The Streets of London

As a former Londoner I am sad to note that this most thrilling city is now a dangerous place. A visit to London can seriously damage your health. A number of recent events have brought me to this conclusion.

Two weeks ago an American visitor, who happens also to be a New York journalist, was walking in the precincts of St. Paul's Cathedral one sunny afternoon when he was attacked by a group of teenage boys and girls. Knocked to the ground, he was kicked about the head and body by his assailants who closed in on him for no apparent reason - they did not attempt to steal anything - and left him senseless on the pavement before running off. This vicious and unprovoked attack was made in full view of a number of passers by.

Something similar happened at Hungerford Bridge, the pedestrian Thames crossing adjacent to Festival Hall and the London Eye. On this occasion at least four assaults took place within 15 minutes in a picturesque Thames waterside area much frequented by visitors. The attacks by youths in a well lit area busy with people returning home or to their hotels from the theatre, restaurants and a night out, left one man dead and a number injured including a woman who had been repeatedly punched in the face.

On a recent visit to London a friend of mine was standing outside the gates of Buckingham Palace watching the Changing of the Guard ceremony when her shoulder bag was prised open in the crush and her passport, traveller's cheques and wallet containing all her money, were surreptitiously removed. Such pick pocketing is now a highly organised gang racket and endemic at major tourist points in London such as Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London.

I myself have given up dining in Soho in London's West End at night after twice being targeted by drunken youths demanding money to pay for their taxi home as I stepped out of a restaurant with my Lady. I would have given up the pleasures of Soho anyway because the many pubs are so packed that the overflow of drinkers onto the streets inhibits walking. This is a pity. For half a century I have enjoyed dining in Soho restaurants like Bertorelli's, now in Frith Street, with my Lady after an evening at the theatre. Back in the 1950s and 60s Bertorelli's, (then in Charlotte Street), was less glitzy than it is today, and Kettners was still a top restaurant living on its historical association with the Bertie, Prince of Wales in the 1890s before it declined into culinary oblivion as a Pizza Express joint. The pubs then were tattier and less full but more comfortable and the haunt of artists like Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon and John Minton.

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