City of Cities

"My perception is that London was the modernist city par excellence in 1900, and over the last century or so has retreated from its position on the cusp of modernity. In the early 1900s you had stock market quotes, electrified underground railways and pneumatic mail systems – the idea that we are significantly more modern in the physical fabric of the city today is a delusion. I wanted to try and evoke that. Inwood’s book is a very thorough and comprehensive social, political and cultural history of London during that period. He’s written other big books on London, but by narrowing his focus he has got a lot more detail in. Absolutely. It’s a Victorian city. I would say modernity was gone by the First World War. Walter Benjamin said Paris was the capital of the 19th century. London was the capital of the Edwardian era – the world city at that point. And it hasn’t been since, despite all this fuss about financial services and all of the foreign capital flowing in. The fabric of the city is irredeemably 19th century. But London is also endlessly protean. It may not be modern but it’s powerful in its genius loci. It does what it wants to do. It will look after itself. It will eat up all this Olympics bollocks and spit out the bones. John Gray, the philosopher, suggested that London will become the Singapore to the rest of Britain’s South East Asia. I’m afraid to say I think there’s a strong likelihood of that. Opportunistic and yet curiously fatalistic. Not merely melioristic though it often tries to pretend it is. Like all big city characters, with a tendency towards both negative cynicism and stoical cynicism. Quick with the gob and the gab. Chancers, muckers – all of those things which can be both good and bad."