A woman collapsed in the street near Hammersmith Boradway. She lay, face down, on the pavement between the kerb and the phone boxes, still clutching a shopping bag in each hand. She was so straight and still, it looked like her world had tipped 90°, or ours.

Someone called an ambulance; someone flagged down a couple of policemen on horses; others glanced over as they went to cross the road.

I overheard one woman say to another “You know, all these people standing around watching - it’s sick isn’t it?”

They stood, six feet away from the prone figure clutching her carrier bags, and watched.