"Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life." -- Dr. Johnson
My blog entry I met a character from Dickens stirred up nostalgia for London even among some who have never been there.
The great city lives in our imaginations like no other, perhaps because of the novelists who have so memorably populated it for us:
Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, William Makepeace Thackery, George Gissing, Wilkie Collins, Henry James, Arthur Conan Doyle, Compton Mackinzie, Virginia Woolf, Anthony Powell, Iris Murdoch. And then Shakespeare and the incomparable Johnson and his Boswell.
If the physical city is burned, bombed, bulldozed and stripped of the past through urban renewal, the London of our imaginations
endures rich and full. RE
Blackfriar's Bridge in 1896
Petticoat Lane in 1903
A rather amazing and nearly crystal-clear color motion picture
of London in 1927.
A magic camera's futuristic visions on London in 1924
The Blitz, 1941
The victory celebrations of 1945
"Of all the seats in all theaters in the world, the best seat is at the front of the top of a London omnibus." -- Henry James
Driving the A13
A cruise on the Thames, 1983
The haunted London Underground
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I spent a semester in London last year and it was the best five months of my life. As soon as I graduate I'm going to try to find a way to end up back in the best city in the world.
I'll never forget walking around London for two weekends. There are more tourists there than locals! :) But it is indeed awe inspiring. Just stepping into Westminster Abbey and staring at all of names of historical figures buried there will leave you agape.
I can get very rhapsodic about London, but I'll spare you of that. Suffice to say I love it, and this is a fine tribute. I had you pegged as more of a Paris man.
Your London Strolls is a classic.
So is Waterloo Bridge.
Thank you, so very much.....these are precious treasures in the crown.....
I am so very grateful...