An attempt at cleaning

You are probably aware of the ongoing renovations in front of and around Highbury & Islington Station and the re-routing of the traffic around the roundabout (grunt).
The forecourt in front of the station was, so I was told, laid with the incorrect paving slabs and then re-done in nice textured [sandstone?].
But take a look at how it's being maintained. All that happens is a man in one of those mobile sweeping trucks makes a squiggly journey over the slabs and leaving a swirly dirty mess behind and the corners and edges are left untouched.

It looks filthy, worse than before!

See also the Jubilee Bridges

John Maine's Sea Strata at Green Park Station, Piccadilly – Utter Filth!

In 2011 a marvellous work by John Maine was opened to the public. Wonderful carvings within the rock evoke fossilised rock and the rolling sea. I was really impressed with it. Well, I still am impressed by the artwork.
But six years on it's filthy, and that's far from impressive.

It's been looking icky like this for at least the past year. Hardly a nice welcome for people entering the Royal Park behind. A plate within the pavement shows that this is Transport For London's private property.
Come on  TfL, get your jet washers out please.
John Maine's subtle pieces are inspired by nature. His other London work includes the war memorial within Islington Green.

More filth here.

Dirty Millennium Bridge – here we go again

Just like the Golden Jubliee Bridges, the Millennium Bridge's handrails are the only clean bits to be found along the structure as people take in the views left and right.

View from Millennium Bridge looking east

Beneath the rail, previously shiny areas are now really grubby, and dirt sits tight in the textured metal underfoot. Filth! 

Chewing gum has been trodden into the grooves onto which Ben Wilson paints his wonderful little designs. Indeed, he was busy creating a new one on the evening I took these photos.

And now they calculating the cost of a bloody garden bridge... what kind of state will that be left to get into?

Oh... re chewing gum, and the disposal thereof... #GUMDROPLTD have come up with this clever recycling solution which turns discarded gum into plastic receptacles for disposal. There are many pink recycle points across central London already.

Cleaning up the South Bank

Leaving the Royal Festival Hall and walking up the stairs to the northern side of the Jubilee Bridge a few weeks ago I was disgusted (of Hollloway) to notice how filthy the 'clear' side panels were. And I noticed that the metal strips that run either side of the whole length of the bridge(s) are also grimy.
It reminded me that when I was in Roturua, NZ, a few years ago I saw a woman cleaner, armed with a trolley full of sprays, cloths and sponges, ambling up the street cleaning the street furniture by hand quickly and efficiently. No noise, no machines, no fuss; just a bit of elbow grease.
Here in London, and perhaps the whole of the UK, we build iconic structures and 'modernise' our public transport, but then let it all get filthy within weeks. For instance, I have often witnessed electric-powered rotary cleaners being used on areas with square corners. Need I say more?!
Specifically, on the underground, the lovely yellow and blue tiles at Kings Cross were replaced with small silver grey tiles that have, within just one year become dull with patchy areas showing exactly where new batches of grout were mixed. These same badly-laid grubby little grey tiles have also been used on linking sections of other platforms, especially within the Jubilee line, whose concrete utilitarian design now just looks like the builders upped and left without finishing anything – and on a Waterloo platform recently I noticed that the leaning bars along the platform were only clean in the places that people lean on them. Ugh.
Don't get me wrong; I am not a cleanliness freak (just see the build up of dust in my house!) but the above seems to contradict all the health and safety nonsense we see and hear – don't touch this/that; wash your hands etc. The government, our councils and LRT are sending out mixed messages. Surely we ought to be keeping things looking the best they can be, and especially so this year with all the extra people expected for the Olympics?
Let's get cleaning... in the case of the Jubilee Bridge(s), I reckon it would take less than a day for a handful of people to get them looking all sparkly again.
So, to the promo bit.... I am glad to report that there is a clean-up incentive happening along the South Bank at the moment. A group of 'clean artists', headed by Moose Curtis, are creating reverse/negative graffiti along various stretches along the Thames. See more here and watch a short vid about it here.
A great idea. Some promo pics of the event are at the bottom of this post but, in Jane's London style, here are some of my own rubbish photos: