You wouldn't think that West Ham Bus Garage had anything in common with Harry Potter, but TfL's Lost Property Office there might be the closest thing to the Room of Requirement on this mortal coil. "Office" is a bit of a misnomer - it's really a cavernous warehouse full of row upon row of all the possessions misplaced by Londoners on the TfL network - 6,500 a week, to be precise. It's a nosey parker's paradise.
Every day, all the items that have been left on buses, tubes, trains and black cabs arrive here in sacks, which are unpacked and labelled in the sorting room. "We try and treat everything the same," says lost property performance manager Diana Quaye, who is showing me around. This egalitarianism is clear when I see a staff member diligently labelling a snapped electric cable. "It could be valuable to that person," Quaye shrugs.
False claims, frazzled frogs
The team log the date, time and location something went missing, which prevents anyone from reclaiming an item which isn't theirs but they do still get the odd chancer.
While we are there, a man comes in to collect a bag he lost after falling asleep on the Tube.
"These are all my things, but they were in a Gucci bag before," he claims. " You have to have a sense of humour to work here," says Quaye, adding that "some items could be classed as undesirable". In the past they have received theatrical coffins, a bollard and a box of cooked frogs.
Bu hikaye The London Standard dergisinin October 24, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye The London Standard dergisinin October 24, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Who is to blame for the lack of elite English managers?
Replacing Tuchel with a homegrown candidate will be no easy task
Who your club will sign and sell in the January market
Kolo Muani has more than one interested club in London, while there are big names unsettled and looking to move
The debt disaster threatening to leave Londoners without a drop to drink
Crisis-hit Thames Water could go under in days
Is 2025 the year of the first-time buyer?
This could be your best chance to buy a home in more than a decade here's where to look
Kick back in the Caribbean BodyHoliday, Saint Lucia
Green juices, beach workouts and supercharged facials: more and more of us are swapping piña coladas and indulgent food for a healthier, but no less glamorous, holiday.
Dishoom's Kavi Thakraron why Mumbai is his inspiration
The best street food, fantastic markets and bars where the hours just disappear...the restaurateur shares his guide
On the sauce - Adiamondis forever, after all
Double Diamond was supposedly Prince Philip’s favourite beer. He’s said to have enjoyed a bottle, nightly.
At the table - Queen of W1 expands empire with chic Italian
I understand it's not the done thing to compare restaurateurs to murderous mob bosses, given it's rude and, well, they're notoriously litigious. But when I think of Samyukta Nair, sometimes I hear Jack Nicholson's mutterings in The Departed, Martin Scorsese's Boston gangster flick. \"I don't want to be a product of my environment,\" Nichol- son says. \"I want my environment to be a product of me.\"
The Royal Academy's masterful show and mind-expanding surrealist paintings
Known for his intricate and stunning handmade tapestries, Siributr creates these vast hangings to explore his native Thailand past and present.
Review - Adrien Brody's power and depth shine in this colossal epic
The Brutalist, director Brady Corbet’s third feature, is a movie of such colossal size and scope it may well have been carved from marble; an epic paean to the immigrant experience in America in the wake of the Second World War.
