You cannot write about London without addressing the weather, but not as a complaint. The weather is the stage manager. The light in London is unique: soft, grey, pearlescent. It makes the red telephone boxes scream with colour. It turns the rain on a window into cinema.
The drizzle is an excuse. It forces you into pubs. Londres
There is a moment, usually just as the Tube train rattles above ground between stations, when London reveals itself. You see the jagged silhouette: the Gherkin next to a medieval church spire, the Shard piercing low clouds like a shard of glass, and the London Eye turning its slow, mechanical blink over the grey silk of the Thames. You cannot write about London without addressing the
By A. Correspondent
This is a city of glorious, beautiful contradictions. It is simultaneously the staid home of the Beefeaters and the beating heart of the world’s most vibrant street fashion. It is the land of queuing politely and the land of the mosh pit. To walk through London is to walk through layers. It makes the red telephone boxes scream with colour
Close your eyes in London. What do you hear? It is not just the "mind the gap" announcement (though that is the city’s unofficial lullaby). It is the polyglot chatter.