We covered two areas today - started at Oxford Circle coming up to West End shopping area on Oxford Street. This high-end area is quite a contrast to the Whitechapel market we left behind. We zigzagged through Soho stopping at Liberty first. Bill headed for the cafeteria while I drooled over liberty fabric and products. Then off down Carnaby Street. Probably no resemblance to the 60's but alternative life styles still celebrated here. We stopped at Berwick Street Market for fresh fruit (grapefruit introduced to London for the first time here in 1890's) then over to Charing Cross Road to check out the book stores.
Crossing Oxford Street took us into Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia. We planned on dropping into the British Museum but the hour-long line (just to check bags) changed that - better to wander the streets and sit in Russell Square for a while. Then a few more blocks took us to the British Library. No line ups there... People don't know what they are missing. The building alone is spectacular, listed as "London's most important building from the late 20th Century" took nearly 20 years to build with much controversy. We spent our time in the The "Greatest Treasures" room. Where else can you look at Mozart's notebook with notations of musical ideas, Handel's last page of the Messiah, Beatles' ideas for songs written on napkins, The Gutenberg Bible, Da Vinci's architectural notes, Jane Austen's novels in tiny fine handwriting, George Elliot's even smaller writing, to scratch the surface. Virtually every printed book resides here - 16 million.
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| Coming up to Oxford Street |
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| Second floor in LIberty |
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| Liberty's mock-Tudor facade. Opened in 1875 |
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| Carnaby Street |
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