Arcadia England

This summer, our students joined Arcadia lecturer, Morgan Daniels, and Assistant Director of Academic Affairs, Drew Faas, to visit the vibrant, culturally rich community of Southall in West London. Drew has kindly shared their day with us:

Students hit the rails arriving at Southall Station and were welcomed by bilingual signage in English and Punjabi. After a brief orientation to the geography and history of the area, students set off to the brightly coloured, fragrant and busy streets of the area, largely settled by Indian and Pakistani immigrants from the 1950s onwards. We strolled through the public markets, many traditional clothing shops and grocers while taking in the delightfully fragrant aromas coming from the many curry restaurants lining Southall Broadway.

Following on from the walking tour, the group visited the Sri Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara - the largest Sikh temple outside of India and one of ten in the area. Students were treated to a tour of the temple and sat down in one of the many large prayer rooms for a one hour discussion on Sikh philosophy and beliefs.

Afterwards, the group were generously welcomed to the gurdwara's langar (or cafeteria) where thousands of meals are prepared for anyone visiting the gurdwara, regardless of faith, free of charge. The group then enjoyed a delicious vegetarian curry lunch (Morgan and Drew may have had seconds!) before their return to Central London, seemingly thousands of miles from their visit to the very far west expanses of India and Pakistan.