Londons

I was in London briefly last week and realised how many Londons there are.  Above, the Duke of Buckingham's water gate, from the river to his London home.  In the days of James I, the north bank of the Thames stopped at the steps.  These days, the Victoria embankment has pushed the river back 500 metres or so.  The London Eye is on the South Bank and between the park and the Eye lies  Victoria Embankment (main road) and the Thames.  Hungerford Bridge heading for Waterloo station is to be seen to the right of the picture.

Already we have London parks, London railways and seventeenth century London.

Whilst we were in town, we went to the football at the Emirates (sporting London), to a play (theatre London, but as it was Kinky Boots, also possibly transvestite London and Equality London and even fashion London).

I attended a business event, so business London, we went to Borough Market (markets of London) and we also (more by accident than design) did a bit of a pub crawl in search of an old friend, so drinkers' London and social London.

My plan had been to explore what's left of Spitalfields before the iron boot of Beaming Boris crushes the charm out of it completely, but that will have to wait a month or two.  That would have been eighteenth century and Victorian London.  I also had a vague plan to visit Olympia for the Knitting and Stitching show and wanted to take in a couple of cemeteries (as London cemeteries are a rich source of historical detail).

I love London, but even a fleeting visit indicates that the appealing village nature of its centre is being blighted by creeping corporateism.  Covent Garden, once touristy but charming, is now much more geared towards very rich tourists and consequently much less charming.

All the same, Sam Johnson is still right

"Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."
— Samuel Johnson

I just hope that this wonderful city remains accessible and affordable to the many, rather than an artificial playground for the privileged few in years to come.