please empty your brain below

Congratulations! I definitely think this has been in the "brilliant thing to do have done" camp.
What's next I wonder?

And this is something which I've wished existed for ages... a comprehensive database of all DG's first-comment reactions in the 33 introductory posts!

Merton: Hmmm...

Islington: Ahhhh...

Enfield: Ah, right, OK...

Sutton: Hmmm, challenging...

Lewisham: [none, tsk tsk]

Southwark: [none again]

Kensington and Chelsea: oooh

Hackney: Oh.

Hillingdon: Bugger.

The City: Ah.

Bromley: Ouch.

Lambeth: Someone's going to be pleased...

Tower Hamlets: Oh for heaven's sake...

Haringey: youtube.com/watch?v=kKhnVvHWJ3A

Hounslow: Ah. Hmm.

Brent: Aha...

Redbridge: (help)

Ealing: Aha.

Harrow: Help...

Croydon: Ah.

Waltham Forest: OK...

Wandsworth: Hmmm.

Greenwich: Sigh.

Richmond: I'll pack the waterproofs.

Kingston: Oh.

Westminster: Ah. Oh.

Newham: Oh, OK.

Camden: Aha.

Bexley: Aha.

Havering: Ah, ok...

Hammersmith and Fulham: Oh.

Barnet: Yeah, thought so...

Barking and Dagenham: Phew, the final slip of paper in the jar is Barking & Dagenham. It was in there after all. So here goes...


And while we're at it, here's something he wrote after going to Ealing...

"I'm thinking of showing you my jamjar at the end of Random Borough 33 (which is currently scheduled for April 2012, so be patient)."

- diamond geezer, 12.07.08, 6:58 pm


*taps foot*

*chants* Show us the jamjar! Show us the jamjar!

Seriously thank you for doing this. I hope you will eventually put all the posts together in the Special London Features section of your side bar as I definitely intend to visit some of these places when I have the chance.

excellent work DG.

You really should consider putting them all together and publishing a book of them.

Looking forward to the next series.

"Burrowing through the Buroughs" is quite an accomplishment. Congratulations.

What type of jam was in your old jam jar?
Did it look like this: (best art I could do)
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As something of a 'completist' myself I can appreciate your sense of satisfaction. Thanks for all the fascinating insights into places I didn't know about.
Having grown up in Epsom and Croydon it's interesting to hear your thoughts on Sutton. For those of from the far south of London we think of Sutton as quite a big railway junction, or at least one of those places you often seem to find yourself passing through, so it's amusing to hear there's not much point getting off the train there.
Have also been browsing through some of the older random borough postings and am intrigued to discover that the now-mythical jam jar started off in the days of Merton as a honey jar!

I've seen the jam jar :)

Excellent accomplishment DG. You undoubtedly have a better grasp of The Real London than any politician.

Whiff - I always thought it was too, but by the time I saw it, it wasn't. So the mystery deepens...

I think I might need to go back and revisit some of the earlier boroughs you visited before I was a regular reader. And I'm fairly sure I've already been inspired to visit a few places you've been to on your tours, so thanks for that!

So. Counties next? That's worth a couple of years, then I guess we get more DGInternational

That should last me into my 70s

Jam Jar, or it never happened.

[Even though i too think i have briefly glanced at it].


The most interesting thing about Sutton is that people have been living there since Roman times and yet *STILL* nothing happens there. (Although if Becontree gets a mention, surely St. Helier should have too?)

Don't get me wrong, I live in Wallington. It's pleasant, lovely parks, good schools, good transport. But things don't happen in Sutton.

A great job very well done, thank you DG for all the effort and time you devoted to this facinating insight into our London.

I for one found some interesting ideas for visits to London.

According to the Merton visit, the jam jar is in fact an old honey jar!

Picture of glass vessel or not, thanks for all these posts - you have opened my eyes to many, many corners of the capital that are well off the beaten track.

Fantastic. Many thanks. An excellent series of posts. having been reading you for well over 7 years, it was well worth the wait for the final one, which was the one of my old manor!

I get my Freedom Pass later this year - so I'll be able to travel round London for free - and certainly your series of visits has inspired me to visit some of the parts of London I don't know so well.
However I think my visits will involve visiting a pub from the Good Pub guide, a recommended restaurant and if with my wife - some shops.

Many congratulations on finishing the project - I've enjoyed reading it all.

Are you going to go back to Merton now to see what has changed in 8 years?



Priceless and much appreciated !

Dear Mr R. Loon, I've really appreciated your rovings, ritings and rithmetic all along. 3 cheers - hip hip hurray, hip hip hurray, hip hip hurray!

I can't find the link to the jam jar as promised. I have been following your blog for 6 years waiting for this jam jar (and finding out the mystery count). Turns I too am a completist but at a low brow sense of the word.

I'm almost sad it's all over, and for me it's probably the best series of things you've done, and the one I've made the most use of, when thinking of different things to do. Just a few weeks ago I used a lovely spring day to recreate most of your Ealing visits, and was just as lovely as you said, and already I'm inspired to go to B&D after the final one.

Well done DG!

Well done! I bet your Random Borough trips looked easy enough when you started the project, but the fact that it's taken you eight years to complete shows that it's certainly not a commitment to be taken lightly.

Of course, you can't possibly close the project without showing us a picture of the empty jam jar… ;-)

It was very good.
What's next DG?

I'm sure most Londoners don't even know Sutton exists, let alone know where to place it on a map


For this South Londoner I would say that Hillingdon and Havering are the 2 I've never heard and couldn't place on a map, along with possibly Newham.

Job well done. Thanks for the insights — and you're spot on about Sutton.

I've started a similar project, but pub-related. It's currently focused on south-east London and involves putting numbers in a jam jar, corresponding with postcodes. Select number from jar and that is the SE postcode for the evening. Go onto beerintheevening website and select the three pubs with the highest ratings and off we go. So far only done SE15 - Peckham, but it was a very enjoyable evening, if mainly for the awesome people watching! Highly recommended.

As a non-Londoner my conversations with friends now go something like this:

Me: I'm off to London this weekend
Friend: Oh that'll be nice. Going anywhere particular?
Me: Barking
Friend: Err, OK. Why?
Me: Because Diamond Geezer recommended somewhere interesting to visit.
Friend: Diamond who?
Me: Geezer
Friend: I worry about you sometimes

Great stuff, DG. 33 weekends well spent, with interesting write ups. I've always been interested in this series, since in your very first trip to Merton you visited a house donated to the NT by Gilliat Hatfeild, to whom I am distantly related. Shame I never got any of his money!

I want to see the jam jar too. I hope it will be kept and used on future ceremonial occasions and not cast out into the recycling.

I just reread the original report and it was a honey jar, so is this the original jar or did it meet an unfortunate end?

Great work

It's time that you started serving your blogspot-assigned country franchises with some local content. When does 'Random Arrondissment' start?

"I'm inspired to go to B&D" says one commenter. Quite an achievement. I hope you’re out celebrating tonight, DG.

Having explored them all too (though in varying degrees in detail admittedly) I'd say Brent was the most boring, with Kingsbury or Queensbury possibly the epicentre of dullness. Dagenham is also pretty tedious, most of the good stuff being in the Barking bit. I would probably agree about Sutton south of the river, however.

With that level of insight into London, you really should run for Mayor, DG. Thank you for bringing unknown parts of this great city to our attention.

I feel a bIt surprised about your Sutton comments. I lived there for a while and thought it was quite a pleasant place. There is a lot of History too with Nonsuch Palace and Whitehall. There are lots of green spaces and has a good football team as well.

dg writes: Nonsuch Palace, absolutely fascinating. Alas, not quite in Sutton.











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