Len Clark encouraged me to take part in the voluntary administration of the Youth Hostel Association. As well as the countryside, he loved London, and knew that visitors from overseas would wish to visit the capital.

After the second world war most foreign hostellers came from mainland Europe, particularly Germany. Temporary hostels in London schools during the summer holidays gave way in the 1960s to a permanent one, now London St Paul’s, in the old St Paul’s Cathedral choir school in Carter Lane – a very practical gesture of reconciliation.