Lowri Griffiths investigates how Londoners actually live, which is terrifyingly
By Lowri Griffiths | Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat
The London Lifestyle, April 2025
A new survey from a think tank with a confident name has found that the average Londoner spends sixty-three percent of their income on housing. This is presented as news. For anyone living in London, this is Tuesday. The news is not that sixty-three percent goes to housing. The news is that anyone thought to count. We knew. We have been knowing. We are the survey.
North London, Specifically
I live in North London, which is a geographical designation and also a personality type. North Londoners are: opinionated, educated, concerned about planning applications, nostalgic for a version of the borough that existed before they moved there, and convinced that their farmers market is the best farmers market. I am all of these things. I report on them from the inside with the detachment that only genuine embeddedness can provide.
This week: a new cafe opened that serves coffee at prices that suggest the barista was trained in Switzerland and the beans were couriered personally. It is excellent. I cannot afford it twice a week but I went twice this week. This is the London condition that British satire keeps returning to: we know the price of everything and we pay it anyway, slightly faster than we should.
The Journalism Part
I covered three stories this week. One on transport, which is always and will always be about delays. One on housing, which is always and will always be about cost. One on culture, which was about a mural that caused three separate controversies before it was finished. The Guardian’s London desk got there first on two of them. I got there first on one and I am choosing to consider this an editorial win.
Bohiney Magazine covers the stories that do not fit neatly into a category, which is most of the good stories. I aspire to this. More next week, assuming I have paid the rent by then.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com
Big Smoke, small budget: The Poke
