Brick is so ubiquitous in London it could be an element. The alchemists thought so, carefully making ‘oil of brick’. What might this infusion do? Ceramic brick has been vitrified – baked up to a temperature that has fused the silica and alumina together – melting and re-crystallising them to make rock. The ceramic should not impart anything to the oil apart from brick dust from the surface – unless homeopathic doses of brick is what you’re after. Perhaps oil of brick in an ointment might make a placebo ‘London Salve’ – something to inoculate you against the city blues, or the hardness of the environment. I wonder what percentage of London brick I might be?