Ridiculous question about living in London

[Skunkandnancy]

I’ve just come back from a few days in London. We stayed in Paddington (Sussex gardens), just across the road from the station.

I LOVE London and when I get back I’m always a bit fascinated and think about it a lot. Where we stayed there appeared to be ‘normal’ flats just along from Sussex Gdns where people were just living.

I know it sounds absolutely ridiculous but I can’t get my head around being able to live right in the middle of London like this. Surely it must cost a fortune. It was noisy at night (all night partying it sounded like) so how do people just live alongside this.

We walked up Whitehall, around Covent Garden, Fleet Street, St Paul’s etc and am just fascinated at the thought that people live amongst this. I look at people on the tube and imagine just being able to travel around like this so easily.

London history is so fascinating too, so much to see everywhere. Do ‘ordinary’ people live right in the centre like this? How is life? I bet it must be amazing 🤩

Oops just realised that was a joke @YKND . Need coffee! I was actually thinking about the trained actor who lived above me on one occasion, and thought you were saying only actor types live in London. Soz!

That's the one. It changed over early to mid 2000s as I worked for Morrisons and went over to help with the change over.

Was thinking re the bus vs tube debate. A Londoner will use both, but tubes are generally faster and there are also nerdy pleasures such as when you can change line by just crossing the platform (such as the Victoria and Bakerloo line at Oxford Circus).

Buses are part of my psyche now and if I've got the time I'll go for them instead but I think mostly because when I was a young adult, it was still the original route masters, where you could nearly kill yourself jump on and off at traffic lights and that was when I started to feel I was a real Londoner...

Ah I loved that place! There was the nicest security guard. (We once alerted him to a shoplifter and he was always so kind to us after that!)

i do like a bus, you can see out
but i also love the rush of the tube
the buzz