“I derive such joy from walking down the street in New York. It’s a circus of wild imaginings. You can wear anything you want and not feel weird. I live between London and New York [and my] two daughters go to school here. It’s actually an easier place to bring up kids than London. It’s smaller and easier to get around, there are more parks and it just feels more child-friendly. I can remember the first time I came to New York in 1980. I got off the plane and went straight to see Barnum on Broadway. I was struck by the profound energy of the audience. Watching theatre felt like a rock’n’roll experience. There’s a huge amount of theatre here in the city now, but there’s nowhere near the amount and diversity that there is in London. New York loves to describe itself as the entertainment capital of the world but on the whole the theatre scene is much smaller than it is in London”
Photograph: Jason Bell
Interviews by Guy Harrington
“This is a city of lonely people and that’s the good part about it. You can be an individual. No one cares about your background they just care what you bring to the game. I was 17 when I first came here with my friend Vanessa. We stayed in hostels, it was terrible. I was like ‘Where the hell are we?’ But we had so many adventures, we ran around the city shouting ‘Woah! New York!’ We found that we could walk into somewhere with no money and have the best time. That’s why I say it’s the city of hustle, you can go out and make shit happen. I came here again in April 2007 after signing to Atlantic Records. Having meetings here and living in London was kind of ridiculous. I didn’t plan to move here, I thought it would be good for six months, but it’s turned into two years or more”
Photograph: Jason Bell
Interviews by Guy Harrington
“I was working for Harpers & Queen when Anna Wintour offered me a job working on Vogue. It was an irresistible opportunity. I’ve found New York to be fantastically embracing. After coming here I realised how many glass ceilings there are in England. It’s more socially fluid here and my life has spanned high, low, uptown and downtown. I find it thrilling that you might be at a Fifth Avenue dinner party one moment, in some astonishing apartment with breathtaking art, and in the most energising Lower East Side nightclub the next”
Photograph: Jason Bell
Interviews by Guy Harrington
“I was 14 when I first came to New York – I immediately said, “I’m going to move here.” I really loved the buzz of the city and the way people said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it’ and things got done. One afternoon after drinking a lot of champagne, I made a grand plan to move here. I arrived in December 2009. I find the fast pace really tiring sometimes, to the point where I become a hermit in my apartment. I thought about setting up a company here and really going for it [until] my dad asked me if I was really committed to concentrating on it solely, for three years or more, and I thought ‘No, I’d rather just have a suitcase, make knickers as I go and get my arse around America.’ Selling bikinis is brilliant. It’s seasonal so I can keep going all year if I travel to the West Coast. There’s no way I want to be here in January or February”
Photograph: Jason Bell
Interviews by Guy Harrington
“I love raising my children in a world where being black, white, Asian, straight or gay is just one and the same thing. It really is true what they say about how multi-cultural and multi-racial this city is. Even though there are so many different nationalities living here, I think New Yorkers are slightly in awe of British people. It’s something to do with the accent. I think they assume we are infinitely better educated than them, which is of course an absolute load of shit; I left school at 16 so go figure. I remember the first time I came to New York. I was 19 and I was here to do press for Heavenly Creatures. My memory is of that view coming across the Brooklyn Bridge from the airport. It was just like in the movies”
Photograph: Jason Bell
Interviews by Guy Harrington
Dennis (right): “My parents had always wanted to move to Barbados but they didn’t think it was a good idea to take us there as teenagers. So they moved to the States when I was 14. They got us through high school and into college and then went to Barbados.” Phil: “We grew up outside of London in Romford. We were the only black family around there. When we finally moved to London all of a sudden we were no longer strange. That’s the feeling I get in New York. Being different here doesn’t matter. After going to a professional dive school here in New York, I decided to go back to England when I was 21 to study civil engineering. During that time I still considered Brooklyn my home and I would always spend my summers here. I still go back to England occasionally... I miss it until I’m back there for more than a couple of days and then I miss New York. England has become a foreign land to me”
Photograph: Jason Bell
Interviews by Guy Harrington
Photograph: Jason Bell
Interviews by Guy Harrington
"There’s a tremendous sense of freedom living in Manhattan. I remember when we were opening a small Barney’s outpost in Soho; in a cavalier way I told everyone that I would get a Queen Elizabeth II lookalike to come and cut the ribbon. We didn’t have a huge budget and I couldn’t find one so I decided to do it myself. I dressed up with butt pads, crown, sash, gloves, purse and jewels. I braced myself for the catcalls and the insults, and as I exited the lift into the lobby of my building the doorman said, “Mr Doonan, do you want your mail now or when you come back?” I often think what would I be doing if I’d stayed in England? I’m sure I’d still be on the scarf counter at John Lewis where I started. I failed the eleven plus in England and I always thought of myself as really stupid. Nobody knows that here, so I’ve written four books and a column for the New York Observer"
Photograph: Jason Bell
Interviews by Guy Harrington
“In England I’d been seen as a Super-Sloane Ranger who wasn’t that ambitious or bright. New York freed me up to be nakedly ambitious. [Initially] I really didn’t want to come. We came purely for my husband’s job. After two years I was ready to go home when suddenly, on the same day, my green card came through and I received a call from the New York Post. Everybody here’s always discussing the next big thing; it’s like they can’t enjoy the present. I love the professional cocktail party here where socialites come in, drink only Perrier water, get their photo taken and then leave, mission accomplished. That’s very New York”
Photograph: Jason Bell
Interviews by Guy Harrington
“I first came to live in New York in 1994. I wanted to write a novel and I thought that a geographical change would help. Like millions of immigrants before me I had a sense of liberation, being somewhere that was bigger. It’s paradoxical because in its own way you could describe it as claustrophobic; it’s all squeezed in on a tiny island and it’s a vertical city. There’s a mythology here that anything is possible. I actually find it quite odd in relationship to my kids, because they come back from school with all this stuff about, ‘I believe I can fly’ and ‘I’m special in my own way’, and I think I still have a kind of profound European scepticism about that”
Photograph: Jason Bell
Interviews by Guy Harrington
"In New York I felt at home instantly. I’d found the London art world quite oppressive and in the six months I’d previously spent as a student in New York I’d found it much more open. My work didn’t really fit in London at the time and I wasn’t part of the Young Brit Art scene which was at its peak. Here, I was introduced to a dealer quite early on and he liked my work straight away. The more I showed the more interest there was. There’s a feeling here in New York that people want the next big thing and they might be a little more suspicious and scathing in England. After all this time I only have two or three close American friends, most are European. I would never have known this if I stayed in England but I feel closer to French, Italians and Germans than I do to Americans despite the common language. I think much of it has to do with humour and shared history. That goes deeper than we all realise"
Photograph: Jason Bell
Interviews by Guy Harrington
"The first time I saw New York was in 1950. My father [actor David Niven] was doing a play called ‘The Moon is Blue’ on Broadway and we spent four weeks here. The British way of life is laid back compared to New York. I’m not saying that it’s not competitive in Britain but people treat competition very differently. Here it’s out in the open. In England there’s more self-deprecation. I grew up with a man who was extremely self-deprecating so I saw that at first hand. You never took yourself seriously, even though to be a movie star who made over a 100 movies you had to be very competitive. I miss the United Kingdom a lot. More than anything I miss the English sense of humour. It’s very different from any other. The funniest times that I spend are watching British comedies on television"
Photograph: Jason Bell
Interviews by Guy Harrington
"As a NY City police officer I don’t just live in this city, I’m a part of it. The NYPD is like a big family. I work for the Deputy Commissioner for Public Information, disseminating information to the press. When we arrive at a crime scene or an emergency, our job is to gather information immediately and then make sure it’s made available to the Police commissioner. New York holds many different images for many different people. The biggest for most of us is 9/11. That’s the reason I’m here. I’d always wanted to work in law enforcement and that event pushed me over the edge into making a decision. Inside, the Englishman in me is still there. Whenever I see the Union Jack I well up. I take the part of England that’s inside of me and I try to find it over here, so that I can relive and grow from those 25 good years that I spent in England"
Photograph: Jason Bell
Interviews by Guy Harrington
"I first came to New York in 1964. I travelled by boat from Southampton. As we neared the East Coast we ran into a tempest. I was okay but many passengers were violently sick. There were piles of vomit all over the deck and offended deckhands would come and say, 'Is this yours?' I thought, 'No, but if it was what am I supposed to do?' We came through the typhoon to be confronted with that amazing view of the Statue of Liberty as we sailed under the Verrazano Bridge. It was mind-blowingly moving and you felt as if you were the next batch of immigrants. 1964 was the year of the Beatles and wherever you went people would ask, 'So you must know John?' I’d say, 'Of course. Yes, personally.' The city was more garish, grungier, louder and crazier then I’d ever imagined. I remember being shocked by how raw and unappealing it was and then five minutes later thinking, 'This is absolutely fucking wonderful'"
Photograph: Jason Bell
Interviews by Guy Harrington
"I came in 2003 to check out New York and see whether I’d like to live here. I was working at the River Café at the time, so I kept the trip a secret. It was a whirlwind weekend; I just ate and drank for three days and came to meet my now business partner, Ken Friedman. Being good friends with Jamie Oliver, he called him up and said, “Why don’t you come be my chef at this place I want to open?” Jamie was famous by then and too busy so he suggested me. It was a great opportunity that I couldn’t let go. It took me a good few months to settle in; it was a bit of a struggle as no one understood what I was saying. I’d have to repeat myself three or four times. I think I’ve really embraced America. I love going to baseball games, eating hot dogs and drinking beer. I really only socialise with Americans. I can’t forget my roots but I feel much more American right now than English"
Photograph: Jason Bell
Interviews by Guy Harrington
"I made some very good American friends at Cambridge and they’d left me with the impression of America as a land of freedom. I was restless so, in 1951, I set sail for New York. I found work selling books in Doubleday Bookstore and as an assistant in the acquisitions department of the public library. At that time I had the familiar vagueness about who I was and what I really wanted. When the work was slack in the library I started to write my first play. It was there that I felt that I wanted to be a playwright and so in that sense New York really helped to define me. It sometimes feels to me that New Yorkers don’t really want to be in theatres unless they’re seeing the hit of the season. London audiences are marvellous because they have quite high standards and they’re more independent. It’s part of their life in a way that it’s not for the average American. I think the English audience gives a play a better chance"
Photograph: Jason Bell
Interviews by Guy Harrington
