Modern times? I have have just finished reading a book by a resident of Montagu Square. Let me give you a flavour, without revealing the plot.
It provides a fascinating account of the business world. Traders borrow, lend, buy and sell in so many interlocked transactions that it is impossible to tell whether financiers and businesses are enormously successful or about to collapse under the burden of debt. Boardrooms show no understanding of the governance expected of them. Instead, the directorship is seen as a sinecure for anyone with the right family connections. As a result, criminal behaviour is unconstrained.
The political landscape is one where money buys power and access. Politicians craven to successful businessmen allow them to be appointed to positions of authority or influence without bothering to check their personal history, and the provenance of this wealth. National newspapers peddle propaganda and their editors have an inflated sense of their own self-worth. Meanwhile, hack-written books are guaranteed publicity because of who the author is, rather than the merits of the work. Private railways and shares in them are seen as a potential source for huge profit, not from their capacity to carry passengers but as tradable assets.
Geography plays an interesting part. Marylebone is the home of (more or less) honest merchants and aristocracy in gentle decline. Knightsbridge is the home secure nobility. Meanwhile Mayfair and St James' represent the decadent playground of the younger aristocracy gambling away their inheritance and the home of the financier whose ‘smoke and mirrors' activities causes so many to lose their investments.
The author was Anthony Trollope, and the book ‘The way we live now', written in 1874. The underground railway from Marylebone to King's Cross provides a vital transport link for all classes of society. So, he might have held an opinion on the proposed development to house the new electricity substation by Edgware Road station, and not surprised that the planned works are already looking like they will be delayed.
What might surprise him is the quality of the postal service. Like many nineteenth century novelists, Trollope relied on letters between the characters to keep the plot moving. He was also surveyor general for the Post Office and credited with inventing the pillar box. So I am sure he would been appalled to know that a letter posted first class one day in Marylebone would not be delivered to another address in Marylebone before midday the next day (and some times as late as 2.30 in the afternoon). Two of our local postal workers have apologised to me about the ever-later deliveries as fewer workers are being asked to deliver more letters and parcels.
One of my favourite passages of the book - talking of the legacy of the corrupt financier - sums up so much of what makes Marylebone special:
‘In Westminster he was always odious. Westminster... never forgave him .... Marylebone, which is always merciful, took him up quite with affection, and would have returned his ghost to Parliament could his ghost have paid for committee rooms. Finsbury delighted for a while to talk of the Great Financier, and even Chelsea thought that he had been done to death by ungenerous tongues. It was, however, Marylebone alone that spoke of a monument.'
I believe that generosity of spirit still defines the area.
There is a Blue Plaque to Anthony Trollope at 39 Montagu Square.
Carl Upsall - August 2009
