Laura's Travels: Catch-up Time! July 7th: LAARC and...Somewhere Else

Hello, all!

I’m catching up on the blog right now, so brace yourselves! This post is about last Monday, July 7^th. We went to the London Archaeological Archives and Research Center (LAARC), and it was a satisfying trip. Considering that by last Monday I had taken about 1,000 pictures, I had serious picture-taking fatigue, so I don’t really have any pictures from that visit but do have one Dr. Welsh took (see below).

LAARC has a fascinating collection—I believe it’s one of the biggest in the world mostly because whenever something is built in London (and there is construction there all the time), LAARC is required to sift through the grounds and see if there is anything historic there. If they find something, they are usually given about two weeks to go through everything and see what they can find. As a result, the collection is vast, containing items all the way back from the Roman occupation.

Dan with me looking on. (Thanks, Dr. Welsh!)

Dan was the archaeologist who took my group (they split us in half again) around the collections, and we got to see some great things. The best was the back room that had the glass collection. There were old dishes from ancient times, porcelain figurines from the 18^th century—all kinds of things. I enjoyed looking at all of it.

Dan showed us one of his favorite items, which was a shoe found at the Globe theater grounds. He says no one can prove it, but Shakespeare may have worn the boot considering he performed in his own plays. Another interesting Shakespeare tidbit: Dan said that at every site related to Shakespeare’s theaters, they have found these huge, rock-like balls. The theory is that they were used as props in the plays or perhaps even as sound effects—people may have rolled them across the stage to sound like thunder. Can you imagine a man rolling a ball down a stage as King Lear fights the storm? J Like all libraries and “information centers” in the UK, LAARC suffers from funding issues. Visiting all of these places has been educational and also very sad. I know I keep saying this, but reading 1984 while in London has been most beneficial. The destruction of history and records along with truncating language is going on now—we no longer have to wait for some metaphorical “future”; it’s here. Witnessing how little communities in the UK and US respect or value their libraries speaks to this grim future.

Later in the day, we visited another information center, but we are not allowed to comment much one it because of privacy issues. All I can say is…speech classes. Public speaking is one of the only things I consider myself an expert on and, well…no comment.

221 Baker Street!

All in all, I had a good time that day, especially after the "class time." When finished at the second information center, several of us went to the Sherlock Holmes Museum on...221 Baker Street! Enjoy the pics!

We had to wait in line for a long time, but the guy dressed as a guard was super nice to us and...a doctoral student in AMERICAN studies, which he divulged after we told him we were in British Studies. He said his dissertation will be on depictions of the KKK in film. He was very polite, even in spite of having to wear that costume. :)

Inside the museum, they set everything up as though Sherlock really did live there. 'Twas fun!

Seeing the Sherlock Holmes violin brought back good memories from when I used to play. For the record, I used to pull out my violin and play when I had writers' block while trying to finish my MA thesis in English. Surprisingly, it really does help you think!

Here are a few of us posing. The girl on the left is Sarah, with whom I will be seeing Martin Freeman in Richard III and I'm on the right. I could not do a smiling pose and opted for something sillier. Fortunately, Sarah took my picture before I burst out laughing (just barely, though!).