The Strand

Today (Friday), was awesome.  I was out and about, got a lot of work done and did some exploring...
 I don't have classes on Friday, so it's usually pretty mundane, but today it was different.  All I wanted to do was go to FSU to print out readings I needed to do for political science and communication, but one thing led to another and I was all over Holborn, Aldwych and Islington today...  In a nut shell, because it's hard to describe where I was, lets just call it Central- Eastern London.  I knew the world renown London School of Economics was in London, but I had no idea where it was.  I also knew that the old Aldwych Underground station (closed officially in 1994) was in my area of London but I had no idea where exactly it was either.

A little background though on the Aldwych Underground station; it was an "extension" line to the Holborn Underground station which is about 4 blocks north.  Holborn services the Piccadilly and Central Lines, 2 of the most popular lines throughout London.  The Aldwych branch was first opened in 1907 as an extension line from Holborn to facilitate increased Piccadilly line traffic.  It originally had 2 platforms, until one was closed for good in 1917.  During WWII the station was closed entirely and used exclusively as an air-raid shelter during the Blitz.  After WWII, it was re-opened primarily for "peak business hours through its eventual closure in 1994.  It was called "The Strand" because that's the name of the street it ran under before it turned North to connect to Holborn.  Tomorrow I'm going to look for The Down Street Underground station; another disused station just like The Strand.  My "contacts" at the TFL museum told me Down Street was closed in 1937, but used throughout WWII as a government shelter for Winston Churchill and his war cabinet when he needed a bigger place to meet than his command bunker under the Admiralty.  I looked like a complete tourist as I snapped tons of pictures of it:

The red door on the right is the actual entrance; I'm still trying to figure out why the wire gate on the left is there...there's no where to go behind it or anything

So when you go down underground the track runs towards where I'm taking the picture from, so South to North.

"RLY" means railway.  Upon closer inspection you will see the window between the writing has been converted to a meeting room.  Although Aldwych is closed, it's still used for experiments by Transport For London and for movies

As I turned around to cross the street, I was greeted by the BBC World Service building.  The World Service is the famous and long term nation-wide radio broadcast service.  They broadcast throughout WWII even when the T.V. branch of the BBC shut down.  The building was huge, yet it seemed so discrete, like every other building on the block:

As I crossed the street from The strand, I saw this and played it off as an ad until I looked down....

...and saw this in the corner of the window!!!!  it was sooooo cool to see

Even though the building looks old, it's actually quite new I think.  They tried to make it look old by replacing the 'u' in 'Bush" with a 'v'....only the British

At first, I was like "oh this is a really humble complex they've got here..." then I legit took a step back and saw the front of this behemoth...damn

I walk past the BBC World Service building to see The LSE "campus" which reminded me of Boston University, with no real campus, but buildings spread across the street.  That was really cool to see because as a prestigious university, it would be a great place (a goal of mine I suppose) to go for grad school:

The official crest of LSE

Okay there are only 2 pictures because signs were posted saying it was a high crime area and that you needed to watch your possessions closely, but I mean honestly, the buildings were so close together that I couldn't have gotten a shot of an entire building anyway, The Garrick I believed looked like classrooms up top and a student union of sorts on the first floor...I looked like a tourist as it was people, give me a break, until I saw this....

The Royal Courts of Justice!!!!

I was just picturing Sam Waterston from Law & Order in a white powdered wig and a robe calling a Scottish Jerry Orbach to testify as to the murder investigation he was completing with his younger British partner who was kind of a lose cannon but with community connections (Jesse L. Martin).

So glad Dick Wolf made Law & Order: UK

So it was probably 1:30 around this time, I wasn't really hungry or anything, but there was this pub I tried to go to with a bunch of friends earlier in the week because as usual, we were hungry and it was in the area.  It turns out, this pub is the oldest in London, rebuilt in 1667.  I bought myself a coke and a glass of water and got a small table for myself.  I had a lot of reading to do, so I got started...at a small table in the sub-basement of a pub a dozen monarchs old:

I feel like Charles Dickens legit chilled everywhere in London honestly!

This was the basement I was doing my work in....I actually got a lot done!

All in all, an eventful Friday, I covered a lot of ground and really enjoyed myself.

UPDATE: On Saturday, I went to Hyde Park, but not for the park.  I was looking for Down Street Underground station; another disused tube station from the early 1900's.  I'll let the pictures do the talking:

The red brick is the traditional facade on most of the old Underground Stations; see the gray door with the blue sign on it?  That's the emergency evacuation door for the Piccadilly Line between Hyde Park Corner and Green Park stations.

They put a mini mart in!!!  What the heck!?

The brick on the right was put in to block the entrance, except for one smaller door

These are the iron bars that the Underground dot-and-ring symbol hung on.

Then I headed over to the Duke of Wellington's memorial / house...seeing the Hard Rock on the way over:

"No drugs or nuclear weapons allowed inside..." .......damn

No big deal, the Duke of Wellington just chilled here after he beat Napoleon or something like that

Wellington got his own archway

I've gotta get used to these pillars, they're gonna be a lot in Rome

This crown was up at the top of the arch, not sure why though...

yeah, I'm victorious!!!!

That doesn't look like Wellington...

Royal Artillery memorial

The cylinders on his legs are artillery rounds, carried from their casing to the actual gun

half of a looonnnggg list of theaters of engagement

The following pictures are of the Australian war memorial

It clearly says "Coral Sea," but in smaller writing under it there are the names of every town in Australia and their holdings I believe.  The big names are battles they were involved in

END UPDATE
"For this ideology, we are the enemy.  But 'we' are not the West.  'We' are as much Muslim as Christian, Jew, or Hindu.  'We' are all those who believe in religious  tolerance, in openness to theirs, in democracy, in liberty, and in human rights administered by secular courts..."
~Tony Blair, former Labour PM

I don't understand why people didn't like Blair, this seems pretty even keeled to me...


Stay Tuned....