Platform Nine and Three-Quarters

[DynamicSpirit]

This - Harry Potter is total and utter shyte for children. Any adults who read it are the sort of people who make me look like some kind of Lothario and should, frankly, be taken out and shot.

Bit extreme, surely? Wouldn't a confundus charm be more proportionate?

 

[gottago]

I love that they've had to put up waiting barrier thingys in King's Cross for all the people desperate enough to want a photo with it! Can you imagine queuing all that time for that?!

 

[Cliveblackpool]

Travelling to that ''Public School'' by Ford Anglia is possibly a bit more more believable!!

 

[asylumxl]

I left myself open to that by making such an open ended comment I personally find that Rowling's style of writing makes it very easy to become engrossed in the story line.

You must enjoy reading Telegram messages too ...

She seems totally unaware that there is punctuation available to her other than a full stop.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

You must enjoy reading Telegram messages too ...

She seems totally unaware that there is punctuation available to her other than a full stop.

Well they are supposed to be *children's* books. You might expect that childrens books would tend to use simpler grammatical structures than books intended for adults. (I did though get the impression the later books were more sophisticated in style than the earlier ones).

 

[Eagle]

I notice no one's mentioned that once the redeveloped King's Cross is fully complete, the platforms will be renumbered 1–12 rather than 0–11, meaning that the "monument" in question (underneath which Boudica is surely turning in her grave) will indeed be between platforms 9 and 10.

 

[GuyBarry]

I notice no one's mentioned that once the redeveloped King's Cross is fully complete, the platforms will be renumbered 1–12 rather than 0–11, meaning that the "monument" in question (underneath which Boudica is surely turning in her grave) will indeed be between platforms 9 and 10.

It was mentioned in the fourth message in the thread by Transmanche, in fact.

That's probably the main reason why they're renumbering the platforms

 

[Eagle]

That's probably the main reason why they're renumbering the platforms

Yes, and not at all to do with the fact that people tend to just stare at the words "Platform 0" on the departure board assuming that the 'real' platform number just hasn't been put up yet :P

 

[Speedbird2639]

I notice no one's mentioned that once the redeveloped King's Cross is fully complete, the platforms will be renumbered 1–12 rather than 0–11, meaning that the "monument" in question (underneath which Boudica is surely turning in her grave) will indeed be between platforms 9 and 10.

"There is a belief that she was buried between platforms 9 and 10 in King's Cross station in London, England. There is no evidence for this and it is probably a post World War II invention"

 

[Joseph_Locke]

That's probably the main reason why they're renumbering the platforms

Having been to similar meetings, I'd bet that it has appeared in at least one set of minutes ...

 

[Mojo]

Some streets in central London are numbered like this. I believe Berwick Street (which leads off Oxford Street) is one example.

Yes, I used to live on a street parallel with Regent Street and number one was at one end, with it going up and then back down the other side, with the highest number on the other side opposite number one.

As someone who grew up on a street with houses on only one side of the road, I could never work out why so many delivery drivers and builders, etc. got confused, until I realised that elsewhere it is conventional to have odd numbers on one side of the road and even numbers on the other.

 

[Liam]

Yes, I used to live on a street parallel with Regent Street and number one was at one end, with it going up and then back down the other side, with the highest number on the other side opposite number one.

As someone who grew up on a street with houses on only one side of the road, I could never work out why so many delivery drivers and builders, etc. got confused, until I realised that elsewhere it is conventional to have odd numbers on one side of the road and even numbers on the other.

My street is a crescent, I live at number 75, the houses opposite are 118 and 120. Unfortunately our side of the street is higher up than the other side (there are 18 steps to get up to our front door) so most people looking for our house will look at the other side of the street where you can the house numbers easier look for 74, which is around the corner.

Also confusing are streets with branches off them that are actually the same street.

 

[stanley T]

I notice no one's mentioned that once the redeveloped King's Cross is fully complete, the platforms will be renumbered 1–12 rather than 0–11, meaning that the "monument" in question (underneath which Boudica is surely turning in her grave) will indeed be between platforms 9 and 10.

Aw, I rather like platform 0. Quirky and English.

 

[D365]

The sound of the name and the location in the undercroft makes Platform 0 sound... mysterious. First time I arrived into it, I thought it was underground! At least with the renumbering, the Platform 9/10 split (with 9 3/4 between) seems quite sensible to me.

 

[Eagle]

Quirky and English.

What, like the one at Haymarket, or Cardiff Central?

Or Uppsala? :P

 

[johnnychips]

Or Stockport.

 

[dave55uk]

Starting at the barrier end, you walk along platform 0 until you come to the end. You return to the barrier, and walk along platform 1. Again you return to the barrier, and walk along platform 2...

...Again returning to the barrier, you walk along platform 9. Halfway along you realise you are at platform 9½. So a little further along and you must be at...

Platform 9¾ !!

 

[Eagle]

...Again returning to the barrier, you walk along platform 9. Halfway along you realise you are at platform 9½.

Not quite, halfway along platform 9 is platform 9a. (9b is the near end, which seems the wrong way round to me.)

 

[Prometheus]

She seems totally unaware that there is punctuation available to her other than a full stop.

The Harry Potter books were very badly written. It's bad enough when books for adults are badly written, but we need to teach children how to write properly. Getting them to read badly written books is not the best way to do that.

It does seem that badly written books sell well. Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" was exceptionally poorly written but broke all sales records. E L James' blockbuster "50 Shades" trilogy was also very badly written. Add in the Harry Potter books and you have to wonder whether these series gain more sales in spite of being badly written, or because of it.