Urban Lab Walk: Ruth Glass’ 1964 London Route in 2024
In June 2024, UCL Urban Lab hosted an urban walk following a route from Kensington to King’s Cross that urban scholar Ruth Glass wrote about in her book London: Aspects of Change 60 years ago. London: Aspects of Change was published with the Center for Urban Studies at UCL, a predecessor of the UCL Urban Laboratory. The walk was organised by Postgrad Urbanists Sidra Ahmed (UCL Geography) and Yichang Sun (The Bartlett School of Architecture). In this blog post, they document the walk, archival photography and maps researched to accompany the walk, and reflections from the group connecting the city to Ruth Glass’ writing.
‘From Kensington to King’s Cross early on a June morning the sights and sounds of London just awakening have a novel clarity’, wrote Ruth Glass of a route through London 60 years ago in the opening to London: Aspects of Change (1964). To mark the 60 year anniversary of the publication of London: Aspects of Change, we planned an urban walk early on a June morning in 2024 following Ruth Glass’ route through the streets of the city that she would travel everyday by taxi in 1963. The walk was based on one of Ruth Glass’ opening paragraphs in the introduction to London: Aspects of Change (1964) narrating a route from Kensington to King’s Cross:
“From Kensington to King’s Cross early on a June morning the sights and sounds of London just awakening have a novel clarity. The roads of Georgian and Victorian houses converted into flats are still packed with parked cars; the Espresso bars are still locked up; the new under-pass (or rather bottleneck) at Hyde Park Corner is still empty…”
Stop 1: Hyde Park Corner Station
From Hyde Parker Corner early on a rainy Saturday June morning, the sights and sounds of London in 2024 included the rain, wind, grey skies, traffic feeding around Wellington Arch from every direction, a ballet of traffic lights and pedestrians crossing on and off, police vans stationed at Wellington Arch for Trooping the Colour due to start at Horse Guards Parade, the clip-clop of horses setting off from Hyde Park Barracks for the occasion, and tourists and runners stopping in their tracks watching and photographing them.
Amidst this very London morning, we met our attendees and headed into Hyde Park. We had 8 stops on our route. At each stop we shared questions to the group about Ruth Glass’ introduction to London: Aspects of Change (1964), Historic Digimaps from the 1960s of London, and archival photography from the 1960s of the sites we were stopping at.
Stop 2: Hyde Park
![London Hilton Hotel on Park Lane in the map of c.1960s
[Source: Historic Digimap]](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/format:webp/1*79_C8ewtvHV-I0F1pvzWJQ.png)
We ventured into Hyde Park for our next stop. We were briefly stopped in our tracks and distracted by the Household Cavalry passing by on North Carriage Drive. They were leaving the Hyde Park Barracks and setting out to Horse Guards Parade for Trooping the Colour, what Ruth Glass would describe as a ‘special occasion’:
Any of the special occasions, special and yet part of the metropolitan routine — a Buckingham Palace garden party, a fall of snow, a State visit, the Chelsea flower show — can produce utter chaos. (Glass, 1964: p. xv)
We walked on and stood with a view of the Hilton Hotel on Park Lane, a feature Ruth Glass mentions as ‘recently finished’ in 1963 and standing out ‘clumsily’. We shared old images of the hotel’s construction and advertisements from the 1960s against the reference of the city today.
The city is too vast, too complex, too contrary and too moody to become entirely familiar. (Glass, 1964: p. xiii)
The first question we posed to the group was based on Ruth Glass’ opening adjectives describing London, as above, where we asked our walkers what adjectives or phrases they would use to describe London. Words the group shared included: wonderful, inspiring, vibrant, heart, home, fragmented, boundaryless, many villages stitched together, so much still rings true today.
Stop 3: Speakers’ Corner, Hyde Park
We walked from Hyde Park Corner to Speakers’ Corner and shared a 1960s Digimap and old archival images of Speakers’ Corner and Marble Arch looking at the difference between then and now commenting on factors such as the street, signage and clothing. This collection of images taken by an American tourist in 1965 features a demonstration in Speakers’ Corner, Marble Arch as well as Piccadilly Circus with its old signage and Tower Bridge.
Stop 4: Grosvenor Square
Our fourth stop was in Grosvenor Square opposite a site that in 1963 Ruth Glass described as ‘where the American eagle is so conspicuous’, the old US Embassy Building. We contrasted the site today under construction by Qatari Diar to be transformed into the Chancery Rosewood Hotel with a 1960 press photograph of the old Embassy. The group observed that the original ‘American eagle’ at the top of the Embassy’s building remains today and that the building’s shell has been kept in the redevelopment. And whilst this eagle remains, we mused on the idea that the eagle is no longer American but Qatari given that the State of Qatar is the ‘largest owner of London property’ (The Guardian, 2022).
Stop 5: Hanover Square
We walked further along through Mayfair and stopped in Hanover Square to reflect on our observations so far and posed questions to the group.
At any hour, London in 1963 shows the juxtaposition of new and old both in the fabric and in the structure of society.
(Glass, 1964: p. xiii-xiv)
We asked the group what ‘new and old’ they could see around them in Hanover Square specifically compared to a 1960s map of the Square and this 1961 Vogue photograph by English photographer Duffy taken in Hanover Square outside British Vogue’s then office. Compared to the 1960s, the square is paved and pedestrianised today. The Bond Street Elizabeth Line Station has been open for two years now. Vogue House is no longer home to Conde Nast UK but is now a building site and soon to be a hotel. Conde Nast UK had moved in in 1958 and vacated the building at the end of 2023. The “Vogue House” future hotel will become the second hotel in Hanover Square, joining the newly constructed Mandarin Oriental Mayfair. We also reflected on other ‘new and old’ observations on the walk so far. On the way to Hanover Square we passed several cafes, what Ruth Glass called ‘espresso bars’, and noted how they are still so prevalent today as well as new types of cafes and restaurants from gelaterias and dessert chains, bubble tea and more. We also encountered a mix of new and old as we passed an example of facadism opposite Claridge’s Hotel on Brook Street, a development under construction where the original building facade has been retained but the building behind it is new.
It is often said — by anyone who sees contemporary London after a considerable absence — that the city is in the process of being ‘Americanized’….
(Glass, 1964: p. xiv)
‘In what ways do you feel London has been ‘Americanised’ today?’ was the next question we posed. One attendee noted that London and New York are connected by way of being sister cities. They also shared how they perceive Dalston to be the ‘Brooklyn of London’. This reminded another of New London Architecture’s NYLON series where NLA shares insights, best practices and research across the two cities. Labels like ‘Manhattan-upon-Thames’ and ‘America, E14’ were also once applied to the development of Canary Wharf in the late 80s and 90s given that the estate was built like a new American city by American developers Olympia & York, architects such as Cesar Pelli for One Canada Square and masterplanners such as SOM. In fact, the term was floating around recently again when the 2024 London Tall Buildings Survey by NLA suggested that London could become ‘Manhattan-on-Thames’ with 600 tall buildings in the development pipeline.
Stop 6: Oxford Circus Station, Argyll Street
We made a quick stop outside the Oxford Street / Argyll Street exits of Oxford Circus Station to compare ‘the new and old’, the present-day street with the above 1960s photograph from the National Archives. We also compared another 1963 photograph from Getty Images which was featured in the Evening Standard (image 11 of slideshow). The group noted differences such as people’s attire, signage and the old shape of London taxis alongside the same busyness of commuters and visitors today using the Tube.
Stop 7: Fitzroy Square
From Oxford Circus, we walked through Fitzrovia to pass the BT Tower and stopped in Fitzroy Square. As we made our way along Cleveland Street we discussed the structure that Ruth Glass described as ‘a remarkable ‘vertical feature’ — the Post Office tower’, what is known today as the BT Tower. It was London’s tallest building from 1964 to 1980. We shared this image of the tower under construction in May 1963 with two workmen suspended over the site. Recently, the tower made headlines with its sale to a hotel owner which some might see as another example of Ruth Glass’s ‘American eagle’, given that American company MCR Hotels is the new owner.
With a right turn away from Cleveland Street, we reached Fitzroy Square via Grafton Way. As we walked, the rain and thunder gradually intensified, casting a dark grey hue over the ‘too moody’ London sky. Huddled under our umbrellas, we discussed why Ruth Glass referred to London as feminine, describing it as ‘her landscape’.
Some of us talked about the sense of home, likening the city to a soft, domestic space — hometowns, home countries, and motherlands. Ruth Glass, as a female urbanist, saw the city as her home and captured its changes in her words. One of our attendees Savannah Willits, an Urban Analyst and LSE Urban Planning graduate, interpreted Ruth Glass’ portrayal of London as feminine as a connection to the female body’s experience of change. Savannah suggested that in the same way that the female body is adept to change on a monthly cycle and larger life cycles, Ruth Glass read London as susceptible to aspects of change.
Continuing to take shelter from the rain, we played the following video of a taxi driving through Tottenham Court Road in the 1960s. Along with observing the differences then and spotting familiar street corners, the video was a portrayal of how Ruth Glass experienced her route in a taxi traversing those same streets.
London 1960s Driving Tottenham Court Road POV
Stop 8: King’s Cross Station
Our walk concluded at King’s Cross Station, where the rain finally diminished, miraculously giving way to some sunshine — a typical London ‘moody’ moment! With historical photographs from the 1960s in hand, such as this aerial one and this street view of Euston Road, we discussed how the area’s historical settings have persisted, creating a marvellous blend of past and present. Standing at the junction of Euston Road and Pancras Road, the group tried to imagine the atmosphere of urban life back in the 20th century. Like Ruth Glass observed, King’s Cross has retained the same look and energy of arrival, departure and urban hurry that it had sixty years ago. Of course, the area has undergone massive redevelopment by Argent as a neighbourhood and destination with the presence of Central Saint Martins, the new Google Building, shopping and Coal’s Drop Yards amongst other new presences. These photos show that transformation over a 20 year period.
Setting Ruth Glass’ words alongside the scenes of London today, a June morning in 2024, made us reflect on how time and space seem to be caught by the tides constantly evolving with various “aspects of change’’, yet preserving echoes of the past. Much has changed in London since 1963, but at the same time so much has not. In the words of one of our walkers, ‘so much still rings true today’.
Further reading
- The Bartlett Review Article: Ruth glass and coining ‘gentrification’
- UCL Urban Lab Event & Soundcloud Recording: Ruth Glass and London: Aspects of Change 1964–2014’
