For those lucky enough to have lived in London, England for any length of time, one memory tends to stick out: drinking on the tube. For many years, the city allowed subway riders to drink alcohol while in transit, a highly entertaining but admittedly problematic policy provision. Oh, how I reveled in the novelty of drinking Kronenbourg on the Tube- old hat for Londoners, but remarkably subversive for a North American raised in a ‘drink only indoors’ culture.
But as of 12:01AM on June 1st, the consumption of alcohol is now banned on the Underground. To celebrate the passing of an era, Londoners had a spontaneous party to mark the end of an era. Basically, a significant proportion of the city’s population got loaded while riding the Circle Line. A nice idea, but the evening ended with the forced closure of six tube stops and 17 arrests. A fitting (and hilarious) testament to everything awesome and dangerous about transit drinking. Check out a gallery here.
I weep for a whole generation of international students who will not know the sublime joys of drinking on a subway, and/or watching someone throw up on a moving train. Good, good times.
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