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Featured Destination: London, England | ||||||||||||
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| Text by Lee Kin-duk, photos by Park Jung-hoon | |||||||||||||
| Past Issues | |||||||||||||
London is a city
of history. Every building, every tree bear witness to that history. The
stratified sediment of time everywhere lays down the bedrock of the next
generation’s life. The lesson of London is the sense of responsibility
for the house you live in, for the street you walk along. Urban planning
and preservation are not relics arrested in the flow of time, but carefully
handed-down groundwork for the present. That is the classic style of London.
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| You told me
there were three codes for understanding London. First, be wary of change:
not to change implies conservatism, not rushing to knock things down to
build anew. And that implies your second code, not to worry about appearances,
to which London’s building s amply testify. And London’s third
code, not to hurry made me reflect on my own acceptance of haste as a necessary
virtue in modern life. Londoners don’t seem to consider waiting as
waiting. They have such a relaxed attitude to time. Was it to make me realize
my own impatience that you invited me to London? You said what you like most about London is the parks. The parks of such a grand scale within a city must be a sign of the true strength of the people, you said. You love the parks so much that you said you would come and live in London for the parks alone. A place of repose for the mind and the spirit amid the rush of business and the cultural products of our age: that’s a London park. In the ever bustling, jam-packed cities of the world, it is difficult to find a park as expansive or graceful as Hyde Park or Kensington Gardens. Londoners have been filling their lives with pure, clean air, whether they realized it or not. Hyde Park eases our longing for the hills with its long grass and trees around a wide man-made lake. Kensington Gardens is right beside it; indeed you could easily walk from one into the other without realizing it. And St. James Park attached to Buckingham Palace, is relatively small and cozy. The memory of a hot-dog lunch while resting my weary limbs between excursions is more satisfying to me than a fine full-course traditional meal in London. The season was just turning to the summer, but the sun still didn’t set until late. Under the dimming light that was neither night nor day, we left the park for the nearby downtown streets of the West End. Even ton busy commercial streets, the locals closed their shops promptly at seven or a little later; they nest be thinking first of their own quality of life. But there was one place that lightened up the night. To this district, the pride of London, you led me for an evening’s entertainment. I could hardly call it downtown, for the streets were empty after dark. But around ten or eleven in the evening, when the shows wound up, their audiences poured out from the theaters large and small. With the sudden influx of these surging crowds, the streets seemed to burst with life again. The West End defined the meaning of a long-running production, yet it has also been making an altogether different history with a continual string of new shows. Tourists fill the houses for classics that have been running for ten years and more, while Londoners check out new works raising the curtain for the first time. And that is the way culture is made to perfection in London. You were right to say that without having seen at least one of these productions, I could not claim to have seen London. With you, who so enjoy the little pleasures of the ordinary, I was eager to visit the weekend flea market, the Portobello Market in Notting Hill. On the road leading to the open stalls that sprang up one by one from the early morning, the sky, for once, was clear, and the shoppers seemed as numerous as the specks of dust that danced in the brilliant sunlight. Street musicians appeared one after another, and I walked to the beat of their variegated music, though my steps were arrested at every stall. Even the bargaining was so much fun that it was hard to tear myself away. I couldn’t pass by the appetizing fruit stalls at the end of the market, and the taste of dusty unwashed fruit remains with me as a special memory of Notting Hill. We needn’t invoke Samuel Johnson’s famous statement “ When a man is tired of Londen, he is tired of life,” to make the paint that getting to know London takes plenty of time. Another side of London, the museums and art galleries shattered the common image of such places as dry and boring. It was easy to see why those with only a day or two to visit the famous places and see something of life in London had better stay out of museums altogether, because even a day is not nearly enough to see everything in just one museum. And then there’s the Thames. There was no need to pick a destination in advance for a stroll along the Thames. All I needed was shoes and ample time. Just walking back and forth over the Millennium Bridge and London Bridge that connect north and south London across the river, I saw most of the city’s famous sights. London seems to testify to the history of civilizations that have developed along the riverbanks. Traveling through history of the city built up brick by brick on affirm foundation, I came to realize that the beauty of the city lies not in external decoration of its structures but in the people who appreciate and value the history of those structures. This well-built beauty is the image of London today, and will remain intact in the London of tomorrow. |
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LONDON’S PUB CULTURE Wherever you go in London, thanks to the traditional European buildings and museums, there is always plenty to see without help from the Tourist Information. But at night, there is not much to do. Nightlife is not well developed, and shops close their doors rater early. After sunset, the best way to use your time is to experience something of the life of Londoners. One of the things that make London “ London” is the pub. Short for “ public house,” the pub boasts such a long history and tradition that speaking of a “ pub culture” is justifiable. Not just in downtown, but also in every local neighborhood is a pub, each bearing its own tradition. Deeply rooted in the life of Londoners, the pub is their version of the saloon. But more than just a bar, it’s a place of cultural exchange. It has served as a social center, a place artists to exchange ideas, and a venue for debate and discussion. Today, its role has shifted to that of a place for winding down after a day’s work, though it turns into a stadium on match days for fans to watch the national favorite sport, soccer. Most pubs are far from lavish in their interior décor. Exceptions are found in many newly built pubs, but most pubs can be recognized at a glance from their appearance. Their décor is of a piece with traditional British architecture. They are nearly always on the ground floor with hanging flowerpots on the exterior walls. Many pubs have unusual names derived from historical events or places, so without a thorough grounding in British culture, it may be hard to make any sense of them. There are many varieties of pubs, and the nicer ones sometimes impose a cover charge on Friday and Saturday evenings. In downtown areas like Leicester Square, Covent Garden, and Soho, every other house seems to be a pub. Some pubs serve simple meals like fish and chips, but most serve drinks without food. When there is a restaurant, it is usually upstairs, above the pub. Draft beer is the most popular beverage, and the bar generally closes at eleven. To visit a friendly pub and chat with the locals over a pint of beer is the surest way to understand England. |
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| Lee Jin-duk is an editor of ASIANA culture. Park Jung-hoon is a photographer for ASIANA culture. | |||||||||||||
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