Billy Elliot the Forum

Little Ben on Sat. 21st Jan 2012. According to the Progress Plan it is shortly to be removed while further works are carried out.

[IMG=http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/6061/lb01.jpg][/IMG]

Pat

Do you mean 'Little St. Stephens Tower' Pat?

The removal of Little Ben

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAosjnl_RJE

That was fun, Paul.

.......and this is all that was left a short while later.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/6/ ... stump.jpg/

Pat

I hope if they're planning on leaving the stump as is, that they might consider a little temporary lid of some kind to avoid the thing becoming London's most posh ashcan.

And please remove the temp fencing. As long as there aren't power cables hanging out of places that make it all dangerous, it would be really interesting to see how many people persist in having their photo journals complete with friends doing the posed "standing in front of" thing, even though half the hallmark piece of history is missing.

Of course, since there are American tourists all over the world, please someone make sure the stump is fastened to the remaining pavement thoroughly, lest it end up in the back yard of someone's McMansion in rural Ohio. More than one "Big Boy" has been spirited away from its place in front of a chain diner, even though the restaurant from which it was plucked was open 24/7.

tzwicky

They're planning on returning Little Ben fully-formed once the street work is done there aren't they ?

WOW Thanks Brian that picture really shows the scale of the work. I'm a little amazed.

"Splendid isolation" is almost an understatement.

On arrival in Victoria Street last week I was surprised to see that all of the pre-Olympic roadworks/barriers, etc., which had been removed for the event are now back in place. What a mess.

However, this link shows a cutaway overhead of the future North Ticket Hall right beside the VPT which will be very handy for us on a rainy day. There is a rumour that a new tunnel will run from below here direct to a stairs which will lead up to Row B .

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/ ... aug-08.pdf

See also http://londonist.com/2012/09/work-begin ... t-hall.php

Pat

Sorry, but I'm having trouble visualizing where the new glassed-in entrance to the Victoria underground will be, even after viewing the "artist's rendering" picture in the article. Will it be right outside the main entrance of Victoria Station, or will it be across the street closer to the theatre ?