Impressions of London

I was in London for social and professional reasons these past few days.

It’s very different to the London I witnessed earlier in the year in lockdown when you could look down the length of Oxford Street and not see a soul.

It’s the old vibrant London again, teeming with people with every restaurant I visited full.

Less positively I was struck by the enormous amount of roadworks.

On arrival I took a taxi from Victoria to Welbeck Street and the taxi driver fulminated about Park Lane being reduced to one lane to accommodate the cyclist.

Every street seemed to have roadworks of some description.

In walking from Marylebone to St James I crossed Wigmore Street and was nearly felled by a cyclist not complying with the red light whilst another on the pavement all but torpedoed me.

They move so fast and silently, these savers of the planet – I prefer the word “pests” – and I wonder how many accidents they cause.

It seems to me that the omnipotent green anti-car lobbyists have empowered them to the point that they can cycle where and how they wish.

My final point of call was lunch in Lower Sloane street at Caraffina.

My host, an old uni friend, is fastidious about his table and we sat outside to enjoy a more spacious one.

Here we had to complete with the drill of the inevitable roadworks and my taxi driver back to Victoria had to take a circuitous route to avoid them.