London as Ocean: The Origins and Meanings of an Urban Metaphor

Editor’s note: This is the eighth post in our theme for April 2025, The City Aquatic. For additional entries in the series, see here By Christopher Ferguson In October 2015, “Ann C” of Grantham posted a review on Tripadvisor in which she praised Earl’s Sandwiches in Covent Garden as a “Pearl in the Ocean of […]

Read More

City Afloat: Rethinking the “Other” Side of Canton, 1757-1949

Editor’s note: This is the sixth post in our theme for April 2025, The City Aquatic. For additional entries in the series, see here. By Qingyun Lin There is no spectacle in the world more wonderful to a stranger’s eyes than the river population of the Celestial Empire.[1]—Osmond Tiffany (1823-1895) In May 1844, Osmond Tiffany—a […]

Read More

The Tides: Maluku’s Untold Stories

Editor’s note: This is the fifth post in our theme for April 2025, The City Aquatic. For additional entries in the series, see here. By Fendy Tulodo In the vast archipelago of Indonesia, Maluku stands as a region shaped by both its turbulent history and its deep connection to the sea. Once the epicenter of […]

Read More

Nakuru Waters: A New City on the Edge of Kenya’s Great Rift

Arial view of the Kenya town of Nakuru

Editor’s note: This is the third post in our theme for April 2025, The City Aquatic. For additional entries in the series, see here. By Gitonga Njeru Phillip Kilemia, aged 63, was born and raised in Nakuru. The businessman has seen the city grow to what it has become today. “Faced with myriad challenges, it […]

Read More

Forgotten Urban Currents: The Role of Subterranean Rivers in Shaping Modern Cities

Editor’s note: This is the second post in our theme for April 2025, The City Aquatic. For additional entries in the series, see here. By AN In cities across the world, rivers once central to daily life now flow unseen beneath layers of concrete and asphalt. These subterranean rivers–natural waterways that have been buried, diverted, […]

Read More