London

Gerald and Marc Hoberman’s London is the very quintessence of this great city, an incisive manifestation of surprise and delight. It is a celebration and an important record of England’s capital at the dawn of the new millennium. The well-known comment of Samuel Johnson, ‘When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life’, is as true today as it was in 1777. Johnson went on to say, ‘for there is in London all that life can afford’, which also still holds good. It is a city which bursts with museums and galleries, some of which are amongst the finest in the world; it has one of the highest number of theatres found in any capital city; it is a shopper’s paradise for the discerning buyer and bargain-hunter alike; its pubs, clubs and restaurants are numerous, varied and legendary; and it has vast expanses of parkland for recreation and leisure. London is a city of immense size, where the old and the new live comfortably cheek by jowl. Pageantry, modern technology, quaint customs, the latest in fashion, ancient traditions, the bustle of modern-day life, the tranquillity of a garden square, international finance, street traders and architectural masterpieces appear to have been thrown into a vast melting pot and have survived to provide an irresistible medley of ancient and modern. London , in both pictures and words, speaks for itself.