Goth Walk XXXVI

It would be churlish to point out the paucity of deep black among the Walkers yesterday, pictured as we paused for a group photo at the fountain opposite the Old Bailey. After all, temperatures were in the mid-80s, and as we followed our route we took advantage of as much shade as we could find at the stopping-places, winding from Lower Marsh at the back of Waterloo, over the river and then up through Covent Garden and Holborn before finishing at the north end of Blackfriars Bridge. Our subject was the Gordon Riots, the few days in June 1780 when the Government lost control of the capital, a series of (some argue) proto-revolutionary disturbances which began with religious prejudice and ended in an all-out if disorganised attack on the 18th-century legal system. London seemed unusually loud as well as hot, and at various points I found myself competing with trains, police sirens and rickshaw drivers belting out Queen at enormous volumes, and we battled with crowds on both north and south banks of the river. The capital strikes back.