Meet the neighbours

This morning I went out early to get some bread for my lunch sandwich. Feeling posh I decided to walk up to M&S in Hampstead Heath and get a loaf from the shop as apposed to my local across the road. Although it's a walk its is a normal thing for me and I imagine a lot of people who live near. The interesting part though is how different the area that surrounds Hampstead Heath is and yet how close it is to where I live. The walk takes about 15 minutes and I step across my road - a busy one - and pass through a council estate into Gospel oak territory. Across another busy road at the Oak and I then start to assend into Hampstead where the red brick houses adorn the leafy streets. The street I used today was interesting - one of many routes I could have taken. Outside a few of the houses were skips - full to the brim with plasterboard, wood and various nik-nacks that catch my eye like a magpie to a quality street wrapper. Beautiful old chairs, bicycle wheels, records, a chest of drawers... these are but a few items i have pinched from skips in this area over the last year. A few more oldy-woldy roads and I am at Southend Green - the back end to the home of London's ancient heartland: Hampstead Heath. This area is special to me for many reasons but mainly so because it looks like London of the past. There's the book shop as immortalised by a bored Orwell in Keep the Aspidistra Flying, the old clock tower and and a few old pubs and cafes. Further up towards the Heath and you are literally in 1920s London. This is old London, its also posh London, which brings me to the point of this entry - you can go from poverty to extreme wealth in 10 minutes in this city. A lot of people take the bus or worse still the tube, but if you cycle or walk you will be amazed at what you will see. Bussing and cycling let you see London in its glory but walking slows everything right down. You are there in the dirt of it all - or in the freshly swept streets if walking in Hampstead. M&S - I wont go into it - but if you ever find yourself there, its an experience that will last. The clientele are delightful.

My walk back home really brings it home. A different road takes me down Fleet Road (named after the River that once flowed from the Heath and emptied into the Thames) and into Mansfield Road. Social housing everywhere here. A few hundred metres and I decide to head towards Queen Crescent Market - one of the oldest in London - for some loo roll. You wouldn't guess it's one of the oldest markets. The street is coarse, as are (at first glance) the people. Immigration has played its toll on this once idyllic market and you are miles away from the 'White' Hampstead heath and the tourist trap Camden market, even though both are very close. This street is a mix of old residents that have passed their stalls and shops down the family, generation to generation and Indian Pakistani, Somalian and Jamaican shop owners. I realise now that prefer this street. Its where I live, love and understand more. Strangely I nod and wave to some of the people that always seem to be here. The fruit stall man deosnt mind if you pay next time and the hardware chap has everything in that small shop. Its not all Eastenders down here but you feel that this is the real London where most live on or around the minimum wage, have little hope (or desire) of moving away or up the social ladder.

My walk this morning has stayed with me all day purely because I walked it. Within that short walk I saw the two sides of the coin and realised that equality and the road to it is long.