Summary: Emma Jane Kirby considers the capital of the largest contemporary modern maritime empire: London. Some of Londoners' concerns in 1914 may seem remarkably familiar. Complaints about the Tube were as frequent and heartfelt a hundred years ago as they are today. To try and divert travellers from their misery, Macdonald Gill - the brother of Eric Gill, the sculptor and designer - was commissioned to produce a "Wonderground" map. Emma Jane Kirby considers the idea of Britain which London was presenting to both the wider world and Britons themselves in 1914. And she assesses how far these attitudes still resonate today.
