please empty your brain below
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I had no idea Sampson House was being demolished.
Rather a pity as it has always been rather a striking building, not to mention a personal favourite of mine.
It's also, I believe, the only (?) truly Brutalist-style office building left in London, making it all the more surprising that nobody has tried to list it - especially considering the bland, soulless... thing by which it will be replaced.
Mildmay Man | 20.09.18 - 7:28 a.m. | #
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Had a bacon sandwich and coffee at the Green Hut only last month
scrumpy | 20.09.18 - 7:35 a.m. | #
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Yes it could run and run, then you could follow it up with km from Charing Cross.
The students cluching Costas are no big surprise, 'your never alone with a brand', as the unsuccessful cigarette slogan might have said.
Still Anon | 20.09.18 - 7:50 a.m. | #
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Many thanks, I do hope it does run and run. Why not 5, 10 and 20 clicks from Charing Cross for starters?!
Chris | 20.09.18 - 8:09 a.m. | #
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Excellent post DG, and the news about public orders for take-away rolls at the cabbies' rest is a revelation. Thanks for the tip-off.
Waterhouse | 20.09.18 - 8:25 a.m. | #
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Let it run. This was a great read
louise | 20.09.18 - 8:54 a.m. | #
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It's a numerical feature that could run in both directions, as well as all four directions. Would there be sufficient of interest to make a post if you were to walk only a kilometer instead of a mile in each direction? A furlong? A chain?
Chris | 20.09.18 - 9:28 a.m. | #
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Another vote for letting it run and run!
It confused me at first that the '1 mile East' was actually south of the river!
Cornish Cockney | 20.09.18 - 9:38 a.m. | #
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What an enjoyable read about some entirely recognisable spots around London.
rashbre | Homepage | 20.09.18 - 9:40 a.m. | #
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With Sampson House going, I wonder where IBM is going to host all that crap in the basement? The foundations go *deep*.
Chz | 20.09.18 - 9:44 a.m. | #
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Geography is definitely a strange thing, because even though I work in South Westminster I wouldn’t have place John Islip St due south of Trafalgar Square. Incidentally a lot of the new bit of John Islip St was formerly two big Home Office/Prison Service buildings Abell and Cleland Houses. They also had Horseferry House on the corner of Horseferry Road.
Robert Butlin | 20.09.18 - 10:03 a.m. | #
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I think the DVLA are prepared to bend the rules for a head of mission's official car - the Indian high commissioner drives around in IND 1.
Jonathan Wadman | 20.09.18 - 10:13 a.m. | #
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There are also the other main compass points, NE, SW etc.
David | 20.09.18 - 10:29 a.m. | #
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There is a nice website listing diplomatic numberplates, with photos.
Others with Q include "QLD1" (Queensland) and "QUE1" (Quebec). They are also allowed to use "I" and "Z". So for example NZ1 and 1UZB and 1ZAM and 1ZIM.
That site claims that Iraq no longer uses "1RAQ" - wonder why - but Spain have "SPA1N" and Fiji have "FIJ1". Iran is apparently still "1PER", while Peru use "PE1".
Lots of countries ending with "IA" using plates ending with "1A" - ALG1A and BOS1A and LAT1A and SVK1A and so on. And then "BEL12E"! (Apparently RUS51A exists but is owned privately.)
Andrew | 20.09.18 - 10:37 a.m. | #
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I spent the 90s working on the top floors of Ludgate House, the recently demolished building south of Blackfriars Bridge. Fantastic views of the river but not much going on. The area's very different now.
tintinhaddock | 20.09.18 - 10:54 a.m. | #
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Another way of getting more mileage (see what I did there) out of this idea is to apply it to other London landmarks. For example, 1 mile N, E, S and W of say the Tower or Greenwich Observatory or wherever else you choose.
X-Plaistow | 20.09.18 - 2:57 p.m. | #
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@Andrew
"I" and "Z" are issued in some British plates, specifically those in Northern Ireland, so NZ1 and FIJ1 would have been issued in the normal run of things, respectively by Co Londonderry in 1949 and Co Down in 1972. Until 1986 the Republic of Ireland still used the same system, and 1UZB and 1ZIM would have been issued in the mid-1980s by Co Cork and Co Galway respectively.
Smugtrumpet | 20.09.18 - 3:20 p.m. | #
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@Mildmay Man
You don't need to look far from Sampson House to find surviving Brutalist architecture - just across the bridge squats Baynard House!
Hobbyhorse | 20.09.18 - 3:24 p.m. | #
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Centre of London? Really I thought it was always measured for the actual Charing Cross in front of the station? But then what do I know? Then theres this article to consider? https://londonist.com/2014/04/where-is-the-centre-of-london-an-update
dg writes: If you thought it was the actual Charing Cross, then you haven't read the first paragraph of the post you linked to...
Drew | Homepage | 20.09.18 - 3:40 p.m. | #
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I haven't been there for a long time but the A4 road in Hungerford Berkshire was signposted to London to the nearest quarter mile, so they must have known where the centre was.
kev | 20.09.18 - 6:56 p.m. | #
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Awesome! Hope this doesn’t mean the passing already of Random Station (last hinterlanded, I think, in June). Still, at least we now know the Herbert Dip jamjar has been preserved.
Rich G | Homepage | 20.09.18 - 10:06 p.m. | #
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This is a superb posting - the skill at making the allegedly-mundane interesting, and worth going back for a second (and third?) read makes me deeply envious.
Joel | 21.09.18 - 11:49 a.m. | #
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