Featured David Langdon Covent Garden Cartoon

David Langdon was a prolific artist and cartoonist. @Ownedbybear i thought you might appreciate this print!
Covent Garden market moved to Nine Elms in 1974 which neatly dates this. I’m hopeful that the signature top left might be a genuine signature, no pixels under a loupe but either way it’s a fun cartoon marking a moment in time.
Apologies for the reflection from the plastic sleeve, I’ll remove it when I find something suitable to protect it.

 

What's on his head?

 

Baskets of produce. He’s looking for Covent Garden Market which moved to Nine Elms in London. More a moment in time cartoon than a funny.

 

Thanks.

 

He’s a market porter, that’s how they carried produce. Still do. That’s a fabulous cartoon. I remember the market moving.

 

I thought you would like it

 

The cartoon says Nine Elms is "somewhere south of the river." Is that an inside joke that only Londoners would understand? Sounds like very vague directions.

 

South of the River = here be dragons.
If you’re Norf London.

 

Ha! Thank you, I thought it might be something related to reputation of the area.

 

The denizens of the different villages of London have a tendency to regard other villages with suspicion. And they do vary wildly in character, housing styles, even. Ask a Londoner where they’re from and they’ll say Hackney or Ealing or whatever. The most suspicion is between Norf and Sarf. A black cab driver, hailed, will suck his teeth and mutter the immortal words, “I don’t go Sarf of the river, guv.”

Even the transport is different. The Tube never really got Sarf , mostly due to geology but some down to politics. So Sarf London has overground trains. Norf, we have the Tube. And Sarf is way newer mostly only a few centuries.

 

Love this! London is a fascinating place.

 

I love the fact that it’s so heterogeneous, and so varied even with a square mile. And genuinely mixed: there’s very very few areas which are singular in nature, if that makes sense. Probably Stamford Hill maybe, which is massively Chassidic. Green Lanes is a bit Turkish and Greek, cheek by jowl. Makes for superb food, that. Oh, the baklava shops.

my wee mini mart sells polish, Somali, Caribbean, Irish, Brazilian, Spanish and all sorts more of food. I can get sumac in there. And today, Lithuanian biscuits. Which is why Londoners sneer when New York people think bodegas are unique. Hah!

 

That's a great cartoon and conversation that follows!!

 

Like the best cartoons, it’s simple at first glance, but with layers of nuance.

 

I love the way the policeman says ‘somewhere south of the river’ like he’s giving directions to Mars or Timbuctoo it’s so far off his beat.

 

Now that I understand more of the joke, I like that, too.

 

He was undoubtedly sucking his teeth.