London Art print by Orange Optimist
I grew up beside a railway. The noise from the trains rushing past on their way to Paddington was so much a part of my life’s soundtrack, I rarely noticed them thundering along the tracks that ran just beyond the end of our back garden. When I moved away seven years ago the silence of the Devon countryside kept me awake at night for weeks.
My old bedroom window is still visible from the trains that frequent that route into the city. As the carriages trail out of Reading station and the engine begins to rush towards London, I gaze out the window at the familiar landmarks that line the route towards my old home. I can see the hospital where Isabel was born and the bridge that led me to primary school as a child.
I spy the back of my house and can picture my room as it was when I was young.Yellow walls with a grey carpet and bunk beds in the corner. I can see myself in our tiny back garden, standing on the unkempt lawn and surrounded by neglected flowerbeds. Or I’m in the front room, basking in the sunshine that pours in through the huge bay window and drenches everything in gold. Or I’m stood in the hallway on the hideous 70s carpet that lies threadbare and aging below my bare feet.
I leave the train at Paddington. My eyes always wander upwards to the huge glazed roof and the rows of wrought iron arches that appear never to end. I inhale the smell of the city, the scent of damp concrete and exhaust fumes. I relish the crowds, the colour and the noise. I people watch, examining the clothes of strangers, taking in the books they read or the shoes they wear, and daydreaming about who they are and what they do.
I slip into the city’s reverie like I never left, adhering to its unspoken rules without even having to think about it.
My mind plays tricks on me and I forget this isn’t where I live anymore. My place is no longer among the dirt and grime of this city. I’m not part of its crowds or its chaos.
But it’s where I belong, and always will be.
Love Audrey xxx
I’m so the opposite!
Whenever I’m in London I feel so at odds with it! So many of my friends are based there, I have as many London friends as I do here in Bristol but that bustling metropolis will never feel like home to me.
I long for the smaller, more laid back and compact little city disguised as a town where the “centre” is actually on the edge and my lovely little flat looks out onto hills and countryside yet is merely 25 minutes walk from the city centre, shops and my office.
I can go onto any of my favourite pubs and know someone and nowhere is ever more than £12 in a taxi or takes longer than 30 minutes to get to.
Home sweet home!
Well, as it looks like we’ll be making Bristol our ‘home sweet home’ within the next 18months, I love your description of it!
I wonder if I’ve got a bad case of wanting what I know I can’t have? London is way beyond our reach financially. It’s probably got a lot to do with the fact I’m really unhappy where we are the moment too. I think I could maybe love Bristol though, if your description is anything to go by.
xxx
I’m different to both of you. Born in Birmingham, I’m a city girl but my time in Bristol was lonely and friendless, although I do love the city and enjoy visiting for shopping reasons, I found it lacking warmth. London, I do like to visit, I do, but I always feel lost and a bit afraid there. Exeter is for me the perfect home. Its small, its got everything on the doorstep, the sea, the moors, the bigger cities like plymouth or even bristol easily and quickly accessible. I love wandering around and never feeling unsafe and on the whole I find it beautiful with all its nooks and crannies…. I can’t see me ever leaving.
As for your planned move, it makes me too sad to think you will be leaving us down here so I try not to think about it. That’s horribly selfish I know but I don’t want you to go!! (not that I really in any way would wish anyone be stuck somewhere that isn’t home, as happened with me with Bristol, I know that feeling so well I wouldn’t wish it on anyone) xx
I know a lot of people feel the way you do about London. I suspect it’s quite different for me as it was where I grew up so I have so many fond memories of having a very London childhood.
I do love Exeter deep down, I just think I’m ready to move on. It’s like a need a new adventure or to start a new chapter or something. I don’t think I ever imagined settling here when I moved, it was purely about coming to Uni.
Do you know, I really wish I’d been brave enough to say a virtal hello to you years ago. I feel like we’ve become such good friends since I did so I really missed out there! We’ll have to make the most of it before we go anywhere.
xxx
My feelings precisely. Blub. xxx
I feel the same about London, it’s a city that really got under my skin. Watching the sun sink into the skyline at Westminster bridge, bustling crowds in Covent Garden, taking the bus to explore forgotton streets, wandering alleyways and finding hidden secrets, the buzz of the Southbank and quiet walks on the heath or in the parks. I don’t always appreciate it as I go about everyday life in the city, but coming back to London always makes me smile! xo
Love this comment Louise. You’ve touched on some of my favourite things about the city too. London can leave you a little jaded at times if you’re always in the thick of it, but I still love it regardless. When you’re starved of it you even start to miss rush hour on the tube 😉
xxx
Where I grew up I also lived near train tracks. The sounds is something that is still familiar to me, even though it was a noise you were just used to. People always asked how can you sleep with the sound of trains passing, I never noticed!
I loved living in London for four years but that was enough for me. In quite a contrast I then lived for a year in the heart of the Cotswolds (although I had spent many weeks for years before on and off there as that’s where my fiance lived) and I have to say, I am much more of a country bumpkin. That said, I love visiting London and the second I set foot off that train I switch into London mode and I just love the hustle and bustle.
As for Bristol, it is the nearest “big” city to me (about 45mins away) and I love it. It’s somewhere I would certainly consider living. It has a great scene culturally and the shopping is good too. Bristol have their characters and like Emma said above, there is the possibility to have a great balance between city and countryside.
*ramble ramble*
Rebecca xx
Oh! I forgot to say… I really enjoyed that piece of writing 🙂
agreed!
Please write a book one day, I could sit and read what you write all day. I am a country bumpkin but lived in Brighton for 4 years and would love to live in London one day just for the experience. x
I loved reading this.
I grew up in the proper middle of nowhere. Every now and again we’d go for a weekend in London – my parents having lived there before. We’d go to the cinema and see two films in a row, or three exhibitions in a weekend, to fit in all the things we couldn’t do or see in the shire.
I loved it – the air was full of possibility. I loved jumping on tubes and buses and being able to get anywhere with anyone – the antithesis to the ‘an hour in the car to everywhere’ countryside.
As soon as I could – i.e. for uni – I came here, and have lived here basically ever since. I’m about to hit the 7 years I think – the traditional period of time people spend here before moving on. I have felt so jaded about it before, but strangely, on returning from a beautiful holiday in California, I have fallen in love with the city again.
It’s strange though – my sister experienced the same up bringing and truly hated London for years. She can stand visiting it now, for a weekend here and there.