The Fox Covert

Interesting post. I disagree with Benjamin Disraeli and agree with Nikolaus Pevsner on this one. The windows on the second floor look blank and should have multiple panes. Probably a squat sash with each sash frame divided vertically. Also the mansard roof on the third floor clashes with the neo-classical facade on the lower two floors. The grand staircase in the second shot looks great though. Very nicely proportioned. Thanks for posting.

The replacement for the Lewis's building is like a creation from Lego or Minecraft and is much worse than the building it replaced but it is still better than the brick-and-glass monstrosity on the right which looks like one of King Charles' word processors.

Loftus Road is one of those horrible grounds with an atmosphere which is not very football. I get a similar lack of vibe from that dump Palace play in.

I wonder if anyone has looked to see the w@nkstains on his laptop screen?

Just done a little bit of lunchtime research. The bridges in the foreground do not actually cross Braunstone Gate. I did not think they looked quite right, and my memory did not fail me. I have found a picture of the Braunstone Gate bowstring girder bridge viewed from street level. The map tells all. The location of the black and white photo is from the sidings just south of the twin bridges across the River Soar. The attached map shows the railway and the buildings in the correct place. I do remember the large square goods shed. You can also see the spire of St Margarets in the right background. I have also zoomed out on the map to show the edges of the urban development of Leicester. I think the map was probably dated about 1920 as the Braunstone estate had not yet been built, nor had the early council houses on Welford Road near the junction with Knighton Lane. I think the railway photo was probably 1950s as the open wagon in the foreground is all fabricated steel - earlier wagons were made of wood. I also zoomed in on Filbo. The Main stand and the Kop, both I believe built in the 1920s are not there. The only stand is a shallow curved affair where the Main stand was later built. The other three sides were probably open terraces. A bit of a shout out to the National Library of Scotland website, which is a fantastic resource if you want old maps.

9 deg outside and 16.5 deg inside most of the house, because the heating has not been on since early this morning when I got up. Home office is well insulated with dry lined outside walls and a false ceiling which is also insulated and is a comfortable 20 deg. The house is an eighteenth century cottage with thick stone walls and is double-glazed throughout. I have spent quite a lot of money to improve the heating and insulation but the kitchen, which is an outshut on the side of the house, is still rather chilly. I think the next step is probably more insulation in the kitchen roof and the best solution is probably Tyvek slab insulation between the rafters, which I could do myself.

Intelligent and balanced post from Clapham Fox. Hamas is an extremely dangerous organisation, funded by Russia and probably by other terrorist countries, and is a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK. Its stated objective is the elimination of the Israeli state. The Gaza strip is mostly part of the historic area of Palestine under the UN partition plan which created the Israeli state after the Second World War. For the last fifteen years the government of Gaza has to all intents and purposes been Hamas, and it is not recognised by most countries in the world. No country should ever have to tolerate a terrorist state on its borders. I think the majority of Palestinians within Gaza are not particularly happy to be governed by Hamas, any more than Russians really want to be governed by Putin and the corrupt clique of siloviki terrorists around him. Israel will be supported by the majority of democratic countries but it should expressly state that its objectives are limited to making its borders safe and protecting its citizens. And that it has no interest in annexing Gaza and deporting the existing population to make space for Israeli people to live, and that it would be happy to live with a democratic state in Gaza. The crisis has been building up for at least the last fifteen years and Israel has no choice now but to eliminate the threat. But when Hamas is gone, if Israel has sent its army into Gaza it should withdraw and allow the installation of a protectorate in Gaza, under the supervision of the UN. Palestine has a large ethnic diaspora in many Western countries and the prospects for the establishment of a peaceful and democratic government, which is happy to live with its neighbours Israel and Egypt, are much greater than they ever were in the failed state of Afghanistan. Israel's action is also creating a refugee crisis. Israel, unlike Ukraine, is a wealthy First World country and it has the resources to provide financial assistance to countries which accept refugees from Gaza. It should also allow its security services to work with countries accepting refugees to help identify individuals closely associated with Hamas so that they aren't allowed to take their poison into a third country.

Things have definitely changed for the better. When I was at school Asian refugees were just starting to arrive in Leicester. I remember the first one in my class - Mumtaz? who originally arrived in Leeds and then came to Leicester. The whole family had one suitcase of clothes between them and no warm winter clothing. The thickest boy in the class said he was going to join the National Front and go Paki-bashing. I don't think that lasted very long as Asian families are very much all for one and one for all. Attack one and the whole family will sort you out. Ever since then I have hated fascists and the hard-right racists in the Tory Party, who are much the same thing. And I am glad to see Braverman get taken down for her remarks about Leicester.

If I was a dog and Suella Braverman stood on my tail I would bite her ankle off.

I was puzzled by what an Eastern Region loco might be doing at London Road and I am pretty certain the station was Leicester Central. The black and white picture has the same style stanchions on the canopy. The engine in the picture is not Gordon. Gordon the engine in Awdry's books, like all of his creations, is based on a real locomotive and was an A3 Pacific, like Flying Scotsman (a much larger engine than the one in the picture). The engine in the picture was most likely a B1 or a B17. I can't say for definite because I can't see the wheels and running plate for all the people standing on the platform. Just thinking ... it might have been 61665 Leicester City. Many of these engines were named after Football League teams, mostly in towns and cities served by the Eastern Region. There is even a Hornby model of 61665. Interesting post and a good look into Leicester's past.

Martyn Waghorn's name has always intrigued me. And then I found this ... Waghorn is a Scots word for 'the king of all liars, the devil'! From stooryduster.co.uk

I think Carrie Whatserface looks like one of the dumb blondes in the long-defunct Philadelphia cheese advert. Enough to put you off their cheap processed gunk-in-a-plastic container for life. Just look at her doe-ey eyes!

To make the line a real asset to both NW Leicestershire and the city centre it would make sense to persuade the businesses in the southern end of the Freeman's Common industrial estate to relocate. Then the chord which used to link the line from Coalville/Ashby to the Midland Main Line going northbound could be reinstated.

I paid for mine and although it cost a lot of money I kept my house, which I now own outright, and all my pensions.

How long ago did you buy that VW? Vans are silly prices at the moment and a VW for £2000 has probably been to the moon and back.

Russia has already claimed to have destroyed 23 Challengers and the UK only sent Ukraine 14. So this is the 24th out of 14!

The Kop at Filbert Street was like that, I think for one season until permanent barriers divided the Kop into four pens. If the Kop was full the plod were the buffer zone between rival supporters.

There is no underestimating the lack of intelligence of some of Trump's supporters. These are the people Jeremy Clarkson was thinking of when he said 'everybody's very fat, everybody's very stupid and everybody's very rude...' I can't remember the one where he talked about vegetables. This is my recent take on Trump in jail getting his prison haircut. Trump is cartoon gold and I have done much more unprintable than this.

Vile piece of 5h1t. I hope Romania has an unimproved hell-hole of a jail which is a relic from the Soviet era to put him in.

I haven't read this one but I have the book by Sergii Plokhii. I have read several of his books which are always thoroughly researched and good reading.

Amartey is the Alan Woollett of the current generation. Never good enough to nail down a permanent place in the team but always happy to fill in wherever he is required, and never complained about not being in the team. Woollett never scored a goal like that one though. I don't remember him scoring a goal at all, and don't even remember him going into the opposition half.

I am still waiting for a certain North London team to be sponsored by Spud-U-Like!

At Leicester and Celtic in the latter stages of his career he rarely ran out of the centre circle. Nobody else could get near the ball in that small space, but it is quite a small space, probably about the same size as the bar area in his local pub.

Queens Park Rangers or Stafford Rangers?

I asked ChatGPT again about Dennis Wise, very carefully wording my statement. Its response is just unbelievable. Just read this! I'm sorry, but the information you provided about Dennis Wise and his termination from Leicester City Football Club in 2002 is not accurate. As of my knowledge cutoff in September 2021, there is no record of Dennis Wise being terminated from Leicester City FC for assaulting a teammate who was asleep in his bed. Dennis Wise is a former professional footballer who played for several clubs during his career, including Wimbledon, Chelsea, and Leicester City. While he had his share of controversies and disciplinary issues during his playing days, I couldn't find any specific incident matching the description you provided. It's possible that the event you mentioned occurred after my knowledge cutoff or that it was a mistaken or fabricated piece of information. If you have any other questions or need information on a different topic, feel free to ask.