Radical Walks – Commodity Fetishism

The Liberty Tree

A few quite casual things started to come together. I’d been reading EP Thompson’s The Making of the English Working Class in preparation for a Radical Walk with the title of Praed Street & the Liberty Tree. I’m not quite sure why I picked Praed Street. It appeared, as it were, in a daydream. IContinue reading “The Liberty Tree”

Praed Street & the Liberty Tree

Walking through the revolving doors of a identikit London office block (the basic components are concrete, glass and steel, rearranged in a small number of patterns), out into the cold, wet and dark winter evening. I turned the collar of my coat up against the wind. The wind seemed out of place in the neonContinue reading “Praed Street & the Liberty Tree”

Cosmopolitics

Unsure of the atmosphere on the streets. Mortimer Street, Cavendish Square, Mortimer Street, Tottenham Court Road. Not sure what atmosphere I’m trying to find. The degradation of England is deliberate. The Tories have been in power for thirteen years. It would have been possible to have fixed poor housing, housing shortages, zero hours contracts, refugeeContinue reading “Cosmopolitics”

The Problem of London- Prologue

It was possibly Patrick Keiller who first raised the question, ‘the problem of London’. As there are no money-making opportunities in answering this question it has been neglected. But it is surely one of the key questions, not an incidental one? London is a large city. The building and maintenance of London requires immense quantitiesContinue reading “The Problem of London- Prologue”

EC1 – A Primer

It seems so disjointed. A collection of buildings sharing space but little else; and not even sharing that space in a neighbourly way. The only underlying principle is profit. These buildings share built characteristics. They are all the products of the alchemy of human labour, labour power (as a commodity), machines, and raw materials. TheContinue reading “EC1 – A Primer”

Memory of a Demonstration

The burly man in an orange high-vis jacket stepped back from the opening door of the train. He made a gesture for me to board.‘After you’, I said, moving back a foot on the platform, ‘you’re the driver’.‘Is this train going up to London?’‘Yes, but I’m only going as far as Ashford’, he looked atContinue reading “Memory of a Demonstration”

Pimlico, revisited

I walked through Pimlico several times earlier this year. Before more war had started. There was the brink of a new war then in those nervous days in January and early February. Threats and violations. No one was sure that it would happen. When it did, I remember thinking, ‘so this is how it starts’.Continue reading “Pimlico, revisited”

Pimlico, Sunday morning

I made the journey again. It’s early Sunday morning and raining. The sea can hardly be seen but it lies there on the horizon under a grey brown squall. At the railway station the woman who sells the tickets is reading a book. She’s been up since 5am. ‘It’s ok’, she answers and makes aContinue reading “Pimlico, Sunday morning”

Pimlico, in Passing

I took the early train. The man at the station is friendly and we had a chat about the morning so far; although it was still early, a lot has happened. The train had few people on it but I had work to do, and in that state, one rarely notices. Thick fog everywhere, butContinue reading “Pimlico, in Passing”