London Hunt

Part I

The first train station we visited was the Waterloo station. This station goes to many places such as Guildford, Portsmouth Harbor, Reading, Woking, and Hampton Court. The outside of the station seemed to be dated, with dark red brick as the covering and big rectangular windows all across the top of the building. The inside of the station before the location of the actual trains was rather dark and muggy. It was brown brick with gray-ish white walls and floors. There were also very steep escalators to take travellers to different sections of the station. Most of this interior was under construction. Where the trains were actually located was a much nicer, more open area. The walls looked like they used to be the outside of the building for they are red brick with windows. This part of the station resembled the Farringdon tube station to me because they had the same type of frosted glass roof. Around Waterloo station, one can find such restaurants as The Wellington, Thai Silk, and McDonalds (if one’s looking for a quick bite to eat). I didn’t hear a wide variety of languages; I mostly heard English being spoken, with a few speaking Japanese and Arabic. The international Waterloo station is owned by Eurostar while all other trains are owned by a company called Southwest Trains. This is evidence of privatization as these are both private companies that own and operate the trains.

The second train station we visited was the infamous King’s Cross station, made so by the Harry Potter series and platform 9 ¾. This train station can get one to places such as Cambridge, Hull, Doncaster, Leeds, York, and Edinburgh. The outside of the building is very classical looking, with light brown brick, huge arched windows, and a clock tower in the center. The inside is rather dark with dark maroon colored bricks; however, the roof is very high up so it creates a more open area. The station also has long hallways to get from one place to another, and most likely also has escalators although I did not see any. Around King’s Cross, one can find food at restaurants such as Jardin De Paris (a take away store), and a good amount of fast food restaurants like KFC and Burger King. While visiting this station I heard English, Russian (maybe?), and Japanese being spoken. Since three independent train companies operate the train station, those being GNER, First Capital Connect, and Hull Trains, I would say that this is evidence of privatization.

Part II—Park Places

While on our Art & Architecture class tour of the City of London on Tuesday, we came by the Postman’s Park, a small park between King Edward, Little Britain, and Angel streets, and near Bartholomew's Hospital. Patrons of this park mostly sit and relax on the benches around the gardens or under the sheltered area that displays plaques of ordinary people who lost their lives trying to save others. The sheltered area, which is really just a roof extending from the back of a building, seems to be for people who wish to be out of the sun or safe from rain, while the other sections of the park seem to be for people to casually walk or sit and admire the beautiful gardens within the park. These activities that take place in the park seem to match the intended use of the park since people do just sit and relax there and don’t play Frisbee or soccer or anything else of the sort. While there, I did not see any children playing or anyone jogging through it, however, these sorts of activities could occur at different times such as in the morning before work or school starts or in the afternoon when work or school ends. Overall, however, I believe this park is mainly to stroll through or to sit and take a break from your day.

Although it is officially called Bloomsbury Square Garden, this park is a quaint little area near our flat. Inside this park, I saw people on a break from work sitting and relaxing on the available benches, and also people jogging, reading, parents playing with their children in the central circle, and little kids playing in the wooden play area. Speaking of this area, it is, in a way, separated from the rest of the park in a little corner as it has shrubbery surrounding it, so as to reflect its intended use. There is also a macadam runway going around the circumference of the park for joggers to use, and park benches for people to sit and relax. From the activities I’ve seen, they seem to match the intended use of the park. As with the Postman’s Park, the time of day might influence what types of activities are seen. For instance, one most likely will not see a jogger running through the park in the night-time, and won’t likely see working people sitting on the benches much after 5 PM, since this is the time all working people usually get off of work.

Part III—Other Places

On Sunday, the 19th of August, my flatmates and I went on a tour of London. We got off the Westminster tube station and visited many places such as Westminster Abbey, Tate Modern, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and the Tower Bridge. Westminster Abbey is a beautiful place of worship that seems to be of a gothic design. This large brown building has rounded windows with pointy tops, very tall columns about its entrance, and a magnificent circular window at the top with an intricate design. Many people from around the world come to see Westminster Abbey, obviously due to its fame and beauty. I saw Russians, Indians, English folks, and many other people of which I could not tell their ethnicity. Westminster Abbey is a breathtaking site that I would much like to visit again and perhaps go inside of and tour.

After Westminster Abbey we walked quite a distance to the Tate Modern. I had no idea what to expect as I had never even heard of this place before, but it is an absolutely gigantic building with an extremely tall tower in the front. It used to be an old power station, so the outside (and inside I believe) of the Tate was rather plain and simple. The outside was brown brick (I believe?) with large windowpanes acting as the roof on the left side of the building. It also had tall, narrow windows on the front sides of the building. Inside the entrance was very open with grey hard floors and white walls, with staircases leading to the various art collections. They were having a Dalí exhibit when we visited, so all of the banners around the building were advertising that. Surprisingly, there weren’t very many people in or around the Tate, but the people I did see seemed to be Indian, English, and some other foreign ethnicity (maybe Turkish or something along those lines?). While I’m not very interested in the art world, the Tate was an impressive building that could be very interesting to those who enjoy art.

After the Tate Modern, we crossed the infamous Millennium Bridge to St. Paul’s Cathedral. This place, as with Westminster Abbey, was completely breathtaking. It was enormous in size and absolutely beautiful. The huge dome somewhat reminded me of the capital building in Harrisburg, PA, which is near my hometown. There are various statues surrounding the outside of the cathedral and two towers on either end of the building. Some corrections were being done to the cathedral so we couldn’t see the building in its entirety, but from what we saw it was still awesome. We didn’t go inside, but I’d imagine it was just as amazing. I saw many types of people there, from business people, to tourists, to locals—all gathered around its steps taking in the atmosphere. I mainly heard English being spoken, but again I heard Japanese and some other language I was unfamiliar with.

The final stop on our journey was the Tower Bridge, and it was probably one of my favorites. The two towers that make up the Tower Bridge are just so beautiful and timeless, and I personally think it would be awesome to drive across that bridge. Not too many people were on the bridge for it was raining by the time we got to this final destination, but I did see Indian and British people. The Brits that I saw just seemed to be going about their daily routines, not really noticing that they were crossing such a beautiful bridge.

Throughout our journey from Westminster Abbey to the Tower Bridge we saw many pubs, shops, and actually a really neat festival that apparently was celebrating the elderly. Some of the pubs we went by were the Anchor Tap, Hung Drawn and Quartered, London Stone, O’Neil’s, and All-Bar-One. We didn’t stop at any, but I would most definitely like to go to some of them if I get a chance.

Part IV—Media

While on our journey we bought the Sunday newspaper entitled The Observer. Some of the headlines were “Hitler’s Olympic oak gift to Briton Axed,” “Britons fear rise of the Yob,” and “Crisis may force Fed to slash rates.” I found it odd that they didn’t capitalize their titles, but I guess that’s just a cultural difference between here and the US.
When compared to other Sunday newspapers, I really didn’t find any big differences. All had pretty much the same layout and a variety of headlines on their front pages. Besides local and nearby news, the topics covered in London and those in the US are pretty similar. I do, however, feel like the UK covers more American news than vice versa. I’ve read a lot of news about America in London, but when I’m home I don’t really see that much news about the UK or London in particular.
Although I couldn’t find the real estate section in The Observer, I did go to Google (UK version) and I found a good amount of information on London real estate. The cost for a flat in London starts around ₤189,000 and goes to about ₤2,800,000. Just as I did, if one wanted to find a flat in London, one could just search the internet or find a newspaper with a real estate section and look there.

As I perused the newspaper for jobs, I found several interesting ones. I found an ad to be a professor of fashion at the Savannah College of Art & Design, a Swedish Account Developer, and a Senior Medical Writer for Science Careers LTD—whatever that may be.

There were many advertisements throughout the newspaper. I found several concerning theatre, others about travel, and still others about UK and international commercial properties. Many of the advertisements were colorful with bold lettering, which is similar to the newspaper advertisements in the US.

After watching the “tellie” for an hour, I have decided that UK television and American television have its differences. UK television actually has a lot of American shows on it (Friends, Scrubs, The Simpsons, etc.), while typical American televisions show no UK shows except for occasionally the BBC channel. I also noticed that the UK advertises some American products such as L’Oreal while America doesn’t really advertise any UK products that I can think of. Both countries have similar types of shows, but it was just very apparent to me that American shows are very prominent in the UK.

Part VI

London is a spectacular city with so much to offer; there’s so much to do one could never be bored. If I had nothing else to do, I could just entertain myself by walking around and taking in all the breathtaking sites. London is a world capital and, with the exception of the recent events, does seem to be a very prosperous city. I don’t think I’ve seen more than a handful of people without cell phones, or more than a handful of homeless people, which is very different from New York City where there are a countless amount of homeless people. Even though London is very modern, I love how the city thrives to preserve its historical and fascinating past. Everywhere I go in the city, I see modern buildings mixed amongst historical buildings. While I believe they are at a happy medium now, if they build many more modern buildings I think it will be an overload of modernity and will overshadow the historical buildings.

After living here for a week, I have to agree with Worrall in his description of London. Porter wrote his book some time ago and London has had a chance to revive itself and exceed its previous standards. I would describe London in much the same way as Worrall did, only adding that its people are very friendly, the shopping is amazing, and living here is an experience of a lifetime.