I grew up in Sidcup and Bexley and went shopping in Bromley. I loved those towns but they never felt like London to me. London was the pigeons in Trafalgar Square when you got off the train at Charing Cross Station. It was the museums on Exhibition Road. It was the pelicans in St James' Park.
When I started work, I lived in the East End and worked in the City. London was the DLR into town and the walk along the South Embankment. It was a Guinness in the Hole in the Wall at Waterloo Station and Brick Lane Market on a Sunday Morning.
§I lived in the USA for 25 years. I loved it there, but there is nowhere quite like London. I was there last weekend: a walk across the Putney Bridge; breakfast on the Kings Road; and watching the ducks in the Serpentine.
I have fond memories of my childhood in the suburbs, but they are not special to me like my memories of London.
What a lovely read! I moved to se13 nearly a quarter of a century ago. From the south coast perspective everything inside the M25 was London, so it was quite mystifying that my new colleagues from Bromley, Petts Wood and Beckenham viewed anything from zone 3 to the centre as foreign territory.
Great article! And thank you for the link to that wonderful Kipling poem. I live in the London of life, a West London suburb where we all work hard together, all our races and religions, we don't have time or patience for all that racist doom and gloom. I go "up into London" to enjoy Hyde Park in the sun or a bit of theatre or to a pub in Soho with a comedy night. But like you I never feel like a tourist, this is all my City, where I show the tourists how to find the right Elizabeth line exits and gently encourage them not to block the pavements! The sadness of London now is what you describe - our kids can't afford to live here, it's increasingly only for the very rich or very poor. Otherwise it's the best city in the world, bar none!
I grew up in Sidcup and Bexley and went shopping in Bromley. I loved those towns but they never felt like London to me. London was the pigeons in Trafalgar Square when you got off the train at Charing Cross Station. It was the museums on Exhibition Road. It was the pelicans in St James' Park.
When I started work, I lived in the East End and worked in the City. London was the DLR into town and the walk along the South Embankment. It was a Guinness in the Hole in the Wall at Waterloo Station and Brick Lane Market on a Sunday Morning.
§I lived in the USA for 25 years. I loved it there, but there is nowhere quite like London. I was there last weekend: a walk across the Putney Bridge; breakfast on the Kings Road; and watching the ducks in the Serpentine.
I have fond memories of my childhood in the suburbs, but they are not special to me like my memories of London.
What a lovely read! I moved to se13 nearly a quarter of a century ago. From the south coast perspective everything inside the M25 was London, so it was quite mystifying that my new colleagues from Bromley, Petts Wood and Beckenham viewed anything from zone 3 to the centre as foreign territory.
Great article! And thank you for the link to that wonderful Kipling poem. I live in the London of life, a West London suburb where we all work hard together, all our races and religions, we don't have time or patience for all that racist doom and gloom. I go "up into London" to enjoy Hyde Park in the sun or a bit of theatre or to a pub in Soho with a comedy night. But like you I never feel like a tourist, this is all my City, where I show the tourists how to find the right Elizabeth line exits and gently encourage them not to block the pavements! The sadness of London now is what you describe - our kids can't afford to live here, it's increasingly only for the very rich or very poor. Otherwise it's the best city in the world, bar none!
Clever of you to include the Book 4 title in your closing rhyme
Apologies...Mr Cooke is the author of "the value of life". The OU textbook title The Value of Life is part of my distance learning course.