How the other half sit

It's difficult not to be impressed by the glass office-blocks housing international law firms, banks and the like that are dotted along the Thames and throughout the City. Great shiny factories, complete with brass nameplates, corporate art collections and a cohort of security guards keeping watch over the comings and goings of workers in well-cut suits. The money made by their collective efforts is no less visible. Everything is designed to yell wealth and success.

Or so I thought as I dodged the tourists and raindrops on my daily (ahem, weekly) run. As I rounded a corner and schlepped up an alleyway, the sight of a man at a desk in an open loading bay nearly floored me. How the other half live - or rather sit - out of sight. The guy must have been freezing cold. Still, there are some perks to sliding off the corporate ladder: he was rolling a cigarette.