Is there anybody who's going to listen to my story...

Greetings from London! This is going to be my blog recording all the exciting things I'm doing in this part of the world while I'm here for the next nine months. I'll skip recounting the fairly good flight over here, the horrors of going through immigration and customs on a September 11, my really nice cab driver, the annoyances of securing my flat, and the complete chore that was getting my Internet hooked up, and just talk about what I did yesterday, Friday, September 14, 2007.

Having finally gotten the Internet on Thursday, I was able to compile a short list of trips I could take in the course of a day. I bought a day pass for the Tube (£5.10, roughly $10.25. Ugh, need a monthly pass if I am to get to class everyday), and headed for Tottenham Road Station for some shopping! I had to explore what London has to offer in terms of comic book stores. I made a list of four which were in the same general area and basically just wandered around until I found them all.

Gut reactions:
Gosh! Comics: Sleek, modern. Great selection of new issues and trade paperbacks, and a good number of back issues. Kicked myself because they had the full run of Ectokid for only £5, and I know I've spent more than $10 on my issues, and I'm missing #3! Bought Action Philosophers #9 (the final issue!), because my shop back home managed to forget to order it. It cost £2 ($4), so not a whole lot more than I'm used to, but still, a good reminder to be much more selective here (especially since my subscription box back home is getting filled while I'm gone)

Orbital Comics: A bit dungeony, in a basement. Still, not a bad shop, about the same sort of selection as Gosh, but more back issues and some 50p ($1) bins. Friendly staff, incl. an American and a girl. Bought the latest MINX book "Confessions of a Blabbermouth" (£6/$12), because their manga store is having a signing on the 29th, which makes it fortunate that I brought "Regifters" and "My Faith in Frankie" from home for the Birmingham convention. Yay Mike Carey!

Forbidden Planet Megastore: The Legend. Okay, so it's much more than a comic shop (imagine a two story Newbury Comics, with Doctor Who merch in place of the CDs), but in terms of comics they had everything (except really indie stuff). But I really wouldn't go there for comics, I don't think, unless the other stores didn't have what I was looking for. Still, they're having Pia Guerra, Kevin Smith, and Terry Pratchett signings in October (making wish I had brought their stuff, but hey.) Bought the complete Spaced set for £30 (I can't bear to type the dollars), meaning I'll be eating cereal for a week. It's worth it though.

Comicana: Um, yeah. Mostly back issues (in the front of the store, no less), practically no trades. One of those annoying places which still bags the new comics before they go on the shelf. Musty. Its only excuse is that it's around the corner to Forbidden Planet, so it's good when taken as a complementary store. Bought nothing.

All in all, if I was going to get seriously into the habit of buying comics here (which, don't worry Mom, I'm not) I'd either go to Gosh or Orbital.

Also stopped by Blackwell's bookstore to buy my ticket for the Neil Gaiman/Susanna Clarke event on the 25th. I have my Clarke books with me, but no Gaiman, which is fine because I've been meaning to get a hardcover American Gods anyway, so no need to have him sign the tiny mass market paperback. However, at Forbidden Planet they had a poster with the complete text of "A Study in Emerald", his Sherlock Holmes pastiche for £10, so I'll probably go back and get that closer to the event.

Which leads me to my next stop on my ramble around London: 221b Baker Street.

Baker Street Station (click to see the full picture):


The fun begins with the various decorations in and around the Baker Street tube station. There was also a number of little cafes and even a hotel named after Sherlock Holmes! I wanted to stop in at one for a quick snack, but my wallet was still smarting from my "Spaced" splurge, so I decided against it and headed straight for the museum.



Funnily enough, the museum is not technically at 221b (which is actually a massive bank), but it's a few doors down, and all the mail is redirected to the museum curator.

You go into the gift shop first, which has all sorts of fun Sherlockian and Victorian merchandise (I bought a mug and a pin, and obviously a ticket to the museum proper). I wanted to get a deerstalker hat, but they cost £20, which is some kind of con. They were nice hats though.


Walk in here...


Chat with Dr. Watson (We agree that Peter Cushing's Hound of the Baskervilles is possibly the best adaptation of that story ever. Also, he detested Nigel Bruce's portrayal of him).


Holmes's chemistry set.


Holmes's bed (with, among other things, the Nonconformist minister's hat he wore in "A Scandal in Bohemia")


Holmes's Wall o' Criminals (like Mom's collection of "mysterious wife disappearance of the month" People magazines)


Holmes's letters, held in their place on the mantlepiece with a jackknife.


Holmes's arch-nemesis, "The Napoleon of Crime" Professor Moriarty (in wax).

I have dozens more photos, but those are the best.

In between the bank and the museum there was a Beatles store! where I bought a postcard and a set of Sgt. Pepper's pins. And it just so happens that only 1.5 miles from the Sherlock Holmes Museum is Abbey Road.

I was far from the only person there, and plenty of them were trying to stop traffic to get their own road-crossing photo. Locals must dread having to drive down the road.

Anyway, there's a nice little pedestrian island in the middle of the road about 100 yards away, where I stood, waiting for traffic to clear up as much as possible.



Here's the wall outside the studio (on the left side of the road):

(click to see the full picture)

Here's the studio itself:



Blue Plaques denote official British cultural landmarks, and despite (or perhaps because of) all the music history that's been made here (The Beatles, Pink Floyd), the only musician officially recognized in connection with the studio is its founder Edward Elgar.

They also have to keep the road signs posted really high so they don't get stolen:



Anyway, I have to wrap this up so it actually gets posted on Friday, so I'll end with this apt observation scrawled on the wall: