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| | London Prowl |
 | | London in the summer: tourist buses clogging Park Lane, unseasonal rain in seasonal heat, sidewalks sticky with spilt ice cream, shameless Englishmen with their shirts off, audiences sweating quietly in muggy theaters, the Underground a crammed, stifling sauna. |
 | | But in the autumn and winter, the city's true character reimposes itself; the brick and stone, the solid heft and confident mass of the buildings, respond best to crisp mornings and dark evenings, the tug of wind and hint of damp and cold. |
 | | London, that most private of cities -- a city of houses, after all, not apartments -- always had a semi-covert communal life that centered on the pub, and we have been lucky to see it returning in kind. |
| www.newyorkmetro.com /nymetro/travel/features/2787 (906 words) |
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