5+ new London places #2 and #3

New London place #2 in my challenge was one of the ones I had planned from the start, as I'd already booked a spot on a scavenger hunt organised by the London Transport Museum's Collection & You team around Croydon, celebrating the extension of the Overground line to that part of the world. Croydon is about as far south as you can go while still being in London, and although it has a bit of a reputation for being a concrete jungle, there was a surprising amount of history around to explore - no shortage of Victorian civic pride, for one thing! (If the Clocktower - now home to the Croydon Museum, arts centre, library, cafe, etc etc - wasn't enough, check out the water works!)


The scavenger hunt itself was a lot of fun - and the rain held off, thank goodness. Kudos to the clue-setters for a set of cryptic clues that were impenetrable at first, but which made immediate sense as soon as you saw the thing referred to, even though no one on our team knew Croydon at all! As well as solving the clues, there were bonus points for photos of tram stops, and of pubs - Croydon is not short of pubs: I think we got about 30, but the winning team had found 10 more!

If you're interested, you can find my photos here, and the scavenger hunt's group pool here.

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For place #3, I took advantage of a visit that one of my colleagues in the Law program set up to join students on a tour of The Mansion House. I've admired the outside often enough, but never had the chance to see inside before. (Unfortunately, photography is not permitted inside, so this is as much of an illustration as I can muster.) I'm very grateful for the opportunity, because it's a stunning building inside - as might be expected for the official residence of the Lord Mayor of London; opulent but elegant. I wish I'd remembered to ask our guide about accessibility in the most recent renovations (1990s), though, as it's very much still a working building hosting thousands of guests over each year's events.

As I was across the road, and on a day off, I also took the chance to dive into the Bank of England museum, which I've never visited before thanks to it's opening hours. I'm fairly familiar with the development of the building itself, but seeing the history of the notes and coins and their designs laid out was fascinating - it's such a ubiquitous part of daily life, but one you hardly ever think about.

5+ new London places #1

Thanks to a kind invitation from a friend, I picked up my first London-place-I've-not-been-before last week, finally getting inside the BBC's iconic Broadcasting House for a recording of Radio 4's News Quiz. (I've been to several recordings before, but none at Broadcasting House, which was familiar to me only from the external Eric Gill statues). Any evening with Sandi Toksvig and Sue Perkins in it has to be fantastic, and this was no exception. The Radio Theatre itself is a wonderful space - I wish I could have taken photos of the friezes!

Applying for audience tickets is a true bargain - you really can't argue with world class performers for free and it's always neat to see 'behind the scenes'. I was listening to the broadcast show this weekend, trying to spot what they'd cut, and marvelling at the editing.

How to apply? I'll let the BBC tell you directly:

Ideas and prizes

(Two ideas came together to form a third, so I'm going to try something, and if it's a giant flop I will pick myself up and carry on, because the only way to find out is to try ... Right - pep talk over.)

Idea one - a friend of mine mentioned these London treasure hunt / mystery maps, which look like a lot of fun, and something my students might be interested in.

Idea two - My friend and I were talking about London resolutions - mine is to do at least five London things/places over the next five months that I've never done before (I already have two things arranged, but that's for another post.)

Some of the ideas we came up with as we were talking were:

• - photo-a-day (which I did for two years, and might yet go back to, because it's a brilliant way of getting in the habit of both carrying a camera and really looking at what's around you.)
• - blogging at least (1/2/3) times a week (Tired of London's daily posting being quite the ambitious undertaking!)
• - writing a weekly long letter about your experiences
• - keeping a daily or near-daily diary
  
• - weekly video or audio recording (daily, if you had the kit and commitment?)

• visit each end of every tube line
• do something in each of London's 31 boroughs (+ the City)
• join a choir / team / class and make it to x% of rehearsals/services/games/etc
• compile a list of 100 things you thought were notably different or notably the same as your expectations
  
• shop at 10 different markets and talk with 2 different stall holders at each one
  
• work towards a 'big goal' event, like signing up for a distance race, or to perform at the Union Chapel with the Exmoor Singers
• the 'collect them all, live' sampler: go to at least one opera, classical music, non-classical music, ballet, and theatre performance outside of class trips.
• tour all the Parliament/Assembly buildings you get close to - (Houses of Parliament, Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly, Greater London Council, local councils - maybe a trip to Brussels?)

Idea three - what if I asked you - any of my students who read this - to comment with your suggestions for challenges and resolutions, and awarded a prize of the treasure-hunt-of your choice to the neatest suggestion I receive by the end of the month?

So let's try that. Comment here, or drop me an email if you'd rather keep your resolution private, and be in with a chance of winning a London treasure hunt.

NB - please feel free to comment, but the contest is only open to LUP students - sorry, wider internets.

* Photo by dr_john2005, used under Creative Commons, with thanks.