please empty your brain below
Why would you call it Northbank instead of, you know, Strand?

Kirk | 13.11.18 - 7:24 a.m. | #

I believe the Oxford Street lights were supposed to have been new and celebratory of the newly opened Elizabeth Line. Alas it’s delay has meant the last minute trotting out of last year’s lights.

Joe | 13.11.18 - 7:26 a.m. | #

Bah humbug!

Andrew | 13.11.18 - 7:39 a.m. | #

@Kirk - "Let's All Go Down The Northbank" doesn't have the same ring, does it?

solar penguin | 13.11.18 - 7:41 a.m. | #

Just what is the point? Time to ban this pointless activity.

Andrew Bowden | Homepage | 13.11.18 - 7:46 a.m. | #

Neither does "Do the Northbank"

Waterhouse | 13.11.18 - 7:46 a.m. | #

Surely this another 'let's pretend' blog (see American mid-terms Nov 8th) and that really DG just l-u-rves all those gorgeous displays!

RayL | 13.11.18 - 7:54 a.m. | #

Lighten up, DG.

Anon | 13.11.18 - 9:31 a.m. | #

Kirk, a few years ago a mate and I were sitting in The Angel (St.Giles) when a woman came in and started to ask the barman a few questions about "business areas". "Nope, not allowed to answer that sort of thing", he said. It is a Sam Smith's, after all, and young Mr. Smith does not approve of the barstaff wasting their time with such nonsense.

So she turned to us. "What area would you say this pub is in?", she asked. Before we could answer, she started to give us options:
Soho? Nope.
Fitzrovia? Nope.
Holborn? Nope.
Oxford St? Not really.
Covent Garden? Nope.
Midtown? WTF is "Midtown"?

Frustrated, she asks "Well where is it then?"
St Giles.
"That's not on my list."
Well that's where we are.
"What do you think about calling the general area Midtown?"
It's rubbish. What's wrong with St. Giles?

She didn't look very happy with the exchange. Though I don't think going in a Sam Smith's at lunchtime was ever going to get the answers her corporate masters wanted.

Chz | 13.11.18 - 9:41 a.m. | #

Oh yes, more on topic I watched them put the Oxford St. lights up several weeks (feels like months) back. It doesn't take a grump to spot that they're rubbish.

Chz | 13.11.18 - 9:43 a.m. | #

I totally fail to see the point of any "light display" of any kind whatever. Or fireworks, come to that. If you want to amuse your eyes, look at a screen. If you want beautiful, look at nature.

Still, there must be some people who like to "see the lights", else firms wouldn't bother putting them up.

Malcolm | 13.11.18 - 9:48 a.m. | #

well that was a fun outing wasn't it

Caz | 13.11.18 - 10:12 a.m. | #

Has Amazon put their lights up yet?, perhaps Echo will start making random Ho Ho Ho noises.

Still Anon | 13.11.18 - 10:21 a.m. | #

Going to see the Oxford & Regent street lights each year was a much anticipated annual highlight when I was a child in the 1970s.
There were only the 2 streets to choose from, other than the tree in Trafalgar Square, (as far as I can remember) and each Street tried to outdo the other. Much discussion on which we thought was best followed.

Now it's just another reason to avoid Central London from late-October onwards!

Anyone remember the laser lights that Oxford Street did one year? Totally naff as a decoration, but wow, how futuristic! Like Star Wars had arrived!
Regent Street won our vote that year!

Cornish Cockney | 13.11.18 - 11:25 a.m. | #

So... have they written "Bismillah" in big neon gay lights to celebrate Christmas then? If so, hats off to them for having the balls to do that.

Uncle Audrey | 13.11.18 - 11:40 a.m. | #

I too travelled to see the lights; when I was 12 or so I'd get the train from Northampton to Euston and meet my uncle who lived in London then, and he'd take me to Oxford St and Regents St. At that time Northampton didn't have any lights. London wasnt so crowded either. One year he took me to see a Brian Rix farce at a theatre, loved it all.
I like to see some lights, no need to go over the top, Winchester has had the same lights each year for a while, and they look lovely, just white and sprinkly, on a dark damp rainy day they're just the thing to cheer me up.

Joho | 13.11.18 - 11:57 a.m. | #

Laser lights Oxford Street. Yes, remember going to see them. It was 1978.

GB | Homepage | 13.11.18 - 11:58 a.m. | #

Cornish Cockney; I remember the Laser lights in Oxford Street, for me that was the start of the lights decline and they have gone downhill ever since.

John | 13.11.18 - 12:01 p.m. | #

DG, I nearly choked on my coffee reading this :D
I too remember the laser lights, it was when hubby and I had just come down to London and we were expecting something spectacular...I remember coming out of the tube and looking up and thinking 'Is that it?'Totally unimpressive.
One of the shopping centres in Croydon used to have laser lights which would come on at random times during Bank Holidays - again, totally naff and a complete waste of money.

Margaret | 13.11.18 - 12:10 p.m. | #

Jeez-on-a-bike. Covent garden is 'curated' now.

How long before some of its potential visitors get curated away.

Nice to think though, that when I'm next on a bus down the Strand I can marvel at the hub of opportunities. Will I know a corporate asset if I trip over one crossing the road.

I shall gaze upon Stanley Gibbons and Garfunkels in a whole new light.

pete c | 13.11.18 - 12:31 p.m. | #

For me the real let down is that tree in Trafalgar Square. Amid great ceremony the Norwegians fell the best one possible as a wartime thank you, transport it a considerable way only for it to be plonked in Trafalgar Square and for someone to dump a cheap cone of lights on it which give it all the charm of an overblown cucumber. I can still remember when lights were artistically strung around it...

TomH | 13.11.18 - 2:13 p.m. | #

DG, tongue firmly in cheek again.

Anon2 | 13.11.18 - 2:48 p.m. | #

Just wondering if the Northbank's connected to the MidTown?, because we know the lights are much brighter there.

IanD | 13.11.18 - 4:30 p.m. | #

It seems that if they went over to projectors and lasers they could get rid of all those overhead wires, and change the display each year without rewiring it all.

kev | 13.11.18 - 4:48 p.m. | #

Seven Dials' display last year was "lacklustre"? They were among the best in Central London (as is typical - not least because they don't just do the same thing every year). Though with Oxford Street (which you are too lenient with) supposedly one of the flagships for Christmas lights, that isn't saying much...

Si | 13.11.18 - 5:04 p.m. | #

It is terrible that they are reusing lights. Use once and throw away, I say. Brand new every year is best!

| 13.11.18 - 5:40 p.m. | #

I first became aware of Midtown in commercial property magazines in the 1980's. I believe for a while there was a Midtown information kiosk outside Holborn tube. They appear to be having another go...
https://bee-midtown.com/

"Where pavements tell stories, bringing history alive. We are the streets of Holborn, Bloomsbury, St. Giles, Farringdon and Clerkenwell."

dg writes: Yes, we know.

But do they have lights?

dg writes: No.

Not been up Sloane Street / Sloane Square for a few weeks so can't say if the usually smart low key Christmas lights are up again. I like their simplicity.

ap | 13.11.18 - 6:31 p.m. | #

LEDs have ruined Christmas displays. To be effective you need big bulbs with lots of red, orange and yellow; similarly, white bulbs need to be very warm white because we've evolved with candle light.

Seven Dials slightly excepted, most LEDs are usually tiny bulbs with a hideously unpleasant cold bluish light which have all welcoming quality of the utilitarian strip lights in a multi-storey car park. Watching the traffic lights change is more fun than today's miserable decorations.

Gerry | 13.11.18 - 8:48 p.m. | #

I went to New York last winter and although I was totally bitten/ smitten by the place, the near total lack of over-street / communal Christmas lights was genuinely disappointing. It probably explained the ridiculous queue and crush to get into the Rockefeller Center, which I didn't bother with.

That and the total absence of the C-word in public discourse (with the sole exception of a street sweeper I chatted to) made London look most jolly and festive on returning. There really ought to be a ban on the sight of any of this guff until the poppies are done though.

I recall that the laser beams were ok if it was raining.

NickW | 14.11.18 - 12:21 a.m. | #

Not quite IanD.
The lights are much brigher downtown
(not in Midtown, wherever that is)
https://genius.com/Petula-clark-downtown-lyrics

dg writes: Ian knows what he's talking about.

Old City Worker | 14.11.18 - 6:20 p.m. | #

Knock yourself out - take a trip to Como :)
(Mind you, knowing the Italians, they'll probably be recycling some of the same ones they've been using for years :( )

RogerW | 15.11.18 - 9:21 p.m. | #











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