An old wives tale goes that the Vikings knew just about everything the world had to offer. Everything that is, except fear. To seek out this mythical concept, they ventured far and wide, beyond the lands of their birth, seeing the dangers of the ocean as an invitation. By the by, they founded civilization on Greenland, set foot on North America before Columbus and populated countries as far apart as Iceland and Russia. None of these accomplishments were of material comfort to them though, since they were habitually disappointed in their quest for adequate terror. In light of this, rhe capture of Lundenwic village in 886 A.D. on a forgotten island on the west frontier of Europe went unnoticed for a while. In fact, to this day, some refuse to call it Europe.
The Lundenwic villagers kept much to themselves at first. The Vikings, having found the city hardly fearful, had left behind an unremarkable outpost. It was only in 1066 that a pretender from Normandy , William The Conqueror, who was curiously enough a descendant of the Vikings, decided to return home and establish a kingdom at a city that came to be called London.
Ever since, no other city has had quite the same pendulum of fortune. No one on a morning stroll through the city in 1350 would have given it a few more years to live, as the bubonic plague swept away half the inhabitants. And yet, by the late 1500s, its maritime port had propelled it to the envy of Europe. Very soon, through their ancestral Viking predilection to seek fear beyond the seas or more credibly, a desire for more wealth, enterprising Londoners ended up laying the foundation for modern day commerce.
The East India Company and the Virginia Company set sail in different directions with the avowed purpose of finding new Crown colonies for raw material and labour. One set up store on the Indian subcontinent, and the other on the newly rediscovered settlements in America. Soon the operations of these companies grew so fast that it became incumbent on commoners in London to fund them, necessitating the creation of that institutional backbone of finance, the stock market.
As wealth from the colonies spread around to plebeians, London’s aristocracy escaped the fate of their continental cousins whose concentration of wealth had left the local citizenry in anguish. As revolutions pillaged France, and as Spain, Portugal, Italy and Germany disintegrated, Britons continued to rally around their royal family in relative peace. This period proved fatal to continental Europe as Britain pole vaulted through the industrial revolution, and became the most advanced economy known to man, with London as its epicenter.
Long after losing possession of its conquests, London still remains uniquely elegant. If New York is a brash teenager, untidy, loud and rude, London is very much the genteel recent retiree- with a discerning taste, a refinement of air and a famous accent. It often has a condescending attitude best exemplified by the guards at Tower Bridge who mock every other country as either a former possession of the crown or not worthy of their attention. “If you had only not thrown that tea overboard Boston harbour, this city would still be yours” he admonishes the Americans and “You Australians might feel quite at home in what was once a prison”.
The suit tailors of Savile Row, shirt makers of Jermyn Street and chefs at Harrods often frequent the regal Savoy for afternoon tea, a meal that was brought to London by the memsahibs from India and is used as an excuse by youth today to load up on dessert. Meanwhile, the British obsession with the royal family that reached a crescendo over Henry VIII’s wives in the 1500s continues unabated over a future queen’s last wardrobe malfunction. Far from being tawdry, British tabloid humour has flair of its own. “You are the wife of a future monarch, Kate. Please dress like one” screamed one. “Why should we censor ourselves, when the princess hardly cares” was another logically airtight headline.
Londoner humor finds unique ways of manifesting itself. London has done away with the rest of the world’s tendency to name skyscrapers after builders and companies. Instead, the press comes up with nicknames that give each tower a unique identity. The Gherkin for a cucumber shaped contraption, The Shard for one resembling broken glass and The Walkie-Talkie for a concave monolith that caused cars parked below to be incinerated by the reflected rays of the sun. New visitors don’t need to go asking for directions when a simple look around will apprise them of their coordinates.
London’s crown as the world’s premier megacity has many challengers today, most notably Tokyo and New York. Nevertheless, it is a must see city during everyone’s lifetime. It has been at the centre of world events for nearly a millennium earning itself an unparalleled history that barely begins with Westminster Abbey. West End, the theatre district holds a classy allure that Broadway in New York yearns to match. In Covent Garden, refined Victorian era buildings coexist with the gritty sidewalks of a redlight district. Harrods in Knightsbridge still is the world’s most exclusive department store and Wimbledon is still the ultimate zenith of the sporting world. Regardless of antecedents, profession, wealth or accomplishments, one has only truly made it, if one has made it in London. It is one city to rule them all.
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