Being the tale of a walk from Fitzrovia to St James’s
1.
From the old style Italian deli and
the hefty Ferrari on Great Portland Street,
Contract abseiling on the side of a van.
A traffic warden taking notes.
Music from Oxford Circus musicians in the air.
A man walks past pulling up the zip on his black jumper.
It’s cold, with a grey sky and cobbles briefly underfoot.
2.
Getty images. Slick photos of which one attempts humour, by Ellis Nadler.
A snap of a mattress, on which is scrawled – nothing really matress (sic).
Outside two Eastern European women sit in a door well, one on the phone,
near an ageing woman on a cold stone bench eating sandwiches.
Several pigeons look on hopefully.
3.
A man stands with a collection of metal roses by his feet.
Opposite a huge video ad trys to interest us in a pair of trainers.
Streams of people swinging shopping bags.
Carried babies,
maroon coats,
standing and staring at phones outside the tube.
Long queues for take-away crepes as people disappear underground.
Beeps of the Belisha crossing and tourists trying to understand the diverted buses.
Free balloons
4.
Mayfair is quieter, but has more dusty building works.
Huge doors and artificial hedges.
Tight jeans.
It felt really strange.
Ronchini gallery. Dark glossed pictures and large twisted white sculptures
Jerome Zodo gallery Salvo paintings. De Chirico inspired brightly coloured empty dreamscapes.
Smoking outside the Duke of York.
Use it on your face but not your eyes.
Bond street building works.
Galeries Bartoux: shocking, garish, taste-free animal sculptures.
Shoes and security guards.
Pink leather jacket and leather pants.
Yeah he punched a friend of mine in the face. She’s a girl.
Half mast suits.
Bentley convertibles.
Horns and watches and the fixed grins of security guards.
That’s what we’re going to call your bull dog. Montagu.
5.
Maps studied
Tight coats and suede over the knee boots.
A matt Nissan GTR.
Cork street destroyed, a building site held up with green scaffolds.
6.
Through Burlington arcade’s tiny shops,
the ugly carpet gone.
A pair of crocodile shoes?
A Marie Curie collector in the cold.
Almost swiped by a taxi unexpectedly u-turning
And down into St James’s and a delicious sounding menu at Greens.
7.
White cube
Jac Leirner wires criss cross the gallery.
Duck under.
Along each one suspended stuff – cigarette ends, plastic circles, small spirit levels.
The human compulsion to collect and display.
Empty boasting
8.
A walking tour in St James Square learning about Mi5 and Mi6.
Up the John Nash Royal Opera Arcade from 1821.
A quieter, more pleasant Burlington.
Dark blue bay windowed shops
La Galleria
showing the Declaration of Independence
and the first struck flowing hair silver dollar.
Worth 10m$.
Unclear and badly displayed in Perspex
with security guards taking about trademarks.
On Haymarket, it’s great British pie month at Brumus.
by Sidney Smith
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