By :
Dirik Hameed
Flying into London and looking down at the houses visitors from the colonies are sometimes surprised by the cramped brown houses and their chimney pots. Once on the ground rooms in cheap hotel London may also seem cramped to people used to wide open spaces. They feel that they must tread softly when inside.A large number of people and houses have to be fitted into a city the size of London. Space has been at a premium for many years and bedrooms might be two meters wide and three meters long. This might be satisfactory for Londoners but visitors from the Pampas might feel that they have to edge gingerly around the bed in a room that size in kings cross hotels.In winter weather the reason for cosy room sizes becomes apparent. As snow and sleet falls from grey skies and mud freezes on the ground Dickensian scenes of fires blazing in hearths and people sitting comfortably, drinking tea seem more and more homely.When a man arrived in the city at 2 am one day the last few red buses were making their way through empty streets. Travel arrangements had been altered suddenly so that he found himself without a hotel and faced with the prospect of paying for a whole night's accommodation even though there were only a few hours of the night left. He decided to spend a few hours walking about until a new day dawned.Being familiar with Wordsworth's poem written on Westminster Bridge at about the same time of day he headed for that location, tramping through deserted streets. Amazingly, there were some people sleeping on the streets or huddled on benches, like cocooned beetles, perfectly stationary. Wordsworth's 'mighty heart' was lying still.Soon the novelty of re-living Wordsworth's London trip was expelled by the cold. It shriveled the man and shrunk his adventurous spirit. Hopefully he turned into an underground station hoping to find some warm conditioned air but implacable locked iron gates reminded him that he was homeless even if for a few hours only. He looked at the body of a person sleeping rough and wondered about shelters for the homeless and the price of freedom.The early morning winter hours in London taught the man a lasting lesson about comfort. He regretted that he had not had time to go online and book a hotel in advance of his hasty departure for the city. As daylight revealed the outlines of buildings the rough sleepers remained inert but businesses gradually began opening their doors to the public.One of the first places to open its doors to the public was an internet shop and the man went in to it and settled into a simple chair that seemed extraordinarily warm and friendly. He brought up a web site which advertised cheap hotels London. Not long after he was the first guest of the new day in a budget London hotel. It offered what the website said it would and a cosy bed welcomed him into its arms. Later, he showered, changed his clothes and relished the essential amenities he had previously taken for granted, far too easily.
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