The Cat in the Flat

Our final housesit of the trip was in a flat in south London looking after Tigger, a cute, playful, and very low-maintenance kitty.

Despite having lived in England for four years, we didn’t spent much time in London. I went a few times for work and Ray and I each took Nick in once, but the only time I recall Ray and I being there together was *name drop alert* when Her Majesty invited us to the Palace for tea and little cucumber sandwiches. We’re not big city people, but when we saw a London housesit that matched our travel schedule, we decided to go for it.

There’s always so much going on in big cities that it’s fun to wander around soaking up the vibes. It’s often on the walks between tourist attractions that you come across a book market, a poet for hire, a toddler chasing pigeons, or a street musician, and get a real feel for a place. We walked along the north and south banks of the Thames, enjoying the summer-like weather – saw the Tower Bridge, Butler’s Wharf, Tate Modern, etc.

After walking through Covent Garden, Soho and Chinatown, we ate lunch in a park then started making our way to Trafalgar Square. When we saw the road ahead blocked off by police vans, we assumed a VIP was coming through, but then saw a throng of  middle-aged white men, chanting “get that scum off our streets”, “no surrender”, and other similar pleasantries. They ignored the police barricade, veered around the parked vans and pushed their way forward, but were held back by officers on horseback and what appeared to be a burst of tear gas. The police maintained control by corralling them into smaller groups and diverting them. We carried on to Trafalgar Square only to find that the hooligans and police had done the same. One officer had blood dripping down his face and we decided to move along to a quieter area. We later learned that it was a planned march by the Democratic Football Lads’ Alliance, a far-right group. The police were preventing them from reaching a counter-demonstration by anti-fascist groups. Like I said…just wandering around absorbing the vibe.

Brixton, the south London neighbourhood where we stayed, is variably described as vibrant, lively, colourful, eclectic – words realtors sometimes use euphemistically to refer to neighbourhoods that are also a bit dodgy. Brixton has a reputation as a high-crime area, but it’s reportedly been regenerated/gentrified over the past couple of decades and isn’t the Brixton it used to be. The neighbourhood has Afro-Caribbean roots and in the 80s and 90s it was the scene of riots amid accusations of police racism.

We had a few hours to kill before we were scheduled to arrive at our housesit, so we wandered around Brixton pulling our suitcases behind us. On the walk from the tube station – on a busy street in the middle of the day – I saw liquid flowing across the sidewalk and looked up to see a man turn from the wall as he pulled up his zipper (I feel like I should point out that he was white). Not a great first impression. Some areas felt a bit sketchy – not in a ‘we should get out of here’ kind of way, more just ‘let’s not come here after dark’ – but then we’d turn a corner and there’d be a completely different feel to it – young boys in school uniforms playing a game on the sidewalk, moms and dads walking their kids home from school, a group of women sorting through a bin of colourful fabrics. I tried to figure out what made it feel more vibrant than other neighbourhoods, and part of it was that everyone seemed to be in a good mood, smiling and talking to each other. I didn’t see anyone looking at a phone or hurrying their kids along. If you’ve ever been to the Caribbean, you know that time seems to move more slowly there. (“Relax. You’re on Ja-MAI-ca time now.”) We North Americans could do with a little more Jamaica time in our hurried lives.

On Sunday, one of the few rainy days we had during our 5-week stay, we walked to the Brixton Market/Village area. Very cool vibe. All the adjectives applied – vibrant, lively, colourful, eclectic. There’s an indoor market filled with shops, including some very popular eateries with line-ups out the door. There are also butcher shops and a farmer’s market and a complex of shipping containers that have been converted into shops and international food kiosks. We chose the Japanese ramen and weren’t disappointed. The customers at these eateries were mostly young, white professionals, the demographic who’ve been moving to south London in search of a more affordable lifestyle (not without some controversy over how they’re changing the neighbourhood). The owners of the flat where we stayed fit that demographic. If you’re in London, the Brixton market area is worth checking out (just take Victoria line to Brixton).

And now we’re back home in Ottawa. No matter how many times I fly, it still boggles my mind that I can wake up in a flat in Brixton and go to sleep in my house in Ottawa later that same day.