London – Outside the M25

London is an amazing city. It’s the largest city in Europe and prides itself in having one of the most diverse mixes of people in the world. It’s a centre for finance, fashion, shopping and entertainment. As Samuel Johnson put it “when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life”. Step outside the limits of London, however, and you come into a completely different world. Beyond the ring road of the M25 is a completely different world. A world less diverse, less interesting and slightly scary. A world called England.


The fist job I had on my return to London was in a town on the outskirts of London called Bracknell. This involved a long drive there and back each day. After living next to my office for the past 18 months, it was hard work!

Bracknell is an ancient medieval town, but after the second world war, it was designated by the government as a “new town”. This removed control of the town from the local council and placed it under direct government control. The aim was to promote growth, new housing and generally to get things moving. The affect has been rather different.

Rather than enhancing the feeling of the medieval town, the whole thing was just knocked to the ground and replaced by better, new buildings. The net result is a rather grey barren metropolis wannabe in the middle of the countryside.

Dotted around town, are a few buildings saved from the wrecking ball. There’s a delightful seventeenth century inn, as well as a few other old world pubs around town. Dominating the whole town, however, is a rather vile looking green high rise. It hasn’t been occupied for years and the vandals have broken in. The building is now pocked with broken windows, smoke stains and a general feeling of urban decay. Not the best thing to see in the middle of the countryside.

The town centre also suffers from decay as well. There’s a not too bad mall, as well as a nice little shopping area, but walk two minutes in the other direction and you stumble across the unfashionable part of town. The main part has regular high street shops – HMV, Boots etc. This part of town, is dominated by charity shops, bargain discount shops and very suspicious shops that aren’t quite clear what they sell. It’s all a bit scary.

Then there’s the people. I’m sure they’re all lovely, but coming from a year or so in Asia and living in London, they all seem very homogenous and more than a little scary. There’s the ubiquitous teenage mother, the scary old booze addled man, as well as an above average number of large, circular housewives with a fag hanging out their mouths. It’s the world of “The Royle Family” transposed to southern England. Everyone seems just a little too well fed, a little puffy and a little lacking in direction, focus or drive. In other words, contented middle England.



Not that I’m saying Bracknell is a bad place. If this was a place you lived, I’m sure you’d find it perfectly lovely. It has all the shops and amenities that you could want. I’m sure the housing is reasonable and everyone has a good standard of living. Best of all, London is only an hour away by train.

For me, that’s the key point. London is not in any way a part of England. It proudly proclaims itself the independent Republic of London. A trip into the countryside is a trip into another country. England is a nice place to visit, but I much prefer my home country of London.