Things I’ve learned as an American expat in the UKoGBaNI #31

Newspapers

Reading the newspaper is still a daily ritual for most Britons.

Newspapers are delivered by pallet loads to Tube stations and various High Streets around London. Large vans packed with newspapers start arriving on the High Street around 3:30pm to deliver their goods. Literal pallets of newspapers are unloaded from the vans on to main street corners.

After the pallets of newspapers are delivered, newspaper distributors swarm in with their dollies and move a few bundles at a time to other, harder-to-reach areas of the High Street.

Newspapers are free, so people either grab one off the top of the stack as they walk by or in higher traffic areas (for example Tube stations), they are handed out by a distributor managing the stack. The distributor also sometimes yells headlines.

It is customary to leave your used newspaper on trains for others to read during their journey. As much as Transport for London dislikes this custom (newspapers get shuffled around and can block the doors and cause delays), people still continue to politely leave their newspapers for their fellow passengers to enjoy.

For the next learning in my Expat Learnings mini series, go here. Alternatively, go here to read this mini-series from the beginning.