AB/2017-10-LON

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W3C Advisory Board Meeting 2017-10 London

The W3C AB will be meeting in London, UK

When
..
Where
GSMA, Floor 2 The Walbrook Building 25 Walbrook, London, EC4N 8AF - UK
What
Meeting Agenda (member-only link)

Meeting Site Details

We are meeting at GSMA:

Floor 2 
The Walbrook Building 
25 Walbrook
London 
EC4N 8AF

Agenda

Agenda

Meet the AB

Organized the evening of the first day (2017-10-16), Meet the AB was a session open to the web community as a whole, similar to prior "Meet the W3C TAG" meetups.

International Transport

Trains

Eurostar: For travel to France, Belgium and The Netherlands. St Pancras International is served by the Northern, Victoria, Piccadilly, Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines.

Flights

London is served by several major airports. Intercontinental flights will arrive in Heathrow or Gatwick, both are well connected with multiple transport links. European flights will arrive in Heathrow, Gatwick, City, Luton, Southend or Stansted (City is is the closest airport, Gatwick and Heathrow are also recommended, others are far from London so not recommended).

  • LCY City Airport: On exiting the airport, follow signs to the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) and take the train to Bank.
  • LHR Heathrow Airport: [The Heathrow Express] train leaves from Paddington Station. From Paddington Underground station take the the Bakerloo line (brown) to Oxford Circus. Change onto the Central Line (red) to Bank. Journey from Paddington to Heathrow is 15 minutes. If you are a cheapskate and wait to save money at the expense of 10 minutes, Heathrow Connect is cheaper and stops a few times on the way.
  • LGW Gatwick Airport: [The Gatwick Express] train leaves from Victoria Station. From Victoria Underground station, take the Victoria Line (light blue) to Oxford Circus and change for the Central Line (red) to Bank. Journey time from Victoria to Gatwick is 30 minutes.

Local Transport

The London office is within walking distance (approx. 5 min) of a number of tube, train and bus stations. If you expect to use buses or the tube, get an Oyster card (or have an equivalent, such as ApplePay backed by a UK credit card). Fares are cheapest when paid by Oyster; don't bother with day or week passes, as the Oyster system will automatically max you out per day at the day-pass rate and per-week at the week-pass rate. Oyster cards are easily bought on arrival in Paddington. (A single fare in Zone 1 is £2.40, for reference). If you queue at the ticket window, they will probably give you a paper tube map and/or bus map too if you ask nicely, but online maps have the routes too.

  • [London Underground]: Don't forget that the classic tube map can be seriously misleading in terms of how close/far apart stations are. The nearest tube stations to the GSMA London office are:
    • Bank on the Central (red), Northern (black), District (green) and Circle (yellow) lines, DLR (light green)
    • Mansion House on the District (green) and Circle (yellow) lines
    • Monument on the District (green) and Circle (yellow) lines
  • [National Rail]: The nearest train stations to the GSMA London office are:
    • London Cannon Street
    • London Bridge
  • [Bus]: Buses are great ways to get around London, as you can see what a fascinating city it is, and the network is very dense. The bus routes that pass along Cannon street are:
    • 15 ( Blackwall station – Aldgate – Cannon Street – Charing Cross Station
    • 17 (Archway Station – King’s Cross Station – Cannon Street – London Bridge)
    • 521 (Waterloo Station – High Holborn – Cannon Street – St Pauls – London Bridge)

Taxis

London black cabs can be found at all key travel terminals or can be hailed easily from the street. Saying this, London Taxis are expensive and either do not take cards or overcharge for card payments. It is recommended that from an airport you take the train links; this is both because of the distance from the airports to the centre of London (taxi from Heathrow to Central London will cost over 60 GBP) and the traffic.

Uber currently operates in London, but just lost their license (due to expire end of September).

Direct to GSMA from LHR

[Quickest route] is to take the Heathrow Express to Paddington, take the Bakerloo Line (brown) south to Oxford Circus and then take the Central Line (red) east to Bank. Estimated time: 53mins.

Heathrow Express trains run every 15 mins, fare is £25 single, £37 return. Heathrow Connect runs quite frequently from the same platforms, costs a little less at £10.30 single, £20.70 return, go figure, and takes a little longer. But Heathrow Express ticket salesmen are everywhere; Heathrow Connect means finding a ticket booth.

If you are unlucky and miss a Heathrow Express train (or would prefer to be super-thrifty, £5.10 all the way to Bank and skip the high ticket price) then from Heathrow Airport take the Piccadilly Line (dark blue) east to Holborn (the start of the line is at Heathrow, so all trains will go east), then take the Central Line (red) east to Bank. Estimated time: 1hr 7mins.

Google Maps and Citymapper both work well across the UK.

Rental Cars

Not recommended due to traffic, inability to park and congestion charging. London's public transport is easily good enough to get around the city.

Accommodation

Some recommended hotels from the GSMA team:

Grange City *****

  • 8-14 Coopers Row, London, EC3V 2BQ
  • Approx. 16 minutes walk to the Walbrook Building

Kings Wardrobe Apartments

  • 6 Wardrobe Place, London EC4V 5AF
  • Approx. 11 minutes walk to Walbrook Building

Suffolk Lane Apartments

  • 2 Suffolk Lane London EC4M 7DR
  • Approx. 2 minutes walk to Walbrook Building

Club Quarters St Paul’s Hotel

  • 24 Ludgate HillLondon, EC4M 7DR
  • Approx 12 minutes walk to Walbrook Building

Webex IRC

Participants

Name (org) Food prefs Arrive date Depart date Hotel Flight info Notes
Natasha Rooney (GSMA) None n/a n/a Natasha's Old London Flat! n/a @thisnatasha
Tantek Çelik (Mozilla) pescetarian, no goat cheese 2017-10-16 2017-10-20 local flat UA901 / UA949 @t
David Singer (Apple Inc.) omnivore 2017-10-14 2017-10-18 Amba Hotel, Charing Cross arrive UK on Sat, seeing family, London sometime Sunday late afternoon; leave Wed noon LHR n/a
Jay Kishigami (NTT) omnivore 2017-10-14 2017-10-17 Residence Inn, London Bridge OZ521/OZ522 n/a
Your Name Here (Your Org Here) dietary allergies/restrictions/preferences YYYY-MM-DD YYYY-MM-DD your hotel here your flight info here your twitter or other online profiles


Remote Participants

Let's consider remote participation for folks who can't be there in person but can still participate during the over IRC and hopefully teleconference bridge.

Name (org) Available start datetime Available end datetime Timezone Notes

Social

Group dinner

TBD

Questions

Please feel free to add any questions for the organizer here.