View Full Version : Tottenham Court Road area
Stobart Stopper
08-09-2007, 20:28
Another shithole of the highest order IMO> Started my First Aid course in New Oxford St today, bloody filthy area. Loads of vomit puddles in the doorways of the shops, (which were still there at 1.30 pm)litter everywhere, grimy looking buildings. Horrible underground station, really rundown and smelly.
Bond Street/Selfridges end is so much nicer.
Why doesn't someone clean it up? It's a fucking disgrace. God only knows what tourists think if they get off there first.
Once you leave the immediate environs of TCR it's quite a nice part of London.
Stobart Stopper
08-09-2007, 21:01
Bloomsbury Square is nice, I have always liked that part of London.
It's just embarrassing, as a Londoner, standing there like I was this morning giving directions to a young backpacker who has just come in from Heathrow the day before.
Welcome to London, son. Do you like our selection of pools of vomit?
og ogilby
08-09-2007, 21:03
It's just embarrassing, as a Londoner, standing there like I was this morning giving directions to a young backpackerTake your first left after the vomit and then just follow the smell.
i quite like bradley's spanish bar
trashpony
08-09-2007, 22:07
TCR is a bloody shithole.
Prince Rhyus
09-09-2007, 19:05
And that's without the roadworks.
I go past that junction on my way to work, thinking:
"What can we knock down and replace?" (Thinking Centrepoint Tower as it just gets in the way).
"How can we get shop owners to do up the buildings?"
Trams and pedestrianisation are the way to go. They work splendidly in Vienna and the latter doesn't have a huge Runty-groo problem.
snowy_again
10-09-2007, 09:29
i quite like bradley's spanish bar
sssh, don't mention that place too loudly, its already as busy as it can get. But are the Hanway Street disappearing? Troys is now closed...
bluestreak
10-09-2007, 09:40
it always has been. st giles circus and environs were once the site of one of the worst slums of london. these days it's just a square half mile of ghastliness. easily one of the most unpleasant crossroads in london. also once the site of the place where a prisoner on his way to be hanged at the tyburn 'tree' (approx where marble arch is now) would find the cart rattle to a halt and be given a final drink in front of a jeering crowd of rookery denizens!
sssh, don't mention that place too loudly, its already as busy as it can get. But are the Hanway Street disappearing? Troys is now closed...
sorry - there were a load of spanish style bars there years ago, it is a back street, had many a fine drink there and at the other ones, are they all closing now?
dash_two
10-09-2007, 09:46
Just around Centrepoint is pretty horrible but once you've gone a few hundred yards north along TCR it's not so bad. You've got the Angel pub nearby, and good restaurants like the Gay Hussar and L'Etoile not too far away either. Oxford Street should just disappear into a deep fissure in the ground though.
QueenOfGoths
10-09-2007, 13:00
Yeah - once you get off TCR itself - although it is home to the marvelous Heals, The Pier, Habitat, Paperchase and branch of CEX - there are some nice streets nearby.
Fitzroy Sqaure is very nice and Charlotte Street isn't too bad. There is quite a good Oxfam Shop on Mortimer Street, Th British Museum is a short stroll away from TCR and Bloomsbury is lovely - esp. round the Bruncswick Centre.
Just a shame about the charity-nappers and the Scientologists!
Strangeways
10-09-2007, 13:04
Why doesn't someone clean it up? It's a fucking disgrace. God only knows what tourists think if they get off there first.It's like that to attract the tourists and make them think it's somewhere edgy.
QueenOfGoths
10-09-2007, 13:12
It's like that to attract the tourists and make them think it's somewhere edgy.
Sadly I don't think the area immediately round Tottenham Court Tube Station and Centrepoint could be described as 'edgy'. Shitty maybe but not edgy!
poster342002
10-09-2007, 13:29
I think "edgy" and "vibrant" have actually become bywords for "shitty", though.
QueenOfGoths
10-09-2007, 13:36
LOL:D . Yeah you could be right. I do pity any tourist who decides to visit the 'edgy' Centrepoint area. Unless you like concrete and the smell of urine!
May Kasahara
10-09-2007, 14:33
TCR itself is fucking vile, my very least favourite place in London. Tawdry, dirty and wall to wall with people who hate it just as much as you, all barging past in their desperation to get away. Because of the many buses that pass through the junction of TCR and Oxford Street, the air is always full of rankness. When I worked in Bedford Square, I used to walk from TCR tube station to my office, and in the winter that two minute walk would be enough to fill my nostrils with thick black snot. The traffic is constantly gridlocked; when I got the emergency call to rush up to UCLH when my brother was dying, it was quicker for me to walk briskly from where I was just behind Bedford Square than to get a cab.
The place is an utter shithole and now has the added bonus of a whole heap of terrible memories for me. Burn it to the ground and sow the earth with salt. I hate it.
Monkeynuts
20-09-2007, 07:40
LOL:D . Yeah you could be right. I do pity any tourist who decides to visit the 'edgy' Centrepoint area. Unless you like concrete and the smell of urine!
Or smack. In which case it's not a bad place to start.
and the Scientologists!
Are they still there??!???
DJWrongspeed
20-09-2007, 08:05
Anyone seen the white kiosk outside the Dominion theatre ("We will rock you") Someone's stencilled it with a big black circle on all sides and has the slogan 'Cultural Blackspot' :D I almost asked the owner if it was deliberate. Wish i'd had a camera. More stencilling please, we've got Dikie Davis splattered around Brixton hill, ha!
More stencilling please, we've got Dikie Davis splattered around Brixton hill, ha!
I think it's Steve Bull (Wolves), not Dikie Davis on the Hill ;)
The one with a pork pie hat?
Yeh working there was particularly shit too :(
Grubby and soiled :mad:
poster342002
20-09-2007, 15:01
Is it just me, but does that area always feel like it's stuck in a timewarp? Almost as if time there itself got stuck circa 1975? :confused:
A Hogarthian view view from around the St Giles Centrepoint area.
http://www.uchsc.edu/news/bridge/2003/jan1/images/move/GinLaneZ.jpg
The church tower, St George's Bloomsbury, in the distance can still be seen from there. To be honest however grim you find it now, it has probably gone up in the word over the past couple of centuries.
The aforementioned tower (designed, along with the church by Hawksmore)has just been restored to its original state including some nicely recarved lions and unicorns (the originals were chipped of by high minded Victorian "restorers) fighting at its base. Amazing what you discover on these open house weekends
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/162/360690418_f5b7471fdf.jpg
It's just embarrassing, as a Londoner, standing there like I was this morning giving directions to a young backpacker who has just come in from Heathrow the day before.
Welcome to London, son. Do you like our selection of pools of vomit?
He'll probably be adding to the mess tonight.
miss minnie
21-09-2007, 17:01
TCR trivia: The Dominion theatre stands opposite the site of The Horse Shoe Brewery (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meux's_Brewery) which suffered catastrophe and loss of life in 1814 when a vat burst.
TCR trivia: The Dominion theatre stands opposite the site of The Horse Shoe Brewery (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meux's_Brewery) which suffered catastrophe and loss of life in 1814 when a vat burst.
Dyingthe death of a "have a go hero" was certainly a lot more fun in those days.
One man even attempted to stop the flood by drinking the alcohol and died from alcohol poisoning.
DJWrongspeed
21-09-2007, 18:18
I think it's Steve Bull (Wolves), not Dikie Davis on the Hill ;)
The one with a pork pie hat?
nope near us, upper tulse hill, it's defo Dickie with his badger streaked bouffant :p
back on topic, Peter Ackroyd has a good bit to say about this area in his 'London' a biography. New Oxford St was created to clear away the crap, south of this has always been a dodgy area around st.giles.
it's a shit hole i love though.always had good times around there.i agree it could definately do with a bloody mop and some disinfectant though.
back on topic, Peter Ackroyd has a good bit to say about this area in his 'London' a biography. New Oxford St was created to clear away the crap, south of this has always been a dodgy area around st.giles.
great book :cool:
Stobart Stopper
22-09-2007, 12:17
My brother had lent me book called Plague which goes into great detail about the St Giles area and the rats.
Paul Russell
23-09-2007, 13:06
Anyone seen the white kiosk outside the Dominion theatre ("We will rock you") Someone's stencilled it with a big black circle on all sides and has the slogan 'Cultural Blackspot' :D I almost asked the owner if it was deliberate. Wish i'd had a camera. More stencilling please, we've got Dikie Davis splattered around Brixton hill, ha!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/simonscott/1297704278/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johanna/324309304/
If you search Flickr for Cultural Blackspot, there's quite a few.
There are plans, all tied up with crossrail, to demolish the centrepoint fountains and create a new public square in place of it. This will mean demolishing the Astoria, though - that whole ocrner block will be redeveloped. And I wonder if the public square will just turn into a big vomit puddle. But at least there'll be some money spent on public realm.
This will mean demolishing the Astoria, though - that whole ocrner block will be redeveloped.
With the Camden Electric Ballroom going too, it really will be the end of an era :(
(although I accept they both look run down)
Edit: save the Astoria website here http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=88488742
bluestreak
23-09-2007, 19:59
why demolish the fucking astoria when you can demolish fucking centre fucking point. things a damn eyesore.
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