Leicester Square & Chinatown Thur 13 May 2010

Ahhh, my first real day of vacation! No need to wake up early for the gas man, or for anything else. And, since I'd been up until 2:00am, I didn't rise until 10:30am, which is quite, quite late for me. The weather here seems to go like this: on rainy days it's cloudy and drizzly, with intermittent bits of brightening. On non-rainy days the Sun is shining more or less from dawn until about 9:00 or 10:00am, when the clouds roll back in. Sometimes there are breaks in and a patch of blue will show through, or at least the clouds will be white instead of gray. By 4:00pm, though, we're usually back under clouds. It's not the same as the fog back home. The clouds aren't so low; you're not walking through the mist and thinking of fairies (or tropical islands). Instead the clouds are heavy, lowering (I pronounce this as in "ow, that hurts"), and always threatening to rain. It reminds me somewhat of Pittsburgh, PA, which is at the confluence of 3 rivers and always seemed overcast to me. But London is a much more wonderful city, with energy and excitement, and a throbbing vibrancy that buoys your mood even if the clouds try to dampen it.

I got a late start, but my mission for the afternoon was to find some affordable tickets to go see Tom Stoppard's new play, The Real Thing, which is playing at the Old Vic Theatre in Southbank.  Kevin Spacey is the artistic director there, and the play is directed by Anna Makmin. So I wanted to give myself the present of seeing a new Tom Stoppard play in London at the Old Vic. There's a discount ticket booth in Leicester Square that all the guide books say to use. The deal is, you have to go get the tickets the same day as the show. I was already too late for a matinée, so I figured I'd go out for the evening performance.  Which is just as well, because the cast was taking a day off from matinees.

I have these cards called "City Walks: London". They are each about as thin as a playing card, but larger, sort of like a flash card. On one side of each card is a map showing a walking route from one Tube stop to another. On the other side is a brief description of the neighborhood. I have a similar version for Paris and just loved it. You can take one or two cards with you, and that will keep you busy all afternoon, walking around and seeing the sights, without having to drag the guide books along. I pulled the card for Leicester Square and Soho and hopped on the Tube.


The card was from Leicester Square to Tottenham Court Rd., but it sort of bypassed the square itself, where the ticket booth is. And of course, the station door the directions used was closed. So I went out another door and walked around the block, trying to find my way back to the correct entrance. Well, you know how bad I am with directions, but I thought surely a walk around the block would be within my limited abilities. Maybe back home, but not in London. There's no such thing as a block, really. The streets mostly seem to curve around to a meeting point where many come in at a diagonal. They also change names on crossing other streets, so even if you're on the right one, you wouldn't think so once you'd gone across a traffic light. So going around the block took me quite some time. But oh, the sights were lovely! Look at these old buildings!

Just outside the Leicester Square Tube Station

Toward Leicester Square From the Station

More Gorgeous Buildings near Leicester Square

So it wasn't so bad, being somewhat lost and wandering around. I eventually did find the square, filled with people, mostly tourists. The area just around it, while full of some gorgeous old buildings, was also kind of sleazy. Neon lights and old, carny-style hawkers trying to get you to buy half-price theatre tickets at their establishments. I'd read about those, and about the booth to which I was headed, which is the official discount booth supported by the theatre society. So I headed past all the glitz and tackiness, and found the square with the TKTS booth.

Leicester Square Itself

That small building is the ticket booth.  There were these adorable little statues throughout the square, of elephants. They were all painted with Indian-style designs, and are a project designed to raise awareness about the plight of Indian elephants. Many of us tourists waited patiently for the queue of other camera-wielders to get their shots in so we could get ours. Here's mine.

Indian Elephant Statue in Leicester Square

I was disappointed but not surprised to see no advertisement for discount tickets to The Real Thing, as it was late in the day and it's a very popular play. But, I thought I'd ask anyway. And I also wanted to see if there were discount tickets for Shakespeare at the newly restored Globe theatre. (It's been restored to be as primitive and uncomfortable as it was in his time, from what I understand.)  To my delight, the ticket man did have a half-price ticket for that night's show of The Real Thing. The seat was a bit far back, but looked okay, so I went for it. Half price was 27GBP or $46. As I say, it was a gift to myself.  There are no discounts for the Globe.


I decided I would try the walk on my card, by heading back to the Tube station and following the directions carefully. On the way back to the station, I saw more wonderful buildings.

Diferent View of  Building Across From Leicester Square Tube Station

 Revolving Globe on Top of Building Near Leicester Square

 Gorgeous Old Building Near Leicester Square

 The whole area reminded me of Market Street. It has huge, gorgeous buildings from many different time periods, there are throngs of tourists and some locals about, and there is a seedy, tacky quality to a lot of it, which is not to my taste, really.

Again, I got rather lost at times, but mostly made way way. Not having an agenda or much of a timetable helped me relax about being lost, as well as the fact that there are Tube stations almost every mile or so. And Londoners are so willing to help with directions. Although most people in this neighborhood were tourists or people who prey on them. Anyway, for once I wasn't too worried about being lost.

I followed the directions on my card into Chinatown, which I think is officially part of Soho. The funny thing is, Little Italy is just adjacent to Chinatown, just like in San Francisco and New York. I'm not sure why those neighborhoods should always be contiguous, but they are here in London, too. All around the Leicester Tube station were Italian restaurants and cafes, delis and news stands. Cross one large street, and you're in Chinatown. A much smaller, dingier and bleaker Chinatown than ours in San Francisco, or even in Oakland. 

Gate Into Chinatown in Soho, London

There were the usual herb shops, take-out shops, and restaurants with ducks hanging in the windows. Since all of this is so familiar to me, I had fun watching Eastern European tourists get their first sights of Chinese culture. I'd read on my card that the dim sum was good in one of the restaurants, but unfortunately they only do it on weekends. I might come back, because I've heard that Chinese food in London is very good, but nothing looked especially outstanding to me on Gerrard Street.

Gerrard Street, the Heart of London Chinatown