For the first time since I moved to London in 2008, I am not living somewhere along the Piccadilly line, or in North London: Leyton, East and in the Central line, is the place I now call home.
We’d heard houses here were still affordable, so I decided to explore during one of my work visits, about a year ago. I was prepared for the worst.
A few seconds after exiting the Underground station, however, I knew this was it: the high street seemed pretty and busy, most streets off it were lined with Victorian houses, my mobile phone didn’t try to go into roaming mode (like when I took the Overground towards Crystal Palace) and I knew that houses were indeed cheaper.
The fact that less than 10 minutes into my exploration I had walked past a Portuguese café and a Portuguese restaurant certainly helped too.
So here I am now. I am even slowly starting to forget which—and in which order—stations there are in the Piccadilly line.