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Where is London's most central sheep?

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Re: Where is London's most central sheep?

#131

Post by mihaaly »

steerpike wrote: post #3

When my wife and I lived in Bristol we developed a metric designed to measure how enjoyable a city was to live in that we called "time to sheep". Basically it's a measure of how long you have to travel from the center of the city before you're in the English countryside surrounded by sheep and the best cities have a low (but not too low) "time to sheep" metric. It helped explain one of the reasons we loved living in…

How about the 'time to cow' measure?

Cambridge may be unbeatable this way [1]. Which is also lovely - depite the unfunctional forced mix of incompatible old and new so typical to most charmful English towns.

[1] https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/ace/standard/976/cpsprodpb/ba11/liv... (this one is at the Laundress Green but other directions are similar)

Re: Where is London's most central sheep?

#132

Post by steerpike »

trgn wrote: post #91
steerpike wrote: post #3

When my wife and I lived in Bristol we developed a metric designed to measure how enjoyable a city was to live in that we called "time to sheep". Basically it's a measure of how long you have to travel from the center of the city before you're in the English countryside surrounded by sheep and the best cities have a low (but not too low) "time to sheep" metric. It helped explain one of the reasons we loved living in…

> Bristol is just crazy beautiful city to live in Curious, because of geography? architecture?

So I'll caveat this by saying we were a couple of Australians living in the UK and one of the big differences we noticed between Australia and the UK is just how damn clearly delineated the seasons are in the UK. In Australia they all kind of smudge into one another while in the UK it's really very clearly 4 very distinct phases of the year.

One of the byproducts of this is that we found UK winter in London to be pretty damn hard to get through. London is an incredible city and there's a lot to love about it, but the winters are honestly a fucking slog. We discovered that UK winters are way more tolerable if you have the opportunity to get out into the countryside with proper gear and just enjoy the natural beauty as much as possible. It a cliche, but there is something delightful about a big walk in the cold that ends at a country pub with a good meal and a roaring fire.

Bristol in particular is a beautiful city for a number of reasons.

Decent sized - so there's always something to do and jobs and conveniences are available (at least pre-Brexit)

Amazing music pedigree - still good for live music and some incredible bands came out of Bristol and surrounding areas.

University town - so good nightlife and fun things to do.

The river Avon - it's a river town which allows for lovely walks and natural beauty

Decent hospitality - Coffee in the UK is often seen as a fucking crime scene by Australians but there are decent independent cafes here and there in the city

Engineering history - The man with the best name in the world Isambard Kingdom Brunel was an incredible engineer from Bristol who left his mark in a number of ways (not least the extraordinary Bristol suspension bridge which we lived almost directly under)

It's just really beautiful - things like the pastel painted houses along the hills of the city make it incredibly picturesque

Re: Where is London's most central sheep?

#134

Post by janniehater »

steerpike wrote: post #3

When my wife and I lived in Bristol we developed a metric designed to measure how enjoyable a city was to live in that we called "time to sheep". Basically it's a measure of how long you have to travel from the center of the city before you're in the English countryside surrounded by sheep and the best cities have a low (but not too low) "time to sheep" metric. It helped explain one of the reasons we loved living in…

[dead]

Re: Where is London's most central sheep?

#135

Post by walrus01 »

Theodores wrote: post #69

Never mind sheep, what about cats? Larry, the Number 10 cat has to be a contender. Considering the wealth of the nation was based on the woollen trade, with London being the place where weavers from Flanders made that wealth, times have changed. The Speaker's Chair in the House of Lords is still a wool sack, although, a few years ago, it was found to be stuffed with horsehair. The Royal Navy grew to defend the cross…

There's also not one, but two City livery companies that claim the wool trade, at #4 and #43 in order of precedence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livery_company

Re: Where is London's most central sheep?

#136

Post by gus_massa »

> London Zoo's website does not reveal the existence of any sheep - at best llamas.

I never visited London, but in my experience children love sheep and bunnies more than elephants and giraffes. In the Zoo here in Buenos Aires the most crowed part was the "farm" were the children could feed and touch the animals. [1] [2]

So I made a search in Google and I got:

* https://www.flickr.com/photos/markestes/167928458

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=664GiPJBHaQ&t=84s

Is this the correct zoo?

[1] Now it was rebuild and renamed as an "ecopark". I never paid a visit after it reopened, but I guess now it's a big "farm" with a few legacy "zoo" animals.

[2] Don't ask me how many times I had to go to the baby bunnies spot.

Re: Where is London's most central sheep?

#137

Post by dukeyukey »

Aeolun wrote: post #128
steerpike wrote: post #3

When my wife and I lived in Bristol we developed a metric designed to measure how enjoyable a city was to live in that we called "time to sheep". Basically it's a measure of how long you have to travel from the center of the city before you're in the English countryside surrounded by sheep and the best cities have a low (but not too low) "time to sheep" metric. It helped explain one of the reasons we loved living in…

I think my hometown has a “time to sheep” rating of like 30 seconds. Possibly up to as much as 4 or 5 minutes if you pick your starting spot perfectly.

I think my hometown has a TTS of 0. It's in a valley surrounded by low-laying sheep-populated hills. Unless you start indoors or really well positioned between buildings you can probably see sheep from everywhere!

Re: Where is London's most central sheep?

#138

Post by dukeyukey »

steerpike wrote: post #132
trgn wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Bristol is just crazy beautiful city to live in Curious, because of geography? architecture?

So I'll caveat this by saying we were a couple of Australians living in the UK and one of the big differences we noticed between Australia and the UK is just how damn clearly delineated the seasons are in the UK. In Australia they all kind of smudge into one another while in the UK it's really very clearly 4 very distinct phases of the year. One of the byproducts of this is that we found UK winter in London to be pre…

On your 2nd paragraph, I love in London and go hiking every now and again. What about London made it hard to get to the country? 30 mins on the train and you're out there!
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