 |
A square mile of London. That’s all I got to see. From the Tower Bridge to Southwark Bridge with the London Bridge in between – that was life for almost a week for me in June. Everything within the postal code SE1.
|  |
|
|
|
The sun came out, the clouds hid away and the rain was nowhere to be seen. I’d wake up each day to the beautiful English weather and walk down the cobbled streets. I’d look at the calm waters of the Thames and take in the usually strong breeze. It was a surprisingly calming experience, as the pace of life seemed to slow down with the summer.
|
|
|
|
My last trip to Europe was in the winter. When it would get pitch dark at 4 pm and people were always in a “stay at home” mode. London in June was decidedly different. For one, the sunrise would be at 4:45 am and sunset at 9:45 pm so when you’re at work and time is slipping by, you just don’t realize it because its still broad daylight outside! That’s the bad part I guess. The good part is that the days are long enough for people to linger at the pub just a little longer, walk along the waterfront of the Thames and even just jog or meet some friends.
|
|
|
|
There were a lot of things I enjoyed, but what made it such a remarkable trip was the fact that I was in London more like a resident and less like a tourist. So though my cab did drive past the London Eye, Big Ben and Westminister Abbey, what I enjoyed more was walking down the by lanes, choosing which quaint restaurant to have dinner in and last but certainly not the least, standing at the very center of the Tower Bridge and being amazed at the fact that it could actually open to let the big ships through. The HMS Belfast is docked relatively close to the bridge. Decommissioned after World War II it is now a popular tourist attraction. On the other side of the Thames was the Tower of London where the crown jewels are kept. It would’ve been good to see the Kohinoor, but I only saw the stone castle with beautifully maintained lawns from the outside.
|
 |
|
|
For two days I debated with my colleagues on whether the London Bridge and the Tower Bridge were actually one and the same. We actually got the answer from the third person we asked and I was amazed to discover that the original London Bridge was actually sold to the Americans and lies somewhere now in the Arizona desert. It seems that they too confused the Tower Bridge and the London Bridge to be one and the same and were disappointed when they found out they hadn’t bought the Tower Bridge. In any case a new London Bridge was constructed and that now lies between the Southwark Bridge and the Tower Bridge.
|
|
|
 |
I was also told that London was originally three towns and to be declared a town one needed to have a cathedral in it. So Westminister had Westminister Abbey, London had St. Paul’s Cathedral and Southwark had Southwark Cathedral. I walked past the Southwark Cathedral – hundreds of years old – beautiful even today with its typical architecture with arches, pillars and stained glass and wondered at its importance in history. Southwark is now one of the three boroughs of London.
|
|
|
The borough market is famous for vegetables and cheese. Unfortunately, whenever I passed it, it was shut as most places are by about six in the evening. I also had the pleasure of enjoying a London pub experience with colleagues at a very authentic joint called “The Market Porter”. I would describe it as cozy and homely not like what you’d expect a pub to be, but the wooden paneling and flooring combined with a small fireplace and hundreds of postcard sized emblems all over the walls and the fact that many people were regulars there made it seem definitely like some sort of a comfort zone. Beer flowed as we debated merrily about different movies and genres, our likes and dislikes and opinions on anything and everything possible.
|
 |
|
|
Another memory that stands out was a miserable attempt at taking a tourist bus ride around the city – they don’t sell tickets after seven so that was a wash out. That was followed by another failed attempt at taking a river cruise from St. Catherine’s pier. At eight in the evening no ticket booth seemed to be open and we were even unable to find the tube station closet to us – Tower Hill I believe.
|
|
|
I guess I looked like something of a lost tourist as I approached two extremely friendly and smart looking police officers in their dark bell shaped hats to ask them for directions. “I knew you were going to ask me a question,” one of them remarked and then continued to joke about how we’d at least seen a tiny portion of London really well, even if we hadn’t managed to get out of that area.
|
|
|
My final memory is that of a drink and dinner near Hay’s Galleria (famous for the sculpture – ‘The Navigator’) on Tooley Street. Terribly crowded, even on a Thursday evening, The Horniman continued to welcome one and all though there were undoubtedly more people sitting along the wall on the boardwalk rather than inside the pub. That was followed by a riverside dinner at the Kwan Thai restaurant, which is bang next door to The Horniman. The interiors are classy but in the summers, it’s far more enjoyable to sit outside so that one can enjoy the weather while relishing the excellent cuisine.
|
 |
|
|
It was too beautiful an evening to walk back via Tooley Street, which we had already done once before (and seen the famed London Dungeon which lies on that street), so instead we walked back along the Queen’s Walk. Just before hitting the Tower Bridge we passed a slanted egg shaped building the exteriors of which were completely in glass – the London Council building. Magnificent is all I can say about that one.
|
|
|
At Heathrow the next morning I felt as if my trip had been incomplete. I knew I had to come back soon. To see Hyde Park and Harrods, Buckingham Palace and the Millennium Dome, Piccadilly, Oxford Street and Leicester Square and many other places.
|
|
|
But as far as SE1 is concerned, from Southwark bridge to the Tower Bridge with the London Bridge in between, I am satisfied that I truly saw and experienced it all.
|
