I was born in London. I have always lived near it - south of the river and Kent (the Superior County). It's not what it was - I always thought it would survive whatever was thrown at it but I'm beginning to have my doubts. So many people who have become resident don't seem to care about it. I remember Covent Garden before it was touristified. I remember Billingsgate when it was full of ice. I remember the Old Kent Road before it was turned into a road of out-of-town stores.
I still get the shivers whenever I hear Big Ben chime - reminds me of fog and hats and my parents and people who looked like Laurence Olivier!
Yes, I share all these feelings. I remember walking through the old Covent Garden in maybe 1970, being taken to a pantomime at some theatre on the Strand.
I was trying to capture those feelings - but London has always survived, somehow. I do worry that with the recent influx, of people who don't get the place, but then everyone probably felt that. Who knows?
"Has any other great city had a bigger fool as its head?" - maybe not bigger but the truly awful Bill DeBlasio ex-mayor of NYC will give Kahn a run for the money.
It's odd how linked London and New York are! But New York is far easier to navigate. Visited last April for a few days - didn't get lost once. Whereas however well I know where I am in London, I get lost.
Thanks - sorry for late reply. That area around Holloway Rd is just round the corner from where my mother's parents (Greeks) lived. Very atmospheric but the Archway viaduct is sinister!
I feel the same- that’s probably why I feel so ‘out of place/synch in the US., no bends in the roads.I have sat on the bench outside Tower of London and St Catherine dock- just sitting soaking the layers up- it is really really difficult to even describe. -and that edge of ‘roughness’ and sleaze., with who has walked there before.
London's mix of new and old, the atmosphere, is unique. It's still there, but has been diluted. Look at that picture at the top, of Piccadilly Circus! The place is an echo of its former-glory - sanitised but now a shell. Still, the side streets around are very much as they always were.
Enjoyed this piece greatly Paul - though you lost me a bit with watches!
When I was a kid, I had my dad's old watch - a gift from National Service pals which he reckoned they only bought for him because they thought he was dying of TB . . . fortunately, he recovered, unfortunately I spoilt the watch when I jumped into Wilstone/Tring reservoir without remembering to remove it. Since then (1978), I have never had a watch or been able to bear things on my wrist. However, I have just inherited his last watch and do wear that occasionally - including around London over Christmas while I was staying in Woolwich & Plumstead.
"It's amazing how much of non-central London still gives off the atmosphere of earlier eras. Limehouse, Deptford, Bethnal Green, Bow, Bricklayers Arms and the Old Kent Road - you could explore such areas forever and never get tired. The hardest thing about being away is the lack of time to reflect and make something of all the impressions encountered - and the areas around Plumstead are endlessly fascinating. Even the murky weather couldn't drain this. The walk up to nearby Shrewsbury woods has so many time periods of houses that with all the Christmas trees in houses it can seem like something from The Railway Children or Sherlock Holmes and then a tower block looms into view . . . There is a strong time-travel feeling . . . and the glowing interiors of pubs almost take my breath away . . ."
End of self-quote.
Also, my daughter may be about to move to Welwyn Garden City - so I was going through my archives of snapshots and would like to do an impressions of Welwyn - though no doubt it will be very much a superficial, passing flaneur's eye view.
And you Lawrence - love the quote in your email. I agree that the non-central parts are the places where London has survived - even as central as Holborn and Clerkenwell!
If you do a trip to Welwyn Garden City, I'd (if it works for you) love to tag along! My memories need calibrating!
It would be great to return to Welwyn sometime - though I don't know how my older daughter Celeste, got on with her house viewing yet . . .
If I ever mange to get down there it would be great to have the past Welwyn scene from the horse's mouth! Otherwise, I suppose, I will have to do it purely from my subjective skate through in 2022 (- that would make a good/naff tabloid title: "Welwyn subjective skate through of 2022")
By the way - I hope you don't mind my posting links for my stuff in your column!?
Am I right in saying Roger Moore wore a Hamilton prior to his repaired Rolex arriving in ‘Live and Let Die’? Quite a futuristic (particularly for the time) looking digital one?
You are indeed. Hamilton are now owned by Swatch group, but are decidedly not corporate in design or marketing. They have some very interesting watches from the Dune films.
How interesting, I didn’t know that. I’ll have a look. I really like their ‘Live and Let Die’ watch and have always wanted one. Not corporate is a good thing! I haven’t seen the new Dune films yet, I must get on and watch them.
Well, Hamilton are owned by Swatch. But their 'feel' is very non-corporate. The Dune films are quite slow but visually wonderful. But nothing like the emotional hit of Interstellar.
No but I've read lots of Iain Sinclair and those London 'psycho-geographers'. I find a lot of it a bit daft though doubtless I'm guilty of the same sort of thing in this piece!
Didn't think so -- just reporting how it came across to one reader. The Apple comment comes from watching several of their more recent Apple TV serials (pretty good, some of them) and getting a little nauseous after seeing the Apple symbols on the back of the various characters laptops.
I was a total Henry Miller nut (after reading Orwell's essay on him) as a teenager. Very funny often - but I found the sex/philosophy mix a bit annoying. I recently re-read 'Via Dieppe Newhaven' and it's wonderful.
Thanks Paul, really enjoyed your piece.
However wild horses wouldn't drag me to London these days.
Nor me - other than to visit! Glad you enjoyed it.
I was born in London. I have always lived near it - south of the river and Kent (the Superior County). It's not what it was - I always thought it would survive whatever was thrown at it but I'm beginning to have my doubts. So many people who have become resident don't seem to care about it. I remember Covent Garden before it was touristified. I remember Billingsgate when it was full of ice. I remember the Old Kent Road before it was turned into a road of out-of-town stores.
I still get the shivers whenever I hear Big Ben chime - reminds me of fog and hats and my parents and people who looked like Laurence Olivier!
Yes, I share all these feelings. I remember walking through the old Covent Garden in maybe 1970, being taken to a pantomime at some theatre on the Strand.
I was trying to capture those feelings - but London has always survived, somehow. I do worry that with the recent influx, of people who don't get the place, but then everyone probably felt that. Who knows?
"Has any other great city had a bigger fool as its head?" - maybe not bigger but the truly awful Bill DeBlasio ex-mayor of NYC will give Kahn a run for the money.
It's odd how linked London and New York are! But New York is far easier to navigate. Visited last April for a few days - didn't get lost once. Whereas however well I know where I am in London, I get lost.
I grew up on LI and spent 10 years in NYC before ending up living off the Holloway Rd. for about 20 years so your story hit home.
Thanks - sorry for late reply. That area around Holloway Rd is just round the corner from where my mother's parents (Greeks) lived. Very atmospheric but the Archway viaduct is sinister!
NP and it is. Lot’s of suicides there. The lower Holloway vibe changed alot with the construction of the Emirates.
I feel the same- that’s probably why I feel so ‘out of place/synch in the US., no bends in the roads.I have sat on the bench outside Tower of London and St Catherine dock- just sitting soaking the layers up- it is really really difficult to even describe. -and that edge of ‘roughness’ and sleaze., with who has walked there before.
London's mix of new and old, the atmosphere, is unique. It's still there, but has been diluted. Look at that picture at the top, of Piccadilly Circus! The place is an echo of its former-glory - sanitised but now a shell. Still, the side streets around are very much as they always were.
Enjoyed this piece greatly Paul - though you lost me a bit with watches!
When I was a kid, I had my dad's old watch - a gift from National Service pals which he reckoned they only bought for him because they thought he was dying of TB . . . fortunately, he recovered, unfortunately I spoilt the watch when I jumped into Wilstone/Tring reservoir without remembering to remove it. Since then (1978), I have never had a watch or been able to bear things on my wrist. However, I have just inherited his last watch and do wear that occasionally - including around London over Christmas while I was staying in Woolwich & Plumstead.
You might enjoy the first of my "Impressions"? https://internationaltimes.it/a-strange-sandwich-and-spilt-tea-on-route-53/ I have loads of others planned and will be trying to encapsulate some of the diverse atmospheres of London in many of them . . . to quote an email sent from London:
"It's amazing how much of non-central London still gives off the atmosphere of earlier eras. Limehouse, Deptford, Bethnal Green, Bow, Bricklayers Arms and the Old Kent Road - you could explore such areas forever and never get tired. The hardest thing about being away is the lack of time to reflect and make something of all the impressions encountered - and the areas around Plumstead are endlessly fascinating. Even the murky weather couldn't drain this. The walk up to nearby Shrewsbury woods has so many time periods of houses that with all the Christmas trees in houses it can seem like something from The Railway Children or Sherlock Holmes and then a tower block looms into view . . . There is a strong time-travel feeling . . . and the glowing interiors of pubs almost take my breath away . . ."
End of self-quote.
Also, my daughter may be about to move to Welwyn Garden City - so I was going through my archives of snapshots and would like to do an impressions of Welwyn - though no doubt it will be very much a superficial, passing flaneur's eye view.
Belated Happy to Year to you Paul
And you Lawrence - love the quote in your email. I agree that the non-central parts are the places where London has survived - even as central as Holborn and Clerkenwell!
If you do a trip to Welwyn Garden City, I'd (if it works for you) love to tag along! My memories need calibrating!
It would be great to return to Welwyn sometime - though I don't know how my older daughter Celeste, got on with her house viewing yet . . .
If I ever mange to get down there it would be great to have the past Welwyn scene from the horse's mouth! Otherwise, I suppose, I will have to do it purely from my subjective skate through in 2022 (- that would make a good/naff tabloid title: "Welwyn subjective skate through of 2022")
By the way - I hope you don't mind my posting links for my stuff in your column!?
All best wishes, Lawrence
Let me know if/when you do a Welwyn trip!
Post away, good to read!
all the best
Am I right in saying Roger Moore wore a Hamilton prior to his repaired Rolex arriving in ‘Live and Let Die’? Quite a futuristic (particularly for the time) looking digital one?
You are indeed. Hamilton are now owned by Swatch group, but are decidedly not corporate in design or marketing. They have some very interesting watches from the Dune films.
How interesting, I didn’t know that. I’ll have a look. I really like their ‘Live and Let Die’ watch and have always wanted one. Not corporate is a good thing! I haven’t seen the new Dune films yet, I must get on and watch them.
Well, Hamilton are owned by Swatch. But their 'feel' is very non-corporate. The Dune films are quite slow but visually wonderful. But nothing like the emotional hit of Interstellar.
I’m grateful for the tip, I shall watch.
I haven’t seen that either! To my discredit. I shall get on with watching that as well.
A real masterpiece - imperfect but emotionally it hits one very hard. Or did me.
And I shall also try and find the ‘Live and Let Die’ Hamilton!
Have you read Michael Moorcock's 'Mother London'? I did in the early '90s but don't recall much about it.
No but I've read lots of Iain Sinclair and those London 'psycho-geographers'. I find a lot of it a bit daft though doubtless I'm guilty of the same sort of thing in this piece!
Luke Dodson did a good post on psycho-geography here on Substack. I THINK we discussed it a bit here: https://flintandsteel.substack.com/p/dodcast-66-greg-moffitt
But, this sounds somewhat like product placement to me. Maybe you should think about talking to Apple about a sponsorship?
And I'd never own an Apple watch - in fact, I refuse to have anything but a 'dumb' phone which doesn't even have internet access.
No, it's just fandom. Hamilton don't need some unknown plugging them! But I like what I like.
Didn't think so -- just reporting how it came across to one reader. The Apple comment comes from watching several of their more recent Apple TV serials (pretty good, some of them) and getting a little nauseous after seeing the Apple symbols on the back of the various characters laptops.
I was a total Henry Miller nut (after reading Orwell's essay on him) as a teenager. Very funny often - but I found the sex/philosophy mix a bit annoying. I recently re-read 'Via Dieppe Newhaven' and it's wonderful.