cycle about - changing all the time.

Some work seems to be happening at New City Hall, because they have recently removed an electric car charger that used to be behnd it, presumably on security grounds.

Will | 12.02.21 - 11:55 a.m. | #

Number 1 First Avenue was my grandparents' house, built by my grandfather. The building was originally planned to be a pub, but he decided to keep the building to live in and the triangle behind was in former times their builder's yard, in later years garages including a repair shop operated by my uncle. The house was empty when my Dad was approached to allow its use for the video. The interior of the downstairs was painted out for it as well.

RobertP | 12.02.21 - 12:10 p.m. | #

I am one of the few people who has caught a bus from that stop. The shelter was a useful perch for those of us who volunteered to explain the current workings of the shuttle buses to prospective passengers - it changed practically every week, from what I remember.

Sally | 12.02.21 - 2:11 p.m. | #

First, Second and Third Avenues are very close to where I used to live. I was always a little confused as to why there had to be a Third Avenue given that it's only a short little road that's basically just an extension of Second Avenue.

On another note, I remember Prince Regent junction before the underpass was built. Nowadays, it's hard to believe that the A13 crossed Prince Regent Lane on the level not all that long ago (along with all the hold-ups that caused).

X-Plaistow | 12.02.21 - 4:58 p.m. | #

The bus stop should have a "Bus Stop Closed" sign.

Dockside Road is such an unusual place, five 3* hotels within 200 metres all with different chains.

I wonder how many visitors fly into London City, stay at these hotels and spend all day at the ExCel. What a bizarre view of our city you would have.

TomHa | 12.02.21 - 5:13 p.m. | #

I immediately assumed that the 80s rock music video within walking distance of you would be the Greenwich tunnel (from Dire Straits' Walk of Life). Glad it was somewhere less well-known than that!

Gregg | 12.02.21 - 6:03 p.m. | #

Great to see the comment from RobertP!
Unlike Gregg, my first guess was that the video location was going to be River Way in Greenwich, where some of the scenes for Blur's Parklife were filmed.
As regards Come On Eileen, lockedintheattic must be referring to Kennington, specifically Brook's Drive, which was another area undergoing a considerable amount of redevelopment at the time the video was shot.

RogerW | 13.02.21 - 7:08 a.m. | #

I used to row at the watersports centre opposite the hotels at Royal Albert and they always seemed very busy with ExCel guests - in fact the newest hotels on that run are only a few years old.

Moogal | 16.02.21 - 1:51 p.m. | #











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