Tourist Time: Off the Beaten Track

While I'm currently in the MPA lounge rocking out to the new Lonely Island/Adam Levine hit, "YOLO," I figured it was time to post what tourist activities I did on Saturday. I rarely get to play tourist in London. For one, I've done a lot of the big activities and attractions, and I'm saving to redo them with my Dad. Yet, at the same time, I rarely get free time to do things outside of classes, homework, internships, and the MPA team. 

So, with a long week behind me....I took full advantage of a day off! Something that I've been meaning to do for ages is to take a trip down to Bethnal Green. The Bethnal Green Tube Station was the site of the worst civilian disaster during World War II.  As a side note, a little unknown fact about me is that I have a huge hobby of learning information about the London Underground. My knowledge surrounding Bethnal Green actually was born out of my history senior seminar paper that I wrote during my senior year at Syracuse. The paper was about the use of the underground stations and the separation of social classes in the use of the stations as shelters during the Blitz. (history, geek...I know!)

Staircase

It took some time to get down to Bethnal Green from Ladbroke Grove. It's a straight shot on the Central Line, but I live in the other end of London. It was a quick tour of the tube station. I was able to view the monument that is currently being built for the victims, the staircase of the incident, and the plaque. The staircase was the place of the incident for as the air raid sirens went off, a woman tripped causing a domino effect. 

After my jaunt down to Bethnal Green, I headed up to Sloane Square to view the secret river that runs over the platforms. See what I mean about knowing random facts about the tube? There is a tube containing the water of the River Westbourne to the Thames.  The amount of water still in the tube is unknown, but hardly anyone realizes water is inside it. It looks as if it just part of the station. My photos did not come out due to the time of the day, but this article gives a lot more information about this fun fact.