Just discovered the writer Thomas Burke, through a random selection at the London Library of his The London Spy, 1922.
It is a wander around the streets, with a strong focus on the East End and the seamier sides of life, typical of his work - in fact he was the perfect "hack" - said in an entirely non-pejorative way - he reworks the same material four times: as fiction, as essays, as poetry, and as a flaneur. This site has a short biography and a complete copy of his The Song Book of Quong Lee (poetry).
His topic and tone can be very "modern", as in An Upright Man and Exchange of Compliments.
Also a nice piece of prose, The Russian Quarter (which was Brick Lane). If you fancy a bit of classical melodrama there's The chink and the child.
As those suggest, much of his London is long gone, although it seems every bit as multicultural as today's.
Some snippets that took my fancy:
The Ivy
(which seems to be in the same place as today's restaurant of that name)
"Even when I can afford to lunch or dine there (and I seldom can) I miss the welcome that was mine when it was in its beginning days. Only the very regular or very expensive customer gets that now.
Instead of being ushered to the old corner-table on the ground floor, by the window, I am sent upstairs. You see, the Ivy is now successful and famous, and I do it no credit. When it first opened, under the original ownership, it was only one room with a bare floor and a few mural decorations and you could dine there for two shillings.
Now it has acquired the whole corner block and wears oak panelling, thick carpets and shaded lights for each table. Formerly it was the haunt of hard-up gentlemen of the theatre; now it is crowded with plutocratic 'stars' and the smart people who affect that company." (p. 28)
Article comments
1 - Aaman
Very interesting - thank you. Much of these vignettes could be about present-day London