Summer is when London comes alive with activity that motivates you to spend every non-travelling weekend exploring this amazing city. We discovered the joy of watching street performers, hunting down festivals, looking out for the hidden cultural gems that may be a sculpture on Southbank or a community landmark that is treasured by locals. When the Summer of 2011 has been dominated by the negative vibe of the 'riots' - it was refreshing to see Londoners pull together and restore that positive community spirit.
London Riots
Recently we found ourselves indoors not by choice and only venturing to the local shops to seek out 'emergency meals' like local fried chicken when the threat of the riots caused all the supermarkets to shut by 2pm. Things became hectic on the Monday and Tuesday night and we received messages of concern from Australia where reporting may have been slightly sensationalist that the entire city was on fire.
Our local community suffered some damage although we were lucky that locals in our nearby streets chose to defend the small businesses and pubs. The Tesco Metro had glass shattered, the retail part of Argos and Sports Direct was looted and the nearby Poundland was even targeted. However, a few days later it was enshrined with post-it notes, it became an icon of community spirit.
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| Community tributes on post-it-notes outside Poundland |
Iconic images like these will serve to remind us of the event in years to come. Similarly, the video of the burning furniture factory in Croydon or of the Malaysian student that was injured and robbed by others pretending to help. Our personal memory of the riots would include the fire engine sirens ringing throughout the night, the helicopters buzzing above and the neon blue strobe lights of police cars heading passed our house towards the southern suburbs.
Street Culture
On a more positive note, one weekend was spent walking around Southbank as an alternative to getting cosy on the couch with a jug of Pimms. The walkway from Waterloo Bridge to the London Eye was jammed with visitors and street performers.
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| Captain Jack Sparrow |
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| Concrete pillars turned into a skatepark |
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| Examining Mei's manicure |
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| Art can take many forms |
London Eye
Our engagement party was held a few months prior to us moving to London. One of our presents was a voucher for a London Eye Champagne Experience by friends May and Jen. We were lucky with the weather and chose a beautiful sunny day where we could see all the London buildings and festivities along the banks of the Thames.
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| On the London Eye |
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| View over Southbank |
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| Westminster from the Eye |
Taste of Spain Festival
A large street party that closes Regent Street to traffic - what a great idea. We visited the 'Taste of Spain' festival one weekend where we had an opportunity to photograph the World Cup (Spain the reining premiers) but we were disappointed by the lack of food stalls and overpriced sangria stands.
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| Clutching my plastic cup of sangria |
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| Mini golf in the middle of Regent St |
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| Euro 2008 trophy |
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| The World Cup won by Spain in 2010 |
Continuing on with our aim to do the touristy activities that London had to offer, we booked ourselves into a Jack the Ripper walking tour that spanned 2 hours from Tower Hill - site of public executions for most of the past hundreds of years; to London's East Side, very close to Mei's workplace near Liverpool St.
The tour focused on the murder sites, the last stop was at Spitalfields market where the pub opposite -Ten Bells is best known as the local drinking venue for the some of the Ripper's victims. Overall it was an interesting tour that provided a good overview of how desperate life became for the underclass during the Victorian age.
London Wildlife
London continues to deliver things that surprise and those that delight.Over the past few days we have spotted some of London's urban wildlife near our house - a squirrel, a fox and more surprisingly a frog in our front garden.
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| Our new housemate - the garden frog |
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