Jeremy Clarkson has admitted that for the “first time ever” he was left fearful while walking the streets of London.
The 64-year-old, who recently underwent a heart procedure after discovering a blocked artery, splits his time between the UK capital and his Cotswolds farm – but it sounds like his latest foray outside of Oxfordshire was far from pleasant.
Clarkson spends much of his days working at Diddly Squat alongside the likes of Kaleb Cooper and Lisa Hogan as they film the fourth season of Clarkson’s Farm.
And with Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond no longer part of the fold on The Grand Tour, work meetings in London have taken a backseat compared to the demands of running his sprawling Oxfordshire farm.
Nevertheless, during a recent trip to the capital, Clarkson has detailed how he’s witnessed a marked decline in the city and that it feels like “London is dying” in his eyes.
He explained all in a recent column, writing: “On a Tube train journey in London this week, I overheard a woman saying to her friend that her flat had been burgled and all the family passports stolen.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has been criticised by Clarkson before
PA
“Later, I saw a Porsche with both of the nearside doors missing. And then I noticed that in one of the most expensive streets in West London’s Notting Hill, half the shops are now boarded up.
“I then walked back to my flat and, for the first time ever, felt slightly threatened. I also felt slightly squiffy. The smell of weed was overpowering everywhere.
“I dunno. It felt to me like London is dying,” he brutally surmised in the Sun, before turning his attention to London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
Elsewhere in the column, Clarkson tore into the Labour politician for his decision-making as London Mayor, most notably the decision to turn down the chance to build a Las Vegas-style Sphere Arena in the city.
Jeremy Clarkson spends much of his time in the Cotswolds but still returns to London often
PA
Clarkson questioned if Khan was “mad” to reject proposals based on the fear of “light pollution”.
Continuing his tirade against Khan, he penned: “The Tories, who were in power at the time, tried to overrule the deranged Mayor of London, but it was too late.
“The company behind the idea pulled out, saying they didn’t want to be a political football.”
In the end, Clarkson pointed out the flaws in using environmental fears as a factor in the rejection of the plans, remarking that those who want to experience the Sphere will now have to fly to Vegas or the UAE where the proposals have been greenlight.
This isn’t the first time Clarkson has let rip on Khan over his running of London, previously accusing the politician of “f***ing” up the city.
He also raged earlier this year that the city had become “Socialist” and branded a new traffic measure by the Mayor as a “madcap left-wing plot”.
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While Clarkson may have found time to unleash the attack on Khan, he’s also had to deal with his recovery from a rather worrying health scare.
During a recent sun-soaked getaway, Clarkson began to feel unwell and upon returning home ended up being rushed to the hospital.
Following a “tightness in my chest” and feelings of clamminess and pins and needles, Clarkson feared he may have been having a heart attack.
“It seems that of the arteries feeding my heart with nourishing blood, one was completely blocked and the second of three was heading that way,” Clarkson wrote in the Sunday Times. “So he [the doctor] made a hole in my wrist, inserted his Dyno-Rod equipment and went in for a closer look.”
Rather than a bypass, the doctor was able to insert stents into the 64-year-old’s heart and the Clarkson’s Farm star has since returned home to continue his recovery.