It is the Mecca of individualism, a colossal do-it-yourself kit supplying all the components for assembling any life you wish. Though England has a control culture and is less free than some nations, in London, nothing is unavailable - only the methods of acquisition are controlled This is our famous hypocrisy. But London's stability in this respect accounts for much of its success and its ever-growing cosmopolitanism.London is now the most cosmopolitan city in the world by far. Nobody wants to go to New York any more, it's just geekville, but foreign communities are still arriving and setting up here. And who says size isn't important? You live in Hampstead, your best friend is in Dulwich? - forget it.Yet unlike Paris (snobbery), Rome (carnival), New York (money), Moscow (look over your shoulder), or Tokyo (robotism), London imposes no particular lifestyle upon its inhabitants. London and Londoners wage an unceasing battle against disintegration.

Stepney, Poplar and Limehouse are fabulously atmospheric names, but they endure only on the map: as places, they have collapsed into the black hole of nowhere, with scarcely a pre-war building between them and with modern ones of dreadful monotony They are unknowable because they do not exist. This is a measure of confidence, as well as of stupidity; and of necessity, too. Just when the city's inner and outer ornateness were becoming overwhelming to the point of constipation, modernism came along and gouged great, blank holes in it, providing relief from the compress of small-scale creative riot with huge, flat, empty surfaces, where the eye and the soul may recover and be reminded of nothing A woodsman would call it coppicing. Let's take a physical example: the undisputed historical masterpiece of dockland architecture, Telford's St Katharine's Dock A sizeable lobby wanted the site The solution: half of it was demolished.

But this demi-anarchy can produce accidental conjunctions of bizarre magnificence: the triumvirate of King's Cross, St Pancras and the British Library is townscape at its most original and extravagant.The huge Docklands development, by encouraging a high-spirited architectural free- for-all, continues the great London tradition of unplanned individualism; its climax, the superb waterfront of Canary Wharf, has the cool, creamy elegance of Belgravia and Regent's Park.London is also profligate, and repeatedly throws itself away. Both vices result from an excess of variety and the necessity for tolerance.Very typical of London, therefore, is the lunatic compromise. Its greatest vice is indifference - it's hard to set the town alight Another is indecision. It is interested in the past and the future, in class, sex and money Does this sound cruel? But London is not a cruel city. People still say good morning as they scuttle along, and there's everything you want - the Mary Quant Colour Shop (of course), Daphne's, the Conran Shop, the Japanese Take-Away and the old Michelin building which houses the Bibendum restaurant.in English society for 1,000 years, and it is the same with London, which is in unceasing, minor Burkean revolution.Actually, London in not very interested in politics - or in beauty - or in the present. Exciting new things are happening here, but they haven't taken away from the village feel; it just gets more chic.