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1、Special report: LondonOn a highLondon is the very model of a global cityand thriving on it, says Emma Duncan. But there are threats to its futureJun 30th 2012 | from the print editionSTEVE VARSANO, A New Yorker who sells private jets, moved from America to London a couple of years ago. His showroom,
2、 which is kitted out as a luxury aircraft interiorcream leather seats, snakeskin walls, mahogany trimmingsis on Hyde Park Corner.To some, Hyde Park Corner is a noisy roundabout. To Mr Varsano, it is an unbeatable location. Fifteen years ago, he says, 70% of the worlds private jets were sold in Ameri
3、ca. These days, maybe 35-40% are. “Anybody that can afford a jet comes to London. The only bits of London they know are Belgravia, Knightsbridge and Mayfair the areas that converge on Hyde Park Corner. They all have to stop at that light,” he says, pointing at the traffic light on the southern side
4、of the roundabout. “As the car swings round, the guy in the back seat has to look into my showroom. I have the best window on four continents.”In this special reportOn a highHello, worldMove over, BritsThe flows of prosperityThanks for the memoryKeep movingHome is where the money isRiotous behaviour
5、Global or bustSources & acknowledgementsReprintsRelated topicsLondonUnited KingdomMr Varsano is not alone in his enthusiasm for the city. Over the past quarter-century, unprecedented numbers of foreigners have come to live, work and invest in the city. Largely as a result, London has had an astonish
6、ing period of growth that has survived the recession in Britain and the economic crisis in Europe. It feels unstoppable; but thats how it felt a century ago, and it turned out not to be.Out of darknessLondon has been the centre of politics, administration, business and fun in Britain since the 11th
7、century, but it was the Victorian age that made it great. The industrial revolution combined with the empire to supercharge Londons economy. Raw materials from the colonies were shipped into the docks and manufactured goods shipped out. The banking system which grew up in the City of London channell
8、ed private savings into productive enterprises all over the globe.As London produced goods, so it sucked in people. Its population grew from 1m in 1800, when it was already by far the biggest city in Europe, to 6.5m in 1900. That huge expansion spawned a massive construction boom. Most of the citys
9、housing is Victorian, as are its great buildings. Confident in the greatness of their age, the Victorians had little time for the past. Between 1830 and 1901, 23 churches, 18 of them built by Sir Christopher Wren, the architect of St Pauls Cathedral in the City, were demolished. Suburbs ate up the c
10、ountryside: William Morris, a 19th-century artist, designer and thinker, called the place a “spreading sore”.In 1939 its population hit 8.6m. By then the belief that London was at once too rich and too poor, as well as too powerful, had taken hold. So whole neighbourhoods were bulldozed to clear slu
11、ms; a Green Belt was established to stop it spreading; the construction of offices in central London was, in effect, banned. Meanwhile war battered the city, driving out people and industry. Manufacturing started to decline. The docks, Londons core industry, were destroyed by container ships too dee
12、p for the river and by militant unions. The city went into a vicious cycle of decline. Schools emptied, crime rose and aspiring people left. By the late 1980s it had lost a quarter of its inhabitants.Phoenix rebornThen the population started rising again. Nobody really knows why. It may simply be th
13、at the economic factors that had caused it to shrinkthe closure of the docks and the disappearance of manufacturing industryhad run their course, the policies designed to empty the place out had been abandoned and the gravitational pull of a great city had reasserted itself.Cities are powerful netwo
14、rks. According to Geoffrey West, a physicist at the Santa Fe Institute who has looked into the maths of cities, there is an urban constant that holds good the world over: every doubling in the size of a city brings a 15-20% increase in wages, patent output, the employment of “supercreative” people,
15、the efficiency of transport systems and many other good things associated with cities. There is a similar increase in crime and pollution, but the benefits of higher wages and greater opportunities evidently outweigh those disadvantages.And London had a great deal going for it: international connect
16、ions, a useful time zone and, by the 1980s, a free-market government. In 1986 the Big Bang, which deregulated the Citys financial services, set off a spate of growth that restored London to its place as one of the worlds great financial centres. Growth drew in foreigners, who have arrived in ever larger numbers, bringing money (sometimes), skills (often) and a willingness to work harder than the natives (usually).Some come for jobs, some for sanctuary, some fo
