Concrete pencil

By John Hill on March 6, 2008 2:18 PM |

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Concrete Pencil - Dan Bourke's weekly howl from the forest of towers

THE little screen in the lift down from my office says it’s gone 11, all the trains are knackered and it’s 3 degrees outside.

Canary Wharf at night, past rows and rows of neat magazines in the newsagent, famous faces staring out at nothing in the half light. Past empty shirts in Pink to wait for a DLR in the cold. Will this winter never end?
Every year it seems longer. Summer – such as it was – finished six months ago. And spring won’t really start for two more.

Since when was March so bleak?

But this isn’t the kind of column that sets out to make you feel miserable. No, sir.

There are, just, reasons still to be cheerful out there.

So here’s my dig-deep,
hold-firm, this sh*t can’t last for ever, top 10 Wharf things to cheer you up.
1. Take in the view from West India Quay DLR. Best enjoyed from a train on these cold days. Look east: a dock of water, shiny towers, Billingsgate fish market, the Dome. Look south and you’re looking into the grand canopy of Norman Foster’s fine CW DLR station. And look west and there’s the green bridge, and pubs, and No1 West India Quay and old dock houses. Even on grey days it’s nice, but in any hint of sun it’s a fine, fine thing.
2. Driving the train. Combine number one with the best seat on the DLR, right up front. Swerve through the tunnel out of Bank. Stare at the low-rise landscape of Shadwell. See the yachts at Limehouse. Thrill as you climb the hill of track before angling right for CW.
3. Beef and cheddar. Posh cheese and pickle. Avocado salad wrap. Toasted chicken and basil. Bacon on brown with brown sauce. Bombay potato wrap.
4. Guiness extra cold in a long glass. A crisp pinot from the Alto Adige. A proper vodka and tonic. Pimms. Bitter shandy.
5. Take 10 minutes out of work, preferably without a jacket, and walk down past the fountain, up to the little round garden on the roundabout that’s reminiscent of the Ewok village in Return Of The Jedi. Head over road, down the steps, and rest your arms on the rails, watching the vast bend of the Thames sweep its way past Rotherhithe. Joy indeed.
6. Find the gate of black iron with a blue planet on it, and work out how to open it. It’s a magic gate.
7. Go to Cabot Place West when they’ve just polished the floor and do skids.
8. Get your shoes shined by Jock at James.
9. Fondle the leather bags and the stationery at John Lewis.
10. On the internet at your workstation, find a good campsite and arrange to go there in May.