Water Overflow

Yesterday, I went to London by mistake! I'd a meeting booked in for today but I'd convinced myself in my head that it was yesterday, despite the evidence in my calendar and e-mail. It was only when I looked to double-check the address that I realised that the 2nd October wasn't Tuesday...

So I had a little stroll around. I got to see one of the great big holes in the ground that is being made for the new "Super Sewer". This bit is just by Vauxhall Bridge (or if you like on the foreshore next to MI6 HQ). The capital costs of the project are over £4bn let alone other costs and eventual operation and maintenance. I used to go and look at the work when we lived along the river in Wandsworth. It's huge. The sewer is running from Acton in the west to Abbey Mills in the east and is designed to update the sewage system that still pumps raw overflow into the river when water levels are high. The original system dates from the 1850s and was designed for half the population we have now. Not surprisingly in modern London, the cost and nature of the works are highly controversial.

I pootled around, popped into the Tate, had a coffee or two and by five-thirty was still in Westminster when the heavens opened torrentially. I was just passing College Green and spotted a bit of dry under a tree. Looking south upriver (this section at Westminster counter-intuitively runs South-North) at Millbank House I took a picture that sums up the present darkness around our political shenanigans.

Dark days indeed! I'd arranged to meet some friends in the West End at 6.30 but as the weather was still weathering, I had a long wander around trying to find public transport that was actually working and spent almost an hour underground, waiting for trains and shuffling between connections with similarly disgruntled commuters. I don't miss this aspect of living in London at all.