Go to the City of London on a Sunday afternoon and you will find emptiness. Street after street of emptiness. Nobody comes to the City, London’s financial district, on a Sunday. The irony of this is that the City IS London. The boundries of the City are the same that marked the Roman settlement of… Continue reading How did London become the first metropolis to disappear?
Tag: writing
Listen to Marylebone!
I recently moved from the near suburbs to the city centre and the change has been louder than I expected. I used to think the idea that the city never slept was a clichĂ©. That if you went to Piccadilly Circus at 4am on a Monday morning then you would find something approaching emptiness. After… Continue reading Listen to Marylebone!
Love Streams
Susannah? When did I see her last? We’ve been through all this. Haven’t we? Outside Peter Jones. We’d been to Cadogan Hall and she’d just been offered an international tour playing second cello in a Candide revival. We’ve discussed this. I set it up for her. You’ve got to be a fixer in this life,… Continue reading Love Streams
The Alligator Summer
I was born in Serendipity on a Wednesday in July. The temperature had been so hot that week in Hampstead that my mother had been forced to give birth to me with all the sash windows in the front bedroom wide open. I would forever hear about the heat of the summer of my birth,… Continue reading The Alligator Summer