Independent London Adventures

View of London from across Tower Bridge

So today Chris and I went on different adventures for the first part of the day to see our own things, with a plan to meet up a the Natural History Museum mid-afternoon.  Chris was visiting a craft store and then the Wallace Collection (medieval armour) and the Victoria and Albert museum.   He’s not a blogger so that’s all you get of that adventure :). I can tell you the store errand was successful and he enjoyed the two museums.  I get the impression the Wallace Collection was slightly disappointing only because a section of it was closed for research, and he loved the V&A; but you’d have to ask him.

Random side-street on the commute to the office

For me - I took up commuting again ;).  My job at RBC I worked closely with some people in our London office, so I went to visit.  There are a few I’m really going to miss now that I’m moving to a new role, and I got to see most of them today, if only briefly.  The commute in was like every commute ever.   Crowded and busy with people very focused on getting where they’re going — be it coffee or office.  The subway was sardine-packed, not even enough room to read your phone.   The walk to the office was not far from the station, but what I really enjoyed was how the new and the old have combined over time.   Plaques remembering what was there before the great fire of 1666 alongside new skyscrapers under construction.   And some random streets or areas that just don’t seem to fit the hustle and bustle of office life at all.

Office Patio - pretty civilized!

The office itself has far more security than we do in Toronto - in any of the Toronto offices that I’m aware of (and I’ve been in a large number of them lol).  Apparently terrorism was a problem for a while, so it was unfortunately deemed necessary.   I needed to be on a list, then - even with a Visitor pass - Peter (my colleague) had to come down and escort me upstairs.   Can’t even get to an elevator without a badge.  This office is also significantly nicer than our Toronto ones ;).  Lol it’s newer than most, so fair enough, but still mildly envious.   Not envious enough to give up the upcoming remote role though!   

The old city wall and a random other building...

I had a tour of the office, got to see the lovely outdoor patio, chatted with some people, then Peter and I went for a walk around the area.   We stopped in this tiny random museum I would never have even noticed (also free) that is all about the City Wall that used to exist, and still does in places.  

There's a walk that you can follow where it used to be, but sadly didn't have time for that today.  

I loved this sundial, that's surrounded by England's history.

Shakespeare section for reasons that will be obvious shortly ;)

We continued our wandering and he was remarkably patient with my touristing as we passed the Tower of London and walked across Tower Bridge.  I was taking ALL the photos lol.

On Tower Bridge

Eventually it was time to head back.  I got to connect with one other colleague who wasn’t available in my earlier tour that I really wanted to say hi to, and then I had to head off because I had tickets for…

Pretty much exactly as I'd imagined it

A tour of the Globe theatre!   For those who don’t actually know me in person, I’ve studied a LOT of Shakespeare in my background (although you may have got that from the Chaucer infatuation in Canterbury lol most people don’t get to Chaucer without going through Shakespeare first).  It is, obviously, not the original - although you can see the site of the original from it.  The first one burned down - more than once I believe ;).   Being made of wood and with a thatched roof.   At some point someone shot a cannon from the upper level as an effect during a play and, well, it didn’t end well ;-P.   Anyways, a while back they decided to rebuild it using original materials and construction — with the addition of sprinklers and fire retardant covering in the thatched roof!   Apparently after the first season or two, they also changed the footing of the ground level to be concrete cause the dirt floor got dusty and miserable and/or turned into a mud pit when it rained.   Fair.   They do run all weather - comparing it to going to a concert in the rain.  It’s an experience.  The only exception in very recent years is they cancelled a couple due to extreme heat.

Rich boxes to the left :)

In the tour they’d park us somewhere to tell us stuff, and then move us to a different section to do more of that.  So we saw top row centre, middle row side, and ground floor other side, right by the stage.   This was actually incredibly effective as it let you get a feel for what it might’ve been like.   Some interesting pieces I found — the seats are wooden benches with no backs (with the sole exception being the royal boxes), and when you buy tickets you can rent a pillow to go along with it — definitely recommend this option.   But in reality, I would try very hard to get a front row balcony seat, cause (and I did this sitting in one) you could lean forward on the railing as a reasonably comfortable way to sit when you can’t lean backwards.  The ground level is an interesting idea and would certainly be a good view - but you can’t leave during the performance, so unless you’re willing and able to stand on concrete for a couple hours straight, I’d probably skip this option!  From today’s perspective, the historical “gentleman’s” boxes would be in a less-ideal location; we’re used to the point of going to a play is to watch the play, so front and centre is good.   But here, part of the point of going to the play was see and be seen, so the prime real estate is up a level immediately beside the stage.  Found that mildly interesting :).  But if you buy tickets, those aren’t the most expensive, cause you won’t actually have a great view of the stage.    The stage itself has two levels and trap doors both in the floor and from the ceiling.  The underneath of the ceiling is painted to be a night sky.   All of this based on drawings and notes from the period.  

The stage is broken in to three:
Heaven (above)
The Earth (stage level)
Hell (underneath - used for things like the burial scene in Hamlet)

By far the coolest part of this whole thing though is that while we were getting this tour, the cast was rehearsing for the play that’s opening next weekend.  This significantly contributed to the experience, because we got to watch part of actual play — so details that would never have occurred to me, like when ten people stomp on a hollow wooden stage at the same time, it makes a significant amount of noise.   And seeing how the actors adapt their performance for a round stage — for instance, some of the ones that had their backs to us when we were sitting far stage right, were doing things with their hands behind their backs or other random things that you wouldn’t see (or need) straight on but added an excellent nuance here.  We were asked not to take any photos of the actors, so use your imagination ;)

Anyways - it was really cool to see, the tour was interesting, but watching the rehearsal made it really amazing.  And constant flashbacks to some parts of my uni days that I really enjoyed :).  My Shakespeare prof in undergrad was incredible and really shaped my love for that work.

So after that, I found my way back to meet Chris (the hardest part of which was actually finding the subway 😂- had to go upstairs and cross a train platform before going back underground), and we had almost perfect timing meeting up which was convenient. 

Tower of London - which I didn't know then, I would see more of later that afternoon!