Team Dagenham's Blog

First Beginnings

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:00:00 GMT

Having been told that we needed to start with clue number one, we quickly solved it and charged off down towards the Strand clutching our maps tightly. Hazel and Chris wanted to grab coffees (1:30pm clearly pushing it for the Sunday after the Saturday before!), so we made a brief stop at a coffee shop to collect our thoughts and solve as many of the remaining clues as we could. By the time they'd got their drinks, most of the clues were solved, the map had been annotated, and a route around London was taking shape!

So, we charged off down Villiers Street towards Clue 1: This station is behind the riverside bandstand.

Hazel's Facebook style summary of this post: Hazel is pleasantly surprised at how much ground one can cover when caffeinated and the rain has stopped (despite wearing entirely the wrong outfit for the day)

Clues 1, 8 and 11

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 21:45:00 GMT

When we reached the bottom of Villiers Street, we snapped photos of Embankment Station. It was impossible to incorporate the bandstand that the station was actually behind, so instead we grabbed photos with the nearby sign board for the Bandstand Cafe.

Having dispensed with clue number one, we could then hit the others in any order we wished - so using our annotated map, we realised that clues 8 and 11 ("The back of Charing Cross station" (Easiest. Clue. Evah!) and "Sounds like they're looking closely at the riverside") were both nearby.

We snapped shots of the station from the Golden Jubilee Bridge, and then looked down on Westminster Pier for our third clue.

Hazel's Facebook-style summary of this post: Hazel never knew there was a bandstand behind Embankment - a true treasure hunt!

Along The Thames For Clues 10 & 7

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 21:30:00 GMT

Walking back down from the Golden Jubilee Bridge, we headed along the Embankment towards Waterloo Bridge - the solution to clue 10 ("Where Terry and Julie cross over the river"), taking arty snaps of it with the Queen Mary in front.

After walking past the Sunday soup kitchen under Waterloo Bridge, we headed along past the Walkabout (avoiding the temptation to abandon the drizzly British weather with a sneaky pint) and reached Temple Station:

We knew this is where we'd find the answer to clue 7: "A cabin with a difference near a sacred station", and after a bit of poking about, we found it:

And we determined to make sure we'd shot it from all angles...

Hazel's Facebook-style summary of this post: Hazel is wondering how much it would cost to rent a cabin like that... and whether or not the sofa would fit inside...

Heading north to Clues 6, 5 and 4

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 21:15:00 GMT

We bade a fond farewell to the brown waters of the Thames, and headed north past the closed Aldwych station...

...before heading up Kingsway towards clue number 6 - "Roses are red, Violets are blue, Holden loved this station, so should you!". This was one of the last clues that we managed to figure out - finally realising red and blue were a reference to the tube line colours...

From there, we headed further north up Southampton Row to clue 5 - "The tracks lead to a secret underground tram world in Southampton", an area in the middle of the street where former tram tracks lead down into the ground.

Some of us tried hard to get good photographs:

Some of us kept our feet on terra firma:

...but the results were exactly what we needed:

From there, we went on a bit of a wild goose chase. MykReeve thought the Nationwide branch that marked the former location of the British Museum tube station was nearer to the actual museum than it actually was. So, to solve clue 4 ("Once you could alight here for treasures of the Empire, now you can only open an account nationwide") we ended up using Google Maps and phone calls to local friends to find out exactly where the Nationwide was:

...and in the end, we found it:

We couldn't find anything on the branch to confirm we were in the right place, so we ended up checking with Wikipedia:

Hazel's Facebook-style summary of this post: Hazel wishes trams were back in action, just so I can sing 'Clang, clang, clang went the trolley!' every morning on the way to work.

The Final Stretch - Clues 9, 3 and a failed 2

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 21:00:00 GMT

So, with the end in sight, it was time to pick up the pace and head along Shaftesbury Avenue to Leicester Square station, to pick up clue 9: "An underground circle in a square. Oysters love this place!" Cheerfully ignoring the "oysters" part of the clue, we realised that the combination of square and circle was created by the London Transport roundel at Leicester Square.

When we reached the station, we realised that the square signs bearing the roundel added an extra level of square-circle-ness, and convinced ourselves that's what we were here to photograph.

So, without even heading underground, we snapped shots of a station roundel on Charing Cross Road:

Then we headed along Long Acre, to solve clue 3: "A tiled sign where Neal and James meet on a long piece of land" - the tiles in question could only be the ones above the entrance to Covent Garden station:

...where we encountered Team Bank, snapping their last clues. However, we still had clue number 2 to solve: "Eliza Doolittle moved out in 1974 only to be replaced with Frank Pick and Harry Beck."

Frankly, we had no idea. Those of us who'd seen Pygmalion or My Fair Lady associated Covent Garden Market with the plays, but had no idea whether this was the solution to the clue... so, in the hope of partial credit, and with the intention of pipping the Bankers to the "first back" position, we charged down James Street to snap the market on our way back to the Transport Museum.

The resulting shots, while very lovely...

...are unfortunately not the correct solution to the clue. :(

Hazel's Facebook-style summary of this post: Hazel is normally quite good at cryptic crosswords but is suffering from tourist-rage and unsuitable footwear to be of any use right now.

Challenges And Ruminations

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:45:00 GMT

So, that was our last clue - it was time to hurry back to the museum for a sit down and party rings...

However, we were disappointed to find that our rivals in Team Elephant and Castle had beaten us back (fortunately, they hadn't yet eaten all the party rings, so it wasn't a total loss!) - so in a desperate attempt to gain more points, two of our team ran down to the Strand to re-create image 1999/21655 (one of the bonus challenges in the scavenger hunt);

Not even our hastily taken photograph with a living statue;

or our blurry shot of a cabbie;

were enough to sway the organisers of our superior scavenger hunting abilities.

We didn't do awfully well at the "largest number of different modal roundels" challenge either - only grabbing RIVER, UNDERGROUND and TAXIS!

Still - it was a fun day, and with Team Bank, we made a decent dent in the foodstuffs on offer before any of the other four teams materialised back at base!!

Hazel's Facebook-style summary of this post: Hazel is eating free biscuits and wishing I hadn't worn high heels for the hunt. I am wishing Team Elephant and Castle had worn high heels today.