Gillian Anderson's My London
By Hannah Nathanson
Evening Standard, UK: September 20, 2013
Where do you live?
Central London. It's surprisingly quiet and it feels like London might have done hundreds of years ago.
Best thing a London cabbie has said to you?
'You look just like that Mulder on X Factor.'
Where would you go for a nightcap?
Along the South Bank - it's BYO.
First thing you do when you arrive back?
Look out of the cab window and, rather than get absorbed in my BlackBerry, soak in the city I feel so grateful to live in.
Who's your hero?
Anyone who fights for human and civil rights.
What do you collect?
Art. But not as voraciously as I wish I could.
Favourite shops?
Waitrose/Ocado for ethics of business, quality of food and friendly prompt service. John Lewis for its range of products and speed of delivery for household items. Viola on Connaught Street and William Vintage on Marylebone Street for eveningwear.
Last play you saw?
A Season in the Congo at the Young Vic - one of my favourite theatres for its versatility and purpose. I can watch Chiwetel Ejiofor in anything.
Animal you'd most like to be?
A sloth. Maybe I'd finally slow down.
Earliest memory?
Definitely not my first memory as I was six, but walking up to our doctor's surgery, which used to be connected to the church that Dave Stewart turned into a recording studio, in Crouch End and scratching the first of many chickenpox spots that would be the cause of my previously unexplained fever.
Best meal?
I think some of the best dishes I've had have been at Ottolenghi in Islington or the Modern Pantry in Clerkenwell. Fresh, healthy ingredients and ingenious flavour combinations.
Last song you downloaded?
Kendra Morris' cover of 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond'.
Building you'd like to buy?
There are so many but they are all too big and in the wrong neighbourhood. Kew Gardens? St Pancras? I mean, I'd have to keep procreating.
Best place for a first date?
Lunch at La Fromagerie on Moxon Street in Marylebone. Best to keep it bright and it's easy to escape from. If it goes well, a second date underground at Odette's in Primrose Hill.
Favourite London club?
Annabel's. It's just so damned romantic and I've never not had a fabulous night there.
What would you do as Mayor?
Whose department looks after regulation over child trafficking? Maybe if it was under Boris' jurisdiction, something would actually get done about it.
Ever had a run-in with a policeman?
In my first flat on Portobello Road after having been broken into for the second day in a row.
Favourite discoveries?
The Foundling Museum behind Coram's Fields, Columbia Road flower market and 5x15 stories and lectures at The Tabernacle.
Most romantic thing someone's done for you?
Gift me a wooden box full of the dried remains of the dozen red roses bought after our first date.
Who do you call when you want to have fun?
Emma Kennedy seems to have her finger on the pulse of hilarity in London.
Best piece of advice?
My father suggested in 1987 that I should learn how to do word processing as computers were on the rise. He figured that since I was likely to be out of work as an actor, I could fall back on it to pay my rent. I did not heed his advice but it was sound.
| 
