She Loves London

Category: At Street Level

Observations, overheard conversations and other stuff from the streets of London.

  • Meanwhile, in Peckham…

    What’s the Dog Breed Du Jour where you live?

    For a while in Dalston it was sausage dogs. They were everywhere, scurrying up the Kingsland Road like little miniature, land dwelling, stumpy legged submarines.

    After that came the French Bulldog Revolution, although lately I’ve heard reports* that you’ll now find that particular breed being covertly exchanged for beagles and basset hounds at Ridley Road Market, as they nip their way to the top of the Dalston Dog Chart.

    *there have been no reports 

    Pugs, on the other hand, have remained a constant. And in my experience, can usually be spotted poking out of the back of cyclists’ rucksacks on Shacklewell Lane as they make their way home in the evening.

    But it’s a different story down in Peckham – better known as The New Dalston or The Latest Area to be Way Out of Your House Hunting Budget Even Though You Would Only Joke About Going There When You Were 14 – where the residents have shunned dogs for a more wet weather friendly pet.

    meanwhile in peckham

     

    Or of course, if you’re looking to branch out in your area, there’s always horses and ferrets. Alternatively, you can always rely on the staple of all London households – a good old fashioned mouse.

    Edit: Or, alternatively – if you live in Knightsbridge – follow the locals and opt for a parrot.

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  • Overheard: What Londoners Really Dream About

    Where: On the bus to work

    Time: 8:45am

    Who: Girl and boyfriend.

    overheard on a london bus

    Coming up next week: top 10 UK cities where it’s normal to have savings.

    Image: Bev Goodwin via Flickr

  • Friday Mystery: The Dog Man of Farringdon

    Weird stuff happens all the time in London.

    Pillow fights. Goat races. Nutters running 26.2 miles around the city.

    You sort of get used to it.

    A lot of the time you just don’t really take much notice – you might give it a second glance, make a mental note to tell your colleagues, draft a tweet.

    But such is the volume of weird stuff that by the time you get into work or open up your Facebook or Twitter account to tell the world about the weird or annoying stuff you’ve seen, something else has come up, or a tube line has gone down, and the man with a box on his head just doesn’t seem that important any more.

    But today, lots of Londoners saw a man being walked like a dog along the street. And collectively, everyone just went…

    ….eh?
    dog man

    On the grand London Weird Stuff scale of things, this was rating pretty high.

    So much so that Journalists from all the big newspapers have been busily carrying out relentless investigations to find out who the man is, and why he’s being led around Farringdon on a lead.

    dog man 2

    At time of writing, no one knows the full PR / advertising agency or product launch story behind it. The city is temporarily baffled, stunned and confused by the man on a lead.

    But one thing’s for sure – this is London, which means everyone who cares now will have forgotten about it by the time they get to the pub at 5pm.

    And thank god for that.

    Have a good one all, and good luck to everyone who will also be crawling to work on Monday after running the London marathon.

    Update: The Dog Man of Farringdon Mystery has been solved.

    Reaction: no one really cares. 

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