please empty your brain below
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...but I don't mean those. I mean visits you only made because of someone you knew, a company you worked for or an organisation you belonged to, and that magic ticket meant gaining access to somewhere others can only dream of.
diamond geezer | Homepage | 26.11.21 - 12:00 a.m. | #
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about 20 years ago I was at a meeting in Canary Wharf, about half way up the original office tower block when there was only one. That seemed exciting enough, but then someone asked if we could go to the top to see the view, and this was arranged. Amazing views in all directions, only spoilt by a bit of mist.
Of dg's special views I've only done one; a visit to Mail Rail in the mid 80s, with a friend who worked for the Post Office.
Both of these were really exclusive and difficult for most people to do at that time.
I've also driven a Victoria Line train, with my then boyfriend who was a train driver.
amber | 26.11.21 - 7:12 a.m. | #
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I attended an awards ceremony in the rotating restaurant at the BT Tower. It was some 30 years ago, and the drink was free, so the precise details are sketchy. But I was given a certificate to say I'd visited "the top of the tower".
On a separate occasion I visited the external level where the satellite dishes are visible.
Frank F | 26.11.21 - 7:23 a.m. | #
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I walked through the Connaught tunnel towards the end of it's Crossrail conversion works. The original tunnel bricks were laid in a strange unsymmetrical pattern, and nobody today really knows why. They were thinking of having a dinner in there once works were completed, but I do not think that ever happened as by then their minds were on the problems and delay elsewhere.
scrumpy | 26.11.21 - 7:33 a.m. | #
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Let me see now....
The channel tunnel maintenance tunnel.
The top of the BT tower.
Backstage at Glastonbury.
Ian | 26.11.21 - 7:40 a.m. | #
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Sadly my "açcess all areas" are far more mundane and mainly date to my TfL engineering days - so places like the Aldwych lifts machine room.
Beckonscot visits are some of my favourite childhood memories. Grandad, trains and a whole town in miniature.
Putters | 26.11.21 - 7:42 a.m. | #
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Thanks to a Naval colleague of my Father, my brother and I joined his kids visiting some unusual "attractions". The ones I remember are-
The Royal Yacht at Portsmouth - lots of velvet upholstery and shiny brass fittings.
The HQ of "B" Division of the Glasgow Police - we saw a cell, had our fingerprints taken and were shown the "Bible John" room, which was full of box files, but thankfully no photos.
A trip to Fairfield's Ship Yard, where he was "standing by" a ship being built or repaired. The scale of everything was difficult to cope with it was so huge. I particularly remember the tweed jackets many of the men wore, as their only protection while welding and riveting.
Watching the Fleet Air Arm gun crew team practising for the Royal Tournament and counting the guys on the sidelines with plaster casts.
RosemaryT | 26.11.21 - 7:54 a.m. | #
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My neighbour was an engineer for British Airways. I had a tour of the engineering base at Heathrow and climbed on board many different aircraft and on one occasion got to climb to the very top of a Tristar tail that was surrounded by "scaffolding". The best treat of all was to have a Concorde all to ourselves. I've got a photo of myself sitting in the left hand seat on the flight deck looking very pleased with myself. A great memory.
Terry Ash | 26.11.21 - 8:32 a.m. | #
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The only major one I have is that despite not having the musical talent or ability to warrant it I played in several youth orchestral concerts in the Symphony Hall in Birmingham, which was pretty amazing.
Apart from that, as a result of working in the railway industry(albeit as a mainly desk-bound programmer) and as a volunteer I've been allowed to travel in the cab with the driver a few times and access to various other behind the scenes areas(depots, shunting yards, messrooms etc.).
Jonathan | 26.11.21 - 8:33 a.m. | #
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As a specialist in the IT industry, often got invited to landmarks for product announcements: PO Tower, 2/3 the way up Canary Wharf while it was still under construction, Emirates Stadium, observation tower at Lords, top of the Gherkin.
As a transport nerd, I recall a tour of Neasden Underground Depot in the 1980s, where we walked over live tracks with the warning not to step on any rails - unimaginable these days! Beside many of the Hidden London tours of disused stations and tunnels, I've also been in the vast, unused depths below the public areas of Kings Cross tube station, and travelled on a Victoria Line train into Northumberland Park Depot, the only part of the line which is in the open air; also visited the line control centre there.
Keith | 26.11.21 - 8:41 a.m. | #
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The BT Christmas party in the revolving restaurant of the BT Tower - they revolved it for us.
The control room of Emley Moor transmitting station - which unnervingly sways slightly in the wind - and then up to the top platform on the antenna.
The flight decks of a Concorde and a newly-delivered Boeing 747-400 at Heathrow.
I was promised a ride on Mail Rail, but it never actually happened, alas…
Baldassaro | 26.11.21 - 8:48 a.m. | #
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Working in transport has been good for this kind of thing especially TfL but more recently I’ve been able to go on a few special train excursions down disused railways.
TfL was especially good for getting early access to locations before the public; TCR Crossrail station, Northern Line extension, Canary Wharf Crossrail, Rotherhithe tunnel, abandoned stations etc.
Two highlights are Maida Vale studios for a Radio 1 future music festival and being in a support car on the Tour of Britain cycling race.
David | 26.11.21 - 8:52 a.m. | #
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I worked for BT, and part of my work was to maintain the tunnel telephones. I was able to walk for miles under London in the cable tunnels, each junction signposted to the nearest exchange. Pop up to an exchange in the worlds slowest lifts for lunch in the canteen.
coffin dodger | 26.11.21 - 8:58 a.m. | #
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I was inside Wembley Stadium while the arch was lying on the ground thanks to one of the subcontractors who enabled me to accompany them into the site.
Michael Roberts | 26.11.21 - 9:01 a.m. | #
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The proper inside of a particle accelerator and a nuclear reactor (during maintenance periods) thanks to science folks I vaguely know.
Witnessing a foley artist doing his job during a day at a major postpro studio was pretty special.
The time I climbed into the pilot seat of a Boeing 747 because it happened to be in the hangar.
In London, my volunteering occasionally gets me into off-limit areas of iconic locations, not sure if that counts.
commonliner | 26.11.21 - 9:04 a.m. | #
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I worked for the BBC when I left school, in the Langham & Broadcasting House. After I left, contacts took my family onto Live & Kicking a couple of times (my daughter interviewed Micheal Buerk on the show).
Business travel took me inside the Kremlin.
The BT business customer tech group programme enabled me to visit (tour) Martlesham Heath & Jodrell Bank.
A Novell user meeting at Bletchley including meeting Tony Sale and having him demo Colossus
I've been lucky...
Steve | 26.11.21 - 9:07 a.m. | #
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My late uncle worked for HM Customs at Heathrow. Many years ago (> 60), he took my dad, my younger brother and me "airside" and we went on board one of the first Boeing 707s to land in the UK. My memories are unfortunately vague (no diary then!), but I think it was an Air India plane. I do remember that it seemed to be very long, and luxurious compared to the other types of transport that I had been on (e.g. a train).
John Simmons | 26.11.21 - 9:11 a.m. | #
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I also was able to visit the original, working Post Office Railway thanks to a friend who new an appropriate person working there. I was actually allowed to change the points.
Barry Coppock | 26.11.21 - 9:11 a.m. | #
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Been on two trips out to the Goodwin Sands with the Goodwin Sands Potholing Club on the large cross channel hovercrafts, if that counts.
Karl, Dover | 26.11.21 - 9:14 a.m. | #
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Working at TV Centre was a treat, and I was always happy to give friends an unofficial tour. My ones also often ended up in the bar.
As a young 'un, my sister's Guides company got a tour around the Glasgow Herald building, which I somehow managed to tag along to. I think it was the early days of computer typesetting, but I still remember being amazed by the presses rolling for the first edition.
And in more recent years, the occasional cab ride with a mate who's a tube driver. The first one was entirely unplanned - I'd been visiting the Transport Museum depot, and as I was walking down to Acton Town, the cab door of a passing train opened and she shouted up to say hello. I managed to run down to the platform in time to hop on the back of the train, then up to the front when we reached Hammersmith.
(Visiting BT Tower doesn't feel like it's special given the other comments here, but I have been up to the microwave receive platform on floor 35)
martin | 26.11.21 - 9:20 a.m. | #
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A very behind the scenes tour of the parliamentary archives, and a drink or two on the terrace.
The top of the radio mast at the secret nuclear bunker.
A concrete box in Oxfordshire that was going to get intensively radioactive shortly after I exited.
@DTL | Homepage | 26.11.21 - 9:20 a.m. | #
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Due to the randomness of Open House Dublin lottery allocations, I was on the very last public tour done of the Central Bank before it moved. The building, heavily modified, will be partially open to the public again soon with restaurants though. Not sure this counts.
Cian Duffy | Homepage | 26.11.21 - 9:22 a.m. | #
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Tate Modern when it was still a power station, as my uncle worked there.
BT Tower viewing gallery when it was open, and (much later) the revolving restaurant for a staff do
The MoD building in London, because our choir was borrowing some staging that they kept in the basement
The choir schools of various cathedrals, (notably Lincoln, St Pauls, Winchester) and Westminster Abbey, for rehearsal prior to singing services as a visiting choir
The National Institute of Oceanography (oddly, at Witley, in landlocked Surrey) for a job interview
The Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston (a business visit to the Forensic Sciences Service's laboratory which shared the site)
The Road Research Laboratory, also on business
Timbo | 26.11.21 - 9:33 a.m. | #
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I don't think the BBC have completely closed Maida Vale. There was a live James Blunt gig on Radio 2 last week which was broadcast from there. I believe they have to wait until their new Stratford facility is available in 2023 to completely close. The BBC wish to sell the site for redevelopment, but unfortunately for them, the studios were listed Grade II in 2020, including many of the internal spaces. One of the studios contains a large Compton pipe organ and I went to an organ recital there about 20 years ago.
dg writes: Reworded, thanks.
Jeremy | 26.11.21 - 9:57 a.m. | #
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I sat in the front row at the Brit Awards - the year that Mick Fleetwood and Sam Fox made a glorious balls-up of presenting. [I worked for a record company, and some bigwig for whom a seat had been reserved didn't turn up]. I remember seeing Mica Paris and Annie Lennox in the ladies.
Suse | 26.11.21 - 10:02 a.m. | #
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Over 40 years ago while working, visited a factory in the NE making legs for North Sea oil rigs. Hugely impressive.
On the opposite end of commerce, was able to visit the floor of the London Metal Exchange during trading. It's the last "open outcry" market in the UK. Hugely impresive.
MikeK | 26.11.21 - 10:03 a.m. | #
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I’m lucky enough to have been to Maida Vale many times, and various other studios, too, including Abbey Road, Rak, AIR and more. And backstage at lots of venues and festivals, too. I’ve been on the side of the Pyramid Stage while a band I was working with at the time played. And we went there in a helicopter ! Them were the days…
But I think the best is the time I went down into the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. It’s a long story but I wangled a visit there during a maintenance period and so my host took me down to look at the bit where the actual collision happens. Wow, I actually did that.
CJS | 26.11.21 - 10:16 a.m. | #
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Another vote for the top of the BT Tower - childhood competition winner.
I once had a look around a factory that manufactures nuclear fuel rods and even held one. Simpsons fans will be amused to note that the site is called Springfields Fuels.
The Royal Box (and all backstage areas) at Wimbledon - worked for the caterers a couple of times during the championships. You'd be amazed at the amount of infrastructure hidden underneath the courts.
zebrafish | 26.11.21 - 10:18 a.m. | #
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For those old enough to remember the original 'How' on Southern Television I was sending in ideas on a freelance basis. When my work sent me to Southampton for the day I was able to go to STV studios and watch a program recorded (but not broadcast) live. Can't remember whether they used one of my suggestions for that episode.
popartist | 26.11.21 - 10:20 a.m. | #
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I've done a couple of stints working for the BBC. Both times, I was actually working in the White City complex which is half a mile or so north of TVC. But I had both of my leaving do's in the BBC Club in TVC.
It's hard to find your way out after a few pints.
Dave Cross | Homepage | 26.11.21 - 10:24 a.m. | #
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In around 1963 I was - they said - the first child to be allowed to stand on top of the nuclear reactor at Dounreay, and my mother was the first woman to do so. My dad was chairman of the IEE in Scotland and it was their annual jolly.
Peter | 26.11.21 - 10:24 a.m. | #
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When I was a teen, I stood on top of the reactor in Torness (plus a walk around the site) thanks to friends at the time. Definitely a lucky trip!
Terry | 26.11.21 - 11:01 a.m. | #
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"Backstage" at Hampton Court Palace, when I was briefly included in the period interpretation team as an additional member for some special anniversary events.
And also at the palace to visit friends who had rented one of the apartments in the palace via the Landmark trust (that specific apartment isn't available for rent anymore, although the Landmark trust offers a different building on palace grounds)
MilesT | 26.11.21 - 11:19 a.m. | #
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the time when my then-boyfriend who was a pilot was trying to get his hours in by relocating aircraft for clients - I went with him on one trip and he showed off by zooming into the bottom of fluffy clouds then popping out of the top (this was in Africa, minimal air traffic control)
Caroline | 26.11.21 - 12:07 p.m. | #
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A family friend once took us on a comprehensive below-deck tour of the container ship that he captained.
In Turkey, some local friends sweet-talked the muezzin of a famous mosque to let us climb one of the minarets. The view from the top was spectacular, and we could see into both Greece and Bulgaria.
Sir Garence | 26.11.21 - 12:10 p.m. | #
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I was often told by my parents that as a child I'd been taken into Concorde's cockpit (long before security was a thing) by a neighbour who worked at Heathrow. It was in the early 70s though, which is far too early, so more likely to have been something like a Comet or a 747 Jumbo as it was definitely not just any plane. Sadly I can't remember anything about it.
Andrew S | 26.11.21 - 1:21 p.m. | #
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Back in 1986 I went up Tower 42 when it was still the Natwest Tower. I know anyone can go up there now to the bar at the top but back then it was invite only. My Grandfather was a fairly high up bank manager for them so got us a visit.
Pre 9/11 I got to go on the flight deck of an Air Canada flight en route to Calgary, doubt you'll be able to do that anytime soon.
Also went on the bridges of the QE2 and the Canberra while they were in service.
Neil | 26.11.21 - 1:28 p.m. | #
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My first ever flight was in a Royal Navy Wasp helicopter, thanks to the school cadet force. We also had a day at sea on HMS Glasgow, but our access and activities were restricted by the foggy weather.
A ride on BR's maglev vehicle at the Derby Research Centre, thanks to a university physics society visit.
Setting the route for a train in Westbury signal box, thanks to a work visit to see our product in action.
miker | 26.11.21 - 1:37 p.m. | #
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Around the turn of the Millennium, I and some of my work friends were travelling back to the UK on one of the new mega-sized Cross-Channel Ferry boats.
One of our number asked the Purser whether we might be allowed up to the Bridge. About 10 minutes later he returned and invited us to follow him up there. In those big ships it is a long way up, fortunately by lift.
The bridge was darkened and as it was a clear night the view was fantastic. The radar display was fascinating to see just how much traffic there was in the Channel as we traversed the shipping lanes from Calais to Dover. A memorable trip indeed.
IanD | 26.11.21 - 1:55 p.m. | #
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In my late teens I was in the Royal Naval Reserve aka The Wavy Navy. On a training session from HMS Drake at Plymouth we were at sea in the Channel in a minesweeper and we all had to practice for five minutes steering the vessel to Alderney our destination. Terrifying and I would not want to do this again
Sara | 26.11.21 - 2:34 p.m. | #
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A school friend's dad was high up in London Underground, and he organised a visit for 4 of us 16-17 year-olds in 1971 to the White City training centre. I spent 5-10 minutes on the simulator (cine-film projector plus hydraulics for motion), played with the braking systems, then on the way back to 55 Broadway HQ along the Hammersmith and City, in the cab with the "official", he said "you know how to drive the train, take the controls"!!! 16.30 in the rush hour with platforms full of commuters - no automatic acceleration/braking systems in those days... Wow!
Nick K | 26.11.21 - 2:40 p.m. | #
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I worked at TV Centre between 1995 & 2005. During that time in what was known as the 'Green' tea bar I spotted many a celebrity, most notably Amy Winehouse but also Björk, the members of Girls Aloud, Nick Faldo and Steve McFadden ('Phil' in EastEnders). Elsewhere in the building I once had a door held open for me by Kylie Minogue while on a visit to Broadcasting House I shared a lift with John Peel.
David | 26.11.21 - 3:22 p.m. | #
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I worked at the BBC from the 70s onwards so I witnessed all the activities that filled the TV Centre 24 hours a day as they recorded all those familiar TV shows. The big dramas were in Studio One, and the comedy shows were done on Sunday evenings when the stars had no theatre commitments, and the weather forecast was in a tiny cubicle. As soon as each show finished, the scenery would be shifted out and the floor repainted ready for the next show coming in the next day. It really was a factory!
One of my saddest days was exploring the building shortly after the BBC had abandoned it, with the studios and control rooms and offices deserted, the curving corridors silent, and the canteens and bars empty.
ActonMan | 26.11.21 - 5:57 p.m. | #
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Attended a reception in No.10 in a room overlooking Horseguards Parade.
Unfortunately didn't get to meet the PM as Gordon Brown was visiting Obama at the White House so had to make do with Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.
Also had a very short conversation with Prince Andrew later that day but definitely not about any of his .. ahem hobbies.
Mikey | 26.11.21 - 6:24 p.m. | #
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Like you, the BBC. I guess it is probably not uncommon for people of roughly our age and background from the commuter belt...
...Once seeing a school radio programme made deep in the bowels of broadcasting house (thanks to a neighbour, the sharer of our post office telephones party line in fact).
...Once with our school choir singing in one of the summer replacements for Songs of Praise. It was a my favourite hymns things, the celeb being Janet Brown. She wanted a 'good boys school choir' rather than a cathedral choir or whatever.
...Once going to the BBC club with a friend and his father.
John Styles | 26.11.21 - 7:41 p.m. | #
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You had me at Dayvilles!
Matt | 26.11.21 - 7:54 p.m. | #
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In the 50s and 60s, so many companies were much more open than now; through luck I also saw Mail Rail and the LT training centre in action, went inside the Daily Mirror plant in London and the Scotsman in Edinburgh (amazingly noisy with the presses running), a Coca Cola bottling plant (!), the Carreras cigarette factory in Basildon, and TV Centre, where the big thrill was going into the Z Cars police station just a few hours before seeing it live on that night’s broadcast. When I subsequently worked for the BBC at Broadcasting House we also had the run of TC; if you hit the right evening, you could watch a whole Dr Who episode being recorded from the gallery. It was great!
Labourer | 26.11.21 - 8:10 p.m. | #
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Plenty of Heathrow-based ones, so another one for the set: I got to see the fuel farm there from the inside, including the control panels, due to my dad being one of the (four, I think) people who ran it. I recall security, in those halcyon pre-9/11 days, as being effectively non-existant.
Klepsie | 26.11.21 - 8:59 p.m. | #
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Such a lovely set of memories coming out here. And don't think we didn’t notice the radio 2 comment.
Some random ones for me, each of which were a pleasure in different ways, include inside the Thames Water Ring Main; the well of number one court at the Old Bailey; on the Kent Police river launch; the etymology and British plant collections at the Natural History Museum; the office of the Leader of the Opposition; and Saddam Hussein’s cell in Baghdad. I’ve had a lucky life so far.
Lux | 26.11.21 - 9:08 p.m. | #
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The service tunnel of the Thames barrier and one of its islands. A recording of Round the Horne. The recording of The Last Goonshow of All. The bell chamber of the Elizabeth Tower, Tony Blair's office when he was PM, The Northern Outfall sewer at Beckton. A guest at the playboy club in Park Lane. A tanker in Falmouth Harbour; the captain gave me (12 years old) an air gun. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards flat at Mapesbury Road. King William Street Station. On top the reactor at Dungeness Power Station.
mikeS | 26.11.21 - 10:28 p.m. | #
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The Officials’ Box in the House of Commons, and the Lords, plus the odd meeting room in Parliament. The old New Scotland Yard (not much to look at inside) and the new New one. Best of all, perhaps Number 10 the day Teresa May announced her ill fated election.
Robert Butlin | 26.11.21 - 10:37 p.m. | #
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By virtue of a now-closed firm's 'Telephone and Technical Society', quite a few, including the radio transmission stations at Brookmans Park & Rugby, the Police National Computer and Mail Rail (twice). The most interesting was a visit to one of the main control centres for electricity distribution to London and the surrounding area. Some of my colleagues had the dubious pleasure of meeting Princess Michael of Kent in Kensington Palace.
Bob L-S | 26.11.21 - 10:46 p.m. | #
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Collectively...
BT/Post Office Tower: 7
Something nuclear: 7
Something afloat: 8
Something BBC: 8
Something that flies: 10
Something railway: 16
diamond geezer | Homepage | 27.11.21 - 12:01 a.m. | #
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Not having a 'proper job' these days my opportunities for insider visits are a bit restricted - but I recently went into the (derelict) pump house on the Manchester Ship Canal at Mode Wheel, to have a look at the pumping engine. A museum I volunteer at is restoring a similar engine, and we ended up being given large lumps of this one too.
mark addy | 27.11.21 - 12:08 a.m. | #
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Two of my earliest memories (aged about 4) are from 1) going up to the top of the Post Office Tower (as it was then) and 2) going up the Elizabeth Tower to hear Big Ben bong.
I don't really remember too much about the Post Office Tower - only that I could feel the little claws from the live monkey I held for a family photo (don't ask!) through my woolly gloves!
Big Ben was amazing though, especially looking through the clock face windows and the sheer noise of the bong.
My parents told me Big Ben was a connection through their MP at the time and I think the the PO Tower was from some connection with dad's work.
Cornish Cockney | 27.11.21 - 1:01 a.m. | #
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I was invited on a trip to the Millennium Dome when it was still under construction, wearing a hard hat.
Sprout Eater | 27.11.21 - 7:17 a.m. | #
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I was working as a messenger for the Beatles in 1968 and took the opportunity to go up onto the roof at the Apple building in Saville Row on the morning the Beatles played their rooftop concert, sadly I was unable to stay there whilst the recording took place but I did watch it live from the top floor of the multi-storey car park across the road.
fishislandskin | 27.11.21 - 8:35 a.m. | #
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Visiting national air traffic control centre including the RAF side
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Mail Rail when it was operational and having to wait while high value items were being moved
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Standing behind the Immigration Officers checking passports at Gatwick
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Sitting in court in special guest area (not the public gallery)
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Visiting a prison
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Travelling in an official untaxed government car
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Being on the bridge of a joint cargo/passenger ship during the night watch
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Clambering up the side of a cargo ship using a rope ladder into and out of a small motor boat
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Tea in the tea-rooms in the House of Lords with a Lady
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Sharing a lift with the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Treasury
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Having meetings in the Cabinet Office where you have to hand in your mobile phone
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Being interviewed in the TV/radio studios by Parliament and being eyed up by Jack Straw trying to work out if I was a MP he should know (I wasnt of course)
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Eating raw herrings in the Danish embassy
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Negotiating the high-security entrance for a meeting in the Israeli embassy
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Meeting a senior politician from the Lebanon in a London hotel complete with his armed body guards
Looking back life in the Civil Service and the transport sector has certainly provided some amazing opportunities. However, one abiding memory still is a school trip to a Staffordshire pottery where we just wandered around the shop floor watching and talking to the workers and being amazed by the lady who stamped the bottom of the plates with the pottery's name faster than the machine could do it.
kerspatula | 27.11.21 - 10:06 a.m. | #
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Cabinet Room at 10 Downing Street. Shown round by someone who is now an MP after a party at 12 Downing Street. (10, 11 and 12 are all one interlinked building behind the famous doors.)
Charles | Homepage | 27.11.21 - 10:23 a.m. | #
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Like many others, the Post Office Tower (as it was then) in 1969 or 1970 visited the revolving restaurant on a Sunday School trip I think. I can't remember if it was moving slowly or stationary.
Saunders Island (Falklands), seeing nesting albatross. (Thanks to a family member who lived in the Falklands).
Behind the scenes at Tower Bridge (Conference treat).
Chimmey Pot Gull | 27.11.21 - 10:43 a.m. | #
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Backstage tour of parliament thanks to a friend who was an MP's researcher.
Several Customs & Excise locations thanks to getting a temporary admin job via a relative, plus driving a car with a plug-in satnav when that was still 'secret' technology for the military and law enforcement.
Graham | 27.11.21 - 11:43 a.m. | #
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• Inside Didcot power station - courtesy of a work colleague.
• The BBC Club near Gt Portland Street - taken by a friend.
• The Ouseburn Culvert, Newcastle - taken by a friend.
• A cancer research lab in Oxford - taken by a friend.
• Up a tree at a Newbury-bypass protest site - I asked.
The first and last places in this list are also included in my list of "places I have been which are now empty spaces above ground level." When I'm nearby I imagine myself floating there in mid-air and get a shiver of the uncanny.
JonathanC | 27.11.21 - 1:24 p.m. | #
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So many (I am very old and very fortunate). But particularly
1. Drinking gin and tonic at dusk on top of the MOD main building in Whitehall watching the traffic below
2. Going into one of the caisson chambers of Tower Bridge
3. Visiting Lots Road power station when it was still generating
4. Ditto the huge boiler house at Kempton while the water supply engines were still pumping in earnest
5. Lunch hosted by the Queen at Stowe.
Volunteer at a local Museum. You never know where it may lead...
Oliver Pearcey | 27.11.21 - 2:49 p.m. | #
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I had a meeting in 10 Downing Street once. I even gave a short presentation, using a TV screen that was wheeled in for the occasion. Took us a while to find a power extension cable long enough.
Frankie Roberto | 27.11.21 - 3:11 p.m. | #
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My dad was a Customs & Excise officer. When he was in Poole I was taken to inspect a flying boat at rest in the harbour, and in Leith I played with paper aeroplanes in McKinlay's whisky bottling plant.
Later I was in the Chalk Farm bus garage one weekend when a Peckham Routemaster on route 63 arrived to have evidence of passenger sickness cleaned up, and I directed the crew to the door where they could find staff to help.
Ian | 28.11.21 - 9:08 a.m. | #
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I was on Crackerjack at the age of 10
And I saw the Sex Pistols play at the 100 Club
And I spent New Year's Eve at Sensible's den
Naw that's preposterous
Ken McKenzie | 28.11.21 - 9:45 a.m. | #
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Saw a session being recorded at Maida Vale for John Peel's show. Watched him and I think his son at work while the band played. Courtesy of my friend Sheikh who knew the late, great man.
Colin | Homepage | 28.11.21 - 10:32 a.m. | #
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In the late 90's on a flight into Heathrow the cockpit door was open during most of the flight. When passing Tilbury I asked if I could look at the view from the front and they obliged. There was Canada Tower and the rest laid out beyond, coming in closer, until the seatbelt sign came on. Maybe it was quite a common thing back then.
The inbetweeny spaces between the inner and outer domes and above the ceilings of St. Paul's
A friend working on the Jubilee Line extension invited me on a scaffold visit to Canary Wharf station just after the concrete box was complete. It felt odd going down level after level by ladders looking up out of the hole in the top at Canada Tower and below to the track level, thinking that little tube trains will eventually be coming and going.
I have been an interviewee at LBC and BBC over the years. Always an interesting experience in the studios.
I once climbed up to the top of a sail at Brixton Windmill to check a fault for the millwright (with safety harness). It was probably many decades since someone did that. Hydraulic platform truck hire is more the routine.
I came across John Simpson in the grounds of the Kremlin in September 1991 having been on a bike ride from London. He was very friendly but quickly said "I'm sorry I don't have time to chat as the Soviet Union seems to be ending"
NickW | 28.11.21 - 10:40 a.m. | #
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Late 1990s attended a work strategy awayday type conference at a hotel in Hertfordshire at which we stayed overnight. Arrived early for breakfast the next morning and sat down at an empty long communal type table and got stuck into a good read of a newspaper whilst having my coffee, toast and fry-up. Wasn't paying attention to people arriving and sitting around me as I sat there reading. After half an hour or so I was surrounded on all sides by other guests having brekkie, and only really looked up to take notice after the guy sitting diagonally opposite me was seemingly giving very detailed instructions to all of the others around me in a very strong French accent. Looked familiar. Anyway, after around 15 mins I got up and left, and noticed that all my colleagues had gathered on other tables elsewhere in the large dining room. I was later told by one of the wait staff that I was having breakfast with the entire Arsenal football team. Thought not much at the time, but now: wow I really did that?
Jag | 28.11.21 - 2:26 p.m. | #
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While radio surveying for LUL, I walked the old tunnel under the Thames from London Bridge (City and South London Line 1890-1900), it was partially flooded and we had to walk along the tunnel segments to avoid the water.
We emerged in what was left of King William Street station, and from there found a door which lead us into the basement of an office building. From the basement side the door, not secured, had a notice "Tunnels Do Not Enter". Soaked and covered in soot we came up from the basement into the plush offices above, and just left via the foyer much to bemusement of the security desk staff and office workers. I think we may have mumbled "London Underground" as if that would explain our presence.
Mark Aston | 28.11.21 - 3:29 p.m. | #
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APT cab ride,
Touching a tube tunnel from the outside
Driving IET, class 387 and Crossrail train simulators
100andthirty | 29.11.21 - 2:48 p.m. | #
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I visited the House of Commons chamber and, despite being admonished not to, lolled about in the same spot Jacob Rees-Mogg used to when he was a backbencher.
Stephen | 01.12.21 - 5:59 a.m. | #
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I was the first person in the World to have a certain operation and, when the story was released three months later, was featured in the top item on the Six O'Clock news, and in newspapers from around the globe. It still seems amazing that I did that.
Like others, work has also taken me to some pretty interesting bits of transport infrastructure, but nothing beats my 15 minutes of fame!
Robert | 01.12.21 - 7:29 p.m. | #
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Back when I was an amateur musician/producer, I met a likeminded bloke on a forum for home studio types, and met him once or twice at gigs. He asked if I was up for playing a bit of sax on a project he was doing with another friend of his. I said sure, figuring it would be a typical bedroom setup. But said friend turned out to be Trevor Horn's son, and the studio I was invited to for the recording session was Sarm West, formerly Island Studios, the exact room where Marley recorded Exodus, Led Zep recorded Stairway to Heaven, and (to pique dg's interest!) some Pet Shop Boys too.
I ended up recording some bits for my own DIY album too.
Having just googled to remind myself of the name(s) of the place, I see it's since been turned into flats, which makes it feel even more an exclusive privilege than it already did, although it's obviously sad.
stevekeiretsu | Homepage | 01.12.21 - 8:56 p.m. | #
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Remembered another one!
First time on an aeroplane aged 10 to Majorca.
During the flight the co-pilot invited all the children on board, row by row, to come and take a look in the cockpit where he and the pilot explained the dials etc and answered questions.
My dad, who loved all things to do with aeroplanes, and had event taken some flying lessons a few years earlier, was most envious!!
Cornish Cockney | 02.12.21 - 11:43 a.m. | #
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