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And in the mid-nineteenth century? Walter Benjamin reminds us "it was only macadamization of the roadways (c. 1840) that made it possible, finally, to have a conversation on the terrace of a (Paris) café without shouting in the other person's ear"

And so on. One generation's cacophony is the next generation's nostalgia. And what about those Morland table mats and the Calls of London? Surely that was acceptable to its contemporaries? Not exactly.

"A freeman of London has the privilege of disturbing a whole street for an hour together, with the twankling of a brass kettle, or a frying pan". Addison in 1711.

Not given to nostalgia, being a Dickens or Hazlitt rather than a Symons or a Lawrence, I have to say that I like the noise, the noises of the city. I like traffic, I like the sound of traffic, the squeal of tyres, police, ambulance, fire sirens doppler-distorted as they flounder mournfully down the street; the hysterical gulping of a halted police car (though Yehudi Menuhin has made a plea for more harmonious police sirens, recommending "alternating thirds" which, my newspaper explains is. "a more consonant and harmonious sound in classical music"). I love the BMWs round Brixton with the tinted windows and doors palpitating to the volume of music penned up within.

In Seoul I admired roof-mounted speakers through which errant parkers are reproached by cops inside the prowl car. I love the drone of London buses, the eruption from the tunnel of an underground train, the lovely flubbery sound of an accelerating motorcycle. And yes, OK, I like the cries of London: "Spare us some change?"..."Big Issue".. "Wanna buy skunk" " 1 day Travelcard"...."Mind the Gap"...."for you are all sinners and you will roast in hell"..."Move down the Cars"...."Because of a person under a train at Seven Sisters, customers will experience delays".. . "Yo! yo! You want draw?" (This at 7.30 in the morning). To my astonishment I was recently accosted by a crone in a Soho street who said, who actually said: "Would you like a nice fresh young girl, darling?" (There's an eighteenth century 'cry').

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