Space

White Rose Court is a dead-end alley measuring 20 paces in length and 3 paces in width. Alleys, passageways, nooks and crannies are surprisingly common in this offshoot of Bishopsgate - so near to the Luftwaffe's targets. 20 metres away lie Parliament Court and Artillery Passage - both in demand by film and tv companies as locations for period dramas. But they ignore White Rose Court. Its boundaries are the high walls of three post-war buildings. Entering on the north side is a sandwich bar. On the south side it is a pub. Blind and deaf you could determine the time of day by the smell. White Rose Court, as the name suggests, is a construct demanded by building regulations. It serves only to provide statutory fire exits. A red bricked office block stifles the narrow end and every urban ugliness is condensed into it. A metal grill across a dark doorway, an angry, yellow sign, a security camera and a filthy layer of grime where ground meets wall. There is no time of day that the light shines kindly upon it. At least at night the darkness at the far end provides refuge for what spills out of the pub.
The pub and sandwich bar entrances (together with the new smoking regulations) provide an excuse to linger at the top but there is no reason to go any further. Even the pub's beer cellar is located at the front. To stride purposefully through is to invite a curious glance. Thus surveyors, architects and planners have conspired and succeeded in erecting a powerful but invisible forcefield.