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London Bridge Is Broken Down

There is considerable variation in the lyrics of this well-known and traditional nursery rhyme but our favourite and perhaps most apt for the travails that are currently besetting CBS Outdoor is the version quoted by Iona and Peter Opie [1] back in 1951.

London Bridge is broken down,
Falling down, falling down.
London Bridge is falling down,
My fair lady.

First we are not going to make a habit of ‘bashing’ CBS Outdoor but trust us it was just coincidence that on our way around London this morning we passed through one of the two Tube stations that yesterday we said were the ONLY two with a full working complement of Digital Escalator Panels (DEPs) [2].

Whoops, not so now as London Bridge this morning (as you climb from the platform to the ticket hall on the left side) had 4 screens out of sync with the rest of the row and on the right hand side 4/5 daisy-chained ones were off.

The 9th verse of the nursery rhyme is strangely relevant…

Silver and gold will be stolen away,
Stolen away, stolen away,
Silver and gold will be stolen away,
My fair lady.

And dare we say the next two verses as well. Remember this is the ‘man’ (okay the contractor) who earns GBP 250,000 a year to physically go down to the Tube to check on the screens…

Set a man to watch all night,
Watch all night, watch all night,
Set a man to watch all night,
My fair lady.

Suppose the man should fall asleep,
Fall asleep, fall asleep,
Suppose the man should fall asleep?
My fair lady.

Nicky Cheshire and her sales team are fighting the good fight but it must be extremely difficult and extremely frustrating for them with technology and engineering letting them down so.

1 Comment (Open | Close)

1 Comment To "London Bridge Is Broken Down"

#1 Comment By Satinder Ahluwalia On 18 September 2009 @ 15:32 @689

Not surprising I saw the technology and thought why did they go for it in the first place I recently asked the Mayors office how was this solution chosen and no one came back to me with a relevant answer – just a “we are doing it for revenue”

The Mayors office and Transport for London should take them to Hong Kongs MTR to see how it should be done and with no major hicups

Hope these idiots get it right before the Olympics