London Diary

Observations after spending 10 days in the city

Hello readers,

Today we’re going to explore a theme that we haven’t so far in this newsletter: travel.

I recently came back from a two-and-a-half-week-long trip to the UK. I was taking such a long break for the first time in many years, and I didn’t know what to expect. Honestly, I wasn’t really sure how it’d go- if I’d have as much fun as I’ve had at the pristine beaches of Thailand or Indonesia, or if I’d be able to totally stay away from work for such an extended duration, at a time when so many things have to be executed.

Little did I know what lay in store for me. The trip was brilliant (despite the airports) and I ended up staying away from emails, Slack, and everything else for 18 odd days. It was liberating, and at the risk of sounding like millennials on mushrooms, I must say that it truly opened my mind.

I have 3 LinkedIn endorsements for ‘Photography’

But this piece isn’t about the liberating aspects of saying FO to your emails or why you need to take vacations. We’ve all heard a lot about that topic and will still not end up taking enough holidays because of the existence of bosses.

This is rather going to be about a series of observations I had as I spent over a week in London. I wanted to understand what life here is like, what are the unsaid assumptions that govern the way things work, and whether it really is true that the country is on the decline.

My open-ended travels and irritating, child-like questions revealed a lot and left me with even more questions in the wake. Here are some of the key themes I observed as I traveled the tube, walked the fancy streets, hunted down cafes, and soaked in the city’s vibrant culture:

Museums

London has more than 170 really well-maintained museums and the best thing is that visiting them doesn’t cost anything. I managed to visit around 4 of them and they were a real delight- British Museum, British Library, Natural History Museum, and Science Museum. Yes, I’m boring that way. It brings to mind one of my uber cool friends who’d once smirked with an “I go for the nightlife and partying, not to stand at those boring as hell museums”. If you agree with his low blow, you should totally skip this point (and probably the entire article because there are no descriptions of drunken revelry and searching for my real self after 2 liters of pale ale). While the experience at those museums was excellent in terms of learning about dinosaurs, volcanoes, ancient Egyptians, and whatnot, the most striking observation was just the sheer amount of loot and plunder that the Britishers have captured from other countries and stowed away in their backyard. Beautiful objects, relics, religious items, weapons, valuables, and ornaments dot the ginormous complex that is the British Museum. It’s one thing to have heard about their plundering, and another to see the sheer enormity and diversity of those crimes in front of your eyes. There are reports of many countries like Benin and the Easter Islands demanding that their relics be sent back. Here’s a picture of one such beauty that the latter wants to be restored, as pressure mounts on these museums.

The Hoa Hakananai'a from Easter Islands

Advertising and culture

One interesting way to explore a city's culture and what its people do is to observe what they’re being sold. It was refreshing to see the total lack of hoardings and billboards in the city- something that’d be a pleasant shock to anyone from Indian metros. Most advertising is concentrated on bus shelters and tube stations- the latter seems to be the prime property for brands. So what were the ads all about? It’s hard to find an all-encompassing word: theatre, museums, musicals, movies, and fashion dominated the boards. I think ‘culture and lifestyle’ sum it up pretty well. All stations were dotted with pitches about ‘The best play in London’, ‘The longest running show ever’ etc. It’s a city that likes to enjoy and revel in the pleasure of entertainment and has developed a rather addictive liking for the finer things in life. Another fact to note is that the advertising is done rather tastefully. Almost every other retail store’s name is based on some form of wordplay and all brand logos/ads are really well designed, to the extent that an average ad is the one that ends up standing out for being an eyesore.

Labor issues

Even if you spend just a day in London, it’s hard not to notice the insane level of issues that the city is facing when it comes to delivering services. Train lines keep getting shut or disrupted due to frequent worker strikes, restaurants are constantly understaffed, many stores are either not open or even permanently shut (despite being ‘Open’ on Google) and staff vacancies and job postings are noticeable on literally every cafe, restaurant, bar, and retail chain. It seems to be the impact of a cocktail of factors- Brexit, Covid-19, and the Ukraine war have dealt a severe blow to the labor situation in the country. All said and done, the shortage of workers is palpable and can become an awkward affair if not fixed. It also doesn’t help that the locals enjoy living the good life and the incentive to hustle and work hard seems to be largely missing, considering how stores shut early and pubs are overcrowded at 5 PM sharp.

Keeping people busy

Last year, I read an interesting book by a Brit economist titled ‘A World Without Work’. Analyzing a future where humans wouldn’t really have much to do when the machines take over, he touched upon the crucial role of the state in keeping people busy and directing their attention, lest they succumb to existential ideas and devilry that so easily infect the idle mind. As an example of a successful endeavor in this regard, he’d highlighted what the Brits had done with their people with their meticulous ‘cultural engineering’. A few days into the trip and I could very well relate to that. There are hoards of really high-quality (and free) museums to keep people occupied. The city is dotted with lush green parks full of beautiful ponds, walkways, and wildlife. Roads, intersections, and even the tube stations are full of busts, statues, and boards, telling tales about the rich history of the nation and highlighting the role of certain people, ideas, and eras in shaping the country as it is today. This is a remarkable aspect of the city, one that I feel should be taken inspiration from. To remind your people of the heroes who’ve built your nation is an idea even we’d do well to utilize more and more over the years (even though many of the statues I saw were of ‘heroes’ who enriched the empire with unheard levels of violence, loot, and barbarity). These are just a few of the ways the city keeps people busy and directs their attention to art, culture & history, and they do pack one hell of a punch.

Insanely beautiful parks dot the city’s landscape

Design

One of the first things that struck me as I got out of Heathrow airport and entered the city was the keen attention that has been placed on design. The wayfinding is spot on: they know exactly where you’ll get stuck and need clear directions. There are lifts and ramps for accessibility and even the finer details are beautifully addressed- if you take the lift, you also see a ramp because they know that people with luggage would most likely be using the lift and would typically need a ramp for ease. Every street also has a ramp for wheelchairs/luggage which was such a relief for tourists like us who were busy lugging around metric shit-tonnes of baggage through the city. Moreover, the most surprising fact is that the entire city itself has been purposefully designed for walking (and maybe biking), to the extent that it’s actually slower to get around with cars. You’d imagine London to be a vertical city with massive highways and cars everywhere but that isn’t the case at all- it’s very horizontal with bike lanes, good connectivity, and is highly walkable. No wonder we were clocking 20k steps a day and had to get a deluxe massage after getting back home to resurrect those dead muscles.

There are many other miscellaneous things that I had to skip but were nevertheless pretty amusing- like the courage of pigeons who, unlike the ones in India, aren’t afraid of coming very close to you and even fly onto your table in their enduring lust for food. Or the buzzing vegan scene in the city which was a real delight. Or watching people dutifully mark attendance at the pubs at 5 PM sharp and then blow their minds with endless rounds of beer: the British equivalent of going to the temple and performing a sacred ritual.

All in all, it was a fantastic trip that opened my eyes and gave me an opportunity to walk around, soak in the history & culture and explore what was the world’s most important city just a century ago.

---