Three months ago, we moved to Southfields, South London - no, I didn't know where that was either. The listing said Wimbledon even though the map suggested otherwise (Putney?), and as we travelled to the viewing by car we didn't quite have our bearings for how it fit onto the Tube map. But it was a great house, fitting into the slimmest of Venn diagram overlaps for a family with vastly differing requirements and preferences. Most importantly for me, it was in a location that felt like it was in the city.
This wasn't really the case where we'd lived before. We'd spent years in West London for school-related reasons, and while Richmond is a fine enough place, it's not quite my jam. But I'd made peace with it ("where are you based" is supposed to be smalltalk!), even though it was hard when people would gush gush - Oh Ritchmunn! - because they "love the park”. Which made me think they probably hadn't been to Richmond all that much, or they might be asking how those planes on constant low descent into Heathrow weren’t driving me nuts (they were).
Southfields is pretty leafy too, but it feels like the city - it's a neighbourhood that's grown organically as part of London, instead of a village that got incorporated as the metropolis expanded. London is a feeling - this was my main requirement when we looked for a new house. I’d struggled to articulate this until I had a long lunch with my friend Ross, who’d left Dalston for Walthamstow and then for Brockley, moving along nature’s intended trajectory for ageing hipsters like us. I don’t mind having to travel a bit farther for my natural wine, but I do draw the line at 4x4s driven to Gail’s by people in waxed jackets that look like hand-me-downs from their gardener. But I digress.
I was talking with Luke about this, during a recent impromptu date where we stayed local and I had one of the best pub meals of my life - about how nice it is to be here, and how it seems to be working out well for the family too. Not that we knew that we'd like Southfields - we knew nothing about it, having assumed we'd be trekking into Wimbledon as our hub. But instead we found that tiny Southfields is its own thing, nothing to do with Wimbledon at all. It feels like an incredible discovery - the kind that reminds you of how great this city is.
It took London a long time to come back after the pandemic but it's here again now, a little changed like all of us, but still bold and beautiful - still one of the best cities in the world. That's all I wanted to say, really - that while I’ve lived in London for 20 years, I still think about it all the time - how happy I am to be in this incredible city, in the heart of it.
Things I've been writing lately.
Infinite horizons and subatomic truths – At bedtime, nothing soothes like a YouTube show about science – Well + Good
My partner Luke likes to watch "black hole videos" before bed - turns out, a lot of people do. For Well + Good I explored what it is about staring into the inevitable heat death of the universe that can be so calming, and why a dose of dreamy science can be just the ticket to turn off your brain and go to sleep.
Drummond Street, London's original South Asian food haven, is fighting for its future - Time Out London
Just behind Euston Station in Central London is a tiny street with big flavours – this is where you get some absolutely stellar South Asian food, specifically Bangladeshi vegetarian food, as well as some excellent meaty Pakistani food. But as construction for HS2, the high speed train line, has threatened to choke the life out of Drummond Street, the community is fighting back. For Time Out London, I wrote about how Drummond Street is stepping up to take its well-deserved place as a London foodie destination.
Things I've been reading lately.
For this month's article recommendations from around the internet, head over to Reading List, Joy in all Quarters edition.