In 1951, London played host to one of the greatest celebrations in the country’s history. The Festival of Britain reinvigorated a tired, post-war city, spurred redevelopment of the industrial South Bank, and gave visitors a glimpse of a brighter future. Those visitors were not just Londoners. Hopeful pilgrims journeyed from all quarters of the UK, and from overseas. Like all visitors, they needed a guidebook to help them make the most of their time in London. Many were published; few had any longevity. And then there’s London, Night and Day illustrated by Osbert Lancaster.
This remarkable guidebook raises eyebrows to this day. For cartoonist Lancaster and his anonymous scribe, the city was not some orderly metropolis to be catalogued and commended. It was a messy, dirty place with plenty of good and plenty of bad. Unlike many guidebooks of the day (and today), the book is filled with opinion and personal observation. Its other notable feature is that it follows the clock twice round, offering insights into the capital at every hour of day and night.
In September 2015, the inner workings of London are shifting gear once more. Five tube lines – the Central, Jubilee, Northern, Piccadilly and Victoria – will stay open all night on Fridays and Saturdays. The rest will follow a few years hence. This simple change to the transport network will have enormous repercussions for London. At a stroke, it will be much easier to move in and out of the city after midnight, both practically and – even more important – psychologically.
Although taxis and night buses have always made nocturnal socialising possible, the talismanic lure of the tube will undoubtedly swell the numbers willing to do so. This will inevitably result in a wave of new businesses such as all-night cafés and bars, and a revival of the clubbing scene, currently in the doldrums. Whole new mythologies and folk culture will undoubtedly emerge, as people get used to the horrors and the wonders of the 4am tube.
This seems, then, like the ideal moment to catalogue the 24-hour city as it currently stands (or otherwise). Drawing on Lancaster’s 1951 volume for inspiration, this book is divided into 24 chapters, each following an hour of the clock, and what one might do within that hour. Of course, a book like this could never encapsulate everything that is possible in London, and simply to write a checklist of the very best would be lazy, when any competent Internet search will fulfil that need. Instead, like Lancaster’s example, you will find me an idiosyncratic and occasionally opinionated guide. I’ll reveal some of my favourite shops, restaurants and bars, but I’ll also lead you along dark alleys, through industrial landscapes, and to parts of London you might never have heard of. The fruits of more than a decade exploring and writing about the capital are here caramelised into a collection of insights that I hope you won’t find anywhere else. Above all, my aim is to instil a sense of wonder about what this great city offers, at any hour, day or night.