The capital is expensive, complicated, and possibly fraying at the edges. It is also still the best city on earth.
By Fiona MacLeod | Travel writer. London enthusiast. Unapologetic.
Sources: Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat
Everyone Is Talking About the Decline. Here Is What They Are Missing.
The report on managing Britain’s decline has been everywhere this week. And yes: things are hard. The cost of a hotel room in central London is alarming. The Tube has opinions about whether it will run. The weather is what the weather always is: a personal challenge issued by the sky.
And yet. And yet and yet and yet.
I walked across Waterloo Bridge at six in the morning last Tuesday. The Thames was silver. The City was waking up, all towers and history mixed together in a way that is completely impossible and completely London. A heron stood on the embankment wall and looked at me as though it had been there since the Blitz. It probably had.
What the Decline Cannot Touch
The decline cannot touch the National Gallery, which is free and contains more beauty per square metre than almost anywhere on earth. It cannot touch the Albert Hall on a concert night, or the markets of Brixton and Bermondsey, or the way Hampstead Heath looks in early spring when the bluebells are up and North London briefly forgets it is stressed.
The Time Out London guide covers the new and the now. But the thing about London is that the very old is also always very now. A pub built in 1665 is not historical. It is operational. Walk in and order something. This is time travel that costs the price of a pint.
For the Visitor Considering Whether to Come
Come. Despite the expense. Despite the complexity. Despite whatever the current chaos is doing to the general mood. London gives back what you bring to it: curiosity, willingness to walk, and the ability to find the humour in a city that is always, in some way, falling apart and always, in some other way, magnificently holding together. It is the only city I know that can make you furious and grateful in the same five minutes. I love it completely. Come and see why.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/managing-britains-decline/
More London love at The Daily Mash
