A Londoner In London Town!

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London. Isn’t it just the greatest city in the world? Ok, maybe I am a bit bias about that statement. Living in London; a sprawling metropolis, a mismatch of cultures, ethnically and linguistically. It also has to be noted that it is one of the most expensive cities in Europe. As a result of having evening appointments and a Travelcard; I decided to do some of the touristy stuff that I haven’t done since I was little

I get up to Charing Cross at about 1030, walked up to Trafalgar Square, where the pigeons are already out in force looking for tourist to feed them, pissing off everybody else! Their seems to be lots of people already out in force, sitting on the waterfalls, wondering around taking photos; posing in front of the waterfalls or on the lions at the base of Nelson’s Column, enjoying the sun that the week has brought us. Apparently the weathermen say that we are going to have a real good summer this year, i'll wait until that happens but saying that there’s no better place to be then London in the summer! I take my pictures of Trafalgar Square and Nelson Column standing 170ft high. I wonder if when he defeated the French he knew that he would get a monument made of himself. I walk down the Mall turning onto Horse Guards Road, I bask in the sun until I get to Horse Guards Parade, I make it just in time for the Changing Of The Guards; this is done in 2 places, the foot guards outside Buckingham Palace and this one at Horse Guards which involves a squad of 12 mounted Household Cavalry in full livery. At 1100 the new guard could be seen trotting down the road from Hyde Park. The crowd was parted by the police officers that were on duty there and the new guard trotted into the penned off area and started the Changing of the Guards. There was an American guy standing in front of me who was amazed by all the pomp and ceremony that goes on; that’s Americans for you; they love the queen and our royal family more then we do! Next to him there was an older British guy who was explaining what was going on; it was kind of good as this way I had a better understanding of what was going on! The whole thing lasted about half an hour and was quite interesting! I carried on down the Mall and walked up Whitehall to the Cenotaph. The cenotaph is a monument that commemorates the dead of both world wars … who knows how we would be living if these people didn’t fight in the wars and give up their life’s. Rest in Peace. Lying at the cenotaph were reefs from various United Nations Countries, I assume commemorating those that have lost their life in various parts of the world.

After I had spent a moment there, I turned round a walked back down Whitehall, reflecting on what I had just seen, you always see it on Remembrance Sunday but for some reason it just seemed much more moving seeing it in real life! From Whitehall I took a visit to Westminster Abbey. The abbey is the scene for every coronation since William the Conqueror. The interior of the Abbey is a who who of English history; there are loads of memorials to the nation’s most famous citizens. I could go on and on about the interior of the Abbey but I’m trying not to bore you with everything, one thing I will say is one of the things inside the abbey that I did enjoy looking at was the Coronation Chair; this chair is where the kings and queens of the day got coroneted since the days of Edward I in 1300 and is still used to this day. After a couple of hours wondering around I decided it was time to leave. I wondered past big Ben and Houses of Parliament, I was half tempted to go in and watch proceedings there, maybe giving Gordon Brown some verbal abuse for messing up the country in the process but the queues were massive so I decided against it. I crossed the Thames over Westminster Bridge and wondered down the South Bank, was going to go on the London Eye but, again, the queues were massive so I continued on walking past. I love the South Bank so much to do and a real lovely view of the north bank and the majority of London. I continue walking along the wide traffic free boulevards down to the Tate Modern.

My main reason for going to the Tate Modern was to have a look at a Manga exhibition which was on called No Ghost Just A Shell, about a manga character called Ann Lee which was purchased by a couple of French artists. The exhibition was based on a manga film called Ghost in the Shell about possibilities of infiltrating human minds and hijacking identity, Ann Lee in this display is liberated from ownership and can resolve the ambiguities of her fate. Anyways, it was an interesting display. I wondered around and look at a little bit more of the Tate Modern, as well as these there was an exhibition where individual artists are given there own rooms to display their works. My favorite was one that display communist posters though I can’t remember who’s exhibition is was and also a section by Andy Warhol.

Leaving there I received a phone call from my mate Nan so I headed over to Piccadilly Circus, where I received another text saying that he had bumped into an old friend and would see me later on. I wondered into Hamleys, possibly the largest toy shop in the world; defiantly the largest one I have ever been in! Spent a while wondering about, looking at all the different toys spread over 6 floors! It was like being a big kid … playing with all the toys and stuff. Eventually I left with a big smile on my face and on Nan's advice wondered down to the Royal Academy of Arts where there was a Japanese exhibition called Kuniyoshi from the Arthur R. Miller collection. Paid to get in and walk upstairs to the exhibition, it was wicked, loved the pictures often of Japanese gods fighting each other, some times having people replaced by animals to avoid the censorship of the day. Im not one overly for galleries, it was really packed and I only stayed for 30 minutes; couldn’t take the people going “Yes Yes, look at those brushstrokes” or “Look at those colours!” I couldn’t take this any more and left!

My final stop on the tourist trail today was at 221b Baker Street, the former home of Sherlock Holmes which has now been turned into a museum celebrating all things Holmes. When I was younger I used to love Sherlock Holmes, read all the books and watched the films that were made so for me this was a dream come true! “Elementary my dear Watson” is what I could almost hear him saying, the house itself was a simple house on many floors, each room had various Sherlock Holmes stuff in it. The first room I went in seemed to be the study with the chair and desk that Mr. Watson used and the Sherlock Holmes’s chair. How do I know this was the case? I was told by the rather old looking man (who looked right in place!) sitting in the room that got up to speak to me as I entered, he invited me to sit down in Mr. Watson’s chair and it felt like there I was back in Sherlock Holmes day then the old man offered a photo of me in either Holmes hat with his pipe or Watson’s bowler hat; I respectively declined and carried on wondering round the museum. Like I said the other rooms all had Holmes stuff in them but the best rooms were the ones with wax models of Holmes nemesis Professor Moriarty, as well as other models. I left Baker Street, heading of to Camden for a spot of food and a bit of shopping.

Later that night I made my way to Covent Garden, to meet Nan and the rest of the lads and lasses for the 1st Thursday drink, this is when me and some of my friends from an ex job all meet up and have a few drinks every month. Its always really good catching up with them and this month I was able to catch up with a few of my real good mates who I haven’t seen in ages. Lots of drinks were drunk and catching up done and I was informed of a holiday that have in mind for 2010, a trip to the Gambia …

5th June 09

Woke up with a slight headache, possibly a hangover I made my way up to London Bridge. The plan was to go up to Hampstead and go to Hampstead Heath and just chill out, watch all the kite flyer on Parliament Hill. When I got off the train I decided to go straight to the Tower Of London, the plan changed as the sunny day that was yesterday got replaced with the more traditional English summer weather; overcast and raining. I walked down by the river, walking fairly quickly to avoid getting soaked when all of a sudden it stopped.

I arrived and joined a queue to buy my ticket, some how I managed to get a free ticket in the process of purchasing mine. It was still dry as I wondered in, waited by the entrance for a free tour from a beefeater around the grounds of the Tower with tales of intrigue, imprisonment, execution and torture. Eventually one turned up and the tour started, it wasn’t long before the rains started to fall again, we got to the chapel when the beefeater cancelled the tour. I started wondering around, the White Tower where the armory exhibition was held, seeing the crown jewels in the Jewel House. In total spent a couple of hours there and really enjoyed it. Got onto the DLR and then the tube to North Greenwich where I went to the O2 arena to have a look at the British Music Experience, it’s a permanent exhibition that charts the history of British music. It was really interesting; however at £15 a bit pricey. We walked in and we greeted by a central space with rooms coming off which represented the different era's of British music. I started at the current day and worked my way backwards, it has to be said that I spent most of my time looking at the history of the modern day British music as that is what im most familiar with and in particular Britpop, that is really my thing. I worked my way round the exhibition looking at all the various exhibitions and then I left after an hour making my way home to Croydon to get showered and changed.

I was meeting up with Laura as we were going to see The Lion King at the Lyceum Theatre in the West End. I was late (again!), 3 times out of 3 ive been late now; not good! Somebody threw themselves infront of a train at Crawley - I mean how inconsiderate! Last time the Victoria line was closed and then the Tamil Tigers were protesting and stopped all the traffic; bloody hell im just unlucky!

Anyway, I eventually got to Coven Garden tube station and met Laura, we walked down to the theatre and I picked up my pre ordered tickets. We found our way to the seats and made ourselves comfortable and watched the performance from the dizzy heights of the Grand Circle. The performance was totally awesome! The best thing ive spent money on in ages; both me and Laura really enjoyed it. We walked down the Strand, looking for a place to have a few drinks; we decide to walk up to up to Covent Garden (again!) and we found a little pub under the market where we had a few drinks and chatted for a bit about nothing really … After getting kicked out so they could close at 2330 (?!?!) we wondered around and finally found the All Bar One that was open and had a few drinks in there before being booted out. The hunt was once again on to fin somewhere, we wondered around Leicester Square, found nothing, in fact we tried like 4 or 5 pubs and bars and everywhere last orders had been called and it was only midnight by this time. We parted company at Charing Cross tube station signaling the walk over to the train station and the start of the long journey back home …

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Photos

Changing Of The Guards
The Household Cavalry

Changing Of The Guards
The New Guard Arriving

Beefeaters ....
At The Tower Of London