The Smoke

The Smoke

London, nicknamed as 'The Smoke' plays a role in considerable literature that I have read so far. Maybe it's coincidence, maybe it's intentional, I don't know. Anyhow, I was fortunate to be able to plan a visit to the UK this christmas while returning from my India trip from Dec 29 2009 to Jan 2 2010.

I arrived at Heathrow airport, London on a rainy morning of the 29th of December. I was to spend the next five days and four nights in UK. My friend lives in Cambridge and I caught a bus (National Express Coach) to the Parkside bus stop in Cambridge. The journey took me about 2.5 hours. I spent the rest of the day and the next day in Cambridge. I left for London on 31st morning, and spent the new year in London. On 1st night, I returned to Cambridge and left for Heathrow on 2nd morning to catch a flight to Chicago that afternoon. I describe below the places I visited in Cambridge and places in and around London.

The nickname, 'The Smoke' or 'The Big Smoke' refers to the Great Smog that affected London in Dec,1952. It was a severe air pollution event and enveloped the city for about 5 days. That's about the sobriquet for London.

Cambridge, Cambridgeshire & Oxford, City of Oxford

A nice wiki page exists for some general information on these places- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Cambridge & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Oxford . But in my own experience, I enjoyed looking at the 800 year old buildings that included colleges and houses in Cambridge. I had about 1.5 days in Cambrige and 1.5 hours in Oxford, and one would agree with me that it is no good time to do any justice. Nevertheless this period of time allowed me to learn quite a bit about the universities. Oxford is older than Cambridge by about 40 years and legend has it that some scholars moved from Oxford to Cambridgeshire after a dispute between them and oxford townsfolk (the nature of the dispute which I am not aware of). As to how Oxford University was started dates to the 12th century(1167) when Alfred the Great happened to be there and met some monks. Places of monastic order were established which soon grew thanks to the order given by the King of England, Henry II to students of English origin in France to return. Being established as places of religious learning, these places, for a considerable length of time focussed on following religious principles and traditions. The victorian or the medieval period is what gave some modernity to the universities.

Talking about universities, there are really no 'universities'. The university is only a governing body that ties together independent colleges (Oxford has 39 of them and Cambridge, 33). My experience in Cambridge is less guided and I was shown some of the colleges such as St.Johns, Trinity and Kings College by my friend. On the other hand, I had a charming guide by name Mel, who led the tour to Oxford, Windsor Castle and Stonehenge. Other places that I saw on my strolls were some churches. What was interesting was the different architectural styles. I stumbled upon a book at my place of stay that described both Oxford and Cambridge and some differences between the two. Oxford, being a city has more urban planning than Cambridge. This was apparent even in my short visit to the former. The styles include Saxon, Norman, Georgian, Jacobian, Perpendicular, Gothic or medieval etc...there are so many of them. Hopefully the pictures can exhibit the differences between these styles better. One also talks differently about the 'back' of the colleges from being different from the 'front'. The backs face the river and are designed to provide a relaxing atmosphere for students to 'think freely' whereas the fronts are more formal. A feature that probably distinguishes these universities from others is a 1:1 tutorial based teaching for the undergraduates. No doubt, if one is given such an individual attention, it accelerates the process of horning one's skills.

Some of the notable buildings in Oxford as shown by Mel are- Martyr's memorial, Radcliffe camera, Bodleian library, Sheldonian theatre and the colleges themselves. The story of Martyr's memorial is centred on heresy charges of 3 bishops against the catholic beliefs of Church of England in 1550s. They were pro-protestant and highly anti-catholic. The architectural style is Victorian Gothic. The 3 bishops were burnt alive and this operation was apparently issued by the daughter of Henry VIII (another interesting character in English history), Queen Mary. The memorial itself was erected only 300 years after the event. So much for religious faith. Radcliffe camera is a central tourist attraction in Oxford, and houses the Radcliffe science library. The architectural style is English Palladian. It was the earliest example of a circular library in England. Apparently this is a location in JRR Tolkien's 'Lord of the rings'. The Great Hall of Christ College is apparently one of the 250 locations used for the Harry Potter movies. Every college has a Great Hall where the students dine. The Bodleian library is the largest research library in UK, with over 6 million books. Apparently it takes about 6 months to retrieve some of the books! Recently the library has started a process of digitisation as a part of Google project. Maybe it's a good idea after all, atleast for 'book keeping'... it houses the first printed book, Gutenberg Bible. It is also a copyright library, which means that every book published in UK automatically presents a copy of itself to the library. The Sheldonian theatre was built by a prolific British architect, Christopher Wren during the Victorian era. It is supposedly used to confer honorary doctoral degrees to celebrities. Many streets and colleges in Oxford and Cambridge have the same street names like Magdalene (pronounced as 'Modlene') street, Trinity college, King's college etc. So is any one better? There is a light note to the two universities too- The university symbol for Oxford supposedly always has the same page of a book open, whereas that of Cambridge has the book closed. Same difference eh?

All England Lawn Tennis Club, Wimbledon

My first stop in London. As soon as I reached London from Cambridge on the morning of 31st, I took a tube to Wimbledon station. This is south-west part of London and is farther away from the central attractions like Big Ben etc. All the more reason to go there first before getting caught in the 'popular' attractions in Central London. Wimbledon 'village' is a high-end area, one for the wealthy. Members of the club have been so for generations. Membership is limited, and according to the guide, the easiest way to become a member is to win the tennis tournament! Sounds rather easy doesn't it? Phew. Anyhow, we were booked for a 1.5 hours tour around the club and ticket to the museum. The club actually started off as a croquet club in 1860s. There are two show courts, Centre Court and Court No.1, which are used only during the tournament. There are a total of 52 courts in the club and have exactly the same type of grass (wry grass) that is cut to 8mm height after allowing it to grow to 14mm. Military precision eh? We also got to see the press room, where all the famous players were interviewed as to why they lost or how they feel when they have won....(humph)..BBC apparently has the sole rights to broadcast the matches and rest of the world media have to purchase rights from BBC. That's called monopoly. A rich history and tradition exists and I will probably run out of space to describe it here. Nevertheless, the tour was fascinating and indeed a privilege to visit the grounds of the most prestigious tournament in tennis.

Platform 9 3/4, King's Cross Station

Now then, do we need a description there? A nice photo opportunity, that's it!

Tower Bridge, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, London Eye and Buckingham Palace

I looked at these only from outside. The sun set at 4pm and there is not much hope of going in them. Again, I mostly took pictures and will skip any descriptions, since I really did not 'visit' them.

Windsor Castle

This is the largest 'working' castle in UK. The traditions in workings of the castle are pretty much the same as what used to be carried out in the medieval times. There are various sections open to the visitors such as the Queen's doll house (no kid's matter, this one), State apartments and St.George's Chapel. The King and the Queen have separate suite of rooms, be it bedroom, 'receiving' room, dining room, bathrooms etc etc. It all seems like a waste, but full justice is done to the phrase 'Live like a king'.. The castle I believe is 900 years old, and has two flags flying above it- the British flag and the royal flag when the Queen is in residence, else it is just the British flag. One of the biggest rooms albeit St.George's hall in the castle is the hall where the shields of all the knights till date are being displayed. The ceiling (as is much of the furniture in the castle) is made from oakwood. The queen has a say in the final choice of the knight (aside- PG Wodehouse died just after he was knighted. The story goes that he was just waiting to be knighted and then passed on..) The Order of Garter bestows knighthood upon an individual. The queen believed in equality of the sexes, and there are 2 shields belonging to 2 women 'knights', one of them being Margaret Thatcher. Also note that women knights do not have swords. The display at the Quire in St. George's Chapel was a grand one indeed.

Stonehenge

Situated further away in southern England, this was second on the list of places in the tour for that day. Windsor Castle was first, and Oxford the third. There are many mysteries surrounding the actual dates of origin of this monument(starting with 5000 years), and many theories have been formulated. They are of religious or scientific nature. A good reference is- http://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/ancient/stonehenge.html . Needless to say, I am not going to rewrite those theories..nevertheless for a 45 minutes visit, I am indeed fortunate to have made it to one of the mysteries of the ancient world and to have gained some knowledge of its mysteries.