Last week the business pages of this newspaper reported the exciting news that London Tunnels plc is gearing up to float on the London Stock Exchange. This new company plans to transform a series of once secret tunnels under Holborn into an impressive new visitor attraction. It has earmarked a £200 million plus investment that will allow people to explore at first hand below ground, the history and drama associated with our secret services during both the Second World War and the during the Cold War years.
Meanwhile at street level in central London, a battle of another sort continues. It involves not so much spooks and spies, as business improvement districts and local authorities on the one hand and companies behind half-abandoned phone boxes, badly finished roadworks, commercial waste services and hire bikes on the other.
