THE MET (n.) Unarmed organisation of law enforcers, who upon accosting a criminal doth say “stop, or I’ll say stop again”.
Dr. Johnson’s London Dictionary for publick consumption in the twenty-first century avail yourself on Twitter @JohnsonsLondon
Monthly Archives: April 2023
The London Grill: John Grindrod
We challenge our contributors to reply to ten devilishly probing questions about their London and we don’t take “Sorry Gov” for an answer. Everyone sitting in the hot seat they will face the same questions ranging from their favourite way to spend a day out in the capital to their most hated building on London’s skyline to find out what Londoners think about their city. The questions are the same but the answers vary wildly.
John Grindrod is the author of Concretopia (2013), exploring the postwar rebuilding of Britain, Outskirts (shortlisted for the 2017 Wainwright Prize), which tells the strange story of the green belt, and Iconicon (2022), touring the landmark buildings of contemporary Britain. The books are a combination of social history, travel writing and architecture, and have grown from a personal geeky interest in the subject. John was born in Croydon and after 52 years in London has recently moved to Milton Keynes. He regularly gives talks and appears on radio and podcasts, and you can find out more at johngrindrod.co.uk or here.
What’s your secret London tip?
It’s not a secret, but Embankment Station is your friend. Takes no time to get down to the platforms, is a well-connected super-easy gateway into central London, and has a handy park next door if you need a quick nap on a bench.
What’s your secret London place?
I grew up in New Addington, on the edge of Croydon, and stayed there till I was 30. As a result, my secret London is concentrated around the edges there: the viewing spot in Shirley Hills; the record shops of the town centre; the strange concrete landscape beneath the 60s towers of East Croydon. They are still very much my London. I know how to have fun.
What’s your biggest gripe about London?
The constant building work. In the midst of a climate crisis shouldn’t we be knocking down fewer old buildings, council estates etc, and putting up fewer brand-new ones? It’s not even as if they are the things Londoners really need, like housing. For the most part, it’s speculative nonsense like more shops and offices, or more buy-to-leave apartments, based on a version of life we seem to be shifting away from.
What’s your favourite building?
Even if I just narrow this down to the Southbank, this is still a tricky one! I will say the National Theatre because I find it strikingly beautiful (both the form itself and all of that wood-shuttering grain on the concrete) and because it’s the perfect place to while away a day. As a teenager coming into London from the suburbs the area around Waterloo was a favourite spot. The National – back in the days when taxis used to rumble right past the front entrance – reminds me of hanging out with mates and seeing some incredible plays in that cosy modernist cave.
What’s your most hated building?
St. George’s Wharf on the banks of the Thames at Vauxhall is an absolute horror. Visually it’s the noisiest structure going, all those glass balconies and facets and tricks to maximise the value of every flat at the expense of the architecture itself. It’s incredibly confusing inside too because of the sheer number of entrances and routes. How I ever managed to find my way to those numerous what-I’m-going-to-call-‘dates’ in there back in the day I’ll never know. Beside it stands Terry Farrell’s MI6 building, which I love. It’s a big theatrical flourish – rather ironic for a secret service building.
What’s the best view in London?
I love the view from the Horniman Museum gardens in Forest Hill. It’s quite an idiosyncratic one, as much of central London is hidden behind Dawson’s Heights, the glorious 70s ziggurat in neighbouring East Dulwich designed by Kate Macintosh, but it means you focus on some of the less obvious landmarks instead. On a clear day seeing Wembley glinting in the sun in the far distance feels magical
What’s your personal London landmark?
In the 90s I worked for a while in Covent Garden at Waterstone’s (it still had the apostrophe then). I used to spend my lunch breaks sat on Seven Dials roundabout munching my sandwiches and watching the world go by. It remains my favourite people-watching spot, though it’s much harder finding a perch these days.
What’s London’s best film, book or documentary?
A fascinating and original insight into London can be found in Penelope Lively’s 1991 novel City of the Mind, about an architect working on a new tower in Docklands. In it, she manages to weave in the Empire history of Docklands and the ambitions of the modern rebuilding into a personal narrative that’s haunting and magical. The Covent Garden of Hitchcock’s Frenzy is full of ghosts too, of a rather less salubrious sort, captured in the early 1970s just as the market itself was moving down to Nine Elms. And I am in love with St Etienne and Paul Kelly’s documentary made up from archive footage, How We Used to Live, which captures post-war London in all of its muddle of change, dereliction and modernity.
What’s your favourite restaurant?
If I frequent a cafe in London it inevitably closes within two years. I’m like the grim reaper of hospitality. New Piccadilly? City Snacks? Gone and probably my fault. So I love Giovanni’s caff on Museum Street, but please don’t let the curse strike again. Mine’s a sausage sandwich with mustard on crusty bread and a black earl grey, bag taken out, thanks.
How would you spend your ideal day off in London?
Breakfast at Giovanni’s. Barbican exhibition and lunch in the cafe. Pointing at colourful geese in St James’s Park. Buy film and music in almost-defunct formats and heaps of paperbacks I can barely carry. Film at the NFT (old habits and all that). Drinks in the Retro Bar. Sandwich on the train home. Fin.
London in Quotations: Oscar Wilde
The amount of women in London who flirt with their own husbands is perfectly scandalous. It looks so bad. It is simply washing one’s clean linen in public.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) The importance of being Ernest
London Trivia: A Dickens of a prison
On 2 April 1884 Marshalsea Prison the last of London’s debtors prisons closed. A parliamentary committee reported in 1729 that 300 inmates had starved to death within a three-month period. The prison became known around the world through the writings of Charles Dickens, whose father was sent there in 1824 for a debt to a baker. Dickens was forced to leave school at the age of twelve for a job in a blacking factory in order to help keep his family at the Marshalsea.
On 2 April 1962 The 1st Panda crossing was opened in York Road near Waterloo Station The crossings were abandoned as they were too confusing
Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain after being convicted of the murder of her lover, David Blakely, once lived at 44 Egerton Gardens, Ealing
It’s believed as long as there’s ravens at the Tower of London Britain will be safe from invasion a Raven Master still looks after the birds
Owner of the Titanic, Joseph Bruce Ismay, was buried at Putney Vale Cemetery in 1937, 25 years after surviving the disaster
A London by-law of 1351 prohibited boys (girls were presumably exempt) from playing practical jokes on Members of Parliament
The Lanesborough Hotel had three original Reynolds and boasts the largest collection of 18th century paintings in the world outside any gallery
During the Great Exhibition 827,280 male visitors paid 1d each to use the ‘Reading Rooms’, giving rise to the expression ‘to spend a penny’
Sir Jack Hobbs, the first professional cricketer to be knighted, lived at 17 Englewood Road, Clapham, known as ‘The Master’, he is regarded by critics as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket
Heathrow’s Terminal 4 has gates 12 and 14 at opposite ends of the building, so superstitious travellers wouldn’t notice the absence of gate 13
Isaac Newton lived at 87 Jermyn Street, St. James when he worked at the Royal Mint where he was tasked with prosecuting counterfeiters
TV cables at Buckingham Palace were installed by a ferret the narrow underground duct meant luring the animal with bacon whilst attached to a line
Trivial Matter: London in 140 characters is taken from the daily Twitter feed @cabbieblog.
A guide to the symbols used here and source material can be found on the Trivial Matter page.
Previously Posted: Moving targets
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.
Moving targets (26.02.2010)
I’m beginning to suspect that London cabbies are reviled with the same vigour as bankers, estate agents and MPs (well, maybe not as much as MPs).
Recently a colleague of mine had his rear window smashed by local children as he sat waiting in a traffic jam in East London. Previously like me he’s had stones thrown at his cab, and had pedestrians hitting his vehicle with their hands as they cross the road.
It also makes you wonder why some Lycra louts of the cycle world get their kicks out of spitting at cab drivers. This Lycra-clad posers cycle up beside cabbies and spit in their face before peddling off, which I personally consider it the most offensive assault possible and rather cowardly when you realise how difficult it is to pursue the obnoxious assailant responsible, I now find myself asking the question, is it a new craze?
The whole practice has me wondering whether they only target cab drivers, like to young vandals who throw stones. Do they maybe mark up their hits on their bike frames, like World War II fighter pilots? Or perhaps it’s an individual avenger who was once wronged by a cab driver who refused to go south of the River and is now wreaking his revenge.
I suppose we could try fitting spittoons on the side of the cab – but well away from the driver’s window of course!
Are we all really so bad? Poison pen letters are invited to the comments section at the bottom of this post.
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