Angel

Oh yes… London Bloggers. What a great idea. If you don't live in London you may not quite realise how important the Tube is.

Walking around London you get the impression that people have been just turning up over the last 2000 years and building things wherever they felt like and the streets are the chaotic spaces in between. You get that impression until you realise that, that is, actually, exactly what happened.

As a result getting around by car or bus is ridiculous. The average speed of a car around the centre of London is about 9 miles an hour.

So the Tube is the best way to get around. It is big and it is old and it creaks and it stinks and it doesn't really work but it does have character. It has history - it pre-dates the invention of the car; it got a starring role in a Sherlock Holmes mystery and I dare say many were conceived in stations when they were being used as bomb shelters during the blitz.

It also has a great map produced by a clever electrician who realised that, to produce a clear and understandable map that didn't look like a pile of psychedelic spaghetti, he would have to throw away all notions of space and time. Pure genius.

Looking at it you wouldn't think that Farringdon is 5 times closer to Chancery Lane than it is to King’s Cross would you? Most peoples’ mental map of London is based on the Tube map so its special spatial anomalies and abnormalities even fox experienced Londoners. "I not walking from Lancaster Gate to Paddington - it is fucking miles!" "No - it just a round the corner." "Really?"

Tube stops define where things are; the Tube lines define where you meet people. "Anywhere on the Piccadilly line is fine for me" someone might say or "The pub is 100 metres from Chalk Farm".

The Tube stations are the hubs of London. Pumping out the city's food – people, to nourish the bars and shops and restaurants that flourish around them.

What better way to organise London blogs than using the Tube map?

So there I am - Angel.

But I am somewhat disappointed that the first entry on Angel blogs is 888.com. How the hell can that be described as an Angel blog? People around here don’t spend their free time online gambling – they prefer to reveal wood and hold dinner parties to expound their liberal and intellectual ways.

This is Angel where the lonely virgin mountains of Iceberg lettuces in Tescos are left untouched but there is practically a riot when a new shipment of pre-packed packs of wild rocket salad comes in.

The local shops have a better grasp of where they are - not bothering to stock any papers apart from the Independent and the Guardian but pile the bunches of organic coriander high.

The cool bars and funky restaurants are filled with the beautiful people taking fashion to its outer limits, entering the realm of the ridiculous.

There is no local paper in Angel only a local glossy life style magazine called “Angel”.

Admittedly no where can compete with pure unadulterated wankery of Hampstead but it is pretentious up there. You know they all secretly vote Conservative. Here – this the birth place of New Labour – that strange brand of post socialist capitalism – “We make lots of money but at least we feel guilty about it.” And they really believe in it rather than thinking of it as necessary evil to keep those Tories from Notting Hill out.

The local politic is active, vigorous and very PC. Obviously it is a dead heat between Labour and the Liberals with the Tories not getting a look in. So the bars are open late, we have to recycle everything but wheel clamping is outlawed because, look, the au-pair finds it very hard to find a parking space when she is dropping little Tristan off at his violin lesson.

I am still finding my Angel feet. I am still not friends with a recently married gay couple who are thinking of adopting, I still don’t have a house in Tuscany that I am thinking of selling because I want to buy somewhere in Morocco or maybe the Shetland Islands.

But I am getting there. Slowly - on the Northern line.