Where Does It All End? (3) Colchester and Londinium

Sam Stringer is in two minds about Colchester.

Into the gunmetal mouth of the Jubilee line at Canary Wharf. Fight your way onto the Eastbound train. Fifteen minutes later, streaming along the concourse at Stratford, past Mark the Standard man, run up the stairs onto another crowded platform. Wait there for the Norwich train.

No need to go that far; Colchester is now the preferred destination of thousands of finance workers – the City types who commute there from Canary Wharf and Canada Water. As a result of their dayjobs (moving oodles of money around and watching it grow), even they have effectively priced themselves out of the hugely inflated London housing market. Hence the 100 mile round trip, about an hour each way, to the dormitory town of Colchester.

Seems like half of London goes there to sleep.

But Colchester is more than ‘London Overspill’, as old-style urban planners used to say. Once the capital of Roman Britain, it is believed to be the oldest town in England. Its rich tradition is well-documented in Colchester Castle museum.

And Colchester isn’t resting on old laurels. The town is home to what is now the biggest football club in Essex, Colchester United. They presently play in League One, which is, confusingly, the third tier of English football. Partly as a result of £14m investment by the local authority, the team recently moved to a brand new, 10,000-capacity stadium.

Then there’s a university campus (Anglia Ruskin); and the longstanding military presence in the town; not forgetting the 5000 animals in Colchester Zoo. There really is more to the place than the people who only come back here at night.

On the other hand, if they didn’t bring their spending money with them, it’s likely that the local economy would sink into deep recession. Colchester could survive but surely wouldn’t thrive without their financial input.

Still life in the oldest English town, but it’s that new-fangled Londinium which keeps the money pouring in.

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