Londoner’s Life 28 – By Phil Ryan
Well its Marathon week so the news has been full of people pounding the streets for various good causes. And despite the goodwill towards them the London fight back against charity Chuggers seems well and truly under way. Quite a few London councils are actually banning them and I’m with them. To me the most worrying aspect is people (dumb people) who gaily hand over their bank details to some smiling young person who they’ve never met in the middle of the street. Hello? Security issue? I guess a picture of a beagle having a fag makes people put their brains in neutral. But to be honest I know charities are suffering so they need every trick in the book they can use. And I know in a recession it’s difficult. Sadly the street hustler’s in bright tabards scenario is the worst one they use so I’ll be glad to see the back of them. And London does seem to be the charity capital of the universe somedays, especially in the centre of town. My strategy is to brightly smile at them and sweep past them at two hundred miles an hour. Alternatively if I’m bored I try to borrow money off them.
In my on-going investigations into the plethora of trendy new blocks popping up all over town I’ve come across so many that seem to be like outposts in hostile territory. I guess it’s part of the continuing gentrification process that is affecting places like Brixton as I recently mentioned. But some of the strangest I’ve come across are in parts of docklands. I found one gleaming tower ringed by low rise endless council blocks. It was weird. It stuck out like a sore thumb. It had shiny plate glass doors and a guy in a uniform complete with a peaked hat on the door. There were those two green shrubs in pots they always have and it looked like it had beamed down from a spaceship. God knows what the locals thought. Although I did notice a charming group of track suited wearing youngsters each with obligatory pit bull leaning on the little white wall outside the place. A lovely view to come home to for the new London designer block dwellers. And realistically gentrification of this particular area entirely predicated only on some kind of nuclear war. But it did point to a wider issue of how the developers are shoving their monstrosities in every odder places. The London Evening Standard is now full of pages advertising places such as Hendon Heights and Dollis Hill Point. Huh? The text is unbelievable. Desirable living? In Hendon which smells of death and misery. And Dollis Hill with the sound of gunfire and police sirens. I suppose on viewing you just have to close your eyes until you’re safely inside the building. Very desirable. Hm.
This week I found myself in Kingly Court off Carnaby Street at a TV series launch from Synced Films and I was amazed by the mix of fantastic shops and crazy designer outlets. So before the launch I had a nose around. My favourite place being a lovely shop called Best of British a place full of British designed products. The prices were actually reasonable much to my surprise. And the quality of their stuff was brilliant. Plus I found a great hat shop! ( I’m partial to Panama hats occasionally in summer but only when I’m in Europe and going to linen suited summer events) And again the prices were affordable. A very unusual thing in such a place in comparison to many other such designer malls. And the bars around the place were heaving. So much so that I realised I had again stumbled across the mad and on-going London phenomenon of going to a trendy bar but then standing outside it on the pavement. Odd eh? You pay over the top prices for drinks but never actually get to see the interior of the place you’re paying through the nose for. We have one in West Hampstead. People have to go past the standard guy on the door to get entry. But then re-appear to stand outside. I guess it’s a style thing.
Finally looking forwards it’s just a 100 days to the Olympics. So that’ll be a nightmare of overcrowded public transport, prices going up in in every bar and restaurant with ‘Olympic specials’ and a blizzard of PR puff pieces in every media outlet. I see a recent survey showed half of London doesn’t give a stuff about the Olympics. Surprise! But hey ho we’re stuck with it. As for me I’ll be travelling a lot during the games. The rest of the time I’ll be working away at home in peace. It’s all about planning you could say. So let the nightmare commence. But do any of us care? No not really. It’s a London thing.