London 2010 Day 4

9-6-10 Windsor Mansions W1.
Well, we are back at the Internet Cafe on the Marlybone Road, and Sala has just made contact with Caroline in Norwich, hooray hooray. Caroline left her indelible impression on us both when we lived at Ladbroke Road and Clarendon in 1968, just maried, just pregnant, just about everything. And in those days she was with Michael, who taught me a lot about ego and plaster casting. Viva Caroline!
We did the Jewish History of London walk yesterday (www.walks.com), based on advice from Charlotte to check into the London Walks, and it was most informative. This particular walk started at 10\;30 from Tower Hill tube station, which now has a overlook that lets you view most of the towers of the Tower of London, as well as bits of The City. Yesterday the Lord Mayor of London had organi\zed a bicycle ride to publicise biking, which happened at politically opportune moment when the Tube is about to exper4ience a 24 hr strike beginning 5 pm today. So there were teens doing wheelies, couples with babies in trailers, singles on every kind of bike you can imagine and littlekids in pink helmets stopping abruptly in the middle of it all as they rode a circuit, protected by barrriers and event coordinators. Our guide, for the price of $6 for seniors, walked with us to see the roman wall, the site of the first synagogue, and down the street from that, along jewery street in fact, the present Sephardic synagogue, the oldest surviving religious structure in London. It was designed a tthe same time as Wren et al were rebuilding after the fire, and was required by edict to be hidden. As you perhaps know or can imagine, just as the original Venetian Ghetto was the result of antisemitism balanced by greed, the situation of jewery in London was equally complex.The only assurance was that levies and taxes would be imposed by whomsover hapend to be in control, and that as long as there was money and commerce, jews would be allowed to exist in some state or other. So we heard in more detail about the transmigration of Sephardim from Portugal/Spain to Amsterdam (see The Coffee Trader by David Liss) and the ultimate negotiated agreement that let many come to London, initially to East End, and eventually to Maida Vale. Later the Askenaz began arriving from Europe, and we saw the Soup Kitchen for the Jewish Poor and learned how such later arrivals were received by the jewish community, and entered the process of back breaking work that would eventually buy them a ticket to New York. And I learned a lot more about the namesake of my one time workplace in NYC, Montefiore hospital...Mr Montefiore having been a member of the minyan, and whose seat is preserved with a velvet rope.
We had tapas in the very upscale Spittlefields market hall, and then split up for separate times. Actually, Sala had gone out of the tapas bar and said she would meet me right outside. The tab was slow coming, and painful only by ordinary standards £35, or close to $50. But Sala was nowhere to be seen, and after checking the nearby stores, i irritably called her cell phone...getting a message. At about that point, she emerged from one of the stores that i thought i had checked, but i was annoyed that i'd been the one who had paid, and sat there waiting, and why wasnt she waiting obediently? Clearly time for some solo exploration, and so we agreed, and i set off to Liverpool Station. In the early 60's, this was just a station, but now its a paradise of enterprise and consuming opportunities, as are most of the London stations. (My favorite so far is Marylebone, which is still at ground level, and has only a few cafes and a pub..plus i like the red stone architecture). The circle line wasnt running, creating a lot of milling and confusion in many languages. My jacket created enough of a disguise so that I was asked for directions, and sent at least one person off in what was probably the wrong direction. The central line was runnning fine to Tottenham Court Road, but emerging there was very disorienting. The old building blocks that used to surround St Giles are mostly cleared away, so I had no idea which direction to take to either Foyles or the British Museum. But the signs are clear and simple, and the coin and antiquity enterprise crouching across Russell from the British Museum is comfortingly the same. As were the sitters on the steps, the listeners to the guides, and the general ebb and flow of peopletides up and down the main entrance.
I dont remember the tenor of the donation sign...did it always say sternly 'Give $5£4 ' without any please? In any case, once inside I admired again the decision to enclose/enshrine the reading room in a kind of jewel case of modernity...little kiosks selling souvenir cards and reproduction of egyptian cats all round.. According to Sean, our guide for the Jewish tour, its the same architect who did the 'circumcised gherkin' tower down in the City. In any case, you can still duck across the area enclosing the reading room and pass directly through to the Rosetta Stone. Where i shot some more footage for my yet to be memorable video of 'Translation', which is to be entirely footage of people looking at the stone, taken from behind it. Then I waded through several pools of dynastic and attic art, and, yes of course, walked around the Parthenon frieze.
Who are these coming to the sacrifice?
To what green altar, O mysterious priest,
Lead’st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,
And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?
What little town by river or sea shore, 35
Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,
Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn?
And, little town, thy streets for evermore
Will silent be; and not a soul to tell
Why thou art desolate, can e’er return.
OK, enough for now. Time to go join Sala at the local starbucks and then off to South Kensington and, among the old and great, the Saatchi.
saludos
alan