Screwfix - new branch.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Screwfix have opened a new branch on the high street between Colliers Wood and Tooting. No free parking whatsoever. And not really the sort of high street you'd wander along looking at shops.

I've always thought the vast majority of their customers go to a branch by car or van. Given the more usual location of them - in an industrial estate, or whatever. Perhaps they're going to start selling soft furnishings?

There's a plumber's merchant not far from them on the same road - Burge & Gunson. Even they have off street free parking.

[charles]

but probably OK for collecting pre-ordered on line items. Even with No Parking delivery and collection is usually allowed 10 minutes.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Only at certain times outside rush hour. There is a bus lane running outside the branch. Very little in the way of cheap parking either, as it's close to a large hospital. So on street parking charges match their car park ones. Ie, horrendous.

[Bill Wright]

What a nightmare it must be to live in London. Are they mad when they go there or does it drive them mad? I have space here for fifteen cars and my house cost less than a one-room hovel would in London.

Can you imagine Screwfix opening a branch in Donny or Rotherham without parking? Ha ha ha! They wouldn't be open very long.

The other thing about London is, I'd be in an ethnic minority.

Bill

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Yes. Property is always cheap where no one wants to live.

They have several branches not that far from this one. But all on industrial estates etc with plenty free parking. I was just interested in what their thinking might be by opening a high street one.

[Davey]

They probably keep a good stock of high-heat-output lights and fans...

[Bill Wright]

Most of the people in London dream of living in the countryside, but they can't because they have made bad life decisions that tie them into London. London is a trap for the unwary. People here have had children go to London and they've never seen them again. It's an evil wicked place and it isn't a part of England any more. Londoners are so brainwashed they believe a lot of the BBC propaganda. I wish London would declare independence.

I've driven in London and as far as I can see you just have to pretend you're in a bomber car race. Let the Devil take the hindmost! It's like a mad computer game! That's when the traffic can move at all. In traffic jams when you look at the other drivers they are expressionless, like zombies. They are so used to to wasting their lives stuck in traffic they are anaesthetised to it. I reckon you could open their doors and cut their legs off and they wouldn't notice. I bet the average London driver spends 20 years of his life stuck in traffic. What a way to live; like a rat in an overcrowded rat cage.

Bill

[Jonno]

Bill Wright scribbled

What a load of bollocks.

FFS, are you so behind the times, you've not noticed that much of the BBC is based out of London, in Salford?

You should have been concentrating on the traffic, not other drivers. Perhaps you were the cause of all the hold ups when you were there.

The 'average' Londoner doesn't drive. They have no need to.

[Davey]

You should try South America, then. I worked in Buenos Aires for three months, and driving there was just one long game of Chicken. The Pan Americana road, which we used to get to work every day, had donkey carts in the slow lane and 180 mph pocket rockets in the fast lane (yes, we timed them). I missed it all when I left, it was exhilarating. Returning to Detroit traffic was about as different as it could possibly be.

[Muddymike]

Do the Donkey carts also drive the wrong way up dual carriage ways like the little 3 wheel carts in China?

Mike

[Davey]

No, at least on the Pan Americana, and yes, in China anything goes, I worked there too. The amount of vehicle overloading there is really unbelievable. I once saw a two-axle lorry carrying about 120 to 150 tons of steel coil. It physically fitted in the load space, so it was OK for transport. I don't know how far down the road it got before breaking an axle or a spring. But the one thing I could never understand in Buenos Aires was when it was, or was not, permitted to turn left at a road junction or traffic light, there seemed to be no consistency in the rule.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Keep trying to persuade yourself you live in heaven, Bill. But don't please speak for others.

As you've pointed out I could sell up and move to 'the country' easily. But it's the last thing I want to do.

'Those who are tired of London are tired of life'

[Jethro_uk]

Didn't the suicide rate in London double overnight when that headline appeared ?

[Theo]

How do they do deliveries? Do they have a service yard, or do they park an artic in the middle of the High St at 7am? (Prime bus lane time)

Theo

[Bill Wright]

What's that got to do with the left/liberal propaganda?

Got to look at something in those long minutes of waiting

What, the queues I was in were caused by my doppelgänger, somewhere up ahead?

You mean life in London restricts personal freedom so much that having a car is almost impossible?

Bill

[Bill Wright]

I'm not speaking for others, I'm speaking for me. What are you on about, 'speak for others'?

That depends on what property you own. You could be living in a rented dog kennel under the railway arches for all I know.

Bill

[cl]

Not a very sociable chap are you?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

'Most of the people in London dream of living in the countryside' Now given you can't have asked them, you are trying to put words in their mouths.

Still likely worth more than your country mansion.

[Capitol]

You appear to be confusing price with value. A London house has a very high price, but is of the same value as any other home which provides shelter.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I'm not confusing anything. Just replying to one of Bill's frequent rants about London. That he can't afford to live there is his problem. not mine.