For those new to CabbieBlog or readers who are slightly forgetful, on Saturdays I’m republishing posts, many going back over a decade. Some will still be very relevant while others have become dated over time. Just think of this post as your weekend paper supplement.

The Village People (29.03.11)

I’ve often thought that successful estate agents have been blessed with as fertile imagination as that possessed by J. K. Rowling. First we had such euphemisms as Pied à Terre, no lift; compact, no room; walking distance, get stout shoes; in need of modernisation, dump; conveniently situated, above a 24 hour corner shop; popular, with rowdy teenagers.

For long cabbies have been directed to Dulwich when the destination is in fact Peckham, Islington for Dalston and South Chelsea – well, anywhere south of the River.

Now a new type of creative advertising has been creeping in. An article in the leading taxi trade paper drew my attention to the many times that I’ve been asked for a village of late.

In recent years estate agents have taken the expression that London is just a series of villages to a whole new level. In an effort to make properties more marketable in downmarket areas, at the same time pushing up house prices, and therefore their commission a series of “villages” have been created.

Their customers have believed the hype and are now calling their neighbourhood a village. Chepstow Village appears to be in a rather downmarket area of Notting Hill, I was given Chelsea Village once that turned out to have a village green the size of a triangular traffic island, which in fact it was.

Victoria Park Village is a favourite with its proximity with the City, as someone who was brought up there; the trade journalist described it as “a dodgy 1960’s roundabout”. It has its obligatory organic shops and a baker that caters for the ladies who lunch. Yesterday I went to Millennium Village that turned out to be in the middle of the empty space that is the Greenwich Peninsular.

I’m just waiting for 2013 when the Olympic Village will feature on east London’s estate agents brochures as village life in the heart of an industrial wasteland. I bet they are sharpening their pencils now.