Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Have you seen London?
I found this passage in HV Morton's 'In Search of England' which expresses a common refrain of the topographical writers of his time - that London is no longer London but a metropolis built over the real thing, maybe that's what people such as myself and Nick and countless others are attempting, to see or at least feel London: " Of course, no living man has seen London. London has ceased to be visible since Stuart days. It was then possible for the last time in history to stand among the water meadows at Westminster and to see London riding on Ludgate Hill escorted by her church towers and spires. Plantagenet London must have been the best of all the London's for the purpose of a farewell speech: a city behind its walls, something definite to see and to address. To-day, even if you climb to the dome of St Paul's you see not London the City State but London the Labyrinth."
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6 comments:
Oh God(Gog-Magog)- does this mean we can at last see a gap in the fog? We can at last begin to imagine a future without London befouling every tablecloth and spilling it's dark meat onto every fugging barbecue we try and have. London, my dear, you're 'so over'. What was was once your panache and swish has left you as a baglady pulling up her skirts and pissing in the gutter while the smart set grit their teeth and hail Nigerian minicabs outside Soho House. Gone are your days my dear - even your darkness returns as a pallid echo - 'Mad' Frankie Fraser stage shows and endless Shoreditch 'Ripper Tours'. Your horror packaged and stuffed down your jaded craw so often that you forget to gag on it.
It's time to rest my dear, lay down your grizzled head and sleep.
London - nobody is listening any more.
To-day, even if you climb to the dome of St Paul's you see not London the City State but London the Labyrinth.
London Labyrinth (1993) Dir. Chris Petit: An impressionistic, personal view of London through archive film
London Labyrinth: the name of a Professor Palmboom comic book in the Tintin-esque ligne claire style written by the Dutch writer Dick Briel.
Dick Briel's next book: the Radcliffe Highway
See Iain Sinclair "White Chappell" the Ratcliff Highway murders: "The staked heart of John Williams, the Ratcliff Highway Murderer, beats evenly at the quadrivium, at peace, from the shuntings of the work ethic, connected in a mysterious and unspoken thread to the recently scoured white stone blocks of St George in the East."
Whorls of meaning like the hair on a monkeys nape.
Can anyone confirm the name of the short film in this post please?
Hi - the film is called Seeing London from 1920
Thanks John. Do you happen to know if Chris Petit's short film 'London Labyrinth' is available anywhere? Paul
No idea - I'd love to see it myself. Maybe try the mediatheque at the BFI Southbank http://www.bfi.org.uk/whatson/bfi_southbank/mediatheque
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