What is love in New York? With 8 million people in the city, you’ve got plenty of fish in the sea. Sure, dating in New York is fun, but so many people are constantly busy and in a rush–too committed to their professional dreams to commit to a lover. But sometimes, when we come home after work and open a bottle of wine, we remember the stunning blue eyes of that girl who we saw on the subway. Then, we become hopeless romantics who believe in second chances and try to find someone who we think we let go in this urban jungle–on Craigslist’s Missed Connections page. Here are some posts that might bring a smile to your face:

1. Love is a Starbucks sign

2. Love is when finally a nice cable guy named Billy comes around

3. Love is the first sight of a cracked laptop screen

4. Love is when you talk about selling underwear on Craigslists at their house…

5. Love is at the steak house and not your girlfriend

6. Love is not defined in law books

7.Love is like Darlene who probably kicked your ass

8. Love is…in your beard.

9. Love is like a short summer dress

10. Love is unrequited

11. Love is playing Pokemon Go together

12. Love is like the toughest skateboarding trick

13. Love is long lost and forgotten

Rooting for you, NYC lovers.

Edited by Brianna Arrighi

The post What is New York Love: Missed Connections appeared first on The Urban Watch Magazine.

Aldgate Station

It has been said, a few years ago, an electrician working at the station had slipped between the tracks and hit a live rail which sent 22,000 volts through his body. Miraculously, he managed to survive; instead, he was knocked unconscious and experienced minor bruising on his forehead. However, his co-workers, who watched the accident happen, told an investigation that they saw an old lady stroking the electrician’s hair just before his fall. This was not the first time Aldgate station have experience paranormal activity, the staff have reportedly heard mysterious footsteps in the tunnels during their night shift. Some have even claimed the station keeps a special log book for ghost sightings.

Location: Aldgate East Underground Station, Whitechapel High Street, London, E1 7PT

Liverpool Street Station

In summer 2015, new archaeological evidence revealed the station was dug through one of London’s mass burial pits, containing the remains of plague victims from the 17^th century. The plague pit, thought to have at least thirty bodies, contained coffin remains and a grave stoned marked “1665”. Samples were taken for tests and researchers at the Max Planck Institute in Germany were able to scan the teeth and confirm that the cause of death was bubonic plague. The workers at the station have reportedly complained that the air often felt oppressive and at times they felt uneasy.

Location: Liverpool Street Station, Liverpool Street, London, EC2M 7PY

British Museum Station

British Museum was a working station on the London Underground. The “ghost station” is still located between Tottenham Court Road station and Holborn Station on the Central Line; Londoners can still see the disused platform when they look through their window but no passengers have used the station since 1933. The abandoned state of the station has captured the attention of influential writers, with an appearance in Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, a mention in the 1972 horror film Death Line and featured in a movie called Bulldog Jack.

In Bulldog Jack, the station had a fictitious tunnel from the station to the Egyptian room at the museum. Rumour has it, on the same night the movie was released two women disappeared from Holborn station, the next station along, and strange marks were found on the walls of British Museum station.  Stories began to spread that the station was haunted by an Egyptian spirit that appears in a loin cloth and Egyptian headdress. Some sources suggest that prior to the station’s closure a local newspaper offered a reward to anyone willing to spend the night and hunt the vengeful spirit.

Location: British Museum Station, 133 High Holborn, London, WC1V CPN

Bethnal Green Station

During World War II, Bethnal Green station was used as an air raid shelter, providing shelter to the public from German bombs. On March 3, 1943, nicknamed “The Bethnal Green Tube Shelter Disaster”, an explosion was heard and panic spread causing 173 people to be crushed to death as people desperately trying to desperately enter the station.  In fact, allegedly, most of the lives lost were women and children. It has been rumoured that a member of the station, as the last train departed, had heard strange noises. He claimed to hear children sobbing, women wailing and compared the sounds to people panicking.

Location: Bethnal Green Underground Station, Cambridge Heath Road, London E2 0ET

Covent Garden Station

Legend has it that notable Shakespeare performer William Terriss, who was stabbed to death by fellow, mentally unstable, actor Richard Prince at the nearby Adelphi Theatre, haunts Covent Garden station. The late William Terriss was said to be a regular customer at a bakery which stood in the station’s place; it was well known he was fond of their cake and bread. So late at night, members of the public reportedly spotted a tall man in an old-fashioned grey suit, hat and gloves pacing around the platforms. When they were shown a picture of the deceased actor, they claimed the ghost looked identical to William.

Location: Covent Garden Underground Station, Long Acre, London, WC2E 9JT

Edited by Chermaine Sowah

The post The London Underground: Creepy Tales and Spooky Sightings appeared first on The Urban Watch Magazine.

Whether we like it or not, we’re packed into carriages like sardines for the best part of 2 hours a day (if you’re lucky) and even though we hate it, we endure it daily. No-one speaks on the tube nor does anyone make conversation on their commute into the office. You just don’t do it – it’s an unspoken rule. As well as the usual silence, there are other things that as a Londoner you know is not for the tube. The etiquette of the tube is one thing you should learn as soon as you get to the City, it should be an induction as important as where to find the printer at your new job.

Then there are the not so secret rules for the tubes, the ones that as human beings we should know are a big fat no-no. Like you just don’t do it. This is the tube, not a hippy convention for expressing your feelings. (I was brought back down to earth like this when I tried to make conversation with someone at 8am on the platform at Balham. That was a life lesson learned). When I asked my housemates about the worst things they’ve experienced on a tube, the stories ranged from random people using them as a cushion to someone throwing up… and then getting off at the next stop like nothing had happened. That sort of behaviour will put you in the ‘fellow tube users hate you and everything that you have done’ category. However, there was one that took the biscuit and actually left me thinking ‘where the hell do these people come from?’ Clipping your toenails on a tube is an actual thing that happens apparently. I couldn’t believe it myself but one commuter just started casually maintaining their toe nails whilst on the Northern line. That takes multi-tasking to a whole new level. He should have been glared at the whole way to his station then his Oyster card be confiscated immediately.

As well as the things that you should just know, like personal maintenance waiting until you get home, there are other unspoken rules of the underground of this wonderful and hectic City. One of the funniest and most awkward situations to manoeuvre is when a seat comes free on a very busy tube. What is the normal procedure? What’s the social code? Well, first of all you have to become a pretty good actress. Act like that seat is the last thing you want, when really your craving it more than the bottle of wine you have in the fridge at home. Look around absent mindedly and act as if you are thinking about everything but that seat. Then, when an acceptable amount of time has passed (about 30 seconds or on the central line about 15 seconds) you can pounce on that golden seat and give your swollen feet a rest. However, if there is an elderly person or pregnant lady in the vicinity forget everything I’ve just said. You give up that seat. If you don’t, you could be seen as a worse human than the toenail cutter.

It should be common practice, but somehow it isn’t a rule of the underground that you should wait (and part down the middle like Moses did with the sea) to wait for people to depart the tube before you get on. If you are crazy or stupid enough to push your way on as someone struggles to get off – prepare to get stared at menacingly. Expect to get a tut as people express their disgust at your mental behaviour. Let’s be real – you haven’t done anything illegal. You’ve just not adhered to an unwritten rule of the tube, which actually is probably worse than committing an illegal act. It’s the same as stopping to read one of the very easy to follow and colourful tube maps. If you decide to wait until you are in the narrow corridor of the station to slowly map out your journey, then prepare to be shoved. Those commuters behind you that have rushed from the office frantically to have a chance at catching their train home will not thank you for taking over the whole walkway. They won’t thank you – but they will get past you. Some way or another.

Commuting in London is character building to say the least, it gives you a strength that you never knew possible. It gives you a hate of people that you never thought you could feel – but we love it. As Londoners, we will moan every time a packed train turns up at Kennington when we had our hearts set on a deserted one and we will moan when someone refuses to move even though they’re surrounded by empty space. Yet, despite our synchronous grunts as the packed train crawls into Kennington we can’t help but come back for more. After all we will never, ever stop using our beloved tube.

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