?

Cross Westminster Bridge heading away from the Houses of Parliament. You’ll pass County Hall on your left, St Thomas’s Hospital on your right, and in front of you is... what? What the hell is that? The thing has been uninhabited and pretty much derelict for as long as I’ve lived in London (14 years), but it isn’t listed, as the site has now been earmarked for demolition and development. My curiosity was piqued recently when refracted_through_a_prism asked what the building was, and I realised I had never given it a moment’s thought, beyond “it’s ugly and it’s In The Damn Way”.

It crops up in this story, but even here the reporter is clearly stumped, and is reduced to calling it “this building”.

2007 UPDATE: This journal entry is already hopelessly dated, as the building in question has since been demolished to make way for an "apart-hotel" (see next entry).

? (again)

Disappointingly, further feverish research suggests that the mystery building (the stack of pancakes on the left of the picture) is nothing more than an annexe to County Hall. Ah well. Maybe we can make it more exciting by pretending it was full of spies or wasps or something.

2007 UPDATE: This journal entry is already hopelessly dated, as the building in question has since been demolished to make way for an "apart-hotel" (see previous entry).

(no subject)

Who was it was trying to tell me there isn’t a Marriott hotel in County Hall? Who was it?

Seriously, who was it? I can’t remember for the life of me.

EDIT: It was my cousin, who doesn't read this. As you were.

Peasant news

An Indian woman who was raped has rejected a marriage proposal from the rapist, calling the idea “horrible”.

She had been asked in court whether she would accept the proposal from her attacker who had hoped it might lower his sentence.

The convicted rapist said he was offering to marry the woman because the stigma of rape in India meant no one else would.

Following the rejection, the court sentenced the rapist to life in prison.

Women’s groups expressed disgust at the request and disappointment that the court had allowed the petition to be made. [BBC]

To be fair, there’s still a fair few on our own judicial benches who would think that was an entirely reasonable offer.