#grenfell charity single

[louisupdates]

Louis Tomlinson’s donation, via Grenfell Athletic [21.11.2024]

Articles: [x] [x]

Charity single: [x] Louis @ 1:40

[dailytomlinson]

Louis has donated his Doncaster Rovers Jersey to the Grenfell Athletic FC in honour of the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire.

He previously took part of a charity single in 2017 to help raise funds for the victims.

[ssfoc]

I have noticed that none of the Harrie Larries I follow did anything but a bare minimum reblog about the charity single. Except for several implying that because Louis' vocals sounded good, it was probably due to the sound engineer. It's so petty and shitty.

I’ve seen on my dash people praising Louis’s voice all day. To be honest, I don’t know if they are mostly Louies Larries or Harrie Larries. I don’t keep close track, I admit, because Larrie politics makes me tired and crabby.

In my heart I believe Harry and Louis work together. They don’t deserve a fandom that pits them against each other. Their managements are baffling / shitty sometimes, but that’s not on them, sister, and they don’t deserve hate.

We got stalkers tailing their every move, digging through their trash, for Pete’s sakes, to find information that is potentially devastating. Let’s not add to the terrible things for them.

People can blog & reblog what they want. The “unfollow” button is there if you don’t want to read it. Just remember, everyone has a bad day now and then. Forgive, be understanding, be nice. People’s lives are harder than we imagine, and we’re all doing this for free, for fun. Let’s be family for each other.

Now let’s talk about Louis’s and Liam’s parts.

I heard the song, and I thought the engineering was really good, at least, on first listen.

All the singers sounded like their best selves, the nuances in their voices captured but the rough patches smoothed. They recorded on 18 June and the single was released 21 June, so there wasn’t that much time to do much engineering. They were auto-tuned… but there is no studio recording that isn’t, these days.

I was listening to this podcast:

http://andthewriteris.libsyn.com/ep-20-desmond-child

Desmond Child is a songwriter who’s worked with Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Cher, KISS, Alice Cooper, Zedd. He’s also gay.

He said that it takes a great singer, a singer who is a great actor, to draw you into their story for the 3 minutes of their song. For that moment, you are living the emotional experience of that song, the emotional truth of their story.

He has a lot more to say about archetypes, androgyny, role playing, closeting, and being gay in the industry, that I found fascinating.

(A short transcript: https://seasurfacefullofclouds.tumblr.com/post/162095382040/ross-golan-interviews-desmond-child)

If a three-minute song seems short for telling a story, then what are four or five words? Seems inadequate, right?

I’m trying to work on a write-up of Lucozade. I don’t follow Zayn closely, but this song seems to mean a lot for Zayn fans. Zayn’s delivery of his story seems to match the message of the song– hazy, slurred, going in and out of passion, in and out of focus, the pain subdued and then reignited.

Louis and Liam, on the other hand, are singers who enunciate their words (thank God– I needed lyrics for Lucozade). Their articulations are, by now, second-nature to One Direction fans. We easily identify their voices because we’ve unconsciously memorized their vocal habits, the sound coming from their mouths and throats. We love them. They sound like family.

Yet they’re growing older, and learning, at last, how to use their voices fully. To hear their full potential is glorious, just like listening to Harry’s full album and realizing THAT was in him (I still can’t believe it).

Liam’s words, “I’m on your side,” was sung with beauty, sympathy, and strength. We know what kind of person Liam is: loyal, hard-working, with huge talent and a heart to match. He’s doing great in the charts. This song was a tiny promo for him; I’ve loved his solo appearances, and he totally smashed the Capital FM summertime ball (Niall too). But the truth of his story is: we know he’s on our side. His vocals feel honest because we know him, we’ve seen him do charity work, we know he feels sympathy and love. And he did sound fantastic, his voice deeper and smoother, yet always sounding like Liam.

Louis’s part, “I will lay me down,” also sounded exactly like Louis, but deeper, bigger, as if he opened his chest and the sound came from the deepest bellows. His voice sounded notably bigger and deeper than it did on Just Hold On (which was admittedly in a higher part of his range– a high part of any male singer’s range, tbh). He still has the telltale Louis-hitch at the end of the word “down”– something many people caught. Louis’s voice always has that quality of feeling both personal, and empathetic, communal. It’s very painful & intense, yet reassuring at the same time. I think he has been doing voice training, and I haven’t seen him smoking as much (but he was smoking in the papped Donny photos). Yes, it was great engineering, but also yes, his voice has undergone a nice improvement.

As for the charity, I saw many reposts for it.

Last– the boys are doing their solo careers, and it’s not realistic to expect equal enthusiasm from the fandom for everything they’re involved in. I didn’t say “fair”; I said “realistic.” They know this, they expect this, or they should. They’re not going to get uniform support from the fandom, they’re not going to get the same support they got as One Direction. Every aspect of fandom has changed– the number of fans, the number of blogs, Twitter accounts, fan fiction being written and read, art, charity drives. Hiatus lowers enthusiasm. That’s the truth.

But that’s okay. Life can’t stay static. Art doesn’t stay static, or it gets stale. That means successes and failures. They’re in an industry where one failure can mean a fade into oblivion, but they are persistent people, and also experienced professionals. Harry’s tour sold very well– not at 1D levels, but he wasn’t expected to. If Louis or Liam or Niall tour, they will also sell well, but again, not at 1D levels. That’s what they’ve chosen. Industry already pits them against each other. Let’s be better.

S

[anonymoushouseplantfan]

Episode 4

Royal wedding montage. No, Samantha Cohen didn’t tell you some weird Rainbow Fish story. That did not happen. 

Voices of journalists talking about how amazing she is and how she is going to change the family for the better. I guess the royal coverage is good…as long as they say nice things.

“I don’t know how I was so calm.” Drugs, Meghan. It was drugs. 

Wedding crowds montage. Same song as Four Weddings and a Funeral because these two think they are living a rom com. Celebrities attending the wedding. International coverage. Amal and George and the Beckhams. Will and Harry. No one mentions that it was Wallis Simpson’s car. She didn’t talk about the “real” wedding three days before.

There was no expectation, Harry. You were supposed to get married in Craithie Kirk because you were a man of the people. That was the first story that came out.

CWK talks about the dress. Doesn’t mention the Commonwealth flowers in the veil. No mention of the tiara drama or the egg debacle either. 

Bold choice going with the vampire bride shot. Yes, KC was important to you Meg. He single-handedly saved your train wreck wedding. Lots of discussion about the Kingdom Choir and no one mentions that they perform at all the Commonwealth events. 

They sold their wedding pics, just like Peter. They are soooooo tacky. They laugh about cutting the cake with the sword. That wedding cake was truly symbolic, a priceless collection of gold pedestals propping up a mediocre confection. Her mom ditched her for the celebs. That is hilarious. Of course she did.

Interesting that Meghan hasn’t looked happy once during this whole documentary, but she sounds truly joyful when talking about the wedding. That was the highlight of her life. 

Kate’s face in the wedding pictures is everything. Says it all. I wonder if Meghan sold a Kate pic. I haven’t seen one yet. Never mind, I just rewound and, sure enough, she did.

Interesting how they are appropriating narratives—she’s a hugger, writing in a new character, modernizing—that were created by the tabloids. Every single word this Archewell guy is saying was written by Camilla Tominey, Andrew Morton, or Valentine Low. He is parroting the royal experts Harry was mocking last episode.

Train trip with the Queen. Why does she wear a necklace in some shots, but not in others? They are splicing different interviews and using filters to make it look line one interview. This section was edited into incomprehensibility after the death of the Queen.

Grenfell. LOL, she makes it sound like she was in the UK when the tragedy happened. Wild. I like the Grenfell ladies but why are they spending time on this and not covering her current charities? 

Bitching about Nott Cott, which actually looks super cute. “I don’t know who lived here before.” Your brother, the heir, lived there before, Harry. You know that.

 That’s how she decorated it? Pottery Barn circa 2001? No wonder her domestic goddess career never took off. All of this just to upgrade from 2000s Pottery Barn to 2014 Restoration Hardware? But….they weren’t living in Nott Cott. They rented a Cotswolds farmhouse before the wedding and lived there until moving to Frog Cott. That’s why all these pics are of them getting dressed. They were just using Nott Cott to prep for London events. 

Wait, did they just bitch about their multi-million cottage in Kensington Palace being too small right after the Grenfell segment? Yes, they did. Wow.

Pregnancy. She sold her sonogram pictures. Australia. You weren’t showing already, Megs. There was no bump. Cue shots with no bump. This is epic gaslight. We can clearly see she’s not showing, but they flat out say she was.

Lol, she wasn’t that popular. Her polls peaked at 41% net approval after the wedding and dropped like rocks. And Australia wasn’t the turning point, Lucy. It was her dad talking to the media all summer long. Isn’t Lucy Harper a pr person? Shouldn’t she be able to interpret polling data? Headlines about how popular she was…including the 2018 Time’s Most Influential List, which is hilarious because they were sandwiched between Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia’s MSB. Yeah, the royals were really jealous of that. OMG, they show Meghan’s covers and its…Woman’s Day and Hello! Canada. One of the headlines is “Freddy Mercury’s Secret Wife.” 

Wait, now he’s happy because the media put Meghan on the front pages? They have a very strange relationship with the media. Hold on, he thinks Meghan outshone The Queen? Seriously?????? He thinks the frumpy brocade dress outshone The Queen? I remember calling that a hater cover because Meghan looked so terrible in it. No one thought she overshadowed The Queen. Literally, no one. 

Archewell guy speaking again.  He seems to think that the royals, who were desperately trying to cover up the epic disaster of the Australian tour—which included insulting the Australian government house, exaggerating an incident with a faulty heater, assaulting an embassy employee, walking out of a United Nations event, making a staffer cry in front of a reporter, wearing jewelry gifted by an allegedly murderous despot, and trolling her father by saying he hadn’t paid for her college—were jealous of how “well” she did in Australia. This is delusional.

Lol, now they are bitching about avocados. It wasn’t the avocados. It was her dad. They just jumped from blaming the royals for the bad press to blaming racism. First The Queen was jealous, then the staff were scared, then the media was racist and giving Kate better press…I’m getting whiplash. Pick a villain, guys! I can’t follow this argument at all. The Queen was upset because Meghan stole her Woman’s Day cover with Freddie Mercury’s secret wife so she leaked stories about Meghan’s favorite perishable fruit and the evil tabloids turned that into the racialized avocados of death? Whaaaaaat????? I love how Harry throws up his hands and says “well, if you can’t see it, I can’t do anything for you.” See what? None of this makes any sense.

BTW, they used the “Hurricane Meghan” headlines even though Meghan told Oprah she hadn’t heard about that. The Oprah interview also implied she never knew about the bump-holding headlines and they used those in the documentary too. Oprah read them to her and Meghan acted as if it was the first time she was hearing about it. The only headlines Meghan, according to their statements during the Oprah interview, was supposedly aware of were the “made Kate cry story” and the avocado story, and she laughed at the avocado story.

Walkabout in Liverpool. A member of the public scolded her about her dad. See? The problem was her dad. Harry and Meghan, however, blame family lies and the tabloids. Her dad was giving interviews right and left, and people were watching him in real time, complaining about how he was treated.  No one in the palace was leaking this. No one was lying about it. He was out there, giving interviews to anyone with a couple of bucks because he wanted to explain that he did actually pay for her school. Her sister was doing the same thing.

And here’s the Diana 2.0 stuff. Wait, she was going to kill herself…over the racialized avocados of death? I paused to re-read the transcript of the Oprah interview because I remembered the suicidal ideation story as being a lot more sympathetic than “the Kate story and the avocados made me want to end it all.” In that interview, they start with the tabloid stories, but then Oprah asks her whether she felt lonely and she talks about Harry working all the time and being all alone. She talks about not being able to leave the house and see her friends and also about the tours being exhausting and having to smile through it all. She also claims there were talks about Archie not being a prince and not getting security and how that was stressing her out. Then she talks about people being concerned about Archie’s skin color and then she talks about her suicidal ideation. That kind of emotional build-up is what Oprah brings to the table. That’s why she gets the big bucks. Here, they just jump from “our Australian tour was super successful” to “mean tabloid stories about Kate and avocados” to “I just didn’t want to live anymore,” and it’s not as powerful, particularly since the behind-the-scenes pictures they keep showing us are all happy pictures. 

Also, we skipped over the big show of support at Sandringham.  And Doria can also do the “one tear, left eye” trick. It must be genetic.

She wasn’t allowed to get help? Girl, they knew you were nuttier than a fruitcake. They would have sent you to a shrink in a hot minute. And they weren’t afraid about how it would make the institution look. Harry admitted to going to therapy and it went fantastic. James Middleton went to therapy too. They put up pics of Megs looking sad…and they are all from events that happened afterwards.

The households separated because of leaks? Bullying isn’t even going to get mentioned? No, it isn’t, and neither is the big social media campaign KP did to support Meghan.

I’m blown away by the fact that all this drama is about a story about bridesmaids’ dresses. The Oprah Winfrey interview was motivated by this one story about making Kate cry. The Archetypes podcast was about the story about making Kate cry. They made a six-hour Netflix documentary about a story about making Kate cry. There is now an entire subgenre of royal coverage based on Princess Charlotte’s bridesmaid attire. This one story has been living rent-free in Harry and Meghan’s heads since Fall 2018.

Harry keeps talking about trading stories and not playing the game. He totally planted the Rose Hanbury affair story as revenge for the “made Kate cry” story. Absolutely,

Happy Nott Cott Christmas.  She wasn’t allowed to text photos? Lol, you weren’t texting photos bc you were saving them for Netflix.

People Magazine article. I guess these were the friends working with the magazines. Wasn’t their privacy super important? Weren’t they in danger if their identities were revealed? That was the argument that was presented under oath to the court. Now it turns out she was just saving the reveal for the Netflix special. Baby shower. OMG, Amal Clooney making floral arrangements, wtf? Backlash because of course. 

They are gifted Frogmore Cottage. Archie’s birth. Vintage footage about royal births. She had a long-standing relationship with her UK doctor? How? Seriously, how? They couldn’t do the photocell at Portland Hospital? Didn’t Fergie do it at Portland? Twice?

Birth announcement drama. The problem wasn’t that you broke protocol, Meghan. The problem was that CBS got the exclusive and you lied to the press about the birth. They bring in academics to say it was about racism because of course.

Archie. They took a picture of the nanny with the baby in a mud cloth carrier, lol.

South Africa with Archie. They couldn’t do a hospital photocall with the baby, but now they are taking him on tour. Doria just said “it’s not the institution’s baby, it’s her baby,” but they are taking him on an official tour. They can’t be expected to serve their child on a silver platter for literally two minutes, but they can take him on a week-long tour. I had to double-back and check the dates because I felt this wasn’t nearly as jarring and contradictory when it happened, and it wasn’t. The tour was several months after the birth and they had already taken the baby (who was supposedly too young to fly to Balmoral for the summer) to Ibiza. They way they presented it in the documentary, however, sounded ridiculous.

BTW, no coverage of the Vogue magazine, Smartworks capsule collection, the summer vacations at Elton’s house, the private planes, etc…. All of these were roundly criticized (well, not the Smartworks capsule) and yet the only story that matters is the Kate story.

Lol, the Archewell guy just admitted the royals were afraid Meghan would cause an international row during this tour. Not afraid that she would embarrass the royal family with her activism, noooooo. Afraid she would cause an international row.

Tutu. Wasn’t this footage intrusive two episodes ago? Make up your minds, guys! Tom Bradby. Is she trying to spin the interview as an oopsie due to exhaustion? Is she saying Tom tricked her? She really thinks people are stupid. Also, she takes no responsibility for anything, not even the Uber-narcissistic “I trusted too much.” She’s not even capable of that.

{Edited: Apparently Harry is doing another interview with Bradby. Guess he didn’t really trick them then.]

Astroturfed supportive hashtag. Guess her huge investment in Twitter bots paid off. LOL, my kid squints at the screen and says “all the tweets have the same timestamp.” Yes, they do.

Oh, the Diana footage is a bad idea. You can tell she was trying to act like Diana during the Africa interview (so much eyeliner). They really do think she’s Diana though, and they planned their tours (Australia, Africa, big meeting with African leader, big tour with baby) to bolster that impression. It’s interesting that worthy projects (Smartworks capsule collection, Vogue, Morocco girls’ meetings Ireland tour, dog shelter) that would make Meghan look good, but don’t support the Diana narrative are simply not mentioned. The India hygiene project is not featured in the documentary, but the Diana-like pictures in traditional dress are. 

You Don’t Own Me for closing credits. Hahaha. Harley Quinn music. So appropriate. The music in the last three documentaries is better than the music in the first three. 

Husband and group chat both discuss the Diana 2.0 stuff. She really thinks she is Diana and the documentary is trying to present her as Diana. Everyone agrees that she is no Diana. The psychologist thinks she should have worn more eyeliner. The lawyer tells her that eyeliner wasn’t the problem. There isn’t enough eyeliner in the world to turn her into Diana. Everyone thinks the music is good. Much texting about how much the tiny cottage cost. Someone looks it up on Zillow and it’s an insane number. Many “but my palace was sooooo small” jokes. Many comments about a KP cottage, no matter how small, being much classier than a California McMansion. Many comments about the Archewell guy sounding slimy. 

On to the next episode.

[elceeu2morrow]

what ugly grafitti sneakers 🧐

@crankydee you asked for it! I typically love his sneakers but graffiti and pump sneakers? $760?? I'll pass, thank you very much. 5.4.17

You didn't ask, but these are the other two that I found questionable:

Louis dancing on his tippy toes? Please and thank you. Is it a sneaker? A sock? It's just a no. 12.2.17

Super cute while participating in the Grenfell Towers charity single. Sounds like an angel singing "I will lay me down" but the sneakers that looks like slides are the devil. 6.19.17

[1ddiscourseoftheday]

Wed 19 May ‘21

Niall and Anne Marie will be on Roman Kemp’s breakfast show Friday for the release day of Our Song (together! At last!) doing some sort of golf themed interview- “nobody told me it was 8 am” joked Niall, but Roman beat him out for my sympathy vote- “nobody told me it was golf” he shot back. Anne Marie-- “nobody told me it was with you two,” lol. Niall also posted an outfit ‘of the day’ selfie from his elevator but as I no longer trust that those are of the actual day I’m side eyeing it. Cute outfit though I guess, mustard orange shoes and a baby blue jacket.

An unheard 2012 interview with Louis was posted; it’s just the same old 2012 fodder really, but it is interesting to revisit that stuff now with slightly more context and perspective. How strange is it now to listen to Louis talk about things like what he likes in a lady and how to pick up women though? He doesn’t like girls with bad breath he says, or who are cocky (uhhh do you use that word here [in America] he asks, clearly wondering if he’s just blundered into radio unfriendly territory), and he manages to work mention of Harry in there of course; he’d choose him as a wingman because he is “incredible with women. He knows what to say and when to say it.” He talks about the things americans say that he finds strange (and imitates them, love that), says the band “argue about the most ridiculous things, we might argue about what radio stations playing or if someone’s too cold and they got the window down in the car. Like, really stupid petty things” (you say that but this business about the car window being down and making you cold has come up an awful lot of times over the years, I think maybe you DO care about it) and “to be honest, we’re really lucky we’ve never actually had a big argument, arguments last absolutely no time because we’re with each other all the time it’s be silly to hold a grudge,” ugh SAD. In other Louis throwback stuff for today, we learned something new about when he recorded for the Grenfell Towers charity single in 2017; someone said their uncle was a security guard hired at the studio to deal with the 1D fan crowd and that Louis offered to buy all the people working lunch.

Liam posted about the fourth anniversary of the release of Strip That Down with a little video message! He’s looking handsome with a short haircut and said “I remember being in the studio recording this knowing it was going to be my first single” and “a massive thank you and I’ll be looking forward to playing some new songs for you guys again.” And what about that hair? His stylist is proud (as he should be it really does look fantastic) and posted a picture and said “Oops we did it again… New hair for LP today. Shorter. Sharper. Fire.”

And Emma Corrin changed her hair which does seem like a thing someone might do after they were all done filming something, but since she was wearing a wig for her My Policeman role it’s not impossible they could still be filming so; no actual news info there.

[twopoppies]

hi ginna, hope you are well<3 maybe you know the original video where they got this from?

Hi sweetheart. It's from a charity single they made for the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire.

[queenjessiej]

Jessie J behind the scenes of The Grenfell Tower Charity Single recording.

[lwtpromoteam-blog]

https://artistsforgrenfell.com/

[whtlitewhtheat-blog]

If this doesn't make your heart swell, I imagine you don't have one.

[the-empress-7]

Let’s talk about results baby

I have a legitimate question. Meghan has been a part of the BRF for 19 months now. In that time what has Meghan Markle done to promote BRITISH interests? It is her primary duty as a working royal to promote crown and country. On Archie’s birth certificate she put down her profession as “Princess of the United Kingdom”. So let’s talk about her job performance shall we?

I do not count writing the forward to the Grenfell cookbook as one, she basically took credit for the work that had already been done by the people of Grenfell. Not her idea. Not her effort.

I do not count British Vogue. Talk about a vanity project. The only entity who benefited from this project was Vogue. A private profit making American company. The women she “recognized” were already well known. She “shined a light” on women who already enjoy the spotlight.

I do not count SmartWorks. It was proven that the capsule collection she curated was part of the excess inventory at the retail partners. The only people to benefit from his project? Her friend Misha Nonoo. Whose wedding Meghan gleefully attending wearing a $14,000 designer gown two weeks after the launch. The fact that Meghan’s personal friend was involved in a project where a BRF member is patron of is unethical and appalling to say the least. Sure some women got the clothes they needed for interviews. But would they not have gotten those already? SmartWorks has been operating successfully long before Meghan made an appearance. 

I do not count the Southern Africa tour. I have never seen a country get so poorly represented by a BRF member. After all that time spent, I learned two things. South Africa is home to the murder capital of the world, and that women in South Africa live under the constant threat of rape and murder. If I were South Africa I would ask the UK for my tax payer money back. All that security for nothing. The stereotyping of proud African countries by someone who claims to be a “sister” was insulting to say the least.

I do not count the flavor of the month approach on their instagram. Rotating charities out each month is just lip service. I can’t tell you the name of a single charity they picked since the gimmick started.

In the last 19 months, Meghan took a six month maternity break and now is on a 6 week break again. She rubbed shoulders with Elton and Beyonce. She flew to NYC for a 500,000 baby shower. She spent another $1,000,000 on her wardrobe. She travelled on private jets to NYC, to Nice, to Ibiza, to Italy. She gave a lot of speeches. She used a lot of buzzwords. She posted pithy quote after quote on Instragram. She had her newfound celebrity friends (aka clients of Sunshine Sachs and Kruger and Crowne) come to her defense. The list goes on and on and on.

In the end, where are the results? Where are her contributions to Queen Elizabeth II and the United Kingdom?

[charitabledirection]

June 14th, 2020: Three years ago the Grenfell Tower fire claimed the lives of 72 people. A few days later there was a mini One Direction reunion when Louis and Liam took part in the recording of Bridge Over Troubled Water, a charity single released in support of the victims ❤️

Here is the single: Bridge Over Troubled Water~Artists for Grenfell

[anonymoushouseplantfan]

Why is this book dissing their royal engagement by calling it mediocre and not on par with their star status and popularity??! She did grenfell, smartworks, the dog charity and old people's home. That stupid luminary bakery wasn't even official royal work n that's the only thing she was seemingly passionate about (probably bc of the cakes and they gave her free latte every time she went). She wanted the fancy work which used her star power,s wanted to be at the baftas! Hence Lion King!

They had bizarrely inflated expectations for their royal events and engagements. Every single on was supposed to be the big “game changer” that would make everyone love them. They were inevitably disappointed because it’s a marathon, not a sprint and you have to build your rep slowly. 

But I think that’s why they felt all their tours and engagements were “shit.” They weren't and they actually got better events and engagements than most royals, however, none of them were big game changers because that’s just not the way it works. 

[slyhopps]

NO BUT WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON, I just stumbled upon a video from Radio One Lebanon stating that they would reuinte for the Grenfell Tower charity single!??!?! Loads of articles aswell and the tweet by S***n C****l ??? 

[queenforeverblog]

#artistforgrenfell #grenfell #charity #single #brianmay #simoncowell #robbiewilliams and many more

[mvdipetsch]

Outside of London; A Guide.

Hello, friends! I think there’s a semi-substantial amount of roleplays based around England, but honestly 90% of them are in London and while that’s great, England is made up of a lot of cities and I figured I’d show some #representation. 

In this guide we cover: Housing in England, location and travel! 

Disclaimer: This is based off of my experience and the experience of those around me. Most of my knowledge is concentrated around Birmingham, as that is where I grew up, but I’ve spent a fair amount of time in Stoke-on-Trent, Blackpool and Liverpool so I feel that I have a semi-decent shot at helping out. 

If you found this guide helpful, please reblog this as it helps to show me that there is interest and I’m not just shouting into a void. If you have any suggestions or comments about things I could/should cover in these guides please let me know! Any specific questions? Shoot me an ask and I’ll do my best to help you out. 

Location, Location, Location. 

England is divided into counties. There many of them, and realistically they don’t affect anything. All it really means is that your resources (police, fire, ambulance, charities, etc.) are organised by that one area. For instance - the buses in my city are all organised by Network West Midlands. They deal with every bus service (if it’s an NXBus) in the West Midlands. Ultimately, it doesn’t really affect anything. 

From my city to my university, it’s a 3-ish hour drive. That is a long drive. I know some people regard that as nothing, but when everything is so close together, it’s a lot. It’s not really a drive that people would make a lot - this is why train transport (while not that big) tends to be used to get from city to city. 

Only really in the inner cities are things that expensive. When you move away from the main city, things can get pretty affordable, but the inner city is still often really accessible via bus, driving or even train. When I’m at my boyfriend’s I’ll get the bus into the city centre, but when I’m at my mom’s sometimes it’s quicker to just jump on a train. Train tickets are also pretty inexpensive if you’re moving within the city. It’s when you’re heading to smaller cities that the problems arise. For instance, I can get to London for under £10, and to Liverpool for not much more. However, for me to get from Birmingham (a major city) to my University (a not-so-major city of about 200k) it’s £60+ with a change. On coach, it’s £14 with a change + it takes 5-ish hours (there are direct coaches that cost £30~ which is still significantly cheaper than the train) University students will commonly take a coach to and from their university to their hometown if it’s ridiculously priced. 

The higher north you go, typically the cheaper it is. This is dependent upon where in that city you are, but the general consensus is that north = cheaper. Obviously if you’re in Manchester city centre then it’s going to be a bit more pricey, but the general cost of living / food / etc. is seen to be cheaper the more north you go. A good way to judge how expensive a place is, is by how much the bus fare is. Birmingham bus fare is £4.00 for a daysaver (one ticket, on the bus as much as you like) but when I was in Liverpool I paid something like £1.20 for an U18 ticket. That’s a big difference. (For reference - Birmingham is the smack-bang middle of England. Liverpool is about 2 hours north, near Manchester.) 

Typically, when it comes to travelling; 

Driving

Cars in the UK are predominantly manual (with a gear stick) but we can still get automatic cars. Manual cars are also cheaper than automatic and you can drive an automatic with a manual license but you cannot drive a manual with an automatic license. 

My mom lives seven minutes from her work (she timed it, she’s got no life) but there are people who live up to thirty minutes away and have to take the motorway. This means that if there’s a massive accident, you can sit there for six hours, bored out of your skull

It’s also worth saying that if you live in a/the city centre, you’re not taking your car to work. It’s ridiculously expensive and parking is so few and far between, it’s really not worth it. People can and do drive, but plenty of people will also opt for a train or bus.

Buses

If you don’t drive the bus is often a very viable option. Buses will commonly run from 6:30/7 until 11:30/12 (at least where I am) but you can get night buses or buses that run later, they’re just a bit rare. 

Students (in college or secondary school, typically) are VERY common on buses. As in public buses. Unless someone has an impairment and go to a special school suited to their needs, you make your own way. Which often means that you jump on that bus with every man and his dog. 

Sunday service is real and it’s a pain in the arse. Buses that run every 10-ish minutes during the week drop to 20 between 9 and 5 and then drop to every 30 minutes after that (sometimes even every hour.) This means that if you miss your bus... you can be waiting for a very long time. 

Trains

Train’s are far more common for longer commutes. Also trains aren’t really that common for secondary school students (they either get dropped off in a car, walk or take the bus) but college students can and do take the train. My best friend takes an hour’s train ride to and from her college every day, and a lot of my teachers will get the train to college (my college is in the city centre, so it’s pretty logical.) Regardless, trains aren’t as common. 

Housing

Houses in England are attached. It is rare that you will see detached (stand alone) houses. Most houses will share their walls with their neighbours, unless they’re the end house in which case they’re called “semi-detached” cause... only half of them is attached. That tends to mean that if your neighbours have a baby, you can hear them crying. You can hear when the tv is too loud and all that kind of stuff. 

When you move out, there tends to be a few options in terms of who actually owns where you live. The options normally are:

Council. 

You sign up on the website, the council give you a priority rating and a set amount of points. These points are determined by the people in your household and your needs. A single mother with two kids will get more points than a single person with no dependants.

There is also a ‘bedroom’ tax, which states that you have to pay a tax if you live in a council property and are seen as having more bedrooms than you need. If, for instance you have two children of opposite genders that are aged seven and three, you have to pay extra tax for that third bedroom because it’s deemed as unnecessary. However if you have two children and they’re of different genders and one of them is over the age of ten (10) then you do not have to pay the tax. If they are of the same gender, then it is until one of them is sixteen (16).

Council and Housing Associations are most beneficial to those who are receiving benefits or are not working enough to cover rent by themselves. 

Housing Association

The way a housing association works is effectively the same as a landlord and the council. You apply on the council website for the aforementioned points and begin to bid on properties. When this happens, you may bid on a property that happens to be owned by a HA. The HA then acts as your landlord. HAs are pretty okay, dependent upon the area + such. When you live in a HA, any housing benefit you receive will immediately be paid from the council to the HA. This can cause issues if your money gets fucked up (which is more common than not because the housing system in the UK is BROKEN.) 

Private Rent

Private is when you have a landlord. I mean, that’s pretty self-explanatory really. You have an issue? Call the landlord. I’ve never had a landlord so I can’t really comment much on this. I will say that most landlords likely won’t accept housing benefit as a form of payment.

Private own. 

This is just the whole mortgage, thing. You know how this goes. 

There are a few different types of housing options when it comes to England and I’d imagine that this is pretty true for up and down the city.

Blocks of flats.

Blocks of flats are huge high-rises. They’re not as common anymore but there are still quite a few knocking about. If you remember the tragedy of Grenfell Tower, that was a high-rise. 

Blocks of flats can be owned by the local council or be privately rented. I’ve never lived in a flat, so my knowledge isn’t the best. They all tend to have names and there’s normally at least two together. 

A ‘flat’ is basically an apartment. So it’s a bunch of different flats (which, in high rises, commonly have two bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room and a bathroom) High rises have a lot of flats in them. Commonly there’s at least 13 floors, with between around four and six flats per floor. So you can get a lot of people in a high rise. 

Maisonette. 

A maisonette looks like a wide house. It’s normally one to two floors, with flats that have three (or more) bedrooms. Maisonettes are considerably bigger, in terms of the flats inside, and consist of maybe two flats per floor. Maisonettes can also be council, privately rented or housing association. 

Bungalow.

A bungalow is a home without any stairs. They can be council, privately rented or privately owned. Bungalows aren’t that common anymore, but they’re great for people who have difficulty with stairs and such. Also most bungalows are actually pretty decent sizes too. 

Houses.

Houses in the UK are broken down into one of three categories:

Detached

Semi-Detached

Attached

This is literally just based upon how many of your walls are shared with your neighbour. Detached houses are really uncommon in the UK and are usually found in richer areas. Semi-detached is mainly just the house at the end of your street, so semi-detached and attached are the main two. 

Also it’s pretty common that you only have windows of two of the four house walls. Even if you’re in a semi-detached house, you’ll only have front and back windows. 

Houses can be privately owned, privately rented, housing association or council.

Most houses follow a similar layout. Typically three bedrooms, with either one bathroom or a room just for the toilet + then the bathroom (with a bath + sink + such.) It’s also super common for one room to be a ‘box room’ which is normally pretty small. My room at my mom’s house is the ‘box room’ and it fits a 3/4 bed, a chest of draws, and a metal rack that I use as a bookshelf. There is not a lot of room in there. 

And there you have it! I think I covered most things regarding transport and housing in the UK, and I really hope that it was as informative as possible. Stay groovy, my dudes.