Swiss Cottage library and the adjacent swimming pools.

Sadly a lot of indoor pools from that era are now being closed due to the cost of running them.

Turning the clock back 10 yrs to the 1950s. Plymouth city centre, having earlier been totally destroyed in one night by the Luftwaffe, was rebuilt from scratch in a modernist style with wide boulevards and some striking landmark buildings. With its proximity to the sea it is a genuinely uplifting place to visit. A ghastly post modernist shopping centre has detracted from it but the central core and its original vision remains.

https://amp.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/nov/16/plymouth-city-centre-designated-conservation-area

Hypermarché - Novembre

"D'abord j'ai trébuché dans un congélateur.
Je me suis mis ?  pleurer et j'avais un peu peur.
Quelqu'un a grommelé que je cassais l'ambiance;
Pour avoir l'air normal j'ai repris mon avance.

Des banlieusards sapés et au regard brutal
Se croisaient lentement près des eaux minérales.
Une rumeur de cirque et de demi-débauche
Montait des rayonnages.
Ma démarche était gauche.

Je me suis écroulé au rayon des fromages ;

Il y avait deux vieilles dames qui portaient des sardines.

La première se retourne et dit ?  sa voisine :

«C'est bien triste, quand même, un garçon de cet âge. »

Et puis j'ai vu des pieds circonspects et très larges ;
Il y avait un vendeur qui prenait des mesures.
Beaucoup semblaient surpris par mes nouvelles chaussures;
Pour la dernière fois j'étais un peu en marge."

I have nothing in common with OP. I like the clothes and that's that.

Good session in the pub on Friday night with hairy fools who drink beer.

I was wearing an Aran sweater, cords and Kleman Padror shoes. So not Ivy, but smarter than the others.

The birthday chap had a ‘Mastodon’ T shirt. They are a popular beat combo who I have never heard of. There was talk of Robin Trower - a guitarist. My eyes glazed over.

One of the company changed the topic to Stax. I am familiar with that, but it is the music of my youth and of nostalgic rather than active interest.

Cycling is another interest of some of the group. I do have a Brompton, bought when there were tax breaks in the ‘cycle to work’ scheme. I used it for exercise during lockdown but I am not a regular cyclist.

^ Seconded.  I picked one up on Ebay just before Christmas, a v-necked, chunky number in a very, very pale grey - and flecked.

Kingstonian - I do enjoy your posts. They are constructed in fine, unpredictable, sensible short sentences. You express yourself clearly. I have often thought of you as Conservative. I believe this is unfair on you. Your pub outfit with your hairy friends sounded splendidly square. I hope this has not made your eyes glaze over.

Aran not Arran sweater please.

I do own a whisky cask on the Isle of Arran though. It is a good age now.

Last edited by Kingston1an (2022-01-24 10:33:13)

A poster on DressedWell (who I think should be allowed to retain his anonymity) is talking a good deal of sense about what JFM and others have termed The Look - not only giving emphasis to its (relative) timelessness but also the fact that it allows for subtle changes during the lifetime of an individual.

I think I know the post you are alluding to and I couldn't relate to it at all personally. Nor can I see how it has anything in common with anything you have told us about your taste in clothes. Obviously it works for the poster though, hence I didn't bother to dispute what he wrote.

If he can afford Alden to begin with, well, as the rap fraternity say, 'Respect'.

'Golf coarse'.  I love it.  Might be an Ebay seller.

^ Yes, an entire year.  It isn't my bag, either - yet it may suit him very well.
I'm wearing the same kind of (if not the actual) shirts in 2022 as I was wearing in 1980 (though I was not then familiar with the phrase 'Ivy League'), so, for me, something of a 'limited pallet'/'stopped clock' thing must be going on.  I can't see that changing.

Went up to Bloomsbury to see if my Shuron Wayfarers were repairable. Solid American specs at sensible price. Would be better to replace them, but at least I found this out without having to post them to a repair company.

The Brunswick Centre was looking good but too many vacant shops. Hare and Tortoise oriental food place was busy, prices up slightly.

Decided to go for a mooch around. Not flaneur level of pretention;but maybe more observant than Micky Flanagan’s Cockney Walk Abaht.

Lambs Conduit Street still has the Lamb at the North end and a very good Italian restaurant next to it, plus the people’s supermarket. After that there was a lot of change. The caff has gone and the engraver. Grenson shoes now feature. The two tailors are still in business.

Leather Lane is all ‘Street food’ now. Different cuisines and folk queuing to buy it. I suppose they eat it indoors at the workplace or at home. The market used to be a place where you could buy clothes, fruit and veg, CDs etc. All the little Italian caffs are gone - one Turkish place at the north end.

Then went for a pint in a 16th century pub down an alley. Rudgate ruby mild - very nice. Sat down. Unfortunately it was within earshot two chaps. The more pompous of the two was the commodore of his sailing club. He claimed in a loud voice that the cards were stacked against him because he was a ‘privately educated, Oxbridge, white heterosexual’. Despite all this, he gave details of how he talked himself into a partnership at another solicitors. The younger chap was all ears.

I would have liked another beer but this conversation would ruin the taste. Decided to head home. Stopped off in Clapham Spoons for a pint of London Porter at half the price. Conversation was a couple of harmless old biddies who were not trying to impress anyone.