london

It's good here. Explore, you'll have fun.

here 3 and a half years as of about 2 weeks ago. love it. always something new to discover and the familiar stuff is pretty great as it is!

I guess I live here now too! As of... an hour ago. When I decided that a tube ride then an overground ride would be the best way to get to Hackney from Euston I wasn't really thinking of the myriad escalators and stairs I'd have to be tugging my two suitcases over. As such for my first wee while in London I will be doing things that don't involve the use of my right arm.

Yeah, I got about a months worth of pushups yesterday.

haha that IS the best way to get to hackney from euston though

just think of it as an efficient way to travel and exercise at the same time

I've been burned by the 30 so many times but I keep coming back for more

welcome to you both!

Thanks.

And now the obligatory asking for book/recordstore recommendations! I remember recently seeing a feature on the 10 best record stores in London, but can't remember where it was. All I know offhand are Phonica, Rough Trade, and the Notting Hill Music Exchange (where I went today and, well, I am happy as a result.)

Bloomsbury is supposed to be bookstore central, no? I'm gonna be going there tomorrow, so if anyone wants to point me to good academic/art bookstores then my gratitude is to you.

here 3 and a half years as of about 2 weeks ago. love it. always something new to discover and the familiar stuff is pretty great as it is!

Awww. it's stuff like this that makes me think about moving back

lot of the second-hand places in Bloomsbury have closed down, EDB. There's still Skoob in the Brunswick Centre off Russell Square, which is slightly expensive for a 2nd hand bookshop but good for a browse, and I guess the London Review of Books bookshop, which is just expensive for any kind of shop.

There's the big UCL Waterstones on
Gower St which as you might expect has a reasonable remainder/2nd hand section.

For 2nd hand bookshops you might be better off heading to the tape and record exchange shops down in Notting Hill (same for music!). But there are others (xyzzz____ & woof to thread) who will have some good 2nd hand bookshop recommendations.

The charity Oxfam bookshops have a reputation for mendacity but can be worth popping in.

And welcome to London!

EDB record shops you may want to consider;

West - Other than Record Exchange there is Honest Jons (for UK bass/dstep ask them cos they keep stuff back)
North - Camden Record Exchange
East - Flashback & Haggle on Essex Road, Rough Trade East (Not great TBH, you've just missed a big sale where they got rid of stuff v cheap) and Spitalfields Record Fair which is bi-monthly on a Friday I think (it used to be good but getting worse).
Central - On and around Berwick St; Reckless, Record Exchange, SoundsoftheUniverse, Black Market (nr Phonica) and for older stuff - JBs & On The Beat on Hanaway St.
I don't go South fr Record Shopping except to Greeenwich Record Exchange but it's been a while.

For books I get all my academic texts from UCL Waterstones and Blackwells & Folyes on Charing Cross Road. Not sure about Art stuff there was a couple of good shops on Charing Cross Road after Cambridge, maybe Koenig Books is still there? There's also Magma nr there and Artwords in East London - my Art book shopping is for recreational only.

Koenig books is there yeah, and half a dozen second hand places on the same strip. Tate Modern shop has a pretty damn big book section, larger than Foyles even, perhaps.

EDB - where in London are you living? Generally speaking second-hand bookshops are better outside the centre of town, partly because the rents are less mental.

has anyone mentioned Judd Books yet? Judd Books, Marchmont Street. It's really pretty good.

all my best london bookshop experiences have been random 2nd hand places that i can't remember, though bear in mind when i actually know what i want i only ever consider ordering online as an option.

Welcome to London EDB! There is a pretty good second hand Art bookstore worth having a look at if you are visiting Tate Modern building, it's on Holland Street iirc, on the ground floor of a tall glass building.

there's a fantastic 2nd hand bookshop on blackstock rd, highbury - proper wonky shelves toppling over with a treasury of books.

X-Post - Think it is called Marcus Campbell art books.

the 2nd hand bookshop in flask walk in hampstead was always a wonderful place to go - not super good for contemporary 2nd hand but if you're into the minor lights of 1960s socialism it's a treasurehouse.

Yeah, loved that one. Unfortunately it's had a bit knocked in I think? So they've lost a bit of space in the last couple of years but it's still a good place to have a rummage.

Thanks all. I'm living in Paddington (Uni Residence), and will soon acquire an oyster card so I can start scouring the city properly.

there's a fantastic 2nd hand bookshop on blackstock rd, highbury - proper wonky shelves toppling over with a treasury of books.

There's two of them, opposite each other. Both are good. That's where i offload my excess books every month. Nigel Slater does the same, apparently, so it's worth keeping an eye out in the cookery section.

ratsey you made some kind of strange typo, you wrote that skoob is "slightly expensive for a 2nd hand bookshop but good for a browse" when actually what you meant to write is that skoob is (pace time out) "a temple of second hand books" and "the best bookshop in london"

also, i very rarely spend money in bookshops anymore, but when i did i really enjoyed the notting hill music exchange's bookshop -- the 'everything goes down a pound a week until it sells' pricing strategy meant it seemed like i found crazy awesome bargains all the time. also, you can then go to The One Good Taco Place In London

ooer, so many possibilities! finding second hand bookshops and record shops is high on my list of priorities too, so this is all v useful. anyone have any particular lower claptony / hackneyish-area recommendations?

Dalston Oxfam's usually got a decent selection of books.

The charity Oxfam bookshops have a reputation for mendacity but can be worth popping in.

What do they lie about? Do they pass books off as older editions or something?

It's kind of obvious xps but an oyster card and travel in general is the best bargain in London; you don't notice so much 'til you start trying to travel elsewhere. I always had a zones 1-3 oyster, then when I moved away I found myself paying the same for a 3-stop commute on my local train, and that's without getting the tube and an entire bus network thrown in.

Stoke Newington Church St has a bunch of general second hand and charity shops, which are also good for records. In particular, Church Street Bookshop has a really good selection and a high turnover.

thomp - iphone spellcheck typo, sorry.

I need to go to the One Good Taco Place in London more than I need books at the moment tbh, although my (ilx) information suggested that TOGTPIL is actually a stand near Waterloo?

xpost - Col. Poo (cashiered), it's more that they tend to hoover up the second-hand book trade in the areas they are in, thus supposedly 'starving' older, more established second-hand bookshops. I'm not sure that the argument isn't a little tendentious (they don't undercut on price after all afaik) but i've seen it made.

With all these new Londoners around now maybe it's time to have a FAP, like in the old days.

^^

Not had great joy with second hand bookshops here, I've occasionally picked up something nice but there's no real Mecca or place I've found repeatedly good. Will try this skoob place tho, poss tmrw as going to the Renoir.

GR: I take all my opinions on Mexican food from my (Chicagoan) wife, who rates Tacqueria higher than the taco stand on Lower Marsh, although the latter is good too.

That tiny secondhand bookshop on Lower Marsh is one of my favourite places - of any kind - in London. It never has more than a few hundred books, but there's always something i want to buy (and it's usually something I didn't know about before I set foot in there).

Any record collector fancying the prospect of making their travelcard work hard for its money might consider an adventure in the deep South-East - there is a surprisingly good secondhand record shop in Beckenham and another one in West Wickham. If you have the time but not the money, you can get to both using your Z1 travelcard. One bus zone, people. It's a marvel. Having said all that, the mewling on the London Restaurants thread at the very thought of having to go as far away as the Rye Hotel in Peckham (in Z2, 10 minutes out of London Bridge + a 5 minute walk) suggests that this whole paragraph is in vain.

make sure you give http://www.secondlayer.co.uk/ a visit!

(Last year when I wasn't working I actually walked from my place in Peckham to the shop in West Wickham, about 7 miles. I figured after that healthy exercise I could justify spending a few quid on some old vinyl. The next week I walked almost exactly the same distance to the small but really fine soul / funk shop in Putney, and did the same thing. This is the story of how I completed my set of the 1980s Charly reissues of Quinvy / South Camp southern soul reissues. Thanks for listening.)

so wait there's a bookshop next to this taco stand? that's like a whole day out planned for me

i lead a very dull life

*like*

xxpost

xpost

yeh lower marsh is well worth a visit, go check out the necropolis railway station architecture and that bookshop tim mentions is fantastic, as is the classical music + jazz shop down there, pop in and have a chat to the guys in there, they're awesome. lots of good places to eat and it's only a short walk from the thames- it's a nice walk up to tower bridge.

Thanks Tim, I shall see if I can try both.

yep yep yep love that bookshop

working near there for a while sullied my regard for it a little but generally lower marsh is one of my fave london places. not even especially for what's on it, just that there's a nice i dunno, 1989 kinda vibe there that feels rare

Never even been in that bookshop despite living 2 mins away (and working 10 mins away). Will have to make an appointment.

What's the Lower Marsh area like for drinking later at night? Is there anywhere good? Will be round there on Saturday and we'll probably want to keep going past 11. Thinking bars not pubs really - I know about most of the pubs in the area already.

Don't know what The Ruby Lounge vibe is like or how late it opens. But if you want the authentic Lower Marsh late nite dive bar feel it's gotta be Da Vinci's. It's like Edward Hopper's Nighthawks with added drunkenness and thumping techno and homeless people. (So nothing like Edward Hopper's Nighthawks then.)

w/r/t potential FAPs, a few erstwhile ilx people will be at https://www.facebook.com/?sk=events&ap=1#!/event.php?eid=165388490208656 tomorrow, and i will be too

so yeah feel free to come down

looks nice though i think i'll be with my new departmental associates tomorrow evening, i am up for FAPing at some point though.

things i have noticed about london #1: there are certainly a lot of police sirens at night.

I was in the scooter bar on L Marsh a couple of weeks ago, has some nice beers eg Paulaner

busy tomorrow :(

This is grotesque btw

https://www.the-londoner.co.uk/a-government-advisor-wrote-a-libel-against-london-why-did-we-believe-it/

Ugh, what an arsehole.

Hardly a surprise he's associated with the current Labour Party though.

Lol I met him when visiting my friend at university many years ago. He was...talkative

Difficult for anyone to care when the people reviewing and publishing this shit no doubt feel the exact same way.

He’s also got a dad and sister in the same profession.

I'm sure the NEC will be shocked to learn a labour staffer has reactionary opinions

Yes but they're about people who don't matter, so that's fine.

https://apps.london.gov.uk/public-realm-trees/explore

go crazy yall. go crazy

OK it doesn't have the tree I can see from my window which has the magpies nesting in it, so I still don't know what kind of tree it is.

Damn it!

Holy shit, it knows the trees closest to my window right now are an alder and a lime (which they are)!

Tom it has to be a TREE IN THE PUBLIC REALM to show up on the map

Lewisham Council has assiduously logged all the trees on its estates. Spiritually always Green :D

(xp) Ah right. It does have the tiny olive tree outside the delicatessen just along from my dentist!

Good source for looking for MULBERRY trees.

i was thinking in the spring that i should learn the names of the trees i walk past everyday in ravenscourt park. but that's just a big unpopulated space in the middle of w6 on that map. bit disappoint.

there is this, which is a start
https://www.friendsofravenscourtpark.org.uk/ravenscourt-park-tree-trail/

i swear there was another site, very web 1.0 with check boxes for species, that i found 3 or 4 years ago. and that did cover ravenscourt park. can't find it now though and all searches just turn up this.

(no copper beech, no credibility for that tree trail though)

Berlin has a cool one, prob a inspiration for this one for London: https://www.giessdenkiez.de/map?treeAgeMax=200&lang=de&zoom=13.892148705012046&lat=52.45869056587719&lng=13.415748050727586