Referat - Engleza London
Referat - Engleza London
Referat - Engleza London
REFERAT LIMBA
ENGLEZĂ
-The London City-
Prof:Univ.MINCA NICOLETA
PITEȘTI
2022
Introducing the city
With a population of just under eight million, and stretching more than
thirty miles at its broadest point, London is by far the largest city in Europe. It
is also far more diffuse than the great cities of the Continent, such as Rome or
Paris. The majority of the London’s sights are situated to the north of the
River Thames, which loops through the centre of the city from west to east,
but there is no single predominant focus of interest, for London has grown
not through centralized planning but by a process of agglomeration - villages
and urban developments that once surrounded the core are now lost within the
amorphous mass of Great London. Thus London’s highlights are widely
spread, and visitors should make mastering the public transport system,
particularly the Underground (tube), a top priority.
One of the few areas of London witch is manageable on foot is
Westminster and Whitehall, the city’s royal, political and ecclesiastical power
base for several hundred years. It’s here you’ll find the National Gallery and
the adjacent National Portrait Gallery, and a host of other London landmarks:
Buckingham Palace, Nelson’s Column, Downing Street, the House of
Parliament and Westminster Abbey. From Westminster it’s a manageable
walk upriver to the Tate Gallery, repository of the nation’s largest collection
of modern art as well as the main assemblage of British art. The grand streets
and squares of Piccadilly, St James’s, Mayfair and Marylebone, to the north of
Westminster, have been the playground of the rich since the Restoration, and
now contain the city’s busiest shopping zones: Piccadilly itself, Bond Street,
Regent Street and, most frenetic of the lot, Oxford Street.
East of Piccadilly Circus, Soho and Covent Garden form the heart of
the West End entertainment district, where you’ll find the largest
concentration of theatres, cinemas, clubs, flashy shops, cafes and restaurants.
Adjoining Covent Garden to the north, the university quarter of Bloomsbury is
the traditional home of the publishing industry and location of the British
Museum, a stupendous treasure house that attracts more than five million
tourists a year. Welding the West End to the financial district, The Strand,
Holborn and Clerkenwell are little-visited areas, but offer some of central
London’s most surprising treats, among them the eccentric Sir John Soane’s
Museum and the secluded quadrangles of the Inns of Court.
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A couple of miles downstream from Westminster, The City – the City
of London, to give it its full title – is at one and the same time the most ancient
and the most modern part of London. Settled since Roman times, it became
the commercial and residential heart of medieval London, with its own Lord
Mayor and its own peculiar form of local government, both of which survive,
with considerable pageantry, to this day. The Great Fire of 1666 obliterated
most of the City, and the resident population has dwindled to insignificance,
yet this remains one of the great financial centres of the world ranking just
below New York and Tokyo. The City’s most prominent landmarks
nowadays are the hi-tech offices of the legions of banks and insurance
companies, but the Square Mile boasts its share of historic sights, notably the
Tower of London and a fine cache of Wren churches that includes the mighty
St Paul’s Cathedral.
The East End and Docklands, to the east of the City, are equally
notorious, but in entirely different ways. Impoverished and working-class, the
East End is not conventional tourist territory, but to ignore it is to miss out the
crucial element of the real, multi-ethnic London. With its abandoned
warehouses converted into overpriced apartment blocks for the city’s
upwardly mobile, Docklands is the corner of the down-at-heel East End, with
the Canary Wharf tower, the country’s tallest building, epitomizing the
pretensions of the Thatcherite dream.
Lambeth and Southwark comprise the small slice of central London
that lies south of the Thames. The South Bank Centre, London’s little-loved
concrete culture bunker, is the most obvious starting point, while Southwark,
the city’s low-life district from Roman times to the eighteen century, is less
known, except to the gore-addicts who queue up for the London Dungeon.
In the districts Hyde Park, Kensington and Chelsea you’ll find the
largest park in Central London, a segment of greenery which separates
wealthy West London from the city centre. The museums of South
Kensington – the Victoria & Albert Museum, Science Museum and Natural
History Museum – are a must, and if you have shopping on your London
agenda you may well want to investigate the hive of plush stores in the
vicinity of Harrods, superstore to the upper echelons.
Some of the most appealing parts of North London are clustered
around Regent’s Canal, which skirts Regent’s Park and serves as the focus for
the capitals’ trendiest weekend market, around Camden Lock. Further out, in
the chic literary suburbs of Hampstead and Highgate, there are unbeatable
views across the city from half-wild Hampstead Heath, the favorite parkland
of thousands of Londoners. The glory of Southeast London is Greenwich, with
its nautical associations, royal park and observatory. Finally, there are plenty
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of rewarding day trips along the Thames from Chiswick to Windsor, a region
in which the royalty and aristocracy have traditionally built their homes, the
most famous being Hampton Court Palace and Windsor Palace.
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Trafalgar Square
Nelson’s Column, raised in 1843 and now one of the London’s best-
loved monuments, commemorates the one-armed, one-eyed admiral who
defeated Napoleon, but paid for it with his life. The statue which surmounts
the granite column is triple life-size but still manages to appear minuscule, and
is coated in anti-pigeon gel to try to stem the build-up of guano. The acanthus
leaves of the capital are cast from British cannon, while bas-reliefs around the
base are from captured French armaments. Edwin Landseer’s four gargantuan
bronze lions guard the column and provide a climbing frame for kids to
clamber over. If you can, get here before the crowds and watch the pigeons
take to the air as Edwin Lutyens’fountains jet into action at 9am.
Keeping Nelson company at ground level, on either sides of the
column, are bronze statues of Napier and Havelock, Victorian major-generals
who helped keep India British; against the north wall are busts of Beatty,
Jellicoe and Cunningham, more recent military leaders. In the northeast corner
of the square, is an equestrian statue of George IV, which he himself
commissioned for the top of Marble Arc, over at the northeast corner of Hyde
Park, but which was later erected here “temporarily”; the corresponding
pedestal in the northwest corner was earmarked for William IV, but remains
empty.Taking up the entire north side of Trafalgar Square, the vast but dull
Neoclassical hulk of the National Gallery houses one of the world’s greatest
art collections. Unlike the Louvre or the Hermitage, the National Gallery is
not based on a former royal collection, but was begun as late as 1824 when the
government reluctantly agreed to purchase 38 paintings belonging to a
Russian émigré banker, John Julius Angerstein.
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and the overall impression is of an overstuffed shrine to famous British rather
than a museum offering any insight into the history of portraiture. However, it
is fascinating to trace who has been deemed worthy of admiration at any
moment: warmongers and imperialists in the early decades of this century,
writers and poets in the 1930s and 40s, and, latterly, retired footballers and
pop stars. The special exhibitions, too, are well worth seeing – and the
photography shows, in particular, are often excellent.
St James’s Park, on the south side of The Mall, is the oldest of the
royal parks, having been drained for hunting purpose by Henry VII and
opened to the public by Charles II, who used to stroll through the grounds
with his mistresses, and even take a dip in the canal. By the eighteenth
century, when some 6500 people had access to night keys for the gates, the
park had become something of a byword for prostitution. The park was finally
landscaped by Nash into its present elegant appearance in 1828, in a style that
established the trend for Victorian city parks.
Today the pretty tree-lined lake is a favourite picnic spot for the civil
servants of Whitehall and an inner-city reserve for wildfowl. James I’s two
crocodiles have left no descendants, but the pelicans can still be seen by the
lake, and there ducks and Canada geese aplenty. From the bridge across the
lake there’s a fine view over Westminster and the jumble of domes and
pinnacles along Whitehall. Even the dull façade of Buckingham Palace looks
majestic from here.
The graceless colossus of Buckingham Palace, popularly known as
“Buck House”, has served as the monarch’s permanent London residence only
since the accession of Victoria. It began its days in 1702 as the Duke of
Buckingham’s city residence, built on the site of a notorious brothel, and was
sold by the duke’s son to George III in 1762. The building was overhauled for
the Prince Regent in the late 1820s by Nash, and again by Aston Webb in time
for George V’s coronation in 1913, producing a palace that’s about as bland as
it’s possible to be.
For ten months of the year there’s little to do here, with the Queen in
residence and the palace closed to visitors – not that this deters the crowds
who mill around the railings all day, and gather in some force to watch the
“changing of the guard”, in which a detachment of the Queen’s Foot Guards
marches to appropriate martial music from St James’s Palace (unless it rains).
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Changing the guards on Buckingham Palace
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Houses of Parliament (picture taken from the Thames river):
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1950. Members of the cabinet occupy the two “front benches’; the
rest are “backbenchers”.
The House of Lords – On the other side of the Central Lobby a
corridor leads to the House of Lords (or Upper House), a far dozier
establishment, peopled by unselected Lords and Ladies, both
hereditary and appointed by successive Mps, and a smattering of
bishops. Their home boasts a much grander décor than the
Commons, full of regal gold and scarlet, and dominated by a
canopied gold throne where the Queen sits for the state opening of
parliament in November.
The royal apartments – if the House of Lords takes your fancy,
you can see pomp and glitter by joining up with a guided tour.
You’ll be asked to meet at the Norma Porch entrance below
Victorian Tower, where the Queen arrives in her coach for the state
opening. Then, after the usual security checks, you’ll be taken up
the Royal Staircase to the Norman Porch itself, every nook of
which is stuffed with busts of eminent statesmen.
Jewel Tower and the Victoria Tower Garden – the Jewel Tower,
across the road from parliament, is a remnant of the medieval
palace. The tower formed the southwestern corner of the exterior
fortifications (there’s a bit of moat left, too), and was constructed
by Edward III as a giant strong-box for the crown jewels. On the
other side of the road are the rather more attractive and leafy
Victoria Tower Gardens, which look out onto the Thames.
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The Tate hosts some of London’s best art exhibitions and every
autumn sponsors the Turner Prize, the country’s most prestigious modern art
prize. In particular, the role of the Saatchis, the advertising magnates who sit
on the Tate’s committee of patrons, has been called into question. Prime
movers in the art world, they are in a position to manipulate the art market
through the Tate and their own gallery of modern art, thus wielding undue
influence over the promotion of certain artists for their own financial benefict.
Westminster Abbey
To the west of Vincent Square, just off Victoria Street, you’ll find one
of London’s most surprising churches, the stripey neo-Byzantine concoction
of the Roman Catholic Westminster Cathedral. Begun in 1895, it is one of
the last and wildest monuments to the Victorian era: constructed from more
than 12 million terracotta-coloured bricks, decorated with hoops of Portland
stone, it culminate in a magnificent tapered campanile which rises to 274 feet.
Anonymous and congested it may be, but Piccadilly Circus is, for
many Londoners, the nearest their city comes to having a centre. A much-
altered product of Nash’s grand 1812 Regent Street plan, and now a major
traffic bottleneck, it is by no means a picturesque place, despite a major clean-
up in recent years. It’s probably best seen at night when the spread of
illuminated signs gives it a touch of Las Vegas dazzle, and when the human
traffic flow is at its most frenetic
Although it has declined in popularity today, the tradition of afternoon
tea has been a part of English life since the 18th century. The most formal
afternoon tea is served at grand hotels, such as the Ritz on London's Piccadilly
Circus. Here, thin sandwiches of cucumber, watercress, or smoked salmon are
served with a range of teas from China and India, followed by sweet pastries,
or scones served with jam and cream. Traditional afternoon tea is also served
in quaint country teashops, which are found throughout England
Oxford - The towers and spires of Oxford lure students and travelers
from around the world to south central England. Situated near the confluence
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of the Rivers Thames and Cherwell, this site was settled by Saxon traders in
the 10th century. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which logs the country’s
history from the beginning of the Christian era, first mentions Oxford in 912.
This historic English city seats the 12th-century University of Oxford,
the country’s first university and one of the world’s most esteemed places of
learning. Rhodes scholars, outstanding foreign students selected from the
Commonwealth of Nations, the United States, South Africa, and Germany,
study at the University of Oxford for two years. Today this university enrolls
more than 13,000 students and has more than 35 individual colleges.
The heart of Oxford, known as Carfax, derives its name from the Latin
quadrifurcua, which means “four-forked”. This refers to the four points of the
compass—the direction of the city’s main streets. Walls surrounding ancient
Carfax helped the city withstand attacks by the Danes during the 10th and
11th centuries. By the mid-13th century Oxford had become a major
educational center, and the university attracted leading scholars and students
from throughout Europe.
Oxford University
Cambridge University
The 15th-century King’s College Chapel is one of the grandest
buildings in the university town of Cambridge, and possibly all of England.
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The building, conceived by Henry VI, is spectacular for its high vaulted roof,
lofty spires, great buttresses, and magnificent stained-glass windows. King’s
College is one of the oldest in the university, dating back to the 1440s. It
forms part of the town’s main line of colleges, including Queen’s, Trinity, and
Magdalene, through whose landscaped lawns and gardens the picturesque
River Cam winds its way.
The historic fortress known as the Tower of London was built on the
remains of Roman fortifications on the north bank of the River Thames. The
original tower, known as the White Tower or Keep, is flanked by four turrets
and enclosed by two lines of fortifications. It was built about 1078 by
Gundulf, bishop of Rochester. The inner fortifications, called the Ballium
Wall, have 12 towers, including Bloody Tower, Record or Wakefield Tower,
Devereux Tower, and Jewel Tower.
The tower was used as a royal residence as well as for a prison until
Elizabethan times. It is now largely a showplace and museum. It holds the
crown jewels of England and is one of the country’s greatest tourist
attractions. A popular feature is the Yeomen of the Guard, known as
Beefeaters, who still wear colorful uniforms of the Tudor period.
Tower of London
The name Hyde Park is derived from the manor of Hyde, which once
belonged to the abbot of Westminster. Prominent features of the park are The
Serpentine, Rotton Row, the Pets’ Cemetery, and Marble Arch, the meeting
place of soapbox orators. In the 18th and 19th centuries it was a fashionable
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park where royalty rode and drove, military reviews were held, and duels were
fought.
The royal residence of the British monarchs since the Middle Ages,
Windsor Castle adorns the north bank of the River Thames about 35
kilometers (about 20 miles) west of London in the ancient town of Windsor.
William the Conqueror originally chose this site for a fortress in the 11th
century, after his triumph at the Battle of Hastings. Over the next eight
centuries, various monarchs transformed and altered the castle into a 5-hectare
(13-acre) royal spread.
The dominant feature of Windsor Castle is its 16th-century stone
Round Tower, which divides the castle into two courts, called the Lower Ward
and the Upper Ward. The Lower Ward, to the west, holds Albert Memorial
Chapel as well as the Perpendicular-style Saint George’s Chapel, a royal
mausoleum and the site of the annual installation of the Knights of the Garter.
The Upper Ward contains the State Apartments, the royals’ living quarters and
guest apartments. The celebrated Throne Room and the Waterloo Chamber are
among the rooms open for tours. In November 1992 the State Apartments
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were the site of a raging fire that left several apartments gutted but spared
most of the priceless art collection housed there.
Home Park, which contains the Mausoleum of Queen Victoria and
Prince Albert, adjoins Windsor Castle on the south, east, and north. The
larger Great Park borders the castle grounds to the south. Across the Thames
lies the town of Eton, home of prestigious Eton College, founded by Henry VI
in 1440.
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