What are some of the first things that pop into your mind when you think about the jolly old capital of the United Kingdom? :dubious:
I lived there from 1953 - 1986, so:
- red buses
- black taxis
- the Tube
- street newspaper sellers (“Evening Stand…ard!”
Silly accents (though I’m certain they’d find my accent ridiculous as well).
Tourists.
Expensive.
Plenty to do.
Tourists.
Brusque.
Tourists.
Mainly dirty.
Except for the bits with tourists.
Waterloo is one ugly ass train station.
Cool evocative place names.
Did I mention tourists?
There are a lot of American accents, there, yeah.
I was born there but have never lived there for more than a month, though I did work in Victoria for a while and commute.
For me, the lights of the West End on a rainy Autumn night. Hamley’s toy shop when I was a kid (going there was an annual treat though I never actually got bought a toy from there). The Victorian tiled interiors of the Tube stations. Topless women in the parks on sunny days.
Feeling that Londoners are somehow different from us countryfolk. Their environment is so complex and rich compared to where I grew up.
The sheer size of the place - and how depressing the inner suburban wastelands are.
The very first thing that pops into my head is a line from Snatch: “Yes, London. You know: fish, chips, cup 'o tea, bad food, worse weather, Mary fucking Poppins… LONDON.”
Museums, museums and more museums…swoons…one day!
It’s unneccessary to say London England. Let the younger Londons specify where they are.
XTC playing “Towers of London” whilst passing under Tower Bridge.
Driving on the Westway.
Visiting the Tate Gallery as a middle school kid, pining for my crush Cristi to sit next to me on the bus. (She did, for a little while!)
Mind the gap!
Curry shops
Pubs
Fish & Chips
BOFH
Lots of traffic. Roundabouts. Harrod’s. Foggy nights, dark and narrow alleyways, shiny wet cobblestones. Cameras everywhere. Street urchins. Umbrellas. Mods (and not the jackbooted kind like we have here). Bombed-out buildings. Chimney pots and garrets.
I am obviously temporally challenged.
Little England from Arrested Development
Yes, this is a bete noir of mine too. Like all major world cities, all you needed to say is the name, singular. You only need to specify the locale if it’s the exception: London is just London. Paris is just Paris. London, Ontario and Paris, Texas are the outliers.
Plus of course few Brits would use the ‘England’ designation anyway. UK these days, if at all.
Nostalgia. I lived in Chalk Farm for a few months a zillion years ago.
The train brake smell in the Tube
Crazy Camden Market
Walks through Regent’s Park and the London Zoo
Way too much time eating lard-fried chips and drinking cider and lager at Pembroke Castle
Late night studying and trips to the kebab joint
Lots of tea
A glimpse of Princess Diana in a limousine outside Harrod’s
I seriously considered moving there for a while. I guess I’m more attached to family than I thought, and couldn’t really bear to make a semi-permanent to maybe permanent move there. Still wonder about it sometimes.
Those huge white stones the buildings are made of. Black cabs, parks and railings. Get on board, get on board, get on board it’s the double decker! Foxes slinking through the wet midnight streets.
Brilliant sketch - haven’t seen it in ages!
I lived there for a year:
Trendily dressed Hoxton/Shoreditch types
Football at Putney
Drinking Pimms on a sunny day by the Thames at Richmond
A brief fling with a beautiful Nigerian girl
24 hour alcohol sales (dangerous for a Scotsman)
Oyster card (gotta be auto top-up!)
Sleazy strip clubs
British Military Fitness at Victoria Park
Good times…
That’s my manor - the Pembroke is my local
Oxford Street.
There’s a lot of other stuff I identify with London too, but I either identify it with other big cities (subways, buses), or with the UK in general (being able to tell someone is a foreigner because they look the wrong way when crossing the street). But Oxford Street and its surroundings (theaters, the British Museum)… if I ever get lost in London, look for me there.