Saturday, 22 December 2012

Dreams of London: Abandoned




London has been the greatest city in Europe, arguably the greatest in the world, for five hundred years. Here gathered from the net are some dreams of an abandoned London.




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14 comments:

  1. PanzerKaput22 December 2012 at 21:56

    Oh no its the end of the world as we know it. Or is it

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  2. Jason22 December 2012 at 22:21

    I quite like the rainforest-devoured London picture. I would be tempted to stay there for longer than a weekend for a change!

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    1. John Lambshead24 December 2012 at 10:33

      I suspect it looks better than the reality would be.

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  3. Paul Weimer23 December 2012 at 01:11

    The rainforest devoured London reminds me of James Lovegrove's novel Age of Aztec.

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  4. Clint23 December 2012 at 08:47

    Interesting that the Gothic Revival architecture of Pugin and Street will have survived all the way to the end of the world.

    Nice Pics though.

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  5. styx23 December 2012 at 12:49

    Someone is doing a cool London based scenery on Lead Adventures...been chceking on it every now and then interesting stuff.

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  6. John Lambshead23 December 2012 at 16:26

    Dear John,
    Oddly enough I'm working my way through the 1894 volume of McClure's Magazine, which contains Robert Barr's The Doom of London with a number of (different) illustrations. I haven't gotten to the story yet.
    You may know Barr from the Eugene Valmont detective stories (or even his Sherlock Holmes parodies).
    I let you know if the Medway Towns escape what appears to be lethal air pollution.
    as always
    Dave

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    1. John Lambshead24 December 2012 at 10:36

      Empires at their peak always seem to be terrified of catastrophe.

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  7. John Lambshead24 December 2012 at 10:34

    A certain grandeur.

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  8. Hugh Walter26 December 2012 at 05:07

    Reminds me of this, the loser to Shelley in a competition between two young bucks, itself almost forgotten now, I've always preferred the sentiment of this to the other ('winning') poem.

    Hugh...

    OZYMANDIAS

    (Later re-titled; "On a Stupendous Leg of Granite, Discovered Standing by Itself in the Deserts of Egypt, with the Inscription Inserted Below")

    In Egypt's sandy silence, all alone,
    Stands a gigantic Leg, which far off throws
    The only shadow that the Desert knows:
    "I am great OZYMANDIAS," saith the stone,
    "The King of Kings; this mighty City shows
    "The wonders of my hand." The City's gone,
    Nought but the Leg remaining to disclose
    The site of this forgotten Babylon.
    We wonder, and some Hunter may express
    Wonder like ours, when thro' the wilderness
    Where London stood, holding the Wolf in chace,
    He meets some fragments huge, and stops to guess
    What powerful but unrecorded race
    Once dwelt in that annihilated place.

    Horace Smith

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