Oh Hey Palace

juxtapositionThe second book I chose to read is “Imagined London,” by Anna Quindlen. The author writes about London as it exists in literature (how it portrays the city and the people) vs. what she encountered she visited it in 1995. In one of the chapters, she describes blue (sometimes red) plaques that are located all around London on various buildings; these plaques usually identify that a famous person, author, statesman, etc, lived, worked or met there. I've seen a number of these including ones marking where Charles Dickens, Samuel Johnson and Sir Clive all lived. The NYU building here in London used to be the house of Lord Eldon, a prime minister of Britain, this fact marked by a now commonplace blue plaque.
The NYU building is located in the heart of Bloomsbury, which is thought to be the center of intellectuals. The University of London is actually located there, giving backbone to this claim. Quindlen remarks on this fact and reminds the reader that it is where the Bloomsbury group, of which Virginia Woolf was a famous member, met. NYU made a good choice with location. One reason being that our classes and academic center are located by the University of London Union, putting us in the center of student life. Another reason is that the area is absolutely gorgeous. The architecture is fantastic, row after row of typical Victorian houses. And lastly, as I've already alluded to, Bloomsbury is full of history. There are so many houses with the plaques indicating someone important lived there.
The idea of commemorating people and events is big here in London. London may have more statues of American presidents than big cities in America do. They have JFK, George Washington and FDR among many others. They have monuments to the Battle of Waterloo, the Crimean War and the people involved in those events. If you had any doubts about London's s history, just walk around. It's not all that uncommon to walk down a road and see a palace or large house that belongs to a titled family. It happened with St. James's Palace. I was walking down a street and suddenly I saw the palace. It's just there. On a street with cars and buses passing by it. That's something you don't see in NYC, the obvious reason being that NYC doesn't have any palaces. But there is a strong juxtaposition between buildings of the various eras; Whitehall Palace stands with the London Eye in the background, for instance. It's a charm I'm going to miss about London.