(no subject)

By George, I think they've fixed the air conditioning. For the first day in ten, the temperature in here isn't unbearable, and I only feel quietly somnolent rather than completely drained.

Until we moved into this building in what, 1997, or thereabouts, we were lodged in the mighty, but not immortal, Marsham Street building, three towers and a podium, completed in the early 1970s, and which had the distinction of being one of the ugliest buildings in the capital. It was originally conceived as the London HQ for the GPO, and featured lots of behind-the-wall tunnels and chutes originally designed to make mail sorting a state-of-the-art process. Of course, the machinery was never installed, because the post office got fed up with the interminable labour disputes and consequent delays and cancelled their contract with the developers. The only use ever made of all the miles of in-building tunnelling was by rodents and insects for about 25 years. In its latter days, these did serve as conduits for IT cabling, the installation of which was finally completed mere months before we moved out, and about a year before demolition started.

Probably the best thing about working in the hideous Marsham Towers was the fact that you couldn't actually see them while you were in them, so had a really quite splendid view across the West End. Well, from the north tower, you did.

Anyway, the point of all this is that the air conditioning didn't work there, either. It was installed in the early '70s, and removed in the late '70s when it was discovered that all the conduits were lined with asbestos. None of which was ever removed, as far as I know. All the conduit ducts were taped with warnings and that was that.

We did have radiators, though. And fine things they were, too. The standard policy was that the radiators would be turned on on 1 October every year, and work through office hours until 31 March the following year when they were turned off. No allowance was ever made for the actual temperature, or anything, so if we had an Indian Summer, we would merrily roast, with all the windows as wide open as possible, or if spring was late we would slowly freeze to death. In the meantime, the actual efficacy of the radiators while on, would depend largely upon the direction and strength of the wind. There were times in mid winter that the radiators would be hot, but the heat would dissipate about three inches from them, leaving us all a rather fetching shade of blue, huddled around our desks in our coats and jackets.

In the summer, on the other hand, life could get just a little more interesting as the temperatures soared to lead-threatening levels. Working on the north side of the building wasn't too bad with all the windows open, but on the south side, the single-glazed windows would magnify the sun's heat with an efficiency that would have made the comrades at Carl Zeiss, Jena wince in jealousy.

And that, gentle reader, is what the office has been like these past ten days or so. God bless the air conditioning now it's working properly again.

(no subject)

By George, I think they've fixed the air conditioning. For the first day in ten, the temperature in here isn't unbearable, and I only feel quietly somnolent rather than completely drained.

Until we moved into this building in what, 1997, or thereabouts, we were lodged in the mighty, but not immortal, Marsham Street building, three towers and a podium, completed in the early 1970s, and which had the distinction of being one of the ugliest buildings in the capital. It was originally conceived as the London HQ for the GPO, and featured lots of behind-the-wall tunnels and chutes originally designed to make mail sorting a state-of-the-art process. Of course, the machinery was never installed, because the post office got fed up with the interminable labour disputes and consequent delays and cancelled their contract with the developers. The only use ever made of all the miles of in-building tunnelling was by rodents and insects for about 25 years. In its latter days, these did serve as conduits for IT cabling, the installation of which was finally completed mere months before we moved out, and about a year before demolition started.

Probably the best thing about working in the hideous Marsham Towers was the fact that you couldn't actually see them while you were in them, so had a really quite splendid view across the West End. Well, from the north tower, you did.

Anyway, the point of all this is that the air conditioning didn't work there, either. It was installed in the early '70s, and removed in the late '70s when it was discovered that all the conduits were lined with asbestos. None of which was ever removed, as far as I know. All the conduit ducts were taped with warnings and that was that.

We did have radiators, though. And fine things they were, too. The standard policy was that the radiators would be turned on on 1 October every year, and work through office hours until 31 March the following year when they were turned off. No allowance was ever made for the actual temperature, or anything, so if we had an Indian Summer, we would merrily roast, with all the windows as wide open as possible, or if spring was late we would slowly freeze to death. In the meantime, the actual efficacy of the radiators while on, would depend largely upon the direction and strength of the wind. There were times in mid winter that the radiators would be hot, but the heat would dissipate about three inches from them, leaving us all a rather fetching shade of blue, huddled around our desks in our coats and jackets.

In the summer, on the other hand, life could get just a little more interesting as the temperatures soared to lead-threatening levels. Working on the north side of the building wasn't too bad with all the windows open, but on the south side, the single-glazed windows would magnify the sun's heat with an efficiency that would have made the comrades at Carl Zeiss, Jena wince in jealousy.

And that, gentle reader, is what the office has been like these past ten days or so. God bless the air conditioning now it's working properly again.