what london does better
big city life
Hello and welcome to clipboard, a newly relaunched newsletter about doing your best! This week, discussing the bits that London does better.
After over 7 weeks here, I've now crossed the Rubicon of a holiday-length stay and now feel like I properly live in London (although we are still in temporary accommodation...). It's a strange thing to experience, taking that "should we move here?" conversation that you often have while travelling to a new city and making it a reality. Since we arrived, my wife and I have been exploring and discovering what's new and what's the same from New Zealand, where we spent pretty much our whole lives until this March.
There is certainly an element of homesickness to the move: I miss the cafes where the owner knew my name and order and the feeling of knowing exactly where you're going all the time, not to mention my family and friends! But today's issue isn't about that stuff, it's about all of the things that London does better.
I think a great loss of the insular, disconnected way we live post-Covid is that we often forget that we exist within a whole world full of people looking to solve the same issues. The solutions are out there, somewhere, if not exactly on your doorstep. In London, a lot of the magic comes from how people get together, experiencing the diversity of the city in real life, and the little quality of life improvements that you can only get in a big city with lots of people.
I think sharing those solutions is critical to improving things, and many of the things I'm writing about today are so everyday that I think people forget that they were ever a decision, policy, or investment in the first place. Here's what I've been enjoying since we arrived. No doubt, as I get more invested here, there'll be further editions of this list - arts and culture needs its own newsletter, for example.
public transport
An obvious place to start. The tube is in most cases the fastest and cheapest way to get around. In Auckland, it's often neither of those things. Yes, it feels quite expensive (I've stopped converting to NZ dollars), it gets hot and smelly, and you're crammed in like sardines at rush hour. There is, however, something magical about being able to take a train from anywhere in the city to almost anywhere else, alongside people from every walk of life. It makes the city feel so connected, literally and metaphorically, and it's all because they started digging over 160 years ago.
pub culture
British drinking culture gets a deserved bad rap, but I love the social aspect of going to the pub. Having boozers on most corners in every neighbourhood creates an evening third place for every Londoner, looking to catch up with a friend, unwind after work or just sit and read a book. There's no need to learn a new menu or make a booking in advance, you just walk in and find a spot. It's quite something to see how many people are out any given evening, catching up in person instead of retreating home to Netflix like I did too often back home.
cycling
I hear this is a post-Covid development, but it is amazing how many bikes are on the road in London. Lime Bikes have taken over the culture, and make it really accessible to get around on two wheels, but it's also striking how many people have their own bike to commute, or take a fun ride on the weekend. More bikes on the road can only be a good thing, for the environment, for people's health, and for the vibes on the street. Now I just need to get my confidence up to join the ranks of two-wheeled travellers.
competitive grocery stores
We've been arguing about supermarket competition in New Zealand for years, but in London it's clear that competition works. Many supermarkets list price matches to competitors, and the online supermarket we've been using even gives you a bit of money back if you could get the shop cheaper elsewhere. Having more choice about where you want to shop means that your grocery bill isn't the top item on your stress list, and puts more control in the consumer's hands. Plus: the selection of products at supermarkets here is fantastic!
contactless payments everywhere
Again, something that has been a point of discussion in New Zealand that seems to be a solved issue here. Everywhere in London takes contactless payments, including the public transport. I haven't taken my wallet out since my first week when I realised it wasn't necessary, and I haven't had to pay a surcharge, either. It makes you feel like you're living in the future when you've come from the world of "no paywave" or "contactless surcharge" handwritten on masking tape.
picnics
London might be a dense city with heaps of people, but the green space here is amazing, and people really make use of it! We're not quite at summer yet, but we've had some beautiful days, and the parks fill up when they happen. Because no one has outdoor space at home, they get out into the parks, and it recalls that magical time in Covid when we were allowed to see other people but only outside. Find a blanket, grab some picky bits and novelty beverages at your local organic store (see above!), and join everyone else on the green.
clips
I've been reading Monocle since I saw a stack of old issues at the cafe I went to every week at university. This week they relaunched their website, so I thought it was worth calling out what a fantastic, interesting business Monocle is. The way Monocle integrates print, radio, podcasts, events, in person retail and cafes around the world should be the envy of every modern media business. They make a good coffee in Marylebone too, if you can handle the On Running and gilet vibes of every other white immigrant in there.
I'm not a hectic gamer, beyond NYT Games and a bit of FIFA, but I do love to find a new mobile game to sink a bit of time into. My latest obsession is New Star GP (discovered on David Pierce's Installer newsletter), an old timey vibe Formula 1 style racing game. It's just easy enough to pick up quickly, and tricky enough to feel like you want to practice. You can play for free with (often quite strange) ads, or pay a small fee to get rid of them.
When I took the summer off work before our move, I set myself the challenge of finally finishing Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall trilogy, a mammoth task that I reached just last week. I'd highly recommend the whole series, a fascinating look at a time in English history where social mobility was really only just starting to exist as a phenomenon, and Thomas Cromwell, a hugely complex character, written brilliantly by Mantel. Yesterday I capped the experience off by visiting the spot on Tower Hill where the series ends (no spoilers). I'm now halfway into a John le Carré spy thriller as a palette cleanser.
This week saw new music from the patron saint of New Zealanders moving overseas to be more interesting, Lorde. It's so interesting to experience the response to her music outside of New Zealand, where the vibe is very "how cool is it that people care about someone from here." In addition to 'What Was That,' I've been bumping all of the new Haim, the new Bon Iver, and even a bit of new Joe Jonas, which probably sets the Venn diagram of my music taste pretty squarely.
I usually hate Q&A format written interviews with podcast hosts with a film picture of them at the top, but I actually got a lot of insight out of James Wright's interview with Chris Black of How Long Gone on Creative Blood, a site I'd never heard of. There's some gold in there for those of us who want to make our living in the ~~creative field~~.
london rec of the week
Jolene: a small chain of bakeries/wine bars with a fantastic wordmark and colour scheme. We went to the one in Newington Green for a coffee and a pastry and it was fantastic, everything all the meme pages told me East London would be like.
That’s all for clipboard this week, thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this newsletter, I would love it if you could send it to a friend, or drop it into your group chat. I’ll be back next week with a less “I just moved to London” type piece, and more recs for your Sunday. In the meantime, you can follow clipboard on Instagram and get in touch in the DMs.