London Belongs to Me is the name of a rather good book by Norman Collins. It’s a rambling novel about London life before, during and after the Blitz with a cast of strong and intriguing characters. Who could write a book today with such a name?
The film of the book is much chopped and changed but still good fun. It include Richard Attenborough, Fay Compton, Susan Shaw, Wylie Watson, Joyce Carey and a particularly creepy Alastair Sim.
There is a pride about London in Collin’s work, a great and magnificent city, full of life and street entertainment; and throughout it is the people that matter the most.
This struck me as the basis for a walk as part of the 2026 London Festival of Architect which has the theme of ‘belonging’.
What does that mean if the city is increasingly owned by private, capitalist interests, and the municipal and civic faces slander and lies on a daily basis from the right-wing media, right-wing politicians and right-wing ideas?
Belonging is surely about how we feel about a place. Do we feel welcome, do we feel safe, are our voices heard, is there equal access, is there fairness, do we feel any sense of power and control over our environment?
And how can we belong in a world where capital seems all powerful?
This walk will consider belonging in relation to the ownership of land and property. It is complemented by a walk on Sunday 21 June which will consider belonging in relation to housing.
St Paul’s Cathedral
The walk starts at St Paul’s Cathedral partly because it is easy to find and partly because the Church of England is a major land owner, with holdings of around 200,000 acres. It’s a useful opening gambit.
The origin of this land owning is in seventh century and the development of Christianity in England. Over time land was donated by feudal lords and monarchs, who themselves had acquired it through conquest and violence. The Church was further enriched with indulgences, tax and tithes.
Land was also acquired through hard work. Some groups of monks, wishing to show their devotion to God through labour, deliberately cultivated land that needed considerable toil before it could become productive.
The Church was once a much bigger land owner than it is today. During the dissolution of the monasteries from the 1530s onwards it is estimated that over two million acres were seized from the monasteries, nunneries, priories and friaries and transferred to the Crown.
Some monks dissolved quietly, succumbing to legal and political pressure. Those who resisted might be dissolved through imprisonment, torture and execution.
The turmoil of English history continued and the building of St Paul’s followed a sequence of events that included the execution of King Charles I, the English Revolution and Civil War, the Stuart Restoration, the plague of 1665 and the Great Fire of 1666.
The medieval and feudal world that had created the Gothic cathedrals was gone. What should a cathedral for this new age look like?
What sort of style might be appropriate? Britain was developing a colonial empire, the bourgeoisie had become a political power and new ideas about society, the individual and philosophy were emerging.
England was now ruled by the expanding merchant class, the Whiggish aristocracy and a reduced but still powerful monarchy. Style and fashion were dominated by the Baroque. When all the ingredients of this cake were mixed together and baked, the result was what we have in front of us; St Paul’s.
One large ingredient in this cake was, and still is, the aristocracy. Across Britain it still owns at least 30 percent of the land, and possibly more.
Much of this is rural although in London the aristocratic estates include Bedford, Cadogan, Grosvenor, Howard de Walden and Portman. These are prime locations in central London worth billions of pounds.
The aristocracy and the church are the first land owners we have met today and are still among the most powerful.
Ludgate Hill
Take a moment or two to look along Ludgate Hill and Fleet Street.
There are a considerable number of empty properties and out of place sweet-and-gift shops, a cheap garishness that often signals money laundering and corruption.
And yet Ludgate Hill is a central route to and from the City and London’s West End.
It is under the jurisdiction of the City of London Corporation, another large land and property owner. The assets include around 600 buildings and over 6.25 million square feet of commercial, retail and residential property, and 11,000 acres of open space.
Buildings include the former markets at Smithfield, Leadenhall and Spitalfields, the Barbican Arts Centre and the Old Bailey.
This gives the City of London Corporation power but it operates within the competition and tensions of global capital and the dynamics of the market. It does not wield absolutist power.
And so at ground level, a curious mix of the good, the bad and the ugly.
Turn left into Dean’s Court
St Paul’s Deanery, Dean’s Court
An original house built between 1672 to 1673 and until 1977 the residence of the Dean of St Paul’s.
It is contemporary with St Paul’s and the buildings share in common that they are both hand made; stone cut with hand-made tools, the bricks made by hand, the glass made by hand. This creates an aura and character that doesn’t seem possible with machine production.
I am not anti-machine, they are needed for precision, strength and standardisation. Machinery and computing power could liberate humanity from drudge and deadly boring toil.
But perhaps a better balance is needed as to when the human hand and brain are directly applied and when industrial production is used.
Continue along Dean’s Yard and then right into Carter Lane and then left into Addle Hill.
Addle Hill
It is tempting to just continue along Carter Lane and do this is it takes your fancy. This is only a guide not a book of law.
There isn’t much now to look at in Addle Hill but in the 19th century this had a topography of a different form of London. At various times there were pubs, lace merchants, law stationers, wheelwrights and solicitors and notaries and an oyster warehouse.
One of the many problems of the dominance of capital in central London is that it relentlessly drives up land values and rents. It becomes near impossible for small, independent shops, services and business to exist, let alone thrive, in an area such as this.
High land values mean that capital homogenises space which helps to explain why so much of London increasingly looks the same and with a standardised vibe, regardless of the eccentricities of facade design. It is boring for the imagination and exhausting for the soul.
In another world, smaller parcels of land could be used to create more variation. But capital is concentrated in the City and the demands of capital are for big returns and that generally means monolithic large buildings.
Continue along Addle Hill. On the left hand side is Knightrider Street and a base for BT workers. This is the rear of Faraday Building. Before you get to that, one the left hand side, there’s a relic from a Post Office building that was once an international telephone exchange.
BT
One of the first privatisations undertaken by the Thatcher government was of British Telecommunications.
Today BT is a private company in which Bharti Overseas Pvt Ltd has nearly a 25 percent stake. A company which was once owned by the British government is now partly owned by a major Indian conglomerate.
There were huge land transfers as a result of privatisation of telecommunications, water, electricity, gas and railways. What had been public assets were bought by private companies, including large property developers such as Landsec, Related Argent and Canary Wharf Group.
Large land holdings are a source of power and it has created conditions in which developers and speculators, rather than local authorities, have control in regeneration and redevelopment projects. This impacts upon the civic and that determines whether we belong in a public space, a private space or a pseudo-public space.
Britain remains the only country in the world to have privatised its water supply. As I write in May 2026 there are thousands of people in North Kent who, yet again, lack clean running water.
Turn right into Wardrobe Terrace
Wardrobe Terrace
The original medieval street pattern can still be traced. The church on the left is St Andrew by the Wardrobe.
There is an atmosphere here that the money-riches of modern capital cannot replicate or create. A hand-made wall of hand-made red bricks, a corner that might be a turning into other worlds, a surprise, an exaltation, a chance encounter. Just what cities should provide.
Continue past the church and turn right into St Andrew’s Hill
On the right is the Rectory with the functionally eccentric first floor oriel window. It provides a good look-out spot to both the church and the street.
Cross St Andrew’s Hill, past The Cockpit pub and turn left into Ireland Yard. The Cockpit pub is from around 1860.
Ireland Yard
There is more about Ireland Yard at IanVisits.
There is a small garden on the right hand side but be patient; we will explain this and another open space in a few minutes.
Playhouse Yard
As you come into Playhouse Yard one of the first buildings you will see is Magnesia House.
On the right are offices for Mintel, a business to business market research company.
The large red brick building that runs along the south of Ireland Yard and Playhouse Yard is the north elevation of 160 Queen Victoria Street.
I went round to the main entrance to see if I could find out more. I was met by a cold hostility by the security guards and reception staff. Through the window I noticed a large advertisement for the Oman Investment Authority.
In the seventeenth century Oman had an empire but that was defeated by British imperial expansion. Then oil was discovered and today Oman holds considerable amounts of the world’s oil reserves.
The Oman Investment Authority is a sovereign wealth fund one of several from the Middle East that operate in London. Others include those of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi and Qatar. They are all repressive countries that violate human rights and lack democracy.
Their visible holdings in London include The Shard (Qatar Investment Authority), Canary Wharf (Qatar Investment Authority and Brookfield Properties), Heathrow Airport (Saudi Public Investment Authority) and the London Bridge Estate (Kuwait Investment Authority).
Turn right into Church Entry
Church Entry
This area was at the centre of the Blackfriars monastery. Both this garden, and the one we passed earlier have a history that can be summed up as:
- 1278 – the founding of the Blackfriars monastery
- 1550 – dissolution, with many buildings demolished and land seized by the Crown
- 1850s – burial acts introduced in Parliament which stopped any further burials
- 1907 – churchyards laid out by Madeline Agar
Madeline Agar was a ‘New Woman’, intelligent, hard-working and determined to pursue her ambition in conditions dominated by the dead-weight of the patriarchy. (Although to be fair, her father Edward wished for his six daughters to be educated to the same level as his three sons).
She attended Wimbledon High School, known for its high standards and progressive attitudes. Perhaps this contributed to her support for the Suffragette movement.
The Crown Estate as it is now known did very well out of the dissolution. It now owns around 185,000 acres of rural land in England and Wales and prime property sites in Regent Street, St James’s and parts of the West End.
Continue along Church Entry and turn left into Carter Lane.
Carter Lane
The bustle and busy-ness of Carter Lane suggest that there are other possibilities to the never ending sameness of glass towers. After all, people must eat and drink somewhere.
It is refreshing and many people who accidentally stumble into such places feel they have discovered a real London, something special to them and a few others. Perhaps belonging also needs uniqueness.
You could continue along Carter Lane or you could slightly double-back on yourself and wander through Cobb’s Court. It feels derelict and claustrophobic which creates counterpoint to the glass boxes. And it has escaped the post-modern scrawl of inane paint.
Which ever way you chose you will come out at Ludgate Broadway.
Ludgate Broadway
In front of you is The Carter, a refurbished office development that offers 46,600 sq feet of office space along with
- Reception with business lounge and collaboration areas
- Immersive fitness studio + gym
- Communal terrace with panoramic views
- 227 cycle spaces with dedicated entrance and maintenance area
- Changing facilities with 21 showers and 227 lockers
- Charging for electric bikes and scooters
- Open plan floor plates
- Outstanding ESG (environment, social and governance) credentials
It is lazy to be just dismissive of this approach. As workers within capitalist society we should have pleasant workplaces. Cycling to work is much improved with showers, drying areas for wet clothes and bike security.
Terraces provide a space to watch a London sunset with a cool drink after a day of toil. Let us not unduly dismiss such things.
The lease and management of The Carter are with Credit Suisse Asset Management which was merged with UBS Asset Management in 2023. The head office is in Zurich, Switzerland.
Zurich has a reputation as a financial, money sort of place. The money-realm is also one of fierce competition and Hong Kong has recently overtaken Switzerland ‘as the world’s biggest cross-border wealth hub’.
The top ten are now as follows:
- Hong Kong
- Switzerland
- Singapore
- United States
- UK mainland, Channel Islands and Isle of Man
- UAE
- Luxembourg
- Cayman Islands
- Bahamas
Just to note that the population of the United States is 349 million, that of the Cayman Islands 90,000. Make of that what you will.
The Cayman Islands is part of an archipelago of tax-havens and offshore banking that includes Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Singapore, Ireland, Netherlands, Panama, Jersey, Guernsey and Monaco. It is not population size that matters but the type of tax regulation; or lack of.
They are used by corporations, Ultra High Net Worth Individuals, money launderers, sanctioned states, criminals, arms dealers and oligarchs to hide their wealth and effectively dodge their tax bills.
It enables all sorts of people and organisations to buy into the lucrative London land and property market with few, if any questions asked.
The magazine Private Eye has created this website which outlines the detail. It includes an interactive map created by Anna Powell-Smith. It shows ‘all the ‘land and property registered in England and Wales in the name of offshore companies between 2005 and 2015’.
Tax Policy Associates also have a map (more recent than the Private Eye version), although a log in is required. They claim that offshore owners posses around £460 bn of property across Britain. According to their research:
- 56 percent of the real beneficial owner is clearly disclosed
- 21 percent list a beneficial owner but they are just a trustee. The real beneficial owner is not identified
- 10 percent are registered at Companies House but claim no beneficial owner – this is not correct. This is hiding the real owners
- 8 percent have ignored the law altogether
- 5 percent list a foreign company as the beneficial owner. This is hiding the real owners and is generally unlawful
How did we get to this digression? It’s walking the streets. All sorts of things emerge.
Walk along Pagaentmaster Court to Ludgate Hill, it’s only a few yards, and cross the road.
Old Bailey (road)
Old Bailey is both the name of a road and the law court. It is confusing and I don’t know why someone doesn’t sort it out. Surely an estate agent or two could produce some new branding?
5, Old Bailey – Century House
I asked ChatGPT who owned 5, Old Bailey and it helpfully pointed to a document on the web marked, ‘Strictly Private and Confidential’.
‘Long leasehold from the Mayor and Commonality and Citizens of the City of London (Corporation of London) for a term of approximately 124.25 years from 25 December 1984 expiring 8 March 2109 (approximately 86 years unexpired).
The secret and confidential document continues by stating:
‘The current rent payable to the freeholder is £1,128,838 per annum’
10 Old Bailey
Number 10 appears to be owned by Longmead Capital which was formed in 2014. How does capital form in London, in the twenty first century? This is a new diversion and will require further research.
This yellow building is in the style of anti-design, but not in the sense Josef Frank intended.
It is a mysterious building, at least to me, and it has proven difficult to determine the developer, the architect, the owner, the land value, the build costs, annual rents or anything else. It would helpful if all this information was on a plaque outside the door of every building.
A Modern Alley
This small alley is now in a place the estate agents have named, ‘Midtown’. Even the names of London no longer seem to belong to London. Capital is generic and names, conventions, habits, labels all become generic too. It seems to boil the imagination out of the heads of the developers. Midtown can be anywhere and nowhere.
Continue the short walk along the modern alley to Limeburner Lane. Slightly to the right is Fleet Place.
Limeburner Lane and 10 Fleet Place
The black granite, steel and glass building of 10 Fleet Place was completed in 1993 and designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. They were founded in Chicago in 1936 and hugely influential in the development of the International Style of office buildings.
Walk up to Fleet Place itself. There are food stalls here at lunchtime.
Fleet Place
An illustration of concentrated property ownership in a small area:
- Fleet Place House ~ acquired in 2020 by M&G Real Estate
- 5 Fleet Place ~ acquired in 2022 by Manhattan Garments Group (Hong Kong)
- 10 Fleet Place ~ owned since 2015 by Crosby Investment Holdings
- 1 Fleet Place ~ owned by One Fleet Reality, a wholly owned subsidiary of Takenaka
I sat in Fleet Place and had my lunch and watched the world go by.
There was an absence of suits, a range of clothing styles and fashions. Women in flower covered summer dresses, women in smart business-like trousers and blouses, men in jeans and trainers, women wearing trainers, a man in a loud yellow tartan suit, t-shirts, some even with slogans, including ‘Non, je ne regrette rien’.
A global crowd of people who ebbed and flowed. It was a very different spectacle to that created by the hate-fest racist media of Musk and Zuckerberg and all the more refreshing for that.
Walk through Fleet Place towards Farringdon Street. There is a flight of steps. To the right of this is a lift. Turn left into Farringdon Street towards Ludgate Circus. Cross at the lights into Fleet Street.
Fleet Street
There is a great deal going on here, including the redevelopment of ‘The Fleet Street Quarter‘.
Hung, drawn and quartered perhaps.
It certainly needs something. The area feels neglected and parts of it are shoddy. St Brides is good, as are the church and the institute and museum and theatre. In those alleys there lingers nostalgia for the section of the newspaper industry that once attempted to report news in an impartial and objective way.
As you cross Farringdon Road, look to the south and development along the Blackfriars Road. Anonymous, identical, ownership and investment invisible; capital spewing up its guts in bland concrete, glass and stone.
A few yards along Fleet Street you will see the Baroque spire of St Bride’s. Next to that the former Reuter offices and then the development at Salisbury Square by the City of London Corporation.
From my research, and I’m not sure how accurate this is as it is internet derived with all the flaws that creates, I put together the following:
Ludgate House, 107 – 111 Fleet Street, 2 – 9 Ludgate Circus, 1- 4 Poppins Court and 3 St Bride Street are all owned by Interclass Company which is based in Cyprus.
I couldn’t find out much about Interclass Company.
131, 132, 134 to 139 (inclusive), and including Peterborough Court and Daniel Court (the former Telegraph building) are all owned by Fleet Street Investments II.
I couldn’t find out much about them either but I did discover that the refurbishment is being carried out by ‘Intense Capital on behalf of investors in Qatar, who bought the freehold back in 2012′
If you’ve walked up Fleet Street to have a look at this, turn round and come back and look for Poppin’s Court.
Poppin’s Court
You will notice green wooden hoardings which have plants growing up them in a vertical garden. On the other side is a large hole in the ground which is where River Court once stood.
The building was completed in 2000 and demolished in 2022, lasting all of 22 years. I was told on good authority that the demolition workers said they had never knocked down a building so new.
The site has been empty ever since. The would-be developer was Chinese Estate Holdings Limited, a company listed in Hong Kong.
The company is now described as ‘financially strained’. Although not in the same league as Evergrande with debts of £224 bn or Country Garden with debts of £142 bn.
Perhaps it could be filled up with water during the next heat wave?
Walk along Poppin’s Court and turn left into St Bride Street
St Bride Street
Walk along St Bride Street and then through Little New Street towards Printer Street. Deloitte will be on the right hand side.
New Street Square, Fetter Lane
This development was by Landsec, one of London’s largest property developers. The company owns or manages more than 2,200,000 square metres of commercial property in London and across Britain.
The freehold of the land however appears to be held by the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths which has its origins in the feudal guild organisation of 12th century. It is one of the Great Twelve Livery Companies of the City of London.
Gough Square
Once the home of Dr Johnson, the house dates from the end of the 17th century. It is therefore a contemporary of St Paul’s Deanery where we started the walk.
It here that Johnson compiled his Dictionary of the English Language.
It is a pocket size square of tranquility. There are places to sit and a charming statue of a cat.
Leave Gough Square through the arch shown in the photograph above. Turn left and continue until Red Lion Court.
Red Lion Court
The view is from the Fleet Street end of Red Lion Court. Following a split in the WSPU (Women’s Social and Political Union) in 1912, the offices of the newspaper Votes for Women moved here.
The split in the leadership of the WSPU was between Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst and Emmeline and Frederick Pethick-Lawrence. The Pankhursts wanted more militant action; stone throwing, window breaking, the endurance of forced feeding, attacks on art and property. The Pethick-Lawrences felt this was counter-productive and criticised the lack of democracy in the movement.
The Pethick-Lawrences took the Votes for Women newspaper and left.
Why end the walk here? Well London clearly does not belong to us. The dominance of capital creates alienation, aggression, competition. The one thing workers do own is their labour and they are coerced to sell that labour into relationships of exploitation.
If we wish to belong, we must have be part of collective control over London.
To win that will require political action, strategy and tactics, democracy, open debate.
I like Red Lion Court. It seems the perfect place to start a revolution.
London Belongs to Me – or does it? – a Radical Walk, takes place on Monday 1 June, meet at 5.30pm outside the main steps of St Paul’s Cathedral.
More details of the walk and how to book.
You can pay ten pounds in advance, chip into the hat on the day or come for free.
Commodity Fetishism 
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