THE JAXWORLD BLOG

To perambulate… a 100 years on

This is the sort of perfect English
spring day where it is easy to imagine oneself a character in a Merchant Ivory
film.. to imagine oneself in the Edwardian England that generated so much
literature, that informed our imaginations of what is perfectly English, that
seduced my parents to leave behind the guaranteed sun and up sticks to what
often is nothing more than a rain-sodden windblown island of the coast of main
land Europe.

On a day like this, we are
in the reign of good king Bertie and the two world wars had not happened and England is
profitable and the future is now. It is inconceivable that there will be an
empire stronger than the one ruled from here. With great privilege comes great responsibility
– in the House of Commons laws were passed benefiting children, the elderly and
the ill. Meanwhile women such as Mrs Asquith, Mrs Pankhurst and Mrs Astor are
ripping up the rule book and fighting the good fight for the sisters who will
follow them. The new middle classes are growing and with them the suburbs
like the one I am in right now. 

An Englishman’s home is said
to be his castle. And it was at this point in history that builders began to
answer the demands for a bit more privacy and land from people who couldn’t
afford a mansion. The atmosphere of the period was influenced by the king
and his love of the good life, which contrasted sharply with the puritanical
values of the Victorian ideal. As reaction against the Victorian
preoccupation with industry, pastiche and mass production, the architecture was
gentler and more decorative, harking back to a more rural way of life. The
Edwardian suburbs were planned to suggest a naturally evolved village. 

And on a perfect English
spring day like this one.. in an Edwardian house like this one … it is easy
to slip back in time and be seduced by my surrounding and feel that all is well
with the world.

But this is not Edwardian
England -This is Elizabeth
2’s reign and we are one hundred years on from the reign of good old king
Bertie.

Our Empire has gone, we are
now servants of the Empire Across the Pond… wonder if Bertie saw that coming?
 David Lloyd George… we did raise the taxes of the super rich to pay for
social change… it just took it bit longer that the start in 1909. Although
more people than ever can read, hardly anyone picks up a book anymore…hard to
believe eh Thomas Hardy? Jack Johnson bet when you were being feted as the
first black heavyweight champ… did you know that your homeland would have a
black president?   Mrs Asquith did you know Hollywood would become the moral compass? (Probably
… she did famously say to Jean Harlow that Margot is ‘pronounced with a
silent T rather like Harlow’) Women have the
vote… did you figure that out Mrs Pankhurst?

Yep a lot has changed. All
of the above changes have directly benefited me. But in a way not all things
that have changed have been for the greater good… we are the least
politically active, least ideological generation ever! We seek only personal
pleasure which can be derived only from possessions, money and status and are
truly ignorant of our past, our present and our futures… unless you include
recycling our wine bottles!  Our Edwardian counterparts would find us
truly nihilistic.

However is it all gone? WHY
on a beautiful perfect English spring day such as today can I hear the call of
the Edwardian past? Why can I hear the call to go perambulate… and think pure
thoughts?

Amazingly this generation
who gave the world the motor car were great fans of the (now) lost art of
walking, roaming..simply inspecting an area on foot whilst lost in thought. The
Edwardians insisted that to perambulate was the perfect way to clear the head
and understand where you are and where to go next. I assume they got the idea
of the landed gentry who would stalk the many acres of their estates to attain
both physical and intellectual stimulation. The Edwardians even built their
suburbs as mock villages to achieve this.

Okay well this town is an
Edwardian suburb.. exploding as it did from a stagecoach stop en route from
London to Kent to the residential sprawl it is today after the arrival of the
railway. So… off I go.. I’ll report back in a few hours… lets see if
Edwardian England is still possible 100 years on.