London: Bread and CircusesBread and circuses—free food and mass entertainment—was the name contemporary social observers gave to the ancient Roman practice of keeping the common people happy and rebellion-free. Jonathan Glancey, in this personal and passionate essay about the city he loves, suggests that the same unformulated policy is the means by which modern London’s citizens are kept as apolitical and passively pleasure-loving as possible. But shops, restaurants and a few gorgeous buildings are, he maintains, a poor substitute for a creaking infrastructure, and London’s cachet as a boisterously creative but well-run city will plummet if private vice is allowed to triumph over public virtue. |
Contents
Section 1 | 28 |
Section 2 | 31 |
Section 3 | 34 |
Section 4 | 42 |
Section 5 | 62 |
Section 6 | 82 |
Section 7 | 84 |
Section 8 | 93 |
Section 10 | 109 |
Section 11 | 117 |
Section 12 | 127 |
Section 13 | 138 |
Section 14 | 143 |
Section 15 | 144 |
Section 16 | 145 |
Section 9 | 97 |
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architects Architecture Bob Kiley boroughs bread and circuses bridge British buildings built bus drivers buses Canary Wharf capital cent central London centre Churchill city's council crowd designed Dome Dudderidge economy Estate Festival of Britain finance Finsbury flats Foster and Partners Frank Pick free-market Garden Greater London Hackney homes hospitals housing investment Ken Livingstone Labour Lea Valley lines live Livingstone London Transport London Transport Museum London Underground LPTB Lubetkin mayor Millennium million Morrison Museum needs Paddington Parking suspension WARNING Pick's planning police political politicians Portcullis House public-transport system pupils railway rebuild recently Richard Rogers Riots Road Routemaster Royal ROYAL OPERA HOUSE St Paul's stations suburbia suburbs suspension WARNING Parking Tate Modern teachers Thames Thatcher things Tower trains trams Tube Underground urban Victorian visitors walk WARNING Parking suspension Westminster