A Stiff Walk on the Diagonal

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Our Oxford experience was spread over parts of two days, so no separate entry for May 15. We drove back to Heathrow that day after finishing our tour of Oxford University. We were to spend our final two nights of the trip in a hotel at the airport in one of the terminals used by Delta. As it turned out, it meant that we still had to walk almost the distance from downtown London to Heathrow to reach our terminal.

But before that occurred, we had one final day in London, and it had been reserved for "fun" stuff or to pick up things we had missed initially. There is now a non-stop speedy train from Heathrow to Paddington Station every 15 minutes. We took the train and then got a taxi to Abbey Road Studios. I am sure it is technically possible for someone of a certain (ahem) age to visit London and not walk across the crosswalk at Abbey Road Studios made famous by the Beatles, but it would at a minimum violate many societal norms. Abbey Road Studios is a LONG taxi ride from Paddington.

The studio area is closed to visitors, but there is a small gift shop with some memorabilia, a bit underwhelming. The intersection is the interesting point of a visit. The Abbey Road album was the last album the Beatles started recording, although it was released prior to Let It Be. The front cover of the album shows the Beatles walking across a zebra intersection at the corner near the Abbey Road Studios, and has no mention of the album title or the name of the band. This cover would have become famous in any case, but became more so because of the way it played into the McCartney Is Dead theory that was consuming college campuses at that time. The rumor started two years earlier that McCartney had gotten mad at a recording session and had driven off at high speed on the M1, only to crash and be decapitated ("he blew his mind out in a car"). He then was replaced by the winner of a McCartney look-alike contest named William Shears Campbell ("so let me introduce to you, the one and only Billy Shears"). The Abbey Road album cover was mined for clues, and was said to represent a funeral procession, with Lennon in white as a preacher, Starr in black as the undertaker, and Harrison in dungarees as a gravedigger. McCartney was the only one barefoot and was out of step with the others, to represent the corpse. I can still remember going to someone's dorm room where his tape player was used to play the White Album backward, so the repeated "Number Nine" sounded like "turn me on, dead man". I won't go into all the other over-analyzed minutiae, but it was an entertaining diversion for a while in college, and the coin of the realm was a new clue no one else had noticed.

Now, reproducing the walk across the zebra intersection has became a must-see destination for Beatles fans and others. There is no light or stop sign at the intersection so one must risk life and limb to get a picture in the crossing. There are entire web sites just devoted to the crossing, and there is a web cam streaming people crossing. I tried to imitate the straight-legged sty of walking seen on the album cover, but must admit to being somewhat more portly, which somewhat tarnished the effect. But it was fun nonetheless.

Next on the list for us was Leadenhall Market, the filming site that became Diagon Alley in Harry Potter films. The Leaky Cauldron in the films is actually an optometry shop at the market. The market has been in its present location, atop old Roman Londinium, since t least the 1300's, but the present structure dates back to the reconstruction after London's Great Fire of 1666. The ornate Victorian roof structure was added in 1881. It used to be a real market for meat and poultry, including wild game, but now has upscale shops and dining venues. While there, we availed ourselves of the opportunity to sit down with a pint of local brew and a plate of Spanish jamon. To paraphrase a saying about strawberries by an English cleric, doubtless God could make a better ham, but doubtless he never did.

Our final stop was at Spitalfields Market. Like Leadenhall, the current market dates back to just after the Great Fire of 1666. It has had several identities over the years, eventually becoming primarily a wholesale market. However, by the early 1990's it was apparent that the wholesale market needed to move out of the city center due to problems with traffic and parking. The market continued, however as a retail market. It now contains stalls selling craftwork, lower priced clothing, and knick-knacks. On the street outside the market are several bronze statues of animals such as elephants. The market is in the middle of a very diverse neighborhood. At one time there were about 40 nearby synagogues. Huguenot silks workers stayed here when they ran from France. Many other cultural and ethnic groups have settled here. Unfortunately, it was also the haunt of Jack the Ripper and other criminals.

Arriving back at Heathrow, we went to get our obligatory covid test, ate dinner ate the hotel, and retired get ready for flying the next day.

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