There are some wonderful old telephone exchange buildings around the country. And that’s a good example!
Whelks! No thanks, they thrive in polluted waters.
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Great photos Bruce…
I did a delivery to a bottled water plant in Folkstone back in the day, The machines had shut down and they needed some electronic parts from Harrogate. They were losing £1000 per hour, so it was a rush job. 100 mph in some places, not so many cameras around in those days. I got well paid for that job…
I used to spend some time in the places I visited but it was late night and a long way home.
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Great photos @Bruce, glad to see you’re enjoying your British holiday.
My last trip to Folkestone was via the Orient Express from London Victoria, over thirty years ago. It was a freebie, I used to work in the travel industry. 
Whelks? Never heard of those before but by the look of them, I think I can imagine, and not for me. 
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Hi
Whelks are carniveros, they are not filtering bacteria out of the water.
They are very high in proteins, very low saturated fats but high in Omegar3 Fatty acids.
The only reason I know this is we had a couple of sessions with a dietician on my Rehab Course after my last heart attack.
Basically I can eat whelks but not cheese.
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Very similar to the telephone exchange where i worked off the Euston Road in London for 15 years, Bruce.
It’s now being turned into a 250 bed hotel as we speak, due to open in 2028.
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Ironically the place I worked in London, the Post Office Tower, is also being converted into a hotel (or so I read).
Seems highly unsuited to being a hotel though, they had to amend the law to allow evacuation by lift in the case of a fire and it moves noticeably in a wind
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They intend to turn it into a hotel from what i read - not sure what else they could do with it as it was given Grade 2 listed status some time ago, so demolishing isn’t an option.
A bomb exploded there in the early 70’s - i was still at school then, but remember it very well - couldn’t have done it much good.
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That’s when I worked there, I was on day shift the morning after. The explosion knocked a hole in the top of a horn aerial which promptly filled up with water from the cistern/toilet the bomb had been placed in. Water is not a good medium for microwaves to traverse.
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Been busy this evening, am in London next week so have been booking. So far have tickets for:
The Frida Kahlo exhibition at the Tate Modern.
The Book of Mormon at The Prince of Wales Theatre
Oh! Mary at the Trafalgar Theatre
That should keep me amused during the week.
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That should be good. And grab lunch / dinner in the 6th floor restaurant - great view across the river. Or head down river a few hundred metres - past the Globe theatre, past the Golden Hind and find the ticket office for HMS Belfast. There’s a bar on top of the ticket office with great views up and down the river.
(Disclaimer - my info is at least 10 years old so some facilities may have changed.)
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They all seem to look very similar - the telephone exchange where i worked in Judd Street was built during the 1920’s i think, so i imagine many were built around the same time.
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Hi
I love Art, but simply cannot get Modern Art
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Are Kahlo’s works modern art? Or perhaps a wider question - when did art start being modern? Was it the impressionists? Pointilism? Fauvism? Expressionism? I’d think about that point, Expressionism, is line when art loses some people. Nonetheless, the Tate Modern is great place with some (not all) great art. Definitely worth a visit.
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Today I am in the old Roman city of Londinium. 
Came down by train, very quick.
My hotel is in Bloomsbury and quite nice, on the 7th floor. Wandered about the area after I had settled in.
Found my old workplace looking a shadow of its former self.
Even the pub had gone.
Had a beer in another local pub. HeadStone Session Lager, I enjoyed it but perhaps a bit too fruity for me though I think my youngest son and son in law would have enjoyed it very much.
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Blimey I remember Cleveland Street and that pub. When the bomb went off a piece of debris went through the roof of some adjacent flats and just missed a sleeping child. She was a pupil at my primary school, also very close to the tower.
I’m pretty sure you once posted a picture of yourself repairing the damage Bruce. Weren’t you suspended from a kind of sling on the exterior?
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No, not me, I wasn’t on duty the night the bomb went off. The pair that were started down the stairs (they were on the 14th floor) then decided that they were better off staying where they were.
I was working the next day trying to get all they damaged systems up and running (not by myself)
Ah yes, that was it. I remember someone doing something in the picture!
It is a guilty (not) pleasure of mine to duck into a pub when I’m in London and to do mid afternoon. The pubs are usually quiet, the beer is usually good and interesting. One of the few things I miss as rural France just does not have pubs and towns in France do have bars but the bars and the beer are often bland…
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Makes me feel quite giddy looking at the tower from that angle!
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Hi
Apparently it is be turned into flats.
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