Konstantin Pinaev London Biography

All the relevant news of the week with one letter receive fresh news from Kommersant UK by e -mail to subscribe to OK, September 26, Konstantin Pinaev: “London is a city that is only pretending to be old” Konstantin Pinaev. Photo: Tom Evsyukova. Before an interview with Kostya Pinaev-perhaps the most famous Russian-speaking guide of London, whose cylinder is recognized even by those who have never been on his excursions-I managed to take a walk with him on Covent Garden.

And from this walk there was a feeling of how to watch an arthouse film - many elegant visual fragments strung on the route itself. Only Pinaev can find a colorful hook for a policeman’s cloak on the wall of the house at the intersection, attract the attention of excursionists to the yellowing tree of Ginkgo in the middle of China-Town or tell the story of graffiti with a drawn man sleeping under a real staircase.

He calls it the beauty of Lleadon. Have you ever been afraid that once your enthusiasm about this city would run out? At first, the excursions were my hobby, I worked on Sundays and was afraid that when my project would turn into work, it would become boring. But I still get high from him and, returning from vacation, running to work with pleasure. Apparently, there should be a certain mindset and character, you need to love people, cities.

I really like all this. I understood this especially well when, during the pandemic, I tried another lesson - a legal advice. This is difficult for me. I am hyperactive, I can’t sit still, I like to communicate. I have a good memory for things that carry me away, I well perceive the information by ear. And it seems to me that people feel it, because many say that they are looking for excursions of sincerity and naturalness.

Authenticity in the era of an excess of information is especially appreciated. When I moved to London in January of the year, social networks only appeared, and I, in order not to answer the same questions, began to make a blog - this is his readers and come to me on excursions. By the way, since then I have been talking with Ilya Varlamov. How did you work with him? On excursions, Ilya, unlike the rest, listening and nodding their heads, mostly walked his nose buried in the phone.

I ask: “Are you listening to me at all? In the morning we wake up, I barely managed to tear my eyes, and he already wrote a post based on our walk, and took away the pictures, and edited them. He has phenomenal performance. Indeed, in comparison with the average inhabitant of the city, you probably know once a hundred more Londoners in this are no different from Muscovites.

Yes, I probably know more than a middle resident, but, again, I still have fragmentary knowledge, because London is completely bottomless. Very often a step to the left, a step to the right - and such gaps are found, you once again open such layers for yourself and think: wow, wow. To draw something on the wall-and this is semi-legally-a person should get sick a lot. Street art is always topical.

I can also talk about the Beatles for a long time - the guys are out of time, and everyone knows about them. Plus, this year, the engravings of William Hogart do not come out of my head. And then no one felt the city like Hogart. All London locations in his paintings are still, two hundred and fifty years later, are quite recognizable - how is this possible? Is this Islington?

People have been living in this area for more than two hundred years, and more in places. There are many layers, stories, it is felt. Islington is at the side of the City, and many residents of the district work there, these are lawyers, insurance brokers. Accordingly, it is noticeable that money is found here. And Islington is very creative, but without a show -off of Western London, which attracts people of creative professions here.

Or would they stay in Islington? I like Bloomsbury, I love City. He is absolutely, at first glance, prickly, non -residential, but in fact there are very good houses, wonderful people. I always say that I see myself in Islington or in City. Perhaps I, like many British, will spend the last days in the south of France. I would like to believe that there is enough money for old age, but because of the latest events, less and less believe in it.

For guides, in recent years have been difficult, first because of the pandemic, then because of the war. But everyone somehow survived. Especially when was Brexit confirmed and was there a pandemic? In fact, he is young, dynamic and always changes.

I, as a guide, go to the same places and see the dynamics very well, but it is layered gradually, and it is difficult to say that something has changed a lot. And if I get into areas where I have not been for a long time, then yes, I am amazed how it looks different. The first year we lived on Canada-Uoter, then we moved, there was no more reason to come there, and when we returned there in ten years, it was generally another city.

Now we were walking around the carpet-garden-ten years ago there were no many restaurants and shops, Facebook and Google offices and people have changed during this time.Now everything has risen in price in London, so it seems to me that its inhabitants have become more driven. There was no such drunkenness in Soho, the city looked more conservative, life in it flowed calmer.

Now there are more colors, London was younger and has become more IT. Now almost all recently come up - this is ITSHNIKS. Well, with Brexit, London has become a little more toxic. During the pandemic, pubs were closed, and the newspapers stopped going out on paper, and many did not return to offline. And how then did the Londoners themselves change? On the pubs, yes, everyone was very bored.

This is one of those things that breathed back life into the city. When I went around the city to the pandemic and everything was closed, it was very strange. Then they allowed to stand in pubs on the streets, and my colleague and I went to one such institution. Londoners and British generally keep you at a distance. Many locals know me in the face, and I, but they will never work, will not say hello.

People were hungry for communication, as it seems to me. When the pubs opened, everything worked out. Now we ignore everything again, as it should be in a big city. This is such an informal place where all of their own. But you must definitely be able to lead Small Talk. Themes can be different, from what you are wearing or what happened in the news, before the weather, sports and the pub.

Any no binding topic. Well, at home I go without shoes and without slippers; Sometimes, if I need to go out somewhere in the near future, I can sit in shoes. I once came home in Balashikha to my parents and forgot to take off. And also, like a Briton, I am ready to criticize power for an infinitely long time. It was always in me, even when I lived in Russia, but there I was rather an exception to the rules.

When you come here, you understand how often they often criticize power here, everything, everywhere and always. And it must always be criticized, otherwise everything will degrade. But I must say, stereotypes are formed for a long time and die even longer. Simalty is when you cannot express emotions at all. It seems to me that the British just express positive emotions very well, they are very warm, but in terms of negative emotions, they will be expressed in semi -German and restrained.

When I was still in a corporate environment, I was always struck by how the British, with the help of hints, are trying to cultivate everything good in you and ignore everything bad in the hope that it itself will fall off. And indeed, in the end you work well - not because you are afraid to mess up, but because you want to become better, to be a professional. Internal motivation is more organic.

Are there any scandals? If a person came to me, then this means that he wants to know something new, to understand what is happening around, to let the city through himself. There was no such frantic racism. Much of them surprise them, including the international multiculturality? But we must remember that the same Russia is cut off by hundreds of kilometers of land and now its iron curtain - it has always been a rather isolated country.

And here the country is built on internationality. And when you explain this to people, it seems to me that everyone understands this. Returning to the question of whether scandalists go to excursions scandals where interests face - corporate, political, financial. Here people have a good time, in this sense we are on the same wave, and no one will quarrel.