London Walks for February

Lambeth and the Southbank

This was a nice short walk. I was already very familiar with the area because I frequented it when I went to the Southbank Theatre to see the Audrey Hepburn films that played in January. I love walking over the bridges here, the river is beautiful and (when its not freezing out) the wind is refreshing and crisp. Of all my experiences in this area, my two favorite things are the views of Big Ben and the street performers at the foot of the London Eye. First of all, the views of the river and the surrounding buildings are breathtaking, especially at night. In fact, I would only recommend doing this walk at night for this reason. The entire place lights up with color and twinkling lights, which double when reflected in the dark glassy water. The performers always seem to be along the water near the Eye, and they always vary. My favorite so far were a group of Africans that would dance, balance things, contort themselves, and throw things around. They made me laugh and definitely warranted a donation, unlike the cliché silver painted people acting like robots (note that their movements are quite poor on the robot scale, the human robots in San Francisco put these to shame). The picture I chose to include with this post is one I took of Big Ben and the Eye, probably one of the best night pictures I have taken; this picture is the reason I love this area. 

Fleet Street & St. Paul’s (The City West)

I did this walk at night. I led it. The cathedral was incredible; it towered impressively over me in the darkness. I had my mind set on eating at Ye Old Cheshire Cheese that is half way through the walk, so it was hard to focus on the first half. Plus, the directions in the book were poor and I continued getting us lost and having to backtrack and search for street signs that did not ever seem to exist. Back to the cathedral, it was honestly one of my favorite buildings thus far; I loved its unique design, especially the statues on the upper ledges that look down at the people walking underneath. I commend Sir Christopher Wren on a job well done. Many of the streets we took were small and I did not really understand why the author chose to include them. For example, after seeing the Old Bailey courthouse he had us walk over a bridge that was build over a river that no longer exists and then go through some small streets that had no purpose and only made the walk long and tedious. The author could easily have left out the bridge part, especially since it was so cold and my hands were frozen to his stupid book. I will be writing him an angry letter. Anyhow, upon arriving at Ye Old Cheshire cheese, excited to eat at such an important pub, I entered and was crestfallen. The pub smelled foul and there were few tables, all which were taken. Most of the pub was standing room only and filled with drunk wavering middle-aged professionals who stopped by to have “a few drinks” on the way home. It was kind of cool to learn about some of the printing and publishing history in the area, as well as see the location of Shakespeare’s old playhouse. I also enjoyed seeing the statue of the black cat. It made me miss mine and I felt a bond of comradery with the cat’s owner, Dr. Johnson. Here, I am including a picture of the statue, a token of my love for felines.

Central Parks

This walk was beautiful! I actually did this one during the day and not at night like I have done on almost all my others. Although I had walked much of this walk already because we walk through the park to get to religion class, I liked doing the east end of the parks. I would probably not have seen them otherwise. The parks are simple, without too many trees or shrubbery, and this gives them a comfortable simplicity. This is opposed to the congestion and complexity of Central park in New York. As we walked past the Hyde Park Corner we could hear the megaphone of a group of protesters. The announcer was not speaking English, but what sounded like a Middle Eastern dialect. It was a neat sound, the megaphone would boom out some short excited statement and it would be followed by cried of agreement. At one point the megaphone voice even started a chant, and it would go megaphone, crowd reply, megaphone, crowd reply. It was a new aural experience for me. I felt as if I could have been in the streets of Cairo or Iraq during a protest. Later on in the walk we happened upon what I was told was the changing of the guard. It was a mini-parade and was a lot of fun to see and be apart of. It was one of the truly London-esque experiences.

Bankside and Southwark

It was fun to see the Globe theatre on this walk, that’s about all. There was too much walking and too little real information to make it anything memorable or noteworthy. The bridges are cool and I always enjoy walking over them. The river area is one of my favorite places and this walk flirted with them, weaving me in and over the river in a couple places. Now, back to the Globe theatre. It was cool! Standing at its foot and staring up at the thatched roof only made me even more excited to see King Lear there. I love Shakespeare and will treasure that memory. Another part of the walk that stuck out to me was the history with bear baiting that the book discusses. I was not too familiar with the sport, so the mention of the spot that it took place in Southwark was nothing significant. When I got home after the walk I researched bear bating and learned that it is when they have a group of hunting dogs attack a chained bear. When the dogs get hurt they send some more in. Apparently Southwark is an important place for bear bating and has been for centuries until it was banned here in 1835.