Leave London? Never – I’ll be staying, and fighting for it

The recent slew of writers leaving the capital in disgust are deluded if they think it’s getting worse. For a transplant from north Wales, London has certainly seemed divisive and repellent at times – but also magnificent

Last year my daughter found a curious relic on the Thames shore near Shakespeare’s Globe. The object she plucked from the lapping waters was a red clay tile with a dog’s pawprint clearly embedded in it. One day long ago, this tile was lying out to dry and a pooch pranced across it. It may have been a medieval or even Romano-Celtic dog; the Museum of London has Roman tiles with pawprints just like this one. Whatever, whenever, it left more of a mark on London than most of us ever will. People have come and gone from this great metropolis in their millions, arriving and leaving, one way or another, generation upon generation, for so long. Most of our stories will vanish into the big history of the big city. At least this dog left a pawprint behind.

Another way to make your mark on London is to piss at it out of the car window as you leave.

Related: Goodbye London: why people are leaving the capital

A crowd flowed over London bridge, so many,
I had not thought death had undone so many.

Related: The city that privatised itself to death | Ian Martin

Related: Sorry, London: you’re too uncool. And way behind New York | Hadley Freeman

Continue reading...