Castles and Elephants

I stayed around a friend's flat in Elephant and Castle. My past experience of Elephant and Castle was wondering around on January 1st 2000, after the Millennium fireworks at Waterloo. We were staying with a friend in north London, but at that time I didn't know my Kings from my Castles and just walked down a random road. We ended up in Elephant and Castle. It was dark and the grey tower blocks loomed over us. I remember the damp subway with it's lurid motifs. I remember the tatty shop signs, the iron gratings on the windows, the black nooks and whispering crannies and cold cars as they flash past you. I remember gangs of people, just hanging around looking at you. We quickly returned back the way we came, back to Waterloo, then onto a tube...

3 years on and I'm back. It isn't as late and everything seems the same but a bit brighter. Past the collections of tramps in the same subways, we reach the reception. Up the lift and into the flat. First thing I see is the amazing view from the window. It's like London in the movies. Uniform stars in oblong blocks. You can see Tower Bridge, Canary Wharf, the Foster's "erotic gherkin" and the Thames. London looks new and clean, modern and aged. The thousands of tiny electric lights radiate and everything glows.

The next morning, in the daylight, the view is still fresh. London is bathed in warm light. Bright and shining. But as I look, I also look down, and I see the crooked network of streets. The dull coloured buildings, the shadows and the sorry lack of life. Squalid little buildings.

I've changed my mind about Elephant and Castle. If you can live at night and dream in the day, this place isn't so bad. High above, in an elephant's castle, you can still see the sky and stars.