Stephanie Sadler runs a lovely blog called Little London Observationist. Her tag-line is a quote from Robert Brault: “Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.”
She has a series of posts called ‘Listen to a Londoner’, and I was honoured to be the subject of her interview yesterday. Some readers might be interested, although I mustn’t assume everyone is as London-centric as I am. It’s too long to paste in one go. The first half of the interview was about general London living – so let me copy it here. And then I’ll put up the reflections on religion which came at the end.
LLO: As a born and raised Londoner, what are the most noticeable ways the city has evolved in your lifetime?
SW: It’s bigger and busier. I remember a study recently about how our walking speed has increased (they secretly time you crossing bridges etc). It’s more culturally and ethnically diverse. Immigration has enriched London immensely. Random landmarks that didn’t exist when I was born in 1966: the Gherkin, the Millennium Bridge, the London Eye, Oyster Cards, sculptures on the fourth plinth, Boris Bikes, Tate Modern, the ubiquitous CCTV camera. Tragic losses: the Routemaster bus.
LLO: Tell us a bit about your background and your blog, Bridges and Tangents.
SW: I was born in University College Hospital just off Tottenham Court Road, when my parents were living in Chiswick. I grew up in Harpenden, near St Albans. I’m a Catholic priest and I work in the seminary in Chelsea, where we prepare men for the priesthood. I never imagined I’d start a blog. It happened quite quickly. I was thinking of writing a book, and a friend pointed out that if I really wanted to communicate and share ideas, then a blog would be more immediate and reach far more people. The penny dropped.
LLO: Freedom is your most used tag on your blog. In a recent post, you wrote “Perfect freedom is being able to step off the back of a London bus whenever you want, whatever the reason, and walk into the sunset without a bus-stop in sight.” Are there other London moments that give you a perfect sense of freedom?
SW: The fact that London is a city for walking around gives me the greatest sense of freedom. Other random moments of exhilaration, freedom and space include: sitting at the front on the top deck of a double-decker bus; looking at the cityscape from the middle of any of London’s beautiful bridges; jaywalking with abandon — in the knowledge that this would be illegal in some countries; walking through the parks; and along the river at South Bank.
LLO: Can you recommend a few places in London to go for a sense of spirituality without stepping foot in a church/temple/mosque, etc?
SW: Whenever the next Kieslowski retrospective runs at the British Film Institute; standing over the Greenwich Prime Meridian line, knowing that you are at the still point of the cartographic world; walking round the Serpentine; the Jubilee Line station at Canary Wharf.
It’s wonderful to hear you talk about the city you love; it and the quote from Brault encourage me to appreciate the small things around me here too.
I’ve only visited London a few times in all my years. Reading this interview helps me to appreciate that London is actually a City where real people live real lives away from the tourist spots which we are encouraged to visit. Thankyou for this.
London is magic.
I always think of William Blake who encountered angels on his walks of London.
And talking of the magic of London (Ray Davies singing Waterloo Sunset opposite Waterloo St – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6I9PBR8xQ4).
A lovely video!
Waterloo Sunset “I stay at home at night but I don’t feel afraid” What lovely lyrics, what a song.
ahhh When I was 18/19 I lived in Islington and was a part of the Young Vic Theatre. We cycled or walked or bus-hopped everywhere. Waterloo Sunset and the Kinks remind me of my Dad and days of my late teens wandering down Waterloos ‘The Cut’, and in the many squares along the south riverbank which back just 20 years were charming and undeveloped . I used to buy flowers from Buster Edwards under the bridge outside the station, the paper the flowers were wrapped in had the faintest palest pink trace of his name. Despite his notoriety In daily life I remember him to be a kind and quiet man. These everyday continuums amongst the swirling soup bowl of London life are a part of London’s treasure and charm.
There is a beautiful pocket sized red cloth covered book which you can buy by Robert Kahn called City Secrets London. Novelists, journalists, artists, architects, curators, designers, playwrights and directors reveal their favourite discoveries and secrets in our special God Blessed city.
One of the big changes that you might remember Stephen is Cardboard City undernesth Waterloo Bridge.
For those of you who do not know, the homeless community who found themselves in central London made desperate and sometimes very creative shelters underneath the bridge. It was both a sad sight and at the same time a hopeful one where community still managed to evolve. Alcohol and drugs featured badly and there was a great contrast between the depravation of the homeless often asking for money, along side the often immune compassion of the commuters.
Daily at the end of our shift we used to take the left over prepped Sandwiches and fresh food from the Upper Street food bar and deliver it to cardboard city on route to the theatre in the evening. I hadn’t been back for such a long time and then discovered it is now a cinema and looks completely different. I hope they re-housed everybody in a nice cosy home!
I remember driving there years ago with Mother Teresa’s sisters late in the evening to bring soup and sandwiches.
Speaking of things that were not there when I was a little boy:
- London’s Barbican, which was a gigantic bomb site
- at least one of the six or seven 23-storey tower blocks built along London Wall when I was young in the 1960s was demolished when I worked there in the 1990s and replaced with another, bigger building right across London Wall and Wood Street.
- the the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank was built when I was a baby.
- the Tate Modern was still a Power Station
- until I was 11 yrs old I lived in a house at Brent Cross, before the flyover was built, and where the Brent Cross shopping centre is now was a greyhound racing stadium.
Change is an organic process; it keeps going; there is nothing we can do to stop it; just learn to cope with it as best you can.
“Change is an organic process; it keeps going; there is nothing we can do to stop it; just learn to cope with it as best you can.”
Better still be a part of it.
We too in Truth can be part of that change for the very better future, even though we too are organic. Every part of our spirit permeates others around us, so whether we believe it or not we can all be in some God blessed way a part of that change!