I had to look it up. In London I walk north to south, Euston to Waterloo – Bloomsbury, Holborn, Charing Cross. Where I do not walk I do not know. What is the Edgware Road? Merely a notch on the Bakerloo. ‘What is the Edgware Road?’ I asked.
‘It goes whoosh to Marble Arch.’
And so I must have been there; I have eaten Tesco sandwiches in Hyde Park; I know Marble Arch. Or am I thinking of somewhere else? I like London, but it has never felt as if it belongs to me. Knowing it would take more time, more energy than I have to give it.
Marble Arch at one end, then, but where does it go the other way? After all, a road must have two ends, perhaps more, and if you can’t say much about the one, follow it the other way. Back to the A-Z, and run out of pages at Maida Vale. Just as well: show me a map that took it further and I’d be planning to follow it.
Kathleen Jowitt 