london walks: From the Bank to the Temple: Legal London.

This walk was one of my favorites so far! It covered some of the same streets from the "Walking through the City" walk, but also took us to meat markets, hospitals, and churches. Another aspect of this walk that seemed of importance was the amount of banks. Even though this walk did not specifically take us through the "financial district" of London, it was evident the international scope of this city. As I saw all of these banks, quite a few of which were foreign, I wondered why they were here. It's important to remember that we are now living in an international city (not that Provo isn't important...) Much like New York City, London plays a major part in the world's economy. London's Central Bank District employs 750,000 employees and is home to the world's international bond market (source). Seeing banks from unique areas across the globe was a great reminder of how intertwined this world has become.

The Bank of China

Arab Banking Corporation (ABC)

Bank Saderat- an Iranian bank.

Llyods Banking Group

Bank of America- Merrill Lynch

A Branch of the NatWest bank

HongKong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC)

Barclays Bank

london walks: Seats of Power: Whitehall and the Mall.

I really enjoyed the Seats of Power walk. It connected a couple of our previous walks, so I started learning about the layout of London (who knew Trafalgar square was so close to the House of Parliament?). This walk was full of war memorials. England has a very rich history, which also includes being a leading world military power through centuries of wars. This walk commemorates comanders, miliary branches, and bravery. I enjoyed reading and learning about key figures in Britain's military history!

Names of soldiers who died in combat during WWII 

Battle of Britain Memorial along the Thames- unveiled by Queen Elizabeth in 2008.

Royal Air Force Memorial- this memorial reads "In memory of all ranks of the Royal Naval Air Service, Royal Flying Corps, Roayl Air Force, and those air forces from every part of the British Empire who gave their lives in winning victory for their kind and country. 1914-1918. I bare you on eagles wings and brought you unto myself"

Lord Portal of Hungerford- This is a statue of Charles Frederick Algernon Portal. He was a pilot, then flight commander and squadron commander flying light bombers on the Western Front during WWII. He eventually became the Cheif of the Air Staff. 

Charles George Gordon- (also known as Chinese Gordon) was a British army officer and administrator. He was commander of the "Ever Victorious Army", a force of Chinese soldiers led by European officers. His men aided the shut down of the Taiping Rebellion. He was killed at Khartoum, after helping with the evacuation of 2500 civilians and soldiers.

This plaque is on the bottom of Gordon's memorial. The shield bears the legend "Right Fears no Might" This statement was key in the Victorian British empire.

Sir Henry Bartle Edward Frere- British colonial administrator. He became Governor of Bombay in his career in India.

The Women of World War II

london walks: walking the walls of londinium.

We took our third walk around the borders of "Londinium". Londinum was the old Roman city that has now grown into London. I enjoyed this walk because we got to visit several churches as well as learn more about the geography of London. These churches were my favorite part of the walk, but I also enjoyed getting to see great architecture at historical sites like the Tower of London and Finsbury Circus. The walks book discusses the damage that was caused to the east end of London during World War II and we were able to see how that effected the architecture that is now there. This end of the walk was filled with more modern buildings. Overall, this walk contained an exceptional amount of buildings with stunning architecture!

The Tower of London dates back hundreds of years!

This is the London Authority Building, which we saw as we left the Tower Hill tube stop. It is very apparent how classic Roman and Greek designs have influenced London architecture!

Near the middle of the walk, we started into more modern buildings, including the famous Gherkin building.

Christ's Church at the end of the street!

We were able to walk around the inside of Christ's Church.

The architecture is so intricate and light!

 The architecture of each building in London is very different, and it's very common to find contrasting buildings next to each other.

Building from nearly every architectural period can be found in London!

london walks: Westminster and Lambeth: Church and State.

The Westminster London walk covers one of the original areas of London. During Medieval times, this religious and political center was separate from other areas and mostly remained as such until Queen Victoria's time (and after a major fire created a need to rebuild Westminster Palace). Today this walk is everything you imagine when you think "London"... it truly is the quintessential London. If you google the city, you are likely to see images of Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, and the House of Parliament. On this walk, you are also likely to run into everything "English"... bobbies (police officers), double-decker buses, and the most photographed red telephone booth in the world! Overall, this walk should be the first loop for any London tourist.

Big Ben! Most people don't realize that Big Ben is actually just the name of the clock... the tower is called the "Queen's Tower" after Queen Victoria.

Westminster Abbey.

The most photographed photo booth in the world- we had to wait in line to take our picture!

Quintessential London- Big Ben, House of Parliament, London Eye, and the Thames River.

House of Parliament

London Eye

English Bobbies (hopefully it's ok I took their picture?)

London Buses!

london walk assignments + random things.

guess what? I thought a extra-full course load plus a social life was rough. You know what's worse? 12 credits and living in London. It's not like the classes are hard, they're just a ton of work//reading. We have class in the morning, then the afternoon is devoted to doing something around london {running errands, touring BUCKINGHAM PALACE HOLLA, or doing our London Walks assignments}, then dinner, then we {I} do homework all night. I guess I can't complain because I'm living in LONDON of all places, I'm just giving an explanation why blogging has literally been my bottom priority. We are heading out this week to visit Preston, the Lake District, Wales, and so much more! Since I have completely failed at blogging, I have a million pictures to share! So since I didn't want to make a huge blog post, I've divided them up and scheduled them to publish this week {because I know you were super worried about how I was going to catch up the world with my adventures. aka my mom. hi mom!}. It's gonna be the bomb because they're the posts that are showing how I've quite quickly fallen in love with this place. I'm never going home. unless they start selling peanut butter kit kats in the US. then I might think about it.

So: let's talk about our london walks. They are magnificent and force us around in London! I also love them because they're just another excuse to walk around laughing with the girls from the program, whom {who?} I truly adore.

We went to the British Museum. Are we going to drop out of college to become models? possibly.

chinatown!

These girls, man.

just really confused why there's giant leaves in the park.

just the typical "english major" pose. 

Lauren and big ben!

they're on a lion.

Borough market lunch! Mine looks gross, but it was actually the greatest thing ever. homemade pasta, guys.

borough market was a little busy.

oh hey there shakespeare.

street performers!

Tower Bridge!

Hays Market and some cool london babes.

We officially decided to all drop out of college so we can become like this lady and blow bubbles on the street. it sounds like a much better life route.

Thames!