That’s Just So… North London!

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I spent a decade of my life North London, and those who’ve read my previous few posts will know that I went back there last week for the first time in three years. Anyone who moves to London will suss out very quickly just how attached Londoners are to their neighbourhoods. Many will only socialise in two places: their part of town and the city centre.

There is a particularly curious divide between North and South – to convince a North Londoner to cross the river and set their Kate Kuba encased feet onto the southern Thames shore, you’ve got to come up with a pretty good reason. Taking their children hostage and threatening to force-feed them food additives should do it.

Anyway, here is a selection of pics that struck me as typically North London. Let’s start with a few shots of Hampstead front gardens and back streets…

Hampstead garden 1 Hampstead Garden 2Hampstead Garden 2

Hampstead Street

Hampstead pubHampstead street 2

Hampstead shop inside

Decor inside a Hampstead Shop

Hampstead street 3

I bet my bottom dollar that she’s got a quinoa burger on a bed of rocket and mango salsa in that paper bag…

The Bishop's Avenue

Take on Bishops Avenue, Hampstead Garden Suburb, dubbed “Billionaire’s Row”.

Highgate Tea Shop

One of my favourite Highgate Tea Shops. Oh, the cakes…!

Highgate message board

A message board in Highgate

Highgate house buyer

Now, a house in Highgate will cost you anything upwards of £3m… that’s a lot of cash propping up her pillow!

Highgate Pet Shop

What exactly happens at “Weekly Puppy Parties…?”

Highgate Car

Now, I just want to point out that I didn’t live in either Hampstead or Highgate, but in a more …erm… affordable patch wedged in between 🙂

 

79 thoughts on “That’s Just So… North London!”

      1. Myas

        That will be figured out when I’m buying the ticket. I was told some of my family is from the Isle of Wight. Will need to take a walk there too… 🙂

        I have to ask – is southern London not as wealthy?

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      2. ladyofthecakes Post author

        Generally, South and East London are less affluent. However, this has been changing, and some parts of South London, in particular, are very wealthy indeed. Like Wimbledon and Richmond, for example.

        The Isle of Wight is lovely. Multicoloured sands 🙂

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  7. linnetmoss

    These pictures are so lovely they nearly broke my heart… I need to live there 🙂 What you said about north and south is fascinating. On my trip last summer I didn’t get to see anything south of that little stretch along the river where all the tourists go, but I imagine that these days it is extremely expensive to live even in South London. It has become a city of millionaires, as has NYC, which is sad because the artists leave when that happens and you lose something essential.
    Mr. H., I’m told, has long owned a place south of the Thames, no doubt in one of the thriftier areas. But I do not pity him much because he lives most of the time in Paris 🙂

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    1. ladyofthecakes Post author

      Some parts of South London are very swish, and North Londoners do, in fact, venture to the South Bank on occasions, coz the Tate Gallery is there and other cool stuff. However, it is a horrendously expensive city, even if you choose to live in a horrible area… 😦

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  9. Heyjude

    Hampstead looks quite ‘villagey’ I can see why Londoners want to live there. I had friends in Camden waay back in the early ’70s. A pretty cool place to be. Then. I just couldn’t get a job in London, so I left England altogether for a while. Now I couldn’t afford a garage in London!

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    1. ladyofthecakes Post author

      That’s the point… London is dozens of little self-contained villages. Camden is supposedly still an ‘alternative’ place filed with ratty goths, drugs and anarchist music, but I honestly don’t understand how the people who give it that feel can actually afford to live there.

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      1. Heyjude

        Haha, yes that sounds like the Camden I knew! No goths then, only peaceful hippies 😉 And no, they couldn’t afford to live there now – I doubt they could afford to then! Shared house, no furniture, just dossed down in a sleeping bag on the floor! And ate lots of spag bol!

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  13. Jackie Cangro

    There’s a lot of the same mmm…shall we say…attachments for people who live on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. You’d never catch them putting their Manolos in Brooklyn. So déclassé to them.

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      3. NancyTex

        I don’t doubt it! And even just feeding oneself if crazy expensive (coming from N.A.). I would walk into a Starbucks to pick up a latte, and think, hmm 3.5 pounds (I don’t have the symbol for pounds on my keyboard!), that sounds about right. But then I’d do the math in my head and realize I just paid almost $9 Cdn for a damned coffee! 🙂

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  15. Anna

    Must go to Villa Bianca! And that second-hand designer fashion store! Ok, so how far is this from Millbank/MI6? I figured maybe that’s how I’ll do London this year – one new neighborhood per visit. And this (hell, anything good enough for billionaires) looks right up my alley.

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      1. Anna

        Ok cooooool. Which neighborhood would you nominate second? FYI, I have done Southwark (the gentrified parts) fairly thoroughly, most of the main sights.

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      4. ladyofthecakes Post author

        Well, take your camera. You won’t see any leopard print, but plenty of safety pins, black leather platform boots, tattoos and Morticia lookalikes.

        Have you been to Greenwich? Worth seeing, and you can go there by boat. I’m going to put up some pics tomorrow.

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  16. somewonderland

    if that is really a weekly puppies party, I sure do know what happens there – there’s lots of yelping, rolling and just playing puppies, and some poo and ‘accidents’ since puppies, especially the very young ones do have ’em accidents 😉 So it’s puppy poopers party right there

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  19. Debbie Smyth

    Great shots Simone. You have captured the character of the places. Not that I know them very well myself. I lived in Wimbledon for a year in the very early 80s but apart from that I’ve always lived outside. So I know the centre well but not the residential parts. But that tea shop is calling me now, so as soon as i get a weekend in the country I feel a trip coming on…

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      1. Debbie Smyth

        Yummy! I need to shed a few pounds so probably good that I’m away the next couple of weekends. I’ll let you know when I try them out – and i’ll eat an extra cake just for you!

        On Thu, Oct 2, 2014 at 10:13 AM, Lady Of The Cakes wrote:

        > ladyofthecakes commented: “There’s also a bakery, on the other side of > the road, a minute or so further uphill, by the roundabout – their cakes > are even better :)”

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