Virginia Woolf’s ‘Lost London Essay’: linked more out of duty to the readership than admiration.[…]

A dark tower, or two or three or more — I heard about them, tower blocks, I forget where at first. Didn’t actually see any until I came to London, though, and now that I think about it, probably not actually until my second time there in[…]

Oh Acton!
A sprawling town on the edge of the centre, you could say it’s where the westerly suburbs begin, a mix of the urban and the very suburban. To me it has a really special charm, probably like your home town does to you. I don’t th[…]

At the weekend a group of us celebrated a friend’s birthday by taking two boats down the Thames, from Greenwich to Westminster, and then on from Westminster to Kew. Unless you extend the trip in both directions to the Thames Barrier and and Ric[…]

Buy American — one of the more amusing things about my London visits is that I seem to inevitably pick up something there that is in fact from here. And theoretically I’m paying more for it. It makes sense that there would in fact be pl[…]

A Walk in the Wilderness
I went for a Sunday stroll across Walthamstow marshes.
On previous walks, I’ve often thought I had the fields to myself (apart from the cows, back down from Waltham Abbey to preserve the rare marshwort). Yesterday, ther[…]

DO THEY MEAN US?
Some months ago, an old friend and part-time Londoner had a Canadian colleague of hers over for a visit. My friend asked him what he’d like to see. “London Square” came the reply.
Unsure about what to do, my friend[…]

“he entered the forest and the phantoms came to meet him“
between my house and my friend T’s new house (see story in link) lie the Hackney Marshes (well sorta, if you take a bit of a northward curve on the way): the marshes i first[…]

Human traffic — I was a deluded young man. I was in England, in London, it was 1992. I waited to cross a London street. “All will be politeness and serenity here, no jaywalking or rude drivers or anything like that.” I didn&#821[…]

THE CLASH – “London Calling”: For the Mojo crowd this is the last chest-beating hurrah of a mythic London, the storied city of Oz and Westbourne Grove and the Kings’ Road, the last time the Last Gang had a Town to call their o[…]