Meme: today's topic is London
Dec. 9th, 2013 10:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pensnestAs requested by ladymoonray
My grandma was born in the East End, was fiercely proud of being a Londoner (and not altogether secretly felt rather superior to my 'country boy' grandad), and always loved going to London for whatever kind of occasion. We took her for a tourist bus ride for her eighty-fifth birthday, and it made her very happy.
London's always been my favourite city too. When I was a child/teenager, we had to 'dress up' to go into Town, which was usually for a show or some kind of event, or to a museum. I think the first time I was allowed to go to London without an adult was just after O-Levels; four of us from the boarding house went to see Tommy in the West End (and staggered out with our balance mechanisms completely fucked by the incredibly over-loud sound).
I appreciated the Tube for a very long time, as I was not very confident in my map-reading skills, and it was so easy to get around by figuring out which was the handiest Underground station. Buses are much pleasanter, but only really when you know when you're going. During my days at Radio Luxembourg (near Hyde Park Corner) I frequently found that I could not face the 45-minute journey back to Chiswick on the tube on a Friday evening, so I'd get on a bus instead. Of course, sometimes I would cycle to work. On my slow, little-wheeled bike I usually took around the same amount of time as the Tube train, and it was good to have the exercise, although somewhat scary. Though not quite as scary as the evening I went off to the cinema with Beast (long before he became, or even hinted that he might become, My Beast) and he led me back to South Kensington via the tunnel under Hyde Park Corner. Accustomed as I was to the bike-heavy, traffic-lite, flat streets of Cambridge, I thought I was going to die.
I've lived in different bits of London for short periods, all long ago. There was the Girls' Friendly Society hostel tucked just behind the Cathedral in Victoria Street: the accommodations were minimal, but it was damn cheap and a fantastic situation right in the middle of Town. I think that was the first summer I was temping, right out of secretarial college. I stayed at a student house in South Ken the following year, again cheap and convenient, and the year after that in a very damp flatlet in Chiswick, with a friend who spent his winter evenings in the kitchen with his feet in the oven for warmth. Fortunately I was only there during the summer, but even so, a frog hopped into the lounge one day and seemed quite at home.
Then there was the brief stint in Camberwell, perfectly poised between Camberwell Green and Brixton, which these days is very trendy but at that time had barely recovered from some very nasty rioting. After which I moved to a civilised little house in Chiswick with a couple of friends. Really, I've tended to have a centre-west orientation, as most of my experiences visiting friends have been westward, since my best friend went to Imperial College, and her student homes were thataway.
As a temp, I worked in various bits of City and West End, and then after university ended up at Radio Luxemburg and subsequently Express Newspapers in Fleet Street, which was actually very close to the site of my first holiday job, a reinsurance company. I think. Never really figured out what they did, but it was an easy commute from the parental home in Kent, and there was a Dunkin Donuts round the corner.
These days, of course, I visit for Stuff. Mostly shows. Occasionally something else, like the Yarn Crawl, or the British Museum, or meeting an online acquaintance to Do Something. I love the South Bank, not just because the National is such a great theatre but because the whole atmosphere is lively, and why do I always seem to be passing through and never just meandering when I'm there? I love the theatres, from the grand old West End beauties to the odd little treasures like the converted Victorian swimming pool and the chocolate factory. I love the Globe, and have very fond memories of doing the pre-season Tour withrikes and watching the snow fall into the middle, so, so pretty. I love going down the river to Greenwich on a boat with a commentary, because the Thames is so full of history and awesomeness. I love pottering about in the Covent Garden area, everything is shockingly expensive but pretty, and the buskers are brilliant there. I love the way there are all shades and kinds of humanity on the Underground these days, such a contrast to the monochrome of my own neighbourhood. The way you can be surprised by a parade, as I was when I went to get tickets for Mama Mia. I love hailing taxis, something I don't get to do nearly often enough. (The power!) I loved riding from Battersea to St Paul's Cathedral in a limo and waving at the tourists along the route. Heh.
I can't claim to know the city well. I have left out so much of what I've done in London that I've loved, or liked, or been indifferent to, but then, I can't hope to encompass everything about such a great city in one humble post. London has far too many faces.
ladymoonrayMy grandma was born in the East End, was fiercely proud of being a Londoner (and not altogether secretly felt rather superior to my 'country boy' grandad), and always loved going to London for whatever kind of occasion. We took her for a tourist bus ride for her eighty-fifth birthday, and it made her very happy.
London's always been my favourite city too. When I was a child/teenager, we had to 'dress up' to go into Town, which was usually for a show or some kind of event, or to a museum. I think the first time I was allowed to go to London without an adult was just after O-Levels; four of us from the boarding house went to see Tommy in the West End (and staggered out with our balance mechanisms completely fucked by the incredibly over-loud sound).
I appreciated the Tube for a very long time, as I was not very confident in my map-reading skills, and it was so easy to get around by figuring out which was the handiest Underground station. Buses are much pleasanter, but only really when you know when you're going. During my days at Radio Luxembourg (near Hyde Park Corner) I frequently found that I could not face the 45-minute journey back to Chiswick on the tube on a Friday evening, so I'd get on a bus instead. Of course, sometimes I would cycle to work. On my slow, little-wheeled bike I usually took around the same amount of time as the Tube train, and it was good to have the exercise, although somewhat scary. Though not quite as scary as the evening I went off to the cinema with Beast (long before he became, or even hinted that he might become, My Beast) and he led me back to South Kensington via the tunnel under Hyde Park Corner. Accustomed as I was to the bike-heavy, traffic-lite, flat streets of Cambridge, I thought I was going to die.
I've lived in different bits of London for short periods, all long ago. There was the Girls' Friendly Society hostel tucked just behind the Cathedral in Victoria Street: the accommodations were minimal, but it was damn cheap and a fantastic situation right in the middle of Town. I think that was the first summer I was temping, right out of secretarial college. I stayed at a student house in South Ken the following year, again cheap and convenient, and the year after that in a very damp flatlet in Chiswick, with a friend who spent his winter evenings in the kitchen with his feet in the oven for warmth. Fortunately I was only there during the summer, but even so, a frog hopped into the lounge one day and seemed quite at home.
Then there was the brief stint in Camberwell, perfectly poised between Camberwell Green and Brixton, which these days is very trendy but at that time had barely recovered from some very nasty rioting. After which I moved to a civilised little house in Chiswick with a couple of friends. Really, I've tended to have a centre-west orientation, as most of my experiences visiting friends have been westward, since my best friend went to Imperial College, and her student homes were thataway.
As a temp, I worked in various bits of City and West End, and then after university ended up at Radio Luxemburg and subsequently Express Newspapers in Fleet Street, which was actually very close to the site of my first holiday job, a reinsurance company. I think. Never really figured out what they did, but it was an easy commute from the parental home in Kent, and there was a Dunkin Donuts round the corner.
These days, of course, I visit for Stuff. Mostly shows. Occasionally something else, like the Yarn Crawl, or the British Museum, or meeting an online acquaintance to Do Something. I love the South Bank, not just because the National is such a great theatre but because the whole atmosphere is lively, and why do I always seem to be passing through and never just meandering when I'm there? I love the theatres, from the grand old West End beauties to the odd little treasures like the converted Victorian swimming pool and the chocolate factory. I love the Globe, and have very fond memories of doing the pre-season Tour with
rikes and watching the snow fall into the middle, so, so pretty. I love going down the river to Greenwich on a boat with a commentary, because the Thames is so full of history and awesomeness. I love pottering about in the Covent Garden area, everything is shockingly expensive but pretty, and the buskers are brilliant there. I love the way there are all shades and kinds of humanity on the Underground these days, such a contrast to the monochrome of my own neighbourhood. The way you can be surprised by a parade, as I was when I went to get tickets for Mama Mia. I love hailing taxis, something I don't get to do nearly often enough. (The power!) I loved riding from Battersea to St Paul's Cathedral in a limo and waving at the tourists along the route. Heh.I can't claim to know the city well. I have left out so much of what I've done in London that I've loved, or liked, or been indifferent to, but then, I can't hope to encompass everything about such a great city in one humble post. London has far too many faces.