The House in Camberwell

After a couple of months of sleeping in backpacker hostels, on boats and buses, in hotels, at friends' houses, in a tent in France, and at the house of my folks in sunny Church Eaton, Staffordshire - I have moved into a house in Camberwell, South London.

I humbly and deeply apologise for moving south of the river Thames despite my constant disparagement of others living south of the river, and I still maintain that THE Holloway Road is most certainly the epicentre of London Town.

I will also admit that certain parts of 'south of the river' do have a little charm of their own, but this certainly does not extend to anywhere outside zone 2, and also not to Clapham - which I still maintain to be 'crap'. Unlike Camberwell, Clapham never had a beautiful butterfly named after it, did it?!

The house I have moved into is a bit rough around the edges, with the odd hole in the woodwork and crack in the plaster, but it's nice and warm with the heating on all the time. The rent includes all the bills, which leaves the many residents of the house oblivious to the normalities of energy conservation. During the week or so that I have been resident, I have yet to see the kitchen light in any position other than ON, and the same goes for the radio in the kitchen, which is on 24 hours a day at various volumes and stations. This is particularly painful, as most of the time 'Heart FM' is the station of choice.

The many residents (10 of them - yes that's ten) hail from various parts of the world, and mainly share rooms to keep the cost down. Along with me, there are 2 French, a Pole, a Czech, a Japanese, an Aussie, a South African, a French Canadian, and another English Guy. They do a variety of jobs at all times of the day and night, and so bizzarely enough, the place never seems crowded. There are two bathrooms and I've never had to wait for even one of them as of yet.

There are also an unknown number of other residents, who squat and pay no rent. Two of them were in the kitchen yesterday, sitting there as if they own the place. They left in quite a hurry as soon as I came in, and I suppose I can't complain, as I was warned about them when I came. I was told - 'Do not use the bottom shelf of your food cupboard - that is for the mice!'

Posted by paul at November 2, 2004 09:45 PM