Time Travelling From London

This’ll annoy the people who don’t live in London.

Giles Coren articulates something that has been nagging at me for years.

My old mate and former Times colleague, Guy Walters […] has a theory: “For every ten miles you drive away from London”, says Guy, “you travel back one year in time.” He’s talking about fashion, mostly. About shops and clothes and cars and food and conversation topics. And if you look around, you will find that it’s absolutely true. In Oxford, for example, 60 miles from London, they’re all showing designer knicker elastic above the waistband of low-crotched jeans, gelling their hair into fins, eating overrated Japanese fusion and thinking that the biggest threat to world security is the Millennium bug.

In Portsmouth, 80 miles from London, the kids are just getting into vintage trainers, “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” is a book for children, grown-ups still can’t believe Diana is gone, and foodies dream of a trip to Aubergine, where Gordon something or other is said to be a frightfully good cook who, if you’re very, very lucky, might come out of the kitchen and swear at you.

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