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An accountant without a cause

Ask yourself, would you want a rebellious accountant? This week, I had cause to call PKF Cooper Parry, the liquidators of another stricken renewables company. But PKF is not your average accountant. No, according to their website, they are the 鈥渞ebels of accountancy鈥�. Apparently this means 鈥� besides custard yellow and hot pink branding 鈥� that they 鈥渄isrupt鈥�, 鈥渓ead鈥� and 鈥渕ake life count鈥�. Now call me old-fashioned, but in my dealings with HMRC, I don鈥檛 want anything that could be construed as rebellious on my tax return 鈥�

In memoriam

Who says everything in Croydon needs to be flattened? (And that鈥檚 just the new stuff that鈥檚 gone up, I hear some people say). Certainly not the people at Historic England, who have upgraded the cenotaph on the town鈥檚 Katharine Street from a grade II listing to grade II*. It was unveiled in October 1921 and depicts a solider dressing a wound on his arm and a woman holding a child on her lap. In a blog a few years ago, Historic England said it was one of the best 10 memorials in the country. And of course the monument has personal significance for residents, including the council鈥檚 deputy cabinet member for culture, leisure and sport Maggie Mansell. Her grandfather was a casualty of the First World War.

Tour de Cheesegrater

I hear that at the Cheesegrater in the City of London there are something like 2,000 cycle spaces, most of them full daily. For a building that can hold around 5,000 staff, that鈥檚 a pretty good bike-to-people ratio. Are the architects who designed the building holding their end up? Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners moved in more than 18 months ago and I鈥檓 told that 40% of their 200 staff come in to work on two wheels. I wonder if there鈥檚 a yellow polo neck on offer for whoever gets to work in the fastest time.

Going postal

One of my hacks went on a recent visit to the site of the Postal Museum鈥檚 Mail Rail, the miniature underground railway that took London鈥檚 mail across the capital to and from the main sorting office at Mount Pleasant. It will reopen as a tourist attraction next month, 13 years after it was shut because the Royal Mail said it was cheaper to transport parcels and letters across the gridlocked capital by road. He told me that the almost overnight nature of the railway鈥檚 closure is still very much in evidence, with half-empty packets of biscuits, old newspapers and, more unexpectedly, unopened bottles of shower gel dotted about the place. Will they still be there when the ride opens on 4 September?

PS. I love you

As my writer traversed Mount Pleasant, they observed some graffiti on the site of an entrance to the Postal Museum at Phoenix Place, which has caused a bit of kerfuffle. As part of the work to create the new 拢26m museum, led by architect Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, there was some daubing on the outside of the building which said 鈥淚 love you鈥�. Some wanted it removed as part of the newdevelopment, others weren鈥檛 so sure 鈥� feeling that emotional phrase is in keeping with how many of us signed off our paper letters before email, text and Twitter. My hack tells me those who argued to retain it won the day 鈥� so it鈥檚 staying. In this emoji day and age, it鈥檚 a nice reminder that people once told of their feelings with actual words rather than silly symbols.