Book excerpt: Cites speak and this intriguing book might be called The Grammar of Cities since it aims to help us understand the language of cities. Considering the urban environment from the viewpoint of an engaged pedestrian, Urban Code offers 100 ‘lessons’ – maxims, observations, and bite-size truths, followed by short essays that help us learn to read the city. It is a user’s guide to the city, a primer of urban literacy, a key for anyone who is enthralled by urban life at street and sidewalk level. Each lesson is accompanied by an iconic image in addition to the 100 drawings, photographs and film stills - shot in the Manhattan neighbourhood of SoHo - that illustrate the text. The observations originate in SoHo, but what they offer hold true for any cityscape