UCO London/Belfast/Dublin study tour
By: J. David Chapman/May 30, 2019
I am writing this from the Grand Rotunda in the British Museum. The 2019 University of Central Oklahoma London/Belfast/Dublin Study Tour is in full swing.
The British Museum is arguably the most noteworthy museum worldwide. It is an incomparably rich treasure chest of items collected by the British when they ruled the world. The Rosetta Stone, Egyptian antiquities and mummies, the Elgin Marbles, the Black Obelisk, the 2,000-year-old Lindow Bog Man, and the Sutton Hoo treasure, all within an incredible building housing these treasures.
We started the tour of London at St. Paul’s Cathedral. Built over 300 years ago, it is an architectural masterpiece designed and built by Christopher Wren. The highlight of the St. Paul’s tour is always a behind-the-scene tour of the Triforium. Not availed to the general public, the Triforium is basically the attic of the cathedral where the construction techniques are revealed.
On the way to the Jack-the-Ripper tour, we stop quickly at the Twining’s Tea Company, where they have been selling tea in the same tiny building since 1706. Next, the students visited the Tower of London, where the Crown Jewels are housed, the Victoria and Albert museum, the Imperial War Museum, and a relaxing walk through Hyde Park to see Buckingham Palace.
No tour of London is complete without a visit to the theater. The UCO group was treated to the production of Aladdin at the Prince Edward Theater in historic SOHO. Early the next day the group made a quick visit to the British Library, where more than 56 million books are housed. That afternoon was all business with a guided tour of Lloyd’s of London and lecture and lunch at Price Forbes Insurance Brokerage firm.
While in the central London business district, we toured skyscrapers with nicknames such as The Heron Tower, The Cheese Grater, The Walkie-Talkie Building, The Gherkin, and The Shard, which is the tallest building in Western Europe at 310 meters. Our students are always interested to compare it to our Devon Energy Center, at 257 meters, and be proud to know the Devon tower would hold a respectable place in London’s skyline.
The London portion of this study tour will finish with tours of Westminster Abbey, Parliament, and the underground Cabinet War Rooms where Winston Churchill orchestrated Britain’s defense again Nazi Germany.
J. David Chapman is an associate professor of finance and real estate at the University of Central Oklahoma (jchapman7@uco.edu).