Stratford-upon-Avon

Today we had a leisurely day trip to Stratford-upon-Avon, aka Shakespeare's birthplace. The only item on the agenda was a play in the evening, so a group of us spend the rest of the afternoon strolling around the town and shopping. (I bought a Shakespeare umbrella, among other things.) It was nice to have a library- and museum-free day. While there are several museums and places of interest in Stratford, some of my classmates and I decided to skip them. (This was based on the fact that so much of Shakespeare's life is speculation and so little is actually known that most of the museums seem like a bit of a waste; this was just the verdict we came to.)


The play in the evening was fantastic. Our class saw The Winter's Tale, which is a Shakespeare play that I was unfamiliar with. The set design was phenomenal. Most of it, such as the leaves on trees, were made up of book pages. Book pages also littered the stage and made up the costumes of some of the characters. At one point, a giant book page bear puppet (yes, you read that right) dragged off one of the characters, which was a cool effect (trust me on this).

Image courtesy of guardian.co.uk

The London Library

Today we went to the London Library. Established in 1841, the London Library is an independent instituion funded primarily by member subscriptions. With former members including Charles Dickens, Virginia Woolf, Arthur Conan Doyle and Charles Darwin, the library has a strong literary history. Unlike libraries that use the Dewey or LC classification system, the London Library has a system that is entirely unique. Sir Charles Hagberg Wright, the librarian from 1893-1940, divided the collection into major subject areas and then alphabetized the works by the author's last name, or by title for edited works.

One interesting aspect of the library is that once a book is obtained, it stays. They never get rid of anything with the exception of duplicate copies of the same edition of a book. This creates obvious problems where space is concerned. Another problem is conservation. As the librarians emphasized, they are a library and not a museum. Thus, it's only the rarest and oldest of materials that are not allowed to be checked out. Everything else can go home with patrons. As a result, the library has a dedicated conservation department that repairs and maintains the books. This effort includes binding or rebinding around 4,500 books per year.

After the library, some classmates and I got dinner at a place called The Slug and Lettuce, which despite it's unappetizing name, had really good food. Later in the evening, I went with a group of people to see We Will Rock You, which is a silly musical featuring the music of Queen. While the storyline was ridiculous, the music was fantastic (it's Queen, after all) and the crowd was really into it. At the end of the show, the actors took their bows and a large screen on stage came on and read "You want to hear Bohemian Rhapsody?" (the song still hadn't been performed). The crowd went nuts. The screen changed, reading "Oh, alright then." At which point the cast came back out to perform "Bohemian Rhapsody". The audience went wild. Despite the ridiculousness of the story, it was a really fun show.

Image courtesy of ianvisits.co.uk

The Barbican

Today was the Barbican Library, which was a drastic change from St. Paul's.

The Barbican is a public library built in the 1980s in an area rebuilt after being bombed in WWII. Around 9,000 people actually live there, but over 300,000 work or go in and out of the Barbican Center. The library itself was not terribly different from our own public libraries, though they do have an arts library (which focuses on architecture and perfoming arts) as well as a music library.

The area containing the library was not designed for this purpose, which presents interesting challenges in terms of shelving and layout. The librarian also explained that the thick concrete walls in the building make it difficult to access the wi-fi network. One thing I found particularly interesting was the Bookstart Program that the children's librarian explained to us. Bookstart is a national program that entitles every child three free packs of books, that are given to them at intervals beginning when they are toddlers up until age five. The program even receives some government funding.



After eating lunch at the Barbican Center, a classmate and I went to the Tate Modern. Wow. Sometimes I forget how much I love art. It was fantastic. I saw many famous pieces, including Lichtenstein's Whaam!, which I enjoyed immensely. Really, the whole museum was terrific. I'm always surprised by how much I still remember about art, sicne I haven't studied it in so long. The abstract expressionist gallery was probably my favorite.

For dinner, I had my first ever fish and chips! I even ate it with vinegar, the way you're supposed to. I got it at a place called Fishcotheque. (Best name ever.)

After dinner, my class got tickets to see a play called Nevermore, which was a musical about Edgar Allan Poe. Given that I absolutely love Poe, it was right up my alley. The set was minimal, but the costumes and the props were outstanding--very Tim Burton-esque. The music used lines from Poe's poetry, and several of his short stories were alluded to throughout the play.

Image courtesy of nytimes.com