For this assignment I have chosen three stanzas from the poem, “The Ballad of London” by Richard Le Gallienne and created responses to each that echo my experiences here.

“AH, London! London! our delight,

Great flower that opens but at night,

Great City of the midnight sun,

Whose day begins when day is done.”

London, I have come to learn, is an endless delight and array of light even when the sun sets. As we are so far north and it is winter, the sun makes its presence even scarcer.

When the sun falls out of our sight in the very early evening, though, London does indeed shine brighter than it does during the day. London at night glows with the whites of street lamps and the reds of motor brake lights. Spotlights shine on monuments. Unlike the day’s flat light casted on monuments, the shadows and light create a sublimity that only exists with the night as the backdrop.

My favorite part of the night is the River Thames. The water shines with the reflected lights coming from bridges, boats, and the banks. Purples, blues, reds, and oranges from the under glow of bridges reflect on the otherwise shadowed runners and walkers.

Night walking is when I look around more. Instead of weaving and slouching through congested sidewalks, I can walk in a straight-line look out at London uninterrupted.

“Lamp after lamp against the sky

Opens a sudden beaming eye,

Leaping alight either hand,

The iron lilies of the Strand.”

 The Strand has become a staple of my London vocabulary as much as the Libe and the Bald Spot are part of my Carleton vocabulary. The Strand runs eat-west and on the eastern portion becomes the iconic Fleet Street. It is a busy and, based on how wide it is, seems to be an important street in London. In our many trekkings to theatres on the South Bank, we must cross the Strand. The landmarks on the Strand have become familiar friends to me as I navigate London. There is Australia House, Somerset House, and the Courts of Justice.

The Strand passes through an area that does indeed shine more brightly at night. Theatres convene in that area and walking to and from our plays we join in with the theatre crowds of London.

“Like dragonflies, the hansoms hover,

With jeweled eyes, to catch the lover;

The streets are full of lights and loves,

Soft gowns, and flutter of soiled doves.”

The times of carriages in London have long passed, but the allure of the city night is still ever-present. Walking across the Strand or down Aldwych there are a number people glam-ed out so much it looks like they just stepped off the runway. This is the most fashionable environment I have ever experienced. Women in heels that click with a sturdy clacks walk with more speed than I in my (more sensible) converse, men with slicked back hair, and everyone walking with conviction.

The nights of London bring a new front of people to the streets. The workday is over for most and instead of walking the night streets because they have to, nightwalkers walk because the destination is a desired event. During my days I walk to my classroom, but at night I walk to go to the theatre or eating out. The glows and flickers from the streetlights shine down on us walkers in such a way that we are on our own stage with spotlights following us.

Harrods Department Store

 Confession: I try to avoid shopping malls as much as possible. In my experience, malls have that gross air that smells of some mixture of perfumes leaking out of the different stores, chlorine, human stuffiness, and low-quality fried food. And then of course there are floors and floors of stores more or less selling the same stuff. The people that I see in malls seem to me a completely different breed of human. I do not consider myself by any means superior to them, but hanging out in a mall for the sake of hanging out in a mall does not appeal to me in the least.

These mall observations come from the thankfully few times I have spent in the Grand Teton Mall in Idaho Falls, Idaho—which I scoff at the mere mention—and the Mall of America in Minneapolis—which maybe the coolest part is the amusement park in it but I’m not eight so even that does not attract me.

However, since going to Harrods Department Store I have had to reevaluate my previous assessment. I still do not enjoy going into densely populated indoor shopping spaces, but Harrods has certainly made an impression on me.

Harrods is not a mall, but it does have the same vibe as a mall with rooms upon rooms of clothes and shoes and watches and other endless displays of doo-dads and thing-a-ma-dings. Unlike the malls I am used to where there is a main drag and all the stores come off that, Harrods stores all lead into each other. The first time I went to Harrods I travelled to the top floor and entered big room full of clothes. I exited that room but only entered into another room also full of clothes but from a different brand. It is a very clever design tactic because even if shoppers think they have what they want, they just walk into an adjoining room and suddenly another world of merchandise is there to tempt them.

Over the course of seven weeks I have been to Harrods two times, and I intend to go one more time before I leave England. The clothes, not to my surprise, are completely out of my budget, so I am not in the least interested in browsing for things I can neither afford nor sensibly wear. What makes Harrods so enticing and alluring to me is the food. The second time I went to Harrods I did not bother with any of the clothing or accessory areas, I just stayed on the ground floor and perused the food.

Harrods is unbelievably and incredibly comprehensive for a department store. Not only are there the expected clothes, jewelry, and whatnot, but also there are also foods of every variety. It is like some high-end grocery store. There is even a produce section! And a poultry room, and an entire room packed with chocolates and teas and coffees. It was both a great and terrible thing to be in the food section of Harrods with an empty stomach. Great because I was surrounded by so much beautiful food, but terrible for the same reason. How could I possibly choose among decedent cupcakes, delicious-looking meat cakes, fat sandwiches, and rolls of fresh bread—to name just a fraction of the food surrounding me. Smells pulled me in every direction. A sizzling spicy sausage, aromatic frosting, baked bread.

In addition to the glorious food surrounding me, the rooms themselves are so luxurious and fancy. Swirling ceiling designs curled around places where lavish chandeliers hung. Colorful and bright paintings stretched across the tiled walls. The atmosphere of the food departments was all so exciting and I could not help but let out little gasps of surprise every time I saw something I admired—either for its edibility or its architectural design.

The food courts at other malls hold no candle to the Harrods food zone. I cannot say that I appreciate the throngs of people at Harrods anymore than I do anywhere else, but at least I can get a very tasty and fancy gold-sprayed, creamy Oreo cupcake at Harrods.