The Time I Saw a West End Show and Became a Tube Expert

Today we returned to class in the Botany building of Regent's College. After lunch, guest lecturer Dr. Rebecca Redfern, curator of human osteology at the Museum of London, came to talk to us about the museum's Centre for Human Bioarchaeology. The Centre houses the largest collection of human remains from a single city in the world. Dating from prehistory until the 1850's, the Museum of London's collection has thousands upon thousands of skeletons belonging exclusively to Londoners. This collection, which spans over a thousand years, has allowed for detailed analyses to be made about changes in health and demography over the course of London's history. From Romans to plague victims to Victorians and refugees from the Great Famine of Ireland, the skeletal analyses done on each individual in the collection is available in database form for researchers around the world to access. Because our scheduled Jack the Ripper tour got unexpectedly canceled, after class we decided on a whim to see if we could get tickets for the musical Wicked tonight instead. We embarked on a quest to our old friend Stargreen Box Office in Oxford Circus, to see if anyone there could help us book some seats. In case you ever go looking for it, Stargreen is a tiny shop hidden along the cobblestone path right around the corner from the Oxford Circus Tube stop (on the corner of Oxford and Regent Street). For some reason, we had had a very difficult time finding it when we got tickets for the Wireless Festival earlier in the trip, but luckily we knew right where it was this time around. The friendly staff helped us find amazing, last-minute seats to see the show at the Apollo Victoria Theatre. The Apollo Victoria, as you may know, is a West End Theatre, sort of like the London equivalent to Broadway. Fun fact about the West End: it's the most expensive place in the world to rent office space. We ended up getting fourth-row floor seats where we got to see all of the action up close. The actors all had incredible voices, the costuming was outstanding, and there were lots of impressive and complicated special effects. It was a great show and so worth it! On the way to and from the show, Mallory and I didn't even need to look at the Tube map or read any signs to know where we needed to go. We also got asked for directions on the Tube at least five separate times. There are only two possible explanations for this: 1) We look like we know exactly what we're doing because we're Tube Experts or 2) There are so many hopelessly lost foreigners in town that they can't recognize real Londoners and we look friendly. Since we gave everyone the correct directions to their desired Tube destinations every time, I personally am going to go with the first explanation. Does this mean I'm practically a Londoner? Links of the Day: Dr. Rebecca Redfern: http://museumoflondon.academia.edu/RebeccaRedfern Museum of London Centre for Human Bioarchaeology: http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/Collections-Research/LAARC/Centre-for-Human-Bioarchaeology/ Stargreen Box Office: http://www.stargreen.com/about/contact Wicked!: http://www.wickedthemusical.co.uk/