Yesterday I went into central London with my lovely little sister (except she’s not so little anymore…) – we went to Covent Garden which is my favourite place in London, barring the place I live (North London). You can find lots of lovely shops and the market place and the two of us also love Neal Street and Neals Yard. Neals Street does have a bit of a trendy vibe, but if you ignore that and enjoy the shops and restaurants it’s definitely worth it. I’ve spent some lovely times in Covent Garden with my friends and family, and its a place where some of my favourite shops are (Lush, Accessorize, the Banana Bookshop, etc) and the street entertainers can be quite interesting sometimes.
I think that’s the thing with places you really love – you can’t really explain why you enjoy them so much! My second favourite place in London is Camden – lovely food and drink, interesting/weird people (people watching there is fun as there are some outlandish clothes and styles being sported), a laid back and sort of hippy vibe (sometimes). I think the thing that people sometimes don’t get about London is that yeah, it’s noisy and crazy and jam packed with people, but there are places that have a certain atmosphere, a kind of rebellious spirit interspersed with old and new architecture. I love the Natural History Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum. You could entertain yourself for days just visiting all the free galleries and museums London has to offer. For me, London isn’t about being ‘trendy’ or anything, it’s about that indefinable something that draws me back, even after being in Yorkshire (which is extra lovely and my favourite part of the UK as well as Scotland and Cornwall). I know that there are lots of places in London left to explore, where I haven’t been before because it’s huge!
Mostly, I love London because it’s inspiring; it is somewhere that the old and new meld together, which I like to think symbolises a kind of past, present and future. I can take lots of photos and capture moments with the backdrop of this past, present and future. Where I live in North London also has a big place in my heart – it is not exciting or buzzing but it has a lot of memories of childhood and walks in the wood, in the park, the everyday ghosts of the past throwing up memories. I think it is just that indefinable feeling of home – whatever that is. I also feel that way about York and Edinburgh – my manfriend lived in Edinburgh up until a year and a half ago. They are my second homes, where I feel enough memories have amassed that make it feel comfortable. I also feel the same way sometimes about Cambridge, where my parents come from and where my last surviving Grandmother lives. I’m wondering if familiarity has anything to do with how much we feel as if we are ‘coming home’ to somewhere. Yorkshire certainly has that appeal for me, because it has the right mix of countyside and city. Yet I definitely feel that my inspiration seems to stem from going into central London…
Cats and Chocolate 
Since doing all that field research for my Natural History Museum project, I have to say it’s my favourite building in London. You can quite literally spend hours there (I did!) and still not be able to take in all the architecture – both inside and out. Look out for the little monkeys climbing the first floor arches, the unique tiles of plants on the ceiling, or the prehistoric creatures over the doorway .. and that’s before you even look at the exhibits;-)
I think, because I didn’t grow up in London, my experience of it thus far is mostly the noisy/busy concrete jungle experience. Apart from the leafy area where we live, crossing central London leaves me pining for a bit of countryside (although of course there are all those huge parks, but we never do go for THAT walk). As I said before, Edinburgh has kinda lost it’s charm for me, but it did very much feel a lot closer to the wild open spaces. We need to visit the Highlands more and really get back to nature=)
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