{"id":19372,"date":"2017-11-22T14:26:26","date_gmt":"2017-11-22T14:26:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/?p=19372"},"modified":"2017-11-22T14:26:26","modified_gmt":"2017-11-22T14:26:26","slug":"times-change-a-literaty-tour-of-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/times-change-a-literaty-tour-of-london\/","title":{"rendered":"Times change: a literary tour of London"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even wondered what London looked like ten, twenty, fifty years ago? You might find the answer in words, rather than pictures…<\/strong><\/p>\n

You know that a city is great \u2013 that it\u2019s got life, histories and stories \u2013 when there are lots of books about it. Not just about it, but about the people who live in this said city, who walk its streets, go in and out of its buildings, drink coffees and teas in its cafes, work, love, fight, suffer. Readers learn to love the city as much as they love the characters; they feel like they\u2019re there, in the book, with them.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve often wondered if London is still the same city that so many novels talk about, so I decided to have a walk and go find out. I took my favourite books set in London, and I went to see what had changed.<\/p>\n

Nick Hornby \u2013 A long way down<\/em><\/h5>\n

Nick Hornby is possibly my favourite author of novels set in London. I love his ironic (sometimes even sarcastic) style, and one things that his books have taught me is that it is okay to be ordinary \u2013 that there is no great meaning of life; the meaning of life is made up of thousands of little things (read About a boy<\/em> if you want to know more about that). Also, he can be extremely funny.<\/p>\n

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Vantage Point in Archway<\/p><\/div>\n

In A long way down<\/em><\/a> (2005), four strangers decide to commit suicide on the same New Year\u2019s Eve. They all decide, independently, that they will jump off a high building, nicknamed Toppers\u2019 House. Needless to say, when they find out that three other people had the same idea, and that they\u2019re not alone on the roof, they change their mind.<\/p>\n

The Toppers\u2019 House is, in fact, the Archway Tower, a 195-foot tall building just on top of Archway Station, north London. In the book, squatters are having an illegal New Year\u2019s Eve party \u2013 in real life, it was an office building until a couple of years ago, when it was converted into flats. Now it has a fancier name, Vantage Point, and you can have a totally legal New Year\u2019s Eve party in there \u2013 at a minimum of only \u00a3 415 a week. For a studio flat. Plus, the security guard won\u2019t let you up the roof unless you\u2019re a tenant, so I somehow doubt that the Archway Tower could still be in that first scene if Hornby wrote the book today.<\/p>\n

Islington, however, has always been a predominantly middle-class borough, so it comes as no surprise that developers are building fancy homes there. What about working-class areas?<\/p>\n

Alex Wheatle \u2013 Brixton rock<\/em><\/h5>\n

When Alex Wheatle<\/a> wrote this book<\/a>, he put much of his personal experience into it: he took part in the Brixton Riots it 1981, and spent some time in prison because of that.<\/p>\n

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A graffiti in Atlantic Road, Brixton<\/p><\/div>\n

The riots, which took place during two days in April 1981, were the result of months of discontent among the community \u2013 largely made up of people of African and Caribbean heritage. Unemployment was extremely high among young people belonging to the minority group, and its problems were constantly dismissed by the authorities. Between 10 and 12 April, the community confronted the Metropolitan police \u2013 they thought that a black man had been killed by a policeman, but the rumour later turned out to be untrue.<\/p>\n

Walking around the very same streets where it all started, it\u2019s easy to see that things have changed. The community is more diverse, now, and high street brands have sprawled in Brixton High Street \u2013 a Topshop and an H&M are steps away from the Tube station. Middle-class cars (and a few luxury ones too) are parked outside the council estates in Railton Road \u2013 where part of the confrontation took place 37 years ago.<\/p>\n

But there is still a tight sense of community that emanates from the very word \u201cBrixton\u201d, when people talk about it. You can walk down Electric Avenue and stop to look at the market; the Chip Shop BXTN, a landmark in Atlantic Road, still plays old school hip hop. But Brixton is still itself.<\/p>\n

The same can\u2019t be said for other places, though.<\/p>\n

Nell Dunn \u2013 Up the junction<\/em><\/h5>\n

It\u2019s true that, the more you go back in time, the easier it is to find out how things are different now. Up the junction<\/em><\/a> was written in 1963, and it\u2019s a collection of short stories about the lives of three young women in Battersea, south London, where the author herself lived.<\/p>\n

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The construction site at the Battersea Power Station<\/p><\/div>\n

The Battersea area is probably one of the parts of London that has seen the most significant changes in the last couple of decades. High-rise buildings crowd the riverside, and the area surrounding the Battersea Power Station is a vast construction site.<\/p>\n

The Power Station itself is going through its most radical transformation; it will become a huge block of around 4,000 luxury flats \u2013 and the new Apple headquarters \u2013 within the next few years. Construction works have already started: from an icon in music and popular culture, the Power Station will soon become a symbol of wealth. Which is something that can be said for London as a whole, sadly.<\/p>\n

The Battersea Power Station is not, however, the only building to be renovated. Lambeth Council \u2013 which manages both the Battersea area and Brixton \u2013 is planning a regeneration scheme with various developments along the river; most of them being high-end homes and retail spaces. One Nine Elms, the Embassy Gardens \u2013 these are just some of the names.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s left here of the neighbourhood that Nell Dunn loved? In a preface to the 2013 edition of the book, she wrote: \u201cBattersea became full of derelict building sites and then, thanks to the town planners, concrete high-rise prison flats.\u201d We\u2019re back to the building sites again, and not much of what she wrote about seems to be still here.<\/p>\n

Perhaps, all that\u2019s really left today is just a good song.<\/p>\n