In the Street 
Peter Campbell
Step into the street, look down, and it tells you what to do. Kerbs and gutters separate walkers from drivers. Painted words, lines and changes of material nudge you forward or make you pause. The street surface shows what is going on underground: scars left by repairs indicate new pipe work; trapdoors, lids, covers and grills point to drains, cables, coal holes and cellars. Signals of activity other than that created by people going from place to place proliferate. Responsibility for all this is diffuse.
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Peter Campbell is the London Review’s resident designer and art critic.
Other articles by this contributor:
At the National Gallery · Titian
In Paris · ‘The Delirious Museum’
At Tate Britain · How We Are
At the Saatchi Gallery · The Triumph of Painting
At Tate Britain · Thomas Girtin
At Dulwich Picture Gallery · Adam Elsheimer
At Tate Britain · Howard Hodgkin
At the Wallace Collection · Anthony Powell’s artists
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