After 27 hours of flying back with the exquisite
Singapore Air I am back in the
East End of
London: It is impressive how the East End continues to evolve: Every time I land in
London City Airport, you can see new features, new buildings, old buildings being renovated. Although
Stepney still has the feeling of a busy town somewhere in the third world around it, changes are everywhere: dilapidated houses are being renovated, the odd posh bar is appearing, the cars are getting less run down. THe area will always have a large amount of state housing, so it will never become Richmond or a little village in the Cotswolds, but nevertheless: things are palpably changing.
If things are changing in the East End, revolutions are taking place in the eastern part of the docklands: Since I stayed there last year, apartment buildings have jumped sky-wards out of nowhere around the London Excel, old warehouses are being converted into luxurios lofts and new roads have materialized. It seems that London's appetite for expansion isn't slowing down, on the contrary: flying over the south-eastern part of the Thames it seems that the city is continuously expanding eastward, with existing villages being swallowed by the expansions.
London: A magnificent beast.