Finally, after 6 month I’m ready to share a story about my London trip with you.

PART I | PART II | PART III | PART IV

So, it was my first time in the capital of Great Britain, the home-city for Punk music and “fish and chips”. What I knew about this city before my one-week-trip? Actually, almost nothing:-) I heard the stories about fog, human arrogance and cockney accent, but I found amazing and bright city with hard understanding accent, strict persons and food from all around the world (especially from Pakistan and India). I found a city with its own, unique, history and tradition, when a young guy knows that his great-great-grandfather was a lord at the Royal Court and his favorite pub was Lord Byron’s favorite pub, too. I like London and I’ll come to London again, but I can’t imagine myself living in this city- too many rules and “traditions” for usual life.

Pubs as a part of England culture.


Southwark Cathedral. It is the mother church of the Anglican Diocese of Southwark. It has been a place of Christian worship for more than 1,000 years, but a cathedral only since the creation of the diocese of Southwark in 1905. Between 1106 and 1538 it was the church of an Augustinian priory, Southwark Priory, dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

Street violinist near the St.Mary Overie’s Dock (16th Century).

Cannon Street Underground Station, The Leadenhall Building and 20 Fenchurch Street skyscraper.

Shakespeare’s Globe is the complex housing a reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, an Elizabethan playhouse associated with William Shakespeare, in the London Borough of Southwark, on the south bank of the River Thames. The original theatre was built in 1599, destroyed by fire in 1613, rebuilt in 1614, and then demolished in 1644.

Millennium Bridge and St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Inside Tate Modern – Britain’s national gallery of international modern art (one of the largest museums of modern and contemporary art in the world).

Covent Garden (interior of the former vegetable market). The first record of a “new market in Covent Garden” is in 1654 when market traders set up stalls against the garden wall of Bedford House.

Leicester Square was laid out in 1670 and is named after the contemporary Leicester House, itself named after Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester.

The name Chinatown has been used at different times to describe different places in London. The present Chinatown is part of the City of Westminster, occupying the area in and around Gerrard Street. It contains a number of Chinese restaurants, bakeries, supermarkets, souvenir shops, and other Chinese-run businesses.

The present Chinatown didn’t start to be established until the 1970s. Up until then, it was a regular Soho area, run-down, with Gerrard Street the main thoroughfare.

Piccadilly Circus is a public space of London’s West End in the City of Westminster, built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with Piccadilly. In this context, a circus, from the Latin word meaning “circle”, is a round open space at a street junction. The Circus is particularly known for its video display and neon signs mounted on the corner building on the northern side.

During World War II many servicemen’s clubs in the West End served American soldiers based in Britain. So many prostitutes roamed the area approaching the soldiers that they received the nickname “Piccadilly Commandos”, and both Scotland Yard and the Foreign Office discussed possible damage to Anglo-American relations.

Notting Hill is an affluent district in West London, located north of Kensington within the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea as well as Westminster. Very run-down until the 1980s, Notting Hill now has a contemporary reputation as an affluent and fashionable area known for attractive terraces of large Victorian townhouses and high-end shopping and restaurants (particularly around Westbourne Grove and Clarendon Cross).

For much of the 20th century, the large houses were subdivided into multi-occupancy rentals. Caribbean immigrants were drawn to the area in the 1950s, partly because of the cheap rents, but were exploited by slum landlords like Peter Rachman and who also became the target of white Teddy Boys in the 1958 Notting Hill race riots.

Portobello Road runs almost the entire length of Notting Hill from north to south. It runs parallel to Ladbroke Grove. It contains Portobello Road Market, one of London’s best known markets, containing an antique section and second-hand, fruit and veg and clothing stalls. The road was originally a lane leading to Portobello Farm in the north of Notting Hill.

All Saints Notting Hill is a Church of England parish church in Talbot Road, the church was begun in 1852 but damaged by enemy action during World War II and was fully restored by 1951.

Camden Town is an inner city district of northwest London, which laid out as a residential district from 1791 and originally part of the manor of Kentish Town and the parish of St Pancras, London, Camden Town became an important location during the early development of the railways, which reinforced its position on the London canal network.

Camden is well known for its markets. Camden Lock market proper started in a former timber-yard in 1973 and now it’s the fourth-most popular visitor attraction in London, attracting approximately 100,000 people each weekend.

Camden High Street.

Horse Tunnel Market.

Amy Winehouse lived in Camden Town, first on Prowse Place and then on Camden Square where she was found dead in July 2011.

About this place I read in 2014 when I was returning from Budapest to Tel Aviv. 2 brothers opened small business on Camden market- cafe with different breakfast cereals and milk. I like this idea and I hope one day someone will open this kind of cafe in Tel Aviv, too.

Shoreditch is one of the most interesting and creative neighborhoods in London. In the 19th and early 20th centuries Shoreditch was a centre of entertainment to rival the West End and boasted many theatres and music halls and now, in 21st century Shorditch is a center of design and modern street art- Banksy, Stik and Obey.

Ananda Nahu

Thierry Noir

Stik

Ben Eine

Christiaan Nagel

Nathan Bowen

Ben Eine, again

Banksy

Shepard Fairey aka. Obey

HNRX

Modern British punk is wearing red socks (mohawk hairstyle already in the past).

The City of London is widely referred to simply as the City- major business and financial centre. Throughout the 19th century, the City was the world’s primary business centre, and it continues to be a major meeting point for businesses.

The Tower of London, officially Her Majesty’s Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle located on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. The Tower of London has played a prominent role in English history. It was besieged several times, and controlling it has been important to controlling the country. The Tower has served variously as an armoury, a treasury, a menagerie, the home of the Royal Mint, a public record office, and the home of the Crown Jewels of England.

The symbol of London- Tower Bridge, combined bascule and suspension bridge in London built in 1886–1894. Before its restoration in the 2010s, the bridge’s colour scheme dated from 1977, when it was painted red, white and blue for Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee. Its colours were subsequently restored to blue and white.

The bridge consists of two bridge towers tied together at the upper level by two horizontal walkways, designed to withstand the horizontal tension forces exerted by the suspended sections of the bridge on the landward sides of the towers. The vertical components of the forces in the suspended sections and the vertical reactions of the two walkways are carried by the two robust towers. The bascule pivots and operating machinery are housed in the base of each tower.

20 Fenchurch Street skyscraper, The Leadenhall building (“The Cheese Grater”) and Mary Axe building (“London Cucumber”).