london - a lifetime spent in the city of the world

“It is difficult to speak adequately or justly of London. It is not a pleasant place; it is not agreeable, or cheerful, or easy, or exempt from reproach. It is only magnificent.” Henry James.

Inspired by my idol Clive James his sardonic wit and journalist prose would greatly influence me. I already knew this place.https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00t6g75

I started my career in Melbourne in an Advertising agency writing adverts. The job was to craft one liners. Only years later would I find any use for it again producing campaigns for law firms.

It was the nineties and Freedom of Movement beckoned.

After travelling through Europe, I decided it would be London where I would make my home for a short while. The moment I spotted an advert landing at Heathrow airport, I had a sense of the familiar and this place was saying ‘yes,’ to me.

So….? Where was everyone?

London was quiet, as if asleep. It was the first of September 1997 and Lady Diana, Princess of Wales had died. The city was in mourning and felt cloaked in sadness.

My first stop would be a place called Harlesden. I had friends that would accommodate me whilst I got settled. I think it was called ‘dossing.’ I hopped on the train and it stalled. The conductor announced the train was at a stand still “due to some idiot urinating on the platform”. “J’ arrive!” I thought.

Looking for jobs and equipped with only my Australian naivete, I hadn't grasped the idea of location, yet. Harlesden as it happened was coined “Murder capital of Europe” by a national newspaper. I didn't live far from Wormwood Scrubs. During the day, there were cars being broken into or torched, and my street was a hive of illicit activity. I brushed it off as ‘London life’.

“I am new in town where should I head to?”

At the time, London was on the cusp of a gastronomic revolution. Global influences from across the globe were starting to crop up to turn London into one of the the food centres of the world.

I found my way to Bar Italia in Soho - I had coffee, read the paper and looked for jobs. “It’s like that!”, Beastie Boys playing the background. I found a kinship for Soho with its Italian cafes reminding my of Melbourne’s Italian precinct this soon soothed any homesickness.

I settled into a job working for one of the country’s largest department stores’ in their warehouse on Edgware Road packing and pricing garments. My supervisor quoting a line from the movie Shawshank Redemption about being unable to to leave if you stayed too long. I started to worked on my CV.

Eventually it would be in an architectural studio where I would start my London career dreaming of something creative, but instead it was admin. I learned by osmosis about: planning consents, London Building Control, Rights of Light, suppliers, construction consultants, builders and played softball in Regents Park with my colleagues.

The first firm I worked for designed clubs, bars and restaurants and on occasion, you got into some amazing gigs. It was 1999 and London had it’s grip on me.

Moving on from Harlesden I would discover a range of accommodation, from bedsits to flat shares in Paddington, Clapham, Hackney, Shoreditch, Spitalfields Gants Hill and Walthamstow. I finally settled for inner East London. Where for nearly 30 years I have made my home, invested in property and witnessed a city in constant changed sometimes turmoil. Like any relationship - you learn take the rough with the smooth.

The early noughties would catapult the Western World into a new way of being and we would witness London attacked on many fronts.

Australia’s distance from UK and Europe is a blessing and a curse. During the bomb attacks of 2003 one had a sense of being imprisoned by ones own geography. London was at a standstill again. The notion of travelling to work with the very near possibly that your livelihood was under threat gave you a deeper sense of empathy for those countries and citizens in continuous unrest.

London has known attack and invasion for centuries. It is of course not alone in this. There is a ‘blitz’ like resilience to ‘just get on with it’. This resolve was something you learned to adopt as the cultural British way of life and quite remarkable.

The London skyline and infrastructure had also transformed in the last 30 years or so, we adapted to the congestion charge, electronic vehicles and the pedestrianisation of central precincts. The vast number of signature buildings and developments was a testament to the appetite and investment opportunities across it. From City Hall, the Walkie Talkie, The Shard, Broadgate, Kings Cross, Bloomberg Arcade, Spitalfields, Southbank, the resurrection of Stratford. Perhaps they weren't always hits, but where else could you probably ‘have two more Neds ‘an architect friend once told me. There was also the London 2012 Olympics while we waited patiently for Crossrail and the Overground transform south east London.

During the pandemic London, like the rest of the UK and the world, was at rest. It was the third time in nearly three decades we would know such quiet. A stark contrast to its streets and bridges of roaring traffic and constant buzz. Once more the world stood still. We waited patiently for this sleeping lion to roar again.

As we counted the days for lockdown to end, we did have time to consider how London and other cities in the UK would cluster to suit the work from home demand. We pondered ‘the Fifteen minute city’ and we called for more green space, we yearned for flexible working and the great outdoors and clasped our flat whites over crowded pavements as some new beacon of freedom.

Even in post Brexit world where ‘Freedom of Movement’ is now a concept constrained by working VISAs departed from the European Union. London remained proudly as place that welcomed everyone. The paradox being that whilst it could be cruel and deeply unpleasant, it remained majestic and unlike anywhere else. From the moment I arrived, I knew I wanted the world and it was here.

“London goes beyond any boundary or convention. It contains every wish or word ever spoken, every action or gesture ever made, every harsh or noble statement ever expressed. It is illimitable. It is Infinite London.” Peter Ackroyd.

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