PhilPhilPhil

I'd second the recommendation for No Flies. I'm usually wary of estate agents but Tony and Brendan are genuinely nice, trustworthy guys who have really gone the extra mile for us. I've never sold a flat before and there have been all kind of complications that we didn't anticipate but Tony especially has shown the patience of a saint in trying to guide us through it. I wouldn't hesitate to use them again.

Selfridges used to stock H&G stuff but it looks like they've been replaced by a similarly overpriced retro sweet company, Sweets In The City... https://www.sweetsinthecity.co.uk/products.html

Just wanted to post a quick recommendation for Paul O'Brien who finished some work for me this week. I had some minor building repairs (brickwork) and a room that needed re-decorating. Paul and his team did a great job on both despite having to deal with some very old and damaged plastering, and they did everything they could to restrict the disruption to the smallest area. I was out at work during the daytime and I always came home to find they'd cleaned up and locked the doors properly. Paul is very easy to deal with and I'd be happy to use him again (though I probably won't get the chance as I hope to be moving soon!). He's been recommended on the Forum before (which is how I found him) but I'm struggling to find the right thread now. His number is 07836 597890. Edit: Forgot to mention that he seemed like very good value for money as well. I didnt have any other quotes to compare with but Paul's was lower than I expected.

I had it once in Porto and a couple of times at A Torre. I'm not a huge eater and I managed to eat them without collapsing but I did feel like I needed a lie down afterwards. It's quite hard on the arteries. There is also a relatively new place at Angel that specialises in the Francesinha but I haven't been there and it looks like they might be overthinking it a bit... http://www.frhappy.com/menu

The Portuguese restaurant in Crystal Palace (A Torre) do a fine Francesinha. Actually I haven't been there for about a year but they certainly used to.

I might be able to find out from the TFL site but was the E&C area supposed to be working properly under the new scheme today, or have we just entered another stage of the hellish and seemingly never-ending rebuilding? This morning the traffic down Walworth Road was the worst its been in ages and if anything the bit near E&C station looked further from completion than it did last week. Coupled with traffic tailback from Camberwell to Peckham (seemingly caused by something on the other side of Camberwell, heading towards Oval) the 12 bus from Dulwich to Piccadilly Circus took 2 hours this morning.

I have a friend who bought in Anerley a few years back, having decided he couldn't afford Crystal Palace, and he's very pleased with it. Value of his flat has risen dramatically and he says there has been a definite improvement in the quality of local shops, pubs etc since he's been there. It's easy to get to Crystal Palace from there and also Penge which, as other posters have said, is improving fast.

Bearing in mind that there are similar works going on at the same time at Oval, I do wonder how many of these things are vanity projects that Boris is pushing through while he's still in charge so that he can look back and say how much he changed the landscape of London. If nothing else the decision to do significant work on both Elephant and Oval at the same time really limits the options we have of getting from South to North by road / bus, and I'd have thought that TFL would advise against it if their main concern was keeping things moving.

I got off the bus just before Morrisons on Walworth Road and walked to Soho. I walked the 12 route all the way to Piccadilly and hardly any buses passed me at all, think they must have been turning them all round at Elephant or Lambeth North. As the problem has been there since yesterday morning I thought TFL might have had the foresight to run some buses just between Lambeth North and the West End, but apparently not.

I passed through E&C on the 12 around 7.45 this morning and it was relatively fine, about the same as last week, so I think any trouble later must have been due to the flooding rather than roadworks.

I was looking for more info on the roadworks (North - South Cycle Superhighway) yesterday and came across this timetable. Frustratingly vague in terms of area and time but it gives me some hope that work around Elephant / St George's Circus might be finished some time in August. Not much comfort to anyone needing to get to Blackfriars on a regular basis though... https://tfl.gov.uk/travel-information/improvements-and-projects/north-south-cycle-superhighway-travel-advice

I think they've reconfigured the roadworks at the Elephant this week. I'm trying not to be too optimistic just yet but the bus journey up Walworth Road has been a lot better since Monday. There is still a tailback for cars but that doesn't stretch as far as it was previously either. I've not approached Elephant using OKR during the week but maybe the latest stage of the roadworks has shifted the crapness over there from Walworth Road. Heading back south in the evening is really bad still and I've been walking to Walworth Road from the west end rather than sit on a bus that gets stuck in the bottleneck approach to St. George's Circus.

Thanks Laur. I would have been coming back that way so it's really helpful to know.

I do Barry Road to Piccadilly on the 12 each day and am leaving earlier than usual in the na?ve hope that I'll get through the Elephant quicker than I would at my normal time. If I get on a bus at 7.15 I'm generally through the Elephant congestion by 8 oclock. Today it was 8.30 so yeah, it was much worse than usual, am praying it's back to relative normality tomorrow. I'm assuming it must be a lot worse for motorists as they don't have the benefit of bus lanes. Coming home through the bottleneck that forms at South Bank University is getting worse as well. I've been trying to find out if there is any end in sight to the current phase of the works at Elephant as it's so inconvenient and I'm praying it isn't going to be like that until May of next year when the overall project is due to be finished. I've had no luck yet, there seems to be very little information online. Worst thing is that there never seems to be much actual work going on there, usually it'll be one person digging and a few other men watching him do it.

I get the 12 from Dulwich all the way to Piccadilly every day and it is especially bad at the moment. There seem to be a lot more roadworks cropping up everywhere and I wonder if its anything to do with the end of the financial year. I heard that if the relevant offices don't spend whatever they have left from their budget at the end of the financial year then they can't carry the money over so there is always a roadworks splurge around March. That could just be a myth, of course. I thought the Walworth Road works were a 4 week project and if so we're almost halfway through it now. Hopefully I didn't just make that up. This morning it wasn't helped by a dustbin van making regular stops in the bus lane in the run up to the lights. Obviously those bins need emptying but maybe not in the rush hour, eh.