Crossrail will eventually (hopefully this year now) make it trivial for you to catch a fast, direct train from shenfield/romford to Bond Street - even today this is a straightforward journey with a change at stratford tbh.
There is surely a distinction between vintage and timeless, where the first is representative of the time it was written (and may offer relevant insight for today), and the second offers some universal truth, regardless of when it was written.
If anyone is interested in understanding more about art and human perception of art, then this book is as good a starting place as you'll find: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_Art
As the book says, ″There really is no such thing as Art. There are only artists.″