London

[liadnan]

I lived here in London from 1991 to 1994, and I came back for good in 1999

Many things about it send the red mist rising. The pollution, the crowds some days when I want quiet. The tube, day after day. The prices, in particular the house prices. Quite often I contemplate moving out, commuting in two or three days a week and relying on broadband interweb for the rest when I'm not in trial.

On days like today I'm reminded just how much I love the place, and just how fantastic most of the people here can be when the shit really hits the fan. Who needs the Olympics to feel good about this place? Seven million people, three hundred languages, every possible kind of shop, one of the greatest concentrations of museums, galleries, concert halls and venues in the world, and some 22,000 licensed premises. Old Compton Street in Soho at 3AM on a Saturday morning. The view across the river into the City from Southwark, or up Ludgate Hill to St Pauls at midnight. Or the middle of Regent's Park on a sunny afternoon. It's a dirty, rowdy, sprawling, chaotic place, layer upon layer of it. And that's the point of the place.

I finally left the flat around 7 to go and buy some food. Still an eerie calm everywhere round here, apart from the odd screaming siren. As I crossed back over the railway bridge, the sun shone through, the first time I've seen it properly today, bouncing off puddles of water from here up the railway line towards St John's Wood, a truly beautiful sight.

The fields from Islington to Marylebone,
to Primrose Hill and Saint John’s Wood,
were builded over with pillars of gold,
and there Jerusalem’s pillars stood.

William Blake - Jerusalem, 1804

Perhaps it's an odd kind of Jerusalem, but it's ours. Screw you, whoever you are. London's still standing. And if it burns to the ground, we'll just build it again. We've done it before.

Comments

[rparvaaz.livejournal.com]

That's beautiful. But not better. Just different from yours in that you talk of the city and he doesn't. The attitude is the same though. Just what I expected, and said to itchyfidget yesterday.

[liadnan]

This one's rather good too.

[rparvaaz.livejournal.com]

Yep. Thanks.

[blonde222.livejournal.com]

no yours was better than both of those. Shorter & more Churchillian. I think you need to move into Crime and be Rumpole of the Bailey.