A London Love Letter

Choosing London for my second virtual postcard might seem strange since I live here. However, it is also an obvious choice for me as I miss my city. 

I miss the buzz, the people, the never ending options of where to go and what to do. I long to wander around Soho, popping into bars and pubs and chatting to random people on drunken nights out. I want to hang out in Amy Winehouse’s favourite pub again in Camden and browsing the bookstalls on the South Bank. I miss the theatres and street performers. Oh, how I miss it all. 

Right now London is a ghost. A skeleton of its pre-lockdown self. The sounds of the city are muted. But London will be alive again. The Nazi bombs raining in on the city could not quell the spirit of the Londoners, and neither will this pandemic. 

Soon, London will be alive again. 

When the lockdown ends and the government lifts the restrictions, the city will once again fill with life. The now deserted streets will buzz with people again. The theatres and cinemas will feed are hunger for culture and once more the punters in pubs will spill over on to the pavements. 

The tourists will flock back and the cacophony of languages will fill return. I will wander among them as they gawp at the horse guards or the sex shops in Soho. I will feast on the sounds and smells of the food vendors at Borough Market and shake my booty to the beat at the Two Brewers in Clapham. I might even make it to Mosquito Bar at 4am and roll home at sunrise. 

I will weave my way through the crowds visiting the London Eye to meet friends for a drink at the terrace of The Royal Festival Hall. We’ll ignore the card turners as we cross the Bridge from Southbank over the River Thames and onto the Embankment. We’ll pop in to Gordon’s Wine Bar for a glass of refreshing white or maybe a bottle. The air is alive with laugher and the chinking of glasses as people toast the end of the lockdown. 

We’ll stroll along the Strand and up Aldwych to Novello Theatre. We queue without social distancing measures to enter the show - Mamma Mia. Inside we sing and laugh with everyone and stand up to dance to Waterloo and Dancing Queen as the musical draws to a close. From there we trace our route back to the Embankment and stop at the Coal House for a drink. We contemplate whether to go home or carry on the night. 

Staying out wins - of course! We have had enough time spent indoors. Now it is time to be out and celebrate. We head over to Halfway To Heaven and dance the night away. 

I greet the next day with a hangover. Gone are the days when a hangover would keep me in bed until a promise of pizza would tempt me to crawl out of it sometime in the afternoon. No, London is buzzing once more and that buzz is catching. 

So, I get up and head out with my partner. We get a Santander bike each and cycle through Battersea Park and over Chelsea Bridge. We reach the half-hour one time rental limit on the bikes near Soho and decide to stop at Coach and Horses. We enjoy a couple of bikes and join in the pub sing-a-long. 

Two pints heavier, we get back on the bikes debating where to head to. Once again, London is our oyster. My partner suggests heading over to East London and we pedal across the city to Brick Lane. Tempting aromas flood the place and we head over to Bengal Village for an Indian feast. After we hop from pub to pub revelling in the choices. We end up in Cargo and find ourselves back on the dance floor. 

I realise I have not been out two nights in a row in aeons and that I will pay for this later but I don’t care. I’m out dancing and surrounded by people again. The night draws to a close and we let Uber take us home. 

You would think I’d spend Sunday in bed, exhausted. But no, after months of lockdown and social distancing, I have bundles of stored energy ready to let out. 

We get up and out and head over to a pub for a breakfast. How glorious it is to eat food someone else has cooked again and wash it down with a pint? Our bellies satisfied, we get on the bikes again and zoom across central London and into Camden. It has always been one of my favourite areas in London. I love its eclectic mix of people and shops. 

It might be an eclectic mix, but we are all united like conjoined twins by our shared experience. The months apart have brought us closer together. They have given us a new appreciation of each other. And it has taught me to appreciate everything I have around me more; this magnificent city and everything it offers. 

London, I love you and I cannot wait to explore you again.