The London human zoo in Mark Mason’s Walk the Lines. The London Underground, Overground

Abstract

Mark Mason’s book about London documents the author’s urban odyssey – his ten London walks undertaken with the aim of finding the capital’s soul. The narrative key to Mason’s description of London is geographical space. He walked the entire length of the Tube – overground, finding the shortest routes between each station. My paper is a proposition of negotiated reading of this journey. Instead of following the author to the sights along his walking routes, I focus my attention on his chance meetings with the people of London. Mason defines London as “the best human zoo”. I explore conceptual similarities between his metaphorical human zoo and real-life 19th and 20th-century ethnic exhibitions.