Today was perhaps one my most interesting and productive days here in London. After eating a non-too-wonderful meal at Ramsay Hall, I immediately made my way towards London's less-popular side to visit a place called Anti-Slavery International. I met one of their fund-raisers on the streets the other day, and I planned on visiting their headquarters anyhow. Anti-Slavery International is the oldest abolition organization in the world. They were petitioning for abolition back when Britain was still participating in the African slave trade, and slavery was abolished in Britain before it was abolished in America. Their founding year was 1834, so that should give you a better idea.
I showed up uninvited and without an appointment, and honestly I was surprised they even talked to me. I was even more surprised in that they were willing to show me around and fill me in on a lot of details. They provided me with a good bit of literature and other free information on their work, as well as let me buy a t-shirt. The man that let me in, Jacob, was an intern who had only been there for about two weeks, but he provided me whatever information he could. Everyone was really nice. Another intern, Fernando, was from Argentina and had been working there for about two months. They were both great and provided a lot of good information. They even gave me the names of people to contact for further information. Fernando showed me around the vast library of slavery that they had their. Their library is open to scholarly research and he mentioned that recently they had a woman from New York come in and do some research there. It's no real wonder why. Pretty much anything about slavery in the past three or four centuries was present there. They had original works from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as well as a host of other statistics about slavery from around the world. It was quite amazing.
After I had finished there (it took me a while to find the place because I didn't properly follow some directions I was given and overlooked a green pub I was supposed to be looking for), I went to the international headquarters of the Salvation Army. Everyone knows the Salvation Army for their thrift shops and their bell-ringers, but it is also important to realize the Salvation Army is one of the largest, if not the largest, charitable organization in the world. They have people in pretty much every country on the planet and are available at a moment's notice for any disaster. They rank right up with the Red Cross, if not above the Red Cross, in the amount of assistance they distribute every year. The people at the Red Cross were very nice and helpful and allowed me to take some literature with me. Their headquarters was a lovely building and inside they had a few artifacts from their founding such as old Bibles and some other interesting things.
Once I had completed my time at the Salvation Army, I went towards the Tower of London. My mom had asked that I get a Liliput Lane house for her if I could find one, but after I saw this particular item a few weeks ago, I knew she'd like it a lot more. If I know my mom's taste, then I know she'll really enjoy the souvenir I've gotten her. Shortly thereafter I went back to the dorms to put down my payload and eat some lunch. I got a sausage roll (sausage in a flaky pastry) and a chocolate brownie from a place nearby called Pain Du Jour. It's an odd name, but the food was good and inexpensive. I hung out for a little bit then made my way to the Notting Hill / Chelsea area of London a.k.a. "the rich people part". Amazing that I went from the area around Lambeth (where there are several housing projects) out to Chelsea, where I'm pretty sure a house there can run in a few million pounds.
The first place I checked out was the place where Jimi Hendrix died. There wasn't a monument or anything like that. In fact, it had been a hotel when he died, but now it was just a house. Me personally, if I owned it, I would at least put up a plaque or something to commemorate that one of the greatest rock 'n' roll artists of all time died there. Then again, this isn't the sort of neighborhood that really seems to welcome onlookers. I even felt kind of bad taking pictures of the place. After checking the house out though, I went over to a record store near Portabello Road (which is famous for its market) called Rough Trade. It's an independent music store that also used to be a record label of the same name. They specialize in indie rock, punk, reggae, and ska music. It's a lot of obscure stuff that most likely you won't find anywhere else. It was a really neat little place and I picked up a reggae CD and a t-shirt. I really want to go to a reggae bar here in London, but I'm not sure if there is anyone else here who would be interested and going to one by myself might not be a good idea. So, I got the CD and I'm happy about that.
I walked back up through Portabello Road and stopped in a few little shops. There was a place called Mimi FiFi which sold a lot of neat old retro toys (one collection of little Smurfs was really awesome), but they were pretty overpriced. There was a lot of cool stuff over in this area of town and anyone who is into shopping would really get a kick out of it. I think Saturday is the big market day on Portabello Road, so I think that is the ideal time to come. But, I won't be able to make it on a Saturday, so I just enjoyed my time today. Once done there, I got on the train to Bond Street to check out what I thought was a house that Jimi Hendrix used to live in which was supposed to now be at the Handel House Museum. I didn't see it there (photos online showed a little plaque and I searched everywhere and couldn't see one) but I did get a chance to walk around Oxford Street and New Bond Street. Oxford Street is the London equivalent to Rodeo Drive, and New Bond Street is fast becoming the main expensive shopping area in London. It's the place to go if you're looking for something trendy and pricey.
When I arrived back at the dorms I just kind of hung out for a bit and rested. I ate some dinner (a microwaveable sausage and pasta meal that was good, some plain roasted peanuts which they call "monkey nuts", and Tottenham cake, which is a cake with pink frosting, and a yum-yum). It was all pretty tasty. I then hung out for a little bit more before getting a call in my room from Gideon inviting me to hang out downstairs. It is Ryan's (Sunshine's) birthday and I think they'll all be going out tonight. I hung out for a while but decided not to go out. I wanted to get my journal entry typed up and also I have to be up early tomorrow to go East Anglia, Framlingham Castle, and Bury-St. Edmund's. It should be a pretty fun trip. I didn't go to the Tate Museums today because I wanted to take the Tate-to-Tate catamaran up the Thames and the weather was a bit overcast today. I'll have to do those trips another day.
Photos of today's trip around London can be viewed here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8494714@N03/
