I am truly, so grateful to have been granted the privilege of seeing London Tide, a play that was adapted by Charles Dickens’ Our Mutual Friend. This play was all around so impressive and truly beautiful.

The themes in this show are incredible. The themes that resonated with me the most were grief, guilt of leaving your family behind, running from other people’s plans for you, and having freedom as a woman to find yourself in a man’s world whilst being loved by one.

A beautiful moment that brought me to tears was when Bella gave Lizzie her black mourning dress. I loved the metaphor of feminine support along with the passing of the torch of grief. As someone who has become quite acquainted with grief in these past few months, this moment touched me and was heavy on my heart.

I can’t even imagine how painfully difficult and frustrating the tech process must have been. The amount of lighting cues alone was through the roof. The lighting was by far the most impressive I’ve ever come across. They used the hung lights to make the waves and they moved with the ‘tide’. I also absolutely adored all of the music. This play is not a musical but it had many beautifully written and composed songs that were so tasteful. I never felt like they pulled away from any characterization. I am so sad that I can’t find a cast recording anywhere.

The love stories were amazing. The two love interests of the leading ladies were the ideal partner for a woman finding themself. I loved that in the end, they didn’t force Lizzie and Eugene to immediately jump into a relationship. Instead, he encouraged her ambitions of experiencing the world and deciding her own fate before continuing with him.

All in all, this show will follow me for the rest of my life and this cast has gained a lifetime fan.

Today we had the pleasure of visiting the Tower of London. This was an exhibit that I experienced back in 2016 and honestly, not a lot has changed about the place itself. How could it? It’s remained unchanged for hundreds of years so I don’t know why I expected something different. I will say that I appreciate the history much more and found myself feeling a sense of displacement. It was was as if I was walking around on sacred territory and my worthiness had not met the standards of that place. I find it incredible how much history has occurred in the Tower. The amount of lives that had been taken. The many souls who spent their final days in torment. It’s hard to grasp how much pain and suffering occurred in that place. The way that medieval battles took place there. The way that people were publicly beheaded hundreds of years ago. And of course, I’m just another free, blessed American there to feed my touristy hunger. I wish I could understand everything that has happened there but that would be completely impossible. But I still feel shocked from what I did gather and I’m going to share a little about that

Josef Jakobs, the man pictured above, was executed for his role as an enemy spy in World War II. He was the last person ever captured by the British government to be executed at the Tower of London. In the year 1941, he was killed via. firing squad while sitting in a chair. That chair now on display at the White Tower portion of the exhibit.

Speaking of the White Tower, that was my favorite exhibit at the tower of London. We saw the Crown Jewels, the Beauchamp tower, the torture chamber, and obviously the White Tower. It holds the most weight for me as the armory was absolutely jaw-dropping. Seeing the kings armor and the many weapons used throughout the years, I felt like a kid in a toy store.

Today we went to the Tower of London. There wasn’t a line or anything, which was nice because we were able to head right in. We all went and saw the crown jewels first. There was a lot more in that exhibit than I thought there would be, I was picturing just the crown and scepter and the other few things they use in the coronations. (I just realized I was actually picturing the scene from the Sherlock tv show.) But it ended up being a variety of different things, not just crowns (though there were way more crowns than I would have thought). There were swords which were super cool, as well as a lot of gold dishes that they said have been used for coronation banquet and mass. They were beautiful and incredibly intricate, though I don’t know how they ate off some of them because they were so textured with the designs on them. There was a very large gold plate they used to use for the coronation banquet that had the last supper on it. Once I was done looking at the crown jewel exhibit, we went into one of the towers. Because the towers basically go around in a square, we were able to go up into one then cross to the others without having to get out and go back in. The towers were cool and interesting. In one they had a previous king’s room, and off his bedroom was a pretty tiled bathroom but when you stuck your head in to look you could hear what I guess was a recording of someone whispering prayer. I don’t know why but the voice was very creepy. I got a stuffed animal raven at the Raven shop, which is my first souvenir type purchase. We were sitting because we thought we had done everything, but then we realized we missed White Tower completely. We didn’t have that much time left, so we went in to see but left before going upstairs because we thought it would take to long. But then once we met up with the group we went back again and that was such a good decision because there was a lot of very cool stuff up there, including a dragon made of armor, weapon, etc. Outside I liked seeing the ravens, they were so big and pretty and didn’t care about people at all, though it made me so sad they couldn’t fly. There were animals made of chainmail that represented the animals they used to have there. Apparently, the leopards were fed soup, which seemed to make them relatively tame; the monkey smoked tobacco from a clay pipe; the zebra loved ale; the polar bear chained but could get into the water and sim; and they thought the ostriches could digest iron so they would sometimes feed them iron nails. We also saw the torture exhibit which showed some torture devices but wasn’t as much as I thought would be. They had information on some people held or killed at the tower, including Jane Grey, Anne Boleyn, and someone I was surprised to see, William Penn. I knew William Penn was a quaker who founded Pennsylvania from history class. But apparently, he was imprisoned in the tower in 1668 for promoting his quaker beliefs, which I did not know. I just researched it a bit more, and he was arrested for one of his writings being blasphemous and not supporting the idea of the trinity, though he actually said that’s not was he was saying but was just people trying to make him look bad and discredit quakers. He was eventually found not guilty and released and would later travel to North America.

Today’s visit to the Tower of London was fascinating! I had so much fun exploring all the different exhibits, and the views from within and outside the tower walls were breathtaking! Upon exiting the Tower of London, the Tower Bridge stopped me in my tracks. I of course got a photo (see below), and I would love to see it again before the trip is over. It was so much larger up close than I imagined it would be, and the architecture was stunning. 

Within the tower, I would have to say that the “Imprisonment at the Tower” exhibit in Beauchamp Tower was my favorite. (Sorry. It’s hard to write about today without saying “tower” every five words.) It was fascinating to learn about all the different people who had, at one time, been held there, and there is even a room that has carvings in the walls made by various prisoners. Seeing how many carvings there were in that one room was harrowing, but each one paints a vivid picture. Each of the people who made a carving wanted to ensure something of themselves or their beliefs was left behind, and it was incredible to see what they carved while facing imprisonment and/or death. You can see examples of some of these carvings in my photos at the end of this post.

One of the most interesting prisoner profiles I found while touring was that of Anne Askew. She was a Protestant preacher, and the first woman in England to ask for a divorce. She is also one of the very few people to ever be tortured at the tower. I feel like The Tower of London has forever been a place associated with torture and gruesome murder, so I was surprised to learn how little it actually took place when considering the number of prisoners that were at one time held there. Anne was tortured in the hopes that she would give up the names of Protestants in Queen Katherine Parr’s inner circle, but she never did. Anne withstood immense torture and pain to protect those individuals, and in the end, she was burned at the stake for it. Reading stories like her’s really gives one some perspective on how brutal life could be for people who got on the wrong side of royalty. 

Some other things I enjoyed seeing and learning about while at the Tower included the Crown Jewels, the architecture, and the flowers. I never realized how extensive the collection of the Crown Jewels is. I’ve always thought of it as just a few crowns that the royals wore, but it also included regalia worn by royalty and those closely associated with them during ceremonies, serving platters (including a HUGE wine bowl that can hold 240 BOTTLES of wine), and other significant items used by royalty for ceremonies, dinners, and more. The architecture was also fascinating because the Tower was expanded over years and years. As a result, you can find Tudor, Medieval, and other styles all present within the same complex. The architecture paints a sort of timeline of The Tower of London, and it makes for a great photo op, as you will see below. Lastly, I just loved seeing all the beautiful flowers throughout the complex. It was a rare sunny day in London, and that combined with the flowers made it a beautiful time to explore.

Welcome back to the world of Cori, where everything is about me (I know that’s what you’re looking for, you internet lurkers). Today is day four in London, and what an eventful day it has been! Today’s agenda was to visit the Tower of London, and later tonight we will be going to see London Tide at the Lyttelton Theatre. I got up early to get coffee with my roommates and took a walk around Russell Square to start off this day slowly. After that, our day began with a rather snappy ride on the tube, all the way to the Tower of London.

Right off the bat I got some nice pictures: some of the tower, some of the flowers in the surrounding area, and one of a certain Roman emperor named Trajan, who I thought was from Civilization 6, but is apparently a real guy! Crazy, right?

Once we got inside, we saw the Crown Jewels, which we were sadly not allowed to take pictures of. You’ll just have to take my word for it that they were pretty rad, as far as imperial jewels won from the colonization of the entire world go. After that, the group was set free. We went first to the imprisonment at the tower exhibits. The first, and my favorite, was Beauchamp Tower.

In Beauchamp, there were brief placards on quite a few people who were imprisoned there. One of them that I took interest in was Alice Tankerville, whom I had never heard of before.

Upon looking into Alice’s story more extensively, I found that she worked in piracy alongside a man named John Wolfe and was imprisoned because she was caught robbing two wealthy Italian merchants on the Thames. She was locked away in Coldharbour Tower, which was very secure from the rest of the complex. The placard above mentions that she is the only woman to ever escape the tower, but not how. It turns out that she wooed two guards, who helped her to rappel down the side of the wall near Traitor’s Gate under the cover of darkness, into a boat. It was not successful, though, as they were caught by a group of night watchmen and then hanged in chains over the Thames. The full article that I read on this is here–I thought that her story was pretty neat.

My favorite part of the trip to the tower were the various engravings in a room at the Beauchamp Tower. I thought it rather poetic, that there were so many images of peoples’ final efforts of human connection, through leaving a carving of something that mattered to them, whether it be their own composition or a symbol of their family. There were carvings from many famous people of the time, such as Robert Dudley, who was the Earl of Leicester and Philip Howard, who was the Earl of Arundel. One that I found particularly interesting was the engraving shown below.

That’s all for now! See you tomorrow with a very exciting review of London Tide.

CW

Visiting the Tower of London was an enriching experience that made me reminisce on my Game of Thrones obsession days. I desperately wanted to send a raven and shoot a crossbow out a window. The buildings there were some of the most beautiful architectural pieces I have ever seen, with ornate details and intricate designs. Visiting the White Tower and the Crown Jewels made me realize that British historical culture is one of lavishness and maximalism. Money truly was power and material objects were symbols of worthiness and righteousness. It is fascinating to me how royalty characterized themselves by decoration, accessories, and grandeur. Shiny objects equal wealth. It was interesting to see how color and texture, especially purple, was used to signify respectability. Also, I was surprised at how much armor King Henry VIII had, which makes me think he either fought a lot or just liked the way they looked in his collection. It’s hard not to question all of Henry VIII’s actions, respectfully. 

My favorite part of this visit was the Beauchamp Tower, or the Imprisonment Tower. British people back in the day sure did love some revenge. Particularly, I was fascinated by the stories of some heroic female prisoners. Anne Askew. Boy was she a baddie. She was the first woman to request a divorce! That must have taken so much courage to be the first one to be like, “Hey, I don’t like you and if you can divorce me, I can divorce you too.” However, the British didn’t like to let women have hobbies so of course she was also the only woman tortured in the Tower, too. The reason she was tortured is because she wouldn’t snitch on the Protestant radicals, which like—SLAY! Keep those secrets, girl. She said, “Because I lay still and did not cry, my Lord Chancellor and Master Rich took pains to rack me with their own hands till I was nigh dead.” I mean, talk about strength!

I have to take a minute to talk about the love story. Prisoner Alice Tankerville, the so-called murderer and thief, attempted to escape her fate, unlike any woman had before. How did she try it, you ask? Well Alice was not like other girls, and the guard John Bawde saw that. He soon fell in love with her mischievous and alluring demeanor and abandoned his duties to help her escape. She was just a girl living in captivity, you know? Together, they attempted to escape from the tower to a waiting boat, but were unfortunately caught. And unfortunately murdered. What if a little torture and execution is just the friends we made along the way? Like the pirate she was, she was hung “upon Thames at low water mark in chains.” Hopefully, she got her gold crowns in the afterlife. If I were to write this love story into a screenplay, I would try to get Kiera Knightley to play Alice. 

Going upstairs in the Beauchamp Tower was super cool as well, (although I would break my leg just to use an elevator for once.) It was interesting to see the etchings on the wall from the prisoners held in that room—it seemed like a window into their trapped mind. There was one prisoner who was so fed up with it all, that he just wrote how many years, months and days his prison sentences was. I think I would get pretty irritated if all the entertainment I had was to carve in a wall. Some of the writing and carvings were actually really beautiful, which saddens me to know that creative talent was wasted for years and years inside of that room. 

I really loved the experience though and the pictures I got will be cherished forever. Now, does anyone know where I can buy a cool sword? Preferably a light one, please. 

Cheerio!

xoxo Gossip Girl

The tower of London greatly exceeded my expectations! For some reason, I was picturing another version of Big Ben and that’s what I expected going in. I was in awe when I saw that it had a more castle-like structure.

My favorite part was seeing the crown jewels. It was so immensely beautiful and was so rich with history. I would love to know how much money’s worth of jewels and gold are in there. The Royal punch bowl made my jaw quite literally hit the floor. It was a beautiful gold bowl that could hold 240 bottles of wine. And the big scoop they use to serve the wine was also so beautiful and it looks like they have pretty large servings. It makes me so envious because why don’t we get drunk off a giant gold punch bowl in America?

As a huge fan of Six: The Musical, I love Anne Boelyn. It was nice to see a memorial dedicated to her at the Tower of London in her believed-to-be execution site. She was imprisoned at the tower after being accused of adultery with four men and incest with her brother. However, she denied all claims. Many believe she was executed simply because she had yet to produce a male heir and King Henry VIII had grown bored of her.

For someone being sent to death for crimes she didn’t claim, she was very calm on her execution day. She apparently laughed and made a few jokes. She even went as far as to use her last words proclaiming King Henry as a good, gentle, and sovereign leader.

I also got to see some of the ravens that roam the tower! It is a common superstition that if one of the raven’s were to leave those grounds, the monarch would fall.

The Tower of London was not at all what I thought it was going to be like. I really enjoyed my experience there. It was way bigger and diverse than I was expecting. I enjoyed how different all of the buildings looked and that they all had so much to look at on the inside.

I really enjoyed the crown jewels! Mad I couldn’t take pictures because I would love to remember all of the beautiful things I saw in there. One of my favorite things to look at were all of the trumpets. The cloths and little bows connected to them were stunning! I also found it funny that the punch bowl was so big that it could hold like 240 bottles of wine, that is crazy! The scooper for it too was huge. I can imagine how fun their parties were back in the day.

We also went to the white tower which was full of all the weapons and armor which was realllllly cool. They had armor for kids, adults, and horses and it was really interesting to see who wore all of them too. We then went to the torture chamber which gave me chills. It made me very sad to see that people treated people like that but then again I know how big of a deal treason was back in the day.

Queen Anne Boleyn was for sure the most controversial Queen in British history. She was found guilty of adultery with four men and had incest with her brother. She actually was said to have laughed before she got executed. She was making jokes about her neck before she got beheaded and I actually saw exactly where she was beheaded which was spooky. Queen Victoria ordered for there to be a plaque where she was killed because she was so moved by her story.