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Olympic park area; cusp of four Boroughs

The Olympic stadium now called “London stadium”

Location of new museums, near popular shopping area.

More of the Olympic park area before the London series came to town

The River Thames and River Lea

Week 8; The cusp of 4 boroughs

I was able to spend a lot of time in the area of Newham, which houses not only the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park but also the Emirates Airline sky tram that crosses River Thames over into Greenwich. Newham, Located on the intersection of the Thames and the River Lea this area dates back to 1080 AD and has diverse roots of royalty and the working class. In the northern part where the Olympic park is, Queen Matilda who walked the grounds often fell into the river so she had a large bridge built n the shape of a bow, so steep that only horses could walk it well. As you head south down the River Lea there are areas where immigrants would settle and set up shops, from “silver town” to “canning towns” you can see the beginnings of this neighborhood and how it has developed so much that this area to this day holds the title for the fastest built locomotive, just over nine hours. The River Lea was one of the most essential rivers in all of London, allowing the transportation of goods from east London to west London.

Over the years that Newham has developed, through the shipping on the River Lea and rail transportation it has continued to be a hub for transport to this day, that even the royal docks are located here. This popular area has created an issue for the River Lea with littering. The rapid development caused for people to simply throw garbage into the river, so much so that when they finally started to clean it you were able to pull out almost anything from washing machines to motorbikes. Parliament hired a man to clean up the river and he acquired so much “rubbish” out of the river that he was able to turn around and make a fortune out of pawning it all. So many of the shops that started here grew and became commercial businesses, they followed their cultures and continued to dump their waste into the river but since then most of these shops have either turned to more eco-friendly alternatives or shut down. This area has been worked on and cleaned so much so that it is currently the cleanest locals claim to have ever seen it.

Parliament placed the “Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park” on the cusp of four different eastern boroughs, this was to try and pull up property values of the eastern part of London but also clean up the area. They shipped in vegetation from wales on pallets and placed it in the river to become of the eco-system here, this made it look more beautiful and presentable for the Olympic games. The London Olympics is known as the cleanest Olympics because only three percent of the games went towards pollution, but what is even more impressive was that they managed this while being able to sell every single ticket, granting the title “Most successful games.” This whole area is a beacon to the modern world as to what is possible for our own eco-systems. With multiple new museums coming to the area it is going to be an exciting time for the 20,000 people that live in the immediate area of the Olympic Park.

Switzerland, the most beautiful place in the world.

More photos from service in towerhamlets

The high school and the park where the knifes were confiscated and donated

Inside of the community cafe

Photos from our tour around, the grey skies are fitting for this sad part of town.

Week 7; Pirates in Poplar

My class visited Poplar, in search of doing service for the people in one of the poorest areas in all of London. Poplar, located within Tower Hamlets, an area construed of multiple poor rural villages on the east side has always been on the biggest. It has maintained a lot of attention since it first began in the 13th century, from it first being given away by a Bishop to the Abbey of St Mary de Graces and then again to Prince Charles II when he was invested in the prince of wales. Many people have wanted to turn it around, however, one of the most influential people of the area would be John Mucknell.

John Mucknell grew up in one of the surrounding neighborhoods of Towerhamlets, but when he was married he moved into Poplar because of its rapid industrial growth. The area was huge for shipping, booming right where the Canada one building now stands. John first started working for the East India Company as a commander here in Poplar, fighting for the crown during the English civil war against the Puritans. After the war, he kept the ship and used it to raid and destroy trade within the area and was named the “Kings pirate” because he flew the British flag still. Johns pirating damaged the community but it wasn’t until the heavy bombing during world war two that Poplar fell into a rapid decline. Poplars quick fall into poverty created rebellions within the community over taxation and the king.

This past that Poplar has had is still reflected in the town today. Incidents of stabbings and gang violence have spread throughout the area and have gotten so bad that a park within the community was built entirely out of the knives that have been confiscated from the local high school. Poplar being so poor has once again caught the eye of the government and is in the process of re-urbanization. While many in the community are excited to see the effects, the wheels of bureaucracy take a long time to turn and it still won’t be for some time that actual change happens. That is why it is important for what we can do today.

We met with Harca, an equal lending housing company whose main focus is Poplar. They sent us to a café in the area where we spent our morning fixing up the garden as well as their dining halls. This café is a common meeting spot for many people within the community and does well to unite everyone here. That is why it was so important for the work we did, the building was beginning to look run down and I am glad we were able to give it the facelift it needed and take all of the stress of that much work off of the shoulders of the staff who were so kind to us. There is no better reward than the feeling you get when you do service.

#reurbanization #pirates #poplar #towerhamlets #london #gentrification

Oxford; thoughts for the future?

Photos from Brixton

Ritzy, Yoga studio, Pop Brixton, three main areas that have been revitalized.

Images from the markets where tourists and locals flourish together.

Ridiculous costs of living in this area.

Some reminders of the past.

Week 6; Urban Renewal

These first two weeks in London have been incredible. Thinking that Barcelona was confusing was a mistake because, in comparison to Londons TFL, Barcelona was a walk in the park. London being one of the largest cities I have visited has shocked me beyond belief, every day just in my immediate area I find something new or interesting. I have concluded that you can't do this town in a month and that I will have to come back to experience it. London has felt a lot safer than Barcelona so far, I don't have the constant fear to look over my shoulders in case I get pickpocketed but it still does have its poorer areas.

I was able to visit Brixton this past weekend where a guide explained to us that the boroughs were set up in a manner different to other cities, the poor and rich neighborhoods stood side by side so that they could try and desegregate the people and create a community. Brixton is an old town dating back to the 11th century where it was mostly agricultural, over the next few hundred years it developed into a booming town and opened up "Electric Avenue" which attracted middle-class families in 1880. After WWII Brixton fell into decline, with property values going down and a rising immigrant population they faced new problems of civil unrest and riots rooting from racism between the immigrants and the police.

Since then Brixton has been facing urban renewal, while there are still remnants of the past like the graffiti on the bridge calling the police the real gangsters' other parts of the area has been redeveloped and used as a beacon to call back the beauty of what Brixton use to be. A building near the Brixton market holds a yoga studio that used to be a job center, Pop Brixton was an unused area where shipping containers laid has been turned into a modern and hip area for people to shop and enjoy the local cuisines. Ritzy, a theater dating back to 1911 has been renovated to cater to all those who come to it as either a tourist attraction being the oldest standing theater in London or to watch local movies.

While it has been difficult for the people living here to adjust and is being forced out due to the rising prices of rent, in one area they wanted to tear down the market to create more housing but it was stopped by a government agency turning it into a historic site. Brixton locals have managed to keep their culture in their town and it is just as vibrant today as it has been in the past. By catering to the new community entering they have found ways to make money and afford to continue living here in Brixton. Prices seem to have been inflated compared to other areas, it was difficult to find lunch for under ten pounds and the shops in the area all seemed to be a little more high-end.

#Brixton #popbrixton #urban renewal #gentrification #london

Dublin

Pubs, cliffs, and cathedrals. What more could you expect from a town like Dublin?

#ireland #pub #guinness #jameson #templebar #moher #cliffs of moher #dublin #stpatrick #cathedral

Week 5: Enter, London.

Barcelona was incredible and I have high hopes for London, another city with so much beauty and magic hidden behind every corner, I can’t wait to see what it has to offer me. My new roommates and peers seem just as excited as me to get out and explore the city, but I hope they’re just as courageous and outgoing as those I left in Barcelona. No matter what happens it is going to be an amazing experience where I learn about the history of a world before even my own.

Just like in Spain, I have the hopes of gaining a stronger understanding of cultures and speaking with the locals. English people will be a lot easier to talk to since they speak my native tongue, but the cultural barriers will still be there. At the end of this month when I have to come home, I expect to have grown so much in a creative sense, and am excited to bring these lessons with me everywhere I go and apply them to my daily life. My end goal for not only this month but this class overall is to be able to answer the question “does art influence culture or does culture influence art.”

The British music expirence and the Beatles tour in Liverpool. Grandad would be proud.

Cambridges American memorial, one of the more humbling aspects of this summer. Along with the exploration of the university and a new hat.

Week 4: the last of Barcelona

Montjuic is an area dating back thousands of years, with proof of stone-age tools from the Epipaleolithic era. The center of the side of the castle has a tower that dates back as far as 1073 BC, and it wasn't until 1640 after a Catalonian revolt that it was upgraded into a castle and was used to fire at the city it overlooks and murder hundreds of people over the years. Montjuic district has been updated a lot since then, with their bullfighting arena being turned into a shopping mall when bullfighting became outlawed in 2005. There were a lot of very kind small business owners sprinkled through the streets of Montjuic, my favorite purchase in Barcelona came from a bakery in Montjuic when I bought a Donut the size of my head for three euros. I got it from the sweetest old lady that told me all about how she grew up in Barcelona and how she loved it there and has her whole family here. This area did have a substantial amount of tourists, from the castle and the mall there are a lot of street vendors selling items like beer and food, specifically at the fountain show in front of the castle where hundreds of people show up every night.

Les Corts was one of the more modern areas I visited, from the massive Caixa bank building overlooking the FC Barcelona soccer team's stadium Camp Nou to the more modern looking buildings. It is easy to tell from the similarities from other more recent towns like Eixample with the wider streets and the further spaced buildings it had the same goals of cleanliness and health as the other more recent towns. It is often referred to as the district of glass because of its giants' glass towers in this part of town, along with the enormous supermarkets. It was refreshing to get away from the busy streets inside areas like Barceloneta and El Raval. I did get lost while trekking around for a hotel and had to stop and ask for some help. I stopped at what was the first auto shop that I had noticed in Barcelona and it looked like a garage under a giant apartment complex and was a dirty as auto shops should be, it didn't feel out of place. The people who were there helped me a lot with finding the three stars hotel and were happy to help me.

Olympic oval area was an amazing and spiritual place where I think I grew the most, while it bordered Barceloneta it was different in the way that it was modern, clean, and vibrant. Towering buildings went along the beachside, and I had the opportunity to visit one, my class went on a company visit to the DDB were we were able to learn a little about advertising but also more about the beautiful area as well. Surrounding the area was the hospital of medicine and some high end hotels, We had a guide explain to us that Barcelona use to be a really poor area but because of the Olympics they were able to rebound out of poverty and use a lot of the arenas they had built for housing today, that they can sell at premium pricing.

While it was a higher end neighborhood, it still had quite a bit of panhandling and street vendors littered throughout it. My last weekend in Barcelona I spent on the beach of the Olymypic Oval area with a few other students to watch the sunset. Imagine our surprise when there were still tons of vendors awake trying to sell at such an early hour, while we sat one vendor came up and began pouring a beer onto the sand and talking to us, he must have had a friend behind him because while we were captivated by him we were robbed blind. They took his phone and wallet and immediately started racking up charges with his cards. After this happened most of our group left because they didn't feel safe. I continued to watch the sunrise and a man came up to me, his name was Desmond and he began talking to me of God. Desmond was from Cape Town, South Africa and was a drug dealer. He told me that he was on the beach selling drugs and he hated it, he wanted to find peace and I told him I was proud of him for doing so but asked him and how and he didn't know. After spending the morning talking to Desmond about god, drugs, and Barcelona he wanted to leave me with a final parting thought, "A lot of us here are bad, but a lot of us here are trying to do good." referring to my friend who had just been robbed, this helped me find peace in a lot of things about Barcelona and if anything gave me hope for the people that live here.

Olympic area photos

DDB advertising company building

A local bar bordering Barceloneta

A pier where a lot of tourists come

A hotel in the area

New modern sculptures in the area