Big Houses, Churchill War Rooms, Connecting with Friends through History

Before leaving Leeds, I took a bus trip outside to the country to look at one of the country estates, complete with an upstairs, downstairs story and tended gardens.  Like many families, the current Queen Elizabeth's aunt (Princess) Alice's family had to open up their estate after the War (II) when England started levying heavy taxes.  While I was there, thousands of town folk were out for an antique car show on the grounds, while others walked through the servants quarters downstairs and the magnificent first floor rooms; the current family still lives on the upper floor.  Here are a couple photos.

the house

the vew our back

downstair servants area

 

Back in London, I was drawn to the Churchill War Rooms, some intact from when they were abandoned after the war, some refurbished from photos.  Didn't realize the BBC had its own small room for broadcasting down there during WWII.  Also enjoyed a recording of a conversation between Churchill and FDR about the surrender terms (neither wanted to allow serial surrendering).  A couple photos.

 

where the brass operated

 

the secretarial pool

 

the Philippine campaign map

 

Conferences also are time to see old friends, and touch bases with history.

 

Kim Neuendorf, Carolyn Lin and Dave Atkin near Buckingham Palace on a long trek...

Anup Kumar in front of the second oldest licensed Pub in London, after viewing the spoils of imperial power in the British National Museum.

 

 

Finally, just a couple shots of London today,

 

the classic British phone booth and a bobby on stilts.

 

banners celebrating the 60th year of Queen Elizabeth's rein

underground and familiar sight on the river near Parliament

 

a "few" Arabic papers on the street in the neighborhood where the conference was held...

 

 





tradition continues near Buckingham Palace

view of old London "suburbs" from train on way to Gatwick Airport.

 

 



  

Urban Communication in Leeds

Had a great time at the Urban Communication Conference in Leeds that preceded the ICA conference in London.  For several reasons.

First, Leeds is a walkable, historic city with a marvelous city market reminescent of the West Side Market in Cleveland, though it's much bigger. 

Second, the conference itself at the University of Leeds drew a good group, including the venerable Jay Blumler, who spent some time with Michael Gurevitch at Cleveland State back in the days when I was a young faculty member.  We had a couple of fine chats, and I attended his session, where he did a "fight song" for the conference that was quite amusing.

Third, I learned that there's local and there's local when it comes to beer.  I was told that most of the pubs serve the top dozen or two of popular brews in England, or parts there of, but it I wanted to get really local beer, meaning that brewed in the city of Leeds itself, I had to visit one of two spots.  Following my inclinations to support local businesses, I found the Brew Spot,, I believe that was it was called, in a two-story old brick building near the train station.  Some 20 somethings were brewing several beers and had a regular following.

Fourth, Leeds is not only walkable but it's a city of arcades, beautiful links between streets from which traffic had been evicted and full of a diverse set of shops, including some fairly high end ones in the Victorian Arcade.

Time for some photos to document the event and the city.

the conference at the University of Leeds

 

Jay Blumler, 89, who makes this ol' 68 year old feel young and still able to think about an active future.

 

a couple of phtos of the Leed City Market, including a taste of Yorkshire.

 

 

 

 

 

The Lord Mayor of Leeds welcomed us to the city in the historic city "hall," inviting some members of the Urban Communication Foundation board into the room that the Queen occupies when she comes to town.  And finallly, we have a picture of the Mayor of Leeds with the Communicative City Mayor Gary Gumpert.

 

 

finally, I have to show a couple photos of the incredible arcades that connect the walkable streets, and all of them are full of retailers of one sort or another.

 

 

 

Paper Making Links to Past and Present

This past weekend I took a two-day papermaking workshop at The Morgan, one of those marvelous institutions created when an ol' guy with great values left his fortune and an old factory building on E. 47th Street in Cleveland to celebrate book culture.  It was a wonderful, messy time working with cotton, hemp and flax pulp, the first in not ony white but blue, yellow, red and green. 

Ironically, this was not the first time I had tried to make paper.  When I was an undergraduate at the University of Idaho, I took a graphics course that included a small paper-making exercise (using toilet paper for pulp, if I recall correctly), type setting using a California job case (setting our business cards), and more. 

The Morgan also has the old job cases and printing set up that I encountered again last year on my return visit to the Philippines, where I visited the same plant where we printed the Special Gazette newspaper some 40+ years ago.

So experiences seem to tie different periods of my life together, once again.

Tomorrow I leave for Europe, for two conferences in England, followed by a trip to Turkey, landing in its Megacity, Istanbul, at a time there's considerable turmoil to see, encounter or avoid.  Should prove interesting.

June 11, 2013