London 2: Finding Hidden Joys

We’ve been in London for about a month now and we’re feeling pretty settled in. The flat we’re renting is definitely “home” and we know how to get around a bit. Of course, COVID fears have held us back from doing too much still–we’ve only eaten indoors at a restaurant once so far, and we’ve been avoiding doing a number of the things we’re most excited about here, especially going to the theater. That may change soon–I think we may just increase our risk tolerance. We’ll see.

Sadly, while London’s enormous wealth of treasures and history is immense and absorbing, the city overall is feeling a little less than the sum of its parts. Many of the big cities we’ve visited in Europe recently–Torino, Prague, Vienna, etc. have something of a unified “look.” New York, in contrast, had a wild profusion of architectural styles, but the simple narrowness of Manhattan brought them together in some gorgeous combinations, and views from around the island were truly fabulous.

London, on the other hand, has an overall grayness (of the weather, particularly), and the construction is often either somewhat dirty stone, sickly-yellow brick, or uninspired more modern buildings. The complete wildness of styles means there’s no unified feel, and mostly there’s a pretty drab appearance.

Despite that, we’ve still found lots to love here. There are some truly grogeous, and some just interesting, buildings. (More on architecture in a later post?), the parks are fabulous and profuse (yeah…need to cover that in another post too), and there are just a ton of fun little hidden treasures, from historical plaques to random amazing desserts, amusing buskers, and a profuse diversity of cultures.

So, while we sometimes feel a bit blah about the overall city, we continue to see some great stuff on our daily walks. And we’re walking a ton. I mean, many, many miles each day. I try not to record repeat sections, but you can see we’ve been covering some ground.

Anyhow, all that walking ususally results in us going the one place we haven’t been able to avoid serious risk of COVID. Most of our days out lead to us taking the tube or a bus back towards home and, somehow, people in England have gotten the message that masks are definitely optional, regardless of the signs and announcements asking people to wear them. If we manage to get on a bus with more than half the people wearing masks, we feel lucky. At least the vaccination rates are high.

Anyhow, the stupidity of the passengers aside, I am rather enjoying using the transit system here. I have fond memories of the tube from when we lived here in 1999, but back then we were a 5-min walk from two different stops, one being Victoria Station, which was pretty dang convenient. Now we’re further away, about 10-15 minutes from either Angel or Old Street, and both of those are on a branch of the Northern Line that is currently only semi-functional–we can take trains NW from here towards King’s Cross, but the trains to the South aren’t running past Moorgate, so it’s only semi-convenient for getting around. (If you’re lost, we’re in the NE corner of the map below which shows central London.)

So, all of this means we’ve actually relied on the buses much more than the tube. When we were here in 1999, I think I took like 3 buses in the whole semester. It was way too hard to figure them out. But, now, in the era of smart phones with a million map apps and such, the buses are great. Not only are there a million different routes (I counted), but you also get to see the world around you as you zip (or, sometimes crawl) around town. This is enhanced by the fact that most of the seating is on the upper level of the double-decker buses, so it’s a pretty nice view of the town. The downside to that, being that you have to get down the stairs while the bus is herking and jerking its way through traffic…

Of course, despite all this emphasis on the buses, the tube is still great. The trains are fast and frequent. It’s been interesting to note the differences between them too. Some of the oldest lines were built using the “cut and cover” method, like in New York. These lines are closer to the surface and the trains are a bit larger, with more standing room. Most of the lines are newer than that–with narrower, more rounded trains–and were built with the deep bore method. These are super deep underground, so it often takes several minutes from where you enter a station to the actual train. It’s also sometimes quite a chore to find your way from one train to another when you need to switch–I mean, the signs are fine, but it often involves several sets of stairs, escalators, turns, etc. and can take quite awhile. All of this makes the subways in New York seem so much easier–there you were often right at the train platform as soon as you went underground, and with only a few exceptions, there weren’t really long walks inside the stations. (Also, while there’s some fun old tiling and some bits of art, the stations aren’t nearly as cool as the New York subway stations.)

On the transit front, we also had a fun trip to the London Transport Museum. It details the history of the transit system and the development from a largely river-based system of movement to land and underground. There was a great exhibit about abandoned underground stations, with particular emphasis on how some of them were used in World War II for various government functions (and how many, many more were used as shelters). There were tons of ridiculous old ads there, some silly London Transport-based art, and a bunch of historic vehicles. Reading about how the earliest trains completely filled the tunnels with smoke made it sound less than pleasant, but it was still a novel way to get around!

Of course, as pedestrians, we’ve also had to look out for those same buses. I mean, that shouldn’t be too hard, right? They’re big! But…they’re sneaky. Driving on the wrong side of the road and all that.

In reality, Jess and I have gotten pretty good at knowing which way to look for oncoming traffic, but I still have an automatic sense of where I should be looking. So, often, when I start to cross a street, I know I should be double-checking to my right, and I do. But, then, as I approach the middle, I start looking to the left, as I should, but every time, involuntarily, my head whips to the right to check for oncoming traffic there, and I’m looking exactly the opposite of where I should be! And I know it! But I just can’t stop from checking. I guess that’s a good instinct, since it’s the right one in 95% of the world, but just not here for the next few months…

Part of our walking around has also been a series of walking tours. These seemed like a fun and interesting way to get out and about, learn a little, and do it all outdoors (i.e. COVID-safer). Our first walk was all about the “Inns of Court” and took us through the area bordering the City of London and the borough of Westminster. If you don’t know, the City is a 1 mile-square area that was the ancient walled city and is now the financial district, while Westminster is the political capital of the country, where Parliament and all the major government offices are located.

Anyhow, this walk acquainted us with all sorts of things about the British legal system. We learned that solicitors are the kind of lawyers who do all the paperwork and settlements and such, but only barristers appear in court to prosecute or defend people. Those barristers are all associated with one of the “Inns” which are organized in various squares in the area surrounding the Royal Court of Justice. We walked through a number of these inns. Each has a slightly different character and look, and each comes with a ton of history. We learned about how different ones fared in the war (large chunks of Gray’s Inn were rebuilt, for instance, as we could see) or which Shakespeare plays had their premiers in which inn’s dining hall. Our guide also regaled us with stories of particularly snooty barristers and politicians in his best “looking down at the peasants” tone of voice. We visited a shop where robes and wigs for barristers are sold. And yes, the judge wears the “big wig,” so that’s a real thing. And evidently, if you are looking for a barrister, look for one with a ratty old wig–those are the ones who have been around longer and are presumably more successful. A couple of other interesting spots along the way included the Temple Church–originally the headquarters for Knights Templar–and one of the silver dragons that marks the boundaries of the City of London (these are all over the place). We also passed one of just a handful of surviving wooden buildings–it’s been forbidden to build with anything other than brick or stone since the 1666 fire destroyed most of London, so these few buildings have been around about 500 years…

Our second tour took us through Bermondsey, an area of London just south of the Thames and just a bit downriver from the City. We learned about how the area has been redeveloped multiple times, largely with a “slum-clearance” kinda goal. Until shipping was moved further downriver towards the coast, Bermondsey was a major dock and warehouse area. Lately, like many places (like our flat in an old printshop), these formerly industrial buildings have been converted into fancy housing units. There’s still some pretty cool bits of industrial-era hardware around (see the cranes hanging over the River Neckinger?). And my favorite bit of housing we saw was actually the “Garden Barge Square,” a series of several dozen barges all docked together with bridges connecting them that create a crazy warren of apartments. And, despite the upscale nature of much of the area, there is some working-class housing preserved through various trusts that own housing blocks around London. One we saw was a lovely courtyard surrounded by the Guinness Trust apartments. We also passed one old warehouse that has not yet been converted to apartments–instead it’s used sometimes as a dance club and other times rented out as a movie set. We ended with a visit to Guy’s Hospital, which has had a number of famous folks study and work there (we saw a plaque about how the philosopher Wittgenstein worked there anonymously during WWII), and which is now right across the street from the enormous Shard (still Britain’s tallest building–hasn’t changed in the last few weeks).

Our most recent walk was led by an American expat, who was a bit long-winded. He had a terrible habit of starting to walk and then stopping a few feet later to add one more thing, so the whole tour felt very discombobulated. Regardless, the walk around Westminster, the government sector of London, was pretty interesting. Besides obviously passing by the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey (both lovely), we also saw some of the more massive, hulking classical style buildings where many of the government offices are housed. One that was interesting was the Banqueting House, built exactly 500 years ago by Inigo Jones, which initiated the fascination with building such giant stone buildings to house important functions. Meanwhile, down the street, the “Old War Office” (now replaced by the Department of Defense) is being turned into luxury apartments. Sounds lovely, right? I mean, who wouldn’t want to wake up and think, “I just slept in the room where they planned strategy for the Crimean War?” or something like that…

A few other highlights:

• The interesting marking in the ceiling that showed the boundary between parishes (so they would know who was responsible for burying which peasants).
• The Cenotaph, built as a place to honor the WWI dead. It was common back then for Britain to bury troops where they fell, so eventually a wooden structure was built as a place for public grief over the dead. It was so popular that it was replaced with this stone monument.
• Just a block down the road is the similarly shaped and fascinating tribute to “the Women of World War II.” The disembodied visions of the various roles women took on was both haunting and powerful.
• In Parliament Square, there are many statues of famous dead white guys, but they are also joined by Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and Millicent Fawcett (famous suffragist, if you don’t know).
• Up in Trafalgar Square, we learned about the plaque located just behind Charles I that marks the center of greater London for various mapping and taxation purposes.
• Finally…an oddly unbalanced palace-like building. Seriously, look how different the left and right sides are!

So, getting out on those various tours has been enjoyable. In fact, we’ve been seeing evidence of London’s deep history everywhere. It’s actually just too overwhelming to the point where even I, fascinated by history and clearly into documenting every step I take, have simply given up. In central London, every other building has some sort of historic plaque on it, every park has a monument to the dead of one war or another (mostly WWI and WWII, but others as well), we’ve passed houses where Lenin, Orwell, Dickens, and more have lived… It’s all just too much! Here are just a few that stood out:

• Plaques at King’s College representing various territories controlled at one point by Britain–because it’s always good to celebrate empire, right?
• The ruins of Winchester Palace, a former bishop’s residence–because men of god should have palaces?
• A bit of the Roman era London Wall stuck among the shiny edifices of the City.
• The interesting design of the New Zealand WWII Memorial. I like how it intersects the walking path, forcing he attention of passersby.
• A monument to Arthur Sullivan–because I grew up watching the Pirates of Penzance on repeat.
• A memorial to firefighters of the Blitz…simply because it has a great location with St. Paul’s Cathedral framing it.

And despite my saying that the overall look of London isn’t great, here are a few of the better views we’ve had, mostly along the Thames…

But, as I said, most of the moments of beauty, amusement, and interest as we’ve wandered the streets have been on a much smaller scale, up close and personal…

The canals continue to be a source of pleasure as well…

And we’re still visiting all the markets we can, including one day where we took an epic walk through the Columbia Road Flower Market (absolutely gorgeous and packed like you wouldn’t believe), around the various bits of Brick Lane’s sprawl, and down to Spitalfields, a more permanent semi-enclosed market space with some seriously awesome food.

Speaking of food, we’ve been eating well when we’ve been out. Besides the weekend markets, we’ve found more and more of the daily street food markets, including some right in our neighborhood. We have ventured into eating indoors just once so far, but our resistance is slowly breaking down. The results were amazing, though: Hoppers, a Sri Lankan restaurant, was probably the most flavorful and varied meal I’ve had in a long time. So much cardamom! There have been some excellent desserts as well…

Finally, some of my favorite random moments around town the past few weeks…

• After one particularly long walk, we discovered a great place for heated outdoor drinks. My spiked hot chocolate was delicious, but I’m pretty sure Jessica won the game we played at Barge East, where a couple of small barges are pulled up alongside the canal to serve food and drinks.

• Speaking of games, on the day the impending release of Space Station Phoenix was announced on Board Game Geek, I happened to wander up Phoenix Place, and the following day (on the way to Barge East), I happened upon a narrowboat called the Phoenix. Is it a sign? What does it mean? (I write as anxiously await a sample copy that should be coming in the mail any day now…)

• We had a lovely visit with Avery Gordon, Jessica’s former PhD advisor from UC-Santa Barbara. It was fun to learn about her post-professorial life in London, and her cooking was some of the best food I’ve had since we got here.

• We stumbled across this silliness at the Columbia Road Flower Market. (Apologies for the inappropriate ammendment by a stray teenager.)

• Since my last post featured a pestering squirrel, here’s a fox randomly sitting in someone’s front yard…quite far from any major parkland.

xx

• While google maps often has trouble deciding where pedestrians can go that cars can’t, my Outdoor Active map (see above) shows all sorts of pedestrian walkways, some of which are actually sealed off…oops. But, One of the great joys of walking around such a crazy, sprawling, medieval city is all the tiny alleys, passages, courtyards, etc. A couple of the shmanciest so far…

• And, speaking of odd passages, my favorite pedestrian overpass so far…

We’ve also been going to some more museums lately (art, history, and more), but frankly, I’ve written way too much, so I’ll have to save that for another day. More on art, architecture, and extended wanderings to come…