Round-the-clock London: what it’s like to live and work in city that never sleeps

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jul/11/round-the-clock-london-city-never-sleeps-tube

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The tube driver

Finn Brennan was a driver on the Northern line for 23 years, but is now a district organiser for Aslef, the drivers’ union that led last week’s strike

In the short term it won’t make a dramatic difference to most people; it’ll make a big difference to young affluent people who go out partying. And this is nothing to do with our dispute but the big losers will be low-paid workers who start early and rely on night buses. There will be fewer night buses because of the tubes, and low-paid workers can’t afford to take the tube. It has been forgotten but there was a poll last year by the Evening Standard that showed people would prefer low fares to 24-hour tubes.

We’re not against night tubes but you couldn’t pick two worse shifts to work. They are going to be the two least popular shifts because you’re asking people to give up their weekends. There’s a deal to be done, but the compensation and time off has to be right.

Engineering work will be affected too. It’s usually done in a short period after the last tube, so we will lose those windows on Friday and Saturday night. There are also safety fears, although I don’t want to overplay them. But already it’s the case that on Friday nights people come out of work and go pouring into the bars, so by 11 or 12 the tube is full of drunk people.

The hairdresser

Neil Cornelius runs The Salon in Bond Street

Initially I wanted to be open 24/7 but I had to change it because it didn’t quite fit with what people wanted. Also for safety reasons you can’t have a girl here on her own all night, with the doors open. So now we’ll work at any time of the night, as long as people book and pay in advance. It has given us a niche, and provides us with 90% of our new clients. The industry used to be about superstar hairdressers, but now it’s about providing a service when people want it, which I think is why we’ve stayed open while other salons, that have spent millions on marble floors or whatever, have closed.

The clientele completely changes past 10pm and the conversations are totally different. Nobody’s around, and it’s quiet, and people really open up. They tell you about affairs they’re having or how they’re about to lose their business, or their wife. It can be quite surreal.

The night tube is going to help open London up so I’m really looking forward to it and I can absolutely imagine staying fully open 24/7 in the future. It’s the way everything is going.

The all-night chef

Dan Doherty is head chef at Duck & Waffle, a 24-hour restaurant near Liverpool Street

It felt like it was always going to happen. Our transport, combined with the licensing laws, held us back from competing with the Asian cities and New York. When we opened three years ago the restaurant made a massive gamble because we didn’t know this was going to happen. On Fridays and Saturdays we’re already full overnight – we serve between 300 and 350 dining covers between midnight and 5am and turn away a similar number. London definitely isn’t turning off the lights at 11pm any more.

I hope that the new tube will lead people to have a more balanced approach to going out, rather than getting absolutely slaughtered before the last tube, and that early morning is when we have the best mix of clientele.

There are east London types, a few celebrities, people in there when they shouldn’t be. We are used to all these traditional signals that it’s time to go home.

But you don’t have to any more. You can be sitting there, having a chat, and before you know it the sun is rising.

The nurse

Hannah Goldstone is a nurse in A&E at University College Hospital

We are already totally 24/7 and work in 12-hour shifts. At night I do 8-8, and get the Victoria line in, so the tube situation doesn’t make much difference unless you get sick and have to go home. That can be difficult, especially for some of the nurses who live outside London; some live as far away as Milton Keynes. But I prefer working at night. Partly because you get more money but also London’s a very different place and the patients are different.

There are some strange people in London and many of them come into A&E at night. During the daytime you get a lot of timewasters. At night you get a different sort of timewaster – lots of drunks and people on drugs. But generally it’s less busy, and the people who aren’t drunk are usually there because they are really ill.

It’s ridiculous that it’s taken so long for London to become a 24-hour city. It’s such a vibrant place and there’s so much going on, especially in summer when it gets dark later.

The tube will help because it’s cheaper than Uber but the only concern is safety. You feel vulnerable as a young woman; and I’m not sure I’d want to take it on my own.

The cafe owner

Antonios Foufas runs the cafe at the New Covent Garden Flower Market in Vauxhall. Last year he sold Ed Miliband that bacon sandwich…

I start work at 2am and work until 10. If people ask me about working more civilised hours, I say that I am the civilised one. Uncivilised is getting on the crowded tube at rush hour. I get in my car in St Albans at 1.15am and I am here just after 1.45am. It’s peaceful. My neighbour is a solicitor. He spends three hours travelling on public transport every day and is often late.

In the past the busiest day for the market would be Monday when the English flowers would be sold for delivery at hotels through the week. But now many flowers are grown abroad and the congestion charge and parking restrictions mean people don’t want to deliver in London on weekdays. They do it on Sunday or very early on Monday instead so Saturday is the busiest day here. None of the people who work here would use public transport – business owners can’t take public transport.

The taxi driver

Gladys Mapanda works for Uber

I’ve been with Uber for almost three months. I’ve tried working almost all the shifts but prefer to work through the late nights and early mornings. If you work in the daytime there’s a lot of dead mileage, when you’re stuck in traffic or not picking anyone up. On Fridays and Saturdays I work from 5pm to 5am. I prefer the south-west: Chelsea, Kensington, Fulham, Clapham.

Some areas go very quiet at night, it’s true, but London is still a 24-hour city. Especially in the centre, around Soho and Covent Garden, there are always people wanting to go from one area to another. And I’m not sure how much effect the new night tubes will have. A lot of my passengers already take Ubers while the tube is still running. If you are high or drunk, you might still want to call an Uber rather than go downstairs into the tube. And I think we have some quite loyal riders.