Thoughts of living in an old house in London, England

Many people who come to London for the first time will, like me, have an old and outdated impression of London-most of the houses in the urban area are like "antiques" and the streets are narrow and tortuous, as if they lack the modernity of the international metropolis in our impression; Apart from the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace, we can also see some of the past glories of the "British Empire", while others really make people feel that the scenery is no longer there. But a friend said to me, "If Paris is a bottle of perfume, you can smell it when you open the lid, then London is an old bottle of wine. You need to taste it slowly before you can taste it. " After working in London for more than two years, I really gradually tasted the fragrance of this "wine" in London.

As a reporter, I like to use some "old London" to talk about the changes of this city when the interview task is not too busy. But many of them told me that the characteristic of London is that it has not changed. Recently, I was helping a film crew to contact, interview and photograph the old traces of Marx's life in London. In the process of reading Marx's biography, I learned about some places where Marx lived. As a result, I found these places easily on the latest map of London-the street names are still the same, even the house numbers have not changed.

London is indeed a beautiful and proud place. Not only do the streets retain their original names, but even the buildings are mostly old-fashioned. Many old houses have a blue circular sign hanging on them, indicating that a historical figure once lived here. Although some old houses have been built, their outer walls facing the street are still intact. Because of the government regulations, all old houses over 100 years old cannot change their appearance at will during renovation, and even the repainting of windows must be approved. The Chinese Embassy in Britain was the legation of the Qing government more than 65,438,000 years ago. Dr. Sun Yat-sen, a revolutionary pioneer, was kidnapped by the Qing government in London and detained here. Now this small building, which has gone through a hundred years of vicissitudes, still maintains its original appearance, but its internal structure has been completely changed after many transformations.

Some people may say that the old days in London just proved the conservatism of the British. I am not totally opposed to this view, but at the same time, I think it is not a bad thing to advocate tradition, and the British people have benefited a lot from this feature. Because a nation's cultural tradition is an important manifestation of its personality, they show the unique charm of their national culture to the world by preserving and protecting historical relics, which is also an education for future generations.

Londoners protect traditions, but they don't simply provide them in the form of paintings, but make full use of them. The streets in London are really narrow and irregular. However, due to reasonable planning, these streets 100 years ago or even hundreds of years ago did not become the bottleneck of modern traffic. As long as anyone who has driven in London knows, although there are many one-way streets and around the island, London is really "all roads lead to Rome". As for the reuse of old buildings, as I said before, it is not impossible to move them at all, and they can be rebuilt if necessary. Londoners pay special attention to the maintenance of old buildings and their facilities, but "the old ones are as old as the old ones". The building where I live uses the elevator more than 70 years ago, which is completely made of wood. Although passengers have to open the elevator door by themselves and can only press the button on one floor at a time, it is absolutely safe because the maintenance workers carefully maintain it on time.

Although London is old, it is not stuffy or lacking in vitality. While protecting and respecting tradition, London does not exclude modernity. London taxis are still big black beetles, but they are equipped with navigation systems; The telephone hall in London is still antique red, but it is equipped with a keyboard that can send emails; In order to make London more attractive, the local government also hired professionals to design advertisements for this ancient city, making it a new image rich in cultural traditions and cool at the same time.