A Day in the Life

Again I continue recalling where I was and what I did exactly a year ago this week, in London.

April 28
When you try to absorb as much British culture as I do, you start to see a few places come up again and again. I particularly love British rock and roll, and in the context of the British Invasion, one place pops up again as the best venue in town: the Royal Albert Hall. While I didn’t get to actually see a concert there, I did take a tour.
The Royal Albert Hall looks like a big red velvet cupcake sitting in the middle of Knightsbridge. It is a circular arena that plays host to everything from rock concerts and operas to tennis matches. Queen Victoria built it in honor of her beloved husband Prince Albert. It was one of few London landmarks that did not sustain damage in WWII air raids, partially because the instantly recognizable round roof provided a good landmark for bombers in blacked-out London.
Albert Hall is huge—huge enough to hold 4,000 holes, provided that the holes are rather small (see “A Day in the Life”). As we walked through the halls and stalls, I remembered all the times I had seen this space on a concert DVD. I got a peak at the Royal Box. It was a very interesting tour through one of the greatest venues in the world.
I then went to that Knightsbridge landmark—Harrod’s. Unfortunately, Harrod’s has become just another tourist attraction. The hallowed Food Halls, while packed with beautiful but ridiculously overpriced things (like $1,000 Beluga caviar), couldn’t hold a candle to the sumptuous goodies at Fortnum and Mason’s or the food heaven I would soon encounter at Borough Market. On the other hand, at Harrod’s you can actually see designer clothes that you see movie stars wearing in the tabloids. And Harrod’s does have a form of Shoe Heaven: a room filled with Christian Louboutins. Despite the price tags and the beautiful things, Harrod’s no longer has a feeling of exclusiveness. I had made sure to wear my most stylish outfit, but it honestly wasn’t necessary.
On the way to the show I swung by King’s Cross station, where I visited Platform 9 ¾. The folks there have been good enough to put up a sign and stick half a luggage trolley through the wall for Harry Potter fans.

April 29
If you can find them, London offers a huge array of free attractions. On this day I took advantage of St. Martin-in-the-Field Church’s series of free concerts. I absolutely loved St. Martin-in-the-Fields church. It stands right on Trafalgar Square, across Charing Cross Road from the National Gallery. On the outside, it has a perfect white steeple with a bright blue clock. The inside has plenty of bright light coming from both windows and beautiful chandeliers. A bright silver organ looks down to clean, wide pews. When I walked in I immediately thought, “I want to get married here.” It doesn’t have any medieval heaviness, but is rather light and airy and clean. St. Martin’s has free lunchtime concerts a few days a week; on the day I went the program featured young, teenaged small ensembles. I loved sitting there in the beautiful church and looking as if I too was just another Londoner here on her lunch break.
I then went to lunch in the Café in the Crypt of St. Martin’s, which became one of my favorite restaurants. Many of London’s museums and other attractions have marvelous refectories (cafeterias in American). It’s not just heat-lamped pizza here—you can get wonderful fresh, hot food served on real dishes. And of course every refectory offers beer and wine. The Café in the Crypt was one such place where I returned several times for hearty, warm, nutritious, traditionally English fare.
I then wandered around The City. The City is England’s version of Wall Street. Technically speaking, the City of London is the original Roman walled portion of the larger metropolitan area. The City of London is the financial heart of the country and one of the financial hearts of the world. At its center stand the formidable and foreboding marble columns of the Bank of England. And would you believe that in the City you can still see men in pinstriped suits and bowler hats carrying black leather cases and a copy of The Times folded under their arms? I felt like I had stepped back 50 or 75 years. Many of these men had wonderful salt-and-pepper moustaches. Somehow, the presence of the pinstripes reassured me. Somehow they suggest that these men do not take money lightly. They care enough about the financial security of their country and the world to respect the traditions of the past. For whatever reason, I would feel more secure about the world’s finances if all stockbrokers wore pinstripes, bowler hats, and mutton chops.

April 30
This day I had a play at 3:30, so I didn’t have much time for entertainment. I went to the British Library, which includes not just a world-class research library (Britain's version of the Library of Congress), but a museum section that displays some of the most important documents in British history. I especially appreciated the concept of displaying books because so much of my fascination with Britain has come courtesy of its rich literary tradition. I walked through the St. Pancras’ neighborhood in the rain on my way to the Library, feeling very much like the poets I so admire.
The centerpiece of the British Library’s collection is a copy of Magna Carta, the foundational document of democracy. The piece of skin from way back in 1215 stays in a special controlled room. The script is now pretty much unreadable, but videoscreens explain the history and meaning of the document. The Library also has a fine collection of beautiful illuminated Bibles, plus some equally beautiful copies of the Koran and the Bhavagad-Gita. Then there is the one remaining manuscript of Beowulf—the one example of Anglo-Saxon poetry that survived a fire by pure chance. Then there is a First Folio of Shakespeare, plus some letters in Shakespeare’s own handwriting.
The exhibit also has letters from various poets, including Wordsworth and Yeats. Seeing the actual handwriting of some of my favorite authors really excited me. And then there was my favorite case: the Beatles case, which includes the handwritten lyrics of “Yesterday,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” and “Ticket to Ride,” among others. At any auction house in the world, these lyrics would fetch literally millions of dollars. But the British Library has deemed these Beatles lyrics of enough cultural significance to display them alongside Beowulf. It truly shows how much Britain treasures and values the Beatles.
On a larger level, just as Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey did, the British Library shows how the country values its language and literature. Secular poetry and popular music receive as much attention as political and religious documents. In the National Archives in Washington, D.C., for example, Whitman’s poetry does not sit alongside the Declaration of Independence, although it provides an even more eloquent defence of democracy. But the people and government of Britain have realized that despite all their political, religious, scientific, and economic contributions to the world, their cultural and literary contributions deserve just as much attention.
Britain is an extraordinarily literate country. One way you see this is in the newspaper consumption. Everybody in London takes at least one newspaper each day. There are actually two free newspapers in London that go out every single day. At about 5:00 in the afternoon, stacks and stacks of newspapers begin to appear on street corners and outside every Tube station. The people handing them out wear bright neon vests and are every age and ethnicity you can imagine. I got into the habit of taking a newspaper everyday, and by the end of my stay in London, I went into withdrawal by 5:30 if I didn’t get my newspaper. With a folded newspaper under my arm, I felt like a genuine Londoner. A newspaper, more than anything, is the ultimate London accessory. Every street has a newsagent kiosk that sells hundreds of newspapers and magazines, plus the usual candy bars, drinks, and ciggies. Some of these kiosks on the larger streets have newspapers in literally 20 or 30 different languages—some in entirely different alphabets. You can get newspapers in languages from Spanish to German to Urdu and Mandarin. Now, of course the free papers are not up to the caliber of the Times, but I still loved the opportunity to have a free way of immersing myself into the culture. I absolutely loved the experience of getting my free paper every afternoon like millions of other Londoners.
At the British Library I also had a wonderful hot meal in their refectory.