By: Rob Hakimian Diversions in the Heath?! It’s bad enough they seize up our streets with their relentless road works, and now their tyrannical time wasting has overflowed into our sacred green spaces! ‘Improvements to the ponds’ – how can you improve a pool of water? And all I wanted was to get up … More PERSPIRATION
By: Alex Ciobanu The neighbourhood proved striking. Its historical significance was unknown to me, but I was never one to revel in that. I was simply struck by such sophistication and style in the buildings, a consistency to the architecture, and I found it comforting. Colindale wasn’t the same. I could tell I was … More INTIMACY
By: Zahrah Surooprajally You know the story. You’re at Winter Wonderland with a great guy, a cool guy. Someone who looks like he belongs with you in pictures. You drink too much mulled wine. The Mousetrap ride spins too much and makes you feel nauseous. You’re cold, you didn’t wear enough layers. Your new … More SOMEONE GREAT
By: Amanda Fuller The first thing I learn about London, is that there are many kinds of silence. Where I am from, it is rarely silent. The very moment that it seems that a silence might occur, someone will step in and fill it. Often, more than one someone, all at the same time. … More SILENCE SCREAMS
By: Sophie Bowles 8 a.m. I rise, from unsettling dreams – last night it was the security guard at Morrison’s caressing my thighs in the back of a mauve van, as we headed for Plymouth to escape a Fourth Reich in London. Arms retreating under the mugginess of my duvet, the first thought of … More DOWN AND OUT
By: Rachele Salvini When Terry saw Nikki, she was alone at the counter. Girls who had the guts to sit by themselves on a Saturday night, in a place that was as fucking crowded as The Monarch, Camden Town, deserved his attention. They knew perfectly well that pretty much everyone would hit on them and … More TOTTENHAM COURT ROAD, 3A.M.
By: Angus Rogers A circle sits in a square on a high wall and looks down at the stagnant river. What have I done to deserve this? He wonders. It’s not so hard to keep a fucking plant alive. You pour water on it and open the curtain. Why is there foliage inside the … More ONE FOOT IN THE SEAGULL’S SONG AND ONE FOOT IN THE DARK
By: Jessica Wragg The tracks of the underground train from the carriage window. Hot breeze of the last act of summer whistling beneath my blouse. Barbed wire like thumbprints and fingers and outstretched palms. No, the jungle is not the same as Streatham Hill, but the birds are just as loud. Jealous of our … More WE NEED THE FOREST
By: Lauren Cadogan-Grealish I hadn’t known Charlie for long, had first met him just two weeks before, at the opening night of a street art exhibition in Shoreditch. I had written an article for Time Out London about the growing scene in Walthamstow and its surrounding constituencies, and thought it would be nice to meet … More BEING A PERSON
By: Soraya Bouazzoui She laughed softly into her glass, sipping at the red wine. Don’t laugh too hard, her mother had always taught her. That gives too much away, gives a guy too much confidence. Be coy, make him try harder. Her mother had to teach her when to laugh at appropriate times, when to … More SIREN
Prose + Photo By: Benji CWK I check out of the Hotel at 5.00 AM, exiting through the automatic doors and onto the streets of London. I am halfway between the accomodation I rented in South West London and my destination ahead – a return to London City Airport. It feels surreal. My old … More LIGHTS IN THE SKY
By: Bistra Nikova Claire climbed the window sill. Outside in the street, Tom was having his first lesson on how to ride a bike. His father, with a hand supporting the seat, was running alongside the bike while Tom happily pedaled forward. Claire pressed her nose on the window and the view became foggy … More A LOST GLOVE
By Sofie Raphael I saw a white, angelic feather on the tube seat. I smiled and picked it up. I slept through my alarm, I never do that. For some reason my phone battery died and it just stopped working, much like most of the technology in my possession. Can you image what would … More A FEATHER
By Caitlin Auer London’s seductive visage, her angular skyscraper and swaying side street features, began to evolve into an overwhelming toxicity– an entrancing figure that was far too intimidating to ignore. With the winter chill, she revealed a stingingly cold steel gaze framed with crumbling ash, stained brick skin, hissing smoke and gasoline wafting out … More INVASIVE
By: Linda Lloyd Some journeys take you somewhere else, somewhere new forever. When you launch yourself off that starting block, you have no idea whether it’s a sprint or a marathon, or where you’ll end up. In 1981 I was living in the sub-arctic climate of the unemployed North East of England. In the … More LONDON MARATHON
By: Safiyah I have these intense fantasies of spectating my own funeral; that I would die today and be the object of your melancholic affections tomorrow as I lay in the pathetic fallacy of a dark gothic cathedral in the middle of an unidentified plain. My troubles would be known to you all and conveyed … More A SELF-IMPOSED EXILE
By: Claudio Fedele Disturbing silence darkens your sight We’ll cast some light and you’ll be alright We’ll cast some light and you’ll be alright Lucy in the sky with diamonds The maid had left the manor just a bit more than five minutes before. She had given the last, final touch of polishing to … More LUCILLE
By: Leila Vignozzi I was in the National Gallery the other day, and while I was wandering around I had some sort of deep connection with some of the paintings. I was in the Renaissance section, which is mainly composed of Italian works, the majority of which are from Florence, the city where I … More THROUGH THE EYES OF A PAINTING
By: Melissa Garrett In large cities and small villages live many cats, as they do in England’s capital. One of these cats lived at number ten downing street with the Prime Minister. This cat’s name was Billy. Billy, like any cat, spent time scratching behind his head, sending fur balls flying all over the … More A TALE OF THE CAT AT DOWNING STREET
Wells Street Journal 