101 Songs

The town where I went to university, St Andrews, would, amongst its many claims to fame, assert that it had the most pubs per square foot of...

I lived in a 1st floor flat on Balham Hill, just down from Clapham South tube station, for four years precisely. I really liked it there. Th...

Waterman's is an arts centre by the Thames in Brentford, on the High Street before you get to Kew Bridge. This is the past world that li...

There's a house, a big house, Victoria way, with balconies and gates. I've only been in its vicinity three or four times. One of tho...

There was a place, just off Cambridge Circus, on the corner of Tower Street and Earlham Street. Now it's an EasyCoffee, whatever that is...

I saw a lot of London running quizzes, particularly between 2006 and 2012. I've probably run 500ish in total, and the majority were in t...

Victoria Park was the home ground of my football team, Atholl 1965. We played in the somewhat misnamed West End Amateur League - amateur we ...

It's quite a stealth song, this. I first heard it 25 years or so ago, when I bought Bridge Over Troubled Water on tape. I think it was, ...

I was taken to Charing Cross Hospital when I broke my right leg playing football in Kensington Gardens in November 2008. It could just as we...

I hear your lucky voice, I have no fuckin' choice, heaven help me! Lucky Voice, of course, the heart of swinging London in those distant...

I spent my summer evenings playing cricket in West London, which was a pretty fine way to spend the evenings of one's childhood. I playe...

Not entirely sure why, of all the music venues I could choose, I'm writing about one I never actually went into, but there we are. I hav...

 Suddenly I find myself down by the dockside, thinking about the old days ... I spent two separate weeks at Rotherhithe Youth Hostel, one in...

There's a restaurant in Bayswater called the Taormina. It's on Craven Terrace, a quiet street just north of Hyde Park, near Paddingt...

In late October 1996, I walked, with three other people, from Southwark Cathedral to Canterbury Cathedral, over three days. A pilgrim's ...

Gunnersbury Park was the showiest of the local parks. Blessed as we were to be within walking, cycling, or short driving distance of several...

I thought I'd start with a nice, short, easy and recent one. I asked "When and where was London beautiful?" and I had an immed...

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-b...

Greg Gilbert, the lead singer of Delays, has died of cancer aged 44. By all accounts, a hugely talented artist and writer, his illness had b...

I'm going to return to Clayesmore one more time - the A350 south from Shaftesbury, taking in those villages which almost sound like a gr...