please empty your brain below
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Sorry again? Don't be sorry! We enjoy your writing, whatever it is about.
Andrew | 27.03.15 - 7:31 a.m. | #
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I work in E15 and live across the river - I enjoy the local posts!
Jen | 27.03.15 - 7:50 a.m. | #
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DG, your blog is brilliant and I totally disagree that most people would rather read about stuff in Central London. Sorry, this topic is a bit of a bugbear of mine *stands on soapbox*:
There seems to be an increasing attitude around that Central London is the only "real" bit and that the suburbs/anything outside zone 2 is bad, boring or somehow not real. I grew up in a relatively outer suburb, and honestly, some of the snobbery and elitism I've come up against (not from you) is just ridiculous, with people looking down their noses at me for not being a "real Londoner" or whatever. I've read ridiculous articles from estate agents saying how awful it is that young house-sharers are now having to move out to *shock, horror* zone 3 because of increasing rent prices. I've even read an article by the guy who runs the proud venue in Camden, lamenting that most of his staff used to live within waking distance, but now they have to commute from further away (oh no!!!) as I'd this is so shocking and awful. Yet, when I was younger I used to go to a lot of nightclubs, and there are thousands of people who spend an hour sitting on a night bus to get home as a normal course of events. I don't see why this is suddenly considered a bad thing. Obviously rent prices are a huge problem these days, but I wish people would stop pretending that other people are only moving out because of some kind of desperate necessity.
I've also noticed, since the recession in particular, an increasing amount of pointless discrimination coming from employers on the basis of where I live. Suddenly, they're considering an hour of commuting to be too far, even though it was never a problem before. Highly skilled people probably haven't noticed it, but believe me, among slightly less specialised jobs, the snobbery I've faced is just ridiculous.
Some of us actually like the outer suburbs, and I'm sick of this zone 2 snobbery. And you know what, DG, your post appears to be apologising to these people for not being central enough. There is really no need to apologise. There is nothing wrong with writing about Hillingdon.
Rant over.
Karen | 27.03.15 - 7:59 a.m. | #
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...and the beautiful Boozers in Barnet!Keep up the Greater London work dg
REB | Homepage | 27.03.15 - 8:02 a.m. | #
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But there's a grilled cheese sandwich cafe opening in Soho in May. How can this not be what people want to read about?
diamond geezer | 27.03.15 - 8:16 a.m. | #
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I like reading about the outer London suburbs.
Of course I enjoy reading your blog even if the topic of the day is of little interest to me
John | 27.03.15 - 8:17 a.m. | #
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Here's the article I mentioned:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/10744997/Cool-London-is-dead-and-the-rich-kids-are-to-blame.html
He writes: "Back then we all lived in central London, because we all could. It was normal to leave university and get a flat with your mates in Marylebone or Maida Vale or Primrose Hill or Notting Hill. Not because we were rich, but because London was cheap." No, Alex. For many of us growing up in the 90s, that was absolutely not normal at all. I don't recognise any of that, and I don't know one single person who's ever lived in Marylebone or Notting Hill.
Karen | 27.03.15 - 8:18 a.m. | #
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@Karen: He does have some good points though... Go for a walk around Chelsea Harbour sometime: An executive ghetto...
Note the lack of life, the grass growing between the stones of the footpaths, the desolation...
Southern Heights | 27.03.15 - 8:31 a.m. | #
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I do miss the posts when you tell us what you watched on TV last night, or what your Top 5 singles are, etc...
Geofftech | Homepage | 27.03.15 - 8:44 a.m. | #
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No need to apologise DG,the appeal of your blog lies in your writing style, which is informative, observational and critical when necessary - the topic and its location is secondary.
Also, I think we'd be surprised if you held off writing about your local area, and a little disappointed if you stopped expanding our horizons in a way nobody else seems to do.
In summary, please keep going as you are, as long as you are enjoying it still!
al | 27.03.15 - 9:12 a.m. | #
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I presume poor DG is too busy visiting places, travelling, writing great missives for us to read the next morning - oh, and working - to watch any television these days!
For the record, and like others commenting here, I love the unique DG mix and hope it persists in its current format.
Robert Johnson | Homepage | 27.03.15 - 9:13 a.m. | #
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Hey,DG, you just continue writing about what you want to write about! After all,if someone isn't interested in a certain post of yours,they don't have to read it,do they? Keep up the good work👍😊
Jo W | 27.03.15 - 9:40 a.m. | #
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No need to apologise really. Would a referee apologise for a red card? Of course not.
PSG | 27.03.15 - 10:15 a.m. | #
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I love the mix of posts on here and you should continue writing about whatever interests you. They will be especially useful as a historical reference in the future - you are the Samuel Pepys of the early 2000s. Your documentation of the transformation of the Olympic Park on the ground is unparalleled.
James Armitage | Homepage | 27.03.15 - 10:28 a.m. | #
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Where there's a great crush of people there is very rarely a 'unique' view, I've generally found. Having 'done' some of the remote (yet surprisingly close) places DG reports about, I'm more than happy to let him do the leg work for me. Nice post visit debriefs too. No complaints here!
B | 27.03.15 - 10:30 a.m. | #
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On a slightly related note, when you blogged about the Sky Garden, I booked a free visit for the nearest date - which was yesterday! So I went and it was awesome. Thanks for the tip :)
Greg | 27.03.15 - 10:40 a.m. | #
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Same here - the mix of topics is unique and will be a valuable resource for the historians of the future.
I too miss the odd post about TV or music (especially chart related) - they were interesting in their own right and never came across as substitutes for a lack of "worthier" blog content. Perhaps the change of days for the chart countdown from Sundays to Fridays merits a look back at the teen diaries?
s | 27.03.15 - 10:43 a.m. | #
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You carry on writing, guv... I've been retired three and a half years and can't match half your output (I'm busier now than when I was paid to do things - where did I find the time to go to 'work'?) and you're still cursed with employment. It's partly your fault that I'm that occupied - you point me (and mates) toward things we didn't know (or had forgotten) existed, and we're all hardened Londoners and Londonists. I don't get how you do it - pacts with supernatural beings? Existence-altering substances? I don't want to know really - just keep doing it!
Joel | 27.03.15 - 11:15 a.m. | #
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When you live in Bristol, like me, it's great to hear you expound about any part of London. Makes me delightfully homesick. But I can afford a house here.
PeteC | 27.03.15 - 11:30 a.m. | #
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DG - it's your blog, so you just go on writing about whatever interests you. Readers who don't like it can always go elsewhere!
Bronchitikat | Homepage | 27.03.15 - 11:48 a.m. | #
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And, contrary to what some appear to think, there is a lot going on outside central London, and not just for those who may be tired of life!
Bronchitikat | Homepage | 27.03.15 - 11:51 a.m. | #
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I wonder if people fully realise quite how remote places like Harrow and Romford actually are.
diamond geezer | 27.03.15 - 12:00 p.m. | #
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Might be interesting to compare how often the blogs go south of the River Thames too ...
Max Roberts | Homepage | 27.03.15 - 12:08 p.m. | #
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The balance is just right in my opinion, but as others have said, it is your writing that makes this blog compulsive to follow, rather than the subjects.
Bob Lindsay-Smith | 27.03.15 - 1:51 p.m. | #
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You can read about central London anywhere, but I don't know of any other blogs that cover so many different areas of Greater London. The non-central areas are interesting in their own way (at least to me). Keep up the good work!
Streatham dweller | 27.03.15 - 2:32 p.m. | #
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As if on cue, this pops up in my Facebook timeline:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/chelseypippin/london-beyond-zone-3
Mu | 27.03.15 - 3:07 p.m. | #
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"Quite how remote Harrow is"? I live outside the M25. Don't talk to me about remote!
Andrew | 27.03.15 - 4:47 p.m. | #
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"I've brought you reports from Birmingham, Hackney Downs, the rural outskirts of Hillingdon, the cablecar and 'my local bus stop'. It's not exactly a cavalcade of riches."
I was born in Hillingdon Hospital, grew up in Ruislip, went to school in Harrow and spent over a decade in Birmingham. A cavalcade of riches? This post has turned out part biographical.
DG - for me the appeal of your blog is that it is so broad based and not just navel gazing at Zones 1 and 2.
And can I just say hello to Peter H.
Plastic Man | 27.03.15 - 5:37 p.m. | #
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I haven't even been to Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium yet. The shame.
diamond geezer | Homepage | 27.03.15 - 5:41 p.m. | #
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I would concur with much that has been written about the suburbs here. I was born in Lewisham but could not possibly hope to afford to live there now and live in Beckenham. That's only half way to the Greater London border and yet you would think from the media that it's in the middle of Kent. I'm related to people who came from the inner city and worked in docks and factories but that's all gone now. So the only people I know who live close to town AREN'T Londoners, they are visitors to the city who came via university or work and don't realise anything exists outside of zone 2, or outside the tube map for that matter!
GTR Driver | 27.03.15 - 6:31 p.m. | #
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Another fan who loves the fact you get out and about in the suburbs. Anyone can visit/read about Central London, but you visit and write about the "real" London.
And when you go further afield, it introduces us to places we may never have considered visiting before.
Basically, it's your eclectic mix that keeps me coming back.
Cornish Cockney | 27.03.15 - 7:33 p.m. | #
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Harrow and Romford remote? Having lived almost all my life in Harrow, and having grown up regularly visiting relations in Romford (and Bromley and Croydon), almost always by public transport, I don't feel at all remote from anywhere! If I want remote I'll head for Wester Ross or somewhere!
Looking forward to your coverage of my local rivers (the Pinn and the Yeading Brook).
Stephen Bird | 27.03.15 - 8:11 p.m. | #
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I imagine DG enjoys writing his blogs? I imagine that, like me, most readers very much enjoy reading his blogs.
So what's not to like?
The mix of remote, occasionally outside/abroad, and the intensely local - marvellous. I am ex- Romford; I was brought up knowing that anything further round than Barkingside was technically 'The Other Side of London, dear' (according to mum). How good to read about so many Other Sides of London, then, in more than one sense of the phrase.
Don't stop. Don't be sorry. Just enjoy - even if you can rarely relax. Long may DG continue, unchanged.
Herbof | 27.03.15 - 9:02 p.m. | #
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Variety is the spice of life!
Keep up the good work.
I love your observational and light writing style.
Chris | 27.03.15 - 10:34 p.m. | #
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HYPER
Definition
adjectiveinformal
hyperactive or unusually energetic.
"eating sugar makes you hyper"
Current hyper poll based on comment contributions
Comments
Complaining about hyper (internalising the hyper) - 34
Bow Bus (hyper) - 27
Emirates airline (ish if you can swim in a southerly direction) - 20
London Loop (sort of hyper as it is not central) - 7
Not sure what any of this has to do with sugar.
G | 28.03.15 - 7:02 a.m. | #
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It's surprising how randomly relevant your posts can be. A recent mention of the closure of the Rose & Crown at Woodcock Hill saved me a wasted journey when every eating place in Rickmansworth turned out to be full last night. You omitted though to mention the Artichoke at Croxley Green's bizarre "no under-21s even when eating in the restaurant with parents" rule; what did they think they might do that a 30 year old wouldn't? Ended up in the Coach & Horses, which was fine.
Andrwe Simpson | 29.03.15 - 9:35 p.m. | #
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As someone who is laying the groundwork for a potential move to London, your blogging about Greater London is important to me. What could be mundane and peripheral to some is really relevant to me. So while reading your post is often an exercise in becoming familiar with local minutia, this is exactly the thing that becomes important when you become a resident. And even in my tourism, there are genuine places to visit that aren't for tourist. Plus, I always appreciate person digging deep and exploring what they love.
Robert | Homepage | 30.03.15 - 4:38 a.m. | #
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I don't want Time Out or Londonist to mention things outside zone 2, because that will bring their clientele outside of zone 2. I like the peace and quiet.
Arctic Troll | 30.03.15 - 11:52 a.m. | #
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The centre is dull, sanitized and for the rich or the tourists. The edge is more interesting.
Mick | Homepage | 04.04.15 - 10:53 p.m. | #
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