Inside London [antikvár]

2-3 4 tine aerial view of Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. 4 A typical London businessman with bowler hat. umbrella, and. naturally, the Financial Times - in the tjackground is the Clock Tower, which contains another famous iandmaric Big Ben. a giant beii 5 London taxis are decldely unl^hlonable with their squat shape but they are extremefy manoeuvrable in dty traffic and comfortable for the passengers. 7 A picture of Knightsbridge crossroads with the typical red double-decker buses. \/\/ ith no time to look or listen, the river, accompanied f f by the smell of rain in the air, leaves the old seat of Scotland Yard on one side and slips under the arched bridges. By the grim Tower of London, it has buried and abandoned any vestige of beauty; on the seaward side, this course of water becomes a tireless worker and "sweats oil and tar" (T.S. Eliot) until, after abandoning the numerous bulkheads of the India and Jamaica Docks, it opens out yieldingly to the North Sea. The Thames, the liquid history of London, has been the main road on which English prosperity was built. This rather unattractive scenario of wharves, silos and barges accompanied by the constant hum of steamers, forms a backdrop to the glorious parliament building which vibrates with the chimes of Big Ben and to the elegant Tower Bridge with its unmistakable, twin-towered profile. All of London is contained in this portait: a European metropolis, materially isolated from the continent, but spiritually impregnated with an effervescent human vitality, that invariably defies all the superficial and sometimes gratuitous attempts which historians, writers, journalists and sociologists have made to define the urban character of London. Officially, the capital of the United Kingdom and of the Commonwealth, and cradle of the most widely-spoken language in the world, the City of London extends for a few hectares around Tower Bridge. This so-called "square mile" has never grown since the Middle Ages: indeed, the City, seat of centuries-old insurance companies and modern management offices of Japanese companies, is the least inhabited part of any European metropolis. The disorderly ensemble of villages and districts which gravitate around it is known as Greater London, which extends its tentacles for hundreds of square miles along the Thames and the surrounding countryside and is home to more than 9 million people. Since 1986, London has been governed by its 33 or so local councils. Every borough has its own individuality dictated by the personality of its inhabitants and by a rhythm of life which marks its character It is difficult to explain the perplexity and astonishment one feels when faced with the unpredictable and contrasting facets of this capital in which, alongside ineffable English customs, there are so many areas, each different from the next, with an extremely heterogeneous,and multi-racial urban population. Today, the City still preserves something of its medieval style, despite the reconstruction which has taken place in the post-war period and the encroachment of modem skyscrapers. The economic capital of the country, where the dominion of the audacious mercantile bourgeoisie and then of the powerful modem-day businessmen permitted the introduction and the development'of economic and social democracy in the heart of England and the world, extends from Fleet Street, the original home of the press agencies and national newspapers, to the old Stock Exchange and on to the headquarters of the prestigious Bank of England. The political capital is to be found at Westminster, which for centuries has been the residence of the monarchy and the parliamentary institutions. Today this area is famous for its monuments: Westminster Abbey where the English sovereigns