Part 31: Everyone I Know Is In London

I didn't choose the pub life, it chose me

Coming Up:

• Cold Intro: The Laws of Gravity

• Museums, Culture, and Such

• Church, Crawdads, and Choco-strawberries

• Edgy Modern Art or Just A Bag of Donuts?

• College Reunion

• The Gang Goes 80s Electronic

• More Friends + Cousins

• Lazy Day Food Pics

Cold Intro: The Laws of Gravity

Coming into this trip, the experience of British pubs was not even on my radar. I was busy fantasizing about French pastries and Italian food. Pubs are just a British version of a bar. How different could they really be?

The pub is no bar. They are all over the place, guarding the corners of the street. Each has its own flavor, but I’ve found the formula generally to be large windows, a friendly exterior paired with a warm wooden interior. In the busy hours on a nice day, you’ll generally find the entire sidewalk out front full of patrons enjoying their drinks. They’re for all people and all occasions. Drinks with friends. Bankers in their white button-downs and pants that are a little too tight. Locals going for a solo pint. Birthday parties. I even saw a baby shower.

I know this may still just sound like a bar to the reader, but there’s an intangible difference with pubs. They’re almost a navigational beacon. They draw you in. Whether it’s your intent or not.

A common experience I’ve heard from my friends who live in London is being sucked into the pub. Planning on going home right after work, the proposal of a drink at the spot on the corner is too easy to pass up. One drink leads to another. Another leads to a good time. In a city where there is no shortage of pubs and no shortage of people, this turns the pub into not merely just an activity, but an inevitability.

It’s a gravitational pull. Even if it’s not on your day’s agenda, it’ll pull you in. If you get a text from a friend with mention of a “cheeky pint” - the pull starts. If you’re nearing the end of a long day and your fatigue is setting in, and your feet hurt, the pull starts. If you stray a bit too close and see the happy hour special from the window, the pull starts.

There’s something about a cheap beer in a friendly place, particularly when paired with good weather. It’s hard to say no to.

Wednesday - June 18th, 2025

Being a man of sophistication and culture, and etcetera etceteras, it felt only right to venture into some museums while here. I passed on going to the British Museum, which a lot of people recommended. I’ve seen a few too many mummies. If I wanted to learn about Egyptian or Greek history, I feel like going to one of those countries would be a better approach.

Instead, I went to The National Gallery, because I hadn’t seen enough 500-year-old paintings on my trip yet (Louvre and Vatican, who?). The Gallery was free and had a nice collection. I’d say my favorite part of it was the progression of its rooms, going from the 1300s to the 1900s, so you could see how painting styles changed over time. They also had some impressionism, which those of you who read my Paris entry, I’m a new fan of.

A group of paintings that I enjoyed or found amusing

I kept the momentum going and walked east to St. Paul’s Cathedral. I was a fan of the cathedral. Why, you ask? Because it was not a huge scene like all the other European cathedrals I’d seen. It was built in the 1600s and had an architecture pretty similar to the US Capitol building. But rather than long lines to go inside, it was surrounded by people taking their lunch breaks, eating in the grass areas around. It was a great weather day, and seeing the cathedral being enjoyed by the Londoners was more entertaining for me than seeing the usual crazy amount of ornamentation.

I walked from the Cathedral across the Thames south to Borough Market, which is a very popular food stalls area. I got some paella, which was delicious, and some of their famous chocolate strawberries, which I consumed at an astonishing and ruthless pace.

Keep the momentum going. Another museum. The Tate Modern. Also free. Modern art. Turns out. Not a fan of modern art. A room with the wall covered in drawings of penises and a podium in the center with a bag full of donuts isn’t quite what I find beauty in. I’m sure there is some profound and world-changing meaning in that I did not understand, but I’m okay with that. I’m going to keep staring at the pictures with the colors. But hey, that’s why we do these things. Sometimes you find what you like. Other times, you find what you don’t like.

Some good, some bad, I'll leave everyone to make the verdict for themselves.

Thursday - June 19th, 2025

I met up with my college friend and new Notting Hill resident, Lucas, at the Pearl Gate outside of Hyde Park. In the last blog post, one of my Substack superfans (and also my aunt), Kim, left a comment about the Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park, where people have historically spoken to the public and have debates. This comment came after my day in the park, and the Corner was right around the corner of the Pearl Gate. After doing a bit of research, I learned the origin of Speaker’s Corner came from providing people at the gallows their last words. Unbeknownst to me, my research led me to the discovery that Lucas and I had met and walked across the intersection where the hangings had occurred since 1100. I may now be cursed.

Lucas and I went for a walk through Hyde Park, which is a massive green space. I wrote in my last blog that being in London reminded me a lot of being in NYC. The build of the city doesn’t really match that comparison. London has a lot less verticality than anywhere in Manhattan and has an architectural style that reminds me more of a flat San Francisco. One area where London reigns supreme over NYC is green areas. There are so many parks around here. It’s a ton of green space, and Hyde Park reigns as the alpha park in the city.

We took a diagonal shot across the park, which shot us out on the west side of the park in Kensington. For lunch, we went to an Indian restaurant called Dishoom, which I would say is the restaurant I’ve received the most recommendations for on this trip. The recs were very valid as well, the food was very good. If anyone asks me for London recs, I’m joining the fray and adding this to the top of my list.

Friday - June 20th, 2025

I had a day of migration Friday morning out of St. John’s Wood to my third and final London destination, Notting Hill. I met back up with my local tour guide, Lucas, and we walked through the Portobello Road Market (this is the Hugh Grant/Julia Roberts street for those romcom enthusiasts). We didn’t find a stammering yet charming Hugh Grant in the area, but at the north end of the market, we got some of the best pastries I’ve had on my trip at a place called Layla. I got a miso bun and a pistachio chocolate croissant, and I gotta say, I think that the US is really underutilizing pistachios. They’ve been all over desserts in Europe, and they’re so good. We’re indeed missing out.

I had a chill day in the Notting Hill area before the big reunion. Some of Lucas’s old roommates (who are also my friends) were coming back to the states from a group trip in Greece and were making a weekend pitstop in London. They flew in late on Friday night, and we met up at a packed pub in the Notting Hill area. It had an early Summer Friday night’s energy and the pub’s outdoor area was spilling onto the streets. Unfortunately, the one downside of pubs is that they close fairly early in the night, so we ended up spending most of our night in the basement of a Caribbean-themed bar, but nonetheless having a lot of fun.

Saturday - June 21st, 2025

Most of the group from the previous night met up again around noon the next day to keep the momentum going. We got some brunch at a place in Notting Hill where I had a proper English Breakfast (beans included). It was hot on Saturday. Like the hottest day of the year in London levels of heat. Luckily, the UK’s version of hot is only like 90 degrees without very little humidity, so our suffering was minimal. We took in the day’s heat with a nice walk through Hyde Park to Kensington Palace, where we sought refuge in the shade.

After a sufficient walk, we decided it was about time for a drink so we commenced a makeshift pub crawl in the Notting Hill area. We made stops at a handful of pubs throughout the afternoon, normally getting just one pint at each before migrating to the next. Cards and conversation were enough to keep us entertained. Cold beer in the heat also doesn’t hurt.

We split later in the afternoon for a halftime before meeting up later that night for a night out. We bought tickets to go to a club in a former theater called Koko. It was a very cool setup. The theater stage was the DJ stand, the floor seating area had been converted to a dance floor, and there were a handful of other bars and standing areas on the 4 levels of the theater. Inner City, an 80s electronic band from Detroit, were dj-ing the event, and after a few hours we capped the night off with some shawarma across the street.

End of the shawarma is not to be skipped

Sunday - June 22nd, 2025

Despite the eventful previous few days, the activity levels were not dimmed for Sunday. For some reason, everyone I’ve ever met seemed to be in London this weekend. Included in those ranks were my cousin Brooke and her fiancé Will, who were in town visiting friends. We had brunch with Will’s sister, who lives in London, along with her boyfriend and roommate at a really good spot called The Hero in Maida Ville. After a lengthy, multi-hour brunch, the gravitational pull of the downstairs pub was too much to resist, so we spent another extended period of time buying each other rounds and enjoying our pints on the sidewalk in the shade of the pub’s awning.

Cousin check!

Time flies at the pub, and before I realized it, I had to go to a dinner I had planned with another one of my old USC friends, Lizzy. Lizzy is my token British friend and is in town for a summer visit to see her friends and family. We met up at their family’s place in Paddington before training in the Soho area, where Lizzy took me to some of her favorite spots in the area. It was a fun night that consisted of a diverse range of set of Aperol spritzes, dumplings in Chinatown, pints of Guinness at a pub, and some tiramisu and decaf cappuccinos at an Italian bar. Oh well, for Sunday being a rest day.

Monday - June 23rd, 2025

Monday was the substitute rest day. The weekend took a toll, and I slept until 10. Ahh, the beauty of unemployment! Today, the most eventful thing I did was travel to get some fish and chips from a place my friend Jake recommended. Here’s the pic!

A crisp fish and chips with a nice floral arrangement that deserves some attention

Tuesday - June 24th, 2025

Last day in London, should we go out with a bang? Honestly, I was still tired from the weekend, so I had another chill day. The highlight of the day was going to Ottolenghi with Lizzy for lunch. Ottolenghi is a well-known restaurant chain in London and the second most recommended place to me after Dishoom. Think of it as a very high-end Whole Foods hot bar. Not a good comparison. Check out the pics of my food below, and hopefully that gives an idea of what it’s like. The second pic was a rosewater and pistachio cake that we split. Godly.

Lack of activities for a day = more food pics

Farewell London,

Jack