After dragging myself out of bed and making myself look as presentable as I can with the materials I have to work with, I walked the 35 minute journey to the train station, baulked at having to pay £39 for a peak-day travelcard, before remembering that I was being reimbursed, and boarded a train to London. One hour later I arrived into King's Cross and walked to Chancery Lane. There can be few other places in London whose mention evokes an emotional response in lawyers on the same level that Chancery Lane does. Which is a bit odd as it's actually quite a pokey street in a perpetual state of building works. It's a bit like there being no Muffin Man shop on Drury Lane (seriously; why hasn't anyone done that?). But nonetheless, today I had an interview on Chancery Lane for a (legal) job for next year. I should find out how it went in two or three weeks, or rather, my Dad will, as all my post seems to be going home at the moment, so that'll be a fun phone call for him to have to make.
After it was over I took the opportunity to make the most of the not-my £39 and traipse around London for the rest of the day. I've lost track of where I actually walked, but the blister on my left foot, and the wearing through of the sock on my right testify that I covered a few miles at least. I eventually ended up at St. Paul's and crossed over the now not wobbly bridge to the Southbank. I was trying to think of what image sprung to mind when I thought of 'London', when I noticed a small gathering of about 50 people looking into the area where the skateboarders usually skate. Sneaking a closer look I saw the back of a music band being filmed by the BBC for a new programme called 'Sound'. Upon moving up the queue I realised thatwho they were:
The Feeling were in town, and fittingly enough, they were singing 'Just like London town'. Or rather, they were singing it over and over so the BBC could get their shots in. If anything it was surprising how few people there were watching. I don't really follow music, but judging by how often the song is played on the radio they seem to be quite a big thing, and so many people were just walking by. Apparently the show will be on the TV on Saturday, so tune in and see if you can spot me being told off by the producer for not turning my flash off.
Afterwards I trotted onwards along the Southbank past a proper image of London in the London Eye, and over the bridge to Parliament Square as there was something I wanted to see.
I've been reading quite a bit about Oliver Cromwell recently for one of my courses this year, and I just can't quire figure him out, and nor it seems can quite a few people. Many people abhor him. His actions in Ireland and Scotland were inexcusable. Some see him as a fascist despot, but the more I read, the more I see a man who, despite going against everything in British constitutionalism, was committed, in England at least, to achieving 'right' for the nation after the mess of Charles I, and who was crestfallen when he didn't succeed in his ideal. Surely a despot would have seized the Crown when it was offered to him? But of course, my perspective is entirely from the view of legal history and I don't seek to condone. Socially or politically the picture could be, and probably is, very different indeed. His legacy is hard to determine, shortly after he died the Monarchy was reinstated and he was posthumously executed (his head is now buried at Sidney Sussex after being separated from his body 300 odd years ago). It's perhaps ironic that his anti-monarchist approach has led to the strong passive Monarch that we enjoy today. But however history judges him, it's interesting to note that his statue stands inside the grounds of the Palace of Westminster itself, while notably others are consigned to the square opposite.
That's probably the image I have in my head when I think of 'London' - the home of so much that I associate with being British. London is history.
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