Everyone walks and everyone talks and sometimes their teeth look bad.
But I was made for London - It's the only home I've had.
Biscuits and tea and cards at three. Or is it four? Who cares.
I bought the store.
Harvey & Hudson. Poulsen & Skone. Steel Burrill Jones.
Make mine a G&T, Tony and ring the bell...when you're about to close.
To Roof Gardens for champers, Silk Cuts and dancing totty.
I was last to know that Sturge went in the potty.
Mixed grill next morning. Back bacon to boot.
Skip the beans but try the blood sausage
and pay for it with a game of spoof.
Twenty years since that job
that was a holiday.
But it stays with me always
while I look for a way...
To go back. To return. On BA to the place I love.
It won't be better than yesterday -
but at least I will have matured.
Ah, London Town. Shane MacGowan's take:
ReplyDeletehttp://iLike.com/s/jMi
You might also dig this:
http://www.amazon.com/Way-We-Wore-Life-Threads/dp/033042033X
Being English, Elms' tastes don't sync up with yours, but it's a good light read for the clothes-and-music obsessed. Let me know if you'd like to borrow my copy.
Cheers.
You ever have the "butcher's breakfast" at The Cock Tavern in Smithfield? Looks to be a thing of stark beauty.
ReplyDeleteLooks like you love this town and it loves you. Can hear the ska/reggae/Chad and Jeremy/Cliff Richards playing in the Portobello Road marketplace right now.
ReplyDeleteA fine post. When I make my first trip across I will seek your advice.
ReplyDeleteML
mlanesepic.blogspot.com
Enjoyed the post. Great song too! Admittedly, being a youngster, I first heard the Nouvelle Vague cover.
ReplyDeleteVery nice post.
ReplyDeleteLove Myers...Chicken & mushroom pies, Penguin bars and twiglets.
ReplyDeleteDid you ever go to Upper Street Fish Shop in Inslington, fantastic fish and chips, now sadly gone.
Are you going back over soon?
ReplyDeleteJosh- That book looks great.
ReplyDeleteStew- It was the English breaksfast that broke my habit of eating one thing on my plate at a time. Blake's Hotel did (does?) an amazing mixed grill as well as the Fox and Anchor, also close to the market. I had heard the Fox and Anchor closed. A shame. Only pub that was open in the early morning for the workers in the market.
Cathleen- If Paris was made for a woman then London was made for a man.
M Lane- There was a bordello that I was taken to somewhere in Mayfair. Very fancy with lots of women sitting at tables in pairs and drinking champagne. It took me a while to figure out what was going on but that's another post.
Scott- Nouvelle who?
LBT- Cheers, china.
the arch- Never made it to that chip shop. AA Gill did a review in the 90's of a fish and chips shop he loved. I have it around here somewhere.
ADG- When I start having dreams about London it's usually time to go.
ReplyDeleteTintin- if "Nouvelle who?" was a serious question and you haven't heard of them you should check it out. It's really good stuff. Two producers get a bunch of beautiful French singers and make bossa nova styled covers of 70s and 80s new wave/post-punk/punk-pop songs with mostly brilliant results. There's a cover of The Specials "Friday Night Saturday Morning" on their first album (S/T 2004).
ReplyDeleteStrictly a Cock Breakfast at the Cock.
ReplyDeleteI took a Canadian there recently.
He had a G&T.
The shame.