10 April 2009

The Vauxhall effect: Park rubbish here


Spotted this in the railway-arch bike parking underneath Vauxhall Station this morning (on a research trip, to be written up in detail shortly): a Sheffield rack cheerily commandeered for use as bin park.

We've seen bike racks used for all sorts of things - lockups for ladders, dog-parks, impromptu gym equipment for children - and I think my bike's a bit rubbish, but this is ridiculous.

Clearly there's something about 'Vauxhall' that gives people misleading ideas. Visitors to Soviet-sphere countries are often amused to find that the name has been appropriated to mean 'central station'.

Georgia's railway hub in Tbilisi, for example, is called Voksal. It gave me a shiver of homesickness when I was there a couple of years ago. Almost as much as glimpsing a signpost in North Carolina to a place called Macclesfield.

2 comments:

  1. Ah, I have fond memories of Vauxhall underpass - is it still where bicycles go to die?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Maybe that's why the council bin is there - so they can put the parts straight in and wheel it off? Must admit, I couldn't see any bike remains in that bin, only empty cans of Tennents, plastic sandwich boxes, and discarded copies of The London Paper.

    ReplyDelete