Pilgrimage to Islington, a day in Bloomsbury

Anne, Matt, and I celebrated the 4th by making a pilgrimage to the house used for outside shots on the show Spaced. It is one of our collective favorite show. The house is in Islington so we took the Tube to Tufnell Park and walked to the house form there. People actually live there so we had to be a bit covert and hide in the bushes across the street to take pictures. I am sure they get stuff like that all the time but it still felt intrusive. We took pictures and quickly left. Found our way to Camden Town using a map and a compass. That was a long walk and once we got back it was time to go on a London Alive walk.

Being a former English major, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see where Yeats and Virginia Woolf used to hang out. Bloomsbury is a beautiful area of the city that I had not ventured into yet. Sadly, my camera ran out of batteries before getting to Islington so I have only the pictures Anne or Matt took. The University of London has the stuffed corpse of Jeremy Bentham in a box! He donated a lot of money to the university and one of the conditions was that when he died his body would be taxidermied and displayed. The box was closed but apparently it is usually open. After the walk we went to a pub! It was delicious. Pub culture is very interesting in London. I read this extensive website on pubs and found it very helpful. One of my main goals on this trip is to not look like a tourist if I can help it. Though I guess hiding in bushes and taking pictures of someone's house negates that.

Today we are going to St. Paul's Cathedral Library, about which I am very excited. I will post on that after we go!