Easton Christian, 61, White City tube station, London
“Singing Christmas carols is always something I enjoy”
I’ve been selling the magazine for a few years at White City. It used to be a very busy place for BBC staff but then they closed down Television Centre and it got less busy. Some BBC people still work in the Media Village building near here, and some of my old customers come back for meetings there, so it’s nice to say hello to them all.
The area is changing quite a lot. There’s always construction work going on – they’re building new apartments at Television Centre. And there is the Westfield London shopping centre nearby, so some of my customers work there or are visiting the place.
I’m so busy working hard selling the magazine, I don’t have much time for hobbies. Church is the most important thing
I was born in Jamaica. When I came to England at the very end of the 1960s I lived in Notting Hill. It was different then. Now it’s very wealthy but in the 1970s it wasn’t like that – I think they might have even demolished part of the old terrace where me and my family lived.
Since my mother has died, I have found it quite tough to get by on my own but I still have my older brother and some others back in Jamaica.
I have a place to live now over in Hackney in a place run by the Bishop Wood Almshouses charity. Before that I was really struggling with renting different rooms and it was getting more and more expensive. That part of Hackney is changing a lot, too, but Ridley Road Market is still the same – a good place for fresh food and cheap things.
I’m so busy working hard selling the magazine, I don’t have much time for hobbies. Church is the most important thing. I go to the local church, Frampton Park Baptist Church. We get together on a Sunday morning and a Sunday evening. There’s always a very good atmosphere, especially at this time of year.
We have a carol singing concert coming up at the church. Singing Christmas carols is always something I enjoy. I don’t bother too much with Christmas dinner or anything like that on December 25. So long as I visit church and see my friends I’m happy.
Anyway, Merry Christmas and God bless to all my friends and customers. Hope you all have a good time this year.
If I won the lottery… I’d go to visit my older brother in Jamaica and help look after him because he needs the money more than me.
My favourite Christmas Carol… Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. That’s a really upbeat, triumphant one that I always love to sing at this time of year.
On my pitch… I’m outside White City tube station, London, 7am-2pm daily.
Photo: David Tett
White City Station, Wood Lane, London WI2 7RZ