Londoners - how often do you run into people you know?

[ericjarvis]

All the bloody time. I can barely get as far as Brixton Road without having a conversation with somebody. Last night I got off a train at Clapham Junction and walked to the bus stop, with an old friend I hadn't seen for several years a few metres behind me having just got off the same train and headed for the same bus.

Sometimes I worry that the entire bloody human race are stalking me.

 

[teuchter]

All the bloody time. I can barely get as far as Brixton Road without having a conversation with somebody. Last night I got off a train at Clapham Junction and walked to the bus stop, with an old friend I hadn't seen for several years a few metres behind me having just got off the same train and headed for the same bus.

Sometimes I worry that the entire bloody human race are stalking me.

Someone else hasn't read the OP

 

[hipipol]

Too Often

I was sitting outside a pub having a chat with some guy down from Norwich, who is talking about how big the city is, in Norwich, random peeps from his past turn up all the time, when I hear a voice.
"Paul, how ya doing mate?"
I look up - a man i had not seen for 8 years, with his dog on a string, covered in shite, hair all spikey, not cos hes trendy, its cos he dont wash
"Fuck me, Trev" I say
"Hows it goin mate, you still on the smack and fuckin that daft nurse?" he replies

Fucking ace, fucking ace with bells on

Takes 20 mins to get rid

Yer man from Norwich says,
"Well that was a truly Norwich moment, maybe I could handle it down here"
While pissing his pants laffin

 

[ericjarvis]

Someone else hasn't read the OP

I don't count Clapham Junction as my local area.

 

[RubyBlue]

The oddest place I've run into someone I know was in the bar at Budapest airport - we were not only both waiting for a flight back to London but were both going to the same party that evening - neither of us knew the other was in Budapest - we only knew each other slightly. Apart from that - rarely.

 

[pootle]

A couple of times you've people?

Accidentally?

Well, you know how it is, one minute you're walking down the street, singing into your ipod, away with the birds and the next thing...

 

[DeadManWalking]

I find it weird that I don't see people who live near me very often or maybe they just dive into alley ways when they see me.

 

[ericjarvis]

I just worry that some bastard is organising everything so that my life reads like a bad novel. It's either that or I just notice more weird shit than most.

A week after I moved into my old flat I discovered that a bloke I knew from years before lived a few doors down. A month later an ex girlfriend I'd lost contact with moved in to a flat on the corner of the street. Within a few days of moving into my new place somebody I hadn't seen for several years cycled past my front door just as I was putting the bins out. And so on.

 

[blossie33]

LOADS of times! It's always happening to me - can't get away from my past

Before I lived in London and was down for the day, someone I knew from the Midlands (different city from me) was sitting in the tube carriage I got into.

The most amazing was someone recognising me outside where I now work who had worked in the same offices as me over 20 YEARS previously in a different city

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

By this I mean outside of your local area, and not in places which have some relation to the reason you know each other. For example if you are a cigar connoisseur and you meet a fellow member of the London Cigar Smoking Club, in a cigar shop, that doesn't count.

I find it happens surprisingly often. Intuitively, I would think that in a city of 7 million, the chances of running into people I know must be pretty miniscule. Yet it happens several times a year at least.

I am sure it all makes sense when you do the appropriate probability maths on it but it continues to surprise me.

Also - it suggests that there are loads more times where I nearly run into someone out of context but am none the wiser.

I found it quite a lot, and often in quite unlikely contexts.

Last August I popped down from Newcastle to London for a week. I met up with some friends at a couple of junctures, but one day i went to London zoo with the missus, son, my bro, his bird, my mum and my bro/missus's three kids.

Nearly closing time at the zoo, we just happened, inside the zoo, to run into one of my best mates, who was there with his new woman.



Now that is proper freakazoidy.

I'm less surprised if i run into someone I know in camden town or something. As people who like the same things gravitate towards the same area.

 

[100% masahiko]

Quite alot in Brixton/Streatham and Clapham.

Outside of this zone, hardly.
Gosh - it's like I'm living on a soap set.

 

[vauxhallmum]

Well, lots. But then I live here and so do they

 

[El Jefe]

a lot in Brixton and Streatham, otherwise not so much except at gigs

 

[IMR]

Very occasionally. Last year bumped into someone in a pub in Whitechapel who I hadn't seen for at least 25 years, time had not treated him well but I recognised him straightaway.

About three weeks ago ran into a work colleague, an American intern who was actually about to hop into a cab bound for the airport to go home now their internship was over, and it took me ages to recognise them in the unfamiliar context, and even then, I couldn't remember their name.

 

[teuchter]

Well, lots. But then I live here and so do they

a lot in Brixton and Streatham, otherwise not so much except at gigs

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Well, lots. But then I live here and so do they

I think he means how you can be walking around some random bit of London and run into someone from 10 years ago in school or something.

It does happen a surprising amount.

 

[scifisam]

I don't count Soho as part of my regular 'beat,' (Lord, that sounds wrong!) but I'm guaranteed to see numerous acquaintances when I'm there, even if it's not Pride or whatever. I bump into people at museums and so on pretty regularly. But then, I know quite a lot of people from different scenes, so it's not that surprising.