Book Review: "London" by Peter Ackroyd (Pt. 7)

It is well known that for London there is, in fact, a city beneath the city. Sometimes referred to as a kind of necropolis, sometimes thought to be the place of monsters and liminal spaces. Peter Ackroyd invites us into this folklore before dispelling it and thus moves on to talking about how the city is almost apocalyptic in itself. Even Dostoevsky found it depressing - and you have to do some real work to make Dostoevsky more depressed. There's something horrifying about the London streets according to Ackroyd and he makes light work of telling us how the whole city has always been run by money. Many people were shocked at the condition of the poor but I do want to say, it's not like the condition of the destitute was better anywhere else so I think that might be an exaggeration on the part of the writers Ackroyd is referencing.

More of this final section seems to be about the people who live in London and part and parcel of that are the women and children, who haven't had much of a say in the story so far. We are taught the regular things about children and the workhouses yes, but we also learn of children called 'Mudlarks' who search for scrap coal to sell on. The conditions of the children were definitely bad, but the rates of child exploitation were much, much worse. Nobody likes reading about children being abused but at least Ackroyd doesn't go into much detail. As for the women exploitation and abuse were almost part of the deal. The author mentions people like Mary Wollstonecraft who were intelligent and articulate women of society but still referred to by derogatory names for even suggesting that women should receive the same rights as men - and thus she was shunned from society for the remainder of her life. I think that the one thing we learn from these few chapters is that London life may have been difficult for men, but it was almost impossible for women and children.

As we move through the book, we get a look at the Londoners of the Empire and especially a look at immigration. One thing we are able to tell is that London has always been a multicultural city and almost thrives off the fact that there have always been so many different people with so many different trades living and working in the same geographical space. If there's one thing that the book shows us throughout is that London hasn't ever really belonged to one group of people and that the term 'Londoner' is a term someone gives to themselves - as Ackroyd puts - in order to best assimilate into the cityscape.

Ackroyd then takes us through the story of 20th century migration, especially the Windrush era and how that impacted London in positive ways. I have to say, the bustle of London's multicultural atmosphere, meaning that you can get the flavours of all over the world at every corner is something I definitely look forward to when going. Ackroyd challenges the idea that this multiculturalism is a new concept and that there are more Irish people in London than Dublin and more Catholics in London than are in Rome. These things are checked out to be true for the time the book was written and of course, there have been migrations of the Jewish population, the Indian population, the Pakistani population and more from all over the place in order to mix it all up a bit - something which the author finds to be a net positive to society.

As we approach the end, we see London after the war and how the city survived. Yes, it may be more socially isolated now, but so are we all and many of us (us = me) find that's a good thing. London still has a great history, but it also has a great present. Yes it was once the place of the Empire but now it is a place where multiculturalism and tolerance seem to be far more popular than any right-wing opinion. This book has been an absolute delight to read and I know it's been a long one but if you can pick it up - don't hesitate.

Rating: 5/5 = a masterpiece biography of one of the world's most enigmatic cities...