It’s strange to think that London once felt so vast and labyrinthine. Not that long ago, it seemed like an almost endless urban sprawl which I could barely begin to comprehend. I suppose that part of the problem was that actually getting up into the city took so long. Travelling into central London, on either the Jubilee Line or a bus from Charlton, took at least an hour. Now though, thanks to the Elizabeth Line, getting into central London is so much easier. Within twenty minutes from Woolwich I can be somewhere like Tottenham Court Road or Bond Street, ready to explore the metropolis.

It feels like the city is at last within my grasp, so that somewhere which once seemed so incomprehensible and endless now seems far smaller and more homely; places which once seemed so distant and almost foreign now feel as reachable as my local shops. This morning, for instance, I was able to pop into central London on the spur of the moment, curious about the shops on Bond Street. The sky was blue and I felt ready to explore again. I was able to go and take in the beauty of Hyde Park and Regent’s Park in the autumn sunshine. Such places are now feeling more and more familiar to me, as if they have been transported from somewhere extremely remote and unreachable to almost my back garden. It makes me wonder whether this shrinking is going to continue, and what future innovations might make getting around London even easier. More to the point though, London is obviously becoming increasingly accessible to guys like me, so that thanks to incredible advancements like the Elisabeth Line, sooner or later wheelchair users will be able to get around the metropolis as quickly and easily as anyone else.