Lazy People

Tallboy

Every morning I walk from the top of SGR to the station at the bottom. I do have a travelcard but choose not to use it, preferring to start the day with a brisk walk. I can understand that some people, especially in the winter, do not want to do this walk. So I have no problem with the people standing at the bus stop outside the hairdresser/chemist at the top of SGR.
However, what is up with the people who queue at the last stop on SGR opposite the post office? It’s a 2 minute walk to the station!
The elderly, disabled, pregnant, push chair/buggy bound people I have no problem with. But the able bound youngsters are just plain lazy. We should fine them and spend the money on re-fitting the number 4 bus to make the seats more comfortable for tall people.

tosscat

Disability takes many forms. I always figure they don't know the area. Sometimes I pretend to not know it terminates at Wells Terrace and stay on for a wee while.

Jenowl

The seats on the 4 are a nightmare for anyone, but particularly for tall people. It is unacceptable for people to be forced into tiny seating spaces where they can't even get their legs in properly! The seating on the new style 56 buses is great - very roomy, bright and (at the moment) clean and with a better staircase arrangement. The 4 is long overdue for a revamp.

graeme

Maybe they've got a travelcard, and think "for £100 a month I'm damn well going to get my money's worth, and get fat AT THE SAME TIME".

anix

I often use the stop opposite tesco to go FP station, and exercise more that most people, I just choose when and how. And the 4' walk doesn't count as exercise in my book.

ADGS

A four foot walk probably doesn't count as exercise, but it's not *that* close.

dorothy

I agree it with Tallboy, it makes no sense waiting for that bus opposite the postoffice, (not Tesco: just wishful thinking). By the time the bus has come, you could have walked it. I've never liked that bus stop, since there was that murder there, as well.

Coming home seems completely different though, and I often get it from outside the station and get off at that bus stop.

Nick10

I walk from the top of SGR to the station everyday. Working in an office from 9 to 5 I need every foot of excercise I can get anyway.

anix

people can take a cab for all i care, i just object to being called lazy.

krappyrubsnif

I am just so bored with walking down that poxy road. And down the back way. But no, I never wait for the bus, I only get on it if it happens to be coming past, and anyway, I'm usually on my way to the gym at Highbury, so what the hell.

Sutent

I saw one of the people who normally sit outside tesco lying in the bush near that bus stop. He was surrounded by the police. When has it become a criminal offence to lie in a bush?

Beek

What about the able people who have bought new shoes which turn out to rub and pinch and then they can't take any more walking - they use that bus stop a lot. Or the people who have bought leggings (leggins? I dunno) which ride down and cause embarrassing wardrobe malfunctions while walking. I use that bus stop too.

Ian

I want the pavement back from where Vista stole it ...

dorothy

Bored with the poxy road? Tell me about it. Getting the bus just seems like defeat though, even if your hold-ups are riding down.

I'll be glad when it gets lighter in the evening, at least the walk back through the park is pleasant.

ShaunG

@Ian, I totally agree. The encroaching hoardings make the pavement very crammed, and forces cyclists off the cycle path just in time to crash through the craters of death (which is another saga that I can't see ending).

wisteria53

Ahh, the craters of death. The ones on Hanley Road have enlarged to bicycle wheel size....

magicP

I walk it too, unless I'm really tired on the way home from work. It's pointless to get the bus at the moment though because you get stuck for something like nine years at those temporary lights at the top of SGR.

The number 4 bus route is really useful; I just wish they were more frequent.

tosscat

The back route is one of the most boring walks in London.

Arkady

Tosscat: which back route? Sometimes I cut down Lancaster Rd or Florence rd -> Woodstock Rd. I can't get enough of the architecture. I'm a bit odd like that though.

B

tosscat

No, Charteris Road.

Ian

@tosscat - I walk that way and enjoy my stroll by checking to see which houses are being done up. I have mental picture of how those streets have changed since I moved back this way from my exile south of the station. That and furiously reading emails like the cyber-junkie I am.

Arkady

@Ian@ Has there been a big improvement in the street facades in recent years then?

ADGS

What's with those temporary lights at the top of SGR, anyway?

Ian

Many interesting changes, some not for the better as there has been a rash of taking out sash windows and putting in PVC. Perhaps I should do a post work walking tour - a kind of mobile curtain twitching...

Arkady

They appear to be tearing up the road in a serious manner.

checkski

Oi! What's wrong with Charteris Rd? You're talking about my patch - I live just round the corner. I think the architecture is OK, particularly at the Tolly Pk end. There are some rather fine pediments on the right (facing north), I think. They have a sort of flattened quality.

Arkady

The window-ruining gets my goat. They should extend the Stroud Green or Tollington Park conservation areas to cover any Victorian housing stock in that area. Indeed, those conservation rules should apply to any Victorian building anyway in my opinion. It’s short-termism which reduces the value of the house and the neighbouring houses. I fully recognise the environmental arguments, but there should be grants to help people replace their old windows with double-glazed wooden sash windows rather than hideous PVC.

It currently only covers the very top: http://www.islington.gov.uk/DownloadableDocuments/Environment/Pdf/urbandesignguide/CA25_Tollington_Park.pdf
Arky

Ian

There are some really nice houses on Charteris. I should probably have said that most of the changes have been really good - cleaning up facades and painting, clearing front yards etc.

lizbet

Sometimes I get the bus because you can't see all the dog poo on the pavement in the dark and I would rather not step in it. Also SGR smells really fishy until you get past the white lion.

miss annie

I'd love to live at Tollington Park end of Charteris, those Georgian cottage style houses are gorgeous. Has anyone else noticed the stencil of a fairy on the illuminated bollard thing where the road narrows?

Slabber

I tend to walk down the Haringey side of Stroud Green Road because the pavement is wider and there are fewer people.