The 32ers - By Gavin Ferguson — Gavin English Teacher

What is the 32ers?

The 32ers is a group that I am part of. It consists of 4 people, myself and 3 of my friends - Ronan, Dennis and Barbs. We are called the 32ers because we have vowed to visit each of the 32 boroughs of London.

How and why did the 32ers start?

One day, in the bitterly cold early months of 2021, I went to the oldest riverside pub in London with my two pals, Dennis and Ronan. As the 3 of us tucked into our fish & chips, shivering on the cold riverside terrace, we came up with the idea of visiting every one of the 32 London boroughs.

How does the 32ers work?

The borough that we will visit next is always decided by a randomised draw that takes place on a Whatsapp video call.

Once the draw is done and dusted and we know which borough we are going to visit next, we all start relentlessly researching the borough for things that we can do there. Once the brainstorming is complete, Dennis then compiles an itinerary for the day and shares it on our Whatsapp group.

What do we do when we visit a borough?

When we are out visiting a new borough, we all wear matching polo-shirts with ‘The 32ers’ logo on it. It may seem a bit odd and childish that 3 grown men would walk around wearing matching polo-shirts for such a silly reason. That’s why, most of the time, when someone asks us about the shirts, we lie and say that we work for the same landscape gardening company.

We normally meet on a Sunday at 9am in a ‘greasy spoon’. A greasy spoon is a type of typical, authentic London café that serves a hearty full English breakfast. Then we usually relax and catch up over some coffee.

After breakfast, we visit the borough’s attractions.

For some of the boroughs, for example the Borough of Islington, Dennis finds it very easy to make an exciting and glamorous itinerary, filled with interesting attractions. Indeed, just wandering around Islington, it is very easy to stumble upon beautiful places like Exmouth Market.

For other boroughs, Dennis finds it a bit more difficult. For example, when we went to the Borough of Bexley, Dennis’ itinerary culminated in a visit to the ‘Crossness Sewage Treatment Works’. The stench of the place was so bad that we ended up sprinting away from it with various items of clothing tied around our faces and mouths. I don’t blame Dennis for this, it’s just that some boroughs have nicer attractions that others.

After having visited the borough’s main attractions, we normally go to the pub. Sometimes our wives complain that the 32ers is nothing more than a drinking society, but I’ve never heard of a drinking society that has visited a sewage treatment works.

How many of the 32 boroughs have the 32ers visited?

14/32

1. Barking and Dagenham

2. Barnet

3. Bexley

4. Brent

5. Bromley

6. Camden

7. Croydon

8. Ealing

9. Enfield

10. Greenwich

11. Hackney

12. Hammersmith and Fulham

13. Haringey

14. Harrow

15. Havering

16. Hillingdon

17. Hounslow

18. Islington

19. Kensington and Chelsea

20. Kingston upon Thames

21. Lambeth

22. Lewisham

23. Merton

24. Newham

25. Redbridge

26. Richmond upon Thames

27. Southwark

28. Sutton

29. Tower Hamlets

30. Waltham Forest

31. Wandsworth

32. Westminster

What is the future of the 32ers?

Come hell or high water, one day we will complete all 32 boroughs. Although, both Ronan and Dennis have pregnant partners, so our progress may be temporarily hindered. We all dream about the day when we will complete the 32nd borough – we will invite our wives, our families and our friends for a big celebration. Perhaps when we have finally made this dream come true, we will have the courage to not pretend to be landscape gardeners.

This is a list of key vocabulary and expressions from the article in order of how useful they are. The student must choose 6 items from the list to study in the lesson.

To come up (with something)