27. October 2009 - Brick Lane

En route to Brick Lane, I passed some urban bikers, jumping from wall to stairs to pedestals.

While it was mildly startling at 10am in the morning to find bikes and armored riders jumping about, it was cool nonetheless.

On Brick Lane, a crowd was gathered around these two men, who were playing some sort of game that involved flicking a disc and trying to shoot them out of a circle and into the corners (?).

The food on Brick Lane always smells so delicious and appetizing-- this was what looked like a whole pig, just waiting to be carved up and eaten. Reminded me of the pig roasts back in the day.

This guy was an amazing percussionist, using just buckets and cans.

The street sellers were back this week, but only for a little while.

This woman was selling cupcakes, displayed in a pastel pattern. She matched her wares: the apron was the exact shade of mint green as many of the treats.

26. October 2009 - Bankside

With our whole group, we attended a performance of Inherit the Wind, at Old Vic Theatre.

The theatre was located on the other side of the Thames, and is one of the most respected performance spaces in London. Sir Laurence Olivier performed here, along with many other notables.

It was gorgeous and lush, in an old fashion-y way.

The production was grand--the stage was enormous, stretching further and further back into the depths of backstage. It was a huge production, really well done.

The play itself, whose cast included Kevin Spacey, was fabulous, with few exceptions. Inherit the Wind is about the Scopes Trial (or the Monkey Trial, as it was commonly known as), an American court case that tested the Butler Act which made it unlawful, in any state-funded educational establishment in Tennessee "to teach any theory that denies the story of the Devine Creation of man as taught in the Bible and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals." This is often interpreted as meaning that the law forbade the teaching of any aspect of evolutions or Darwin's theory. The case, financed as a test case by the ACLU, was a critical turning point in the U.S.'s creation-evolution controversy.

While the caricatures of the rural, southern, religious townspeople may have been a tad overdone-- and the southern accents of the British actors were a little absurd-- the production was wonderful and really captured the core of what many argue is the cause of American exceptionalism in the developed world.

25. October 2009 - Aldgate

It was a gorgeous morning to head to the Tower of London, made more beautiful (?) by the fact that I forgot about Daylight Savings Time, and got there a whole hour earlier than I had planned.

I had thought that the Tower was just that: a tower. But it was an entire stronghold, a whole castle, with courtyards, and houses, and churches, and chapels, and more.

Here's a glimpse of Traitors' Gate. Ominous.

It seems Autumn is just now coming to London-- the leaves are starting to turn into gorgeous colours. Against the stone greys and slate, it was striking to see.

Here is the Norman White Tower, built in 1025 to protect the Normans from the citizens of London. Today, it houses a wonderful collection of Henry VIII's personal armor and arms, and also charted a detailed accounting of his growing girth throughout the years. Titled "Dressed to Kill", an allusion to Henry VIII's propensity to send people to the Tower, it's a great exhibit, complete with stations where you can practice your own sword skills by hitting targets and drawing longbows.

Here's a picture of the Ravens at the Tower. The legend of these Ravens in the Tower of London is so important to the people of England that ten ravens (6 on duty and 4 young spares) are actually employed by the Tower of London at the expense of the British government, in return for their service they are treated very well and in deference to the ancient legend and the decree of King Charles II at least six ravens are provided with Raven's Lodgings at the Tower of London.

A glimpse of some of the courtyards of the Tower. In the background, you can pick out a guard in traditional red uniform.

The façade of the building/vault where the Crown Jewels of England have been kept since the 1300s.

A statue up on one of the walls of the Tower.

Queen Alexandra's crown. I wasn't allowed to take photos of any of the other jewels, but I snuck this one.

A Yeoman.

A guard outside the Jewel House.

A church inside the Tower.

Some buildings alongside the outer wall of the Tower. One of them is the Queen's residence.

A unique sculture in the Tower-- a dented pillow, surrounded by a quote.

The infamous Tower Green, where prisoners were executed and later buried. This list of executed persons includes Anne Boleyn, Robert Deveroux, and Lady Jane Grey

Prisoners at the Tower were kept in this tower, and the remains of the grafitti carved into stone can still be seen.

Some of the carvings are quite elaborate. I can only imagine how much time it took to complete such a work of art.
I have to wonder, what did the prisoners use to carve this grafitti into the stone? Surely prisoners were not allowed to have knives or picks...

The Torture Chambers. This is a sort of compression torture device, called the Scavenger's Daughter-- it was the type of torture that produced the quickest results, evidently.

A view of the Tower from the outer Ward.


Through one of the archways by Traitors' gate, you can see the Tower Bridge, stretching over the Thames.

22. October, 2009 - Westminster

Heading to another event at Parliament, I decided to leave our flat early enough in order to have plenty of time to walk along the Thames, rather than use the Tube.

As I passed the London Eye, the setting sun hit it and set it on fire--visually and figuratively, of course.

Walking along the Thames in the dusk was gorgeous.

It seemed that half the city was bathed in light, while the other half was silent and restful.

The tall spires of Parliament seemed to continue forever, and I managed to take this picture right as the lights in the street lamps came on.

Big Ben in the light of the evening.

Westminster Abbey, from a side view.

A glimpse of another building by Parliament, which this time, was protester-free.

The front view of Westminster Abbey.

21. October, 2009 - Camden

We went to Camden Town again-- but this time to expressly check out the underworld below the streets and under the locks and walls.

When one enters the Camden Stables, you descend into depths into cool darkness. It really is a huge, old set of stables (complete with stalls and narrow corridors) that has been transformed into a modern market.

There are paths and alleyways that seem to go on forever-- you can wander for hours and never once come above ground. One section has shoes, one has fur coats, another has hundreds of varieties of food, complete with vendors who force free samples upon you, in order to convince you to buy their wares. Unfortunately, once you try the free sample, it is implied that you will buy something. Not knowing this, I ate some spiced chicken and then decided to go with the spring rolls at another booth. The woman was not pleased, and we had to go down a whole other maze of corridors to circumvent her booth and avoid the enraged vendor.

In one part of the Stables, the ceiling is this wonderful quilted leather, hung about with antique glass lamps. Gorgeous.

The markets of the Stables were filled with local artisans, vintage shops, and antique stores. Of course, we managed to find the one vendor who was selling food-- cupcakes, regular-sized and mini.

The baker had arranged seemingly hundreds of the mini cupcakes to form a backdrop or display behind his table.


Back at street-level, a typical building in Camden.

18. October, 2009 - Brick Lane

The weekly update from Brick Lane: This week, large numbers of police show up mid-morning and bust all the street sellers, forcing them to pack up and leave. Tickets were written, shoppers were disappointed, and young sellers simply moved further into Shoreditch, to another empty spot of pavement. I was "forced" to browse in some of the many other markets and flea market-esque spaces instead of merely walking down Brick Lane. However, by the time three or four hours had passed, everything was back to normal.

Brick Lane has great details, in terms of streetlamps, little gates, and other ornate decoration. I think every time I walk along the lane, I see something new, something I haven't noticed before.

This was one of the markets that branched off Brick Lane. It was filled with everything one could possibly want, from batteries (I bought some for fifty pence) to records to bicycles to winter coats.
After I bought my batteries, I was armed and ready to photograph the Sunday morning. These two friends wore an interesting array of colours and textures, which all seemed to work together beautifully and not look schizophrenic at all.

I looked closer, and realized one of the girls had literally hundreds of gold-brass bobby-pins in her hair-- it was almost as if they were jewelry.

I liked the way that this woman's colour-block sweatshirt looked against the backdrop of graffiti.

This one street-seller had massive amounts of colourful candy-- it took all my strength to walk away without buying any.

There's always music along Brick Lane, and the soundtrack to the street, as I like to think of it, changes constantly as you walk, with each musician or band acoustically dominating different sections of the lane.

I'm glad I was able to capture these two people as they walked (conveniently right in front of some additional graffiti that I was trying to shoot).

Another of the markets was in an old warehouse or manufacturing facility, which huge, tall ceilings, exposed brick and metal, and large windows.

There were little stalls set up along the edges of the walls, each tended by their respective owner (each with seemingly requisite quirky character and personal style).

There was so much clothing and shoes and accessories-- I wasn't able to take it all in, there was too much.

This is my favorite picture of the day, I think. This fellow was wearing a top hat, the final jaunty dash to a truly stylish outfit.

This market must be for regulars. All the owners seemed to know each other, enjoying each other's company with much chat and gossip as curious visitors milled around, looking at the various wares.

It was like being in an attic or a treasure chest.

One of the gates off Brick Lane.

The scene of the (more) amateur street sellers.

These people are constantly coming and going with their objects for sale, lugging large suitcases and setting up shop along the road.

I liked the plaid coat of this guy--and the way his red hair jarred against it with a different hue.

So many bicycles. This woman's leggings were quirky and looked warm.

On my way back, I noticed that the graffiti I had photographed earlier (http://alexmh-in-london.blogspot.com/2009/10/3-october-2009-brick-lane.html) had been painted over.

I suppose that's the danger of graffiti-- it will almost always be covered by another's art (unless, perhaps, you're BANKSY).