London Calling
It was my home for 18 years and now I'm back as a visitor, creating new memories of the city.
I lived and worked in London between the ages of 19 and 37, when we decamped as a family to the countryside.
Now, my daughters are back there raising their own families. I don’t visit often (they tend to come to us), but events have meant I’ve been helping out two weekends in a row.
Reverting from country mouse to town mouse, a kind of muscle memory kicks in and I quickly adapt to the bustle, the constant noise, the sweaty tube trains and the exhilarating energy of the place.
The city is constantly changing and I see it with fresh eyes and find new places to explore. Here are a few impressions.
Vauxhall to Battersea
I walked alongside this stretch of the river on one of the hottest days of the year, pushing three-year old M in the buggy. The waterfront is unrecognisable compared to how I remember it. The St George Wharf Tower (the one with the bulbous top), a luxury residential block, sprang up in 2010, and has been joined by other high rises.
Battersea Power Station, whose iconic chimneys you can see in the distance in the photo, remains an unmissable landmark. It famously featured on the cover of Pink Floyd’s 1977 album, Animals, and was decommissioned as a power station in 1983. It is now an upmarket shopping mall. You can go up one of the chimneys for views over London.
I fancied a coffee and a browse there, but drummers on the balcony were creating such a cacophony in that vast space that M clamped her hands over her ears and asked for “Batterzoo” instead. So Battersea Park Children’s Zoo it was.
It was new to me, but its perfect-sized menagerie and playground kept her and her cousin entertained for the whole afternoon. The donkeys were amenable to her gingerly feeding them one blade of grass at a time through the fence. The skink gave us the side eye. The pigs and goats slumped in the shade, snoozing. Wise creatures.
National Portrait Gallery: Jenny Saville, The Anatomy of Painting
Ian and I went to this exhibition without grandchildren in tow. Jenny Saville creates startling, enormous portraits in oils that dwarf the onlooker. The painting above, titled The Mothers, particularly resonated, because it reminded me of the chaos of multiple births. “Oh look, it’s me!” I said to Ian, recalling the early months of 1987 when I didn’t have enough arms – or boobs – to go round. I may look serene in the photo below, but I was jumbled on the inside.
Jenny Saville’s exhibition at the NPG near Trafalgar Square runs until September 7 2025.
Museum of Brands
I was in nostalgia heaven visiting this museum, two minutes’ from Ladbroke Grove tube. A walk through its ‘time tunnel’, created by consumer historian Robert Opie, took me on a journey through British household brands from the Victorian era to the present day.
Sweet shop swoon. I remember Spangles! And dinky-sized Toblerones. I like how Mars and KitKat branding has barely changed in 50 years. A fifth of a Mars bar each was pudding at our house.
Ooh look! Sindy and her short-lived companion, Paul! I wrote about them here.
My first taste of strawberry yogurt was from a Ski pot just like this one. My friend bought it at the corner shop, circa 1970, and offered me a slurp (no spoon involved). Those Birds Eye chocolate mousses next to it were a special treat.
The Proustian rush of seeing Tree Top orange drink next to an early Lion Bar.
“You’ll break your neck in those!” said everyone’s nan in the 1970s.
The Museum of Brands has the most gorgeous café garden1. A genuinely calming space. As opposed to this so-called calming space (below), which as far as I could make out when I poked my head inside, is a very ordinary train station waiting room with blue plastic seats and a few plug sockets to charge your laptop. I inhaled to check whether there was maybe a scented Air Wick freshener plugged in somewhere. Nope. Seriously, what is this signage on about?
Prams for dogs…
And finally, just because: an image I can’t unsee from the weekend (not London, actually; this was when I was passing through Southampton). Pram dogs in matching outfits. Why?
Is there a significant city in your life, or somewhere you’ve moved away from that calls you back? How do you feel about returning and finding it’s changed? Please do comment if you’re able. I love to hear what you think.
Thanks so much to everyone who read, liked, shared, and/or commented on last week’s piece, After 39 years I popped the question: “Will you be my civil partner?”
The response was wonderful. Thanks for all your good wishes!
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Until next time!
Steve Kelsey told me more about the building and garden, after I published this piece: “…the site was originally a hospice for AIDs sufferers. The Terrence Higgins Trust set it up and the garden is a memorial for Terrence who inspired the formation of the trust. At the time there was no cure for AIDs so all people could do was give sufferers security and support. When the cures were discovered the building lost its original purpose and we acquired it and set up the Museum of Brands in its new home. It is a wonderful museum and this September (2025) it will be hosting a special exhibition showcasing the Gerry Anderson Thunderbirds show.”
Well I had to erase about 100 pages of an answer because I wrote the story of my life and it was a bit much. I've lived in Greenwich Village, no. I'm starting again. I'll just say spent 35 years on the Upper West Side before moving to Woodstock. 112 and Riverside. Everywhere I walked it felt like home. Rosita's. Liberty House, small grocers, the Cathedral of St John the Divine, the good small restaurants, and on and on. When I went back recently, it was a different city, it's always a different city every ten years, more often than that sometimes. I didn't recognise it. I particularly hated these very very high tubular apartment buildings sticking up everywhere, that look like they are giving the finger to the sky.
I am so pleased you included the Museum of Brands in your post. My company rescued Robert’s collection when his original location was lost to developers. We helped set the Museum up in our old office building in Colville Mews, its first London home. We then moved the museum to its latest incarnation. Great to learn how much you enjoyed it.