Tuesday 31 July 2007

Day Thirty-One - Petty France, SW1



About two years a ago there was a spin-off programme from Channel 4's Location Location, Location where Phil and the divine Kirstie looked at what you could buy for what was then the UK average house price - £180,000 - in the most and least expensive boroughs in the UK.

Westminster was, I believe, the most expensive borough at the time (it usually fights it out with Kensington & Chelsea) and so Kirstie and Phil showed you exactly what you could buy with your £180K - a studio apartment in this block, Vandon Court, which only happens to be right next door to where I work. Look at that link - my offices are the contiguous building.

I must admit that I considered the move. OK, so it's a studio apartment in a block full of (it seems) dotty old women and transient foreigners, but it's right next door to work. Commuting time: 30 seconds. Commuting cost: £0. And within walking distance of St James' Park, Westminster Abbey, The West End...50 yards from two very nice pubs, too.

But then I'd never be able to use the trains as an excuse for being late for work again. People would expect me to work late as "it's not as if you've got a long way to go home, is it?". I'd suddenly have lots more "friends" who wanted to crash the night at my central London pad. And where on earth would I put all my CDs and books? Reluctantly I decided that Vandon Court wasn't for me, not that I could have afforded it at the time anyway.

You might be saying to yourself that I was wrong and the positives far outnumbered the negatives, but consider this: if I had mortgaged myself to the hilt, got rid of 90% of my possessions and installed myself in my SW1 shoebox eyrie I'd never have started this blog. Yes. I did it all for you, dear reader. Thank you, you're welcome.

On the discman today: AM -John Coltrane Ascension PM - nothing, as I couldn't bear another forty minutes of what I'd been listening to in the morning. My tastes appear to have changed.

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