One last toast...

Arriving back in London at London Bridge underground station last night (May 31st) was a bizarre feeling. I’d been gone just 24 hours, yet in that time the tube seemed to have become a mini-underground drinking den.

Why? Well it was the last night before the consumption of alcohol on the London underground network became illegal. Consequently, everyone was having a party. Pausing songs on my iPod in between choruses so that I could hear people’s drunken conversations was a rather bizarre feeling – like most Friday or Saturday nights on the tube, only this time everyone was drunk.

Nothing compared to the drinking games in my carriage, however, which involved one group of friends playing chicken with the tube doors at each stop. “Let’s get off here,” shouted the floppy haired leader. The six friends then scuttled onto the platform only to hop back on just as the bleeping began to signify that the doors were closing. They chuckled loudly – the alcohol clearly adding an element of danger to the whole game.

This is arguably mayor Boris Johnson’s biggest decision since being elected last month; yet, you can’t help but think just how hard it will be to police. Having lived in London for over a year, I’ve spent many hours on the tube late at night and have on many occasions got from A to B without seeing a single police officer. And now we’re expected to believe that no one will enter the network and consume a single drop of Strongbow (the preferred drink of choice last night)?

I’ve just found a video of last nights ‘celebrations’. Clearly Edgware road is the new Wetherspoons.