My Daygame Route

If this blog ever contained a fluff-piece, then this is it: my Daygame route. Together with sets and stopping to buy a coffee, it takes around 2.5 hours.

1. I start at Oxford Circus and then walk to Tottenham Court Road, up Tottenham Court Road a bit towards Goodge Street and back again. Diving in at the deep end means getting the first set out of the way ASAP, but even if I don’t do any sets on this section of the journey the walk puts my mind at ease.
2. Then I head down into Carnaby, turn right onto Beak Street and then a short section of Regent Street before turning left to walk past Whole Foods. The energy turns down a little here.
3. I walk the stretch between Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square then take the path down to Trafalgar Square and do a loop. Few sets happen along this stretch because the first two are normally too busy and the latter doesn’t have anything to aim at.
4. Then I walk up past the Chandos pub and turn right at Mr Fogg’s Tavern. I usually always do a set between Mr Fogg’s and the Royal Opera House at the far end of Covent Garden. Conversely, I seem to never do any sets once I turn right and loop around the market.
5. I then go up through Seven Dials and past two pubs which include me in their names before turning south and cutting through to Leicester Square.
6. Then it’s nearly the first two parts in reverse: I walk back across Leicester Square, through Piccadilly, up past Whole Foods, then direct to Carnaby and finally Oxford Circus.

That’s for a weekend or summer evening, by the way. When it’s a dark evening I’ll stick purely to Oxford Street, normally just stalking from one end to the other perhaps with a lucky dip into Carnaby.

A few observations:

• That stretch of Tottenham Court Road is surprisingly good if you’re going for i-dates and SDLs. It seems to have a lot of people heading home from work or studying.
• I always walk on the north side of Oxford Street because there’s more space and the shops cater for my target market. Mr White also commented that the north side has more cunts and I agree.
• Trafalgar Square is poor for Daygame. I came into this thinking it would be the holy grail and it turns out the quality is consistently poor. It’s full of tourist groups and groups of friends, and there’s always some sensitive-white-guy-with-a-guitar who annoys me. I don’t seem to do many sets in Leicester Square either, it’s often just too busy.
• The coffee shop I always go to mid-route is called the Espresso Room, which is just before you get into Covent Garden. The staff there will boost your state.
• Has anyone ever actually tried the “Jamaica patty”?
• I despise the little blonde girl who sings in Covent Garden. She overdoes everything.
• I always either piss in The Chandos (Trafalgar Square), The White Swan (Covent Garden) or The Nag’s Head (Covent Garden). If you’re a non-UK reader: pubs are pretty much public toilets.
• There are two guys who sing into traffic cones. One of them does a good mixture of cartoon theme songs and the other one is a complete downer.
• If you walk past Sakare in Seven Dials enough times they’ll remember you and will stop trying to sucker you in with free soap.
• I’m working out the best way to deal with charity people. I try not to make eye contact but they always look at me like I’m the creative sort who would stop and chat. I guess I’m their equivalent of a girl with tattoos and piercings.
• Beware of girls using the Boots at Piccadilly Circus as a meeting point. Nine times out of ten a friend will appear midset.
• The Big Issue sellers, especially the guy who stands in Carnaby Street by Pret and the guy who stands by PUA Pret at Leicester Square, remember me now and wish me “happy hunting.”

Yours unfaithfully,

Thomas Crown