ONE would imagine that Rudi Giuliani would never have appointed a cartoon laureate, but it was one of Ken Livingstone’s first acts when he became London Mayor – with Martin Rowson assuming the role.
So it was no surprise that he was the star guest at Bloomsbury’s Political Cartoon Gallery to open an exhibition of cartoons about and inspired by the capital. London Laughs is a hugely satisfying romp through a couple of hundred years of cartoons about the capital.
It is a good city for cartoons: the architecture is awe-inspiring; drunks lie all over the place; the Thames is one of the grandest rivers in the world; billion pound tents are built and left derelict for a decade.
Here we get to see how cartoonists of the day react to events in the city.
It goes back to James Gillray and Hogarth – perhaps the first to realise its potential as a subject of satire – David Low, Strube and Vicky all feature, and, of course, the work of contemporary cartoonists Rowson, Steve Bell, Dave Brown and Peter Brookes are included.
The Millennium Dome is a frequent target, as is the Labour Party’s exclusion of Ken Livingstone when he first became mayor.
There is a particularly poignant piece by Steve Bell, referring to Wilfred Owen’s haunting Dulce et Decorum Est. It is a work of genius, at once capturing the motivation of a suicide bomber and its ultimate futility. It is hard to imagine a more thought-provoking show on this autumn.

Until November 10
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