Smoke: A London Peculiar

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http://www.shink.dircon.co.uk/smoke.htm

I know a few people on here read this but I couldn't find an existing thread. I received the latest issue today, it feels like the thickest, glossiest one yet and the quick scan I've given it suggests there's some good stuff within - talk about any bits that stand out for you, good or bad, if you see them.

I can't help wondering what the next issue will be like though...

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 12:49 (twenty years ago)

The black and white photography in this issue just seems to resonate more than usual, and it really seems better quality too.

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 12:51 (twenty years ago)

I got a copy for my birthday last year -- I liked it. I wonder if you can get a subscrip?

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 13:23 (twenty years ago)

yeh they'll send it overseas I'm sure.

The thing about London's Loneliest Train is great because I'd forgotten about that totally after seeing it maked on a rail map once and being baffled. Stratford to Seven Sisters direct you say?! Oh the lure is too much.

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 13:25 (twenty years ago)

wow! who got you such a great present?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!!

http://www.shink.dircon.co.uk/smokemailorder.htm

― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 13:25 (twenty years ago)

There is another thread, I know because I started it... (or maybe I just kept posting the latest news to the London thread.)

― Rum, Sodomy and the LAN (kate), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 13:26 (twenty years ago)

(Haw, I believe it was you, thanks)

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 13:26 (twenty years ago)

I guessed it was Ken.

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 13:28 (twenty years ago)

Haven't seen the new issue; tell me more about this Seven Sisters-Stratford line, Steve... Using some freight branch in Hackney?

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 13:28 (twenty years ago)

xxpost i think you may have mentioned it on the first walks thread kate

(xpost np!)

― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 13:28 (twenty years ago)

erm add one x for each of the xposts thanks

― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 13:28 (twenty years ago)

Seven Sisters - Stratford route is presumably

leave Seven Sisters
curve round to South Tottenham
past Markfield recreation ground
between the Warwick reservoirs
Walthamstow marsh
under Lea Bridge Road
past New Spitalfields market
under Temple Mill Lane
into Stratford station platform 10A

only one return journye made per day - 0838 from Seven Sisters, reaching Stratford at 0859. Leaving Stratford at 1742. Marvellous.

Another contender for London's Loneliest Train would be the Birmingham (I think) to Paddington train via West Ruislip, going from the Chiltern line to the freight line that links up with the main Paddington - The West lines at Old Oak (near where they store Eurostar chassis). Only one one-way journey per day for this, at around 12.30 weekday afternoons.

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 13:42 (twenty years ago)

Urban Intervention No. 34

Wait for London Zoo to shut, then stand outside the main entrance dressed as a bear, rattling the gate and tapping an imaginary wristwatch. To make it more convincing, carry an HMV bag in one paw.

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 14:03 (twenty years ago)

want

― Adam In Real Life (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 14:04 (twenty years ago)

there is WAY too much sort of 'ooh the mistily drifting 38 never fails to desposit your humble narrator safely back home on balls pond road, where I can revel cosily in the utter utter wonderfulness that is buses, fog and london'. it's kinda smug.

also the page layout is migraine inducing

but it's ok... just thought i'd be negative as everyone else is being so nice

― grosvenor lucrece, Tuesday, 19 July 2005 14:15 (twenty years ago)

No I was gonna say I find a lot of the writing TOO pretentious, self-indulgent, aimless and frustrating myself!

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 14:19 (twenty years ago)

Oh right - it's the One Railway service from Cheshunt to Liverpool Street that, once a day, curves off to Stratford. How peculiar. It's spooky cos on the London Connections map that we all know and love, it doesn't seem possible.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 14:28 (twenty years ago)

the writing is sometimes not very good in that magazine. but love the idea.

― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 15:31 (twenty years ago)

I hope they'll send it overseas - I want a copy.

― luna (luna.c), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 15:33 (twenty years ago)

they do ship to Rest Of World, wherever that is.

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 15:34 (twenty years ago)

Zone 7 eh?

― Raston Warrior Robot (alix), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 15:36 (twenty years ago)

it's best when it's funny.

― Pete W (peterw), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 15:54 (twenty years ago)

The writing is just a continuation of the rambling prose Matt used to write on the inserts that came with all the Sarah 7"s

I didn't like them much then either...

― Jack Battery-Pack (Jack Battery-Pack), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 16:38 (twenty years ago)

The cover is awful (ugh the type. and where did it get that dress, and those shoes, JESUS!) , which doesn't bode well for the "graphic art" inside. Articles sound good though.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 16:44 (twenty years ago)

I like the photograph.

― Adam In Real Life (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 16:52 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, the duck is great, but the type needs to go the way of the dodo.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 16:55 (twenty years ago)

(sorry, in corny metaphor mood today)

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 17:00 (twenty years ago)

I don't know anything about type.

― Adam In Real Life (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 17:00 (twenty years ago)

There isn't really any graphic art inside - just some scribbly illustrative stuff.

It'd be nice if it was full colour perhaps although the b/w photos have great power as it is.

I'm not arsed about the type choices. It's readable enough.

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 17:01 (twenty years ago)

Sorry, didn't mean to hate on something good. I really have no idea what it's all about. I just really don't like that condensed type on the cover!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 17:06 (twenty years ago)

Well they avoided serifed text throughout the whole thing, which is good or bad I can't decide.

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 17:08 (twenty years ago)

It just looks to me like they condensed it themselves in Quark or whatever which is ok in an emergency (if you have to cram a bunch of info into a small space), but not for the title on the cover.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 17:18 (twenty years ago)

The Paddington-Birmingham via West Ruislip line was the fastest route from London to Birmingham when it opened around 1900. Part of it's called the Aynho Cutoff, and part of it the Great Western & Great Central Joint Line. It joins the Oxford-Birmingham route somewhere near Banbury.

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 17:53 (twenty years ago)

Do you know why it still runs? It would've been ideal for me to get directly from Paddington to West Ruislip back when I lived near there - tho of course Marylebone does the same job on a different line.

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 18:59 (twenty years ago)

i bought it, today, in foyles

― charltonlido (gareth), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 19:03 (twenty years ago)

Stratford to Seven Sisters

About to get much more frequent as some Stanstead express trains are going to be diverted by this route, ready for Eurostar and Olympic link ups.

― Ed (dali), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 19:03 (twenty years ago)

There was a long period before railway privatisation when passenger lines could not have their entire service withdrawn without a long legal process; but could have the service *reduced* to any level.

Since then the service has been kept up because, I assume, the company that operates it doesn't want to lose their right to run trains into Paddington.

(it's not the worst train service in the country - there are a couple of stations in Manchester which have one train per week in one direction, and no service at all in the other)

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 19:16 (twenty years ago)

There are several 'Parliamentary services' in the country, trains run to stop from breaching victorian era acts that established the railways. (a couple in the manchester area, around the Halton curve that connects Chester to Liverpool via Runcorn and the Bridge, and a few others).

― Ed (dali), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 19:20 (twenty years ago)

Actually, Ed, that's not quite true. Although some railways were established to provide a service "in perpetuity", those clauses were overridden by a later Transport Act. The current "Parliamentary services" are mostly left over from 1980s and 90s "closure by stealth" procedures.

I don't think that applies to the Stratford-Seven Sisters service, though, because that was only reopened to passenger traffic relatively recently.

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 19:26 (twenty years ago)

is the latest issue number 6? i should get round to buying it...

― toby (tsg20), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 19:50 (twenty years ago)

two years pass...

just got #11, great front cover photo
http://home.btconnect.com/smoke/index.htm

― blueski, Thursday, 6 December 2007 15:00 (eighteen years ago)

My sectioned knife-wielding ex wrote for this dudes once.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 6 December 2007 15:06 (eighteen years ago)

you certainly pick them :(

― DG, Thursday, 6 December 2007 15:08 (eighteen years ago)

matt's web design skills haven't imporved i see...

― koogs, Thursday, 6 December 2007 15:12 (eighteen years ago)

My sectioned knife-wielding ex wrote for this dudes once.

Tricity Bendix amirite

― blueski, Thursday, 6 December 2007 15:30 (eighteen years ago)

i do wish Smoke was a blog-based thing (+forum) but Mr Haynes isn't big on web presence

― blueski, Thursday, 6 December 2007 15:30 (eighteen years ago)

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