Trip Nostalgia
It’s beautiful here today, in an odd, subdued sort of way. I went for a walk and gazed out over the Sound an hour or so ago. Everything is grey – the sky, the water – but it’s a bright, translucent grey in places. The clouds are shapey and various as opposed to being a single pewter-coloured blanket, and there are places where the sun almost shines through them, so in the distance the water is quite silvery. I’ve been back for a week (plus a bit). Things have shaken down as they do after a trip (that’s one of the fun things about trips: the sense of strangeness when you get back), and I’ve had time to think it over and consider the high points. (Mind you, they were all fairly high, apart from one very rainy afternoon when I insisted on going for a walk anyway, and a couple of traffic jams, and the casual little walk I took the morning I left, so casual I didn’t take the A to Z, which ended in my getting more lost than I’ve ever been, and accidentally walking almost to the Tower instead of back to Bedford Square.)
It was fun meeting my colleague. It’s been fun not meeting my colleague all this time – there’s something quite entertaining about collaborating with someone that, um, collaboratively, for that long, without having ever met. I enjoyed the paradox of knowing each other quite well in one way and not at all in the more usual one. The well-known oddity of Internet acquaintanceship. But after all this time – collaborating for two years, chatting for three – I was curious about the more usual version. So it was fun. And he was a very kind host. He showed me the sights – the nice new(ish) mall, Safeway, Waterstone’s, Smiths. Leith Hill, Box Hill. He also showed me ‘The Office’ in its entirety, and Dream Theater – not to mention Spike. All good stuff. It was also fun meeting Julian, though that was much briefer, he was only in London for a couple of days – he’s a busy guy. The two of them talked about things I didn’t understand, which was a nice humbling experience (not that I needed it – I’m extremely humble already, as I keep saying, in my humble way). Vagueness, they talked about. I could follow what they were saying, it didn’t seem like gibberish or anything, but I couldn’t have added anything to it if you’d put a gun to my head.
On the other hand, sad to say, I didn’t get to meet another virtual friend I had hoped to. He was going to be in London for a few days and it was all planned and then I couldn’t make it after all; that was very disappointing. Oh well – I’ll just have to go back, that’s all.
And then there are the high points of London itself (never mind the low ones, they’re not my problem, because I don’t live there). Richmond Park, that view from Terrace Gardens (I visited it three times – can never get enough of that view), Wimbledon Common (I’d always meant to explore that a bit and now I have – very good. There’s a part with long tawny grass and birch trees that is very satisfying), Hampstead Heath, the Hill and the Pergola, Nonsuch. You’ll notice I like commons and heaths and the like. Well, I do. Regent’s Park, Waterlow Park, Green Park, Holland Park, Ranelagh Gardens, Bishop’s Park – I love them all. I could just stay home and walk in a lot of fields, but…it’s not the same. And the new stuff – the Eye, and Tate Modern, and the Gherkin, and the Globe, and the shaky bridge. In fact bridges in general – I could do a little aria to London bridges. Waterloo, Westminster, Blackfriars, Battersea, Albert, Putney, Hammersmith, Kew, Richmond, Kingston. And then river walks. The walk from Blackfriar’s Bridge to the Tate is pretty staggering, for instance.
Okay, I’ll shut up now. A lot of you already know this anyway because you live right there, and others do because you’ve visited, and the rest don’t care. Although I could always say this is a post for City Comforts. Because London’s lavish hand with parks and commons is one of the things that make it a great city (while the traffic rules are one of the things that make it a terrible one), and its river is another. So this is a kind of implicit discussion of urban planning. (Seattle doesn’t have anywhere near enough parks and parkland. There are very few places in Seattle where one can go for the kind of really long walk through park or parks that one can go for in most of London. That’s bad.)
As far as I’m concerned Wordsworth’s Stopped Clock Moment (everyone has on sooner or later) was ‘Westminster Bridge’. ‘Dull would be he of soul who could pass by…’
By the way, the Oslo story is more complicated than that – check out the comments on Harry’s Place.
Ophelia, besides the big parks and Commons (regarding Wimbledon, I’m a recent convert since some friends moved there; glorious Autumn walks) did you trip between the different little squares throughout bloomsbury? obviously B-square (which I’ve never actually been in – do you need a key for it, I wonder) but also Gordon square (where I celebrated exam results year after year), Tavistock (with its little buddha), the restructured Russell square with its funky fountains, the gardens just bterwwen malet street and gower street (from store street) with hulking proud trees just in front of the British Museum, Corams fields (which is just outside my building) and all the rest of it. I wonder how to characterise these snatches of green – surely no real replacement for being truly outdoors, and not quite aesthetic enough to be an artistic experience. Still they mean a lot to me, and I would love london less without them.
Alex, yes, yes, yes. Yes indeed. I was going to say that in reply to your comment about B’bury on that other thread, but then thought the thread was too old by then. Was also going to go on about squares in general in N&C yesterday, Bloomsbury’s and others besides, like one in what I had long thought was a wasteland between Euston Road and Camden Town but discovered on a long walk ten days ago is actually quite good in places, with Georgian terraces and the Workingmen’s College and this nice square; and Wellington Square Gardens with its few old headstones. (And then there are the cemeteries, which is another whole subject.)
Yes, I think you need a key for Bedford Square. (Jerry S impertinently told me on his mobile that he was walking across it one day, and I knew he was lying because you can’t, unless you parachute in.)
Anyway I did go exploring the squares, and loved them all. I had an idea they were all of the ‘you need a key’ variety, so was pleasantly shocked to find myself able on a twilight walk to plunge right into Russell Square, and even more pleasantly shocked one morning to find Tavistock and Gordon wide open. I saw the gardens between Gower and Malet and wondered if I could get in, prowled along the fence until I came to the sign saying I couldn’t. But they’re there to look at at least. Coram’s fields I’d accidentally discovered on a previous trip, and been charmed by. (Mind you, I’d seen the others at some point too, but not very recently, and I clearly hadn’t remembered them very well. For one thing I’d conflated Brunswick Square with Russell Square – I thought all those stepped flats rose out of one side of Russell Square. Wrong.)
I think these snatches of green are vital, and I too (and I’m sure most people) would love London less without them.
Looked at map – Oakley Square, that’s the name of the little one between Camden Town and Euston Road. Only small, but a break in the hard edges.
Chris,
Yep. (And to think Wordsworth said that long before Barry’s Houses of Parliament. I mostly hate Victorian Gothic, but I make an exception for that example. Admired it early one morning from the south bank, glinting in the sun.) I always have those arrested moments on Waterloo Bridge (dull functional Waterloo Bridge) – when the view stops and overpowers me. I just stand there gawping and turning slowly in a circle for a long time while commuters swear and fume and rush past. (Well, except it often seems to happen on weekend mornings, so that helps.)
I have a peculiar fondness for the view of Putney from Fulham, and Fulham from Putney. In fact I’m getting to really like Putney. Aided by the astonishing fact that the Ottekar’s in Putney Exchange carries the FD.
I also like the very obtrusive but dramatic new apartment blocks next to Battersea Bridge in Battersea. Wouldn’t mind living in one of them, with those curving windows over the river. Cool.
P.S. I know, I gathered that about the Oslo story, couldn’t figure out how to phrase the teaser so as to indicate that, and wanted to make the story available anyway…
‘phrasing the teaser’ – this is what I spent most of yesterday trying to do, as part of an attempt to get decent history on to a little bit of the mass media. I think that the need to ‘phrase the teaser’ might explain a lot about what’s wrong with where we’re at right now.
NB – Not that earlier generations didn’t also suffer from it/
It would be a fine post indeed for City Comforts.