Different Ways to and from Lincoln

Travelling by train in Lincolnshire getting better but still affected by the pandemic

Coffee and cake at the Great Northern Hotel

Twice recently I have travelled to Lincoln on church business, and each time the timing of my travel has been disrupted to some extent by Cross Country Trains' continued temporary timetable with big gaps in service eastbound in the morning and westbound in the afternoon. Both East Midlands Railway and LNER now operate far better services between Peterborough and Lincoln (as noted in some previous posts), but these are only useful if I can get to Peterborough to catch them, and back from Peterborough after arriving there on my way back. The online journey planners do offer a route via Leicester to fill in the gaps but these take an extra hour as they are such a long was round. It is such a shame that this situation continues, but with some care in making appointments I am nevertheless able to use the train for my visits to Lincoln - anything has to be better than the tedious waste of time that is driving up the A1 and A46.

The first occasion was a midday meeting in uphill Lincoln and on the way there I took the same route as last time, with Advance tickets to Lincoln, LNER, changing at Newark. This time, though, on my return I was meeting my wife and granddaughter in Peterborough City Centre on my way home: they had the car and I was eventually driven home after time with them so the big holes in Cross Country's timetable would not have affected me. I did not wait as last time for the LNER service but took the earlier East Midlands service via Sleaford and Spalding, slower but better timed for the end of my meeting. On the way to Lincoln in the morning I had a little while to wait for my train to Newark, but because I had booked well in advance I had bought a First Class ticket at a decent price for this leg of the journey and was entitled to free tea and cake at the Great Northern Hotel coffee lounge at Peterborough which certainly passed the time nicely! Arriving in Lincoln I had plenty of time to walk up the hill and when I passed through Exchequergate into the cathedral precincts it was really good to see that the last of the hefty scaffolding that has covered the magnificent west front for several years was being taken down. This was the first time I can remember that I could see the whole of this front of the cathedral. So much restoration work has been done over so many years. 

The second occasion was to see someone in the morning and we chose 10:15 because I knew that I could get there then on an easy route, and that provided we were disciplined about the length of our conversation I would be able to get back to Peterborough before Cross Country packed up its westbound service for the afternoon. That went really well and it amazing how quickly time passes on the local train through Lincolnshire when you've tasks to do on your way to a meeting! Before you know it, the train is arriving in Lincoln and it's time to pack the briefcase and get off. This journey is so much more comfortable now that the service has enough coaches for two per train rather than the overcrowded single-car trains that used to operate it. Still no on-board catering, but I bought coffee and croissant at Peterborough to see me through!

Arriving in Lincoln for this visit, I had intended to take a bus up the hill, but Stagecoach East Midlands is also suffering timetable problems because of a shortage of drivers, and so I walked up rather than risk being late because of a longer-than-expected wait for a bus. The transport companies want to get us travelling again, but we can only do it when they are operating their services! In the event it was a lovely day and a pleasure to walk up past the art gallery and up Greestone Stairs to my meeting. I did not this time see the striking frontage of Lincoln Cathedral, but I did note that a film crew had parked its vehicles all around and seemed to be making a feature film of some sort. After my meeting I walked back down the hill and caught a through LNER train back to Peterborough and made my connection home. Had I missed that there was an East Midlands train about twenty minutes after it which would have made the next (and last for three hours!) connection for Stamford at Peterborough - a useful backstop when you don't know how long you'll be. I bought lunch from the on-board buffet on the train and resumed the jobs I'd been doing. It was an early lunch but it fitted in nicely with my day. I was using Standard Class Anytime Return tickets this day in order to allow that flexibility, and this was in any case the most cost-effective option, the meeting having been arranged too late for Advance singles to make a big enough saving.

Travelling home by LNER, Standard Class

An Art Deco Architecture Crawl in London

By train to the capital again - architectural and railway history

I have long been interested in Art Deco and Streamline Moderne architecture and style, and when it comes to architecture, London is one of the best cities in the world for the number of surviving buildings. Art Deco style was prominent in the 1920s (that is to say it is now a century old, quite amazing), and this morphed gradually into moderne in the 1930s, so moderne suffered from being popular during the great depression when there was little money around to build things. London, and the UK in general, suffered much less in the depression than New York and the USA, and also benefitted from a great expansion of the London Underground railway which had a management that cared about image and engaged a great architect, Charles Holden, to design its stations. A good chunk of the modernist buildings in London are Underground stations, and the capital's first skyscraper (albeit a very minor one by New York standards) is the Underground headquarters at 55 Broadway, St James's Park station. I have taken many photographs of Art Deco and Moderne buildings in London and throughout England, but there were (and still are even after this trip) many left to do in London, and when I was on "grandparent duty" there last week I took the opportunity during school hours to tick off a few more, aided by a map of Art Deco London which I had received as a birthday gift.

Our trip up to London was by the well-trodden path of a train from Stamford to connect at Peterborough with the 11:29 departure for Kings Cross. The train from Peterborough to London was delayed by several minutes, and it was one of those delays that kept getting longer as a situation developed, which turned out to be deer on the line between Grantham and Peterborough! We were able to secure affordable First Class tickets but the train was quite busy and our reserved seats, although near each other were not quite together. However, there was a whole table of four seats not taken, so we sat together there instead. This happens so often that I never worry about not being able to reserve the ideal seats. We were served the usual refreshments and although it was past eleven o'clock there were still some breakfast items left: we could even have had porridge if we had wanted it, but I settled for a pain-au-chocolat with my orange juice and black coffee.

We made our way to Mayfair, by Piccadilly Line to Green Park, for lunch at an Italian-themed restaurant, Murano, which reminded us of our splendid tour of Italy last autumn when we stayed on the island of Murano at Venice. This restaurant is superb in every sense. We arrived fifteen minutes and with luggage but we were welcomed immediately and our luggage, and coats were stored for us. The staff were attentive and helpful and we were well-served with wonderful food and drinks of the highest standard. This doesn't come cheap, but in my opinion it was not overpriced. Service like that requires enough staff, and that obviously costs money. A service charge is included on the bill: they say it is optional, but with service like that I have no hesitation in paying it! This does save having to work out and give a gratuity, which has become awkward with the advent of contactless payment by smartphone, which we generally use these days. From the pre-lunch nibbles to the espresso and Limoncello this meal was perfect and set us up the five days we were due to be in London, and very little else would be needed that day.

After lunch we went to our temporary home and fetched the children from school and nursery, and I planned my Art Deco Crawl for the following day!

The next morning was wet and cold, but the forecast was for this to improve and to continue to improve for the rest of our stay, so we made a late start, after coffee once the children were delivered to their institutions. We travelled together by bus as far as Harrod's where our ways parted and I walked down Sloane Street towards the river at Chelsea, heading for Battersea Power Station. This outstanding building, now residential, was derelict last time I went to see it and I was not able to make satisfactory pictures of it, so that was where I decided to start this time, being based in west London and the weather being spectacularly good by now.

Walking towards the river along Chelsea Bridge Road there was an amazing view of the "iconic," as they say these days, four chimneys of the art deco power station right in front of me, and then I could see it more clearly as I crossed the bridge, and then finally I was able to walk up to it and take whatever photographs I wished. I hope to have them all on my Flickr collection soon. Only two of the chimneys are genuine thirties constructions, the rest of the power station being added later to match and giving the famous and pleasing appearance which was worth preserving. This was once the most powerful electricity generating station in the world (as had been Lots Road power station across the river in Chelsea in its day!).  No wonder London was called "The Smoke"!

The redevelopment of this area is not confined to the power station itself, but also the railway arches under the lines from Victoria station and much of the land around, reaching across to Nine Elms, once the Southern Railway's locomotive sheds and now the site of the New Covent Garden Market. The Underground has recently been extended to serve Nine Elms and the Battersea Power Station development and in order to reach the City and Islington for my next subjects, I caught a Northern Line train from the new Battersea Power Station station as far as Waterloo from where I took the Waterloo and City Line to Bank.

Fox Umbrellas (now a wine shop!) is not actually an art deco building but has a wonderful moderne shop front which has been preserved by the new business, and is just round the corner from Moorgate station. This was handy, because next on the list were two buildings along the Essex Road in Islington, easily reached by the Northern Line and a section of the Great Northern main line railway which had once been another part of the Northern Line Underground - there turned out to be as much railway history as architectural history in this adventure! Like the power station and the umbrella shop, neither of the other two buildings was in use for its original purpose either, these being a former snack bar and a former cinema, the latter being unexpectedly quite spectacular and definitely deco rather than moderne.

After my architectural photography, it was, quite accidentally, back to railway history! I went to Essex Road station to take a train back towards the City in order to get back in time to meet the children from school and pre-school. Essex Road station is one of those that was once part of the Northern Line City Branch but which since the seventies has been part of the inner suburban Great Northern service. Although it now has new trains the décor of the station has hardly been touched since British Rail applied the Network SouthEast branding in the eighties.

This line, when part of the Underground, suffered a terrible fatal accident at its Mooorgate terminus fifty years ago when a train failed to stop for reasons still not understood and ran into the dead end tunnel at full speed killing many people in and injuring many in the most dreadful manner, so hearing the automated announcement that we were approaching Moorgate, "our final destination," was rather chilling to those of us who remember it. "Where this service terminates," is what many trains say to us and would sound rather less final.

From Moorgate I took a Metropolitan Line to Farringdon to take a look at the many changes which have been made to the area to accommodate the yet-to-open Elizabeth Line (Crossrail) and the extended platforms to take the twelve-coach Thameslink trains. I am pleased to see that the original Metropolitan Railway buildig is still intact and in use, with a new glass-and-steel building opposite to take the bigger crowds. I strolled around Smithfield for a while, mourning the loss of a great Art Deco building, Chambers & Co, which once stood where yet another entrance to Farringdon Elizabeth Line station now stands - such a pity they could not have adapted that building rather than replace it.

Back to Farringdon I took a Thameslink train to St Pancras where I popped into Fortnum and Mason to replenish the household supply of St Pancras Blend tea on my way to get the Hammersmith & City Underground train back to our lodging and to collect the children. The end of another day.

The next day was Friday and we had booked lunch at another restaurant which had been recommended to us, as much for its architecture as its food, for Brasserie Zédel is a real part of the Art Deco Architecture Crawl! From the "Z" and "L" door handles and the carpet design to the signage and the ceiling, the interior of this bar/café/restaurant is thoroughly Art Deco and has a French theme, befitting the country of Deco's origin. I visited a couple of other deco buildings on the way there, but on eo fthem, the Dorchester Hotel, was disappointing because the excellent façade was hidden by the scaffolding needed for some building work. I shall have to return!

The dining room is downstairs at Zédel and the curved staircase has a wonderful Art Deco carpet which is best not watched as you descend, lest you miss your step as you follow the zig-zag lines! There is a basement atrium off which are the cloakroom, toilets, etc and the Bar Américain (which was closed when we were there) as well as the grand entrance to the dining room.

The food here was good. It was not all French, but one could choose French items. Service was not as good as at Murano because there were simply not enough staff: they worked hard but struggled to get to everyone in a timely manner, although they somehow managed to remain friendly and cheerful and we were happy to pay the "optional" service charge added to our bill. Advice on wine was good, and we took the advice and had just what we needed to complement our food. But there is no doubt that the décor was the main attraction, and I'd recommend anyone to come here at least once! Just off Piccadilly Circus, in Sherwood Street. They do a cabaret here, too, but we had no free evenings to try that!

And so to the wonderful subterranean circular Underground station at Piccadilly Circus, and back to our duties for the evening. We had the children all day on Saturday, of course, and then on Sunday their parents returned and we caught our train home after we'd had Sunday lunch together at the Brook Green Hotel. 

The journey back was interesting: annoying in one sense but actually rather better than expected in another! On the Friday I received a message from LNER to say that my train back was not running as planned and that my reservation was cancelled. Among the options I could book another seat on a different train that evening, which at first sight was a bit of a problem, because we needed to connect with the last train home from Peterborough. As it happened, we could travel earlier because our son and his wife were expected to arrive back in good time (and they did, hence lunch together). I thought that would mean a great long wait in the cold and dark at Peterborough for the last train home, but when I booked it the arrival time was actually a bit later than the original train, even though it was scheduled to depart earlier, so our wait would be shorter than planned. It turned out that the main line was closed somewhere between Stevenage and Alexandra Palace and our train was diverted via the loop through Hertford and took half an hour longer than usual, hence the need to leave earlier to catch our connection. We had longer on board to enjoy the First Class hospitality, too, and the train was a good old Inter City 225, increasingly rare now.

Pandemic, Storm and Strike ... Can We Travel? Yes We Can!

 Travelling Patiently by Train in Difficult Conditions

We had a granddaughter staying with us. She is very fond of her cousin who lives in London and we arranged for her to come and stay as well, for just for one night so that they could spend some time together, which does not happen very often. Her mother, our daughter-in-law, bought train tickets and planned to bring her by LNER and the Cross Country connection from London to Stamford via Peterborough on Friday morning; I bought tickets to return the little girl to London the following evening where my son, her father, would meet us at Kings Cross, having arrived from a football match in Derby just ten minutes earlier at St Pancras and take her home while I returned alone to Peterborough, from where I would need a taxi home since on Saturdays the last connection for Stamford is far too early. What could possibly go wrong?

Storm Eunice was, of course, what went wrong - coupled with a strike on Cross Country trains (although that did not seem to have a huge effect) and Cross Country's reduced timetable during the current Omicron-variant Covid-19 pandemic wave which reduced connections available at Peterborough for Stamford.

I was in touch with the London family when LNER released its "Do not travel" advice and we agreed that for such a short journey it was worth an attempt even if the attempt might have to be abandoned. I stood by to meet the child by car at Peterborough if the connection to Stamford turned out to be impossible. She and her mother turned up at Kings Cross to board their train, aware that it would be speed-restricted. In the event it not only ran slower than normal but was also stopped several times by line blockages: I think it totalled one shed, two trees and a station roof (part of one, anyway). I drove to Peterborough since they would miss the last connection before a big gap in the temporary Cross Country timetable and our daughter-in-law needed to start her journey back to London, knowing that it, too, might be an adventure. I had to change my route by car when I came across an unexpected queue, and I had to dodge bits of tree on the road and steer well clear of weaving and swaying lorries, but we made it home and the two little cousins had a great time together, well worth all the effort.

For me personally, the thing I had most looked forward to doing was taking my granddaughter back to London to meet her father. I had booked First Class LNER tickets for us both on the way up, and for myself alone for the return. My ticket back was fully funded by accumulated LNER Perks credit, so was effectively free of charge; in order to use the Perks credit I had to buy the tickets using the LNER iPhone app, which worked very well and I am pleased to have used it, although for complex journeys it would not be as easy to use for journey planning as a website. 

I also had Standard Class Cross Country tickets for the outward journey, but I had to ask for a refund on these as the train we expected to use was cancelled and I had to drive again. This actually worked to my advantage since I would then have my car in Peterborough and would not have to go to the expense of a taxi to get home. You might wonder why I had not planned this from the start, and the answer is that we try to avoid taking these children by car if we can - they are especially poor at road travel and we do have a rather nice car interior which we'd like to keep that way! In the event all went well, and as I have mentioned in a previous blog post the car park at Peterborough station is now very easy to use, with just a contactless card needed at the exit barrier to pay: no ticket, no app, no cash (although cash at the pay station is an option). I just drive in then tap my credit card and drive out, and at weekends it is not expensive.

Given the utter chaos of the previous day I was surprised and greatly impressed that our train was not only running but was on time. We took our reserved seats - the one pair of single seats facing each other across a table - and realised that we were the only people in the coach until one man sat at the end of the coach. We had a lot of personal attention from the First Class host who really looked after the little girl's needs. She had a colouring book for the journey but did not need it as the complimentary refreshments took our attention for the whole time until it was time to get our coats on and go and find Daddy, who was there to meet us at the ticket barrier. His East Midlands Railway train from Derby to St Pancras had also been on time. You would never have guessed what the country was going through and how difficult the day before had been, or on this day in other parts.

I had allowed some time before my booked train home in case there had been a problem meeting, so I went for a short walk and then waited in the First Class Lounge at Kings Cross for the 20:30 to Leeds which would take me back to Peterborough.

I had agreed with LNER to record a "video diary" of my attempts to use the on-board wi-fi on this journey so that they could look into the difficulties in using it which I had mentioned in feedback in previous correspondence. This was a very interesting exercise and it took me a little effort to work out how best to do it! I used my iPad for the actual wi-fi experiment and had been given some tasks to attempt - apart from actually connecting and logging-on - and I used my iPhone as the video camera to record my thoughts and footage of my experiments. It all went very well, although the wi-fi was a little slow at downloading a BBC Sounds podcast and completely unusable for YouTube video streaming. Now at home I discovered after several failed attempts to upload the video that the site required a very low-resolution version - job now done!

The journey back was in a coach fairly well-loaded, in contrast with the empty coach in which we had travelled to London, and indeed although the drinks trolley reached me in reasonable time, the food only just got to me before I had to alight at Peterborough - mercifully I did not need to eat as I had had enough on the first train only a short while earlier. I remembered to avoid the alcoholic drinks as I was about to drive my car home! Leaving the train at Peterborough I was soon demisting my car and preparing for the drive home, the last few miles. This takes roughly the same time as the train-plus-walk-from-station, but although it was very convenient I did miss the exercise of the walk to and from Stamford station at the start and end of this day's journeys. Door-to-door transport is all very well, but by walking and using public transport I usually get all of the exercise I need without needing gym membership and all the time that takes!

So there were definitely problems travelling, and the Do Not Travel advice was very wise: for a long trip it would have been easy to have been stranded. For our purposes it seems to have been worth the chance, starting early and being aware of the issues and with back-up plans and plenty of time in hand meant that we had a joyful weekend that it would have been a great pity to cancel. And I did get my trip to London with my eldest grandchild!