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Stoke Newington also has what I feel is a London phenomena which is this: Everyone knows everyone. I am in a uniquish position of owning a business here which boasts about 700-1000 local clients and so of course it's impossilbe for me to walk down Church St without running into at least a few at any given time, but I am not alone in this oddity. Everyone says the same happens to them and so we in N16 do not suffer/benefit from the general anonimity usually associated with London living. To further that, the types of people who know each other (at least well enough for a passing hat tip) are so varried as to be a bit surprising at the least. This ranges up and down the scale of veteran hippies, stock brokers, all youth subcultures, yuppies, artists, medical profs, the whole of academia, bikers, wiccans, junkies, old goths, small time entrepreneurs, etc. Of course everyone in Stoke Newington is a parent, or is about to be. Allegedly N16 has the highest number of under-5's of anywhere else in western Europe. Parenthood is a bonding glue.Thing is, if someone in Stoke Newington doesn't have a child, they do have a guitar, or a lovely voice, or are in a band which is playing this week somewhere on or near Church St, and all the parents are getting babysitters to go see them. We have to support them because of course, sooner or later they will drink the water , get preggo, and boom, their children are coming over after school with our's. But more than that, Stokie is stockied with a shockingly odd cross section of humanity and for the most part, they all seem to get along and even take pride in the variety of life here. Of course this all falls down when one gets beaten up by disaffected 14 year-olds as happened to me recently, and there is a false sense of safety enjoyed by most in light of the fact that there are so many muggings, robberies and house burgularings. Everyone seems to shrug these off(especially the police-pigs) as happening everywhere anyway, at least we have a sense of community, etc.
As for the show biz folks, absolutely everyone who is anyone in the underworld of entertainment lives here. Not so many of the stars perhaps, but all of the directors, producers, and behind the scene folks of all sorts live in N16. We also share a community sort of sense of bafflement that we are joined by a huge community of hasid's who operate nearly oblivious to non-hasids, but side by side. I've learned recently tho that N16 has grown too small and so a new hasidic community is being started in Milton Keynes. Perhaps the Stokettes should consider? hmmm.
Of course we don't have a tube, so you might not know all this exists.
Perhaps it doesn't. Re-reading this post has made me think two things:
I think I'll start a dusk walking tour so pm me if you want to learn more.
Of course I could just become an estate agent. |
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