On Tue, 25 Mar 2008, Jane Sullivan wrote:

In message , Charles Ellson
writes

Nowadays the whole point might be that with modern technology there is
no longer a need for a physical centre as there was in the past when
the City of London was full of messengers running around with
negotiable documents.

I work in IT in the finance industry, at

I think the point was not that everyone can telecommute instead of going
into an office, but rather that the various offices don't need to be in
the same place. You could quite easily put a tower full of stockjobbers
and allied trades somwhere miles from the City, like, for example, er ...

Canary Wharf

Exactly.

Although Canary Wharf has missed this point. Instead of distributing
offices into the suburbs or wherever, it's created a second City.

I should add that i'm not convinced that Mr Ellson's argument is correct.
There may be advantages to having offices of related businesses in close
physical proximity; it certainly seems to be a pattern of urban
development that's been remarkably constant, even after the introduction
of the car, the telephone, and all the kinds of electronic communication
that have come since.

tom

--
I believe there is no philosophical high-road in science, with
epistemological signposts. No, we are in a jungle and find our way by
trial and error, building our road behind us as we proceed. -- Max Born