London’s Sick Theatre District

Who wants to go to London’s West End theatre district anymore? “Whether you travel by car or train, it is a nightmare to get there, and when you arrive the place is squalid. The streets are filthy and poorly lit, there are horribly persistent beggars everywhere, and the place is overrun by groups of marauding yoof, out on the booze and aggressive and foul-mouthed with it. Drug-dealing takes place more or less openly, and the atmosphere is deeply depressing when it isn’t downright threatening. Of a policeman on the beat there is hardly ever a sign.”