The other week I had relatives in town. They had never been to London before, so whether they wanted it or not, they got my usual lecture about how not to act like tourists.
My advice has changed since I first moved here from Australia more than 20 years ago. This was before the city became a phone-snatching capital of Europe, so I now include instructions for using phones on busy streets (try not to) and putting them on the table in bars or cafes (just don’t).
The productivity rates of London pickpockets mean I also recommend handbags with a zip, and preferably pockets, too. Backpacks are good, but not if you put your wallet in an outside pocket that can be unzipped on a rammed Tube trip.
These messages are generally received without complaint, but when I get to the bits that matter most to those of us who work in London, they can provoke a certain amount of wide-eyed disbelief.
Should I be paying tax in the UK on a pension if I live in Ireland?
Family of Eugene O’Reilly and CRH face Ukraine dispute
Dublin’s office market remains distressed and it’s too early to call a recovery in rents
Nuclear generators, hydrogen and battery storage are options we should explore to generate clean electricity
“Are you really saying I should always stand on the right-hand side of a Tube station escalator?” visitors will ask.
Yes, I say, I am, because otherwise you will block the left-hand lane on the escalator that locals reserve for people like me who are always racing to get from one part of the city to another for work.
What I do not say is that this is just one aspect of a commuters-versus-tourist contest that I am not sure either side is winning and, at this time of year, invariably feels worse.
The right-hand-side escalator situation embodies the problem.
There is no hope that the thousands of tourists visiting London this summer will all obey this code because, like so much else in the city, it is not uniformly advertised, does not officially exist and does not even make total sense.
Official trials at the busy Holborn Tube station years ago showed escalators carried up to 30 per cent more passengers when commuters were made to stand on both the right and left sides, with no overtaking lane. But the standing-only practice was never formally imposed, in part because it left commuters so outraged.
A report on the experiment said many people worried about being late or not being able to get their usual exercise, and some took desperate measures to avoid standing still.
“One man pushed a child aside so that he could walk, demonstrating how strongly ingrained the habit of walking can be that it overcomes the social norm that prohibits the touching of other people’s children,” the report said.
This is why I give visitors firm instructions to keep moving at the top of escalators, as opposed to stopping dead to check a phone or gazing about to work out where to go next.
‘I don’t think the Department of Finance have any respect for the tourism industry’
This can cause chaos for rush hour hordes coming up behind you, and is not appreciated outside Tube stations either.
Dawdling, walking three-abreast, or doing anything else to block a footpath is ill-advised on busy streets in any big city, where research going back decades shows people walk faster than they do in less populated spots.
Australians need to take special note: one study that timed 1,300 pedestrians in 10 places in England and Australia found Londoners outpaced all those surveyed, with morning speeds of 1.68m a second.
I doubt things have changed much since, in London or anywhere else. Average walking speeds in New York, Boston and Philadelphia rose 15 per cent from 1980 to 2010, while time spent lingering halved, a study showed this year.
It’s unclear what’s behind the rising speed. Maybe smartphones make it easier to dash around. Perhaps growing city populations boost wage rates that make people’s time more precious.
[ London travel guide: Why spring is the best time to visit a city in full flowerOpens in new window ]
Either way, London visitors need to know they block a commuter’s progress at their peril, and not just when on foot.
So many Londoners now pedal to work that bikes outnumber cars by nearly two to one during the day in the City of London financial district.
Which brings me to my final bit of London visitor advice. Bikes are a brilliant way to see this wonderful city, especially the dockless electric ones that thousands of Londoners rent. So hire one by all means. But please try not to madden cycling commuters by veering all over the road, or stopping suddenly where you shouldn’t. London already has enough of these galoots, and they are all entirely home-grown. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025
