You might be wondering about the picture that accompanies this post, given the title – but I’ll explain later.
First of all, as the title suggests, I’ve just returned from a trip to London.
The trip was a combination of business and vacation. Or to use that new word: “worliday” – a mix of work and holiday.
It was great to be back in London, the city just has such an energy and liveliness you don’t find anywhere else in Britain or in the rest of Europe.
London is also the most global city in the whole of Europe. You can find pretty well anything from anywhere in the whole world represented in London.
Old Street and the Silicon Roundabout
It’s interesting to see how a lively web startup scene has taken root in East London. This is centred on the district around the Old Street Roundabout (sometimes nicknamed “Silicon Roundabout”). The area of activity now stretches right across through Clerkenwell,Shoreditch and on up to Hoxton.
There are now said to be hundreds of new web start up businesses operating in this area of London. My own company is also one of them, so I guess you could say I’m also part of the phenomena.
There’s also now a new “hot-desking” centre for web entrepreneurs at Silicon Roundabout called “Tech Hub” whom I called by to check out. They offer affordable office space, wi-fi and a chance to network and socialise in informal surroundings, as well as a chance to benefit from the entrepreneurial vibes of the district. I think Tech Hub is a great idea and I might consider using it for my business.
On the other hand, London can feel a bit like sensory overload after a short while. But you can always take refuge in a pub or a coffee shop. Don’t know whether you know but London and the UK in general has seen thousands of pubs close in recent years. Partly it’s due to the smoking ban now in force. You can only smoke outside pubs.
As a result, outside the more popular pubs you see loads of people gathered outside pubs, sometimes spilling out into the road if traffic permits. This is especially the case in Soho and it can give the place a bit of a vague Mediterranean feel.
It seemed like a lot of the old working class pubs have now shut their doors and been converted to restaurants of different kinds. In fact there’s now a much greater choice of restaurants to be found in London than there used to be.
Hoxton and Shoreditch are the new “in” parts of town
One of these new style pubs I visited was The Corner Shop in Shoreditch on the corner of Old Street and Shoreditch High Street. It reminded me of some of the bars you find in Berlin. They also serve food – as well as Belgian Leffe on tap – one of my fav beers. I’ll give them a free plug for that. Check out The Corner Shop Bar on the Web at: http://www.thecornershopbar.com/
The Shoreditch and Hoxton areas have gone through an amazing change in recent years. I remember they used to be really rundown and Dickensian and not the kind of place you’d want to pay a visit to unless you were out of your mind. But they’re now fast turning into a kind of London version of Berlin’s hip Prenzlauer Berg (but rather more expensive). Just shows how fast things can change.
The Borough district is also up-and-coming
Another area that’s fast becoming a new “in” kind of place right now is the Borough district, just south of the Thames between London Bridge and Tower Bridge. The centre of the area is the old Borough Market. This is a produce market located under the railway viaduct approaches to London Bridge station, dating back to the 19th century and earlier. This is actually a real old Dickensian part of town – though it actually goes back to Roman times. It’s also seen some amazing changes in recent years.
The area adjacent to the river at this point has been renovated eg Hays Wharf and Butler’s Wharf. Many of the old original wharf buildings are still there and now serve as tourist-targeted malls. They’re pleasant enough to wander around though.
There are are some great restaurants in the Borough Market area, as well as some lively pubs, eg the Market Porter just off the market. Though most of the clientele seemed to be local office workers, rather than actual porters from the market. They serve an excellent real ale called Harvey’s – of which I downed a couple of pints.
The Greater London Authority’s new post-modern City Hall building is also located here, just up the road from a big new office complex called “More London”. Next to London Bridge station a great new pyramid shaped office block called “The Shard” is under construction, its some 40 stories high.
If you go along the Thames on the southern side from London Bridge towards Waterloo, you get to see a fascinating old part of London. The way is pedestrianised for the most part and you pass by some really interesting old buildings; the remains of Winchester Palace, the old prison known as “The Clink”, and the reconstruction of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, well worth a visit.
The site of the original Globe (long since demolished) is indicated, but apartment blocks long since occupy it’s place. A little way along you can cross the Thames via the pedestrianized Millenium suspension Bridge, which takes you directly over to St Paul’s Cathedral.
London Docklands and Canary Wharf
I made a brief trip to London’s Canary Wharf, which is the centre of London’s new Docklands office district. The biggest office block in Europe is situated here. The area basically serves as extra overflow capacity for the City of London, with mostly financial institutions occupying the office space here.
Along with office blocks there are a number of shopping malls here and other buildings, including some nice restaurants along the old dockside wharves, which are now renovated and smartened up. Docklands is linked to the rest of London by the new Jubilee underground line as well as by the DLR light railway (which features driverless trains, a bit like the kind of thing you find at some airports). On the whole, the Docklands district reminds me a bit of Hong Kong.
Wimbledon’s Wat Buddhapadipa
Wimbledon is a place in London pretty well everyone has heard of. Well known for the Tennis Championships that are held there.
But what fewer people know is that Wimbledon is also the location of an authentic Thai Buddhist temple. It’s called Wat Buddhapadipa and I paid it a visit for the first time. I think it must be one of the biggest Thai Buddhist temple outside of Thailand.
Entry is free and provided no gathering or other event is taking place in the temple you can go inside the temple. There is also an large old country house in the complex which is said to be haunted. It has a small Buddha shrine on the ground floor which is open to all. The grounds also contain a relaxing oriental type garden which you can wander around.
I did a short meditation in the temple, it occurred to me of how we are so caught up in our busy lives: business, media, stress, consuming, rushing around from A to B – and back again. Everyone needs to pause, reflect and get some peace and quiet occasionally. The setting for this can be a Buddhist temple, or in a church, a mosque, even an atheist/humanist setting – it isn’t so important. The main thing is that we take the time to pause for some silence and reflection every now and then.
It also struck me how there are so few Buddhist temples in the Western world. Of course that’s because the West is primarily Christian. There are plenty of churches – and even more mosques now than there are temples. But in England quite a number of churches have been closing – some of them becoming offices, restaurants and even bars or night clubs.
A pity we can’t convert a few of them into Buddhist temples and provide us with more variety and choice – in a similar way to what has been happening with some of London’s pubs being turned into all manner of different restaurants!
If you’re interested in Buddhist temples, and Thai Buddhist temples in particular, then it’s well worth paying a visit to Wimbledon’s Wat Buddhapadipa.
To get to Wat Buddhapadipa Temple, which is a little to the north of Wimbledon station. you need to take bus 93 up to Wimbledon Village. From there it’s about a 15 minute walk to the temple grounds on Calonne Road, Wimbledon.
Note that part of the way is pretty hilly and steep. Take a map with you as the signposting for the way to the temple is a little erratic and it can be a bit tricky to find. You can easily find yourself getting lost in hilly tree-lined suburbia if you don’t know the way.
The website for the temple and monastery is: http://www.buddhapadipa.org/
Wimbledon Village is a more exclusive and expensive district than the area around the station down the hill, which gives a shabbier impression (although real estate prices there aren’t cheap by any means). It’s worth a visit for it’s own sake even if you’re not interested in the temple.
By the way, the famous Tennis Courts are located a few kilometres to the east of the Village.
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Written by kevin
Topics: Travel Adventure