Hansom

Tales from the riverbank
Mysterious goings-on at the nearly completed Albion Riverside, Foster and Partners' block of flats for the disgustingly rich. Rumours have been rife that its bottom floor is to be turned into a Conran restaurant. The word was that Norman would be putting some of his own cash into the venture, thereby extending his struggle with Richard into the gastronomic arena. A good story, slightly marred by the fact that Foster's comment on it was "one word – untrue". The Conran organisation were a bit more chatty, but after admitting they had looked at it as a possible site, they denied that matters had gone any further. Oh well, looks like Riversiders will have to continue making the journey over the river to Chelsea for their posh nosh. Poor souls.

Orf with their heads?
Is the construction team at the Scottish parliament really as confident of making their latest August deadline as our story a couple of weeks ago suggested? I hear that the real date vexing those on site is October, when Her Majesty is popping up for a butchers. Apparently, the timing of her visit was comfortably vague, until le président Chirac arranged to tour the site in November. The protocol is that a visiting head of state cannot make such a trip until a building has been officially opened by the domestic head of state. So, October it is then. Or else.

Normal service is resumed
Good to hear Network Rail's post-Jarvis maintenance regime is maintaining its customary standards. A colleague of mine was on a train to Finsbury Park at the weekend when smoke began to billow around it. A calm recorded voice told the passengers: "Sorry for the delay, there has been a mechanical fault." Really? My colleague could quite clearly hear the driver say: "A site worker appears to have left a metal slab by the train track that's hit the side of the train." HSE, anyone?

Relatively good news
On the subject of Jarvis, its PR team must have breathed a mighty sigh of relief last week after the BBC's Money Programme failed to present any new dirt. Jarvis brushed the programme off as "full of hot air" and its shares promptly improved. Is this the sign that the firm has passed its nadir, I wonder?

All paths lead to Ingress Park
Planners have found their new Mecca. Ingress Park, Crest Nicholson's highly regarded housing scheme in Greenhithe in the Thames Gateway, is being inundated with local authority planners eagerly snapping photos of steep gabled roofs, traditional red bricks and ye olde village streets. "We're getting hundreds people a week," says Crest Nicholson's John Callcutt, with barely a hint of hyperbole. This unusual wave of enthusiasm could perhaps get some canny housebuilders thinking that the best way to get past planning departments is to start copying the Ingress style.