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Posted on June 17 2005 by Jag @ 10:05 pm
This is for Krissie. Up until a few months ago – beautiful Slough (which is where I work) had the largest Tesco in the world; their flagship store. Then it was demolished – and construction work began. To make way for an even larger store. The project has been fascinating to watch – and is the talk of the town. This part of the town has become one massive construction site – but the shell of the building is now complete – and some trees have been planted along the roadside which will make the front side of the new superstore. It’s amazing how quickly the building has come up – and it has a very modern “glass” style of architecture.
The Tesco in Slough – under reconstruction.
(It’s all “happening” here in Slough.) Later – as I got to Platform 5 at Slough Station for my train home towards Ealing Broadway on this hot and humid Friday evening – I stumbled upon a tap-dancing troupe on platform 5. Dancing to the sound of Chattanooga-choo-choo blaring out from a ghetto-blaster on the side. And being filmed by a camera-crew on the same platform – as well as from the platform opposite. At first I thought it was for a TV commercial. But when I asked someone who looked kind of “official” – she said “it was all about making people smile“. So I smiled.
Tap dancers doing the “Chattanooga-choo-choo”.
It really is all happening here in Slough.
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Route 79 Reflections on a bus journey home |
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| From London: By a British, European, 2nd-Generation Indian. Probably confused - but proud to be them all! Half of my journey to and from work is a 20-30 minute bus ride: London Bus Route 79 - between Alperton in West London and Kingsbury in North West London. I very frequently get pissed-off and frustrated waiting around in the DARK, WET and COLD - waiting for the 79 to turn up. But I have to be eternally grateful for the quality thinking time I get to myself. | ||
Feeling especially honoured to have a post completely dedicated to moi! Thank you JAg….what a nice thing to do!
Ok…the tesco is looking very Milton keynes….do you think that? I cant beleive how slough is morphing into sucha huge huge place! Oh gosh..why did I ever leave…..sobsob!
hugs from the freezing wintery antipodes…krissie
Comment kindly left by krissie — June 18, 2005 @ 1:15 pm
I am guessing Tesco is a big supermarket kind of shop – but why would they ever want to open such a big shop. It all seems to be going American style – to open larger shops which offer everything at a much cheaper price, to drown out the smaller shops.
Oh yes – you are rite – the Tap Dancing is the kind of thing to bring a new ray of light into everybody’s life. Its the sort of thing you dont see normally.
Comment kindly left by sat — June 19, 2005 @ 7:23 pm
Interesting to note abt the tap dancing thing.. i hav seen such troupe once somewhere and remember them pepping up the morale, unless ofcourse, you are in a hurry.
Comment kindly left by Chakra — June 20, 2005 @ 1:52 pm
I hope England does not become overun by giant store like here in the USA
I like to call Wal-mart…Mall Wart.. Your exclusive source for cheap plastic junk
Sat… Did you check out the Winston Link Photos.. . What you think?
Comment kindly left by Fritz — June 21, 2005 @ 2:56 am
Krissie: yes – it is very Milton Keynes – but more 21st century Milton keynes if you know what I mean! Actually – Slough is the rapidly becoming a very desirable place. There is a rumour going around that property speculators (especially commercial property) are buying up land and office spaces – but not using them for anything yet – and the reason why is because Heathrow Terminal 5 (which is currently under construction) is actually very close to Slough – and their is a theory going round that Slough will become a very desirable place to work due to it’s great accessibility to Terminal 5.
Sat: yes – Tesco is the biggest retailer in the UK. Mostly known as a supermarket – but these days does everything. Yes – it is sad to see the smaller independent shops dying out because of businesses like Tesco.
Chakra: Wow – it’s nice to hear that they are touring the stations trying ot make people smile!
Fritz: Agree with you re “giant store overrun” – sometimes I feel though that it’s simply too late …
Comment kindly left by Jag — June 21, 2005 @ 10:09 am
Heh JAG How you handling that intense heat over there? I just saw a newswire that the mercury hit 114 F in the London tube. That has got to be rough.
Comment kindly left by Fritz — June 22, 2005 @ 11:30 pm
tHIS WEBSITE IS COOL!
I live in Slough, but its SHIT
Comment kindly left by Lammy — June 25, 2005 @ 1:48 pm
Cool
Comment kindly left by Lammy — June 25, 2005 @ 1:54 pm
Lammy: glad you like it! Cheers!
Comment kindly left by Jag — June 26, 2005 @ 8:02 pm
The filming you saw was infact for “Making Slough Happy” http://www.bbc.co.uk/berkshire/content/articles/2005/04/07/making_slough_happy_feature.shtml just incase anyone still doesnt know what its all about Making Slough Happy is holding a big community event this saturday from 11 – 4 at Slough Town Square (outside the queensmere!). lets just say… its going to be big!!! be their for your chance to be on tv!! and see what all the participants in the slough 50 have been up to!
Comment kindly left by randomdude — July 20, 2005 @ 10:58 pm
Randomdude: thanks for the explanation! Unfortunately I won’t be around in Slough on Saturday (just work in Slough – don’t live there) but am intrigued by the celebration. Thanks for your comment. And glad to hear that some folks are trying hard to make people of Slough happy. I think that’s great!
Comment kindly left by Jag — July 20, 2005 @ 11:18 pm
Yeah, i was gonna say randomdude, its deffo for ‘Making Slough Happy’ they were filming at my school a while ago!!! the new Tescos is SOOOOOOO big!!….the bridge connecting it the the other side of the road doesn’t look too safe though!!!….
xXxLxXx
Comment kindly left by xXLoraXx — August 15, 2005 @ 6:05 pm
In case anyone’s interested, the book that accompanies the ‘Making Slough Happy’ series is on sale from today.
The four part series begins in mid-November on BBC2.
Comment kindly left by Richard Hill — October 20, 2005 @ 3:41 pm
Thanks Richard! Will look out for it on TV. Sounds interesting.
Comment kindly left by Jag — October 22, 2005 @ 5:24 pm
I have to laugh at some of the comments I see here
and of course to this latest “scientific experiment” to make Slough happy.
How do you make the whole town happy, well I have a few suggestions but dont think the rest of Slough BC councillors would approve.
Firstly stop harrassing Paul Janik, he seems the only MP for Britwell that actually does the town some good not like the other “useless gits”
Whi sit on their fat lazy asses all day spouting complete crap.
Mind you a 747 carrying a few tons of laughing gas could do it for a few hours…..
Comment kindly left by Joe Peters — November 16, 2005 @ 2:40 pm
Hi there Joe: thanks for your feedback – I’m not really familiar with the politics in Slough – since I am only a transient in this town. Yes – I’m tempted to think that there must be simpler ways to achieve the same end …
Comment kindly left by Jag — November 20, 2005 @ 3:43 pm
for some reason i have to disaagre with the comments by joe peters, if ya have actually tried the happiness manifesto you would realise that the key facts that the show is based on does work!
how do you make the whole town happy. have you not been paying attention!? seriously i think, even if people dont like the show they should think down deep at the principles its trying to promote and think for a sec do they work?
from the view point of one of the slough 50 i can say one think they do work!
Comment kindly left by randomdude — December 4, 2005 @ 1:45 pm
hi ! this summer i was in slough and i found it s a beauty city. i want to see a lot pictures like this. if someone can send me some pictures of slough.THANK YOU.and i find this site.
Comment kindly left by manon — January 11, 2006 @ 11:12 am
pierdolicie hipolicie !!!!
Comment kindly left by grzes — March 23, 2006 @ 9:36 pm
Do you have any recent photographs of the completed Tesco Slough branch. If you do could you send one to me, if not plese do not reply.
Thank You
Arrinn
Comment kindly left by Arrinn — March 30, 2006 @ 9:06 am
Hi Arrinn, I don;t have any decent pics of the Tesco, but I’ll try to get some for you in coming days/weeks. The only ones I have are low quality ones that you will find in my “Cameraphone Lifeblog” set on my Flickr account.
Comment kindly left by Jag — April 5, 2006 @ 7:06 pm
Sorry to burst your bubble but I think you’ll find the largest Tesco superstore in the world is in Hungary, (Just outside Budapest) in a place called Budaors.
Please feel free to look it up and correct me if I’m wrong.
Comment kindly left by Sarah Johns — September 17, 2006 @ 9:50 am
I made my last comment then realised I hadn’t actually backed this up with anything.
Slough is Tesco’s largest UK store approx 18,300 sqm.
Hungary has the largest worldwide store at 30,898 sqm.
If you google Tesco’s largest store you’ll see the info there.
Cool website anyway!
)
Comment kindly left by Sarah Johns — September 17, 2006 @ 10:04 am
Hi Sarah, thanks for your feedback and many thanks also for your correction! I guess I must have been told about the Slough store by a local who wasn’t aware that Tesco had built an even bigger one in Hungary a few years back. So once upon a time Slough might have been the largest, but not any more!
Comment kindly left by Jag — September 17, 2006 @ 11:00 am
thanks
Comment kindly left by kamran — December 8, 2007 @ 7:53 pm
At first i thougt that the man with the video camra was videoing a famous show! but then i read the paragraph that my dad sent to me so then i realized that it was not a show!!
Love,
Kimberly House
kimberly.house@yahoo.com
Comment kindly left by Kimberly House — December 12, 2007 @ 3:07 pm
Cheers Kimberly!
Comment kindly left by Jag — December 17, 2007 @ 11:15 pm
sir i like slough and my perents dream i go to slough plz sir send me visa and i come my phone number is +92332489534 plz sir plz
Comment kindly left by murtaza — March 7, 2008 @ 5:24 pm
i went last year and the place was beautiful
Comment kindly left by sikander — May 11, 2008 @ 6:41 pm
Hi Jag – I have some time and thought I’d catch up on your wonderful blog and what a treat!!! All those pics of slough and even Jim the station dog… enjoying looking at the photos immensly!!
off to load up the video of queensmere now. I did my thesis about slough as a shopping centre when Queensmere was just just a thought in the planners heads!!! thank you once again for this visual treat!!
Comment kindly left by Krissie — September 13, 2009 @ 12:53 am
Cheers Krissie! Glad to be of some service!
Comment kindly left by Jag — September 27, 2009 @ 8:04 pm
i love slough i realy missin you slough uk deport me
Comment kindly left by wais — October 3, 2009 @ 1:23 pm
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