Great London Songs

8 Up the Junction – Squeeze

“I never thought it would happen, with me and the girl from Clapham” begins the 1979 story song from Squeeze. It’s named after a 1960s kitchen sink drama directed by Ken Loach and although the story is not quite the same one, it has many of the same elements. Lean lyrics and no chorus, it succinctly tells a life story in 3 minutes and 10 seconds.

Released as a single, on purple vinyl in 1979, it made No2 in the UK charts – being kept from the No1 by Tubeway Army’s “Are Friends Electric”. The song has a London sensibility, Up the Junction is slang for in trouble and it namechecks Clapham’s windy common. Written by Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford, who were the main songwriters in the band, Jools Holland was the keyboard player in Squeeze when the song was released. They wrote the story of the other person in the song “the girl from Clapham” 20 years later in “A Moving Story”

There haven’t been too many covers for a song that sold over half a million copies in the UK. Travis put it on the B side of a single, The View put it on the B side of Superstar Tradesman and Lily Allen does it live occasionally. My favourite cover is by The Hotrats, a side project of the band Supergrass, who change it up, but manage to keep the sadness of the story.

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Great London Walks – The Capital Ring

The Capital Ring is a 125km walk around London, mostly through parks and greenways, split into 15 parts – each starting and finishing near a bus, train or tube station. It is one of seven strategic London Walks that was part of a plan to make London the walking capital of Europe in the early 2000s. I don’t know what became of that plan, but the walks are still there. Leaflets were printed for each section of the Capital Ring and the London Loop at the time, which I still use, although London has much changed in the meantime, so I also use an updated downloadable map from Walk London as a backup these days.

Thames Barrier and London city skyline 2022

Thames Barrier and London city skyline 2010

I particularly like the Capital Ring series of walks as each section is manageable without taking up the whole day and it still brings you to interesting parts of London that you are unlikely to visit for another reason. It is quite well signposted, the signs have Big Ben in blue with a green ring, made up of arrows, around it.

Moorhens on the Union Canal

I first walked the Capital Ring in 2010 and again in 2017. I also walked it in 2020 when it was very quiet due to Covid, so this will be my fourth time round. It is interesting to see the things that have changed …. and the things that have remained the same. It has some lovely views, some stunning buildings and it always surprises me how green London is, for such a large city. Many of London’s parks have cafes in them and I enjoy their variety too.

Rookery Cafe community notice board

The Capital Ring is an iconic London walk, taking in many technological, architectural and historic locations during the course of its circumnavigation of the city. It starts and finishes at the Woolwich foot tunnel south side to the east of London and crosses Richmond Bridge to the west, it goes as far north as Finchley and visits Croydon and Crystal Palace to the south. It gives a lovely insight into the history and workings of London, and I am looking forward to walking the 15 sections. Hopefully I will get some unusual views of London and some photos of nature and architecture from London’s suburbia.

Hampstead Garden Suburb

The Bad Egg, Barbican, London EC2Y

This diner turns inner city dystopia into a design concept. Set in the corner of a tower block the dual aspect dining room overlooks concrete pathways in one direction and a 1960s brutalist car park on the other. Plain wooden tables, leatherette banquettes and wood and metal chairs seat the customers. The look is finished with matt metal grilles and a neon WC sign to guide you to the toilets. It has the feel of a set from a scary 1980s film about street gangs in New York.

The food is basically classic diner fare. Breakfast, brunch, burgers and hashes. They do a bottomless brunch at the weekends which are reputedly very good and very boozy. We were here for a meal before going to the theatre, so tried a burger; the G’Ambal and a hash; the Bad Egg Burger Hash.

The G’Ambal consists of 2 beef patties, a spicy hash brown, caramelized onion, mustard and liquified cheese – all inside a burger bun. It was huge, messy and delicious. We also ordered a side of chips, these were good too, thin shoe lace fries, but to be honest the burger was so filling that we did not need to get them.

The Bad Egg Burger Hash is basically a broken up burger, fried potato, onion, spicy nduja melted cheese served with a fried egg on top. This was also a large portion, nicely spicy and the meat was really good quality. The food here is very good, but I suspect that this would not be the place to come if you are on a diet. They do have vegetarian options, the bean burger was so nicely described that I almost ordered it, but remembered just in time that it is the burgers and boozy brunches for which they are famous.

They have a number of Korean inspired dishes too that look interesting. The service was good, our waiter appeared genuinely interested in our opinion of the food. The music is kind of retro urban, and a good level – conversation is still easily heard. The choice of wine and beer is limited, they had no beer on tap when we went, but they did have bottled Heineken and Corona.

The atmosphere was good, we enjoyed our meal. If you are looking for somewhere a little bit out of the ordinary to have good quality comfort food, The Bad Egg is worth looking up. It is very close if you are going to something in the Barbican or near Moorgate. A nice burger and an interesting restaurant. Sometimes its good to be bad!