My wanderings bring me to this odd combination of wide streets filled with cars and people going somewhere else. It may come alive at night (judging by the number of closed bars, restaurants and clubs) but in the glare of daylight it seems slightly furtive, awaiting the darkness.

There are many strange and dingy alley ways which seem devoid of life and seem a sad and empty reflection of the bustling arcades of a different time. Kracauer asked “what would be the point of an arcade in a society that is itself only a passageway” (1995) But perhaps our passageways have come to reflect our society.

I come across some apartments hurriedly constructed with a nod to postmodern design, which contrasts oddly with the older buildings of the district, and give some insight into the changing nature of this part of the city as people move back into apartments here. Their architects change the character of the environs. “The architectural language of postmodernism is clearly read. Instead of the reductive minimalist style of modernism, postmodernism is noticeable by its mixture of styles (...) The ideology of postmodern design is one of decoration and variety (1999, p.165). This ideology is mirrored in the office buildings that sprinkle the area.

The other dominant feature of the area is the size of roads, and the amount of and speed of traffic. As LeCourbusier  wrote, the street is a “traffic machine (...) A sort of factory for producing speed traffic (1993, p.65). Christopher Crouch is more critical “this catastrophe of the motor car might be one point at which the post-war modernist dream is exposed for the illusion that was” (1999, p.164).

This area is very definitely a different zone to its neighbours, but it is difficult to get its true sense of its ambience without being here at night, when the many bars and restaurants would no doubt issue large numbers of people onto the street and it would come alive. But I am here during the day and share it only with rushing motorists, and so I turn aside, looking for human presence.