Arcade (May)

Laneways, transformed into splendour, imagined an illusory merry May London, a parallel Paris. Tearooms took measure, bonbon shops beckoned, jewellers offered facets. Big America wanted post-war spread. Novelty was committed, radio stations transmitted, outwitting exotic restaurants outwitted. The dying of suburban malls was gradual, if avoidable. Instead, saw the rise of shopping centres, those multi-storey labyrinths of arcades. Everything in the one place, consumers living in inner space, no one even knows your face. But where arcades go next is anyone’s guess. Down the far end of the airport, on the street where you live, by the waters of Babylon.