Is London dead?

From the age of 16 I spent most of my life in central London, in just a few years so much can change. I first started going to nightclubs around the age of 16 and in central London there were two huge nightclubs Equinox (approx 2500-3000 capacity) and The Hippodrome (approx 2000 capacity). People from all over the world came to London for holidays, mainly europe (especially scandinavia) and america. There were many amazing nights and then towards the end of the nineties the tourists simply stopped coming to London. I put it down to two things, firstly the pound was getting too strong and my second reason is quite controversial but I strongly believe it to be correct. Several wars across europe and the rest of the world along with the fall of eastern europe saw a huge influx of foreign immigrants arrive in London. Now good luck to them, if I lived in a wartorn country or an african shanty town of course I would do whatever I could to get out. Lots of the people who came to London had no family with them, were very young. Also most people would head straight to the bright lights of the capital to try and find work. In a short space of time the identity of London around Leicester Square was destroyed forever. The clubs and bars became full of barely english speaking young immigrants. Many english girls simply didn't like to go out in central London after work and instead went out locally. Then when the girls stop going out then the english guys didn't see the attraction of the west end. So pretty much the only people to benefit were the gay men. However have no fear there was a solution for some....

Just outside of the tourist trap that is Leicester Square you had lots of nighclubs opening up which were generally member only. Chinawhite is the most famous example. None of these clubs were really big but during the nineties/early 2000 a new scene was evolving. If you went out to one of these clubs on a Saturday night it was odds on you would see a dozen football players and a hollywood movie star. The crowds were always non aggressive and fun. During the week each night a different club had it's night. Chinawhites was a Wednesday which was busier than most clubs Saturdays. Where can all this go wrong?....

Central London in general is having old buildings torn down left right and centre for modern buildings, many of them are ugly glass buildings that won't last a hundred years unlike those before them. Many traditional shops have been replaced by the likes of mobile phone shops and coffee shops. At a rough guess I would say Oxford Street alone has 50+ more coffee shops/phone shops than 15 years ago. With the new buildings come new leases, many clubs could not get leases renewed. Also the London olympics is coming up so several prime locations are being converted to hotels.

One of the last surving places was Cafe Royal at Picadilly Circus. This block had five different bars/clubs. Including the world famous Chinawhite, Cheers which probably took more on the bar than almost anywhere else in London, Paper (formally known as Elysium) which the likes of P Diddy favoured over anywhere else when in London. That all came to an end December 2008 when the leases ended for all of these places in order for the building to be redeveloped. I actually regret not going to any of these places which I had been to over a 100 times during their final months. Walking past today seeing the insides being ripped apart and thrown into rubbish carts was depressing. Well unless something radical happens London nightlife won't ever be as good as it was during the 80s and 90s again. Pubs getting late night licenses allowing them to stay open much later than 11pm like they were restricted to a few years ago means the pubs will be a lot busier, but that won't ever replace the clubs. Well R.I.P. London, is there any english identity there anymore? Yes there is....very minimal though.

For some reason I went out with jeans and a shirt today and no jumper or jacket/coat. This may not sound strange, unless you are in London at the moment. Apparently it is the coldest it has been in ages, I didn't feel cold though. Surely I can't be 100% human? People everywhere were wrapped in scarves and coats. I guess I don't spend much time outdoors so don't get a chance to get cold. Now my main purpose for being in London, a toothbrush I want to buy is half price so it is now £70 instead of £140. After a couple of drinks with friends I decide to walk to boots and buy one. On the way I feel the cold a little bit so I try and find a coat on Bond Street. The problem with the stores at the moment is they are clearing all the old stock out and the new seasons clothes are not in yet. I can't find a coat/jacket that I like. Not to worry at least I find a nice scarf. I picked it up in Gucci and as always I don't look at the price tag, if I like something I will buy it if I don't I won't and therefor don't like my decisions to be anything to do with a pricetag. It is not being flash, it is simply making my decisions on liking or disliking something. Anyways I go to pay and it is £230, it cost me less for a shirt in the same shop last week! D&G earned a fair bit from me also, I didn't realise the price of cashmere was higher than that of gold nowadays!

I still don't have my toothbrush and I walk past Claridges so I pop in for a few cocktails, I guess I am not the quietest of people and notice a stunning 30ish year old looking over trying to make eye contact with me. In the upper market/hotel bars in London you get plenty of hookers so I don't make any eye contact with her as that isn't my thing. After about 15 minutes of sitting alone a 50ish year old lady walks over to her, she says 'hi mom' in an american accent. Basically she is an american on holiday in London staying in the hotel, wow bad read me! That combined with the fact a few tottenham hotspur supporting toffs (who thought they knew everything about football) hastened my departure. Finally I make it to Boots to get the toothbrush, surprise surprise it is £140. The guy working there says there were half price last week and are now back to normal price. O well I went out to save £70, I don't and end up spending over £1000 on the day. Things never go to plan....still at least I got plenty of boots points for a friend so not all is lost.

So that is that, another random day. Actually one of my favourite memories of the day is listening to my ipod....I have so many good tracks on it now including this song which I think is amazing....

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=aluwpslpygQ

Enjoy and goodnight, hangover for me in the morning I guess!