Strange day; one project I’m working on has gone very pear shaped from my point of view; that is - I’m now surplus to requirements, during largely to do with internal politics that are completely outside my control. Ah, maybe my plan to downsize is happening sooner than expected.

So off to one of my favourity places, the Bishopgate’s Institute Library. Now, one other reason, no in fact, two reasons, why I like the place even more. It actually smells like a library - polished wood, books and dust. Marvellous. You simply can’t build authenticity like that. AND….something else I discovered today is that some of the best books are kept in cabinets under lock and key.

Having finally plucked up the courage, I went to ask the librarian what the procedure was to get to look at one of the books. See - another good thing; the librarian intimidates the public - exactly how it should be.
“Oh”, she said, “you just have to ask me and I will unlock the cabinet and get you the book. And when you’ve finished with it can you bring it back to the desk”.

Now all of this needs immediate preservation.

I borrowed ‘The Real East End’ by Thomas Burke with illustrations by Pearl Binder. The book was published in 1932 and the illustrations are extraordinary; here is the East End as Bauhaus modernism; here are the characters depicted as Brechtian figures; here is the Blackwall tunnel as a burst of speed and energy.

Wonderful; not just for the content but for making me think yet again about this complexity of the ‘Shape of Time’.

I feel the tugging on the heart strings; a life within this superb institution reading these fabulous books….or filling in PRINCE 2 forms…..

‘Library closing’ the librarian shouts. Even here, unlike the 24 hours society, there is a gentle end to the working day at 5.30pm.