Arcadia England

We're creeping up to the semester halfway mark.... so I’d like you to take stock and let me know what highlights stand out for you, what you wish you'd known before you arrived and what you still have to do…. all helped along by pizza, etc.

By the way, I wonder if you're getting out and taking as much advantage of being based in our Central London Study Center as you could?

If you're hanging at the Center, are thinking about lunch and have an hour to spare DON'T flop around on your laptop: you're in London, not on your home campus - get out and try this one hour stroll through layers and centuries of London history:

Blood & Diamonds: Bishops & Beer (Plus Cheap Eats)

Take a left out of the Center, right onto Vernon Place keep going straight all the way down Theobalds Rd. On your left, vestiges of Dickens' London; on your right Gray's Inn, one of the three main clusters of the legal profession in London. If it's between 12-2 you can enter. Pass Magma shop (great little gifts) on your right then turn right into Leather Lane: this is your food stop. This street market is packed with so many cheap food options you won’t know where to start - Thai curries, Brazilian food, Italian food, British pies, Jewish salt beef, Middle Eastern mezze, falafel, etc: a choice of raw juice bars and two of London’s most highly rated Indy coffee shops; And cheap fruit & veg for home cooking later.

Turn left down Greville St crossing Hatton Gardens centre of London’s diamond trade: be dazzled by the gold and glitter. Keep walking down Greville, watching out for the signs, turning right through a small opening into Bleeding Heart yard, scene of a macabre 16^th century tale of passion and murder (plus a good restaurant to take your parents to when they visit). Keep exploring and find the doorway into Ely Place. Suddenly, you find yourself in the private street of the Bishops of Ely, complete with a Beadle in a gatehouse controlling who goes in and out.

If it’s open, you can explore the crypt of St Ethelreda’s, the (restored) 12^th century church. Just past the church, same side you may want to duck down the alley and visit Ye Olde Mitre pub, 1546 (not obligatory; will add time to your expedition…) before heading back past the gatehouse into Charterhouse St (glance left to see the edge of Smithfield, London’s ancient meat market where Braveheart (William Wallace, the rebel Scot who challenged English dominance) was hanged, drawn and quartered in 1305.

Turn right, head down to High Holborn and walk along it all the way back to Southampton Place.

If you aren’t going to get to Vienna this semester and you want to finish off your lunchtime snack with something sweet and lovely, turn right up Gray’s Inn Road to number 46, Konditor & Cook for heavenly pastries.

One hour of sights, sounds, history, intrigue and exercise too! Way better than hunkering down in the Student Lounge… do it!