London, Kings Cross

Up in London for the day for a meeting and a visit. Took the opportunity to look inside the new development at Kings Cross before going into the meeting in a rather less grand building across the road. A rather impressive piece of architecture I think. and an interesting contrast to gothic red bricked building of St Pancreas next door. Perhaps I ought to start a series on railway stations?

A productive meeting which I thought would never finish by 12.00noon but to my surprise we finished 10 minutes early, which gave me 2 hours to get to the Young Offenders Institute I was visiting. I needed the 2 hours and more as the train I boarded travelled 20 yards and stopped for over half an hour owing to a technical fault. When I arrived at my destination I had just missed a bus, so the whole journey took someting just under 2 hours.

The journey back was not much better. The bus was late meaning I missed the train I was expecting to catch and so would miss the Maidstone train I was aiming for too. The next train meant a change to get to Victoria or I could stay on and catch the tube from Waterloo, which I opted to do. Made it to the next Maidstone train with 5 minutes to spare. This train proceeded to trundle through the London suburbs very slowly owing to "being behind a Sevenoaks stopper". We arrived in Bearsted 20 minutes late. Of course, it was only one journey I occasionally do, many people will be doing the same tomorrow and the next day.