Boris's Story of London
Wed Jun 3 2009
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Boris Johnson’s Story of London festival kicked off on Monday. This month-long festival celebrating the history of London – a guide to the pick of the events, with map, can be found inside this week’s copy of Time Out and downloaded below – is in many ways a typically Boris event: enthusiastic and bursting with some terrific ideas but also a bit of a mess and rather quick to take credit for other people’s efforts (some of the events would be taking place anyway, but have just been pulled under the Story of London umbrella).But having studied the calendar very closely over the past few weeks, I have to say there are some great things to go and see, from a series of talks curated by Tristram Hunt (including Peter Hennessy on Cold War London) to the anarchic Garratt elections in the Leather Bottle pub, Wimbledon, in which the people elect a 'people's comedy mayor' (no jokes please). There's also another chance to see Getty and Time Out's London Through A Lens exhibition at City Hall.
It certainly isn’t the sort of festival you could imagine taking place under the old regime. Super-organised modernist Ken isn’t as much of a history buff, whereas shambolic Classics student Boris revels in it and the Story of London celebrates London’s glorious past in a way that reflects the passions of the current mayor.
Feature continuesAdvertisementBut more critically, Ken favoured festivals aimed at tourists or disparate immigrant communities (Trafalgar Square had become the perfect illustration of Amartya Sen’s ‘plural monoculturalism’) whereas the Story of London is undoubtedly a festival meant for all Londoners, no matter what their nationality, age, gender, class or sexual orientation. This can only be a good thing, and when the wrinkles get ironed out, Story of London will be a welcome addition to London’s cultural calendar.
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6 comments
Top marks for effort from the Blue Badge Tourist Guides and other hard-working London outfits, but as you've found out, ineffectual and inadequate publicity scuppers the efforts of those actually delivering the events.
The Story Of London website is badly thought out and difficult to use. Despite being promised dozens of events in every London borough, especially the "neglected" outer boroughs, I've yet to find an event in Hillingdon.
We London Blue Badge tourist guides put on 35 walking tours for The Story of London Walking Weekend, including walks in Polish and Russian. Numbers were not great but our domestic market no doubt flicked the nets at 7.00am and decided to lie doggo. There's not much BoJo can do about the weather. But we all felt it was a great thing to do, it showed our range and versatility, but comments ranged from The Mayor's website was way too complicated and the event could have done with some additional publicity - Metro, Standard, etc. Maybe next time every weekend should have walks, so they can be spread out. There were too many things on offer for just 48 hours. But we Badgers would certainly love to be involved in the future. If you want London's history, we're the boys and girls!
Absolutely right, Peter Watts.
Apart from Ken's little cheerleaders above, the real Londoners kicked him out for his profligate spending of public money on his own unpopular pet projects.
Londoners make a huge financial contribution and want to see something relevant to their own interests back. As Peter says, Londoners across the board can enjoy this.
What an odd way to make a political point. Surely Ken knew his history well. Is there really any proof that Boris is more inclusive ... considering classics (sorry, Classics) and Eton Mess don't have universal appeal?
Not just the last 120 years actually, but Ken peppers his speeches with pithy examples and knowledge of most major aspects of international history of the modern era. Boris is an ancient history buff but Ken is more interested in the last 250 years. Moreover the idea that festivals like Chinese New Year or St Patrick's Day or the cancelled Rise Festival or Open Rehearsal or the many other festivals instigated by Ken weren't for all Londoners is a sad approach, especially coming from Time Out
No
It's rare to hear a speech from Livingstone without historical references, actually. He's very clued up about the last 120 years or so, or in other words the history of the Labour movement.