Clever Brits

You have to admire the sheer brilliance of repurposed buildings such as The Tate Modern, but in the last two days I have begun to see that this kind of ingenuity is not unique to the TM. Bear with me now. Hampton Court Palace is really two palaces in one--one facade is the Tudor Palace of King Henry VIII with its exemplary 16th-century architecture (including privy); the opposite facade is the late 17th-century/early 18th-century country residence of William III and Mary II, and THAT part of the estate exemplifies THAT period's architecture (large windows with sashes, more refined floor boards, etc. . . , so you get 2 for 1 as a tourist or cultural critic. Very cool. And you get two lessons in cultural history as well--we learned about the different types of cooking, games and sexual practices, for example, from stories of Henry's desperate attempts to sire boys to Mary's bedroom where she was matched, hatched, and dispatched quite publicly (although she was allowed to draw the bed curtains for the matching part). Today, the repurposing trend emerged clearly. We visited Oxford Castle, which wasn't open to the public when I lived in Oxf. in 1980. Why? Because it was still a working prison. This site began as a Norman castle built on top of an Anglo Saxon wall but later became a notorious Victorian prison (with all the macabre trimmings--pubic hangings, horrible conditions, imprisoned children forced to work, bad hygiene--Dickens type stuff). It then remained a prison until 1996 (!) even though it was declared to be the worst in the UK. However, the repurposing of this site continues--it is now a tourist attraction and 5-star hotel, "Malmaison." You can pay top shilling to stay in one of the cells (3 former, gloomy, horrid cells transformed into a luxury hotel room) overlooking the 11th-century Norman tower, which itself overlooks the former execution site now made into a restaurant called, I kid you not, the "Living Room."

And if anyone feels like making a fortune, just build a NYC "Eye" in Queens and build something like the London Dungeon in Brooklyn or better yet put it on Governor's Island. The queues for these things! Those pounds we're shedding aren't the ones we want to shed. No 2 for 1 deals at those attractions.

Still experiencing technical difficulties with photo-posting. Tomorrow night I expect to unveil some doozies.

Love, Sid

PS drove by our little apartment complex from the 1980 trip on Staverton Rd in Oxford. Also swung past The Cherwell School where I learned at age 13 that "dark sarcasm in the classroom" just doesn't cut it. I have faithfully and courageously rid my classroom of dark sarcasm ever since.