At 1.30am on Sunday, 600 basketball fans packed into a sports bar opposite Victoria Station, dancing to 'Empire State of Mind' while bartenders in 'Always Knicks' T-shirts served espresso martinis. The Greenwood Sports Pub & Kitchen was staying open until 5am for the New York Knicks' fifth game of the NBA finals against the Spurs – a win would clinch the title for the first time in 53 years. Among the crowd were Claire and Lindsay, who had travelled from Anglesey to watch. 'We both had work the next day and woke the neighbours up with our screaming at 5am. It was worth it,' Claire said of the previous game, when the Knicks reversed a 29-point deficit.
That same weekend, hundreds of miles away, Fidelia Okandze was waking up in a two-bed apartment in Brazzaville, the capital of Congo, where her monthly rent is £132. The 32-year-old content creator, originally from Pimlico, London, swapped her £1,000-a-month one-bed flat for the cheaper home in November 2025 so her husband, a 36-year-old surgeon-in-training, could complete his surgical training. 'It's a huge relief,' she said. 'It gives you this breather to actually build other things and not constantly be chasing the next pay check.'
“Fidelia Okandze swapped her £1,000 London flat for £132 rent in Congo while 600 Knicks fans stayed up all night in London.”
Born in Congo, Okandze fled the civil war at age four and grew up in London. She had visited on family holidays in 2011 and 2013 before meeting her husband – introduced by her cousin – in 2025. Now living on £1.50 per meal, she plans to buy land next year after a second traditional wedding ceremony. 'You can easily buy acres and acres for like £300,' she said. 'In 2021 I had the opportunity to buy a mountain for £1,500.' She misses 'everything' about London – friends, Lurpak, muesli – but the climate sealed her decision. 'I couldn't imagine living the rest of my life on vitamin D tablets – I just refuse.'
Back in Victoria, the Knicks fans – many American, but the most ardent British – embodied a different kind of refusal: to let geography or time zones dim their devotion. As one fan put it, 'New York or nowhere' – even if that nowhere is a sports bar with fake zebra heads on the wall.