The thing about being an Anglophile, especially an Anglophile with an encyclopedic knowledge of a certain BBC television series called Doctor Who, is that London at any moment will conjure images of the silly old program. For example, the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Bridge will always remind me of “The Dalek Invasion of Earth,” Saint Paul’s Cathedral will always remind me of “The Invasion,” the Underground will always remind me of “The Web of Fear,” Butler’s Wharf will always remind me of “Resurrection of the Daleks,” the Post Office Tower (it’s called something else now, and I always forget what it’s called now, but it will always be the Post Office Tower to me) will always remind me of “The War Machines,” and…
Well, do I really have to go on?
And so that’s the way it is with me. And it never fails. And it will never go away.
Being back in London has been absolutely fantastic. It really has. It’s been so satisfyingly and wonderfully fabulous in a kind of sublime sort of way.
On the train back to London from Bath, however, a certain British stereotype was smashed. It happened to be a very busy train, and I overheard others comment that it was busier than normal. Fortunately my mum and I were able to get seats next to each other, but others weren’t so lucky, and some others were unluckier still with standing room only. Unfortunately, there was a group of three ladies who had to sit separate from each other. But what became so incredibly annoying about them, is that they talked to each other loudly over other passengers’ seats! One lady sat to my immediate left, and two others sat immediately behind me. The lady to my left constantly chatted away with the others who constantly chatted away, sitting at the edge of her seat, legs in the alleyway. They talked loudly and laughed loudly, and they even opened up a bottle of champagne on the train to celebrate one of their member’s birthday. They even began commenting that they started feeling a bit tipsy, and it wasn’t even noon yet.
So, there you have it. The English can be loud and obnoxious too. So next time I hear that stereotype that Americans are loud, I will remember this story. I so wanted to lean over and tell her to be quiet, but I’m a guest in this country, so I didn’t, but even this kind, older gentleman sitting across the alleyway next to me, who (after one of the ladies apologized for talking through the alleyway, but continued on regardless) was also clearly annoyed, said instead, “No bother. Quite all right.”
The lier, that man! Terribly English of him to not cause a fuss, though.
All things considered, the train ride was otherwise uneventful. And as we arrived back into the hustling and bustling city of London, it seemed especially hustling and bustling after spending a week in the sleepy English countryside. But I instantly felt at home, eager to explore a hub of all different types of people from all over the world speaking all types of languages.
The last time I was in London was only for a brief amount of time. I went on one of the sightseeing bus tours and toured the Tower, but otherwise I didn’t see much else, even the Underground missed my presence.
This time, though, has been a completely different affair altogether, as we’ve had much more time soaking in all the sites and sounds. And so I was absolutely enthralled with riding the Underground for the first time, being jostled about by loud trains, watching the famous blue circle with red rectangle logo of the Underground zoom by, watching and listening to the people of all races and creeds and appearances from around the world, listening to the wonderful recorded voices telling you to mind the gap. (And I’m still not tired of heading it, and I don’t think I ever will tire of it.)
Really, this is absolutely fantastic! I can’t say that enough!
After we road the Underground to our hotel by Russell Square, checked in, left our bags in the room, I just couldn’t wait to get out and about and see the city. Since it was already relatively late in the afternoon and most things in this town close at 5:30 or 6:00, we decided to just hop back on the Underground to see “The Dalek Invasion of Earth,” er, I mean, the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. There’s an Underground station called Westminster, and it takes you right to Big Ben’s doorstep. Quite literally, not figuratively. You climb the stairs after disembarking from either the District or Circle lines, and right in front of you is that famous clock tower. It’s really quite remarkable. There it is… right in front of you… that famous, famous clock tower. So iconic, and one of the first things you think of when someone mentions London.
Just around the corner is, um… is, ah… “The Terror of Westminster Abbey Androids”? Hm… I don’t think Westminster Abbey has any links to Doctor Who, unless you count “The Chase” where the Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and Vicki watch Elizabeth I on the time-space visualizer, which might make you think of Westminster Abbey because the queen’s buried there. Maybe not…
Anyway, there Westminster Abbey is, situated as if it’s back is turned away from the Houses of Parliament, it’s rear buttresses (I couldn’t resist the pun) right across the street from parliament. The abbey is another one of those iconic buildings, maybe not so famous as Big Ben, but still instantly recognizable all the same.
A walk east along Westminster bridge will allow you to pretend to be Daleks crossing the Thames in search of people who might still be in hiding and fleeing from them, and when you reach the east side of the River Thames, there is a staircase where you can pretend to be Dortman, Jenny, and Barbara as they hide from the Daleks, and to the left is a giant circular transmitter used by the Autons in a failed attempt to take over all the plastic in the world, er, I mean, the London Eye, a giant circular Ferris wheel that allows for staggering views of the city.
Now, we did ride the London Eye, but I must admit that I left it feeling a tad underwhelmed. And this is the first time I’m going to recommend you not do something we did. I mean, if offered some fantastic views of Canary Wharf and the Houses of Parliament and countless other sites, but it all was just a bit, well, meh… certainly not worth the £20 per person or whatever we paid to ride the thing. It’s probably nice for people in wheel chairs or with crutches who can’t manage stairs very well, but otherwise the Eye is a bit… well, boring.
I think my issue with it is that you go up and around, but you’re not in control of how long you can stay up in certain places. And the wind isn’t in your hair and you can’t smell the city or even hear it. It seems a very impersonal way to experience all the icons. So, I guess my recommendation is to skip the London Eye and save your money and spend it more wisely on something else more exhilarating that promises staggering views of the city and that I’ll get to in a moment.
This brought us to the end of our first day back in London. It wasn’t a full day, of course, but the next day brought to me some wonderful moments indeed!
Having seen much of the western part of Central London with the Westminster area and then Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park on our very, very first day in England, we decided to head to the eastern part of Central London and visit Tower Bridge and the Tower itself.
What’s really remarkable about London, and I can’t stress the enough, is that the Underground is so easy to use, and it takes you everywhere. No need for cars here. I don’t know why anyone bothers.
When we arrived to Tower Hill via the District Line, the Tower itself becomes immediately visible as you ascend the staircase, as there right in front of you sits the White Tower with its iconic four towers. We decided to take a walk around the Tower on Tower Hill and Tower Bridge Road to take in the sites, sounds, and smells of the city, catching some marvelous views of the Gherkin (that space rocket-like tower) and the Shard (that, well, large pointed shard of glass-like tower that the Doctor used his anti-gravity motor bike to ride up the side in an episode called “The Bells of St. John”). And as we made our way south along Tower Bridge Road, there it was: Tower Bridge, just right there… in front of us… just there. we couldn’t believe our eyes. It’s as majestic as it ever could be, as recognizable as it ever was, and a site to behold as we all our required to behold on a trip to London.
We continued walking south, using the Tower Bridge to cross the Thames as we did the previous day except using Westminster Bridge. And then we crossed the street on the south end, returned back north along the west side of the bridge to purchase our tickets of the Tower Bridge exhibition.
And how fantastic that exhibition is! You first get to watch a short video of the conception of the bridge, with actors of Queen Victoria and others coming to life in ornately framed portraits, argue over how the bridge should work, why so much iron must be used to ruin the stone aesthetic. (I think the iron works just fine, but you know those Victorians… especially the queen…)
Then you get to walk across one of the upper spans, totally enclosed in glass, where you get to read more about the bridge, read more
about other famous bridges from around the world and why they’re famous, and also catch some marvelous views of the city, Canary Wharf included.
Then once on the northern edge of the span, you make your way downwards, but not before viewing a video that shows the bridge being built in quick, sped-up animation. When you reach street level again, you get to walk back south to the engine room, where you can read about and see these wonderfully marvelous Victorian engines: large, slowly spinning wheels painted green and black amid silver barrels and more large metal machine bits also painted green and black with great rivets.
What’s amazing about places like Tower Bridge and its excellent exhibition and wonderful views of the city below is that hours can go by so quickly, to the point where you don’t have enough time to see the Tower and Tower Bridge in the same day.
So, instead, you recognize a landmark from “Resurrection of the Daleks,” scout it out, and re-create your favorite scenes.
The streets and buildings around Butler’s Wharf were used heavily in this television serial from Peter Davison’s time as the Doctor. I managed to find those really cool diagonal bridges that connect one warehouse to the other, the very same bridges that the camera draws our attention to at the beginning of the episode, the camera pointed directly upwards, panning slowly downwards to reveal the street, and then the camera moves forward and then scans left to reveal a sad old man lighting a cigarette, all before rebels come bolting out of the warehouse, fleeing from some futuristic henchmen disguised as 1980s London police officers.
And yes… I took my iPhone and filmed this exact same shot. I shall call it, “Re-creating ‘Resurrection of the Daleks’,” and the video my mother filmed of me filming the re-creation I shall call “The Making of ‘Re-creating “Resurrection of the Daleks”‘.” I’ll post it all later.
And yes… I also found the location where the TARDIS lands and the Doctor, Tegan, and Turlough gaze at the then disused warehouse, the Doctor commenting, “Such neglect! A hundred years ago this place would’ve been bustling with activity.”
Fortunately, it now is bustling with activity, with many, many restaurants reusing the space. So lovely to see this re-envisioning of obsolete spaces. No tearing down old buildings here. Completely unimaginable.
Anyway, so cool to see this location, a location that, to most of the people around me, probably had no extra resonance whatsoever. But for me it did, and that’s all that mattered!
We continued onwards away from “Resurrection of the Daleks,” west along the River Thames, gazed at the HMA Belfast, marveled at how the City Hall building shaped like an askew orb as if stumbling drunk didn’t just fall over, enjoyed a Whippy from an ice cream truck, then walked towards the London Bridge station to catch an Underground to Green Park.
What’s marvelous about visiting Green Park on a Sunday is that Constitution Hill and the Mall are closed to motor traffic, so to can enjoy marvelous views of Buckingham Palace uninterrupted by honking cars and squealing tires. Sadly, you can’t get as close as I thought you could to the famous guards in their red uniforms and tall bear fur hats and try to make them laugh by talking about penises really loudly.
Still. Buckingham Palace very much reminded me of seeing the White House in Washington, as it’s fenced off in imposing gates, and onlookers stare through the bars, marveling at the queen’s home, taking pictures.
A monument to Queen Victoria is also right in front of Buckingham Palace, just directly east, it’s marble Grecian design of large, mostly naked god- and goddess-like figures reclining and more large, mostly naked god- and goddess-like figures riding horses situated in a giant circle around a central pillar of more figures, and up top of the pillar a magnificent golden angelic figure with wings outstretched and reaching towards the sky, and below the ornate gold, facing east, sat a marble statue of Queen Victoria herself, sitting in a throne, wearing her famous widow’s veil, looking a tad bored but still queenly and monarchish.
A walk west along Constitution Hill allows you to gaze at ancient trees that I image Queen Victoria herself once admired and perhaps other monarchs before her, a newer Commonwealth Memorial and an even newer memorial to airmen of the Second World War and at the west terminus of Constitution Hill the Wellington Arch, all of these all done up in Greek aesthetics of marble and majestic pillars with the RAF memorial complete with great metal statues of the seven men involved with piloting and manning bombers.
But don’t miss the Canada Memorial before you make your way hay far west. It’s a more modem design that reminded me a bit of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington. It was two, great slabs of granite that together formed a kind of diamond, situated on an incline, but the two pieces were separated by a walkway where on one end the incline of the granite started at ground level and by the other end the granite slabs were as nearly as high as a tall child. Over the granite ran a slender wisp of water, whispering its way down the granite over bronze maple leaves inset into the granite, now turned a brilliant green to represent life and renewal.
What’s interesting about these monuments is that I kept thinking about Washington DC’s monuments and how much some of us Americans talk endlessly and loudly and redundantly about freedom and liberty and the cost of it, when the English do exactly the same, too. Just supplant “Canadian volunteers” for “US volunteers,” or “Royal Air Force” for “US Air Force,” or “Queen Elizabeth” for “President Roosevelt,” and the rest of the text about duty and honor and freedom and liberty would be right at home on the Korean memorial or the World War II memorial in Washington.
It’s difficult for me to not talk pejoratively of how much Americans talk loudly about freedom and liberty mainly because I think that many of us think we’re the only country that has those things or that we’re the sole country who invented those things. But, in the words of Sarah when she left the Doctor in an episode of Doctor Who called, “The Hand of Fear,” she remarked, “You know… travel really does broaden the mind.”
“Yes, it does,” responded the Doctor with his instantly recognizable toothy grin of Tom Baker.
And yes, travel really does broaden the mind, as it reminds us how similar we humans all are to each other, as frequently foreign countries provide not only windows into other worlds but more often than not mirrors of ourselves as well, sometimes as welcome, beautiful, reaffirming reflections of ourselves but also sometimes as chalky bitter pills of truth. But it’s cold hard truth and there’s nothing you can do about it.
So there you have it. In my next post I shall reveal what I think you should do instead of the London Eye, and I shall also discuss our excursions inside Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London.
It’s all really quite terribly fantastic!
Would you like a jelly baby while you wait for the next post?