Within / Without

The City of London sometimes has these surprising pockets of green, glass and stone. Where people drag themselves out from their workplaces, abandoning their desks, forsaking the million forwards on their emails, come and sit in the sun. Sri and I sometimes try and have lunch together these days as his new workplace is just about ten minutes from home. It’s sort of nice. The weather in London is in that delicate and lovely balance of sunshine, cold breeze just-the-right-length days. Right behind Liverpool Station, a small amphitheatre is hosting Soundscapes – a partnership between UBS and London Symphony Orchestra (LSO). In that little amphitheatre, music is played everyday on some very good speakers. It features an exhibition of some stunning black and white photographs by Alberto Venzago.

There’s something magical about seeing a bunch of sandwich eating office-going folks sitting in the tiny place, mostly not talking. In the middle of London, the rush of violins and an orchestra surprisingly fits right in. Here’s the programme for the week.

Despite the music, and the crowd listening in, it wasn’t reverential. There was no eeriness or discomfort. The gentle murmurs of office gossip, sandwich wrappers being struggled with, the flip of newspapers, the occasional shout-out and the shuffling of tired feet. I stayed on after the lunch hour, as the the crowd left in small wisps towards their respective buildings. Some pigeons kept me company, which I was rather fine with as long as they didn’t shit near or on me. In the step just below, two Japanese kids were playing blitz-Sudoku (in which the onlooker is dazzled by the speed of solving and feels like a loser) and I envied their skills and straight hair. A cop grins at me attempting to photograph the pigeons with my camera phone. I smile. Then go back to coaxing the hapless pigeon to pose for me. The music swells. Afternoon dies. The Square Mile is back to tossing paper and currency in the markets and I am sitting in a rather empty amphitheatre. But the City is full of smokers and they come out in small installments to get their nicotine fix.

Posted on September 19th, 2006 by Neha Viswanathan
Filed under: London, Music, Film and Art