1936 On the Continent

your budget does not allow you to buy anything you will later remember with a certain pride that you have been to Bond Street, which still remains the embodiment of quality, elegance and wealth. In the late afternoon, and before tea-time, which is at 4 o’clock in London and not at 5 as people on the Continent believe, it is possible to see some of the richest people in the world
en masse
, so to speak. You can see dozens of Rolls-Royces and Daimlers and, what is more, many of the people—particularly women—about whom you can otherwise only read of in the papers. The same elegance is the dominant note of the pedestrian traffic, which proceeds rather slowly in this surprisingly narrow street.
Regent Street
    Oxford Circus, as well as Regent Street, into which our bus now turns was entirely rebuilt some years ago. A considerable portion of the present Regent Street was built after the war. Oxford Circus, from which the two most important streets of London’s West End radiate, has the advantage of being one of the most important traffic centres in the capital.
    Whereas Oxford Street is mainly a “women’s street,” Regent Street, a somewhat smarter shopping centre, is more mixed and caters both for men and women. The large-scale rebuilding that was carried out here was sharply criticised by lovers of Old London who regretted the disappearance of the individual character of this famous street, which was changed into a boulevard, such as any other big city could possess. However, the commercial activity of Regent Street could not be reconciled with sentiment.
Piccadilly Circus
    Piccadilly Circus surprises the visitor mainly by the fact that it is far smaller than one would imagine, in view of its fame. Though Piccadilly Circus is the very nerve centre ofthe gigantic city it only awakens to its full glory after nightfall, when an endless stream of cars flows around the statue of Eros in an attempt to find their way into the various streets of London’s amusement centre. Most of the London theatres, many of the palatial cinemas, variety theatres, and other places of amusement are grouped around Piccadilly Circus. Its dazzlingly illuminated buildings are covered with glittering electric signs. London, which even in its centre sometimes appears provincial, shows the visitor all the more strikingly at Piccadilly Circus that it is, nevertheless, the greatest city in the world.
Trafalgar Square
    The bus now takes us through another wide shopping street to Trafalgar Square, another important square in the heart of London. If one is more or less justified in asserting that in Piccadilly Circus the specifically London character of the place is submerged in the general “big city” atmosphere, the same cannot be said of Trafalgar Square which could not exist anywhere else except in London. It is not sufficient to enjoy the sight of over-fed pigeons calmly perambulating and feeding from the hands of little children, amid the thunder of passing traffic, at the foot of the 180 feet high Nelson Column; or to be impressed by the fact that the magnificent collections of the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery are housed close by. The visitor must know that he is not only in the heart of London, but also in the heart of the greatest Empire of modern times. In and around Trafalgar Square are the buildings of the various Dominions, such as the imposing South Africa House and, on the other side of the Square, Malaya House. Australia House, and the Houses of India, Canada, New Zealand, Rhodesia, British Columbia, etc., are all near by. And, since the Houses of the Dominions and Colonies generally have shop-windows exhibiting the products of the countries concerned, Trafalgar Square and its neighbourhood may be said to be the shop-window of the world. Aptly enough the offices of the most important shipping companies in the world, as well as those of the various European railway systems and the travel bureaux of nearly every foreign country, are grouped around Trafalgar Square.
    From here, too, radiates Whitehall, from where the British Empire is governed, and The Mall, the beautiful street of the Royal Palaces, from where the Crown exerts its unifying force.
    Trafalgar Square also possesses another peculiarity. Late at night it shows the seamy side of the life of London. It is here that the destitute of the gigantic city congregate in order to obtain shelter at the 200 years’ old St. Martin’s Church, or to line up