First nights in London
GG writes: A new strand that might excite the memories of your immigrant readers, or the Ozzies and Yanks anyway, is where they spent their first night(s) in London.
Arriving in the 70s
Arriving late, late one night in the mid 70s, my friend and I were directed to a place run by an Indian lady that seemed to be little more than mattresses on the floor of some building up in the south-west corner of Russell Square.
In a guidebook I recall we found something called the Saney Guruji hostel, and later I returned more often to a place in Gayfere Street in Westminster, which may or may not have been that, and was also called the Gayfere hostel - it was clean and orderly enough, and the entry was through the basement which was also where the kitchen was, where I made many a meal of pot noodle or porridge oats, to the chimes of Big Ben.
Re: flea pits, hands up who remembers the cartoon cinema in Victoria Station?
