It's rather saddening to hear of the Bristol Stanford's closure.  I bought a map there a little before Christmas and there was no indication of it closing then. 
The news sparked a memory of when, a few years ago,  I was downstairs trying to pay for a map. Map and payment card in hand, I stood in front of the chap behind the till who was on a call casually talking to a friend or colleague.  Five minutes later and with me about to put the map down and leave, he finally finished the call and decided to take payment. 
The subject of the overheard phone call?  A meeting earlier that day to stress the urgency of boosting sales.

I also recall a visit to George's during the first term of my History A Level to order a recommended text book which I was told would be ordered in for me as there were none in stock at the time. I left my name and address to be contacted when it had arrived for me.  Fast forward two years, A level completed, end of year 6th form bun fight done and dusted and in the post comes a letter from George's informing me that my book had arrived.
I still passed my History A Level.

 

Official reason was "overcrowding/not enough wheelchair spaces".

 

Alterations to services between Liskeard and Looe
Due to flooding between Liskeard and Looe the line is closed.
Train services running to and from these stations have been suspended. Disruption is expected until the end of the day on 01/02/26.

 
Some pictures of the scene from West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service.

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Here in Nailsea, we used to have two excellent book and map shops. One was run by Mr C***, selling maps, and the other - literally across the High Street - was run by Mrs C***, selling books.

Over the years, I bought many items from both establishments - Ordnance Survey maps for me, educational books for our child. When Mr and Mrs C*** retired, both premises closed: his became a hair salon, hers became part of a veterinary practice.

These days, I agree that the internet has overtaken such a physical maps or books High Street presence.

 
From Northern Belle

From their sales blurb for their sold-out trip to the Races in March....


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Scotland have been very successful with their new arrangement - so Police England. Why not?

 
Another update, from the BBC:


Looking at those published images, I'm comfortable that they are all pictures of the same person - Yin Cheong William Shen.

Maybe I'm cynical, but I have noted that many large organisations - including State ones - tend to step back and distance themselves from their own previous 'official decision' when the BBC get hold of a story.  Here, "The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), which has not acknowledged any error, said it would offer Shen a free retest this week."  So, while maintaining that they were not at fault, they've nevertheless effectively paid out.

That's my personal opinion, by the way, not the official view of the Coffee Shop forum. I wish Yin Cheong William Shen well in his belated driving test. CfN. [Image from here is not available to guests]

 
Unlike clothes, and particularly shoes, where I really do want to try things on for fit and feel, maps are relatively safe to buy online for delivery so I'm not surprised physical shops are struggling.  Having said that, I would still prefer to look at and compare foreign maps where they are an unknown quantity, as opposed to the UK where I'm familiar with what OS maps at every scale and the various town/city street map publishers' products look like.  Not enough of us to keep it economic though!

On a related note, I recently decided to update my 9 sheet A-Z maps of London (better than the classic A-Z book for some purposes) only to discover that they are no longer produced.  How long will the book survive?

 

It has a reputation.  I am ... planning to take a passing through look later this year arriving on the train from Dijon.

 
Bercy bus station Paris. Where travel vloggers fear to tread and I would imagine most  people who have to use it.

 
City of London, apparently.  [Image from here is not available to guests]

 

I am rather suspecting that performance records stretching back to the last decade would set me off on a tangent I can do without.

 
Having travelled around the US by Greyhound in 1979 as teenager, I can attest to this in spades.

 

Yes, I spent many happy hours in George's as well, and perhaps even more in Chapter and Verse, another bookshop which was on the opposite side of Park Street directly opposite George's.

I have also been to Stanford's in Bristol many times, and it was usually quite busy most times I visited, though obviously not everyone will be buying when they visit. The map basement was where I usually headed for. I did go to Stanford's about 10 days ago, to buy a specific map I wanted, only to find that they had just closed the basement as they had boxed up all the maps to be sent to their London store. I can feel a visit to London coming up soon.

 
Often when you had heavy loads going in one direction - the stone road making haulage easier.

 
As these are a stop gap, very unlikely to be repainted and the future of regional liveries is up in the air with the possible new GBR livery.

 
What is the smallest police force in the UK based on number of warranted constables?

 
A photo of Watling Street, so rather out of the Coffeeshop area, but useful as it shows rural road conditions at the turn of the 20th Century, albeit a road in quite good condition. Perhaps useful as a reminder of the nature of the roads people might encounter on leaving a railway station.

Also, that puzzle. A 'Stone-road', and just 700 yards of it. What were persons unknown up to with that...

Mark

https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/photos/item/AA97/05859

 
https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/bus-station-the-most-feral-part-of-any-town-20260126263703

 
....or rename one "The Yerkes Line"!

 

Two objections to that ET!

1 - It seems that the Government's second main policy proposal, apart from amalgamation of the current county/regional forces, is that serious crime becomes the responsibility of a new FBI-style national serious crime body, who would presumably have this kind of organised criminality in their remit

2 - The communications between the two comprise just the Thames crossing - tunnel north-bound, Queen Elizabeth Bridge southbound, both notorious bottlenecks on the M25. Dealing with a major accident or incident (say) in Colchester from a special unit based in Maidstone, or vice versa doesn't bear thinking about, so you would probably have to duplicate facilities either side of the crossing, negating the savings from amalgamation. As pointed out in my previous post on this thread, police work is very much more than solving crimes, and dealing with major accidents is very much at the upper end of the rest of their work.

 
That sounds very much like what happened to Reading's main independent bookseller, William Smith (no relation!) that used to be in London Street. It suffered a major fire in the early 1970s, after which there was a big sale of fire-damaged stock. I acquired an almost undamaged 7th edition One Inch (1/63,630) unfolded OS sheet 178 (Dorchester) which in due course (about 10 years later) I framed and hung on my office wall. Somewhere in the house there's a slightly smoke-damaged copy of Monkhouse's Principles of Physical Geography I acquired at the same time.

The shop moved to (if I recall correctly) King's Road, and in due course was acquired by, and rebranded as, Blackwells too. It closed in the era when Waterstones effectively took control of the serious book market in the 2000s, but they kept a store at the University.

The old London Street store had a well-regarded second-hand department, but I think almost all its stock perished in the fire. The premises were the site of an early Quaker meeting dating back to the end of the 17th century.

 

When George's closed I discovered that it had been a branch of Blackwell's since 1929 and had not been independent.

I too remember the old shop with its fascinating second hand department.  I still have a number of books I bought there.

 
Not 100% a propos, but I was amused last evening when I got on the 18.46 from Temple Meads to Montpelier.

This train - and you will see the tenuous connection to the topic, -  is often cancelled when I try to catch it due to lack of crew. I had come off the Plymouth - Leeds train on Platform 3, so it should have been a simple matter of stay put while the Leeds train shuffles off, and catch the Severn Beach train from the same platform. The minutes ticked by, ramps were obtained, a chap in a wheelchair got off and then the ramp was installed in a door at the other end of the train. Then, suddenly! Nothing happened. People shrugged. Someone cleared his throat. No-one went and no-one came. And then, over the wheezing rattle of the Vogager, the inevitable platform change was announced. So I joined the crowd hotfooting it to Platform 7, and just a few minutes later we were on our way.

The odd bit was the conductor's announcement. He apologised for the confusion. I thought he was going to explain why the Leeds train had delayed us and led to a platform change. What he actually told us was that our train had been cancelled and then uncancelled because he had been reallocated to another train but then another guard had come in on a later, delayed train thus allowing him to work our train. So that puts us in our place then!

The Leeds train, incidentally, left 26 minutes late but surpisingly left New St on time. No idea what held it up for so long at Temple Meads.

 
Thanks for your post, ChrisB.

The BBC have now improved their graphic in that article:

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Probably best to keep away from the south coast this evening, if you can.  [Image from here is not available to guests]

 
I quite like the sound of 'City and South London Line' and 'Hampstead Tube'

 

George's (note the placement of the apostrophe - we'll come back to that) was just one shop - 89 Park St - when I was a boy. Spent many happy hours there, exploring all four floors and multiple levels, and buying many a book. I think they over-expanded when they moved into 87 and 85, and then sadly rebranded as Blackwell's - the Oxford bookseller who had actually owned the business since the 1920's.

Why was the apostrophe where it was? Because it was William George's Sons Ltd. William, incidentally, started selling books in his uncle's bookshop at 26 Clare Street - more or less opposite Stanford's. He moved the business to Park St in either 1851 or 1871 (depending on who you believe). Perhaps he thought Clare St was a silly place for a bookshop?

 
Sad, but not surprised. I don't remember the Bristol store ever being very busy. It was on Clare Street, surrounded by bars and restaurants. There is a branch of Traifinders nearby, which could have sent some people their way, but overall it always looked a bit out of place.