Little London Stories: Christine Allen, newspaper and candy seller, Temple tube

I've been in London a little over a year now, and have not taken for granted certain people who always greet me with a smile. Christine Allen is one such individual.

She has been working at this newspaper stand at the Temple Tube, across from the Thames, for '20 or 30 years' she says, happily serving customers of all stripes, including busy businessmen and women, kids, tourists, and students from King's College London (who me?), located nearby. I caught up with Christine recently for the low-down.

Do you own this?

Bobby owns it.

Where do you come from originally?

(laughs) Bethnel Green.

And where do you live now?

Bethnel Green.

Have you travelled outside the UK?

Yeah. I've been all over America, I've been over to Korfu, I've been quite a few places.

Really? Where have you been in America?

We went to Santa Barbara, LA, California, uh, Utah ...we went on a big tour. Is it Yosemite Park?

Oh I love Yosemite; good place.

We stayed there in a log cabin. It was just lovely. We ended up in Las Vegas. My son was ill and he was taken to a hospital in Utah. We had to go out and get him. It was amazing how they looked after him in your hospitals.

Tell me about your most interesting customers.

Oh, we've had Richard Branson, Adam Ant, we have all the, when they do the fashion -

Fashion Week.

Yeah, we have quite a few stars coming through. Oh, I can't remember them all.

What is Richard Branson like?

Really nice. He's a down-to-earth bloke.

Have you had any royalty come by?

We get a lot of judges.

From Royal Courts of Justice. I guess the royalty doesn't really do their own shopping.

We have the ones with all the dressing up. Then we had some a few weeks ago. With their knickerbockers.

But you haven't had anyone from the Royal Family.

No, I haven't.