Category Archives: London

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Change happens – the City, London

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During the lonely, lockdown days of 2020 we were in the City, in London, and walked as far as we could, whenever we were allowed. There were not many others about.

Liverpool Street Station was under wraps during that time, but we were able to walk around the various blocked off sections to the quieter, completed bits. The photograph above is of Exchange Square, which is between what might be called the back of the station and The Exchange Building on Primrose Street. Broadgate Tower is across the road, to the right of where I am standing to the take the photograph. To the left of the photograph, and out of sight, is the reclining figure of the huge, Broadgate Venus – five tonnes of curvacious, patinated bronze, sculpted by Columbian artist Fernando Botero.

Today, while walking with a friend in the City, I decided to show her the now unwrapped Liverpool Street Station. As I expected, Broadgate Venus was where I last saw her, but what I did not expect was all that had been laid out before her – the curving, densely planted flowerbeds, the soft-stepped fountain, the mature trees, and so much green grass. It looked beautiful, and was crowded with office workers out for their lunch breaks. I presume Broadgate Venus is delighted.

(The yoga lady in the image above, photographed in 2020, would today have been standing in a flower bed, somewhere in the bottom left quarter of the photograph below, with Broadgate Venus, even further to the left, just outside the frame.)

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023

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A late night drive into London

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Our drive into London this evening went smoothly, along quiet roads. The city looked beautiful and the weather was warm.

We stopped briefly at a petrol station before we crossed over the Thames. It was an hour before midnight and the staff were still in the shop, serving and cheerful. Just outside, not far from the entrance, a man sat on the ground, wrapped in blankets, homeless as a fly-tipped bundle.

On the other side of the river the traffic was mainly taxis and buses, parading slowly, at the required twenty-miles an hour towards the centre. We joined it, overtaken occasionally by the rattling engine of a delivery bike, or the hysterical siren of a blue lit police car – life from the real world, unzipping the city beneath.

As we swung along the river they were talking on the radio about the man released after 17 years of wrongful imprisonment, and the bill he would have to pay to cover the cost of his food and board during that time. It sounded all wrong, especially beside a river that looked so pretty at night, with the bridges lined up in both directions, their lights shining above the water.

Opposite Battersea Power Station, the almost-full moon hung, still as a picture, at the same height as the old station’s four pale towers. If it had been easy to stop we would have, but we were too tired and it was too late.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023

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A one stop trip on the Elizabeth Line

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Lockdown cracked my London Tube habit. I no longer dive underground as soon as a destination is suggested – I walk. However, just occasionally, I run out of time or get tempted, and it’s usually the Elizabeth Line that does the tempting.

Today I had to travel from Farringdon to Tottenham Court Road. My timings were on the edge by the time I reached Farringdon, so I walked down the two, steep and gleaming escalators to the curve of white tunnel that leads out on to the platform. Wide as a beach this stretched into the distance, everything muted, even the trains. I don’t think I heard a single announcement while I was down there, waiting briefly for the next train to hum in and whisk me on to Tottenham Court Road.

My return journey, a couple of hours later, and a few carrier bags heavier, was just as smooth. And empty. And relaxing.

I think the Elizabeth Line is such an achievement, well worth the 13 years it took to tunnel the 73 miles, east to west. It cost around £19bn which I can’t begin to imagine, but perhaps that’s what you have to pay if you want capacity for around 200 million passengers a year.

Thankfully there were not many of them travelling mid-morning with me today.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023