Bluehour

Since you are well-read and connected with a university, I'd try a more direct approach -- find someone studying what you're interested in by googling or chasing citations, then e-mail the writer (use your university e-mail and your full name and affiliation, so you look like the respectable person you are). Most people's e-mail is gettable.
Then show them that you've read and liked their work, have done some research yourself, and ask for a few simple suggestions, like collections you should check out, or how to find a site. Nothing scary, like meeting or asking for a letter to gain admission to a collection.

This is an interesting question. Most academics would be flattered by your interest, and interested in an American colleague's piece of the puzzle. The worst they can do is never return your e-mail. At most you could make a lifelong friend who shares your interests.

NOTE TO LURKERS: This is an advanced technique, and an unusual situation. I would not normally recommend stalking and pestering people I didn't know.

As for where you should stay, London is pretty safe. I'd just suggest you stay as close as possible to a tube or bus line. I like the South Kensington area, where there are many hotels. But anywhere is really fine if you come home at a decent hour.

Have a great time.

fishee

Interesting approach that makes a lot of sense -- and it's true, academics are so easily flattered to know that someone has actually read their obscure book or article, you throw in the word brilliant a few times and they are quite responsive. I never thought of contacting anyone as that makes this feel more like a research trip rather than a vacation but I'll definitely consider it. Also, my questions are so elementary that I'd be a a little embarrased to approach a specialist (except for librarians.)

Due to my priceline budget, I ended up at the Riverbank Park Plaza on the Southside of the River Thames at the Lambreth bridge. Hotel itself looks great but I'm concerned about the location although tripadvisor reviews mentioned a #3 bus to Westminster. Sounds like there's nothing around, not the curry stands or shops, or tube at the corner that would make it easier for me to be travelling alone. On the plus side, I think it's near Waterloo for my eurostar ride to Paris on Saturday. If someone is familiar with the area (is it Kensington?), any insights would be great. And if I get arrested for stalking some terrified academics, I'll tell them fodors made me do it.

cmt

I don't know much aout London and rarely read the London threads, but this is such an interesting question. You remind me of an internet pal of mine from Italy who has always wanted to visit with Paterson, NJ, because he is fascinated with the history of the anarchist movement among the north Italian immigrant silk workers there.

There's a good chance you'll encounter some people who'll be thrilled to meet a visitor with a deep and specific interest in their own special area of research. I wish I knew something that might help you in this rather unusual quest, but really I don't know a thing.

Bluehour

It's something to consider anyway. If not for this trip then another.
Anyhow, sounds like there's plenty of blue sky there for someone in search of a dissertation topic and a reason to spend several months in London. Then pay their way by giving a "Great Plots of London Tour."

I think you'll be fine in Lambeth. I don't know the area that well, and have only gone through during the day. Stick to main streets after dark and get home before everyone's hammered and you'll be fine.
It's not related to your quest, but the Imperial War Museum, I think it's on Lambeth Road, is worth a visit. It's not all planes and maps -- there's a lot for the social historian in there too. The good stuff's in the basement, in my opinion.
Also, the building it's in was once home to St. Mary's Bethlehem, a mental hospital, the name of which was descriptively corrupted to give us the word "bedlam", I'm told.

Enjoy!

ben_haines_london

Dear Mr Fishee,
If there is a meeting of London Socialist Historians you would enjoy it. Please try under seminars and conferences on their web site, which Google can find.

The Riverbank Plaza Hotel is at the eastern bend of Lambeth Bridge, and the area around it is as you say. But again as you say a number three bus takes you over the river to Horesferry Road, at the far end of which Stratton Ground is a good weekday market, and the Albert pub, on the corner with Buckingham Gate, has good lunches and dinners, upstairs and down. Just beyond St James Park station is the Two Coachmen, an eighteenth century pub, quieter, with good meals. The bus goes on to Westminster, Whitehall, and Trafalgar Square, for the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery, with portraits of Victorian reformers. On the southern side of the square the bookshop sells the spiral-bound A-Z tourist map and guide to London

Just by the hotel are a museum of gardening, the public rooms (I think: please check therir web site) of Lambeth Palace, and the private offices of (I think) the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, where if you ask you may be allowed to see three display cases of medicine bottles, urinals, and so on. Around these buildings lies a dull area of housing. But the number 77 bus runs southward to Wyvil Road, a stop or two south of Vauxhall station, where you can get off, go 400 yards south east to Old South Lambeth Road (not new), and the Vasco da Gama pub. Being Portugese, this has good tapas and red wine. Northbound the 77 takes you to the Florence Nightingale Museum under St Thomas Hospital, and on to Waterloo, for the south bank arts centre. This includes the National. Film Theatre, where if the bookshop is still running they may well sell you a book on Chaplin’s Lambeth childhood, which you can take out for a half day’s touring of places of poverty.

Manchester was a hotbed of reformers (Chartists, Suffragettes, immigrant Jews) and has a museum of Labour history, while the Rochdale Pioneers, the world s first co-op, have kept their first shop as a museum, an d another mill town has a Moravian settlement, still going strong in communal living.

Ten years ago I collected from notice boards notes on lectures that I might like. For ease, I put them into a document. A kind American in Chicago (great city !) offered me web space on his (good) guide to how to conduct Victorian research in London). As I became less mobile the Net blossomed, so now I just look out for notices as I walk the passageways of Bloomsbury colleges, but mostly I take news from the net or, as you surmise, from places good enough to keep me in e-mail lists.

You can see that we are all enjoying this. Please write again if we can help further

Ben Haines

david_west

The area you are in is Vauxhall which isn't Kensington! (it is however Kennington, confusing isn't it?). It's not the greatest area, but it is on the up. It is best known for being a Portugese enclave, so there's lots of nice little cafes etc. It is also a centre of gay London's nightlife - there are quite a few clubs etc there. This means that it is an area that stays up late.

Another advantage of the area is that it is a transport hub. Vauxhall Station has trains, tubes and a bus station in it.

Another thing you may find worth a look (if you're up early) is the New Covent Garden Market which is London's fruit and veg market. Nicer smelling, next door, is the flower market.

And as you are of a radical persuasion you may wish to know that the green and cream building in Vauxhall bridge Rd is the headquarters of the secret service - so be careful!

Fulmodeston

As a City of London guide, I am always getting people talk about 'standard sight-seeing' and where to go to experience the real feel of London.

My answer? The City of London itself..just one square mile with an extraordinary wealth of history going back almost 2,000 years. My walks are leisurely and informative...two hours...and they cover so much that I have a number of themes. Have a look at www.londonfootsteps.co.uk to get a better idea.

I came across your post because I was doing some research on the net into the Bayeaux Tapestry. And by the way...the Museum of London is excellent and has just opened the new Mediaeval Gallery.

Staying? Well that depends on your pocket. But look out towards the East of London, a vibrant, colourful part of the capital with great social and revolutionary links with London from the 15th century onwards.

Best of luck...get in touch. Regards

fuzzylogic

I'm nothing like as erudite as many previous posters but I do find it terribly sad that anyone can think London was the fount of social wisdom in the 19th century.

The Co-operative movement, which laid the ground for trade unionism, was born in Rochdale, Lancs. The atrocity that was an essential stimulus to same, and to the politics of men like Richard Cobden and John Bright, happened in Manchester in St Peters Square.

The wealth of the UK in the 19th century was founded on the industry of the north. Most of the social movements that lead to the introduction of ideas that are now taken for granted in the western (European west that is) world - such as pensions, and unemployment benefit - would not have happened without the working men of Lancashire and Yorkshire (and County Durham, and Northumberland). And Scotland, of course.

It continued well into the 20th century - the pits; the shipyards; the foundaries - through WWII and beyond.

Until Mrs T decided that they were all expendable.

The Manchester Museum of Science and Industry lays this all out before you.

But you won't go there will you?

The "dark satanic mills" are mostly gone - or have been turned into museums or mega-priced hotels. And that's fine - better that some survive. It's just such a shame that so few people recognise their significance.

Think on, fishee, if you are really serious about it.

fishee

Well, I just wanted to clarify that I am a card carrying member of Visa as well as its radical sister organization, Mastercard.

Seriously, I hope I haven't given any impression that I consider myself an expert in these matters and I really have absolutely no investment in finding the "authentic" London experience, nor do I consider Buckingham Palace as some "fake" part of London. As the daughter of immigrants, you catch on pretty quickly that claims to authenticity are a load of rubbish working to make one's life miserable!

All this information is really valuable and I now have this wonderfully long list of sites to visit -- I feel badly that I know I won't be able to take advanatge of all of it in the few days I have in London. But this definitely peaks my interest in a much longer future visit -- one that could hopefully include a trip to Manchester (and Birmingham?) I know of Birmingham primarily because members of Judas Priest and Black Sabbath were from there -- I was kind of a stoner kid but that's another forum...

Also, thanks so much for the info on the Lambert area on top of everything else. I hope that Karl doesn't turn over in his grave (yet again) if I pay my respects on the way to the Burberry outlet... (I'm only partially kidding, I really might try to go). Trust me, I'm the first to know that I'm headed straight for re-education camp or worse when the revolution comes... thanks to everyone for creating such a collective experience!

fishee

Oh and Mr. Williams -- I'll definitely keep you in mind, your walking tours look really great.

david_west

John Bonham was from Birmingham too!

On a more serious note, Birmingham was the home of the Cadburys (as in the chocolate) and they were quite serious philanthropists. Bourneville (again as in the chocolate) was one of the first Model Towns, and is worth a look.

You can go to cadbury's chocolate world if it all gets a bit much for you.

david_west

P.s - If you wear Burberry in England you may be suprised at the reactions you get! Don't expect to get into any nightclubs!

Kate

David, Birmingham still is the home of the Cadbury family - I went to school with a couple of Cadbury girls, and Lady Joyce was chairman of our school governors.

Still a family of some influence.

And Bournville is still hardcore quaker territory thanks to them - bit tough when you're a student at Bournville College of Art and there isn't a pub in town!

Kate (nee Brum, resides London)

david_west

I asked a friend of mine who works for the Labour Party (I know - I wouldn't normally have them in the house but I make the odd exception) and she mentioned the following:

The William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow:

http://www.lbwf.gov.uk/wmg/home.htm

This mural commemorating the Battle Of Cable street (against the fascists):

http://www.sublimephotography.co.uk/...ages/cable.htm

BTW this is in Limehouse, the site of the original Chinatown

and the Trades unions Congress (TUC) has an archive:

http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/museu...n/AM22305.html

I would imagine that you would have to phone ahead for this.

PatrickLondon

The Museum in Docklands may be of interest. There are certainly displays on working conditions, a "video diary" based on a unique memoir by an early nineteenth century dockworker, and some displays on different labour disputes in the docks, up to the 1970s and 80s.

http://www.museumindocklands.org.uk/

PatrickLondon

Here's another link I just turned up, that might be useful:
http://www.platformlondon.org/fitc.htm

fishee

PatrickLondon,
So glad I checked this link again -- this tour re: aspects of East India Company looks really great. I've done a little reading in post-colonial studies and this Platform tour looks like a very intriguing glimpse into an institution that gets mentioned repeatedly in the literature. I want to go back... Later this year, I'll be able to do this. thanks so much.

fishee

topping for self.

JulieG

Don't despair, fuzzylogic. I'll be staying near Manchester this spring, and am planning to visit the Museum of Science and Industry. I find the industrial history of northern England fascinating for some reason. I'm reading Elizabeth Gaskell's Mary Barton right now, which is giving me good insight into the life of the Victorian mill worker.

For fishee, I would almost recommend just doing a traditional trip to London and enjoying the unforgettable sights that it is famous for, and trying to make a separate trip to northern England at another time that is more focused on labor history.

jsmith

Thank you, henneth, for reminding me of Peterloo. Eight or ten years ago I heard a performance of the Peterloo Overture by a US Navy Stage Band at Mechanics Hall in Worcester, MA. One of the most moving pieces of music I've ever heard.

A google search for Peterloo gives lots of references and would provide fishee with a reason to travel to Manchester someday.