Issue editorial: Living in the city vs living in the countryside

Living In The city y r t n u o C e h T n I VS Living

Walking down the roads of london there is always more to expolore and experience...

I first moved to London. I wanted to see different places all the time so I hung maps in my room and marked off streets as I walked them. This helped me keep track of where I’d been, but also helped me map out the city in my head and see how it connected.

I have a freakishly spatial mind, and once I have been somewhere I know it — it’s on my mental map and it stays put pretty solidly for a long, long time. That’s where the idea of walking down every street originated, I think, from a personal desire to create a big map of the city in my head and not

need to carry one (although I still do because I love maps!).

Last autumn, I had to finally admit to myself that my time in London is going to be over very soon, and I could not bear the thought of leaving without having seen it all. I fired up the project again and really got to it in October (with some breaks here and there for work and holidays). In many ways, this project has been a process of saying goodbye.

I have walked many of these streets many times in my four years here, but I chose to walk them all again. Some days have been almost painfully nostalgic as I see shadows of myself

Gallerys

Transport

Walking down the roads of london there is always more to expolore and experience...

I first moved to London. I wanted to see different places all the time so I hung maps in my room and marked off streets as I walked them. This helped me keep track of where I’d been, but also helped me map out the city in my head and see how it connected.

I have a freakishly spatial mind, and once I have been somewhere I know it — it’s on my mental map and it stays put pretty solidly for a long, long time. That’s where the idea of walking down every street originated, I think, from a personal desire to create a big map

Walking down the roads of london there is always more to expolore and experience...

I first moved to London. I wanted to see different places all the time so I hung maps in my room and marked off streets as I walked them. This helped me keep track of where I’d been, but also helped me map out the city in my head and see how it connected.

I have a freakishly spatial mind, and once I have been somewhere I know it — it’s on my mental map and it stays put pretty solidly for a long, long time. That’s where the idea of walking down every street originated, I think, from a personal desire to create a big map of the city in my head and not

need to carry one (although I still do because I love maps!).

Last autumn, I had to finally admit to myself that my time in London is going to be over very soon, and I could not bear the thought of leaving without having seen it all. I fired up the project again and really got to it in October (with some breaks here and there for work and holidays). In many ways, this project has been a process of saying goodbye.

I have walked many of these streets many times in my four years here, but I chose to walk them all again. Some days have been almost painfully nostalgic as I see shadows of myself

Museums Walking down the roads of london there is always more to expolore and experience...

I first moved to London. I wanted to see different places all the time so I hung maps in my room and marked off streets as I walked them. This helped me keep track of where I’d been, but also helped me map out the city in my head and see how it connected.

I have a freakishly spatial mind, and once I have been somewhere I know it — it’s on my mental map and it stays put pretty solidly for a long, long time. That’s where the idea of walking down every street originated, I think, from a personal desire to create a big map

street performances

Shopping in London - Bond street, West end, Camden or Covent garden Walking down the roads of london there is always more to expolore and experience...

I first moved to London. I wanted to see different places all the time so I hung maps in my room and marked off streets as I walked them. This helped me keep track of where I’d been, but also helped me map out the city in my head and see how it connected.

I have a freakishly spatial mind, and once I have been somewhere I know it — it’s on my mental map and it stays put pretty solidly for a long, long time. That’s where the idea of walking down every street originated, I think, from a personal desire to create a big map of the city in my head and not need to carry one (although I still do because I love maps!).

Last autumn, I had to finally admit to myself that my time in London is going to be over very soon, and I could not bear the thought of leaving without having seen it all. I fired up the project again and really got to it in October (with some breaks here and there for work and holidays). In many ways, thiCovent Garden, square in the City of Westminster, London. It lies just northwest of the Strand. For more than 300 years it held the principal fruit, flower, and vegetable market of the metropolis. Adjacent to the former market site stands the Royal Opera House (Covent Garden), home of Britain’s oldest national opera and ballet companies.

Originally a convent garden owned by the Benedictines of Westminster, the site was developed by the 4th earl of Bedford as the cities of London and Westminster grew together along the north bank of the River Thames. It was laid out in the 1630s as a “piazza,” or residential square (the first of its kind in London), to the design of Inigo Jones. Surrounded on three sides by tall houses with an arcaded street floor, the square was bounded on the west by

the low, solemn-porticoed St. Paul’s Church.

Covent Garden Market operated informally for many years before it was established “forever” by Charles II in 1670. It was rebuilt and reorganized in 1830, and in 1974 it moved to a new, more spacious market site south of the River Thames at Nine Elms, Wandsworth.

The 19th-century Flower Market Building was refurbished in the early 1980s and now includes a variety of shops and attractions, including the London Transport Museum

.

The Covent Garden Theatre, the original theatre on the site, was opened (1732) by John Rich and served for plays, pantomimes, and opera.

During the 1730s, when George Frideric Handel was associated with the theatre, opera was emphasized, but later the focus shifted to plays. s project has been a process of saying goodbye.

I have walked many of these streets many times in my four years here, but I chose to walk them all again. Some days have been almost painfully nostalgic as I see shadows of myself sitting at cafes with friends, picnicking in the parks, ringing in

Old fashioned houses, long winding roads, beautiful historical churches, greenery and little shops - is the countryside for you or is it the city that you love?

Rural life is friendlier, more peaceful and I know more people in the area in the five years living here than in the last 20 years where I previously lived.

Ed Cumming clearly thinkseveryone cuts themselves off from civilisation, but within a 10-minute walk from our house we have a pub, butcher, doctor’s surgery, chemist, post office with cash dispenser, newsagent, petrol station, mini supermarket and much more. Within five minutes in the car, we have a DIY shop, chip shop, and a hospital with an A&E department.

Matlock and Haddon Hall are hreemiles away and Chatsworth House and Bakewell are about six miles away.

supermarket, post office, library, doctor’s surgery, optician and several pubs (there is a butcher in a village a mile away). As for cinemas, we have greater choice here than when I lived in the Thames Valley, with three cinemas within a 10-minute drive (yes, these are in village halls, but they show upto-date films with Argo and Quartet coming very shortly and Anna Karenina showing last week).

4x 4, it is likely to be mud-covered, old and not driven in the middle of the road by a WAG.

When we can drag ourselves away from the blazing log fires fed by locally-sourced, free supplies, we are spoilt by a wealth of local pubs serving an extensive selection of real beers and food. Any trip to the city for cultural treats is just that; a treat, rather than taken for granted. Broadband We also have theatres in Taunton, speeds/phone signal issues have Bristol and Exeter. We have a reg- been overcome with boosters, ular and punctual half-hourly bus making it possible to stay in conservice into Minehead and Taun- tact with friends and shop online. ton and yet we are a five-minute drive from the Quantock Hills The only issue is the bruises obfor brilliant walking and 15 min- tained by pinching myself to see utes from Exmoor. I can get from if this has really happened, and Taunton to London by train very the odd bump from low beams!

Finally, my seven-year-old grand- easily; however, apart from getson’s school is up the lane ad- ting to the airports I rarely go. FANS OF THE CITY jacent to our bungalow, across two fields, and is where I go to Why would I? I had years of be- Annette Mills collect him most afternoons. ing squashed on tubes, pushed Could life be more convenient and shoved on pavements, con- I read your article and couldn’t and better than Whenever I read stantly keeping my hand on my resist writing my thoughts as articles like this, I wonder who bag to prevent pickpockets and I prepare to leave the counthese people are who think there fighting for a seat in a restau- tryside after seventeen years. are no facilities in the country. rant. If I have to go to a city, give Not everyone has to live five miles me a Bristol or Exeter any day. Originally a Londoner, I had from shops which when found looked forward to moving away close at 2pm. In fact, probably the Ruth Hulme, Cheshire from the city. Unfortunateonly people who do are farmers. ly, nothing here is as it seems.

In May last year we moved I find it quite odd anyway that from Wilmslow, just south of Are the people friendlier? Not Ed Cumming, when going to the Manchester, 30 miles away to at all. The locals are at best suscountry for a visit, is desperate to the beautiful village of Bun- picious and greedy, at worst visit shops – is that really what bury, near Tarporley, Cheshire. downright vindictive. If you own he wants to do on a weekend land, be prepared for repeataway? Similar thoughts sprang The advantages are many, ranging ed requests to walk dogs, ride to mind when reading your main from the beautiful countryside horses and shoot pigeons on it. article. Does Clare Myers-Shaw complete with canal, real working The sleepy agricultural tenant really think that there is no de- farms, locally-sourced meat from and his benign looking wife, in cent coffee outside London? the brilliant butcher Burrows and the cottage next door may well mud-covered veg purchased from turn out to be malicious gossips I and many others in this beau- Brosters farm shop via an hones- who do not pay their rent and tiful part of West Somerset have ty box – which in itself is a great ask for large handouts of cash. the ideal location. I am in a small place to meet locals. The drivers town/large village with a small are courteous and, if driving a There are pop guns (bird scarers)

Beautiful country houses However, for young people the lack of rural jobs paying a living wage and high transport and housing costs continue to make it hard for them to live in the countryside, and we urge the Government to support this group to prevent country homes being affordable only for second homeowners and city commuters.’Last week senior Conversative MP Graham Stuart claimed that rural areas were still suffering a serious ‘injustice’ in the amount of money they receive for local services.He said that the coalition’s failure to address the shortfall in funding

endured by councils in rural parts of the country was ‘inexcusable’.tuart, MP for Beverley and Holderness, said that rural councils received around half the funding of their urban counterparts per head of population – a so-called ‘rural penalty’ – due to the way Government funding formulas work.‘The rural penalty of 50 per cent more per headgoing to urban areas is just not right,’ Stuart told the Commons.

lovely scenery

Both genteel and wild, there’s nothing quite like the English countryside for rural escapes with its patchwork hills, dramatic dales, ancient woodlands and winding country roads. All well and good, but what is there to do in England’s countryside exactly?

Quite a lot, actually. Admire the grand interiors of a stately home before catching a play in the surrounding gardens, travel back in time with visits to ancient stone circles and crumbling castles, or step into a chocolate box of quaint villages and market towns and live like a local, trying farmhouse cheeses, cream teas and real ales along the way.

Both genteel and wild, there’s nothing quite like the English countryside for rural escapes with its patchwork hills, dra-

Historical sites Both genteel and wild, there’s nothing quite like the English countryside for rural escapes with its patchwork hills, dramatic dales, ancient woodlands and winding country roads. All well and good, but what is there to do in England’s countryside exactly? Quite a lot, actually. Admire the grand interiors of a stately home before catching a play in the surrounding gardens, travel back in time with visits to ancient stone circles and crumbling castles, or step into a chocolate box of quaint villages and market towns and live like a local, trying farmhouse cheeses, cream teas and real ales along the way. Both

genteel and wild, there’s nothing quite like the English countryside for rural escapes with its patchwork hills, dramatic dales, ancient woodlands and winding country roads.

All well and good, but what is there to do in England’s countryside exactly? Quite a lot, actually. Admire the grand interiors of a stately home before catching a play in the surrounding gardens, travel back in time with visits to ancient stone circles and crumbling castles, or step into a chocolate box of quaint villages and market towns and live like a local, trying farmhouse cheeses, cream teas and real ales along the way