London's Great Northern Hotel
 

So, last weekend was our wedding anniversary. Rather than struggle
back to the South Coast late Saturday night, I booked us a room at the
Great Northern Hotel. For any that might find a rail related hotel
review here goes:
Pros: The restoration job is beautiful. It has been tastefully
accomplished using quality materials. Our room was beautifully
finished with an inlaid carpet, in a wood surround. Our bathroom
floor was tiled. The plumbing in our room was excellent with ample
hot water.

The electrics in our room were especially impressive. There were
plenty of lamps, the main one being on a dimmer. Moreover, there are
more than sufficient 13 amp outlets. We have stayed in hotels were we
needed to move the bed in order for me to plug in my CPAP machine. No
such problem at the Great Northern. Our room had its own thermostat.

The bed was a (UK) King-size (US Queen). But it was very comfortable.

The staff were polite and helpful to a fault. Perhaps most surprising
was the complete absence of noise. We were after all at Kings Cross
Station!

Cons: The complimentary breakfast was close to non-existent. The
Spilt Milk and Plum Restaurant was not available, to hotel guests,
having been booked for a function. So we had to use the pantry
adjacent to our room. There was bread, not even a croissant or bagel.
The selection of fruits was green apples and red apples. There was
one cake.

Expresso and tea were available in abundance, :-)

This may be a good choice for someone visiting London, it could hardly
be more convenient for transportation. And, before the UK language
police start havering and whining misc.transport.urban-transit is an
intrnational group.

London's Great Northern Hotel
 

On Sun, 22 Nov 2015 17:24:25 +0000, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message , at
08:44:47 on Sun, 22 Nov 2015, Railsigns.uk
remarked:
There can't be many people who feel inclined to comment on the
excellence or otherwise of a hotel room's plumbing

Or its supply of hot water. I've only stayed at two hotels (out of
several hundreds) which ran out of hot water.

The first was in Maidenhead in around 1980 and had suffered a one-off
major outage of some kind. The other was Sharm-el-Sheikh in 2009 where
no-one appeared to be that surprised that the system had broken down yet
again.

Given how well travelled you are, Roland, one is surprised you have
not noticed the quality of the mains pressure water systems found in
those United States. One of the things that attracted me to my unit
here on the south coast was the absence of the usual low pressure UK
plumbing. My shower here works as well as my shower in Tucson. That
is hardly the norm for the UK.

London's Great Northern Hotel
 

On Sun, 22 Nov 2015 18:03:11 +0000, e27002 aurora
wrote:

On Sun, 22 Nov 2015 17:24:25 +0000, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message , at
08:44:47 on Sun, 22 Nov 2015, Railsigns.uk
remarked:
There can't be many people who feel inclined to comment on the
excellence or otherwise of a hotel room's plumbing

Or its supply of hot water. I've only stayed at two hotels (out of
several hundreds) which ran out of hot water.

The first was in Maidenhead in around 1980 and had suffered a one-off
major outage of some kind. The other was Sharm-el-Sheikh in 2009 where
no-one appeared to be that surprised that the system had broken down yet
again.

Given how well travelled you are, Roland, one is surprised you have
not noticed the quality of the mains pressure water systems found in
those United States. One of the things that attracted me to my unit
here on the south coast was the absence of the usual low pressure UK
plumbing. My shower here works as well as my shower in Tucson. That
is hardly the norm for the UK.

Maybe the fault of the plumbers rather than the showers; not all
showers are designed for lower pressures (or sometimes the pipes
feeding them) and the thermostatic and non-return valves now required
possibly make the difference even more critical.

London's Great Northern Hotel
 

On 11/22/2015 9:47 AM, e27002 aurora wrote:
So, last weekend was our wedding anniversary. Rather than struggle
back to the South Coast late Saturday night, I booked us a room at the
Great Northern Hotel. For any that might find a rail related hotel
review here goes:
Pros: The restoration job is beautiful. It has been tastefully
accomplished using quality materials. Our room was beautifully
finished with an inlaid carpet, in a wood surround. Our bathroom
floor was tiled. The plumbing in our room was excellent with ample
hot water.

The electrics in our room were especially impressive. There were
plenty of lamps, the main one being on a dimmer. Moreover, there are
more than sufficient 13 amp outlets. We have stayed in hotels were we
needed to move the bed in order for me to plug in my CPAP machine. No
such problem at the Great Northern. Our room had its own thermostat.

The bed was a (UK) King-size (US Queen). But it was very comfortable.

The staff were polite and helpful to a fault. Perhaps most surprising
was the complete absence of noise. We were after all at Kings Cross
Station!

Cons: The complimentary breakfast was close to non-existent. The
Spilt Milk and Plum Restaurant was not available, to hotel guests,
having been booked for a function. So we had to use the pantry
adjacent to our room. There was bread, not even a croissant or bagel.
The selection of fruits was green apples and red apples. There was
one cake.

Expresso and tea were available in abundance, :-)

This may be a good choice for someone visiting London, it could hardly
be more convenient for transportation. And, before the UK language
police start havering and whining misc.transport.urban-transit is an
intrnational group.


Perish the thought.

--
Myth, after all, is what we believe naturally. History is what we must
painfully learn and struggle to remember. -Albert Goldman

London's Great Northern Hotel
 

On 11/23/2015 4:07 AM, Charles Ellson wrote:
On Sun, 22 Nov 2015 18:03:11 +0000, e27002 aurora
wrote:

On Sun, 22 Nov 2015 17:24:25 +0000, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message , at
08:44:47 on Sun, 22 Nov 2015, Railsigns.uk
remarked:
There can't be many people who feel inclined to comment on the
excellence or otherwise of a hotel room's plumbing

Or its supply of hot water. I've only stayed at two hotels (out of
several hundreds) which ran out of hot water.

The first was in Maidenhead in around 1980 and had suffered a one-off
major outage of some kind. The other was Sharm-el-Sheikh in 2009 where
no-one appeared to be that surprised that the system had broken down yet
again.

Given how well travelled you are, Roland, one is surprised you have
not noticed the quality of the mains pressure water systems found in
those United States. One of the things that attracted me to my unit
here on the south coast was the absence of the usual low pressure UK
plumbing. My shower here works as well as my shower in Tucson. That
is hardly the norm for the UK.

Maybe the fault of the plumbers rather than the showers; not all
showers are designed for lower pressures (or sometimes the pipes
feeding them) and the thermostatic and non-return valves now required
possibly make the difference even more critical.

I'm with that: my shower works fine.

--
Myth, after all, is what we believe naturally. History is what we must
painfully learn and struggle to remember. -Albert Goldman

London's Great Northern Hotel
 

In message , at 18:03:11 on
Sun, 22 Nov 2015, e27002 aurora remarked:
There can't be many people who feel inclined to comment on the
excellence or otherwise of a hotel room's plumbing

Or its supply of hot water. I've only stayed at two hotels (out of
several hundreds) which ran out of hot water.

The first was in Maidenhead in around 1980 and had suffered a one-off
major outage of some kind. The other was Sharm-el-Sheikh in 2009 where
no-one appeared to be that surprised that the system had broken down yet
again.

Given how well travelled you are, Roland, one is surprised you have
not noticed the quality of the mains pressure water systems found in
those United States. One of the things that attracted me to my unit
here on the south coast was the absence of the usual low pressure UK
plumbing. My shower here works as well as my shower in Tucson. That
is hardly the norm for the UK.

Yes, there are many hotel showers which don't deliver their hot water at
high pressure, but that doesn't bother me.
--
Roland Perry

London's Great Northern Hotel
 

On Sun, 22 Nov 2015 18:03:11 +0000, e27002 aurora
wrote:

On Sun, 22 Nov 2015 17:24:25 +0000, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message , at
08:44:47 on Sun, 22 Nov 2015, Railsigns.uk
remarked:
There can't be many people who feel inclined to comment on the
excellence or otherwise of a hotel room's plumbing

Or its supply of hot water. I've only stayed at two hotels (out of
several hundreds) which ran out of hot water.

The first was in Maidenhead in around 1980 and had suffered a one-off
major outage of some kind. The other was Sharm-el-Sheikh in 2009 where
no-one appeared to be that surprised that the system had broken down yet
again.

Given how well travelled you are, Roland, one is surprised you have
not noticed the quality of the mains pressure water systems found in
those United States. One of the things that attracted me to my unit
here on the south coast was the absence of the usual low pressure UK
plumbing. My shower here works as well as my shower in Tucson. That
is hardly the norm for the UK.

It is attractive until the day the mains water system ceases to flow
into the premises for whatever reason - planned/unplanned.
My late sister-in-law's house was mains-only and it was not a happy
solution - add being coupled to a combi boiler and the water system
was useless.

Guy Gorton

How often does that happen? I've never had that happen to
me/my house.

London's Great Northern Hotel
 

In article ,
Guy Gorton wrote:

On Sun, 22 Nov 2015 18:03:11 +0000, e27002 aurora
wrote:

On Sun, 22 Nov 2015 17:24:25 +0000, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message , at
08:44:47 on Sun, 22 Nov 2015, Railsigns.uk
remarked:
There can't be many people who feel inclined to comment on the
excellence or otherwise of a hotel room's plumbing

Or its supply of hot water. I've only stayed at two hotels (out of
several hundreds) which ran out of hot water.

The first was in Maidenhead in around 1980 and had suffered a one-off
major outage of some kind. The other was Sharm-el-Sheikh in 2009 where
no-one appeared to be that surprised that the system had broken down yet
again.

Given how well travelled you are, Roland, one is surprised you have
not noticed the quality of the mains pressure water systems found in
those United States. One of the things that attracted me to my unit
here on the south coast was the absence of the usual low pressure UK
plumbing. My shower here works as well as my shower in Tucson. That
is hardly the norm for the UK.

It is attractive until the day the mains water system ceases to flow
into the premises for whatever reason - planned/unplanned.
My late sister-in-law's house was mains-only and it was not a happy
solution - add being coupled to a combi boiler and the water system
was useless.

A family member who works in the renewables sector laments the vogue for
combi boilers. A hot water tank provides a useful way of decoupling
supply and demand when energy sources are intermittent.

Sam

--
The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.

I can well believe that water industry professionals dislike the
widespread abandonment of hot water tanks, but in a country
where new homes (and rooms within homes) become ever smaller,
hot water tanks take up too much space.

London's Great Northern Hotel
 

Robin9 wrote:
I can well believe that water industry professionals dislike the
widespread abandonment of hot water tanks, but in a country
where new homes (and rooms within homes) become ever smaller,
hot water tanks take up too much space.

The problem is probably not water but electricity.

We are all supposed to stop using gas over the next 30 years or so. So
an awful lot of gas combi boilers have to be replaced by electric
systems. But the sun is often not shining when people want lots of hot
water (eg winter mornings and evenings) so if the wind isn't blowing it
can't be done with renewables. Well-insulated hot water tanks might
allow the water to be heated in advance. But of course the green lobby
and the Ministers who jumped on their bandwagon never factored in the
massive cost of fitting large tanks in millions of homes. (Nor the
"night storage heaters" to fill the gap left by loss of gas central
heating.)

I predict an impact on TfL: Freedom Passes will also have to go else TfL
services will be overwhelmed by wrinklies riding Zone 1 all day in order
to keep warm :) But I'll be long dead and burnt by then



--
Robin
reply to address is (meant to be) valid

London's Great Northern Hotel
 

In message , at 11:33:31 on Wed, 25 Nov
2015, Robin remarked:

I can well believe that water industry professionals dislike the
widespread abandonment of hot water tanks, but in a country
where new homes (and rooms within homes) become ever smaller,
hot water tanks take up too much space.

The problem is probably not water but electricity.

We are all supposed to stop using gas over the next 30 years or so. So
an awful lot of gas combi boilers have to be replaced by electric
systems. But the sun is often not shining when people want lots of hot
water (eg winter mornings and evenings) so if the wind isn't blowing it
can't be done with renewables. Well-insulated hot water tanks might
allow the water to be heated in advance.

I've got what I regard as a perfectly normal hot water tank, albeit a
fairly modern design rather than copper plus a badly fitting quilt. It
keeps the water hot enough not to notice the boiler's been accidentally
switched off for a over a day.

But of course the green lobby and the Ministers who jumped on their
bandwagon never factored in the massive cost of fitting large tanks in
millions of homes. (Nor the "night storage heaters" to fill the gap
left by loss of gas central heating.)

We can, of course, use our immersion heaters for the bathwater; but
going electric for space heating is a bigger challenge. Not least
because the national and local distribution networks are unlikely to be
up to it - they are predicted not to be able to cope with more than a
token number of charge-at-home electric cars either.
--
Roland Perry

London's Great Northern Hotel
 

On Sun, 22 Nov 2015 11:23:05 +0000, Robert
wrote:

On 2015-11-22 11:14:32 +0000, Railsigns.uk said:

On Sunday, 22 November 2015 09:48:01 UTC, e27002 wrote:

Expresso and tea were available in abundance

What's "Expresso"?

An Italian fast train...?

Very drole Robert.

London's Great Northern Hotel
 

On Sun, 22 Nov 2015 03:59:55 -0800 (PST), furnessvale
wrote:

On Sunday, 22 November 2015 09:48:01 UTC, e27002 wrote:
So, SNIP

Sorry to nitpick but one of my pet hates is people who begin a sentence (in
speech) with "So".

Is it now entering the written language and has it got any grammatical or
linguistic justification?

Sorry again, I'll go back under my bridge!

George

So, George, you are, like, apologizing for being right? :-)

London's Great Northern Hotel
 

On Sun, 22 Nov 2015 13:55:17 -0800 (PST), Chris Miles-Patrick Date
wrote:

I've spent 30 minutes in a suite of the GN Hotel during the day and was also surprised at how quiet it was from the elements of the Euston Road outside!

*not as a guest but snooping with a friend, I live 15 mins away from KX on the Tube so staying as a guest at a luxury hotel when my own bed is within quilt distance is a tad illogical!

With the drapes drawn it was hard to believe one was in London.
Although looking out of the pantry window on Sunday morning, the sight
of two heavily armed Bobbies was a reminder.

London's Great Northern Hotel
 

On Mon, 23 Nov 2015 17:00:18 -0800, Nobody wrote:


On Mon, 23 Nov 2015 10:48:01 +0000 (UTC), d wrote:

On Mon, 23 Nov 2015 02:07:41 -0800 (PST)
wrote:
On Sunday, 22 November 2015 17:36:32 UTC+1, BevanPrice wrote:
Do schools teach grammar now ? Even broadcasters seem unfamiliar with it.
=20
e.g. saying "Manchester City suffered a defeat 'to' Liverpool, when they=
=20
mean a deafeat 'by' Liverpool.
=20
Back to the hotel review - well written - but how much does it cost - a=
=20
vital part of any review for those of us with limited resources.

The "rules" of grammar that may or may not be taught in schools are nothing=
more than a fossilised set of arbitrary usages chosen to reflect a combina=
tion of the patterns of speech of a particular subset of speakers of the la=
nguage, combined with wishful thinking about how the language "ought" to be=

That may be so. But the alternative is not teaching grammer at all and ending up
with even more of the kind of retarded patois you find in sink estates where
like every blood is a bro init yeah? Having a common set of rules even if
they're fixed at an arbitrary point in the languages evolution aids mutual
comprehension.

Ebonics, anyone?

Them be bad bro.

London's Great Northern Hotel
 

On Mon, 23 Nov 2015 08:12:34 +0000, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message , at 18:03:11 on
Sun, 22 Nov 2015, e27002 aurora remarked:
There can't be many people who feel inclined to comment on the
excellence or otherwise of a hotel room's plumbing

Or its supply of hot water. I've only stayed at two hotels (out of
several hundreds) which ran out of hot water.

The first was in Maidenhead in around 1980 and had suffered a one-off
major outage of some kind. The other was Sharm-el-Sheikh in 2009 where
no-one appeared to be that surprised that the system had broken down yet
again.

Given how well travelled you are, Roland, one is surprised you have
not noticed the quality of the mains pressure water systems found in
those United States. One of the things that attracted me to my unit
here on the south coast was the absence of the usual low pressure UK
plumbing. My shower here works as well as my shower in Tucson. That
is hardly the norm for the UK.

Yes, there are many hotel showers which don't deliver their hot water at
high pressure, but that doesn't bother me.

Cleanliness is next to G_dliness. I like a real, hi-volume,
hi-pressure, hot water shower. :-)

London's Great Northern Hotel
 

On Mon, 23 Nov 2015 09:01:46 +0000, Guy Gorton
wrote:

On Sun, 22 Nov 2015 18:03:11 +0000, e27002 aurora
wrote:

On Sun, 22 Nov 2015 17:24:25 +0000, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message , at
08:44:47 on Sun, 22 Nov 2015, Railsigns.uk
remarked:
There can't be many people who feel inclined to comment on the
excellence or otherwise of a hotel room's plumbing

Or its supply of hot water. I've only stayed at two hotels (out of
several hundreds) which ran out of hot water.

The first was in Maidenhead in around 1980 and had suffered a one-off
major outage of some kind. The other was Sharm-el-Sheikh in 2009 where
no-one appeared to be that surprised that the system had broken down yet
again.

Given how well travelled you are, Roland, one is surprised you have
not noticed the quality of the mains pressure water systems found in
those United States. One of the things that attracted me to my unit
here on the south coast was the absence of the usual low pressure UK
plumbing. My shower here works as well as my shower in Tucson. That
is hardly the norm for the UK.

It is attractive until the day the mains water system ceases to flow
into the premises for whatever reason - planned/unplanned.
My late sister-in-law's house was mains-only and it was not a happy
solution - add being coupled to a combi boiler and the water system
was useless.

Guy Gorton

That would be true Mr. Gorton. It has not happened to me yet. I
have a tank with immersion heaters. But, without mains pressure it
would not function.

London's Great Northern Hotel
 

On Mon, 23 Nov 2015 16:56:00 -0800, Nobody wrote:

On Mon, 23 Nov 2015 11:31:02 +0000, Recliner
wrote:

On Sun, 22 Nov 2015 22:23:03 +0000, Adrian
wrote:

In message , Roland Perry
writes
Or its supply of hot water. I've only stayed at two hotels (out of
several hundreds) which ran out of hot water.

The first was in Maidenhead in around 1980 and had suffered a one-off
major outage of some kind. The other was Sharm-el-Sheikh in 2009 where
no-one appeared to be that surprised that the system had broken down
yet again.

I stayed in one in Weymouth (the name of which I've forgotten) four
years ago where the hot and cold water stopped. Fortunately the
bath/sink appeared to be on a different supply to the cistern. It was
back after a couple of days.

I stayed in a very smart hotel recently where both the hot and cold
water failed for a while. However, as it was in Livingstone, Zambia, I
suppose that's not unusual. It also had slightly unusual lawn mowers:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/reclin...7660656194221/

We were warned that though they look cute, they are also very
bad-tempered, and it was inadvisable to get too close if we didn't
want to get kicked. There were also giraffes in the hotel grounds,
though I failed to get a picture of them.

At least Canada geese are laid back. But the self-fertilising of
lawns can be problematic.

In Reno, NV Canada geese are a plague. I did some work for the
state-wide energy company and lived there for five years. The
companies 2HQ head extensive grounds with streams, trees, et al.
During the winter months we played host to large numbers of Canadian
Geese. Walking from the parking lot to the office entailed finding
uncovered pieces of tarmac on which to walk.

London's Great Northern Hotel
 

In message , at 09:43:26 on
Thu, 26 Nov 2015, e27002 aurora remarked:

there are many hotel showers which don't deliver their hot water at
high pressure, but that doesn't bother me.

Cleanliness is next to G_dliness. I like a real, hi-volume,
hi-pressure, hot water shower. :-)

Hi-pressure showers don't make you any cleaner, they just waste water.
--
Roland Perry

London's Great Northern Hotel
 

On Sun, 22 Nov 2015 22:39:42 +0000, Beer O'Clock
wrote:

On Sun, 22 Nov 2015 17:03:16 -0000 (UTC), Recliner
wrote:

Graeme Wall wrote:
On 22/11/2015 16:35, Recliner wrote:
Graeme Wall wrote:
On 22/11/2015 16:07, Recliner wrote:
furnessvale wrote:
On Sunday, 22 November 2015 09:48:01 UTC, e27002 wrote:
So, SNIP

Sorry to nitpick but one of my pet hates is people who begin a sentence (in
speech) with "So".

Is it now entering the written language and has it got any grammatical or
linguistic justification?

Sorry again, I'll go back under my bridge!

So do you think our mid-Atlantic friend will be upset that all the
responses so far have been criticisms of his spelling and grammar, rather
than praise for his in-depth hotel review?


Adrian did rather ask for it by being pre-emptively rude about language
preferences at the end of his piece :-)

Having said that it was an interesting description. He did make a good
point about having adequate power sockets in usable positions,
especially when it comes to people who need some sort of medical
technology, something the average trip advisor review tends to overlook.

Yes, that was a good point. One thing he didn't mention was whether it has
multi-standard electric sockets, useful for a hotel right next to an
international station. Some modern international hotels have sockets that
will take UK, US and Continental plugs.


IIRC he specifically mentioned 13 amp.

He did, but I wondered if they might have been multi-standard, though I
suppose he might have mentioned that he could plug his US stuff in if they
were.

Would UK building regs allow that?

The GNH has the usual 110v outlet in the bathroom. Other than that
the usual, excellent UK electrical outlets.

These days laptops, etc. are not an issue. Their power units accept a
wide range of voltages.

London's Great Northern Hotel
 

On Thu, 26 Nov 2015 09:54:38 +0000, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message , at 09:43:26 on
Thu, 26 Nov 2015, e27002 aurora remarked:

there are many hotel showers which don't deliver their hot water at
high pressure, but that doesn't bother me.

Cleanliness is next to G_dliness. I like a real, hi-volume,
hi-pressure, hot water shower. :-)

Hi-pressure showers don't make you any cleaner, they just waste water.

Our opinions differ Roland. I am leaving it at that.

London's Great Northern Hotel
 

On Thu, 26 Nov 2015 09:59:52 +0000, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message , at
01:42:31 on Thu, 26 Nov 2015, remarked:

While on the one hand this does benefit from efficiencies of scale (I'm
sure the municipal hot water plant is very good at its job,) I do wonder
about the 'transmission losses' involved. Although in a sense they do
provide a public good, in that I'm told knowing where the pipes run and
where to sleep near them is invaluable for the homeless in winter.

In some schemes of this kind (no idea about this specific case), the heat source for making the water hot is a by-product of some sort of
industrial process that would otherwise use it to make the atmosphere a little warmer or slightly increase the temperature of a local river.

There are district heating projects in the UK, eg:

http://www.vitalenergi.co.uk/casestu...ttingham-city/

You can see some of the pipes at the eastern end of the railway station,
and others were re-routed a little south of the station as part of the
tramway extension works.

IIRC this system utilizes the Great Central tunnels under Nottingham.
Great as the heating system is, I would much rather have the trains,
:-)

London's Great Northern Hotel
 

In message , at 13:30:23 on
Thu, 26 Nov 2015, e27002 aurora remarked:

There are district heating projects in the UK, eg:

http://www.vitalenergi.co.uk/casestu...ttingham-city/

You can see some of the pipes at the eastern end of the railway station,
and others were re-routed a little south of the station as part of the
tramway extension works.

IIRC this system utilizes the Great Central tunnels under Nottingham.
Great as the heating system is, I would much rather have the trains,

That's one of many limbs to the system. The problem with reinstating the
trains is orders of magnitude more complex than moving a few hot water
pipes. Most recently the tram extension, and before that this absurdly
ugly museum in the tunnel mouth:

http://www.nottinghamvision.co.uk/im...et/lace-4L.jpg

And of course the Victoria Centre and housing above, which is probably
one of the recipients of the hot water.
--
Roland Perry

London's Great Northern Hotel
 

On Thu, 26 Nov 2015 13:30:23 +0000
e27002 aurora wrote:
On Thu, 26 Nov 2015 09:59:52 +0000, Roland Perry
wrote:
You can see some of the pipes at the eastern end of the railway station,
and others were re-routed a little south of the station as part of the
tramway extension works.

IIRC this system utilizes the Great Central tunnels under Nottingham.
Great as the heating system is, I would much rather have the trains,
:-)

Its a mystery to me why they didn't route a branch of the tram line through it.
They head straight for it then veer off at the last moment. The tunnels northern
portal is at the victoria centre where they could have had a stop and then
headed off up the A60.

--
Spud

London's Great Northern Hotel
 

e27002 aurora wrote:
On Mon, 23 Nov 2015 08:12:34 +0000, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message , at 18:03:11 on
Sun, 22 Nov 2015, e27002 aurora remarked:
There can't be many people who feel inclined to comment on the
excellence or otherwise of a hotel room's plumbing

Or its supply of hot water. I've only stayed at two hotels (out of
several hundreds) which ran out of hot water.

The first was in Maidenhead in around 1980 and had suffered a one-off
major outage of some kind. The other was Sharm-el-Sheikh in 2009 where
no-one appeared to be that surprised that the system had broken down yet
again.

Given how well travelled you are, Roland, one is surprised you have
not noticed the quality of the mains pressure water systems found in
those United States. One of the things that attracted me to my unit
here on the south coast was the absence of the usual low pressure UK
plumbing. My shower here works as well as my shower in Tucson. That
is hardly the norm for the UK.

Yes, there are many hotel showers which don't deliver their hot water at
high pressure, but that doesn't bother me.

Cleanliness is next to G_dliness. I like a real, hi-volume,
hi-pressure, hot water shower. :-)

Is godliness now a swear word? I'd missed that.

London's Great Northern Hotel
 

In message , at 14:22:44 on Thu, 26 Nov
2015, d remarked:
You can see some of the pipes at the eastern end of the railway station,
and others were re-routed a little south of the station as part of the
tramway extension works.

IIRC this system utilizes the Great Central tunnels under Nottingham.
Great as the heating system is, I would much rather have the trains,
-)

Its a mystery to me why they didn't route a branch of the tram line through it.
They head straight for it then veer off at the last moment. The tunnels northern
portal is at the victoria centre where they could have had a stop and then
headed off up the A60.

On one hand that route misses out the main square, Nottingham Trent
University etc; on the other hand they'd have ended up with a tramline
bisecting two underground car parks and quite probably a lot of
expensive tunnel repairs to do.
--
Roland Perry

London's Great Northern Hotel
 

On Thu, 26 Nov 2015 15:21:33 +0000
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 14:22:44 on Thu, 26 Nov
2015, d remarked:
You can see some of the pipes at the eastern end of the railway station,
and others were re-routed a little south of the station as part of the
tramway extension works.

IIRC this system utilizes the Great Central tunnels under Nottingham.
Great as the heating system is, I would much rather have the trains,
-)

Its a mystery to me why they didn't route a branch of the tram line through
it.
They head straight for it then veer off at the last moment. The tunnels
northern
portal is at the victoria centre where they could have had a stop and then
headed off up the A60.

On one hand that route misses out the main square, Nottingham Trent
University etc; on the other hand they'd have ended up with a tramline
bisecting two underground car parks and quite probably a lot of
expensive tunnel repairs to do.

So the tunnels have been compromised? I assumed they were still intact.

--
Spud

London's Great Northern Hotel
 

In article
-sep
tember.org,
Recliner wrote:

e27002 aurora wrote:

Cleanliness is next to G_dliness. I like a real, hi-volume,
hi-pressure, hot water shower. :-)

Is godliness now a swear word? I'd missed that.

Adrian is a Messianic Jew or something close to it. Observant Jews
don't like to use the name of the Deity in either speech or writing.
Leaving out the "o" seems to be sufficient to meet that requirement.

Sam

--
The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.

London's Great Northern Hotel
 

Sam Wilson wrote:
In article
-sep
tember.org,
Recliner wrote:

e27002 aurora wrote:

Cleanliness is next to G_dliness. I like a real, hi-volume,
hi-pressure, hot water shower. :-)

Is godliness now a swear word? I'd missed that.

Adrian is a Messianic Jew or something close to it. Observant Jews
don't like to use the name of the Deity in either speech or writing.
Leaving out the "o" seems to be sufficient to meet that requirement.

Yes, I was aware of his unusual religious leanings. But if one is of that
persuasion, surely one should simply avoid using any prohibited words,
rather than using them with a letter omitted (which actually draws
attention to the word he's not supposed to use).

London's Great Northern Hotel
 

In message , at 16:05:22 on Thu, 26 Nov
2015, d remarked:
Its a mystery to me why they didn't route a branch of the tram line through
it.
They head straight for it then veer off at the last moment. The tunnels
northern
portal is at the victoria centre where they could have had a stop and then
headed off up the A60.

On one hand that route misses out the main square, Nottingham Trent
University etc; on the other hand they'd have ended up with a tramline
bisecting two underground car parks and quite probably a lot of
expensive tunnel repairs to do.

So the tunnels have been compromised? I assumed they were still intact.

Victoria Station was on top of the hill, in a deep cutting with a tunnel
mouth at either end. As far as I know the tunnels in both directions are
intact. The massive shopping centre car park is built from track level
upwards, and the shops themselves are at ground and first flooe level
beneath the flats and the grey-roofed 'shed'. The northern part of the
cutting has a separate car park with an adjacent bus station at ground
level.

http://www.perry.co.uk/images/nottingham-victoria.jpg

You can see the cutting best between A (the northern portal) and D
(where a fraction of the old grey-brick retaining wall is viable.

The southern portal is at C, and has a small building on the much
smaller cutting.
--
Roland Perry

London's Great Northern Hotel
 

On Mon, 23 Nov 2015 15:27:13 -0800 (PST), wrote:


*guffaw*

They always crawl out the woodwork don't they - the ones who have zero to add
to any debate but pick up on the tiniest typo and think they've come up with
some stunningly original yet subtle putdown.

I guess we'll hear from you again in another year or 2 when someone mentions
grammar again when you'll cut and paste the same response?


In fact, I have a web page I wrote about 15 years ago about correct use of the
apostrophe.

Is it extant? Can we have a URL please?

It isn't meant as an unnecessary put-down (unlike your post full
of personal insults). If I read a sentence and it has incorrect apostrophe usage,
it immediately grates and distracts my attention from whatever point was being
made. It's deeply ironic that someone making an off-topic post about grammar,
and making sweeping statements about whole sections of society who live in
certain types of housing development, should not even check his post for errors
before sending it, and then criticise anyone who picks up on it for being
off-topic and contributing nothing. A pot calling two different kettles black.

London's Great Northern Hotel
 

On Fri, 27 Nov 2015 08:45:59 +0000, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message , at 16:05:22 on Thu, 26 Nov
2015, d remarked:
Its a mystery to me why they didn't route a branch of the tram line through
it.
They head straight for it then veer off at the last moment. The tunnels
northern
portal is at the victoria centre where they could have had a stop and then
headed off up the A60.

On one hand that route misses out the main square, Nottingham Trent
University etc; on the other hand they'd have ended up with a tramline
bisecting two underground car parks and quite probably a lot of
expensive tunnel repairs to do.

So the tunnels have been compromised? I assumed they were still intact.

Victoria Station was on top of the hill, in a deep cutting with a tunnel
mouth at either end. As far as I know the tunnels in both directions are
intact. The massive shopping centre car park is built from track level
upwards, and the shops themselves are at ground and first flooe level
beneath the flats and the grey-roofed 'shed'. The northern part of the
cutting has a separate car park with an adjacent bus station at ground
level.

http://www.perry.co.uk/images/nottingham-victoria.jpg

You can see the cutting best between A (the northern portal) and D
(where a fraction of the old grey-brick retaining wall is viable.

The southern portal is at C, and has a small building on the much
smaller cutting.

And, right at the center of the view is the only remaining part of
Nottingham Victoria Station, the clock tower.

London's Great Northern Hotel
 

In message , at 09:06:26 on
Fri, 27 Nov 2015, e27002 aurora remarked:

http://www.perry.co.uk/images/nottingham-victoria.jpg

You can see the cutting best between A (the northern portal) and D
(where a fraction of the old grey-brick retaining wall is viable.

The southern portal is at C, and has a small building on the much
smaller cutting.

And, right at the center of the view is the only remaining part of
Nottingham Victoria Station, the clock tower.

And the station hotel.
--
Roland Perry

London's Great Northern Hotel
 

On Tue, 24 Nov 2015 12:09:41 +0000, Sam Wilson
wrote:

In article ,
Guy Gorton wrote:

On Sun, 22 Nov 2015 18:03:11 +0000, e27002 aurora
wrote:

On Sun, 22 Nov 2015 17:24:25 +0000, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message , at
08:44:47 on Sun, 22 Nov 2015, Railsigns.uk
remarked:
There can't be many people who feel inclined to comment on the
excellence or otherwise of a hotel room's plumbing

Or its supply of hot water. I've only stayed at two hotels (out of
several hundreds) which ran out of hot water.

The first was in Maidenhead in around 1980 and had suffered a one-off
major outage of some kind. The other was Sharm-el-Sheikh in 2009 where
no-one appeared to be that surprised that the system had broken down yet
again.

Given how well travelled you are, Roland, one is surprised you have
not noticed the quality of the mains pressure water systems found in
those United States. One of the things that attracted me to my unit
here on the south coast was the absence of the usual low pressure UK
plumbing. My shower here works as well as my shower in Tucson. That
is hardly the norm for the UK.

It is attractive until the day the mains water system ceases to flow
into the premises for whatever reason - planned/unplanned.
My late sister-in-law's house was mains-only and it was not a happy
solution - add being coupled to a combi boiler and the water system
was useless.

A family member who works in the renewables sector laments the vogue for
combi boilers. A hot water tank provides a useful way of decoupling
supply and demand when energy sources are intermittent.


My limited experience with combi boilers is that they are far from
reliable.

London's Great Northern Hotel
 

On Fri, 27 Nov 2015 08:45:59 +0000
Roland Perry wrote:
Victoria Station was on top of the hill, in a deep cutting with a tunnel
mouth at either end. As far as I know the tunnels in both directions are
intact. The massive shopping centre car park is built from track level
upwards, and the shops themselves are at ground and first flooe level
beneath the flats and the grey-roofed 'shed'. The northern part of the
cutting has a separate car park with an adjacent bus station at ground
level.

http://www.perry.co.uk/images/nottingham-victoria.jpg

You can see the cutting best between A (the northern portal) and D
(where a fraction of the old grey-brick retaining wall is viable.

The southern portal is at C, and has a small building on the much
smaller cutting.

Thats a shame. Those tunnels would have been a useful link whether for tram
or road. Seems a bit idiotic to have destroyed them. Oh well.

--
Spud

London's Great Northern Hotel
 

On Fri, 27 Nov 2015 09:06:26 +0000
e27002 aurora wrote:
And, right at the center of the view is the only remaining part of
Nottingham Victoria Station, the clock tower.

Didn't know that. I always thought it looked inconcruous but never really
considered what it actually was.

--
Spud

London's Great Northern Hotel
 

In message , at 09:45:57 on Fri, 27 Nov
2015, d remarked:
Victoria Station was on top of the hill, in a deep cutting with a tunnel
mouth at either end. As far as I know the tunnels in both directions are
intact. The massive shopping centre car park is built from track level
upwards, and the shops themselves are at ground and first flooe level
beneath the flats and the grey-roofed 'shed'. The northern part of the
cutting has a separate car park with an adjacent bus station at ground
level.

http://www.perry.co.uk/images/nottingham-victoria.jpg

You can see the cutting best between A (the northern portal) and D
(where a fraction of the old grey-brick retaining wall is viable.

The southern portal is at C, and has a small building on the much
smaller cutting.

Thats a shame. Those tunnels would have been a useful link whether for tram
or road. Seems a bit idiotic to have destroyed them. Oh well.

Do keep up! The tunnels are still there. It's the cutting which has been
built upon.
--
Roland Perry

London's Great Northern Hotel
 

On Fri, 27 Nov 2015 11:27:23 +0000, Neil Williams
wrote:

On 2015-11-27 09:33:32 +0000, e27002 aurora said:

My limited experience with combi boilers is that they are far from
reliable.

I have experience with precisely one, and it has been as reliable as
one might expect a system boiler to be.

How many have you experienced, and how old? The technology doesn't
differ that much from a system boiler. It's just that if it fails
there is no hot water backup.


One, well I did say limited, :-). And, its age was, to me unknown.
Before I bought this condo, I rented an apartment here in town for two
years. It had a combi boiler, it heated the water for the radiators
and instantaneously heated the water for the shower and faucets. Twice
during my stay I called out the repairman because the hot water supply
failed.

Moreover, when the pilot light went out, relighting and restarting the
system was an art form, a torturous one.

Added two that, two homes that I have owned, one in the US and one in
the UK had instantaneous water heaters. Both worked well for the
first year. After that, we experienced problems.

A tank with heaters works best. My UK home has a modern tank with two
immersion heaters. My US home has a tank with a gas heater.

London's Great Northern Hotel
 

On Fri, 27 Nov 2015 11:59:56 +0000, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message , at 11:27:23 on Fri, 27
Nov 2015, Neil Williams remarked:

My limited experience with combi boilers is that they are far from
reliable.

I have experience with precisely one, and it has been as reliable as
one might expect a system boiler to be.

How many have you experienced, and how old? The technology doesn't
differ that much from a system boiler. It's just that if it fails
there is no hot water backup.

I've had a few, and the main problem is they don't deliver hot water
fast enough to fill a bath in a sensible length of time. Let alone
filling up a bath at the same time someone else is having a shower.

Nothing to do with low pressure British plumbing then?