Memoirs of London - 12

 Other street traders I knew in London were "the mirrors sellers". Except for a few apart in  some isolated places, the mirrors sellers were mostly located in a narrow net of roads around the famous Carnaby Street, the real commercial hub of London’s tourist and rolling on since the epic of the Beatles.

 A little already decayed, but still a great attraction in the second half of the seventies. All the range of the consumer’s  symbols and the new western mythology, which also might be found in the T-shirts sold as souvenirs in the many stores that occupied the short road, the kingdom of cheap and quick tourist shopping , alltogether with the symbols of London, were reproduced on mirrors of different formed and sold on the street in front of those stores, which also constituted their store and warehouse.

From  Marylin Monroe to Humphrey Bogart; from Gin Beef Heart to Coca Cola; from the stylized liberty models to Union Jack, passing through the Irish beers Scottish whiskey, rock bands and even the Royal Family, everything was reproduced on those colored mirrors, gently framed and sold from a minimum of 99 pence to a maximum of £ 20 depending on their size and from  the buyer's tourist wallet and luggage.

The mirrors sellers of this area were almost all Italians or Spanish people.

Young people who had come  up to London in order to study English  language and know the city.  Or may be escaped from the economic and political climate of reflux and, in any case, all invoked by the great fascination that London's capital of Rock Music still exercised on the young people of that poorer Europe and they sought, together with greater freedom, a job that allowed them to   live in a decent way, relying only on their strength and without weighing on the family. Among the Italians stood the young freak looking , distinguished by the seemingly cluttered appearance .

I called them the minor brothers of the sixty-nine revolutioners. But among the mirrors sellers  of Carnaby Street there was an authentic and remarkable representative of the former young’s revolution whose name was Tommy.

12. to be continued...

London for ever - 2

London has got a lot of things to see. That's why you need to know how excellent are the London's transports. Let's say that the best way is to subscribe an Oyster card. It's a very cheap card and thanks to it you can use both the tube and the double deckers, what I call the two big monsters in the London transport system.

The tube is something unthinkeable and not imaginable if you don't see try it personally. It covers all the 33 boroughs on which London is spread. At any time the trains pass by to collect the passengers and carry them wherever they like to go. The most important stations are connected with the airports: Victoria to Heatrhow; Liverpool station to Stansted; Kings Cross to Luton and Gatwick. But if you need to buy a ticket dont'worry about, plenty of staff  are ready to help you. And if your bank has a convention with London Royal Transport you can even pay your fare by simply  swipping your credit card in the entrance and the exit gate.

I personally prefer the double deckers. In many towns in the world tourists are offered  to visit the sorroundings by hiring a panoramic bus and paying for it the right fare (which might cost you from five up to twenty pounds for the ticket. In London you don't have such a cos. Every single double decker bus has a panoramic sight form the uplevel stage. So you can go anywhere, and enjoy the sorrounding pitches without any overcharge but paying only the simple fare.

2. to be continued...