LONDON EVERY TIME!

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 230, 28 September 1929, Page 16 (Supplement)

LONDON EVERY TIME!

BEAUTIES OF BRITISH CAPITAL AMERICAN WOMAN'S ENTHUSIASM. RUSTIC PASTORAL LONDON. (By PATRICIA MINNIGERODE.) . "This city is the most imperially beautiful in the world," I once said to a French friend with whom I was seeing -the Whitehall district for the iirsfc time, "More beautiful than : Paris?" she demanded, aghast at the idea.. • majestic, more dignified, imer. Paris has known how to use the art of perspective, and in that lies her great beauty. London has achieved this possibly only in Buckingham Palace Square with the long vista to Admiralty Arch, but the whole city is tremendously imposing and arresting, and distinguished in ats every detail." There is a beauty in Buckingham Palace Square that defies verbal expression. If you have never felt the soul of it, then you are insensitive to the heights that God and man can attain. Go there at .dusk, or still later after the electric lights have been illuminated, and see what it does to you. It is one of the experiences that will embroider the tapestry of life for you. It is.a something to dream on, and from which to obtain spiritual nourishment —for by : beauty the spirit is fed and nourished. There is a perfection in the architectural ,line and detail there and in the natural setting that is entirely satisfying. . The essence of London! In what does it - lie ? My first striking impression were the pastoral scenes that one sees in the very centre of this giant metropolis. Sheep lazily grazing in Green Park, while playing children frolic around them, and older and more tired bodies stretch out in an abandon of ■repose on the inviting lawns. • It is a picture that is unique in the world, and so paintable and charming that one wonders why the canvasses that are hung at .the Royal Academy do not depict it. , . Parka—Not Mere Showplaces. • A rustic atmosphere imparted by the city's many parks mingles with London's old world elegance and dignity. London has known how to bring the country into the city. I wonder if that is , not her greatest charm. It is at least a note that one would like to find in. other cities but that is lacking in them. Here the. parks are not showplaces. They are the playgrounds or the resting places of young and old— they .are an essential element in the life of the people. How unlike Central Park in New York, where one is always on parade, never carefree, never at ease and never allowed to put a foot on the lawns. Rustic, pastoral London! Yes, the city achieves just that atmosphere, and it is most alluring, most enticing—gardens downtown, gardens in the midst of the wheels of industry and commerce! Can any other city boast of that? The gardens are the halo of London. They give the- feeling of : spaciousness that almost makes one forget this machine-ridden, traffic-congested age. The illusion of country in the midst "of the city is still more intensified, by the many squares surrounded by their stately old houses. I wonder Londoners' are so accustomed to their squares that they do not feel their beauty and charm. To a foreigner they' axe. very impressive. But London can very easily be,a city of gardens and green squares because of its climate. . Ah, its climate! That reminds me. Anyone who can cavil at London's climate must be dull, colourless, gloomy 1 and without imagination. It has the temperament of a prima donna-7-most mobile, mutable, flashing different degrees, showing a new facade hourly. Only people who- love monotony can quarrel with this delightful climate. Never to know what it is going to do from hour to hour, like a naughty child getting into mischief. How delicious. Never to find it stodgy and tiresofnely dependable. As for the fogs, they are the poetry of London, and a stimulus to the imagination. At noon that' yellow green atmosphere, creating "a sadder light than waning moon," is full of mystery and mysticism. One is transported inward into a life remote and • detached from the world. One moves in a dream world peopled by one's own imaginings. I love the fogs. Gfhe Only Drawback. The only thing the matter with the climate of London ia the houses. One huddles over a small grate fire (most of, whose heat goes rollicking up the chimney) longing to be able to read or study' in comfort —longing for the sun. It is the discomfort of the non-heated houses that has created the legend of London's bad climate. Find some heat for your houses (it does not have to be, central heating or steam heat) and London's bad climate will be dissipated. Think of what a joy the German stove is-tps the Bavarian Highlands and., other parts of Germany, and it can be very, ornamental, too, and it does not ruin the , complexion and render you absolutely cojoui-less as steam heat does. Why do ■ foreigners come to England, remain a short time, and rush to the Continent? Not because they do not love' England,; not because they would not like to stay here, but because of the cold houses. They cannot be comfortable here, arid' so they go where they can", find what they are accustomed to, that is, heat in the houses. The "Come to Britain" movement cannot be much of a success until the houses are made comfortable. There is one thing to be remembered: Most of the world .does not wear woollen underwear and does not want to be forced to it. _ Architecturally, London is inspiring in its public buildings and private houses. Its house painters have more imagination than the painters "of ' other cities, and have relieved the effect of.severe facades by a very artful painting of the window-frames, flower" boxes and entrance doors in contrasting. light colours. Many grave, dignified and old facades present to the world an almost youthful front of gaiety because of their singularly charming , use of paint; In Chelsea the painters have given full scope to their art, and the result is delightful. . There are four high lights in Lon(jon—the Whitehall district, with its Parliament buildings, one of the most splendid groups of edifices in the world, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace Square and St. James' Palace. The fortress-like atmosphere that St. James' Palace still retains-makes its position in the centre of town so delightfully incongruous. In the precincts of this palace one feels haunted by the romance of =the past, and the modern buildings surrounding it only enhance its unexpectedness and old world beauty. It still retains as its essence some of the bygone splendour, pomp and ceremony that - attached itself to medievalism. One thrills here to the, great glorious past. . . Trafalgar Square, with the Nelson •monument, is London's great sentinel. The* feverish activity of this square, its National Gallery, fountain and pigeons, give it an atmosphere unlike any other part of the city.