Nut graf analysis: story with alternative lead

An Oasis Off London’s Beaten Path

By Oliver Strand
New York Times

With its picnic tables and chipped folding chairs, Towpath feels as if it should be in a shack on the beach, not on the ground floor of a converted factory in East London.

Regent’s Canal has a narrow walkway shared by pedestrians and cyclists.

Wine is served in juice glasses, and food is limited to bar snacks like almonds or radishes served with anchovies. During a recent visit, a young, chatty crowd filled the seats and benches Towpath sets up on the narrow walkway that runs along Regent’s Canal, a thin band of water that slices through the city’s aging industrial zones. The afternoon light bounced off the canal, making this corner of the capital feel languid, like a village waking up from a siesta.

This is London?

[This is the nut graf:] Not exactly. This is East London, a sprawling area known for its artists, anarchists and immigrants. Neighborhoods like Shoreditch, Bethnal Green and Hackney Wick have long been where a creative class could afford to live and work. Now it’s also where they play, shop and eat.

Analysis

This story is one of those typical top-heavy New York Times stories with a long but engaging lead-in. While an inverted pyramid story gets to the point quickly, this approach gives the reader an incentive to read until the essential facts appear. If you don't find the incentive appealing, you may check out of the story before you know what it's about. It's a calculated risk by the writer.

In this story, the "where" is established quickly, and the nut graf provides the remaining W's. I think it mostly succeeds because it flows from the conversational, scene-setting opening with the "Not exactly" fragment. Then it delivers the remaining essentials. The most important aspect of this nut graf is the analytical part in the last sentence, which explains where the story is headed.

I have one problem with this nut graf. From my limited knowledge of London, I believe East London is a huge area of the city. Is the story really trying to embrace half of one of the biggest cities in the world? The story starts with a small area called Towpath. In the nut graf, the scope enlarges to Shoreditch, Bethnal Green and Hackney Wick — and to East London in general. In the very spot where (as Harrower puts it) the story should be condensed into a nutshell, I'm a little confused.