London! The Greatest City in the World.
A 50+ nomad's guide to loving the Big Smoke
Londinium, the big smoke, the square mile, the great wen. I wasn’t born here. My biological father reckons he was born within the sound of Bow bells, which would make him an official cockney, (up the apple & pears son), but I was born in the rather leafy historic, cathedral city of Chichester close to the south coast some hour & a half from London by train.
Other than the odd visit as a child my first real memories of London are when I moved here in my early 20s to work as the Deputy General Manager at the Apollo Victoria, which was playing Starlight Express at the time (a 13 year run). I’d been to the same venue to see the same show when I was 14 so it was pretty cool some 10 years later to be managing the place.
I lived in Crystal Palace, a 13 min overland train straight into Victoria and I quickly fell in love with the city.
Vibrant, buzzing, multi cultural, filled with life, there’s always something to do in London. No matter where you go there’s music, street performers, entertainment & something happening.
In my 20s it was the ideal playground for a young, single girl finding her way in the world. I remember lots of friends, dates, nights out & visits to the bank to take out loans! (It took me 3 jobs over 2 years later in my 20s to pay them all off!)
When my daughter announced last year she wanted to go to a music college in London to pursue her passion of singing I remember thinking ’jeez, that’s an expensive choice!’, but also waxing lyrical about London being a city where you get out what you put in. It can swallow you up and be incredibly lonely or if you go in prepared to play full out, you’ll have the time of your life.
Thankfully 4 months in, she’s chosen the latter route and is loving it! And I was reminded why this past few weeks.
Coming back to visit her for Christmas I have repeatedly found myself wandering the streets of this pulsating city whispering under my breath ‘I freaking love this city! 🥰’.
Christmas is always a magical time here. The light displays in Oxford Street, Regents Street, Carnaby & Bond Streets to name a few. The brightly lit bike taxis playing Christmas music as they go. The shop decorations, the dancing outside Hamleys, the story-filled windows of Selfridges, the massive advent calendar of Fortnum & Masons.
Not to mention the quintessential red London buses transformed to lights & bites tours, the massive Winter Wonderland lighting up Hyde Park as far as the eye can see, & all the colourful Christmas markets in Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, Covent Garden & more.
It’s a city of life! And that coming from someone who hates anything under about 20°(C).
I can literally see my own breath walking around the city at this time of year, but I love to do so to soak up the atmosphere which makes me feel so alive and part of this amazing universe we live in.
But for all its glory, London’s always been a bit rough around the edges.
Did you know that Victorian London was so dangerous wealthy people hired ‘link boys’ to walk ahead of them with torches at night? The streets were literally too dark and crime-ridden to navigate alone.
Today’s knife crime statistics are sobering, but the Victorians had their own versions of today's problems. The 'garrotting panics' of the 1860s had everyone terrified of being choked and robbed in the street, pickpockets were everywhere, and Jack the Ripper dominated the headlines. Though honestly, diseases probably killed more Londoners than all the criminals combined.
That said, modern London has its own particular brand of chaos. Phones get nicked out of people’s hands daily (it’s become such a thing that the Met police have dedicated snatch squads on bikes). My friend’s son got mugged twice for his phone, and last summer a woman and her daughter were randomly stabbed outside the Lego shop in Leicester Square (they both survived thank goodness).
I got my own taste of it when I was visiting in September. I was house sitting in Elephant & Castle, and walking the gorgeous Kevin (a colliepoo) in Kennington park at 4pm (broad daylight), when a seriously drugged up woman decided she wanted the dog. When I wouldn’t let go, she grabbed me by the throat. No knife thankfully, and she let go as quickly as she’d grabbed me, but it was a major wake-up call about staying alert.
The thing is, London’s actually statistically safer now than it’s been for most of its 2000-year history. The Romans had to build a massive wall around it because of raiders. Medieval London had a murder rate that would make modern Detroit look peaceful. Even in the 1990s, the IRA was planting bombs in bins (which is why you still can’t find many rubbish bins in central London stations today.)
The modern frustrations are almost comically mundane by comparison. The WiFi is still unbelievably shocking (I get better signal in a Bali rice paddy than in zone 1). And don’t get me started on the overground trains. Every single journey: signalling failure, something on the track, mysterious delays. I genuinely don’t know how commuters from the suburbs ever make it to work.
But despite its rough edges and my recent park ‘incident’, I’m still planning to make London my main home base here in the UK for when we visit in years to come.
Sure it’s unpredictable, expensive, and sometimes a bit dangerous - but god, it’s glorious. And let’s face it there are other more dangerous cities and countries to go to in the world these days. (She says as she packs for Rio de Janeiro to start our South American backpacking adventure! 😳)
Yep in just a few short weeks I’ll be swapping my hat, scarf & gloves for sunny beaches & 33°C as we traverse through Brazil, Columbia and Mexico! I can’t wait to share my journey through these other vibrant countries and cities with you! 💃🏻
In the meantime as an ode to London here’s a small selection of pics.
Until next time London! 😊
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