Negative capability

The last few days I've been staying in Camden, in student accomodations of University College, London. It's a far cry from Highgate! "Perpetually seedy brouhaha" might be one description of Camden - particularly the area close to the locks. Fortunately, "Ifor Evans Hall," where I'm staying, is about half a mile from the Camden Town tube stop, which is the epicenter of activity in this neighborhood, and so it's much quieter here - up the hill of Camden Road. On the other hand, while perfectly satisfactory, it lacks the stylish pretensions of Furnival Lodge. (When you make your bookings on the internet, you never really know what you're going to get until you get there!) On the plus side, Camden is more "accessible" than Highgate. It's actually not an unreasonable walk from Camden into "central London" - particularly if you can take advantage of strolling through Regent's Park! There are also scads of busses that pass through Camden's streets day and night.

Some nice pubs in Camden, although you have to look for them. Oh yes, there are dozens of pubs in Camden, but most of them aren't really places I'd want to spend any amount of time. One that I did like was the Prince Albert on Royal College Street. Good Adnams Ale - but the price was a little steep, at 3 pounds twenty for a pint.

A former student of mine, Casey, was in London this week - she's on holiday here with her mother. We met up for a drink at the Red Lion Pub in Duke of York Street, near Piccadilly (it's one of thoes pubs with beautiful cut glass.) Also, one of my professional colleagues, KK, is on a tour of Britain with his wife. We met in the nearby Hertfordshire town of St. Albans - which is a Cathedral city now, but in the middle ages was home to the largest monastery complex in England. One of our favorite former students is writing a historical novel set in St. Albans, so it was apt for us to meet there. We toured the Cathedral and then stopped for lunch in the nearby "Ye Olde Fighting Cocks," which is arguably the longest continuously operating tavern in the country. History can be fun indeed! The shrine of St. Alban, the first English martyr - killed around the year 300 The lantern - at the crossing - of St. Alban's Cathedral Interior of Ye Olde Fighting Cocks One of the last "champion" cocks to be employed here - cock-fighting was banned in England with the Cruelty to Animals Act of 1835

Even though a number of the Liverpool clubs proudly advertize that they stay open till 7 am, I didn't make a late night of it Saturday night. So I was feeling fresh and frisky Sunday morning for a little stroll up the hill to the cavernous Anglican Cathedral for morning services. Superlatives abound! It's reputed to be the largest Anglican Cathedral in England, if not the world. Of course, our rather sparse Sunday morning congregation of about 150 people probably could have fit into one of the toilets, but I'm sure the place does fill up on more formal, celebratory occasions. The place was designed by Giles Gilbert Scott (1880-1960), the revivalist architect also responsible for the classic English phone booth. Scott won a competition to design the new Cathedral when he was only 22, in 1902; after two world wars, and economic depression, and the fatal collapse of Liverpool's shipping industry, it wasn't until 1978 that the Cathedral was finally completed.

The guest preacher at the Cathedral was an interesting bloke, Andrew White, who is the vicar at St. George's Anglican Church in Baghdad. And has been there since 2003. He had just left Iraq a few days earlier, visiting Merseyside for friends and connections. He seems to have a valuable perspective on a lot of things that have happened there, and a natural gift of communicating his ideas as well. I'm going to have to look out for his book; I had heard that it's worth reading. Sunday afternoon I museumed down at the Albert Docks, where the Tate has installed a Liverpool outlet in one of the restored warehouse buildings. The area reminded me of similar industrial conversions in 19th century cities elsewhere, like Manchester New Hampshire, or Hamburg Germany. The Tate's does a wonderful job of installing handsome galleries and filling them with choice bits of their unequaled collections. The current main exhibit at Tate Liverpool highlights scultpure and sculptural art. An Andy Warhol soup can overlooks one of Salvador Dali's lobster phones A beautiful Barbara Hepworth wooden sculpture, carved and highly polished from a single tree trunk An intriguing "disco floor sculpture hall," complete with dance floor and individual headsets playing 1970s anthems, intending to suggest that artists who work with the human figure intend their work to be perceived in movement, not static-ly.

I also paid a visit to the International Slavery Museum, which occupies a floor of the Mersey Maritime Museum. It's a great concept, and of course it is important to connect Liverpool with the sordid trade upon which so much of its wealth was based, but I wasn't impressed with some of the exhibits, and thought generally that the musuem attempted to do too much in too small a space. (The museum attempts to show African life and culture, AND the horrors of the middle passage, AND the lives of Africans in their diaspora, up to Lenny Henry and Barack Obama, all on one floor. With not enough resources!

Then, in the evening, after a little nap, I went back to the university neighborhood of Mout Pleasant to a nice little tavern called "The Grapes" which features live Latin Jazz on Sunday nights. It was a blast!

The Hand and Shears, a classic one bar pub, no tv, no fruit machines, no updates: just around the corner from St. Bartholomew the Great Church, and a stone's throw from the Smithfield Market. Not much changed here since the mid 1800s. There is a good range of Real Ales on tap. The Hand and Shears is located at 1 Middle Street in the den of alleys known as Cloth Fair. One of the themes on this trip to London is a deeper exploration of the City of London - so I made a little effort to find some classic unmodernized pubs. Another "classic" is The Bell, located close to the Cannon Street Rail Station - actually right across the street from a new office project currently under construction. They claim that there's been a tavern on this site for at least 400 years, and that some of the interior timbering survived the Great Fire of 1666. The Bell is located at 29 Bush Lane. (They do have televisions here, including a small-flat screen, but they keep the sound down; when I was here yesterday peole were grouped around watching Wimbleton.)
The Red Lion, Duke of York Street, near Piccadilly. This gin palace has long been one of my favorite taverns in London. Beautiful cut glass in the interior - and very popular with the after-work and pre-theatre punters, as you can see!
The Spaniards Inn, Hampstead. A literary pub which is a favorite of mine and many others. (Keats, for one. Bram Stoker for another.) I was so happy to be able to walk here from my room in Highgate - though I did take the bus back.