Day 60: The Bloomsbury Walk

Field Study Dr. Tate issued an assignment that screamed "nerdy research went into the founding"--it was called the Bloomsbury Walk, not to be confused with the Mrs. Dalloway Walk, nor the Wasteland Walk. I glommed onto a group of five or so girls and, armed with a sporadic map of Tottenham Court Road and the Bloomsbury District, we went off in search of Modernism. As is usually the case for exploring a different part of town, one becomes the leader and the others merely sheep. My sense of direction being nonexistent, I was wooly and contented pointing out that somewhere in Bloomsbury once lived the Darling children, who from time to time ventured out to Neverland. Unfortunately, several girls were trying to take the reins--at one point, I remember standing around outside a parish church, arguing about whether it was old enough to be facing east, as all churches once were. Bless the locals for pointing us in the right direction. This Bloomsbury Group included prolific writers and artists who ushered in, however snootily, the Modern movement. Our first stop was Virginia and Leonard Woolf's London flat (marked by a round blue plaque). I think it was a business now; a bunch of secretaries or something looked over at us cheering and laughed--another horde of perky BYU students, enthused about literature. A few yards away lived Lytton Strachey, and a few yards after that, Virginia's sister and husband, the Omega art movement. It was even better when we found one of Charles Dickens' homes (bombed in the Blitz) next door to the Starbucks where we stopped for a spot of hot chocolate. Autumn still thick in the air, we trolled through some gorgeous parks, including one with Mahatma Ghandi in bronze. Beth made sure to get some great pictures of him under all those poppy wreaths. Then T.S. Eliot's house, my favorite poet of all time, and back home again. I think I prefer visiting the places more than reading the works, honestly.