Hamlets' revenge
GONE are the days when the great Arthur Trinder, general manager of the Union Dis- count Company of London, would arrive at his desk at 11 o'clock for a smoked salmon sandwich and a gin and tonic. His successors in the money markets work the hours that Mammon sends, and jib at spending more time on long journeys to and from work. They would rather spend money on buying a house somewhere handy, and prices reflect this. In Greater London they have been going up by 12 per cent (which, you will observe, is twice the rate of mortgage interest) and here and there (mostly here) the market is sizzling. Barclays' economists single out the poor old London borough of Tower Hamlets as a hot spot for house- price inflation. Demand has outstripped supply, Barclays says, and prices are up by a fifth in a year, because the buyers want to be near the word and money factories at Canary Wharf. I would call that another reason not to live there. Still, two views make a market.
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