For Victorianists, the chance to go to London is the opportunity to return to the mothership, that discursive site traversed again and again in readings of Dickens or Woolf. The following links and lists are by no means inclusive, and are merely recommendations to start trippers on the way to building their own itineraries and lists of favorite London spots, moments, eats, and memories. Make sure to check the Victoria Research Web's extensive and useful list of how to plan a research trip to London.

Flight

Everyone has his/her favorite flight site, but mine is studentuniverse.com which offers reduced rates for students and faculty. If you can avoid the spring break rush in March or the high summer rates, you can probably get a cheap flight (esp. in months like February).

Accomodations

Central London is the place to be, but it can get pricey. As well, the St. Pancras area immediately to the west of the BL can be a bit dodgy. The area around Russell Square tube is my favorite-- student friendly and not far from the British Library and several tube stops (Russell Square, Euston, King's Cross/St. Pancras). It's chock-a-block with little eateries, pubs, a laundromat, and the giant youth hostel The Generator. I stayed on Cartwright Gardens, a crescent street of delightful, creaky old Georgian buildings with lots of character and charm.

The Avalon B&B in Cartwright Gardens

• Close to Euston and Russell Square tube stops and King's Cross/St. Pancras
• 25 pounds per night for students
• Close to BL and book stores and small restaurants, stores, and neighborhood pubs

John Adams Hall at the Institute of Education

• Close to Euston and Euston Square tube stations
  (I can't remember the street, but it's right across the street from Euston tube and behind the Quaker Meeting House-- nice quiet neighborhood)
• Dorm rooms are 30 pounds nightly on five-week Easter break, summers, and school holidays with breakfast
• Have cheap laundry facilities on site

Research

British Library
Arrive on first day with your letter on UF stationary from A Person in Authority stating that you are a Responsible-Individual-Who-Can-Be-Trusted-With-Delicate-Materials. Brandishing said letter, proceed immediately to the membership office on your right (the gift store is to your left with loads of fun books and bibliophile treats). The membership people will photograph you and have you fill out application forms, and state that this is the only library in the world where you need to access materials (it's a good idea to search the public catalogue before you arrive because they do ask what specific materials you want to look at). At the end of this process, you get a reader's card and may work in any of the reading rooms: Humanities 1,2; Rare Books and Music; Oriental and India Office; Maps. Some of the pre-1852 texts can only be delivered to Rare Books, so that's where I planted myself by default (rumor has it that the Humanities rooms are "cruisy," so keep it in mind ;).

Armed with your reader's card (which you'll need to show to get into the individual reading rooms and to get the books), go to one of the reading rooms with your list of texts. You can use the reading room computers to pre-order books to be waiting for you when you arrive the next day, or the day after that, or the day after that. This is great because the book delivery does take about an hour and a half when they get busy. The next day when you come in, drop your stuff at one of the seats, note your seat # and then go to the desk and ask for your books. They'll look at your card, take down your seat number, and then hand over the precious pile of books; these books can't leave the room, but if you bring a laptop you can move pretty quickly through them. Also, especially for people in the busy summer season, you may wish to arrive at the reading room early because by 10:30 am seats begin to fill up. And don't forget to visit the Treasures of the British Library exhibit which has a Shakespeare folio and manuscripts of Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Virginia Woolf, and other favorites.

Pollock's Toy Museum
Tucked away off the high street, this museum houses a fantastic assemblage of floor-to-ceiling children's games, toys, theaters, and ephemera. Worth a visit even if this isn't your area.

Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood
This museum has a wonderful collection of old games and toys with very real children scurrying about and trying the hands-on activities. It's basically a warehouse-size room partitioned off by toy genre; the exhibits are in glass cases with helpful labels to contextualize them.

Trips Outside London

Though I originally had big plans for Scotland, I rarely left London; there's just so much to see there! The few forays I did make were fabulous (Canterbury! White cliffs of Dover! Windsor!) and below I've included my favorites.

Bath
Dog Austen's footsteps and explore the Roman baths; there's a great youth hostel there in an Italianate villa on a hill above the city that's inexpensive and picturesque. Thankfully there's a bus that runs up the hill, because otherwise it's a cross-training hike.

Haworth Parsonage
Though one has to take two trains and a bus to get there, the Bronte Parsonage in Yorkshire is an amazing getaway. The Bronte research library is located right through the kitchen where the family ate and wrote; you can also visit the Black Bull pub where Branwell sank into dissolution, or hike on the moors up to the "Bronte Waterfall," or practice yelling "Cathy!" and "Heathcliff" as appropriate.

N.B.
Don't overlook specialty spots like the Imperial War Museum or the marvelous Museum of London as other possible sources of information and/or quirky archives and artifacts. The Victoria and Albert Museum is a compendium of the world of design and fashion, offering great resources on the Great Exhibition. Think about the specific needs of your project and send these curators emails before you arrive; this will help you find out more about whether the collections will be useful to your work (and also to see when the curators will be in town). Even if they don't have the particular items or archives that you're looking for, the curators may be able to suggest other museums or places of interest, and so way leads onto way.

A few favorite London spots and sights

• Green places: London has amazing parks and gardens; you can join a parade or a protest at Hyde Park or watch the swans and soccer players in St. James on Sundays, or take a quick tube trip to Hampstead Heath (where many movies have been filmed...) to visit the famous cemetary with the mortal remains of George Eliot and Karl Marx), or to Kew Gardens with its gorgeous Crystal Palace-esque Palm House, and the fascinating Marianne North Gallery housing the prints painted by this Victorian woman traveler.
  
  
• Scenic riverside London: take a boat ride down/up? the Thames to Greenwich for the day (best four pounds I ever spent-- watching old London go by); The London Eye (cheesy but wonderful view esp. at dusk)

• The Reading Room at the British Museum (genuflect and prepare for greatness): don't forget also to wander through the Egyptian Galleries and see the Rosetta Stone and the Sutton Hoo ship burial, and so many wonderful things! The BM is free (donation suggested) and offers free hourly tours of the different galleries which are informative and great way to break up the week. When you're through you can eat across the street at the pub where Marx used to refresh himself after a tough day in the Reading Room-- and you must make time for a ramble through the amazing book stores circling this area of Bloomsbury.
  
  
• National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery: Overlooking the glorious Trafalgar Square, these museums offer free tours daily; meet those Victorians face-to-portrait and have lunch in the atmospheric St. Martin-in-the-fields' Cafe in the Crypt (fabulous-- I'm not kidding).
  
  
• London Walks: Jean is my favorite guide who bursts into poetry and song; these two-hour walks on the "Wilde" side offer smart perspectives on the city through alleys and lanes you'd never discover on your own. "Legal and Illegal London" will also take you all through the Inns of Court and Temple Bar area which is actually harder to find than one might think. I also did "Shakespeare's and Dickens' Londons" and a tour on the South Bank, and the Clerkenwell walk, and one on East London and sites important in Jewish history-- all great!
  
  
• Tate and Tate Modern: In a room practically alone with Waterhouses and Burne-Jones... it's a good thing they provide benches because you'll need to sit down at the Tate. Tate Modern is in an amazing converted industrial space-- worth a visit for that alone!
  
  
• Great Eats: Though cuisine like "spotted dick" or "bangers and mash" never spoke to my palate, London is full of great eats! Curries are readily available everywhere, and the chocolate is divine! Scarf down lots of Kit Kats and McVitties milk chocolate digestive biscuits...(and bring me back some!) Other fun restaurants to try: Ye Old Cheshire Cheese down an alley in the City, the great noodle bars and patisseries of Soho (e.g. Sri Thai near the Palace Theater where Les Mis plays), and a great fish and chips place called The Rock and Sole Plaice not far from Covent Garden
  * Old London: St. John's Gate, the Temple, the Tower, Westminster Abbey

What I wish I knew...

• Get IDT phone cards (you pay for all local calls at your hotel on top of this, but these are the cheapest for int'l calls)
  
  
• London A-Z is the only map to get (available in various sizes everywhere). It's the one that the Londonders use and you'll feel v. Britsy carrying it around (discretely, of course).
  
  
• Weekend travel cards on the tube are a good investment, because during the week you won't get your money's worth (if your accomodations are close to the Library). On the weekend, you can get a zone 1-2 card that'll enable you to go all the way to Greenwich and the Docklands as many times as you want.
  
  
• Get plug adaptors for your laptop, hair dryer, etc. and make sure these have the right wattage/voltage numbers to avoid catastrophe in the BL when you plug in (your laptop, not your hair dryer). And, if you are paranoid about your computer, invest in a security cable to lock your laptop so that you don't have to do a sprint to and from the bathroom or so that you can eat a leisurely lunch in the BL cafeteria without losing your seat.

A few vital links:

* The Underground
* TimeOut
* Pubs

University of Florida
Copyright 2004
Meg Norcia