BERWICK STREET, London
A friend asked me to check out Berwick Street. So I did. It’s a street which calls us in; since a teenager, when walking between Oxford Circus and Covent Garden I would cut through Soho, and, more often than not, would find myself inadvertently pulled into Berwick Street. It has a strange magnetism … a sense of familiarity and reassurance. Market streets do this to us.
When I visited for the energy reading, the food market was finished … I wanted to see it in its bare bones. I began at the bottom/Soho end and walked up. I immediately had the sensation of water running under the cobbled area … that the street had once upon a time been a stream (which would therefore lend itself well, energetically, as a thoroughfare). I could picture people washing clothes/fabric in the water (on the west side); that markets/local trade existed many centuries ago, as a result of the water. I had a sense of greenery, of surrounding fields, with the land to the east of the stream being more ‘wealthy’, less inhabited and having stronger boundaries, although now, the street side to the west has more energy – and has been developed.
Standing with my back to Kemp House, energetically I could feel the land slope down (towards the centre of the road and the vision of the stream). I noted the direction of the underlying energy from South to North, though the motor-traffic flows North to South, which creates some energy congestion. The water feeling drops at top of pedestrianised area – into the ground – like a waterfall.
Berwick Street is pedestrianised to the junction with Broadwick Street which cuts across and has a stronger energy/presence, creating a split within the softer energy of Berwick Street … which now feels like a street of two energetic halves. The top north side feels energetically abandoned; the energy peters-out, infiltrated by the energy of Oxford Street and impacted by the starting force of the incoming one-way traffic. The whole street would benefit from some energetic support, realigning and balancing.
I found the buildings interesting … and would have liked to explore them inside: Kemp House, The Silk House – which feels a ‘significant’ building and still has the energy intention of old – and lots of smaller units, full of character. I felt the street was not originally intended for living on, though it is now also residential; which feels a little odd.
Tuning into the market, I felt the ‘intention’ of the market does not have sufficient ‘character’ – the intention has weakened and is not being supported sufficiently by the market ‘owners’ / the council – and is drawing on the personality of the ‘abandonment’ of the street to survive. If the other side of the street is also developed, I feel the market will ‘go’. It’s holding on to, and is energetically connected to, what once was.
Interestingly, I found the middle section of the street to have great energy – interesting independent and creative boutiques, eateries and lifestyle living stores – a modern day market, epitomising an original ethos. It doesn’t feel ‘English’, and yet it does; I am undecided on this. Looking at Noel Street, all I can see in my minds-eye are fields. D’Arblay Street, I see a bridge. Walking back down the street, I feel the energy of the music venues, and at the junction of Broadwick Street, by The Blue Posts, I have the vision of a ‘horse and carriage carrying people in fancy clothes’, ‘not stopping in this ‘rougher’/poorer area’. The food market area feels particularly ‘spacious’ in the sky above it, as if protected by an order not to encroach ‘from above’. And from nearby Westminster Kingsway College, I have a sense of ‘a benefactor’… that it is holding / protecting a space larger than itself.
All in all, it’s a fascinating street with many layers of energy and intrigue, offering many ways to engage with it. I’m sure it could tell many a story :) … and I would love to hear your impressions of it?
With love,
Delilah
[28th Jan 2023]