IN BRITAIN TODAY

Chronicle (Levin), 16 July 1947, Page 3

IN BRITAIN TODAY

— ! Londoncrs ahvays underrate tlieir I eily, just as Knglisli people like to j preten'd tlieii' weather is the worst in ! ihe world. It is a private jolce, a j national liabit, which is taken for ! gianLeil in Jiritain but apt to be dist concerling to visitors froin ovcrseas, I vvho arrive to lind that instead of j drabness uh'der dulFskies there "i3 "fl'fir. I quently a good deal of eolour in | pleasantly wann sunshine. | it lias been like that in London these ' last few weeks. Whether the spell of I real summer weather has brought out the eolour, or the eolour produced the I bright sunshine, matters less than tlic j i'aet that there has been LotlL Despite j ils ,sears of war— -now fast disapphar- ! ing except for t'liose; being preserved as I liistorie relies — Londofi-. must. now be. | oue of the most cheerful-lookiiig eities j in .t'hd world. Flower boxes adorri the windows of Whitehall, Regent Street and other famous thoroughfares, laiupposts have been painted, Eros is again back on his pedestal in Piccadilly Cireus after his wartime exile, and shops and eufes have been brightened by new coats of paint in gayer eolours than London has seen for many a day. Wlien you walk through the parlcs, now so neat and orderly, with weli kept flower beds, it is diiiicult to realise that only two years ago they contained gun cniplacements, underground shelters and ammunition dumps. You would have to seareh hard now to find any trace of that grim interlude. iiut most striking of all is the way London 's street markets have come back to lif'e. You find them in every part of the eity. Many have their own distinetive characters — the Caledonian market in North London, where you ean buy almost any secondhand article from a bedstead to a suit of armour, and Club liow where, on Sunday morning, dogs of every brecd and no breed at all are sold.

Most street markets, however, deal in liousehold goods, clothes (for which coupons have to be surrendered to the stall-keepers) and food. In these last i'oW years the food has been neither pientiful nor varied, but this summer has in oue respect been just like prewar years. The fruit has eome back. Keeord crops in the surrounding countryside have given London a wonderful show of cherries, strawberries and red eurrants. Barrows on the kerbside have been piled high with fruit, j and people have been buying all they eould alford. Plurns from South Africa and other countries have also arrived, but the pineajtples have now almost disappeared. The Government have dej cided they can no longer alford to spend foreign curreney on them. So long as these conditions prevail and the quality of available fruit remains exeellent, tho ordinary Englishman will not find the loss of pineapples a hardship. The street markets, many of which have been established for centuries, are looking for ward to better days. For stall-holders and hawkers are quick-clianging artists. If oue cottimodity boeomes searce they will switeh over to another.