Alone, or With Someone
Nearly everything here assumes you are on your own. Some of it works with company and some of it is destroyed by it, and the difference is not obvious in advance.
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Designated Silence and Whether It Works
Quiet carriages, silent reading rooms, and library silent zones all promise the same thing. In practice they succeed and fail in very different ways.
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When Not to Go
Most of this site is about finding underused places. This is about the times when the right thing is to leave, or not to arrive.
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Getting Up Early, Without the Sermon
Most writing about early mornings is either productivity advice or a moral position. This is neither. It is what actually worked and what did not.
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February Is the Emptiest Month
Not December, which people imagine. February, when the year has stopped being novel and nobody has started going out again.
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A Weekday Afternoon at a Small Cinema
The two o clock screening at an independent cinema is often five people in a room built for ninety, and it is two hours where nobody can reach you.
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Summer Mornings and Winter Mornings Are Not the Same Activity
Both are called getting up early, but the effort, the reward, and the kind of quiet on offer have almost nothing in common.
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Keeping a List of Places
The single most useful thing I have done for this. It takes about a minute per entry and it changes what is available to you on a given afternoon.
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The Atrium Nobody Uses
Office developments are often required to provide public space in exchange for planning permission. Much of it sits empty because nobody realises they are allowed in.
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Visiting the Famous Thing in the Wrong Month
The overrun landmark that is unbearable in July is often nearly empty in November, and usually cheaper.
