Lawks.

[liadnan]

Amid news of floods and other disasters (ok, I know Port Meadow tends to flood a bit, but I have never seen it like this, and my understanding is that it's far from being one of the worst hit parts of Oxfordshire), I have just noticed the BBC news report that one of my favourite buildings, the Great Midland Hotel at St Pancras (often confused with St Pancras itself, it is after all part of the same complex) is on fire*. Looks like a major thing, as they've closed the Euston Road. Just as (after several false starts) they had a proper plan for redeveloping it (for thos e who don't know, it has essentially been unused for years). Hopefully the damage isn't too great.

I am going to Lebanon on Wednesday, for a week. Anything for a quiet life, plus it's not too far if one wanted to get to Megiddo in a hurry....

*ETA: and it has suddenly occurred to me that in one of the Dirk Gently books the late great Douglas Adams identified it with Valhalla...

Denn der Götter Ende/ dämmert nun auf/ So - werf' ich den Brand/ in Walhalls prangende Burg.

Comments

[eccles.livejournal.com]

I remember seeing something about the renovation of the Great Midland Hotel a while back and being rather impressed by the scale of the project. Have fun in Lebanon.

[sshi.livejournal.com]

Oh no! I have a very soft spot for that hotel, despite never having been inside. It's such a part of the history of London and the industrial revolution. I hope it's not too damaged...

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

Me too - I had a look round on Open Doors Day one year, and it's fantastic inside.

[fiendish-cat.livejournal.com]

And me. I go past it on the bus regularly.

(And bore people by pointing out that they reopened the original brick kiln to provide bricks for the British Library next door which cleverly translates the vernacular of St P into the modern age - honestly, once you start comparing the too you can't stop finding similarities)

[white_hart]

We lived in Wolvercote a few years ago, and I have seen Port Meadow like that. Admittedly, in January; but there was no land visible at all apart from a tiny strip by the fence where several horses were looking pissed off. It can take a lot of water; it's the run-off for the canal as well as the river.

Now I come to think of it, that was the last time that the Botley Road was flooded, too. So yeah, I don't think the scale of the floods is necessarily unusual, although the timing definitely is.