robroy:
I used to love staying in London when you could actually park in a choice of at least half a dozen designated truck parks, I’ve had some cracking nights out there.
In 79/early 80s, I used to go in many East End pubs including The Blind Beggar where Ronnie Kray shot Jack Cornell.
It was told to me that the Krays despite them being violent murderers they ‘kept the peace’ in the area, unlike today where the place is a free for all cess pit of every type of foreign and home grown gang scum running around as if they owned the [zb] place.
I thankfully don’t do London anymore, I used to know my way around and right through it from all directions, when you had no choice pre M25 days…guess what, without a sat nav (had to get that in for today’s drivers )
I was last there 10 yrs ago, and hadn’t a [zb] clue where I was.
So yeh London does ‘‘worry me’’ (not really ) but nothing to do with terrorist pieces of [zb], more from a point of view that it ‘‘worries me’’ ever having to do it again, because I hate the [zb] hole because of what I’ve said, and that I’d have to face finding somewhere to park for the night.
Actually London is one place where I actually ignored my sat nav because it would be as likely to get you stuck somewhere as it would to take you the most suitable route.
Like the OP said it could be any town/city in the UK as many like Leicester and Nottingham (only mentioning them as I live in the East Midlands so get the local news) have a lot of stabbings etc that rarely make the National news. Years ago we used to deliver tarmac to the Manchester area regularly and in places like Moss Side were advised to keep the cab doors locked even while we were inside the cab, it might be better there now of course?
Back in the seventies we had the IRA threat, every time you went to a speedway meeting or a cinema etc there would be a bomb scare (always a hoax) and I remember going to watch a film (Love Story, crap!) in Bristol with my then girlfriend and moving to two different cinemas on the same evening as half way through the first cinema recieved a threat and closed. We were sent to one in St Pauls of all places to finish it off! However when Guildford was bombed we took a little more care as that was close to home (Reading at that time) and it became a real threat.
The only places where I ever got scared were Glasgow and Liverpool. That was 60 years ago though and they were both pretty rough places. No cab hotel then - we stayed in digs mostly.
In Glasgow, I used to park on a bomb-site in the middle of town and so long as you paid the small boy “Watch yer lorry mister?” you had no trouble. Later I parked down by the Clyde (and slept in the cab) and that was pretty rough - a prostitute was murdered one night while I was there and the cops didn’t even interview me.
I only ever stayed one night in Liverpool and was robbed. I backed the truck against a wall (as advised by others) but the scrotes went in through the roof; they also smashed the cab window and ransacked it.
I did have a scary moment in Sheffield once. Another lad and I went out in search of a pint and ended up in what looked like an ordinary working man’s boozer. We were in the public bar and quite enjoying the singing coming from the back room until it dawned on me that they were all Irish and they were singing anti-English songs. We both downed our pints and left a bit sharpish. But not before we had both put a few coins in a green bucket “For the Boys”.
I know what you mean Santa. I used to park in the Gorbals in the Seventies.
Worked in London at the time but I suppose my Glaswegian accent helped when I spoke to any dodgy characters.
Used to do a lot of multi drop in London and never felt worried same as any big city good areas and bad. Doing multi drop meat in London, generally it was the muslim shops where you got a better reception, keen to get you tipped would always help with the handball and in plenty of cases given something to eat or drink for your efforts.
london is just every other major city toilet poxhole in england only larger.
the same rules apply no matter where you are.
i remember years ago delivering to a store in glasgow that had a flat roof with a few scallywags playing on the top and one of them flung a tomato at me which hit me with considerable force square on the nose.
it wouldnt have been so bad but it was still in the tin!
windrush:
Like the OP said it could be any town/city in the UK as many like Leicester and Nottingham (only mentioning them as I live in the East Midlands so get the local news) have a lot of stabbings etc that rarely make the National news. Years ago we used to deliver tarmac to the Manchester area regularly and in places like Moss Side were advised to keep the cab doors locked even while we were inside the cab, it might be better there now of course?
Back in the seventies we had the IRA threat, every time you went to a speedway meeting or a cinema etc there would be a bomb scare (always a hoax) and I remember going to watch a film (Love Story, crap!) in Bristol with my then girlfriend and moving to two different cinemas on the same evening as half way through the first cinema recieved a threat and closed. We were sent to one in St Pauls of all places to finish it off! However when Guildford was bombed we took a little more care as that was close to home (Reading at that time) and it became a real threat.
Pete.
You’re correct, major crime isn’t just exclusive to London. Huddersfield had 200 gun related incidents in the last 4 years. There was a really good documentary last year about Huddersfields gang and drug problems
pierrot 14:
After the latest events today in Streatham, do you worry about driving/delivering in this place, or any other large city come to that, Birmingham, Manchester etc.
You hear about drive by thefts, acid attacks by thugos on mopeds, drive by shootings, stabbings.
I must admit, that I do actually lock my doors whilst driving in certain areas of the capital.
I grew up in the almost as bad situation of an ‘outer London Borough’ dumping ground during the 1970’s etc.In addition to naively and unknowingly being caught in the middle of the animosity between Muslim/Sihk/Hindu gangs when going to day/night college in the even ( much ) worse area of Hounslow as part of my job in the day.So nothing surprises me or really bothers me about that zb hole.
If I happen to,now rarely,be there in the wrong place at the wrong time it would be fate.Think of it like my late parents living in the target area during the Blitz and V weapons attacks.Mum at school covered in glass from the blast of a V2 exploding a mile or so away and back next day as though nothing had happened and bombs taking out houses in the area before that during the Blitz and Dad working in the local factory making armaments then fire watching and helping to extricate people from the flattened houses in the area at night.Before he was called up.Sort of puts the risks into perspective along the lines if your number is up so be it.
Santa:
The only places where I ever got scared were Glasgow and Liverpool. That was 60 years ago though and they were both pretty rough places. No cab hotel then - we stayed in digs mostly.
In Glasgow, I used to park on a bomb-site in the middle of town and so long as you paid the small boy “Watch yer lorry mister?” you had no trouble. Later I parked down by the Clyde (and slept in the cab) and that was pretty rough - a prostitute was murdered one night while I was there and the cops didn’t even interview me.
I only ever stayed one night in Liverpool and was robbed. I backed the truck against a wall (as advised by others) but the scrotes went in through the roof; they also smashed the cab window and ransacked it.
I did have a scary moment in Sheffield once. Another lad and I went out in search of a pint and ended up in what looked like an ordinary working man’s boozer. We were in the public bar and quite enjoying the singing coming from the back room until it dawned on me that they were all Irish and they were singing anti-English songs. We both downed our pints and left a bit sharpish. But not before we had both put a few coins in a green bucket “For the Boys”.
This rang a bell about rough districts.The '70s was a long time ago now and the phone box is now a rarity, but I recall being a bit concerned when I first started ‘doing distance’ to see that some Towns - Plymouth was one, I think Liverpool was another - had cages around the phone boxes - something I had never seen before in London.
ezydriver:
Three times I’ve been in London in the lorry when murders/terrorist attacks have happened, being anything from 100 yards to 1 mile away, or passed somewhere just minutes before. The first time I ever took an artic into London I was parked round the back of Homebase Swiss Cottage waiting for their night team to start. As I lay on the bunk the cab swayed, and a couple of lads were hanging onto the mirror peering in. They legged it when I sat up. Another time during the 2012 riots I was near Peckham, and had to stop my lorry because a gang of hooded looters were walking towards me in the middle of the road. They didn’t bother me, and just walked round the lorry. But for one heart-stopping moment I thought I was about to be hijacked.
One night last year I took a 5 minute walk through a couple of back streets by Euston from a pub to my hotel around midnight. Somebody was stabbed to death in that backstreet the next night. Another bloke tried to mug me and my mate outside the Charlie Chaplin pub at the Elephant & Castle in 2014. We were onto him, and he started to get quite angry when we told him to eff off. I detest London, and always lock my doors when I drive through.
You’re either very lucky or very unlucky, decide which
Being prepared to do shifts that involve driving into town - gets me shifts that otherwise might have seen me left on the sidelines.
Plenty of work on agency for me throughout January - but I’ve noticed a total derth of other agency drivers about, suggesting that if all they can do is Monday-Friday, days - then they rather than myself - are the ones who got left on the sidelines, and mistakingly think that “there’s no work” when there actually is PLENTY - if you are flexible about the hours…
Santa:
The only places where I ever got scared were Glasgow and Liverpool. That was 60 years ago though and they were both pretty rough places. No cab hotel then - we stayed in digs mostly.
In Glasgow, I used to park on a bomb-site in the middle of town and so long as you paid the small boy “Watch yer lorry mister?” you had no trouble. Later I parked down by the Clyde (and slept in the cab) and that was pretty rough - a prostitute was murdered one night while I was there and the cops didn’t even interview me.
I only ever stayed one night in Liverpool and was robbed. I backed the truck against a wall (as advised by others) but the scrotes went in through the roof; they also smashed the cab window and ransacked it.
I did have a scary moment in Sheffield once. Another lad and I went out in search of a pint and ended up in what looked like an ordinary working man’s boozer. We were in the public bar and quite enjoying the singing coming from the back room until it dawned on me that they were all Irish and they were singing anti-English songs. We both downed our pints and left a bit sharpish. But not before we had both put a few coins in a green bucket “For the Boys”.
This rang a bell about rough districts.The '70s was a long time ago now and the phone box is now a rarity, but I recall being a bit concerned when I first started ‘doing distance’ to see that some Towns - Plymouth was one, I think Liverpool was another - had cages around the phone boxes - something I had never seen before in London.
I remember walking into an empty pub on the outskirts of Liverpool about 11 years ago (Speke I think it maybe was)
I said to the barman."Quiet in here eh mate’’ his reply was ‘‘Yeh there was a murder in here at the weekend’’.
Another pub in Northern Ireland, I asked the barman if he was showing the England game, the whole pub stopped talking , presumably because of the English accent, and I got lots of filthy looks.
I counted to myself how many were in the pub, and checked the same amount were in when I blocked my pint before walking out, (not a complete idiot btw ) …and went back to the truck.
At home at weekend I was telling an ex.squaddie mate about it, he asked where it was,.and said '‘Ah bandit country’.
In the early 80’s we used to load frozen beef from frigoscandia in Kirkby Liverpool , while being loaded late one afternoon I asked the security guy where I could park around there and got the reply "as far away as you can get "
(had to get that in for today’s drivers
However when Guildford was bombed we took a little more care as that was close to home (Reading at that time) and it became a real threat.
