On Thursday morning Dr Lewis and Miss Newnes departed with Y12 and Y13 students on an English trip to London. We arrived at London Paddington at midday and began our journey via the notorious London Underground. Our intellectual expedition continued when we arrived at the British Library, a place of history and thousands of fascinating, individual stories. After a workshop with an expert of the British Library, we were all ready to arrive at the hostel (which exceeded expectations) to have some downtime. As one of the focus points of the trip was how wealth and power feed into the production and reception of literature, we went back out in the evening to see some very expensive and impressive mansions on Billionaires’ Row, which included the Embassy of Romania, France and Russia.
On Friday we had a quick visit to the Tate Modern before making our way to what was undoubtedly the highlight of the trip, the utterly fascinating Globe Theatre. We were all instantly in awe of this beautifully designed theatre and were all fascinated by the stark contrast of its traditions in comparison to other theatres and productions in the modern era. Passionate and talented actor Chu Omambala gave us a tour of the theatre and then in the afternoon hosted a workshop with us which was very well received. On our way back to the hostel, we had a quick look at the spectacular sights of the London Eye and Houses of Parliament from Westminster Bridge. After having our evening dinner, we had one final poetry workshop at the Victoria and Albert Museum which was run by Dr Lewis. We all found it very insightful and it was a nice ending to an educational and thoroughly enjoyable trip.
Harry Dunnett Y13
