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Article: London.
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- September 26, 1998
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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London has run on tramways (above), trolleybuses and the Tube. It is an unplanned and lightly governed city. Is that the secret of its success?
IN 1966 Time magazine proclaimed the birth of ''swinging London''. Two years later, one of its rivals, Life, announced sourly that ''swinging London is dead''. Thirty years after Time's cover, Newsweek declared that London was ''the coolest city on the planet'', so ensuring the fresh wave of obituaries that has already started.
Three new histories of London are, in fact, divided about the prognosis for the city. Michael Hebbert is an optimist, revelling in London's ability to reinvent itself and find new sources of ...