First Capital Connect 3D Art on Moorfields

If you head down to the junction of Moorfields and London Wall today you can get yourself into some nifty 3D art.

First Capital Connect are publicising the introduction of 6,500 new seats on their trains by running a competition in which you could win one of five iPod Touches and one season ticket worth up to £5,000!! You can find more information on the competition, the 3D art and the increased seating over at www.moreseats.co.uk 

They won’t be there forever so the best bet is to get yourself down there by the end of lunchtime to make sure that you don’t miss out, and do mention that you saw it here first!

The photo above is of Joe, the artist, and his creation provided for First Capital Connect by the talented people at www.streetadvertisingservices.com

RIP Peter Moore – Town Crier

Avid readers may remember that I met Peter Moore at the St George’s Day event in Leadenhall Market last year so I was saddened to learn of his death last month in the news.

For those that knew him, or just the curious, you can visit his website and see the tributes that have been left

Peter Moore – Town Crier
www.londontowncrier.com

Lord Mayor’s Show 2009

As I came out of the underground this morning workers were busy unloading metal barriers from a collection of lorries and they’d obviously been at it for a while as the streets were already lined with them. Yes, the Lord Mayor’s Show is upon us again and apparently if you hurry there are still a few grandstand seats left at St Pauls! As the official website explains:

“In a tradition dating back to 1215 and enshrined in the charter of King John, each new Lord Mayor is required to swear a pledge of allegiance to the Sovereign in front of the Lord Chief Justice and Judges of the Queen’s Bench Division. An established highlight of London’s social calendar, the Lord Mayor’s Show attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors every year.”

“Behind the new Lord Mayor, in a procession extending more than three miles, around 6,000 people from all across London will come together to celebrate their city’s proud cultural heritage and to revel in its diverse modernity. With more than 60 participating organisations ranging from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home to the British Red Cross Society, this year’s Show demonstrates exactly why London is widely regarded the most cosmopolitan city in the world and why the Square Mile continues to enjoy its reputation as the pre-eminent centre for global finance.”

The parade starts at 11am, though an early arrival is recommended because of the inevitable crowds, but if you can’t make that then I’d really recommend the fireworks down on the river at 5pm. It’s always a spectacular show.

For a plan of the route and more details of the timings go to the official website:
http://www.lordmayorsshow.org

Nearly the weekend

It’s been a busy week in City Towers. Not ‘exciting busy’ but ‘ho-hum busy’ as I’m sure some of you can relate to though in that time Mayor Boris has been off to New York to promote London however while he was away someone at TFL saw the opportunity to declutter the tube map of London, significantly by removing the river Thames.  As you can tell from the photo the Thames is a pretty integral part of London and although City dwellers may know where it is it’s still a good reference point to have on a map don’t you think? I can’t imagine how tourists would feel trying to find the London Eye having been told “it’s on the Thames” when the Thames didn’t appear on one of the most significant London travel maps.

Now TFL apparently saw this as an “operational decision” and didn’t see the need to consult anyone but the subsequent outcry and sound of BoJo hitting the roof has since persuaded them otherwise and they’ll now find themselves ranked alongside the State of Indiana’s who once considered a proposal to set the value of pi to 3 (or 3.2, or 4) for convenience sake…

In other news Land Securities is in process of partnering with Blackstone for the latter to take on half of Broadgate, by Liverpool Street station. Frequent home of lunchtime attractions Broadgate is home to a £2.1bn debt of which Blackstone will apparently take on half and although I don’t imagine it’ll have many, if any, implications in the short-term perhaps its long-term future may now be a bit rosier.

Another City protest

It could have easily passed you by that this week is the DSEI exhbition in the Excel Centre in the Docklands, DSEI standing for Defence Systems and Equipment International.

This has attracted the understandable interest of the protesting community and they seem to have chosen a few targets in the City to visit yesterday before heading down to Docklands today. That’s apparently why the City offices of AXA and BT were attacked yesterday as the Metro relates:

“About 60 activists, many wearing masks, stopped traffic as they paraded through the capital to protest against the Defence Systems and Equipment International Arms Fair taking place at the Excel centre in Docklands this week. After storming the BT building in Newgate Street, they moved on to the head offices of Axa Investment Management nearby.”

Probably to their great surprise they actually managed to get into the BT building and the Metro takes up the story again:

A witness at the BT building said: “They came running in and jumped over the security barriers, smashing glasses and telephones. Some of them went up to two floors above, having a look round and writing graffiti. It could have been really frightening but when they started shouting about BT being involved in the arms trade I knew that they didn’t know what they were going on about. Then they must have got bored and left.”

Maybe if an under-employed training company in the City isn’t able to fill its IT and Secretarial courses they ought to offer courses in effective protesting because I’m struggling to find anyone who understands their list of targets and most of the staff at the companies concerned seem entirely mystified about their supposed involvement. Did you know what DSEI was before you read this??

When is the City not the City?

Picture this. A focus group is sat around a table wearing suits and earnest faces and the Head of Marketing begins to speak:
“We need to come up with an idea that’s really going to engage with the City and stage an event that’s going to knock their socks off and get them on board with what we’re trying to do”

“How about something in the heart of the City like we did last time?” pipes up one smartly-clad participant

“Too old. Been there, done that“ chimes in another.

“Tell you what“. Heads turn to view the new speaker. “Why don’t we get our message across to the City by not doing it in the City. Let’s pick somewhere they might not even be able to point out on a map“.

Am I the only one feeling a massive sense of anti-climax about the Climate Camp and it’s decision to set up next to a funfair on Blackheath? I may be missing some ingenious twist to this cunning plan but it almost seems like the decision-making as to where to set up camp has been led by Blackadder’s sidekick Baldrick.

To recap the events so far after playing games with the police on Wednesday by trying to lead them in a guessing game of where the camp was going to be set up they picked the well-known City hotspot of Blackheath to set up camp on the grounds that some protestors did it a few hundred years ago and it’s got a nice view of the City. This was billed as:
The Climate Camp are on the case, join them when they takeover the city of London, the financial heart of global capitalism next week…
Hmmm… If these people were ever to have annual appraisals I’d suggest they’re not making their quotas as from what I can tell most of the 22 identified targets are currently unvisited.

Yesterday morning the BBC reports that around 20 protestors staged a demo on Bishopsgate outside the Carbon Exchange on Bishopsgate and then, according to other reports, went off for lunch and didn’t come back. Sounds like they’ve begun to integrate into City life then!

By contrast Help for Heroes had a collection march of around 100 people which headed through the City on their way to Trafalgar Square. Did the press report that?

While taking pictures outside the Royal Exchange on Wednesday I chatted with Police and journalists and we came up with a list of at least five locations in Central London that would have had:
a) Immediate relevance to one of their targets,
b) Been very photogenic for the benefit of the press,
c) Had a very high footfall so they could get their message across to lots of people,
d) Wouldn’t be a huge disruption so they’d be unlikely to be moved on.

The didn’t choose any of those. Let’s see what today brings.

Climate Camp – lunchtime update

The Climate Camp is under way with protestors gathering, press reporting and Police observing. I visited the BankSwoop and RioTintoSwoop and there were about equal numbers of press and protestors at both with the mood being good on all sides.

The Rio Tinto Swoop were being entertained by a guitarist, possibly to draw attention away from the fact that Rio Tinto moved out six months ago, but even the Police I spoke to agreed with their cause and are hoping that they’re able to get their message across in a peaceful and productive way.

I’ve heard a few sirens on and off over the last hour but there’s no indication so farthat they’re related to the Climate Camp and aren’t unusual for a normal City day.

If you’ve seen the protestors, or if you are a protestor, then let me know how you think it’s going by leaving a comment on here or on Twitter to @thecityblog.

Climate Camp returns today

Today sees the return of the Climate Camp to London and this time there won’t be an announcement of their intended destination until noon. They have, however, publicised the starting points for their demonstrations and the ones in the City are:
Bank of England, Threadneedle Street, London EC2R 8AH
Rio Tinto, Aldermanbury Square, EC2V 7HR
though the full list can be found here:
http://climatecamp.org.uk/actions/london-2009/swoop

Other targets for demonstrations in and around the Square Mile include:
London Stock Exchange – Paternoster Square,
J.P. Morgan Climate Care – 125 London Wall,
European Climate Exchange – 62 Bishopsgate,
Evolution Markets – 36-38 Leadenhall Street,
RBS – 250 Bishopsgate,
Multilateral Carbon Credit Fund – 1 Exchange Square,
Point Carbon – 102-108 Clerkenwell Road,
D1 Oils Plc – 33-37 Charterhouse Square.

Again, more info can be found here:
https://london.indymedia.org/articles/1920Climate
and here:
http://climatecamp.org.uk
and you can follow them on Twitter at @climatecamp and #swoop.

They haven’t got the kind of nice weather that they had last time but I’m sure they’ll make a go of it and I will let you know when I hear any more.

City school sex scandal

The case of Helen Goddard, the teacher accused of a lesbian affair with an underage pupil at a prestigious City girls school for Girls, came to court yesterday and she entered a plea of guilty to six counts of sexual activity with the girl between February and July this year. The maximum sentence available is 14 years though this seems unlikely, particularly as the child has expressed an intention to renew the relationship when she becomes 16 and is supported in this by her parents.

Slightly bizarrely the the judge has rules that the school cannot be named, not that the Telegraph seems bothered by that, despite the fact the school’s name was spread across the newspapers several weeks ago when the case first broke so it seems a little late for that now.

Sentencing will take place on September 21st

Broadgate Circle – A happening place

It seems like Broadgate is the hub of much activity over the coming days with various events going on. Top of the pile has to be the City of London ”Business Policing Team Summer Roadshow” tomorrow from 11am to 2pm including:

Demonstration by the tactical firearms unit, Dogs unit displaying how they search vehicles, Anti Terrorism Unit with bomb disposal vehicle on display, Cycle Surgery, Identity theft, Special Constables and much more.”

Also the have the new Jaguar 3.0L XF on display in Finsbury Avenue Square today and tomorrow from 7am to 7pm so if you want to take a look at it and then try to imagine what Jeremy Clarkson might have to say about it then now’s your chance.

If you do get the chance to go to any of the events then send me an email to let me know what you thought of it, and any pictures you might be willing to share.

Broadgate Estate
http://www.broadgateinfo.net/

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