London Places

I had an idea a couple of years ago to map London in terms of places which were significant to me. It didn't develop far, and the half-baked idea fell by the wayside.

Now, it's come back with a vengeance, as I realise it's crept up to almost 10 years since I moved out of the city.

I'd been thinking about London a lot already, in particular about the West London where I grew up. I've written quite a few poems trying to capture something of the time and place. You don't need to read them for now!

Much-maligned, West London. Whenever you see that childish twitter chat about what the best and worst parts of London are, the only thing ever agreed on is that west is worst.

I understand why. It's not the cool bit. People who don't know it (and plenty of those that do) see it as an uncomfortable combination of self-satisfied affluence and ugly nowheresville, only defined by big roads and railways.

People are always passing through West London on the way to somewhere hipper or prettier.

But it's what dwells inside me. I was lucky, growing up, not to be stuck in one place but always seeing different parts. Overground tube and bus to school from Ealing to Barnes every morning, picked up by our father on a Sunday to go into Edgware Road via the Westway. cricket on summer evenings in Hanwell, Wembley, Southall, Acton etc, regular trips to my grandmother in Surrey, driving through Brentford, Kew, Richmond, Kingston, by the time I was a grown-up I could map that part of the vast city pretty well.

As a young adult, I lived in south London, mainly socialised in north, while now it's the east that's my main way in. Also, for work, for a decade, running 100s of quizzes at different sites, mainly in the centre.

Of course, there are parts, particularly in the north-east of London, I don't know much about, but generally, I've got a pretty good feel for it, and memoriies to drawn on from all over.

So, what I'll do is name a specific place, then write about a specific memory of it. It could be quite self-indulgent, but all of this is really, so what's the difference. I'm thinking 20 places, but there may be more or less depending on how it goes ... 

... there may be more of the west, but i'll try to have a reasonable geographical range ...