Pritchett's impressionistic rambles through London offer the reader a snapshot of a city on the cusp of becoming the place we know today. In his early-60s milieu, the Docklands were still working docks not high-priced condos, Teddy Boys were about to be MODernized, and some of the rubble of the Second World War still stood, slowly being replaced by featureless International Modern concrete blocks. Some of his observations still hold true, just as VSP found echoing vestiges of Dickensian (and older) London in the city of 1962. Some are hopelessly outmoded, ways of life and places gone forever.

The writing was poetic and rather beautiful but also odd and strangely rambling, often with no clear connections between thoughts. Three stars for the writing, five for the excellent and haunting photographs by Evelyn Hofer, rendered in high-contrast quality in the 2002 Godine reprint. Worthwhile for the London enthusiast, photography fancier, cultural historian, or nostalgia buff. ( )