Why I Fell in Love With London – Through the Eyes of a Cleaner

I wake up at 4:45.
Not because I want to, but because I have to. By 6:00, I’m already in the Tube, somewhere between Hounslow and Holborn, with a flask of cold coffee and yesterday’s bread in my bag. People don’t look at each other at that time. We just exist in motion.

I clean offices. Glass doors, toilets, desks, microwaves filled with someone else’s lunch stains.
Every day, I wipe away someone else’s mess. And somehow, this is how I fell in love with London.

Not the postcard London.
Not the Instagram London with Tower Bridge selfies and rooftop cocktails.
But the London that yawns with the buses at dawn. The London that smells like bleach at 6:30 and perfume at 9:00. The London that forgets who cleaned the boardroom but remembers to leave crumbs behind.

At first, I hated this city. I came here with a degree in economics and a British dream in my suitcase. It didn’t take long for reality to slap me. No job without references. No interviews with my accent. No help from the ones who said they’d help.

But slowly – and I mean slowly – London softened. A bus driver smiled back.
A colleague said thank you.
A stranger helped me carry two bags up the stairs at Elephant & Castle.

I saw a woman cry on the Victoria Line. No one looked. I did.
She looked back. No words, just eyes.
I realised: we are all trying to survive here – some in heels, some in uniforms, some in silence.

London taught me things my diploma never did.

It taught me that no job is beneath you if you do it with dignity.
That you can love a place not because it’s easy, but because you grew stronger in it.
That being invisible doesn’t mean being worthless.
That sometimes, the cleaners see the city clearer than anyone else – before it puts on its face for the day.

I don’t earn much. I still rent a room. I still eat pasta five nights a week.
But every morning when I step into the train and see that skyline in the distance, I smile.

Because London didn’t give me what I wanted. It gave me what I needed.

Ready for more? Follow People Of London for real stories from real people – the ones who build this city while everyone else is still asleep.