In this issue: St. Pancras gasholders, new Substack idea, gardening with squirrels.
St. Pancras/King’s Cross gasholders
I have recently returned from what I always hope is my annual trip to the UK.
This time, in addition to seeing as much as I could, I wanted to take photos for my upcoming articles at The Historic Traveler website. Since I was asked to write a post on each of my Victorian mysteries, and author-created photos are preferred, I first looked back through my photo collection. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough there.
An important stop was the new development located behind the St. Pancras and King’s Cross rail stations in London. This area is one I’ve avoided on previous visits. It used to be derelict, with run-down buildings, a place you didn’t go at night. Here’s a view from the air during the 1980s.
You can see in the video the empty gasholders (they look like large round iron frameworks), built and rebuilt between 1860 and 1890 by the Imperial Gas Light and Coke Company. They were built there so that coal, used to make the gas, could arrive easily on the Regents Canal. By the 1910s, the gasworks were no longer in use. In 2001 they were removed and restored, then resituated to create a completely new gentrified neighborhood in 2018. They were listed as Grade II heritage sites in 2020.
There aren’t many gasholders left in London, but they’re important to illustrate discussion of Murder at the Gasworks. Luckily, one of the gasholders at St. Pancras has been restored and left with just a small garden in the middle, so you can get an idea of what they looked like for many years, looming over the area.
For a long time they were just vacant, but people in London today remember them on the skyline of their youth. Some even played in them with their schoolfriends. The effort to save them has been led by development companies who are using them as a feature for condominiums at several places in London.
On the one hand, it’s true gentrification, with all that this implies. Families happily live there. There’s lots of shopping and restaurants. But all this is upscale, far too expensive for most people to live and shop. On the other hand, the canal and the gasholders, historic features, have been saved because of this redevelopment (you can read more about them here). I was at two minds about it the whole time.
New Substack idea
As you know if you read my newsletter, I have also been of two minds about social media and blogging in places that I don’t control. I have participated in social media at Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn. I have posted at Pinterest. Back when they were paying (even if it was just pennies), I wrote for Medium. And now the trend is Substack.
Why bother? Discovery. My books, despite excellent reviews, don’t come up high in the algorithms on Amazon, Goodreads, etc. I don’t sell enough to keep me in Clipper Decaf tea, much less to make a living. Mostly, I want people who might like them to find and enjoy them. Substack is now where people find things, which is why I cross-post these newsletters there.
I don’t just write Victorian mysteries, or even historical fiction, so I’m considering making Substack a place for “looser”, more general writing as well, the kind I used to do on my blog. Bits and pieces, amusing (or not, depending on your sense of humor). So watch this space. Or that space. Or both.
Gardening with squirrels
At first I thought there was just one. I’ve lived in the same house for over three decades and we never had squirrels until a couple of years ago. Possums, yes (thank goodness). Birds. Lizards. An occasional coyote, or an egret who’s lost his way trying to find the lagoon.
But not squirrels. I’d go to Carlsbad Beach, watch the ground squirrels making a zillion holes in the cliff, and thank “thank goodness I don’t have those in my garden”.
Now I do.
It isn’t one; it’s more. Two, at least. Possibly five. My neighbor has named them. And they like the things I grow. They could be featured in Squirrel Health Magazine. They eat my kale and my lettuce. I wake up in the morning and an entire plant has been chewed to the ground. And now that it’s summer, they have discovered a liking for tomatoes. And cucumbers.
Being a problem solver, I have taken action. I bought knee high stockings and put them on each big tomato and cucumber that’s ripening (a trick I also use with figs). Hardware cloth cylinders surround potted bean and cucumber plants. Chicken wire wraps my raised bed, held upright with old broomsticks. I just plopped a plastic shelter over the strawberries.
This morning, I spotted one creating a lovely two-story split-level within sight of the back door:
Seeking peaceful coexistence.
Till next time, keep grousing!
PS: my apologies to those in the UK unable to see these images – my host has investigated and we don’t know why this happens. If you want a scary picture of a coyote, let me know.
