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Back in Shepherd’s Bush this afternoon for the first time in a while. I’ve driven through occasionally, but not really been back here on foot (apart from an occasional trip to the Westfield or The BBC) for over 5 years - We moved out in July 2017 I think, though didn’t really move into the new house til September. I walked the mean streets. They are mean in the sense of being average for London. So actually quite mean in the nasty sense too.
There were plenty of changes - the Westfield seems to expand every few months. Or at least I hadn’t seen the outside bit by John Lewis where there are more restaurants and a bowling alley. Should I move back to Shepherds Bush for the bowling alley? I am not even sure it was a bowling alley, but the name outside suggested that it was.
Albertine’s, the wine bar that we occasionally frequented after Fist of Fun shows and which I went to a lot more through the 2000s is all boarded up and the police station on Uxbridge Road is also closed with sophisticated boards over there windows and a For Sale sign. Presumably this means all crime in Shepherd’s Bush has been solved, which is a pretty impressive achievement. Maybe the criminals won and the police retreated. Or just joined. Or it became too difficult to tell the police from the criminals. Or the police’s crimes became so bad that the offended criminals asked them to leave.
The House of Fraser in the Westfield is also shutting down. This once proud and mildly posh shop is a shell of its former self, with 20% off everything and stuff piled up like in a bargain bucket shop on Oxford Street and the Apple store seems to have gone (though it might just have moved) so BIG changes.
There’s a Costa on the Uxbridge Road now, but it’s largely resisted gentrification and retains its multicultural character, which is one of the things I liked about it when I lived here. Even though I was in the house here for 15 years, it’s hard to remember what it was like to be here. Was I even here? It’s another world. Five years away, but a different life time. Certainly a different life.
The bowling alley (if it was one) made me want to move back, but everything else made me pleased to be gone. Too busy, a bit scary and a feeling that everything is fraying at the edges and it’s all about to fall apart. Which it probably is. But that’s not just Shepherd’s Bush.
Thanks to Richard Ison who has made me a box full of Right Bollock stress balls. One lucky person who
preorders my book at Waterstones will win one and there will be some other chances to win one coming up. There’s something similar, but slightly different available to purchase with your copies of the book at
Gofasterstripe.com (not yet up on the site). My kids saw them and both want one. Though I am not sure how appropriate/emotionally scarring that is. Is it healthy to be playing with a representation of your father’s excised bollock. Ernie saw the plaster on Right Bollock’s face and asked how he had hurt himself. That was a tough question to answer.
I don’t think these will be available to buy as they take Richard a little while to make and part of the appeal is their rarity, but maybe I will ebay a couple for Movember or do a limited run for kickstarter. I know a lot of you will want my bollock.
RHLSTP Book Club with firefighter Leigh Host-Pickett and a book that might save your life (as well as make you appreciate our fire service) Up In Smoke.
Listen here.
