An artist's rendition of Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar- good examples of the unique types of people you'll meet in London Below.
Page 112
“There was something deeply tribal about the people, Richard decided. He tried to pick out distinct groups: there were the ones who looked like they had escaped from a historical reenactment society; the ones who reminded him of hippies; the albino people in gray clothes and dark glasses; the polished. Dangerous ones in smart suits and black gloves; the huge, almost identical women who walked together in twos and threes, and nodded when they saw each other; the tangle-haired ones who looked like they probably lived in sewers and who smelled like hell; and a hundred other types and kinds...He wondered how normal London—his London—would look like to an alien, and that made him bold.”
What Richard is doing here resembles societal stereotyping. Individuals in society tend to pass judgments based on appearances, circumstances, and impressions. Gaiman is pointing out that there is more to an individual than meets the eye. As we later see in the case of Hunter, her supernatural slenderness fits the delicate, careful supermodel stereotype but does not translate to her behavior, for she turns out to be the best lethal killing machine in the story. Apart from outward appearances and society's tendency to form opinions based on outward information, Neverwhere's exaggerated distinguishing features among the various underground Londoners allude to the prevalent factions and races in real society. Gaiman successfully states the vast separation among political parties, social classes, and ethnic and religious groups through creating a fantastical world of monsters and strange creatures. The Ratspeakers/The Golden, The Sewer Folk, Door’s family, Earl’s Court, and the Black Friars are inherently different races and thus reflect modern society. What happens when you do not belong in any of the various groups? In this situation, Richard is the "other", the foreigner whom characters of London Below recognize immediately as an outsider. What is normal to Richard is obviously not normal to the inhabitants of London Below, nor would his world be normal to them. We also see traveling as an inherent form of escapism in venturing to a new land, an unfamiliar setting that challenges, invokes and encourages curiosity. One need not escape to an alternate universe to experience this, opportunities are waiting on the next continent, or even hidden within the city itself; escapism within our modern world is possible. Richard questions reality as he shifts away or between the realistic, fantastical, eerie, dark, and strange.
