Most wanted: A few of your favourite things

Wednesday 10 August 1994 18:02 EDT

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There's no accounting for taste, and, as our Most Wanted list reveals, the lifestyle of most Londoners is an endearingly eccentric blend of far-flung tastes ranging from the sadly safe to the bleak and blackly stylish.

While we like soppy, obedient, personality-free Labrador retrievers, we also adore the OTT violence (and dress sense) of Quentin Tarantino's freaked-out Reservoir Dogs. We live in a vast urban sprawl - yet own jet skis and garden gnomes. These objects are not only owned, but coveted by others and mostwanted by burglars. As are huge urban four-wheel drives such as the Mitsubishi Shogun and flash cars such as the Ford Mondeo.

On the crime front, the East End scores badly for burglaries, with Stratford, Hackney and West Ham as blackspots, while Earlsfield and Furzedown in south London, deep in SW18 and SW16, are now the most fashionable places to live. And, boringly, these new homes are likely to be given a fresh white coat of paint.

Our research also pooh-poohs the concepts of vegetarianism, the health food boom and products labelled with the guilt-inspiring word 'lite'. We Londoners still like our red meat and good old-fashioned comfort food. Pizza Hut serves up 1,218,000 high-protein Meat Feast pizzas, and in a post-work whizz round M&S, most of us are likely to walk away with a happy little Beefsteak Top Crust Pie, a spicy Chicken Tikka Masala and a gooey Luxury Bread and Butter Pudding for dessert.

Confused? It gets worse.

Hardest clubs to get into

The Ministry of Sound - big queues caused by macho security gorrillas who frisk clubbers for drugs and weapons. A tad paranoid.

Flipside, Iceni (Saturdays) - long queues due to popularity with a hardcore of groovers who are religious about Saturday night clubbing.

The Mud Club, Bagleys (Saturdays) - crowds of young kids just starting out in the club world.

Fresh and Funky, Iceni (Wednesdays) - big queues and boring wait, but worth it as this club lives up to its name.

Megatripolis, Heaven (Thursdays) - get there at 9.30pm. A mini Glastonbury with crusties, ravers and street performers running amok in the crowd.

Final Frontier, Club UK (Fridays/Saturdays) - again, get there early. Housey and ravey.

Hottest ticket in town

Phantom of The Opera. Lloyd

Webber musical opened in September 1986. Since then 3,319,000

tickets have been sold in London, and to get your mitts on one you have to book six months in advance

Hottest gyms

Espree Health Clubs at Blackfriars and Royal Mint Court, Tower Hill (6,000 members/almost full). State of the art equipment. Sleek, smart and sharp. The Tower Hill gym is enormous.

Jubilee Hall, Covent Garden. Celebrity instructors, toned women in thongs and extremely good fat-busting classes.

Cannons, Covent Garden and the City. Strongest point is its women's gym with equipment designed for smaller frames.

Holmes Place, Fulham Rd.

Exclusive club with a small pool that emits piped whale music. Changing rooms are bimbo hell and the gym intimidates with glamourous mix'n match thong outfits on display.

Aerobic classes are designed for pentathletes on acid.

Lambton Place, Notting Hill.

Small pool with columns and a jacuzzi. Beautiful Notting Hill Billies pump iron in the gym. Expensive, exclusive and overrated.

Schools with

longest waiting lists

Francis Holland. Two girls' schools (one near Regent's Park NW1, the other in Belgravia SW1. Turn out well connected, trendy young women with Mockney accents.

St Paul's Girls School, Brook Green, Hammersmith. High academic standards, turns out high flyers.

Westminster School near Westminster Abbey. Boys public school with high academic standards.

Putney High School, Putney Hill.

Private girls school with good exam results. Now into its second century.

Dulwich College, SE 21. Close to Dulwich Park, this is a private independent boys' school founded 400 years ago. Most famous old boy is PG Wodehouse.

Queensgate School, SW7. Private girls school, strong on music and arts.

Latymer Upper, W6. Founded 1624, an independent boys' school. Famous old boy, Hughie Grant. Turns out roguish underachievers and West London trendies.

Biggest ready-to-eat

sellers at Marks & Spencer

Chicken Tikka Masala

Lasagne

Chinese Meal for One

Prawn and Mayonnaise sandwiches

Beefsteak Top Crust Pie

Luxury Bread and Butter Pudding

Hardest restaurants

to get into

The Caprice - two weeks' advance booking. Frequented by film stars, celebs and politicians.

The Ivy - a week to ten days' advance booking. Jeffrey Archer, Sir John Gielgud, and an array of literati.

San Lorenzo - one week's advance booking. Every big star that comes to town gets in automatically, though. Paparazzi are permanently stationed at the door.

Daphne's - one week's booking time. Joan and Jackie Collins, Fergie and Di love this place.

Longest-running movies

Reservoir Dogs (81 weeks)

The Piano (23 weeks)

Schindler's List (20 weeks)

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Most wanted: A few of your favourite things

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