Monday, May 10, 2010

Poplar and Limehouse: The Fight For Broken Britain

I spent a lot of time walking around Poplar and Limehouse in the first three months of this year: some of it with the local Conservatives, some of it on my own. It's a very, very strange place. Here's the fruits of my wandering: a chunky piece of reportage for Five Dials, Hamish Hamilton's superb free literary magazine. Issue 12 is the one you want, 'The Utterly Broken Britain Issue' - download it, print it out, read it in a park somewhere. Then subscribe for future issues. 

Halfway down the promontory lies Millwall Outer Dock, a sort of inland lake bordered by houses and warehouses. Chained-up canoes sit stacked by its side, buildings lie dormant, one light in every ten turned on. The spring gloaming casts a beautifully dim light over the water as dusk falls, and to my amazement the only sound is a very distant murmur of traffic, and the somnolent squawking of seagulls – literally hundreds of them – drifting off to sleep on the water. Not one person passes me in half an hour sitting by its shore. For a place teeming with the ghosts of empire, hard labour, hard liquor, sailors and prostitutes, it’s almost unbearably tranquil. This Britain isn’t broken: it’s just quiet to the point of being unsettling.

2 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Dan you should have passed by the Council!

Will check the article.

Jon

9:29 PM  
Blogger HaoG said...

Hi Dan,

Sorry for the randomness. My name is Howard. I'm currently an MBA student at National Taiwan University working on a cross-cultural master thesis on "Change in blogger motivations over the blogspan." If you have time, would you please help me fill out the survey in the following link. Your 10 mins will make a major contribution to my study. Thank you for your kindness. I truly appreciate it! If you have any question, please feel free to contact me at r97741063@ntu.edu.tw

Survey Link

Best Regards,
-Howard

4:33 AM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home