This one gladdens the heart. It’s two friends – London Walks colleagues – enjoying each other’s company and enjoying historical memories and enjoying old London’s most Christmassy street.
It’s an off-the-beaten-track street where there’s spontaneous caroling and you’re likely as not to stumble on an old fashioned Christmas celebration or two and where you look in the shop windows (or go into the shop) and take delight in and marvel at what you see (and clock that this is where you come for “a particularly special present”), all the while reflecting that this is “bygone Charing Cross Road in microcosm” and that it’s a miracle this place has survived, a gnarled, characterful little street in central London that the 20th century hasn’t overrun, let alone the 21st.