The Nights of London

H.V. Morton's London #3

by H.V. Morton

The author has frequently been requested to define the secret of writing a travel book. He always replies: 'There is no secret. You either enjoy yourself or you do not. If you do, say so; if you do not - say so ' This disarming sincerity is, perhaps, responsible for the charm and fascination of his books. The feel and smell of the countryside, also a sense of movement, find their way into these light-hearted wanderings, and, combined with humour, acute observation, sympathy and an engaging curiosity, have justly gained for them a wide and increasing popularity. This book is full of anecdotes from his nightly trawls of London, packed with humour and charm. Contents Include: The Nights of London - The Dead City - When the 'Tubes' Stop - Ships at Night - Under Waterloo Bridge - A Jungle Night - At a Stage Door - Night in Hospital - Fan-Tan - Drama on Wheels - Cabaret - The First Edition - A Lost Day - 'Sir Percivale' - White and Yellow - Ambition's Road - Love and Youth - Omnibuses in Bed - Dining Out - The 'Spring Onion' - 'Charlie Brown's' - Fire - Behind the Scenes - Gladiators - The Unborn Home - Chinese New Year - The Happy Man - Sorting the '5.30' - The Thames: Two A.M. - Bloomsbury - The 'Old Vic' - The East's 'West End' - A Suburban Dance - 'Pub Crawlers' - A Night Club - To Anywhere - Our Last Inn - Dawn Over London

Genres: History, Travel

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1926

About the author

Henry Canova Vollam (H.V.) Morton, FRSL, was a journalist and pioneering travel writer from Lancashire, England, best known for his prolific and popular books on Britain and the Holy Land. He first achieved fame in 1923 when, while working for the Daily Express, he scooped the official Times correspondent during the coverage of the opening of the Tomb of Tutankhamon by Howard Carter in Egypt.

In the late 1940s he moved to South Africa, settling near Cape Town in Somerset West and became a South African citizen.

Reviews

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Nights of London
by H.V. Morton
194 pages.
Methuen & Co. London
Hardback
Fifth edition 1934
Printed in Great Britain
First published Nov. 11th 1926

Epigragh
To Midsummer Night

Contents
The Nights of London
The Dead City
When the 'Tubes' Stop
Ships at Night
Under Waterloo Bridge
A Jungle Night
At a Stage Door
Night in Hospital
Fan-Tan
Drama on Wheels
Cabaret
The First Edition
A Lost Day
'Sir Percivale'
White and Yellow
Ambition's Road
Love and Youth
Omnibuses in Bed
Dining Out
The 'Spring Onion'
'Charlie Brown's'
Fire!
Behind the Scenes
Gladiators
The Unborn Home
Chinese New Year
The Happy Man
Sorting the '5.30'
The Thames: Two A.M.
Bloomsbury
The 'Old Vic'
The East's 'West End'
A Suburban Dance
'Pub Crawlers'
A Night Club
To Anywhere
Our Last Inn
Dawn Over London

The title page is stamped
The Burma News Agency,
125, Scott Market,
Rangoon
from where the book was presumably purchased new in 1932.

I purchased the book around late 1990s - early 2000s from a second-hand book shop at the Entrance NSW for $3.
I have to admire the quality of this compact hardback edition, the size of a paperback, still in very good condition, sans the dust jacket, since long gone.

A book with this provenance deserves respect in recording its history. A travel book that has travelled. Printed in Great Britain and purchased new in Rangoon in the early 1930s. Just think on this. Rangoon in the 1930s, part of the British Empire. British Burma until after WWII. I'm imagining who bought this book on London in Rangoon in the 1930s. If the buyer, he or she?, were homesick would this book make it better or worse? And with World War II just around the corner. Oh, the film script in my head!
Where was the book during the war? How did it eventually find its way to a second-hand book shop on the NSW Central Coast? And still in good condition! And still a delight to read.

Now to the 'Nights of London'.

An extract from the last chapter: 'Dawn over London'
"The vitality of Piccadilly ebbs after midnight hour by hour till three a.m., at which time a human figure becomes enigmatic in the emptiness of the Circus. At no time is the absence of the light-footed deity of Victorian London so noticeable: the hoardings in the centre of the roadway are like a scar.
Piccadilly at three a.m. has the dead appearance of an empty theatre. The mind, associating it with moving life and the excitement of great crowds, finds it uncanny: an abnormal sight, so cold and bare under the watchful yellow lights, so ready, it seems, for the bizarre."
"It is now light.
In the east there comes a pink flush low in the sky. The sun has risen. It is a smoldering short-lived pinkness as if the sun were fighting hard to show himself, uncertain, troubled. The colour changes, the pink clouds fade to gold. The street lights go out. The feeling of other-worldliness has vanished with the dawn light, which went suddenly as if London had flung off a wrap. Now all is clear to the eyes. Over the bridges sounds the rumble of wheels. London, the most masculine city in the world, seems standing clean and stripped, lile a boxer entering a ring, for another twenty-four rounds with fate."

My first visit to England was solo, and only to London after a painting trip to Italy. My daughter was living in London at the time. We were walking through the theatre district one Monday night after dinner and were delighted to see that Patricia Routledge was starring in a play. Our family are big fans of Mrs Bucket, pronounced Bouquet, and as a Monday night not being as busy and the tickets were cheaper, how could we resist. Patricia Routledge was fabulous.
I was flying back home the next day, so I had to say goodbye to my daughter late at night on a lonely Tube station.

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Nights of London" is pretty similar to "The Heart of London" and "The Spell of London". I'm going to quote a paragraph:
Under an elaborate pretence of cheerfulness, is not the 'Spring Onion' the Club of Lost Dreams? Are there not people in London-in all great cities-who dare not be alone with themselves, who must seek company from loneliness, from things undone, from opportunities missed, from that demon which sits on guard at a man's conscience, making him cry: 'Go away! How care you say I am second-rated? You know I have never really had a chance!'

[John Ollerton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fabulous peek into the magic of London, if you can stomach the shocking British Imperialist racism. Loved the descriptions of the last London Coaching Inn; The George Inn Southwark and the now disappeared Charlie Brown in East London. I think one can still stay at The George.

[Vicki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great book about England from H. V. Morton. Fascinating insight into the nights of London in the 1920s.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am reading the 10th edition published in August 1940 - called H.V. Morton's London - which includes "The Heart of London" "The Spell of London and "The nights of London" in one volume. Little observations of London life, short short stories, I am really enjoying..