Country boy moves to London..... Classic or Dud and Search and Destroy

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Well the subject line sums it up really, in two weeks I am moving to the delightful environ of Bexley in South London from the small rural town of Devizes. So all you ILE types give me a run down of what's hot and what's not.

― , Wednesday, 22 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

hmmmmm why hasn't my name appeared at the end of the thread? bugger!

― Richard, Wednesday, 22 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Let Pete and Emma take you on an in-depth tour of their favorite pubs. That should take care of any worries you might have.

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 22 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Bexley = Redbridge of S.London = not London at all, just some zone 17 satellite nonsense

1. Get used to joax of above hilarious type.
2. Tube = rubbish. Always use buses.
3. The A-Z is completely out of date. Flag down a black taxi and ask for directions. They will give clear friendly advice.
4. Never tip: Londoners consider it an insult to their legendary generosity.

― mark s, Wednesday, 22 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yeah I know Bexley ain't 'proper London' hey but it is Zone 4 for train and bus :-) that makes me happy. But it could be I worse as I'll be working in Dartford and the thought of living there as well does rather give me the cold sweats....

― Richard, Wednesday, 22 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

having revealed myself as a lurker on the lurkers only thread, i am now gloriously emerging from my cucoon to ask a tedious question, which is: what are the night buses like in london? this dublin girl is moving to london in a month, dark images of self wandering aimlessly around the dark heart of london late at night unable to afford taxi on paltry trainee's wages. also, do london night-buses involve vomiting and farting like dublin nightlinks? oh i do hope.

― nickie, Wednesday, 22 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yay another person moving to london :-) what part of London are you moving to Nickie? As for night buses I don't have the first clue about them either...they don't exist in deepest darkest Wiltshire, the locals wouldn't like it, oh and over half the population here is over 60 and has no social life. Not too mention the inbred townies...God I hate Devizes.

― Richard, Wednesday, 22 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

night buses: no, you just pay with money, same as the day buses (dublin ways = strange to me).

They are less common and sometimes a long wait and v.full, but they get you most of the places the day buses go. Also ppl are sometimes much more friendly and chatty on night-buses. Once this gp of three drunk girls asked everyone near them to sing their favorite song (ie OUR favourite song, not the girls). I liked that.

― mark s, Wednesday, 22 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Redbridge is London. Just as much as Hackney is.

― DG, Wednesday, 22 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Night buses are great, but NEVER give anyone your phone number on one (or your friend who you are staying with's number) as they will then stalk you. Minicabs are great too so long as you have a mobile and talk to your friends all the way home so the driver knows that if he rapes and murders you it will be noticed.

― Emma, Thursday, 23 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

good. point taken. it would be terrible if my murder went un-noticed. thank god for modern technology.

― nickie, Thursday, 23 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ooh, if you are working in Dartford you won't be too far away from the infamous sewage farm which employs Dave Clarkes Five Grills to sift diamond wedding rings from the poo. Also for some reason 13% of all sewage in that area is blood - which is 8% up on the national statistic...

There should be a tentative ILE / others pub crawl on the 8th September which of course you would be invited too.

― Pete, Thursday, 23 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

This just in: Richard, don't know what part i'm moving to. have job. have no home. shall be on the hunt for a room once i get there.

Trying to overlook Lonesome London propaganda. Can't imagine that it can be any more or less unfriendly than Dublin town. Tis the way of the city, isn't it? Many sorry tales of people living there for a year and making no friends etc. However, armed with youth, optimism and timeless beauty, I'm bound to have made at least one acquaintance by christmas, i reckon.

― nickie, Thursday, 23 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Having grown up near Bexley, I'm sorry to say that it does not count as 'real' London (ie no tube). Nor does Bromley, Lewisham, Woolwich, Mottingham, Bexleyheath, Welling, Sidcup, Chislehurst, Eltham or any of the other Sarf London suburbs (New Cross and Greenwich = real London 'cos they're both on the tube.) Beware the local pubs on a Friday night as they are full of underage drinkers looking for a punch-up or a snog or both; you may also encounter the odd racist fool. Dartford does however have the 'Mick Jagger School for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence' (or somesuch), as MJ went to school in Dartford.

― Andrew L, Thursday, 23 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Nickie - I've told you I'll find you a place to live. Stop worrying. Night buses are not at all frightening but night bus stops can be. Also, unless you're going out clubbing in Central London, which is a stupid thing to do, you have to get one into town and then out again. I spent a terrific four hours getting home by night bus one sub-zero New Year's Eve. Get minicabs rides from dodgy kerb-crawling men in BMWs - they are much better, and very reasonably priced.

Country boys and girls moving to London - CLASSIC. They afford me a rare chance to feel like a streetwise Londoner. Within six months I am asking them if they know any good places to drink late.

― Nick, Thursday, 23 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

can i just take this opportunity to say we still have one room available? also, i am supposedly moving soon

― gareth, Thursday, 23 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm actually teaching at Dartford Tech College, the school next door to the Boys grammar(in which my cousin is teaching...) Thanks for the offer of a pub crawl may need it after my first week back in school!

― Richard, Thursday, 23 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Bexley = home (I think) to classic shop called Music Madness, in whose tiny premises great bargains and treasures (and loads of old tat too, of course) are hidden in rack upon rack of dodgy promos and in disorganised heaps and boxes under the racks. If it's not Bexley then it's somewhere very near there (Martin G, are you lurking out there? If so, please correct me; and start posting in general, obviously). Perhaps I shouldn't mention this, in the hope that no legions of ILErs will go there and buy everything I want before I next go there, if I ever do again...

(Wiltshire massif! Spent much of my childhood in the northeast corner in a town called Highworth, which I believe is now very reluctantly part of the Borough of Swindon. In fact, I don't live far from there now, though no longer in Wilts. It isn't especially near Devizes, but hey. Anyone know where XTC came from? It's always cited as being Swindon, but I'm curious to know whether it's Swindon itself or somewhere small near there.)

― Rebecca, Thursday, 23 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

This Tube = Real London nonsense really has to stop. By that token, Amersham and Hounslow are more London than Streatham and Dulwich, whilst Bermondsey only joined London in 1999.

I really am going to have to *fight* the next person who sneers at South London.

Night buses = great, all the more they now accept one-day Travelcards (until 3am or so). Careful if you live in Zone 3/4, the 'N'-prefixed version of yr favourite bus probably goes further than the daytime route and you may be jerked from yr drunken slumber in Beckenham or Watford.

― Michael Jones, Thursday, 23 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Give up sneering about where you're from? Come on, man, nobody wants to see the UK contingent give up posting entirely.

― Dave M., Thursday, 23 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i so do not sneer at South London

i am far too busy sneering at West London

― gareth, Friday, 24 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Sorry, I'm going to have to reinforce this yet again. When people say "London", they mean NORTH London. That's the important bit, so you don't need to say 'North' London, just 'London', everybody will know what you mean. South- and West-, not really important, you don't need to know about them. Hope that clears it up for everybody!

― dave q, Friday, 24 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Now I understand why dave *keeps* going on about how much he hates living in (what he calls) London.

― Tim, Friday, 24 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

yes dave, thats why, when i said i was sneering at west london, i meant west part of north london (ie caledonian road). heh!

― gareth, Friday, 24 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Michael - I wuv S. London - lived there most of my life - but the lack of a tube line for most of the area IS a major pain in the arse, and should be ridiculed at every opportunity (if only to shame people into doing something abt it.)

― Andrew L, Friday, 24 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ken L. being the only UK politician likely to lurk at ILE (as Tom already noted).

― mark s, Friday, 24 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Anyone know, historically, why the Tube stops at New Cross/Brixton? Wasn't it something to do with the different drilling conditions south of the river? Something that probably isn't an issue now...

Anyways, some time in the next 10-15 years we shall probably see the East London Line extended in both directions. Which will make Dulwich the Most Expensive Place To Live On Earth. Lack-of-Tube may be essentially Dud, but it's also got a Classic side to it, in that nice flats in nice areas served only by a dozen bus routes will tend to be less outrageously priced than their Undergrounded brethren. I gladly forego the Northern Line on my doorstep in return for being able to eat.

― Michael Jones, Friday, 24 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

In days of yore = private london transport co.s of 19th c, north of river was trams, south just omnibi (bogus plural pedant alert...): they couldn't use same rds (buses get stuck in tramlines). switchover = not especially co-ordinated, and north got bulk of tube line action as trams began phasing out. since 1940s, "planning" = sticking pin in map and saying let's introduce Urban Balloonways to Neasden.

― mark s, Friday, 24 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ha ha! We have the Northern Line on our doorstep (well, 10-15 mins from it) AND eat! We must surely be the luckiest folk in London.

― Emma, Friday, 24 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Steady Mike you are right about the drilling conditions, the land south of the river is largely madeup of saturated sand which is notoriously hard to drill through (even now it takes about 3 time longer to go through than the good solid north London ground.) This is why there is much less underground south of da river. Hmmm I think this knowledge was gleaned from an excellent Discovery programme called Superstructures.

― cabbage, Friday, 24 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Isn't there actually a rather good overground trains network in South London, which does more or less the same job as a tube network would (slightly longer waits for trains, but destination reached faster). I was much more content with how in touch with the middle of town I was when I lived in Peckham (bus & overground) than now I live near Canada Water (Bus, Jubilee, East London Lines). Why the obsession with tubes, which (as far as I can tell) nobody actually likes anyway?

― Tim, Friday, 24 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The extension to the ELL to Wimbledon/Clapham will not be underground, and will largely use current BR tracks, so I'm not sure how much better connected it will make South London. For more details about his sort of thing see John Rowlands excellent Tran sport Plans For London

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Friday, 24 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

they should make Silverlink a tube, so its more frequent

― gareth, Friday, 24 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

And the Willesden Jnct-Kensigton Olympia-West Brompton-Clapham line. Not only because it would make my life easier, but also to publicise its existence. No one seems to know it's there, which is a shame as it's dead useful and will even become more so when they open the Shepherd's Bush station next to the Central Line one.

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Friday, 24 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

but Richard, it's GOOD that nobody knows it's there. No ticket barriers, tourists, etc.

― dave q, Friday, 24 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

you mean Willesden is not full of tourists????

― gareth, Friday, 24 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Willesden is full of takeaways and the chanel sauna, though I here it's been gentrified slightly since I left there in 1999. Haven't been back since though so dunno what it's like anymore.

― cabbage, Friday, 24 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oddly, I used the Clapham Junction-Olympia train for the first time today: it was late, but otherwise strange and useful. As for the other argument, this Tube thing is bollocks: loads of people live a decent bus ride from their Underground station, and yet go on about how great it is to be on the Tube. By the same logic, everyone living in Dulwich has a Underground station - Brixton. It just happens to be a whole easier to use the train. And as I've no doubt said before, London 'proper' is either the Cities Of London and Westminster, or the old LCC boundaries, or the GLA area. The North/South of the river bit is particularly irrelevant, since Southwark dates back to the first century. You can't make up what London is to suit yourself, and that especially aplies to Canadians.

― Mark Morris, Friday, 24 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

if its got a london postcode, its london (i know this means, like chingford and shit counts, but thats just the way it is)

― gareth, Friday, 24 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I say you *can* make up what constitutes London to suit yourself. This applies to everyone except Canadians.

― Tim, Friday, 24 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

London dialling codes go further out than London postcodes, so what of the 0208 areas with RM (Romford), CR (Croydon) and TW (Twickenham) postcodes and the like: do they count? Isn't Chingford, shit as it must inevitably be (Tebbit and Duncan Smith: fucking HELL!) also in this overlap? It is by those criteria that we decide whether DG lives in London.

Rebecca: XTC were / are from Swindon itself AFAIK. However it's quite possible that what were then villages have since been absorbed into the town.

― Robin Carmody, Friday, 24 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Zoning criterion ms prefers: is arbitrary nay loony pronouncement hurtling down pike i. funny; ii. not?

― mark s, Friday, 24 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

four months pass...

I've just noticed this last post of duck s's. It seems to make no sense and yet also be the best thing he has ever written. Maybe someone should enlighten me, or perhaps, like the vector of totality, it is best left.

― N., Saturday, 29 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

15 clumsy and shy i went to london and i...

― geoff, Sunday, 30 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

makes sense to ms as = a total life philosophy in just 16 wds/3 sentences

― mark s, Sunday, 30 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

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