According to the Transport for London web site:
Barclays Cycle Hire, launching on 30 July, will be a public bicycle sharing scheme for short journeys in and around central London.
You’ll be able to pick up a bicycle, use it as you like, then drop it off at one of 400 locations in central London, ready for the next person.
I took this photo today of a series of newly installed cycle rack was taken outside Loewy’s office on Bankside.
Next time you’re in central London on a hot day, seek out Gelupo a new Italian-style gelateria on Archer Street, in Soho, that opened on Friday. Its an offshoot of the Italian restaurant across the road called Bocca di Lupo and serves a selection of home made gelati, sorbets and granitas.
Have you checked out the CIPR’s Social Summer 2010 series of social media workshops?
No? You really should. The two-hour sessions are being run each Thursday evening at the CIPR HQ in London from 5pm. The cost is £10 on the door to cover beers and nibbles.
Throughout the summer members of the CIPR Social Media panel and other social media doers will cover topics from social media basics to social TV and from SEO to social media etiquette.
I’m up on 5 August with a session entitled ‘How to get ahead in social’ that will explore how to build your own social networks and reputation online.
The workshops are the brainchild of Phil Sheldrake and have been pulled together openly on a wiki. Experts have been given free reign over their content.
A better and broader introduction to social media you will not find. Check out the schedule on the wiki and register your interest in any of the events by following the links.
East Coast, the government run company that operates the east cost mainline, has added a free first class journey to my account morning to my account. I use the line to travel back and forth between London and the North-East each week.
In an email to Escape club members that travelled during the period that saw planes grounded due to the Icelandic ash cloud the train operator explains that it wants to show its appreciation to frequent travellers following the surge in passenger numbers.
“Over this period we carried over 32,000 extra passengers and did everything we could to manage the unexpected level of demand; we provided 27 additional services between London and Edinburgh and 36 extended services between London and Newcastle through to Edinburgh.”
“However, we recognise that this unprecedented level of demand may have had an impact on the comfort of your journey so we would like to show our appreciation for your patience by giving you an extra Travel for One voucher on your escape account.”
It’s an extraordinary move by a company that is clearly keen to delight its customers.
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We discovered the Ship and Shovell today. It’s a pub of two halves under the arches of Charing Cross split in two by Craven passage. It’s a rare thing in central London: a pub off the tourist trail with decent beer and food.
We used the occasion to welcome Mital and Chrissie to our growing ranks. In the event of any confusion they’re the women in the snap below sat either side of Steve (the gormless looking one) and me.
John Brown took the snap with his shiny new Panasonic DMC-TZ8.
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Richmond Park, the Natural History Museum and its bedfellow the Science Museum, and the Columbia Road Flower Market are all among my family’s favourite places in London where a trip out needn’t cost a fortune.
We added another to the list this weekend: The Monument to the Great Fire of London in the City at the junction of Monument Street and Fish Street. The haul up the 311 steps makes for hard work but the panoramic views of landmarks such as the BT Tower, the Gherkin, the London Eye and Tower Bridge are breathtaking.
Only the views from the top of the dome at the nearby St Paul’s Cathedral come close but that’ll cost you an admission fee of £12.50 for adults and £4.50 for children – compared to £3 and £1 respectively to climb the Monument.
The simple Doric column is topped by a flaming urn of copper symbolising the Great Fire. It is 202 ft high which by design is exactly the distance from the base of the Monument to where Great Fire of London started on Pudding Lane in 1666.
The Monument has given its name to the nearby tube station (Central, Circle, District, Northern, Waterloo and City and Docklands Light Railway) and was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and Robert Hooke and built in 1671. It reopened almost 12 months ago after a £4.5 million refurbishment.
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Smooching couples were banned at Yo! Sushi in St Pauls, London, on Valentine’s Day.
I love old newspapers. They provide a direct and very physical connection with the past.
Here’s a City editorial from a 1940s edition of The Evening Standard that I bought at the weekend. Its striking because the article could have been written yesterday.
If you’re in London and near Trafalgar Square in the next week go and have a look at the graveyard of tree roots called Ghost Forest. Its been put there by artist Angela Palmer in a bid to raise the issue of deforestation of the world’s forests.
Next time you have to work late in London I recommend that you check out Deliverance. It’s a web based restaurant-quality delivery service with five kitchens and 120 bikers based around the city.
I’ve just received a copy of the beautifully produced Deliverance catalogue which describes its America, Chinese, Indian, Italian, kids, pudding, Salad, Sushi, Thai and World menus. The food isn’t necessarily the cheapest but it is cooked fresh and delivered to your door, normally within 45 minutes of ordering.
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Payment-for-pitching is back on the agenda in the PR industry after PR Week reported last week that Confused.com offered to pay agencies for their ideas post pitch.
Mark Pinsent has done a great job of capturing the debate.
[…] the novelty of Confused.com’s action serves to highlight how happy the PR industry still is to give away what should be its most valuable assets: creative and strategic thinking. It really should stop, but when even the biggest, most successful firms haven’t got the bollocks to change things, it won’t.
Loewy Pitch Masterclass
By coincidence I was in the audience of Loewy agencies yesterday afternoon for a Pitch Masterclass at the Wellcome Institute in London.
We heard from a mix of agency and client speakers from inside and outside Loewy, including Branded, EMI Music, Seymourpowell, The Team and Wieden + Kennedy.
Payment-for-pitching
Richard Williams, founder of design agency Williams Murray Hamm said that his agency rarely pitches for work and only under well defined circumstances. When it does pitch, it charges for creative work.
It’s a bold approach. But as a result WMH has developed a phenomenal reputation and is a highly profitable business.
Dick Powell, founder of design and innovation company Seymourpowell said that his agency always charged for pitching.
Pitch porn
At the opposite end of the spectrum Neil Christie, managing director of independent ad agency Wieden & Kennedy shared some of his agency’s pitches for multi-million international accounts.
Like its contemporaries in the ad industry Wieden & Kennedy doesn’t charge for pitches but does have a rigorous selection criteria and process for work that it chases. As a result it has won four out five pieces of work that it has pitched this year.
Update: Wieden & Kennedy’s Neil Christie has blogged about the Pitch Masterclass.
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Today is World Carfree Day 2009 – part of European mobility week.
I broke my pledge before 6am by driving my car the 25 miles from home in Holystone over Alnwick moor to Alnmouth to catch the crack of dawn train to London.
My excuse? There are no public transport options at that time of day and it would be a hellish cycle ride at any hour. And I drive a Smart car.
But whether looking to cut carbon emissions, reduce costs, or improve work life balance, more and more companies are now helping their employees to work from home.
One of Speed’s tech clients Aastra has launched a Twitter mash-up today to promote where people are working from home. Using Twitter anyone working from home is invited to tweet their location with the hash tag #wfh.
The hash-tag will automatically add users to a map of home workers.
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Here’s a panoramic shot of Antony Gormley’s One and Other project round the corner from the Speed office in Trafalgar Square. What really struck me is how the plinth and its occupant are dwarfed by its surroundings and the other statues in the square.
Flickr: One and Other, Trafalgar Square, London (left of shot)
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