What is the difference between seeing London from the 39th floor of the Walkie Talkie building versus being down on the streets?
Not to get too Shakespearean, but that is the question.
That was the question I was asked 35 stories above the city of London, looking out over the Tower of London, the Thames River, the financial district, the London eye, and every tourist and resident below. Then I was told: “write about it”. So, I am.
Being up in the air at the Sky Garden gave me the feeling I imagined I would have when I arrived in London. I anticipated feelings of adventure and a pure sense of travel and wholeness. When I stepped off the plane in London, I expected to feel a sense of fulfillment, like I finally found a piece of me that had been missing. I know that sounds cliché, but I have been waiting and wanting to take this trip for so many years of my life and when I finally hit the streets of London, I almost felt underwhelmed and a bit unsatisfied, at least in the area I spent the most time in and where the hotel was located. The streets of London resemble the streets of Manhattan, Philadelphia, and Boston, only you need to look in the opposite direction before you cross the street here.
There seems to be a sense of insignificance when you’re in the streets and on the ground. You will get honked at, and in the case of our hop-on/hop-off tour bus driver, you’ll piss people off and you’ll get yelled at for it. Impatient drivers will still give you the middle finger and curse like sailors at you, but that all comes with being in a city. It doesn’t matter the city, there will still be the non-city people that piss off the city people.
But if you venture up to the 35th floor of the Walkie Talkie building and gaze on for miles and miles both up and down the Thames, you feel that sense of adventure begin to run through your veins and you start to feel like you really are in an entirely new country in an entirely new part of the world; a very “I’m the king of the world!” Jack Dawson moment. Only you’re not on the grandest ship in the world in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Just 35 stories off the ground in London.
It almost sounds like being in a fishbowl or underwater: the sounds are muffled, people don’t speak as loudly, you don’t hear as many f-bombs, car horns, and police sirens. Instead, you overhear conversations about a girl wanting to marry her boyfriend in an accent that tickles the eardrum and sounds more like music than a casual chat between friends. You hear coffee and drink orders. You can hear the cappuccino machine whirring and spitting. You can hear the toasted bread of the tomato and mozzarella panini crunch from the table behind you and the clinking of wine and beer glasses during a heartfelt “cheers” from the table in front of you.
Time is slower in this fishbowl and it is how the pictures make the city feel like. I have only ever seen aerial views of London—pictures from above that create this romanticized utopia where people sound like royalty and offer you tea. This leaves you (or at least me) with the impression that English people don’t curse or use foul language, are very subtle and polite, and will be welcoming of Americans. To get this experience, stay high above the city and never ever step onto the streets of London.
Thirty-five stories below, you will find an entirely different experience. English people do and will curse, foul language is a part of their diction, they are extremely blunt and forward, they are not always polite, and sometimes, they aren’t very welcoming of Americans—especially when you ask for the bill to be separated by party before you order your meal. Car horns are loud, and police and ambulance sirens are piercing to the ears. You don’t hear pleasant conversation, but only a homeless man asking for spare change or food. Like any city, it’s fast. People and automobiles will run into and trample you if you stop to breathe, which I don’t recommend in city streets anywhere. Although I did find London to be an extremely clean city. Still I don’t recommend breathing in too much of the metropolitan air.
Comments