Legendary poet, storyteller and north Londoner Michael Rosen celebrates his 80th birthday this year with a brand new show, called Nice! Here, we speak to him about London: its buses, its pelicans and its chocolate cake.
Where’s the best spot for reading a book in London?
The place I’ve most enjoyed reading a book in the past was the old Reading Room in the British Library. Now it’s the Overground between Highbury and New Cross Gate. [Michael Rosen lives in north London, travelling to work as Professor of Children’s Literature at Goldsmiths].
Do you like to take public transport around London for inspiration?
I’d put it slightly differently. I travel a lot on public transport round London and while I’m on board buses and trains I think a lot and that inspires me!
Can you remember which bus you were riding when you were inspired to write The Bus?
If that’s the poem about the bus being full of people with many different backgrounds that was the 38. [running between Clapton and Victoria].
London Airport is a wonderful story. That episode aside, what’s your most endearing memory of childhood in London?
My earliest memory of central London is my Mum taking me on a special trip to St James’s park to see the pelicans. For more than 60 years I didn’t ever go back and sometimes I thought I’d made it up that I’d seen pelicans in central London. A few years ago, I made a special trip to St James’s Park to check. I was over the moon to see that the pelicans were still there.
One of your best loved poems is Chocolate Cake. Where in London serves the best chocolate cake?
RONI’s in Muswell Hill sells delicious ‘babka’, which is a traditional Polish Jewish chocolate cake.
Where, for you, is the most poetic place in London?
As I was growing up, my mother’s parents lived in Sandringham Road in Hackney. Whenever I’m in the roads round there, I get a wave of feeling of thinking of Bubbe (grandmother) taking me to the ‘bag wash’ or Zeyde (grandfather) taking me to Hackney Downs to meet his friends. That would have been in the 1950s.
When your poem London Fields was posted up on the London Underground, did you ever watch people reading it?
I only ever saw it once and I admit I did look around the carriage to see if people were reading it. Ahem…I don’t think they were… ahem ahem.
Nice! Stories and Poems with Michael Rosen. The national tour kicks off on 4 May 2026 at the Rose Theatre. Kingston. Michael then makes various appearances in London throughout 2026, including a special free birthday event at Southbank Centre on 23 May.
