I made myself busy until just after 12:00 and then checked Zen’s alert page. It was still showing “12:00 estimated” but I thought it was worth trying my connection.

The quick way to do this, I have found, it to try loading the Bing Web browser on my phone. If the connection is good, this pops up instantly.

I tried it and it popped up instantly. I fired up the PC and it too connected. Why doesn’t Zen’s alerts indicate “Clear”? Perhaps the connection is not guaranteed secure yet? Time will tell. For now, though, my window in the world is open once more.

I have kept watch on Zen’s alerts as the estimated time of repair has moved from 9:45 to 11:00 and now to 12:00.

This comment appears in their latest update:

Our suppliers engineers have located a fault with some core hardware and are arranging for a replacement device to be sent to site.
No ETA is yet available for the replacement hardware.

This outage is beginning to rival those famously experienced by mobile phone customers of O2 and Three.

This will knock a dent in Zen’s hitherto splendid reputation.

Jeremy Corbyn has promised that if Labour wins the election, every home will receive a free fibre broadband connection. If nothing else, this shows what a central part of our lives the Internet has become. So much can be done with it and – increasingly – so much cannot be done without it.

If I needed to be reminded of this fact, a potent reminder hit me this morning in the form of a Zen outage. My connection is still down as I write this on my iPhone.

We have been “with” Zen for a number of years and have generally been happy with the quality of the service. We are still on copper, not fibre, but that suffices for our modest needs.

A complete outage is rare though not unheard of. When one happens, my iPhone serves, euphemistically speaking, as a lifeboat. With it I can check Zen’s alert page to find out whether the problem is at their end or mine and, if necessary, call Zen support. In the meantime, I can use my phone to surf the Web.

Nonetheless, because I spend so much time online and tend therefore to take an Internet connection for granted, an outage induces feelings of helplessness and despondency. I have to make an effort to be patient, not to keep turning the router off and on again and not to keep trying to make my computer connect.

It’s all very curious because when I first started using computers, the Internet had not yet been heard of. Your computer was a world in itself with no connections to anything else. Thinking about that now gives me slightly claustrophobic feelings!

The first opening into a connected world came with bulletin boards. A BBS was an ordinary desktop computer connected by a modem to the telephone system. With your computer and a modem of your own, you could dial up a BBS and interact with it. Most BBSs were single user, that is, they accepted only one caller at a time. Communication between callers was by means of messages left in the various “rooms” or forums on the BBS.

Despite the limitations, the BBS became very popular and some supported very lively communities. Eventually, a form of networking was developed which enabled people connected to one BBS to send messages via the network to other BBSs. Given the enthusiasm of “sysops” (short for system operators) and their callers, the BBS might have developed still further but it was not to be: the advent of the Internet killed the BBS.

For a few years I ran a BBS of my own and attracted a small but faithful following. From time to time, we would meet in person in a nearby pub and spend a companionable evening together.

Those days are gone, perhaps regretted in some ways and remembered fondly, but will never return. Instead, we have the Internet with its seemingly unlimited resources and ability to connect people all over the world.

Well, we do when our Internet connection is working, as mine is not just now.

So I will bestir myself and do what I should already have done, namely the morning chores, and perhaps by the time I have finished, the connection will have been restored and my “window on the world” will be open once more.

Afterthought

Would we be better off with a fibre connection? I’m not sure that we would. More importantly, however, I cannot avoid the notion that fibre is already old hat. Surely, the future is with universal wireless connectivity – isn’t that what the arrival of 5G is telling us?

You can already acquire a wireless router connecting via your mobile phone network that requires no wires (or fibre) and can be carried with you from place to place. I think that is where the future lies. Maybe someone should mention this to Jeremy.

This afternoon we went to the Barbican. I won’t say much about it (there are plenty of references online) other than to say that it is residential but with public areas such as a cinema, concert hall, public library, exhibition spaces and cafe.

The architectural style is Brutalist and yet, while my intellect tells me that I should not like it, my emotions tell me that I have an affectionate regard for it.

The place is like a maze and finding one’s way around depends in the discreet but extensive signage.

A rock dove (that’s a street pigeon to the unsympathetic) drops in for lunch.

This is the hall of the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers whose entrance is girt about by parts of the Barbican. We passed it on our way to the Museum of London.

The museum traces the history of London from prehistoric times to the present. There is so much to see that I cannot do more than show a few random images.

This happy face comes from a display called London Faces. It dates from the 1300s.

This is Gerard the Giant (c1670) who stood in a niche on the front of Gerard’s Hall in the City of London. According to legend, a giant had lived in the building.

This figure once stood outside a tobacconist’s shop.

One of my favourite sections is that containing mock-ups of Victorian shops and offices.

This is a bank manager’s office. As Christmas is approaching, there is a glass of wine and a mince pie on the desk.

This is a grocery store with a display of biscuits along the front of the counter and large canisters of tea on the shelves at the back.

We sat in the pub for a while but if course no one came to serve us!

On leaving the museum and heading for the bus stop, I took a final photo of the complex, this time after darkness had fallen and the lights were coming on.

The day is cold, around 7°C (45°F) and grey but dry. This picture gives you some idea of it.

We took a number 59 bus but this unfortunately broke down so we changed to a number 476 which took us to Haringey where I photographed the old well.

A number 230 took us from here to Walthamstow.

One of the first interesting sights we found there was this building. I have mentioned before how we “collect” old Burton’s stores and we immediately recognised this as one such.

Burton’s stores usually have one or more foundation stones which are useful for dating the building. As the ground floor of this one has been modified (I’m inclined to say ruined by unsympathetic alteration work) I didn’t expect to find any but…

ta-dah! Careful search revealed this one, a typical example in black marble, inscribed “THIS STONE LAID BY STANLEY HOWARD BURTON 1931”. There were possibly others (they tended to come in threes) but, if so, they have been removed or covered up.

After a pit stop at a Costa Coffee shop, we started along the High Street.

I noticed that between each building was a sculpted figure of what appears to be a dragon.

Not only is this decoration unusual but it also shows that this part of the High Street was built as a whole and not a separately financed individual buildings as is more often the case.

Walthamstow Market takes place in the High Street and is reputedly the longest outdoor market in Europe. It started in 1885 and runs from Tuesday to Saturday.

An inn has stood on this site since at least the 18th century but this one dates from 1880.

Today, the ground floor accommodates a cake shop and cafe but the plaque high on the wall leaves us in no doubt that this was once the Cock Tavern. A coach house and stables were added in 1888 but I don’t know whether they are still extant.

I was pleased to see this branch of Manze’s apparently still going strong as the one near us in Chapel Market closed a while back.

Leading off the High Street is a road with the evocative name of Mission Grove. I thought at first sight that this building was indeed the mission, especially as I could make out the word “Mission” through the foliage. However, it turned to be Mission Grove Primary School, built in 1905. Still with its separate entrances marked “Boys”, “Girls” and “Infants”, it was a welcome find but it left the mystery: where was the mission and does it still exist or was it replaced by the school?

It was by now time for a late lunch and by happy chance came upon a Turkish restaurant called Göyüzü. We ordered lentil soup and a pide each, with Turkish tea. (Did I say I love Turkish tea?) The restaurant was crowded and noisy and the waiter misheard the order, bringing only one pide instead of two. However, this turned out to be fortunate because with the soup and the plates of salad and bread that are served with the meal, one pide shared between us turned out to be plenty. I expected a big bill but it was quite modest. What a pity this restaurant is so far from where we live!

After lunch, we visited the public library. It contains many interesting features but one needs to be discreet in photographing public places such as a library. This picture shows a view of the rather fine staircase and the stained glass windows on the first landing.

This photo shows some of the fine carving on the staircase.

Two famous philanthropists are associated with the library. The first is John Passmore Edwards who, in 1894 paid for an extension to the library which was then sited in a house called Rosebank. The second is Andrew Carnegie who financed the new library that replaced Rosebank in 1907. (Edwards’s extension still forms part of the library.) Both of these names are writ large in Britain’s public library system and other educational foundations.

Before taking the tube for home, I took this photo of the rather striking Central Parade. Previous buildings on the site were destroyed on WWII by a flying bomb and the parade was built in 1954 “in Festival of Britain style”, including the “modern” but not unpleasant clock tower.

Designed by F.G. Southgate, it comprises a shopping centre, offices and apartments on the upper floors. More recently, there was a plan to redevelop the site which would include demolishing the dwellings. However, Historic England evaluated the complex and gave it a Grade II listing, in view of which the Council has shelved its demolition plans, no doubt to the relief of the occupants.