{"id":764,"date":"2009-08-26T16:38:31","date_gmt":"2009-08-26T20:38:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/linux.dickinson.edu\/wpmu\/norwichhumanities\/?p=764"},"modified":"2009-08-26T16:38:31","modified_gmt":"2009-08-26T20:38:31","slug":"all-around-westminster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/2009\/08\/all-around-westminster\/","title":{"rendered":"All Around Westminster"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am constantly finding myself in awe of something new in or about London.\u00a0 This morning’s subject of choice; statues.\u00a0 London has more statues than any other city I’ve ever been in, and I’ve visited my fair share.\u00a0 It’s not just the free-standing statues of Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela, Winston Churchill, or General Montgomery\u00a0that I saw just this morning, but also the finely-carved monuments and memorials to the Women of World War II, the Guard’s Memorial, and the Cenotaph.\u00a0 However,\u00a0the greatest haven to carving in\u00a0the British Isles I’ve encountered yet is\u00a0Westminster Abbey<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Westminster<\/dt>\n
Westminster Abbey<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

Westminster Abbey is stuffed to the gills with statues and monuments to famous dead Britons.\u00a0 Sure, it’s kind of neat to see and praise the wonders of gravity at Sir Isaac Newton’s monstrous memorial, but is it really necessary for him to have such a large grave in a church full of other important people?\u00a0 On the flip-side to Newton’s tomb, Charles Dickens was buried in\u00a0a very simple plot of ground… erm, church floor… that only recorded his name, date of birth, and date of death.\u00a0 Plain and simple, but did he really have any good reason for being buried in Westminster Abbey other than being a famous author?\u00a0 I was confused as to why these people, albeit extremely important in their own rights, would be buried in a place where they would have little-to-no affiliation with the Kings, Queens, and other nobles interred or no real connection to the Anglican faith.\u00a0 On that note, I also couldn’t help but wonder if any of the people buried at Westminster before the formation of the Church of England would be appalled to\u00a0know their permanent resting place changed faiths on them!\u00a0 (Random thought, I know.)<\/p>\n

After leaving Westminster, a group of us decided to go explore St James’s Park.\u00a0 As this was my first London park, I don’t have very much to compare it to. \u00a0There were people everywhere posing for pictures, feeding the birds, chattering on in their native languages, and relaxing on park benches.\u00a0 The thing that struck me most about St James’s Park was the landscaping of gorgeous, brightly coloured flowers.\u00a0 They were so well tended-to and made the experience of strolling along extremely pleasant!\u00a0 There were also ponds with numerous types of water fowl and educational signs that showed pictures of what animals are indigenous of the area.\u00a0 However, due to the close proximity of Buckingham Palace <\/a>and the\u00a0Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Walk<\/a>\u00a0located in the area, St James’s Park is definitely a bustling tourist attraction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Flowers

Flowers from St James's Park<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Diana,

Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Walk<\/p><\/div>\n

Just off of St James’s Park is the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms.\u00a0 \u00a0I am a big fan of the history of Britain during World War II and the Blitz, so I was really looking forward to climbing into the depths of Churchill and the Cabinet’s\u00a0own bunker.\u00a0 Thankfully, I was not disappointed!\u00a0 There was something very surreal about walking through the rooms with the provided audio guide and standing just feet away from where some of the most influential and comforting speeches of WWII were made by Winston Churchill.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, the entire experience was not all sunshine and daisies.\u00a0 I had a big issue with the part of the bunker devoted to the Churchill Museum.\u00a0 Churchill was not a saint, please do not make him out to be one.\u00a0 There was little-to-no information provided on Churchill’s faults throughout the entire museum.\u00a0 I like Churchill as a historical figure and find much of what he accomplished in his various offices simply incredible, but he screwed up on more than one occasion.\u00a0 I was particularly frustrated with the portrayal of Churchill during the Dardanelles campaign <\/a>during World War I.\u00a0 Churchill was the First Lord of the British Admiralty and in an attempt to “bring an end to the war quickly,” he sent Anzacs into battle poorly equipped and with incorrect maps.\u00a0 Although Churchill did resign in the aftermath, the museum would lead you to believe that the entire catastrophe that led to the loss\u00a0of so many Anzac lives\u00a0was not at all Churchill’s fault.\u00a0 (I also would have liked\u00a0any <\/em>information on Churchill’s relations with Ireland at the time of the Blitz, but alas, apparently it was not deemed as important.)<\/p>\n

My day went from a fascination with statues in Westminster Abbey to walking in a building encased with steel and concrete.\u00a0 Although these things seem to be quite different on the surface, there is\u00a0something that connects them; Churchill.\u00a0 They were Winston Churchill’s War Rooms and the Abbey bears a plaque commemorating Churchill.\u00a0 There is more than just this surface comparison, though.\u00a0 In times of great need, people turned to Churchill and to their church for reassurance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am constantly finding myself in awe of something new in or about London.\u00a0 This morning’s subject of choice; statues.\u00a0 London has more statues than any other city I’ve ever been in, and I’ve visited my fair share.\u00a0 It’s not just the free-standing statues of Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela, Winston Churchill, or General Montgomery\u00a0that I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[744],"tags":[899,920,923,934,935],"class_list":["post-764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kelley","tag-cabinet-war-rooms","tag-st-jamess-park","tag-statues","tag-westminster-abbey","tag-winston-churchill"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}