please empty your brain below
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Not in the slightest, I’m very glad you did this post. I’ve always enjoyed these little quirks of geography, particularly where they overlap with history and politics. And, in this particular instance, the railways.
Michael | 26.03.26 - 7:28 a.m. | #
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Absolutely the post I would have wanted had I known what the result was.
Well, yes and no. It all depends on your frame of reference. This is only true because you are using Greenwich Mean Time. And this is based on the time at, um, Greenwich which is based on the sun at the highest point at noon there. And, as we all know, this system only came about because of the time discrepancy when people started using trains travelling between east and west - such as the District line though one suspects the problem wouldn't have been significant for the District line.
If you use true local time as was the case for most of history then the sun sets at the same time across London.
dg writes: updated thanks
Pedantic of Purley | 26.03.26 - 7:36 a.m. | #
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Mine is 1836 tonight.
Scrumpy | 26.03.26 - 7:39 a.m. | #
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Does altitude have any effect; ie if the District Line climbed at 1 in 40 from Upminster westbound to a cliff at Richmond would we we high enough at Richmond for the sunset to be later by GMT?
Robert Butlin | 26.03.26 - 7:41 a.m. | #
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I thought there was a biscuit called arrowroot, or something like that?
Al | 26.03.26 - 7:49 a.m. | #
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There's a biscuit called Abbey Crunch.
But it's not a chocolate biscuit.
diamond geezer | Homepage | 26.03.26 - 7:58 a.m. | #
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I remember explaining this to a friend (though not in such precise detail) when we were out in Suffolk and she commented that the sun seemed to set so much earlier than in London. She was gobsmacked. I was surprised that this wasn't common knowledge.
Greg | 26.03.26 - 8:12 a.m. | #
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Muslims have to be aware of the local time of sunrise and sunset so as to perform their prayers at the correct time
John | 26.03.26 - 8:13 a.m. | #
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McVities do an Arrowroot biscuit.
But it's not chocolate.
Regards
zin92 | 26.03.26 - 8:13 a.m. | #
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As Bahlsen is the name of the company that make the biscuits, which admittedly they plaster all over the packaging In Germany they have multiple names and are not all chocolate coated, then by the same token all Mcvities buiscuits should be counted as starting with M which makes the name Arrowroot irrelevant.
Having read todays blog I am certainly glad you went on to expand it. Reminded me of being taught, many decades ago, to identify my location with a sextant. Great fun but GPS is easier
Keith the Kraut | 26.03.26 - 9:04 a.m. | #
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The cosine formula for determining the length of a line of latitude is a simplification that assumes the Earth is a perfect sphere, which it isn't.
Altitude, both of the observer and the observer's horizon, will also affect the actual sunset time. (you can watch the sunset on Blackpool Beach, and then go up the Tower and watch it set again)
timbo | 26.03.26 - 9:16 a.m. | #
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The 219 is incredibly meh.
Still Anon | 26.03.26 - 9:16 a.m. | #
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14. Stilton
ap | 26.03.26 - 9:22 a.m. | #
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Thanks for the app link. Great to know that sunset will be 1hr 5mins 3secs later here in 3 days time. And dusk 33mins after that. If only the weather behaved accordingly. I hope the temperature-sensitive plants I put out a few weeks ago survive the forecast 1° minimum!
Strabismus | 26.03.26 - 9:58 a.m. | #
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If Bahlsen is inadmissible perhaps Blue Riband can lay claim to being the first chocolate biscuit alphabetically?
RH | 26.03.26 - 10:17 a.m. | #
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East Dulwich is north of North Dulwich.
HTFB | 26.03.26 - 10:58 a.m. | #
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Had high hopes that might have actually been a NewsShopper clickbait llnk, dosappointed that it wasn’t. 🤔
Alan | 26.03.26 - 11:04 a.m. | #
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Oh, it’s a Secret London article. If you search for that phrase its the first hit on Google.
It’s hard to know who it worse though i grant you, SecretLDN or News bloody Shopper and their hopelessly inaccurate articles.
Alan again | 26.03.26 - 11:14 a.m. | #
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The 219 is very useful, in fact essential, if you want to get to Wandsworth Prison by public transport from Clapham Junction or Tooting Bec.
South London Lad | 26.03.26 - 11:16 a.m. | #
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Not the one I would have preferred but the one I would have predicted, I think.
David B | 26.03.26 - 11:53 a.m. | #
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Fascinating stuff! I didn't know I needed to know it until now!
Cornish Cockney | 26.03.26 - 11:56 a.m. | #
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At a glance, your District Line sunset diagram looks as if it could be the basis for the different ticket zones!
ActonMan | 26.03.26 - 12:56 p.m. | #
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If you want to be pedantic, the Blue Riband is also now only a ‘Chocolate Flavoured’ biscuit.
Jamie | 26.03.26 - 1:09 p.m. | #
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Arrowroot biscuits are hard to find but my local Waitrose (Lichfield) usually has them in stock.
Richard Morris | 26.03.26 - 1:38 p.m. | #
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I'm looking at your diagram and musing that I'll bet my relatives in Hornchurch and Upminster never realised they were living in different 'time zones'.
Pamela | Homepage | 26.03.26 - 2:57 p.m. | #
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The change to "chocolate flavoured" is apparently because climate change is affecting cocoa harvests. It is not only Blue Riband that has had to change - Penguins have been affected too.
timbo | 26.03.26 - 4:43 p.m. | #
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I am somewhat dubious about the concept that sunset can be nailed down to a second. That is of course a particular definition of sunset as agreed upon by astronomers and the like, but it isn't really something that you can tell from looking at the sky/horizon. In practice sunset is more a window than an exact moment.
Anonymous | 26.03.26 - 7:30 p.m. | #
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I have often wondered why Harrow's tube stations aren't quite geographically correct. As a boy I would walk from South Harrow to North Harrow via Rayner's Lane with west Harrow park and its surrounding roads confusingly on my right to the east. And what of east Harrow?
Anyoldname | 26.03.26 - 9:10 p.m. | #
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I wonder what other geographic innacuracies there are on the national rail network. Dulwiches are an obvious one that comes to mind
Sophie | 27.03.26 - 2:45 a.m. | #
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Southbourne is north of Eastbourne, and South Bank is north of Bank (LU), but in both cases I don't think the part of the name that is the same refers to the same place.
Sophie | 27.03.26 - 2:54 a.m. | #
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Cocoa futures are down by 50% from this time last year, and really we ought to be allowed our chocolate biscuits back now, please.
HTFB | 27.03.26 - 9:37 a.m. | #
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Bristol, being further west, is an earlier time zone than London, surely.
dg writes: never risk a surely
anon | 28.03.26 - 11:20 p.m. | #
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