This Is London: Life and Death in the World City by Ben Judah – review

An immersive account of life among London’s recent arrivals is salutary but frustrating

There have always been people to complain that London is losing its identity, that it is being overrun. In 1185 Richard of Devizes suggested: “I do not at all like that city. All sorts of men crowd there from every country under the heavens. Each brings its own vices and its own customs.” In 1255 a monk with the unlikely name of Matthew Paris remarked that London was “overflowing” with “Poitevins, Provençals, Italians and Spaniards”. In the 15th century certain splenetic commentators were railing against Flemish, Danish, German and Dutch arrivals; Icelanders, commonly employed as servants, were viewed as an underclass.

Only occasionally has that suspicion – often voiced by visitors to the city rather than natives – hardened into repression, with intimidation and threats of deportation for those who don’t know the language, or who worship unfamiliar gods, or who keep themselves to themselves, or who dress in a different way. Mostly, though, as Peter Ackroyd observed in his life-loving London: The Biography, “despite violent acts inspired by demagoguery and financial panic, the immigrant communities of the city have generally been permitted to settle down, engage with their neighbours in trade, adopt English as their native language, intermarry and bring up their children as Londoners”.

Continue reading...