Author: Anthony Iovino

Cheers London

And just like that, we’re back to our daily college lives. London was truly an amazing experience and I wish I had more time there. There were countless things on our ‘to-do’ list that we never got to, but also a lot of unexpected things that were equally cool to see and experience. From hearing friends’ stories, and seeing the city on TV, I’ve always had this picture in my mind about what London would be like, culturally, geographically and aesthetically. Based on this picture I had in my mind, I also thought that I would really enjoy London, and that it would be a place that I might like to live. After finally traveling to London, I can say that the picture in my mind was quite wrong, but at the same time, I do really like London and would definitely consider living there at some point in the future. Traveling to NYC many times, I have found myself comparing London to NYC to put it in perspective. Although they are both of the largest cities in the world, they’re completely different in mind, culturally, geographically and aesthetically.

Architecturally, London was a lot more complex than I had imagined; the seamless weaving of 11th century buildings and 21st century skyscrapers into the urban fabric was absolutely incredible. This trip was the first time I had been out of the country, and the first time I really sketched. Sketching while there and learning about the city beforehand allowed me to get much more out of the trip. It was such a cool experience to visit places like Stonehenge and Stourhead which we learned about in Arch 2300, and let me say, the slideshow pictures don’t do their justice.

Old and New

Old and New

London was filled with many surprises, all good (in my opinion). Although I was only there for a short period of time, it’s a city that I am fascinated with. I will definitely be back in the future, and maybe eventually I’ll go back for good. Cheers London.

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Brighton

Brighton

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Tea time

O-H-I-O in Tate Modern

O-H-I-O in Tate Modern

South Kensington Day 7

Today was one of my favorite days because we got so much free time. After exploring Westminster Abbey (which was incredible), we headed to Harrod’s because some people wanted to look around. I have to say, Harrod’s was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before: a huge, maze like building, filled with very expensive brand clothes, shoes, furniture, food, toys, Porsches, books, electronics, literally everything. Afterwards we decided to walk down to South Kensington which, as of right now, has been my favorite part of the trip.

South Kensington is a place of obvious wealth, but that’s not what is attractive to me, rather it’s the unique urban context and the facades that interested me. We walked through many squares, small parks, dead end streets, all lined with a mix of colorful and white town homes. I really like this area of London because all of the side streets and alleys seems to have a unique feeling but also were very connected to one another. While in South Kensington, we found a little bakery and grabbed a cupcake and jumped on the Tube to get to the office visit at Allies and Morrison.

 

South Kensington Tube station

South Kensington Tube station

House in South Kensington

House in South Kensington

The office visit to Allies and Morrison was great! I really liked the firm and the feeling it gave off. Their offices were very cool, and I really enjoyed looking through their projects. After dinner at Wagamama (which to my surprise, was pretty good), we spent the night in Chinatown and went to yet another bakery and got cake. Overall, today was a great day, however I’m a little disappointed that I just now discovered South Kensington, because I wish I had more time to explore.

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Chinatown

Day 6

Yesterday we started off our day by taking the Tube to Temple which is one of my new favorite places. Temple is filled with cobblestone streets, courtyards and fountains, and is a quiet escape from the busy city. While in Temple, we explored Middle Temple Hall and Temple church, which are both situated on a courtyard, one with a double hammerbeam roof, and one with great stain glass windows.

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Temple, near Middle Temple Hall

After Temple, we went up to Covent Garden which is also a new favorite of mine. The market stalls, the food, the street performers, and St. Paul’s Covent Garden all made this place very unique. During this time, we also explored Sir John Soanes Museum which was very quirky but fascinating at the same time. On our way back to Covent Garden for lunch, we stopped in a place called Neal’s Yard which was a cool place we had researched before coming.

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After grabbing lunch and looking around the markets of Covent Garden we headed to our museum of choice, Tate Modern. Although I’m not a huge modern art fan, I really enjoyed walking through Tate. After wondering around the museum, we took the Tube to the Sherlock Holmes museum and we enjoyed walking through Regents Park. On our way back, we took the Tube during peak which was interesting, fun, and stressful all at the same time. I have never seen so many people cram into such a small space before. When our stop came, we had to fight to get through people. To end the night, we had dinner at a pub near the hotel.

Day 2-3, Big Ben to Greenwich

The past two days have been so fun! Yesterday we did our big walking tour, and although I was very exhausted, it was great to see so much of the city! I really enjoyed the tour guide because he was so knowledgable about every aspect of the city.

Today we visited the British museum, took the walking tour of the skyscrapers, and took a boat out to Greenwich. The British Museum was so cool, and my favorite part was definitely the Great Court. It was so large and had so many exhibits that it was hard to see even a fraction of it all. Surprisingly, I enjoyed the skyscrapers a lot more than I thought I would. I loved the green aspects to them, and also really enjoyed learning about the shapes and layouts of them. My favorite skyscraper that we saw would have to be the cheesegrater (122 Leadenhall). I really like this building because of its shape, the entrance piazza, and the untilies core with the bright colors. We then took the tube to Westminster to get on the boat to Greenwich. When we came out of the tube station Big Ben was right there! It was super cool to finally see the famous icon before getting on the boat. The trip to Greenwich was really fun and a great way to see the city from a different perspective. After arriving in Greenwich we explored the Royal Dining Hall and chapel for a bit before being released. Afterwards we decided to go up to see the Prime Meridian line where there were great views of just about everything from the O2 stadium, to Canary Wharf, to the City of London. To end the night, we walked around Greenwich for a little while, eating dinner in a little French restaurant and exploring record stores. I had a great time today and I’m finally starting to feel comfortable navigating the transportation system here in London.

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A street in Greenwich near the Royal Observatory.

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Big Ben from Westminster Bridge!

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Here is a panoramic of the Great Court at the British Museum, and a few of my sketches I completed here.

London Day 1

What a day! Our first day in London was filled with many buildings, many steps, and a lot of firsts. We started our day leaving the hotel at 8:45 and began with a short walking tour of the area surrounding our hotel. My favorite part of the walking tour was Bedford Square because of the town homes with colored doors and window boxes and because the second you stepped in, the sounds of the city disappeared. We then visited the Building Center, but unfortunately the large model of London was gone. After that, we took a double decker bus to St. Paul’s Cathedral and explored The Barbican and the Museum of London before grabbing lunch at Pret and going into St. Paul’s. St. Paul’s was so amazing! The amount of detail and the vast scale was overwhelming, and the views from the top were incredible. After sketching and exploring the cathedral for a few hours, we headed off on our own to Abbey Road, and took our first Tube ride, which was surprisingly easier than expected. We stood in a crowd of people all darting out into a congested street to get their pictures taken. We then ventured down into Little Venice and ate at an Italian restaurant called Red Pepper. This meal was very odd as the staff all spoke Italian and also had very thick British accents, so communicating with them was interesting to say the least. Finally, after dinner, we took the Bakerloo tube line to Oxford Street and walked back to the hotel from there, grabbing cookies from a street side bakery on the way.

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This picture was taken in front of St. Paul’s, looking down Fleet Street.

Anthony’s Bio

Hey! My name is Anthony Iovino and I’m a Freshman majoring in Architecture with a minor in Business. I am from New Albany, Ohio although I was born in Texas and spent part of my childhood in San Francisco. While in London, I look forward to seeing St. Paul’s Cathedral, going on the London Eye, and simply exploring the city. Below is my brother, sister and I.

 

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