Westway (London) - Popular Culture

Popular Culture

The 1974 novel Concrete Island by J. G. Ballard was set in a junction between the Westway and M4 Motorway.

The Westway has featured in songs by many British Rock bands:

  • The Clash gave the Westway a sarcastic mention in "London's Burning": "I'm up and down the Westway, in and out the lights. What a great traffic system, it's so bright. I can't think of a better way to spend the night, than speeding around underneath the yellow lights."
  • The cover for The Jam's This Is The Modern World was taken under the Westway.
  • In the Blur song "For Tomorrow" part of the lyrics state that a couple have lost their way on the road. The full line is: "London's so nice back in your seamless rhymes, But we're lost on the Westway". The Westway is also mentioned in Blur's songs "Fool's Day" and "Under the Westway".
  • The Dirty Pretty Things refer to the Westway in the song Truth Begins quoting "The Westway walls so tall and bleak/Reflect the words we dare not speak". It is also referenced in the Pete Doherty song 'Broken Love Song' in the line 'By the *Westway/Inside The Scrubs' as he once claimed to have lived beside the Westway in a caravan.
  • In the Alex Rider series, a crash is staged on the Westway.
  • The Westway is also featured on the front cover of A Weekend in the City by Bloc Party. The picture, part of A Modern Project was taken by German photographer Rut Blees Luxemburg.
  • Justin Clack of Frost Meadowcroft writes about Westway (London) in Umbrella Magazine issue 4 in an article "Something In The Air" . This article refers to the fact that no compensation was granted to any resident's properties who overlooked the Motorway if their houses were not actually demolished by its construction and how the famous squat and 'independent state' Frestonia was set up in its shadow.
  • The Don Letts documentary about The Clash, 'Westway to the World', refers to the Westway.

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