The Westway. London Fields. Battersea Power Station seen from the train on the way to Kent. Shadwell seen thru the window of a DLR train, under an indifferent sky. McDonald’s on the King’s Road, early evening in November. Powis Square in January sunlight. 3am „night safari“ around King’s Cross in mid July 2012, the madness and the law all around, dubstep vibe of the Subway restaurant at that hour, coffee and silence, Eurostar all the way to Avignon in 3 hours from St Pancras. Jamaica Road, Bermondsey. Trafalgar Square falconers: pigeon dispersal zone – 4 bronze lions, Spanish schoolkids climbing them, lion indifference under an indifferent sky. The Shard when it was still under construction. The Gherkin when it was still under construction. Electronics shops on the Tottenham Court Road. Turkish food in Dalston. Turkish coffee in Shoreditch. Chance meeting: outside LN-CC. I laugh. Coffee at Nico’s on Westbourne Grove (is it still there?). Weird dilapidated mansions at Kensington Palace Gardens sometime last decade, before the real money moved in. Brick Lane, graffiti on doors on Fournier Street. Getting off a bus at the wrong stop in the Murder Mile, Hackney and not getting murdered: it’s calm, hipsters walking past with „2013 beards“ even though it’s 2014. The Ikea advertising on the plastic wallet they give you for your Oyster card. The M&S food outlet that used to be Damien Hirst’s Pharmacy restaurant.
Before [Pharmacy]: http://damienhirst.com/exhibitions/projects/1998/pharmacy-restaurant
After: [M&S Simply Food] https://goo.gl/maps/OzwEP
I think I bought a cake there. Reduced price.
Karl Marx’s ridiculously extravagant grave in Highgate Cemetery, someone had left an orange on it. William Friese-Greene’s grave at the same skeletonyard. Ghosts. Ghosts in the cafe in Brockwell Park. Spirits. Everywhere, every day.
London, England, not a city I know, much: but I like the fragments I’ve seen.