THE BOOKS OF PETER C. SMITH

London's Pageantry

The recent 50th Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II has shown what a immense treasure house of tradition and history the nations capital city is. No other place in the world can so effortlessly rise to such great occasions, as it has done so often in its one thousand year history. The very infrastructure of London is steeped in world-shaking events and she is the embodiment of the fusion between the traditional and one of 21st centuries power-houses of prosperity and innovation. London herself has the GNP greater than many proud countries, and her self-generating wealth subsidies the rest of the nation to a huge extent. But the City of London manages to combine being the worlds market with historical associations that are still kept alive today.

While many provincial cities envy her status and effortless grandeur, London seems to regenerate herself continually to remain head and shoulders above them all. Of course the Thames, liquid history, flowing through her centre, is her heart but there is much more. London is the seat of Government, home of the nations most important museums, theatres, both classical and popular, cinema, the music industry, publishing, the hub of the nations air travel with its four major airports, Heathrow, Gatwick, Stanstead and City, the Channel Tunnel hubs at Waterloo and St.Pancras and tourism. The City of London and Theateland alone, generate as much of the nations GNP as the rest of the UK combined. Almost eight million people generate their own unique life, and London is also known as the Thousand Villages, each of which has a unique character of their own. The nations major gardens at Kew and Wisley; the Royal Parks and countless green squares; the rebuilding of the National Football Stadium at Wembley, and the £5 Billion Pound regeneraration based on a new concert venue, sports arena and leisure facilities along with 10,000 new homes for the Millennium Dome site at Greenwich along with the new Millennium footbridge across the Thames to the Tate Modern, are just the most recent examples of how this regeneration continues unabated, despite carping criticism from the more remote areas of the country. Even the looting of the Tower of London has failed to diminish the crowd-pulling power of that great and ancient fortress, while the artificial receptacle built in the north to display its treasures, receives vastly fewer visitors.

Part-and-parcel of this lifeblood of history are the colourful traditions which the selective visitor can still witness. Famous events, like the Trooping of the Colour, the Lord Mayor's Show, the Boat Race, the Chelsea and Hampton Court Flower Shows, the Notting Hill Carnival, the London Book Fair and such, receive wide publicity. But there are many more, equally ancient and colourful events, about which less is heard. These are covered in this book, among them being Doggett's Coat and Badge Race, Swan Upping, the Vintners Procession, the Cakes and Ale Sermon and the Beating of the Bounds, all reflecting London's unique past. Long may she continue to thrive and prosper.

Publisher enquiries welcomed.