Walk This Way

As the flat search rages on, today's excursion took me north-west of the City, into the neighbourhood of St John's Wood. If Wikipedia is to be believed (and it isn't always), this area "is home to some of the most expensive properties in the world". I don't think I need the internet to tell me that, to be honest.

The streets of St John's Wood are leafy and - dare I suggest it - really suburban. I don't mean that in a condescending way either; rather, I just mean that it's clear that people actually live up there. Sure there are flats (like the one I looked at) and council estates, but there are also really beautiful and stately family homes, and that's a combination I really liked.

Bus-wise, St John's Wood is also really accessible to Notting Hill, Shepherd's Bush, Maida Vale and a whole bunch of other areas that mobile young things like myself might want to hang out in. The shops of Oxford Circus are also about 15 minutes down the road by bus. But to be honest, it's pretty much miles away from where I work. The commute to my office would not be an easy one (two buses, or a Tube/Bus combo), and given that I am not a morning person at the best of times, I just don't think I could do it.

I don't see today's visit as a waste of effort though. I loved St John's Wood as a neighbourhood, plus my bus went right down Abbey Road. We literally drove over the pedestrian crossing that The Beatles made famous on the cover of their album of the same name. So after I viewed the apartment, I walked back a couple of blocks to the recording studio and read some of the graffiti that Beatles fans have scrawled on the walls outside. I didn't go into the studio though - I'm not sure if you could, plus the place was crawling with Beatles fans eager to snap photographs (just like I had been doing), and obviously I just wanted to escape them. So I dashed across the pedestrian crossing - dodging much more traffic than The Fab Four ever had to - and I jumped on the first bus that came along, and headed for home.