I tried out every Londoner's worst nightmare and spoke to other commuters
Trapped in a cable car with strangers.
Nope, this isn't a new horror film. But that is what came to my mind when I heard about the TfL's chatty cabin initiative in North Greenwich.
Running for the second time, the chatty cabins initiative on the IFS Cloud Cable Car allows people to talk to each other while taking in the unobstructed view of London.
It's been set up to help tackle loneliness in London, which, according to the campaign to end loneliness, which estimates 8% of Londoners experience severe loneliness.
Interested in the real-life psychological experiment, I wanted to try every Londoner's worst nightmare – eye contact and conversation in public transport – while dangling 295ft over the River Thames with nowhere to escape.
But I discovered that curiosity is not dead – and Londoners are a warm bunch when one person dares to break the ice.
While the Tube air hangs heavy with stressed commuters trying to avoid eye contact, the cable car I jumped into with five other passengers invited conversation.
Facing each other on the ski lift-style cabin, conversation began to flow as we took in the sights and introduced ourselves.
Any shred of anxiety was gone as the cable car whizzed on, making the journey ahead with strangers feel more like an opportunity to be present rather than a torture chamber (although the mostly see-through cabin was very warm).
With only a 20-minute ride ahead of us, it was clear we all wanted to make it count and use the rare opportunity where talking to strangers is not considered too nosy.
William Bolding was the first to admit that 'I'm afraid of heights' as he clutched the handrail and braced for the journey ahead. As the wind picked up, he asked whether it was normal for the cable car to swing so much.
He had booked a slot on the chatty cabin – which sold out last time the initiative ran – to challenge his fear, he admitted.
Jackie Hufford had ridden the cable car with her children years ago when it launched for the 2012 London Olympics, and she wanted to relive the memory after reading about the chatty cabins in Metro.
'I love talking to new people and travelling,' the south east Londoner said.
Caroline McLeary joked that 'everyone thinks we know each other already, but Jackie and I have just met,' and the pair, both from the Lewisham area, shared numbers at the end of the ride.
Caroline said she wanted to come try the chatty cabin to 'do something for myself' although she had to catch two buses to get there.
'Everyone experiences loneliness,' she said.
Naturally, the conversation turned to travel as the City Airport loomed in the background.
While we couldn't agree on which London airport is the handiest to get to, one thing we agreed on was how expensive travel in the capital is.
Despite the heavy and personal theme of loneliness, which brought us for the ride in the first place, my face hurt from smiling by the time we touched back down on the Greenwich Peninsula terminal.
I could have easily gone for a pint with our chatty cabin gang.
Despite the sold-out success of the first chatty cabin, there are no plans to bring it on the Tube.
'It would be difficult on the Tube,' Josh Crompton, the head of IFS Cloud Cable Car for TfL, said. More Trending
'The Cable Car is different because it's a closed environment. But we certainly encourage people to have conversations.'
Josh said the range of people who have tried the chatty cabins includes people 'who struggle with bereavement to tourists coming to London on their own and wanting to engage with people, single parents who are in with their children all day and are looking to get out.'
'I'm one of those people who struggles opening conversations as much as people do, and that's why we create that environment. It's quite refreshing to have a conversation with people, and I don't generally do that, and I find it quite hard, and this was easy and quite refreshing,' he said.
The chatty cabins initiative runs this week until Friday and aims to help tackle loneliness in London as part of the Loneliness Awareness Week.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
MORE: Cap on bus fares to stay in place until 2027, Rachel Reeves announces
MORE: Beyoncé giving away free concert tickets to London shows after 'poor sales'
MORE: Map reveals the most up-and-coming sex positions in major UK cities
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Metro
an hour ago
- Metro
Major Coronation Street exit confirmed as star leaves after 2 years
Coronation Street viewers waved off Bobby Crawford (Jack Carroll) last month when he headed off to visit Simon Barlow – unaware that these would be his final scenes. Bobby first arrived on the cobbles in late 2023 and announced to Carla Connor (Alison King) that he was Rob Donovan's son. Carla took her nephew in and gave him a roof over his head, and supported him when he found out the true extent of Rob's crimes. However, she was left feeling betrayed when she found out that Bobby planned to help Rob escape police after he had kidnapped her, and ordered him to move out. When Bobby was later accused of being Lauren Bolton's (Cait Fitton) blackmailer, he decided to visit Simon abroad, which is where he has now chosen to stay for the foreseeable future. Metro understands that Bobby's exit from the street is a permanent one, though the door is still open for him to return in future. More Trending Jack is one of several Coronation Street actors to have left the show so far this year. Most recently, Sue Cleaver left her role as Eileen Grimshaw, with the character jetting off to Thailand following the death of sister Julie Carp. Characters Mason Radcliffe and Craig Tinker were also killed off this year, while Max Turner and Daisy Midgeley also left. View More » In future scenes, Lou and Mick Michaelis (Farrel Hegarty and Joe Layton) are also set to depart. MORE: Carla proud in early ITVX Coronation Street release as Lisa takes a huge step MORE: All Coronation Street spoiler videos for next week as tragedy strikes MORE: Coronation Street fans 'work out' what really happened to Lisa's ex Becky and it changes everything
Time Out
2 hours ago
- Time Out
‘Grenfell: Uncovered' interview: ‘This community lost so much and got so little back'
The biggest residential fire since the Blitz broke out in Grenfell tower on June 14, 2017. Few Londoners can have shaken off the memory of the North Kensington high-rise blazing through the night as firefighters worked desperately – and fruitlessly – to subdue it. 'I was on holiday in Thailand at the time,' remembers Grenfell: Uncovered director Olaide Sadiq. 'The news [chyron] had 'fire in London' on it, but I didn't think it was real. I didn't understand how it was even possible that this had happened.' When she got back to the UK, the filmmaker discovered that she knew one of the victims of the fire – 'Her face was popping up in group chats as missing' – which added a personal dimension to the disaster. Eight years on, her documentary about the fire is both poignant and enraging. None of the responsible parties is let off the hook – cladding manufacturers like Arconic, bureaucrats like Hammersmith and Fulham Council, and politicians alike – but the deeper story is one of resilience and misplaced trust. 'This was the biggest residential fire in Britain since the Blitz,' says Sadiq. 'You expect this kind of devastation at war, but you don't expect it in the middle of the night when people are sleeping.' You speak to a lot of traumatised people in the film. How did you approach those interviews? With respect and care. A lot of the Grenfell community have been poked and prodded for a long time, and there's a lot of trauma in everyone that's been affected by the story. We had to make it as safe a space as possible. The interviews were still the hardest I've ever done. You interrogate the companies behind the cladding products. How challenging was that aspect of the film? Yeah, the corporate side of things was complicated and eye-opening. A lot of people didn't want to speak to us, and understandably so, but everyone was given an opportunity to respond. But I'm very aware there's an ongoing criminal investigation, so I wasn't expecting anyone to welcome us with open arms. Are you concerned that a fire like this could happen again? Yeah, I think I am. We've had cladding fires since Grenfell: there was a fatal cladding fire in Valencia last year, and another one in Dagenham, where luckily there were no fatalities. I have to think that it's possible that it will happen again. Hopefully, the response will be different. The Prime Minister at the time, Theresa May, famously failed to meet Grenfell survivors. How did you get her to talk in the film? The decision to talk to us was quick; the decision to be on camera was slower. Regardless of people's political affiliations and opinions, I think it was quite brave [of her]. She wanted to own what she did and didn't do. She was happy to own that on camera, and we gave her the opportunity to do that. I respected that. What does this story say about the country that we live in? Great question. That we place a lot of trust in those that are meant to look after us. It showed me that this country is sometimes hesitant to change, but hopefully this film will spark real conversations about change. It's what the people affected by Grenfell want. Accountability, as well. You must have had two audiences in mind: the Grenfell survivors groups and those who were less familiar with the story? The story is not finished for [the Grenfell groups]. They are still waiting for what the Met Police decides to do. They're hoping [the film] brings more awareness to their story. We want it to ignite real conversation about what happened and what people want to happen next. There's still a lot of buildings with flammable cladding on them. What did you learn about Londoners making this film? I felt a sense of closeness within the community, but a sadness to it. I've always felt relatively safe living in London. What working on this showed me is that there's times it isn't safe – but in a way that you're not expecting. If you go down a dark alley in the middle of the night, you might expect something bad to happen to you, but they went to bed and woke up in the middle of night with their building on fire. That's the biggest violation of safety most people could experience. What binds the survivors together? Resilience. We spoke to very young people, we spoke to grandparents, and across the board there was a sense of resilience that I was astounded by. I was breaking down just reading the witness statements – it was harrowing. I couldn't imagine how people could get up and go after that. There was such resilience and strength in the community that lost so much and got so little back. The community lost so much and got so little back How do you cope with watching this harrowing footage, day after day? It was very difficult. It was really hard to watch some of the footage – some of it was too harrowing to use. I went for walks and listened to cheesy music, but there were people there to support us as well. I had to make sure I wasn't always sitting with the images.
Metro
2 hours ago
- Metro
Madonna slammed for controversial behaviour during Broadway musical
A Broadway star has slammed Madonna for her behaviour in the audience while she attended a Hamilton performance a decade ago. The Hung Up singer, 66, has been criticised in a new interview by actor Anthony Ramos, 33, who starred in the original 2015 cast of Hamilton. Anthony played the dual role of John Laurens and Phillip Hamilton in the hit Broadway musical, created and written by Oscar nominee Lin-Manuel Miranda. In the play, Phillip, the titular character Alexander Hamilton's son, is tragically killed in a duel. It's one of the more emotional moments of the historical story. However, one audience member who was apparently unmoved during the show was the Queen of Pop herself, with Anthony calling her out in fresh comments. Speaking to Watch What Happens Live, the Broadway star revealed he was left feeling particularly unhappy by one aspect of the Hung Up hitmaker's behaviour. He was asked by the show's host Andy Cohen, 'Who was the most terrifying celebrity to spot in the audience during your Hamilton days?' and he didn't mince words. 'The most terrifying was Madonna with her iPad in her face. She was like this the whole time,' he replied, as he mimicked holding a tablet device in his hands. He continued: 'I was like, 'Damn, shorty. If you're not enjoying [the show] that much, you know the door's right there. You ain't gotta stay here.'' The tale drew awkward laughs from host Andy and a few members of the live studio audience, with Anthony's frank response catching a few people off guard. In 2015, Lin-Manuel himself tweeted: 'Tonight was the first time I asked stage management NOT to allow a celebrity (who was texting all through Act 2) backstage. No selfie for you.' Fans instantly began speculating as to who the celebrity could be, which resulted in Lin-Manuel taking the tweet down, and another tweet from someone in the audience only fuelled those fires further. Casey Erin Clark, a stage performer and singer, said: 'That time you want to smack Madonna upside the head for texting during the best show I've ever seen.' Jonathan Groff, 40, who played King George III, said he was not disappointed at all that Madonna had allegedly been disinvited from any backstage parties. 'That b***h was on her phone,' he said to Dot249. 'You couldn't miss it from the stage. It was a black void of the audience in front of us and her face there perfectly lit by the light of her iPhone.' More Trending Months after the incident, Jonathan insisted that the Die Another Day singer had been using her device 'through three quarters of the show'. At the time, Madonna's publicist stated to Us Weekly that the rumours about the Papa Don't Preach singer were not true: 'It's not true. She was invited backstage four different times. 'She texted post-show when they were doing their fundraising pitch. Madonna had already made a generous donation.' Metro has reached out to Madonna for comment. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: Chris Brown pleads not guilty over bottle attack in London nightclub MORE: Anne Burrell's TV co-star 'shocked' over chef's death after their final conversation MORE: James Gunn confirms controversial scene from Superman trailer isn't in the final cut
