Wombling Free.....

Our part of North London is well served by public transport. We have buses running past either end of our road, a tube station ten minutes away, and Camden Road railway station a five minute bus ride away.

Camden Road is still a bit of a secret. It helps that it isn't in Camden Town. It's not even very close to Camden Town.

The train line that runs through it runs from grotty Stratford in the east to the splendours of Richmond in the west. In just over half an hour we can get from the grime of Islington to the rolling acres of our second garden, Kew.

I guess the Olympic sites now under construction in Stratford will produced more passengers in a few years time, but for now, even at half-term, you can still find a seat without elbowing your way onto the carriage.

The London Mayor, Cuddly Ken Livingstone, has recently added this line to his ever expanding empire. It used to be run by Silverlink, but is now part of "London Overground" The changeover only happened a few weeks ago, but some things are changing already. The stations on the line have all had a lick of paint, and the benches on the platforms have all been replaced.

Not for the better. Most of the standard benches have been replaced with these monstrosities...



Don't try and lean back.

What's even more annoying are the arm rests. They are far too low to lean on, even if you can avoid toppling over backwards. They seem to be placed there purely to stop anyone from stretching out along the bench. If the stations have a problem with people kipping on the benches maybe they should employ a few more staff.



A design blogger by the name of Dan Lockton has deemed these manipulative design concepts "Architectures of Control"... His article on benches is worth a look.

One redeeming feature (about the only one) is that the benches incorporate the London Transport logo stylishly at the ends...




























Now if only Ken could turn his attentions to the Plastic Flowers in the station hanging baskets....