It amazes me just how much the underground tube system is needed here. I guess it’s true in any big city, but I think more so in a truly old city like London. Over the years, the city has grown and grown and a lot of the streets change names at certain corners, which isn’t as infuriating as you’d think (at least you can figure it out when you’re walking the wrong way down the street). The process of outward and upward expansion coupled with no thought to city planning back at the time of construction has lead to confounding mess of city streets and a weird and lovely mix of the old and the new when. Then you throw cars and traffic in to the whole mix. The traffic situation is jumbled to such an extant that instead of having walking and street lights that alternate for directions, they also have to alternate for both walkers and drivers. Cars go; then people go.
The mix of old and new doesn’t just effect traffic, but the feel of the town as well. I found this to be true when the group was doing a “Jack the Ripper” walking tour. All that stuff happened just over a hundred years ago, but it was hard to put yourself in the situations that were being described because most of the buildings that were around at that time are standing next to very new, nice, and shiny buildings. You can also see pieces of the original wall of London that dates back to before the middle ages throughout the entire city.
I thought this picture kind of summed up the idea of the mix and old and new.
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