Our Flat

In this, our last week living in London, I thought I should talk a little about the flat that has been our home away from home since the summer.

Naturally, I can't complain. I've been living rent-free for four and a half months in one of the most expensive cities in the world. The one-bedroom flat has been claustrophobic at times, but has served us well.

We are on the 2nd floor (3rd for Americans) of a building built in the 1980s on Albert Street in Camden Town. You can see the location of the flat in this photo: the three windows at the upper left. According to a local history book there used to be a small factory of some sort on this plot. The only remnant of that older building is a stone plaque set into the facade that says E.R. VII for Edvardvs Rex, the seventh (King Edward VII). The first two stories are occupied by the British headquarters of World ORT, a Jewish non-governmental education and training organization.

There is an L-shaped entry hall off of which are the bedroom to the left and the bathroom to the right. The living room is straight ahead, and the kitchen is off the far side of the living room. The space is much smaller than what we were used to having in New York (The living room here is about the size of our second bedroom at home). But the bed is comfortable, we have a high speed Internet connection and a lovely flat-screen TV (it must be 3 feet across) with a gazillion cable channels.

An interesting aspect about the flat is the artwork that greeted us when we moved in. It's as if it had been selected especially for us. In the bedroom there a print of John Lennon and Yoko Ono watching over us every night. As some of you know, John Lennon was one of my John's idols and he's a fan of both artists. In the living room over the sofa or settee there is a painting of calla lilies in a vase--they happen to be one of our favorite flowers. On another wall Steve McQueen grins at us atop his motorcycle that he rode in the film The Great Escape, one of my favorite WWII films. (McQueen, a motorcycle enthusiast, got the producers to change the storyline so he could steal a German motorcycle and try to jump over the barbed wire border with Switzerland.) Finally, on the wall above the TV is the beautiful visage of Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's. She stares out at us directly wearing a black sleeve-less frock, long black gloves, a pearl necklace and diamond tiara, and is about to puff on her cigarette in a ridiculously long holder.

Our kitchen has been troublesome for us. John and I both enjoy cooking, but have felt sort of hamstrung in that department since we arrived. Although I brought some good knives with me we're missing a lot of utensils and pots/pans that we've grown accustomed to. The oven is a fan variety and works pretty well although cooking times have to be adjusted from a regular gas or electric one. The hob (stove) is a drag because it has electric plates; they heat up very fast, but you can't cool them down in a hurry. "Simmer" is a difficult operation on this hob. The fridge is very small. It fits below the counter and there's no freezer to speak of. It's a lot like the fridges we used to rent in our college dorm.

We have a clothes washer/dryer all-in-one unit in the kitchen, as well. One wash takes up to 2 hours, but is probably energy efficient. It sloshes the clothes around in about an inch of water! Then we line-dry the clothes or use the drying function in the unit. It's a slow process again, taking up to an hour and a half to dry a load.