This is the map on which you'll put sites connected with the interesting events you discover in your investigation project.
Penn State Altoona May 2025 London Calling Dashboard
Description
“LONDON CALLING: ORDERING THE WORLD”
BRITISH LITERATURE, HISTORY, & CULTURE
ENGLISH 299 or HISTORY 199, or 499
SPRING & SUMMER 2025
Drs. Laura Rotunno & Douglas Page
COURSE DESCRIPTION AND PURPOSE
"By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show."
—Samuel Johnson
After this immersion in London, you may, very well, echo Johnson's sentiments. This course lets you, at the very least, test his ideas, because this Study Abroad experience will provide you the opportunity to enhance your knowledge and understanding of British literature, history, and culture through visiting key sites in the Greater London area. That is, a goal is to aid in your recognition of and ability to critically discuss the interrelationships between and cultural significance of British historical events, not just for Britain but for the rest of the world.
Designed to supplement and complement the readings and discussions undertaken in English 225N or WMNST 225N OR History 066 or 103, the course will further explore aspects of the British historical and literary culture covered in those courses, ranging from the architectural to the intellectual. During the 1-credit spring course, we will do much in terms of practical preparation for the trip; however, beyond that, we will also challenge you to consider your goals in this travel, lead you to discover the social, cultural, and physical changes undergone at sites we will visit, and prepare you to be travelers who are curious about the sustainability efforts, efficiencies, and inefficiencies of the sites we will visit. While there will be numerous sites that will show us environmental sustainability efforts at work or needed, we’ll also explore sites that will help us think about sustainability in terms of the sustainability of cities and communities (two of the UN Developmental Goals). Further goals for both the spring and summer/trip portions of this course include: 1) Undertaking international travel as a respectable representative of the U.S. and Penn State Altoona as well as a curious student of British history and culture; 2) Engaging elements of a familiar, yet foreign culture in a hands-on fashion; 3) Evaluating materials you have read in your prerequisite course(s) in respect to the sites, pieces of art, etc. that you will see in London; and 4) Exercising your research, presentation, and writing skills.
Galleries, Timelines, and Maps
The site for all your interesting events from the locales you will investigate.
This map includes links to all of the major sites we will visit during our May 28 to June 6 trip!
Individual Entries
The Hale Street Mural is a mural painted on the wall of the Tower Hamlets Parks Department on Hale Street (Hartland). The mural is in honor of the 1921 Poplar Rates Rebellion, which was an uprising against the unfair taxing of Poplar in comparison to more upper class communities like those in West London. In other words, Poplar would have had to pay more than more upper class communities because it would have raised the rates on the rent of property - money that residents of Poplar didn't have (Alchetron).
The mural was painted by Mark Francis in 1990 and restored in 2007. It shows a cartoon of George Lansbury, previous mayor of London and future leader of the Labour Party, and citizens holding “Can’t Pay Won’t Pay” signs in protest of the poll taxes put in place by Margaret Thatcher and her Conservative government (Hartland...
moreThe West and East India Docks would be built in 1802 for unloading cargo from both companies: spices from India (East India Company); and the occasional enslaved person, as well as goods like rum, sugar, and cotton from the British West Indies (Cayman, Anguilla, Turks and Caicos, Montserrat, British Virgin Islands, the Bahamas, Barbados, etc.) (Encyclopedia Britannica). These were the two companies that expanded the British Empire's reach.
The East India Company partook in the spice trade in India, as well as in the Transatlantic Slave Trade, in which they transported people from Africa to India and Indonesia, as well as to the Caribbean and the Southern United States (Alabama, Florida, Georgia) along the Middle Passage (Encyclopedia Britannica). India in particular would find itself completely kneecapped by the colonization of the British. This power dynamic between the...
moreSt. Anne's Church Limehouse is an Anglican Church, formed from part of the parish of St. Dunstan's, located in Stepney (an historical part of Poplar), and was consecrated in 1730. The church may be named for Queen Anne, who raised money for it by taxing coal that traveled through the River Thames (Cryer 1). (Saint Anne is also the patron saint of carpenters, seamstresses, lacemakers, miners, etc. - which is ironic because those were the vocations that would be predominant in Poplar.) Nicholas Hawksmoor, an English architect who was the leading figure in the English Baroque style, designed the building (Cryer 1, Cryer 2). English Baroque is distinguished from similar styles in Continental Europe by its relative cleanness and mimicry of classicist styles of carving, and this style was in its heyday between the Great Fire of London in...
moreEmily Dimmock was found dead in a locked bedroom at her home at Agar Grove (then 29 St Paul’s Road) Camden, which she shared with her partner, railwayman Bertram Shaw. She had apparently returned home from The Eagle public house, Royal College Street with an individual who had approached her for sex, fallen asleep after the act, and had then been killed before morning. Nothing much had been taken from the flat, and no motive was clear to the detectives. No killer was ever charged for her death, though Robert Wood was charged and acquitted after a former girlfriend pointed out Dimmock had a postcard from him was found in her possession and shared with the public via newspapers. Many different kinds of coverage came about from the mysterious murder, even after the years passed, including art, radio shows, and television series, and it remains a mystery to this day.
Greenwich Park offers beautiful, lush scenery with both touristy and private areas. The park contains the Royal Observatory where the Greenwich Prime Meridian begins, the Flower Garden, the Anglo-Saxon cemetery, and the remains of a Roman Temple ("Welcome"). The Roman temple is in the eastern part of Greenwich Park, and, although it may not look like much more than a grassy mound, it is a site of rich Roman history and offers a glimpse into the relationship and interactions between Britons and Romans. At the site, there is an informational stand with a brief discription of past archelogical digs and the significance of the Roman Temple. Many items have been found at this site over the years such as:
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The line of the Prime Meridian defines the eastern and western hemispheres of the globe, first established in 1884 after the International Meridian Conference was held. The line at the Royal Observatory is a physical representation of the imaginary line defined during that time frame. Many were involved in the creation of the Prime Meridian as astronomers, railway engineers, geographers, and more established need for a unified time and location system, conducted studies, took measurements, and made observations. If you visit the Prime Meridian line, you can officially stand with one foot in the East and one foot in the West, making it an appealing tourist attraction and place to take photos. If you want to visit the line, it is included...
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