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Vic Keegan’s Lost London 141: The ‘hideous’ Morley’s hotel

It had its critics but also its fans, and its founder has left his mark
Victor Keegan

Augustus J C Hare, a curmudgeonly Victorian essayist, was not a fan of Trafalgar Square. Writing in 1896 he saw a “dreary expanse of granite” with the “miserable buildings” of the National Gallery. Nelson’s Column, he said, was “a very poor work”, flanked by a “hideous hotel and a frightful club”. 

That “hideous” hotel was called Morley’s, and it ran the whole width of the square on the site of today’s South Africa House. It did not generate many plaudits. British History Online holds its breath enough to say that it “possessed a certain charm”. Its guests included Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who wrote much of The Hound of the Baskervilles there. The Northumberland hotel mentioned in the book is almost certainly based on Morley’s. But Conan Doyle soon got bored with it, writing to his mother in 1900 that he was “somewhat sick” of Morley’s and intended to try the nearby Golden Cross instead. 

The hotel cannot have been that bad because it was eventually purchased in 1920 by the Old Colony Club of New York, which was having difficulty booking places in London for its burgeoning membership of US businessmen, who travelled to Europe in their thousands for business and pleasure. The deal was done by club president Albert J Norton, who, after signing it, flew to Paris and bought the prestigious Hotel du Rhin as well. Both deals were, apparently concluded in a single day, a record at the time.

Among other people who stayed in the hotel were “Buffalo Bill” Cody, the US showman, and James Gordon Bennett, the newspaper magnate whose, Gordon Jnr’s controversial behaviour spawned the phrase “Gordon Bennett“ as an expression of incredulity and surprise.

Morley’s was demolished in 1936, but the name Morley has left its mark on London history. Its owner Atkinson Morley gave a handsome donation to help found the Atkinson Morley hospital in Wimbledon, which became one of the most advanced centres for brain surgery in the world. The hospital was closely involved with the innovative British company EMI in developing the CT brain scanner, which won Nobel Prizes for its inventors, Sir Godfrey Hounsfield and Dr Jamie Ambrose.

The Atkinson Morley hospital has since been absorbed into St George’s Hospital, Tooting, obscuring the fact that one of the great medical inventions can be traced back to the money made from a hotel in Trafalgar Square.

All previous instalments of Vic Keegan’s Lost London can be found here.

OnLondon.co.uk is committed to providing the best possible coverage of London’s politics, development, social issues and culture. It depends on donations from readers. Individual sums or regular monthly contributions are very welcome indeed. Click here to donate via PayPal or contact davehillonlondon@gmail.com. Thank you.

Categories: Culture, Lost London
Tags: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, St George's Hospital, Trafalgar Square

Nadine Tewfik-Saad: Will working in London ever be the same again?

Many unknowns lie ahead, but anticipating and planning for them is crucial
Nadine Tewfik-Saad

Change to the world of work in London, as many of us will have known it, is inevitable. As workers and decision-makers anticipate and seek to prepare for this change, we must look to the opportunities we can grasp.

Phasing back into work will bring challenges on a number of levels, beyond social distancing and general anxiety about the virus. Organisations across London will be forced to adapt to new realities, both due to the impacts they will already have experienced and in terms of the new context in which they will need to operate. The necessary skill sets and manpower pose serious questions for many employers, and difficult choices lie ahead. Evaluating and working on individual and organisational resilience is critical.

In reality, the future of many jobs is far from certain. It is more important than ever to look to opportunities for retraining, up-skilling and innovative ways of working. The challenges of climate change and digital transformation are already changing workplace skills, needs and roles. As London moves beyond lockdown, additional considerations will be brought to the fore. Its skills system and workforce must be able to respond.

Understanding changing consumer values will be vital. A shift in public attitudes, coupled with the urgency of new needs, has quickly moved our focus onto adding value in new ways. From Barbour to Kurt Geiger, brands have led the way in delivering practical solutions. Research by FleishmanHillard Fishburn found that over half of fieldwork respondents expect to change their purchasing behaviour as a result of the pandemic.

Internally, leaders are also thinking about the need to adapt to changing perspectives. The outbreak of Covid-19 has placed empathy, community and a focus on what really matters to us as individuals centre stage. This presents real opportunities to assess how organisational cultures and leadership approaches can adapt to create healthier, more positive environments.

It is time we moved beyond merely discussing the benefits of improved work-life balance and wellbeing for people, organisations and the wider economy, and started putting them into practice. With so many of us now set up to work remotely and adapting to this new norm, conversations are already being had about more flexible working patterns after the pandemic. Necessity has forced organisations to review their infrastructure and adapt to ways of working they may not have thought plausible even at the start of 2020. Suggestions of a prospective role reversal between home and office no longer seem unthinkable. Getting the right infrastructure in place will be vital.

Recognising how many roles do not need to be office-based could mean quite significant changes to everyday life in London. In addition to more home working, the scope for increased outsourcing and offshoring has the potential to alter London’s daytime population considerably. Consequent reviews of workspace and overheads could create very different places. Changing commuting patterns, coupled with a general move towards healthier and more sustainable travel, would impact the day-to-day public transport experience.

The capital therefore faces the prospect of a very different future in the years to come. Many unknowns lie ahead, but anticipating and planning for these scenarios is crucial. The ability of London’s workforce to bounce back from the impacts of this crisis will be a critical test of resilience. Strategic leadership and planning on private, public and individual levels will be key to getting it on the right track.

Nadine Tewfik-Saad is a senior public affairs practitioner in London. She originally published this article herself at Linked In. Follow Nadine on Twitter. Photograph by Omar Jan.

OnLondon.co.uk is doing all it can to keep providing the best possible coverage of  London during the coronavirus crisis. It now depends more than ever on donations from readers. Individual sums or regular monthly contributions are very welcome indeed. Click here to donate via Donorbox or contact davehillonlondon@gmail.com. Thank you.

Categories: Comment
Tags: climate change, coronavirus, COVID-19 London, employment, FleishmanHillard Fishburn, transport

Haringey: Work resumes on Seven Sisters regeneration scheme

The project that will produce a new indoor market for the so-called "Latin Village" continues to take shape and a legal challenge to stop it has been dismissed.
Dave Hill

Back in February, when the coronavirus crisis was just a news item from China, On London carried an interview with five traders from the Seven Sisters indoor market, often referred to as the Latin Village. Long-standing plans to redevelop the dilapidated former Wards furniture store building in which the market is located have, for years, been opposed by activist groupings, including some of the traders. Helped by several large media organisations, they have created the impression that the traders are united in opposition to the project.

However, as those who spoke to On London explained (pictured), the reality is very different. Many of the traders are in favour of the scheme, which will eventually provide them with a new market space on the same site. A review for Haringey Council, which has a legal agreement with the developer Grainger to facilitate the project, found that a majority want it to go ahead, even though they will first have to decamp to a temporary space on the other side of the junction of Tottenham High Road and Seven Sisters Road. There, another part of the regeneration programme for the area, known as Wards Corner, is well advanced.

What has happened since that interview? At the time it took place, the regeneration’s opponents were seeking leave to appeal against a court’s rejection of their claim that a compulsory purchase order made by Haringey that is essential for the scheme’s completion should not have been approved. The claim had been dismissed as “inherently incredible”. Even so, backed by thousands of pounds raised through a crowdfunding campaign, the objectors pressed on. They were denied leave to appeal on 17 March.

More recently, work consistent with social distancing requirements has resumed on the building across the road from the market following a break while the government’s view about construction activity solidified. That building, which replaces a former council facility called Apex House, is to be called Apex Gardens. It will comprise 163 flats for rent, 40 per cent of them at sub-market levels.

The market traders, many of them Latin American Londoners, will move initially into a retail area on the ground floor. Before the virus struck, Grainger had hoped the flats would be ready in June and that the temporary market would open in the autumn. That timetable has, inevitably, slipped, although Grainger is continuing to engage with the traders about the design of the temporary market. Online workshops will take place later this month.

Another significant development is the appointment by Haringey of regeneration adviser Roger Austin as Acting Market Facilitator, following the expiry of the contract of the previous manager of the market. It was Austin who produced the review for the council, working in conjunction with a policy advisory group of councillors. Austin’s task is to provide support for the traders in relation to their relocation and coping with the impacts of Covid-19.

On London will continue to cover the story of the Seven Sisters regeneration, in particular the fortunes of the indoor market traders, as it unfolds.

OnLondon.co.uk is doing all it can to keep providing the best possible coverage of  London during the coronavirus crisis. It now depends more than ever on donations from readers. Individual sums or regular monthly contributions are very welcome indeed. Click here to donate via Donorbox or contact davehillonlondon@gmail.com. Thank you.

 

 

 

Categories: News
Tags: Aditya Chakrabortty, affordable housing, Grainger, Haringey Council, housing, Latin Village, regeneration, Roger Austin, Seven Sisters

Heidi Alexander: Given the right support we can re-fashion London’s transport systems, post-lockdown

With government and public help, the city's planners and staff can meet the massive challenges ahead
Heidi Alexander

Unseen, sometimes highly technical, and often of little interest to the public, early warning systems alert specialists and decision-makers to approaching anomalies and extreme events. There are few better for London’s economy than its public transport system. Our bustling stations, cycleways and buses both reflect and create the city’s growth and also indicate when there are problems. When news broke that the coronavirus was spreading in London, we immediately saw ridership fall on the Tube, as people took personal decisions to stay at home, well before government announced the enforced lockdown.

To fight the spread of coronavirus and allow essential journeys to continue, Transport for London introduced in a matter of days emergency measures that would usually have taken weeks if not months to roll out. Every London Underground train, bus and tram in our city of nine million people has been treated with a special anti-viral cleaning fluid. We’re controlling passenger numbers at the busiest stations and we’ve suspended TfL and Crossrail work on 300 construction sites. Believing Londoners to be an ally in this battle, we’ve taken the hard decision to suspend the congestion charge and ultra low emission zone so as not to hinder frontline staff making essential journeys. We’ve been using every possible means of telling people to stay at home – through station PA announcements, posters, station whiteboards, the TfL website, social media, and millions of emails to registered TfL customers.

The measures have been a success: travel on Tube and rail services has plummeted by almost 95 per cent, and bus journeys across London are down by 85 per cent. In an astonishing illustration of how TfL has been re-purposed to positively dissuade travel, on Easter Sunday we recorded the lowest level of Tube journeys in a single day since the 19th century (barring the one day in normal years when the Tubes don’t run – Christmas Day). Discouraging journeys has been crucial to ensuring that overcrowding on the network has been absolutely minimised and that people can travel as safely as possible.

News reports this week indicate that the government is beginning to think seriously about what happens next. Will schools go back and, if so, will it be a full or a partial return for the vast numbers of schoolchildren in London who can be so often spotted on our buses? Might non-essential shops re-open and outdoor work be kickstarted, leading to numbers returning to the Tube? As we think about the recovery over the coming weeks and the eventual lifting of the lockdown, transport will be key to restoring London’s heartbeat.

It’s vital that government decisions are informed by an understanding of what the capital’s transport system can and can’t deliver. It is operationally impossible to run a full Tube service while a virus is still contributing to up to a quarter of frontline Tube staff being absent. And although staff are returning, this is an enormous, complex system that defies simple, superficially attractive solutions. If these were as easy as getting retired drivers back in to drive trains, we would have done it. But with many retirees falling into shielded groups and even recently-retired drivers needing refresher training, which can only be done in a cab less than two metres in width, you can see that there are problems with this idea.

There are many other questions that must be answered. How will social distancing be observed on the Tube?  Take the Victoria line. It runs every 100 seconds during the morning rush hour and the trains carry 1,000 passengers, or 125 per carriage. With a strict two metre radius around each of them, each carriage could carry just 21 people – a sixth of normal rush hour loading. It’s worth remembering that normal planning assumptions for the Tube are that four people occupy each square metre.

The bus network too presents significant and unique challenges. It is London’s most popular form of travel, seeing six million journeys a day in normal times. We are now seeing just one million, but we know that a loosening of restrictions will see those numbers rise. With just 15 per cent of normal travel being conducted, we’ve nevertheless been running 85 per cent of bus capacity. This has created space for social distancing inside the vehicles and the opportunity to introduce middle door loading, in order to better protect drivers. But as passenger numbers swell we face an unprecedented challenge in continuing to ensure a safe journey for everyone.

The use of non-medical face coverings on all public transport may have to become a condition of travel, but this would have implications for transport operators too. TfL staff will understandably look to their employer for equivalent protection.

The most harmful and self-defeating reaction to these constraints would be people returning to their cars – something we emphatically don’t want. It would entrench inequality, as nearly half of London’s households don’t own one, and it would be disastrous for air quality, carbon emissions and public health. We can’t replace one public health crisis with another, be that one borne of obesity or pollution.

The new world of plummeting demand for public transport will, unavoidably, entail plummeting resource. On safe cycle routes it’s clear we won’t have the money to do everything we want, but will this pandemic provide renewed clarity about the advantages of taking to your bike, and can we assist in encouraging those who are able away from the bus and the Tube? I’ve spent much of the last two years avoiding the rush hour crush on Southeastern trains, preferring a cycle ride to City Hall. The question is how to tempt hundreds of thousands more to do the same.

There are dozens of other unknowns that will shape, surprise and frustrate our best laid plans. Aggressive staggering of work start times may mitigate some of impact of restrictions being slackened, but would it be observed and how would it fit with school drop-offs and childcare responsibilities? Will the home working revolution many of us have experienced become a new normal and to what extent? Forty-seven per cent of journeys on our transport system are discretionary. That is to say they are not commuting trips or other travel for work or for education. To what extent will these discretionary journeys diminish and what effect will that have on jobs and the economy?

We are slow to recognise genuine British success stories, but London has some of the best transport planners and operational staff anywhere in the world. I’m confident that if anyone can rise to this challenge, it is them. Likewise, the men and women on our frontline have shown bravery and dedication under extraordinary pressure, and our trade unions have provided steadfast support and moral courage.

We are well placed to deal with the challenges ahead, but we can’t deliver the impossible. If the government and the public get behind us, however, we’ll strain every sinew to re-fashion transport in a post-lockdown London so that it can be as agile, responsive and inventive as London itself.

Heidi Alexander is the London Mayor’s deputy for transport and deputy chair of Transport for London. Follow her on Twitter.

OnLondon.co.uk is doing all it can to keep providing the best possible coverage of  London during the coronavirus crisis. It now depends more than ever on donations from readers. Individual sums or regular monthly contributions are very welcome indeed. Click here to donate via Donorbox or contact davehillonlondon@gmail.com. Thank you.

 

 

Categories: Comment
Tags: air quality, buses, congestion charge, coronavirus, COVID-19 London, Crossrail, London Underground, pollution, transport, Transport for London, ultra low emission zone

Caroline Russell: We need space for social distancing on our streets

We aren't going back to how things were, so let's take steps towards a new future
Caroline Russell

It is becoming clear that we can’t “go back to normal”. We are going to be living more locally and keeping physically distant from others for some time. On our streets we are seeing less traffic, more people on foot, scooters and bikes and long trailing queues for the shops. Rather than simply going back to “as things were”, we should be thinking urgently about what a future “as things will be” should look like.

Last week, I spent a couple of evenings on Zoom calls with clean air, road danger and walking campaigners talking about how to make social distancing work on our streets.  I was struck by how many people spoke of their neighbours seeing their streets through new eyes, as calmer places for people of all ages to walk, scoot and cycle for their daily exercise or trip to the shops.

Campaigners have been making the public health case for traffic reduction and more space for walking for years. This would clean up our air, improve respiratory health, maintain physical well-being and cut the numbers of people killed and seriously injured. These points still hold strong, but there is now the added imperative of enabling safe, physical distancing.

In Highbury, where I live, we have got used to a new normal of patient and socially distanced queues outside the shops with people being served one by one from shop doorways. But as the days at home have passed, I’m aware of an increasing hum of traffic on the road outside and much more traffic and many more parked cars at my local shopping parade.

When the two metre gaps were first marked out by the council workers it was possible to step out into the road if you were walking past a queue for a shop and maintain a two metre distance. This is beginning to feel a bit risky as traffic volume and speeds have increased.

If the lockdown is eased and more people need to travel for work, they are unlikely to be keen to go back to the crowded public transport we used before the virus. In any case, social distancing will mean Tube capacity is massively reduced to less than a quarter of what it was. If even a fraction of those extra people get in their cars, we’ll see record breaking congestion, with deliveries and emergency services stuck in heavy traffic.

All the campaign organisations are coming up with good ideas. Living Streets tell us that walking is the simplest and most accessible exercise, many footways are too narrow, filtered streets and lower speeds are important and that we must find ways to be less car centric.

London Cycling Campaign agree with those points and are calling for temporary cycle lanes on main roads and public spaces and parks to be kept open to reduce the risks of crowding.

Some councils are starting to act, such as Brighton’s which moved quickly to open Madeira Drive as space for social distancing. In London, Lambeth has gone for an innovative borough-wide approach, with a single traffic order and phases planned to match the evolving challenges of social distancing.

Will Norman, Sadiq Khan’s walking and cycling commissioner, has indicated Transport for London will support councils to take action. We haven’t seen much from national government yet, short of a measure to simplify the requirements on councils to advertise changes.

Whether we’re at home for most of the day or required to travel for work, we will need Olympic levels of transport planning and journey reallocation. And we’ll need the right action from every level of government to bring in all these measures to change our streets, so that walking and cycling can provide a much-needed alternative to dirty air, traffic jams and overcrowded public transport at a time of social distancing.

Caroline Russell is a Green Party London Assembly Member. Follow her on Twitter.

OnLondon.co.uk is doing all it can to keep providing the best possible coverage of  London during the coronavirus crisis. It now depends more than ever on donations from readers. Individual sums or regular monthly contributions are very welcome indeed. Click here to donate via Donorbox or contact davehillonlondon@gmail.com. Thank you.

 

 

 

Categories: Comment
Tags: air quality, coronavirus, COVID-19 London, cycling, Green Party, Living Streets, London Cycling Campaign, pedestrians, pollution

Cundy Street Quarter: Final proposals go on virtual display

Grosvenor Britain & Ireland's plans for redeveloping a piece of south Belgravia are now out for consultation under Covid-19 conditions
Dave Hill

One of the more highly-publicised and politicised regeneration projects in London over recent months has been Grosvenor Britain & Ireland’s proposal to knock down five blocks of flats in south Belgravia – four for private renters, one for Westminster Council tenants – and build a new mixed-use development to be called Cundy Street Quarter.

On London has documented the neighbourhood context, the vision of the architect, the opposition to it, the assurances given to council tenants, arguments about who speaks for residents, the state of play at the beginning of this year and Grosvenor offering council tenants the option of moving directly into their new replacement homes on the site, rather than having to first live temporarily somewhere else.

Now, Grosvenor has published its final proposals for consultation, placing online the essence of the detailed plans it intends to formally submit to Westminster Council later this year.

Most of what currently stands on the triangular site bounded by Ebury Street, Pimlico Road and Cundy Street will be demolished, though not the two blocks of Peabody housing association flats at the corner whose point will continue to be formed by Orange Square (also known as Mozart Square, thanks to its statue of the composer, who lived in Ebury Street as a child) or the shops on Ebury Street.

The 111 Cundy Street flats – comprising the four private blocks, which have had some noted tenants – and the separate 40-dwelling Walden House, which Grosvenor leases to the council, will be replaced by a combination of 93 “affordable” homes (including replacements for the 38 Walden House secure council tenants), 70 for full market price sale and specialist “senior living” accommodation for up to 170 people. There will also be 17 shops and other amenities, including cafes and restaurants and a cinema. A “flexible community space” is promised too, along with trees and green space. A map on the consultation website shows how the different components of Cundy Street Quarter will be arranged and links to computer-generated views of the new buildings.

Grosvenor says that the affordable homes, including those to be built for the Walden House residents, will be “on average 50 per cent larger than the existing flats“. They will account for 39 per cent of all the Quarter’s homes, as calculated by habitable room. Who provides and runs them won’t be decided until after planning consent has been secured. The senior living section will be market rate housing and run by a specialist operator, yet to be selected, which will likely provide homes for both relatively independent older people and others nearing the ends of their lives or suffering with dementia, along with appropriate facilities.

The site at present is self-contained with a car park at its centre. The proposed new quarter will have public pedestrian routes through it, reviving a feature of the site that was lost when the buildings that preceded the Cundy Street flats were hit by a World War II bomb. The adjoining Ebury Square  gardens will get an upgrade, including a new play area for children.

Grosvenor has been running a campaign to increase trust and public confidence in developers and the planning process, but the effects of the coronavirus outbreak have presented obvious obstacles to putting this into effect. Normally, the plans would also be displayed in a local building for the public to visit and real people would be on hand to answer questions.

Social distancing makes that impossible, so Grosvenor is to host three webinar briefings with live presentations by members of its team on 5, 7 and 11 May. These are to be advertised through information packs to be delivered to around 13,000 local address and via email and social media. Sign-up details and times are shown on the consultation website.

The process still has a long way to go. There will be consultation outcomes to consider and rehousing concerns to take on board. It is hoped that demolition and construction work will start late next year with the first new homes completed in 2025 and the whole project finished by 2028. On London will keep you up to speed with whatever happens next.

OnLondon.co.uk is doing all it can to keep providing the best possible coverage of  London during the coronavirus crisis. It now depends more than ever on donations from readers. Individual sums or regular monthly contributions are very welcome indeed. Click here to donate via Donorbox or contact davehillonlondon@gmail.com. Thank you.

 

 

 

Categories: News
Tags: Cundy Street, Grosvenor Britain & Ireland, housing, Peabody, regeneration, social housing, Westminster Council

Londoners ‘stoic’ under lockdown and may embrace new ways of working and commuting

Pollster Ben Page and Waltham Forest leader Clare Coghill have explored Londoners' reactions to the crisis
Charles Wright

Londoners, in common with the rest of the country, are “very stoic” – following lockdown rules and drawing on a sense of neighbourhood and community not often recognised before the current crisis. That was the message from leading pollster Ben Page, chief executive of Ipsos Mori, speaking alongside Waltham Forest Council leader Clare Coghill in the first of a new series of online talks to launch research on the capital’s response to coronavirus and what recovery might look like, staged by the Centre for London think tank.

The growth of neighbourhood support groups, as well as Londoners reporting more contact, albeit virtual, with friends and family, confirmed the results of regular Ipsos Mori polling over many years for the London Councils body representing local authorities in the capital, that London is a place of cohesive local areas where residents get on well together regardless of their background, Page said.

The community response in Waltham Forest has confirmed that analysis, said Coghill, with her borough drawing on its experience as the first London Borough of Culture last year, an existing network of volunteers, and a strong sense of borough identity. “That spirit has translated directly into the current situation, she said, “with the overarching goal to get all of our residents through this as safely as possible”. And the crisis had underlined the importance of the capital’s local councils. “We are the doers,” she said.

Council staff had made tremendous efforts – getting homeless people into shelter, shifting 30 people a day in Waltham Forest from hospital into community care, supporting vulnerable adults and young people and providing education for key workers’ children and children at risk. One thousand, eight hundred Waltham Forest staff are now set up to work from home, a rise from just 200, with some 200 staff redeployed into key roles, “doing completely different jobs” from before. 

Key issues, Coghill added, include sustaining staff efforts with time to rest or take leave, and the need to work closely with community networks in dealing with issues where volunteers lacked experience. “Social workers have always been under-valued, unsung heroes,” she said. “But it’s their capacity to support highly vulnerable people, adults and children, which is massively important if we are to get through this.”

While it was too early to predict the nature of the recovery, the trend towards more working from home and new patterns of commuting, fuelled by technology and demonstrated by a fall in public transport passenger numbers even before the crisis, was apparent, said Page. Residential and office space in Central London could become more affordable, with the pressure on housing reducing as residents moved out to work from home and commute less, but the central economy might suffer. “Will consumers be scared to go out and start spending or feel uncomfortable in a crowded theatre?” he asked. Or would the new “activist state” go “hell for leather” to restart the economy, even in ways running contrary to increasing concern for the environment?

But with the lockdown already bringing about dramatic improvements in London’s air quality on top of the impact of Sadiq Khan’s Ultra-low Emission Zone introduced last year, Londoners would no longer tolerate the risks of pollution, said Coghill. Waltham Forest residents were already looking for new ways of working, with less commuting and an improved quality of life, she said. “If we lose those gains by just going back to business as usual that will be a tragedy on a big scale. And such a missed opportunity.” The Mayor should now be looking to support “loads more ‘mini-Hollands’,” she said.  The Transport For London-funded schemes, designed to reduce car use and encourage cycling and walking, were pioneered in Waltham Forest.

OnLondon.co.uk is doing all it can to keep providing the best possible coverage of  London during the coronavirus crisis. It now depends more than ever on donations from readers. Individual sums or regular monthly contributions are very welcome indeed. Click here to donate via Donorbox or contact davehillonlondon@gmail.com. Thank you.

 

 

Categories: News
Tags: air quality, Centre For London, Clare Coghill, coronavirus, COVID-19 London, Ipsos MORI, pollution, Transport for London, ultra low emission zone, Waltham Forest Council

Jack Brown: I want to be lit up in London again

There won't be a V-Day moment, but there will be lots to celebrate when capital gets through its latest crisis
Jack Brown

I’ve got a new favourite song. It’s called I’m Gonna Get Lit Up When The Lights Go Up In London, and it dates from 1940. It’s about the London-wide street party that the song’s writer, the illustrious Hubert Gregg, was anticipating at the end of the Second World War and his intention to celebrate by getting so “lit up”, so “pickled”, so “canned” and so “stinking” that he would barely remember a thing.

According to an obituary of Gregg, the song didn’t go down entirely well at the top of British government. Winston Churchill’s enthusiasm for strong drink and his ability to read the public mood seem to have temporarily deserted him in his rather stiff response that the British people “shall celebrate in a manner befitting”, seemingly ruling out drunken oblivion.

But the song’s reputation experienced a bit of a turn around. It would be eventually be broadcast on the continent in 1944 as a radio signal to the resistance that D-Day was imminent.

Comparisons between the coronavirus outbreak and World War II have been plentiful and not always helpful. The language of war can be inappropriate for characterising illness – describing those that “beat” the invisible viral enemy as “fighters”, with the implication that those who weren’t as lucky were just not tough or committed enough, has obvious flaws. 

But treating the virus like a national enemy can also be unifying, inspiring and effective. Rallying collective endeavour against something often works well with human beings. And the last war, which looms so large in our collective national memory even in normal times, is our go-to comparator for a time of national crisis. 

There are similarities: the sudden, dramatic disruption to our daily lives; London and big cities being hit hardest; society divided into those at home and those on the front lines. But while the language of the crisis has been one of togetherness, this time we are required to experience it in isolation from one another – not forced together but kept apart.

And how we experience it varies hugely. Despite the Prime Minister’s illness prompting a surge in the easy line that “this virus does not discriminate”, it really does: directly, in terms of age, ethnicity and gender; indirectly, in terms of employment, region, neighbourhood, even the size and location of your family unit and its housing. But perhaps that was true also of wartime, if we’re honest with ourselves.  

A notable difference has been the absence of serious rationing. For many, this has actually been a time of indulgence. Alcohol sales are notably up, with off licenses designated “essential” businesses. The ability to booze our loafs off at home, gazing into an increasingly fuzzy Zoom call, shouting incorrect quiz answers impotently at frozen family members over our stalling internet connections, is welcome. But, somehow, it’s not quite the same.

Will there be a Covid-19 “day zero”? A day where the enemy has been defeated, to be met with parties in the streets, friends and families reunited at once? This feels sadly improbable. The virus will not simply surrender when it becomes clear it is outnumbered. There will be no VE Day, rather some form of gradual, phased return to semi-normality. 

So there will be no street parties, no dancing in the fountains. There will be no great liberation day on which London’s core is suddenly alive with joyous singing and revelry. There will certainly be no iconic image of strangers kissing amongst crowds. The mere thought of such proximity and the potential transfer of saliva sends a shudder down the spine.

It is entirely possible that by the time this is all over – and it will one day be over – we may feel differently anyway. The sales figures for supermarket booze do suggest that – to paraphrase the song – by the time this is all over, many of us will already have been “drunk for muns and muns and muns”. Perhaps nursing our collective hangovers in our parks, open spaces and great outdoors will be all we will feel up to by the time we are finally allowed out. 

And it seems unlikely anyone will have much money to spend in the all-but-inevitable depression to follow. Perhaps we won’t feel much like celebrating anyway. Despite the language, this is not a war. It is a pandemic. It is a global tragedy. 

So there will be no party. But there will be an end. The lights haven’t really gone out en masse in London this time round, except in the city’s core, where its most iconic attractions, squares and thoroughfares lie disconcertingly, unnaturally still. I can’t wait to see them again.

I love my neighbourhood and will fight to the death over its status as the best corner of our nation’s capital. But I miss the Strand. I miss Trafalgar Square. I even miss Piccadilly. And I am comforted by the thought that, one day, when enough time has passed, even if we have to keep our distance from one another, those of us who are able and so inclined will be lit up in London once again.

Jack Brown is a lecturer in London studies at King’s College and a Centre for London research manager. Follow Jack on Twitter.

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Categories: Culture
Tags: coronavirus, COVID-19 London, Hubert Gregg, Piccadilly, The Strand, Trafalgar Square