please empty your brain below
Yes you might have been blogging about an entirely different bus stop!!

Brian | 09.08.21 - 7:31 a.m. | #

For me the most astonishing thing is that you've managed to rent the same place for 20 years - most of my friends who are renting in London have had to move because of substantial rent increases, the landlord evicting them to live in the place themselves, or the place being repossessed by the bank. Fingers crossed none of the above are in your future.

martin | 09.08.21 - 7:39 a.m. | #

Interesting read, thanks. I think I met a couple of those estate agents. Naturally now pondering buying (if it were at all possible) vs. 20 years of rent.

Kevin | 09.08.21 - 7:50 a.m. | #

This post has reminded me when I was trying to find a place to rent in Kings Cross / Camden with two inherited cats. I told the estate agent about my cats, and that they'd need outside space. He took me to somewhere like York Way / Caledonian Road (might not have been exactly that, but similar), to a 3rd floor flat (no outside space). I asked how he thought I could get the cats in and out, and he (seriously!) replied maybe I could winch them through the window in a basket.

Jayne | 09.08.21 - 8:30 a.m. | #

I remember looking in 2002 for a flat to rent with two of my student friends. Waiting for the newsagent to open to get a copy of Loot and find somewhere quick. Feels like a different world.

David | 09.08.21 - 8:53 a.m. | #

Wonder what the nearest bus stop is to each of them. Confident none could hold a candle to Bus Stop M!

TomH | 09.08.21 - 9:52 a.m. | #

Well, I do agree that you made the best choice, for your own interests as well as ours. But, as lockdown has shown, you can devise blog posts from the most unpromising material. Possibly even from some of the rejected flats.

Malcolm of Kent | 09.08.21 - 10:28 a.m. | #

Interesting that people tend to settle in the part of London associated with their point of arrival. For you this was east, for me the Borough of Lambeth. So Kennington? It has many faces, not all of them unpleasant!

cau1khead | 09.08.21 - 10:51 a.m. | #

Fascinating! I went-up to London, from the Provinces, in 1985 - spent the next 18 years, on-and-off, around the Northern Heights; eventually buying a place in Stroud Green, making a killing on re-sale, and leaving the country for good.

How come you ended up in your 30's before moving to London?

Eddie | 09.08.21 - 12:50 p.m. | #

is this another in your "life's a lottery" series?
yes it's amazing how much influence where we live affects our everyday lives and our outlook on life

Caroline | 09.08.21 - 1:05 p.m. | #

I remember that sofa.

Blue Witch | Homepage | 09.08.21 - 3:44 p.m. | #

I too am amazed you've stayed in the same place for 20 years. Especially when the Olympics came to town. I bet the landlord was sorely tempted to oust you for triple the rent!

Cornish Cockney | 09.08.21 - 9:33 p.m. | #

Bow Road is a funny one, yes it’s close to the olympics but never felt like it got a post olympics bounce. The a12 acted as an invisible barrier, though a bit of development around Bow roundabout.

David | 09.08.21 - 10:26 p.m. | #

I'm disappointed nobody's chipped in and said "OMG, we might have been neighbours."

diamond geezer | Homepage | 09.08.21 - 10:55 p.m. | #

I’d completely forgotten about Loot until David mentioned it. Editions were colour coded if I remember correctly. Wow. A bygone era.

Joseph | 09.08.21 - 11:10 p.m. | #

OMG, we might have been neighbours.

There you go. I viewed a place right next to Langbourne in 2005 but that would have been a shoebox in a dubious flatshare.

commonliner | 10.08.21 - 8:01 a.m. | #

I didn't have the option of looking at things first, as I was moving to London from Canada and had to make do with the promises people made about the flat I was going to share. I spent ages managing to get a room near London Fields, only to have the lot of them move out a month before I was due. After much panic, I found a room in Deptford. Which lasted all of 3 months as desperate moves tend to. Happy to say that I met one of my best friends on the next move to Archway and it all worked out well from there.

Also gave me memories of spending hours scouring moveflat.com. I'm actually quite astonished that the web site still exists! I loved the way their old interface let you pick a tube station you liked and search on that. You could spend an evening scouting a potential area just by going to the station and walking 10 minutes in any direction. (Yes, I know, yet somehow I picked Archway...)

Chz | 10.08.21 - 8:22 a.m. | #

:) great post

Now living the life of Riley, not missing the 9-5 ... pure dream

Bruce Wayne | 10.08.21 - 4:49 p.m. | #

That comment by Blue Witch made me head off to her blog. Now I have 2 blogs to read ;-) (but not every day)

Marmaduke Jinks | 10.08.21 - 10:48 p.m. | #











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