Lloyd's, lunch, and more

Ethan dressing for success! Can you say "business major"??

Right after class, we hit the Tube and headed to insurance central, Lloyd's of London. I could tell we were in a business district because the dress code of people on the pavement had switched from trendy-artsy to business professional.

Jenny and Ros enjoying the ride in outside-the-building glass elevators

Awesome view! (St. Paul's is the dome building just right of the middle)

Lloyd's is an insurance market (as explained in Prof William's previous post). It originated as a coffee shop where merchants would also insure their ships. They have loss books that date back to the beginning of the operations in the 1700s that keep hand written records of all sunk, damaged, attacked, and loss ships. Lloyd's still has loss books today, but the number of merchant ships is much fewer.

Mike, Emily, Charlotte, Nicki, and Muriel in the conference room

We met with a longtime employee in the publicity and PR department who gave us a general rundown of the company. Interesting fact: this March, Lloyd's insured the tongue of the "Italian Master of Coffee" for Costa Coffee in London. The valuable tongue belongs to Gennaro Pelliccia, and he tastes all of Costa's raw coffee beans in the London roastery!

The building had lots of levels and lots of escalators!

The people at Lloyd's, hard at work.

Diagon Alley from Harry Potter.. aka Leadenhall Market

After Lloyd's, the class scattered to their various stations or airports for weekend travels. A group of us visited the location of Diagon Alley. It was pretty neat to think they filmed in there, and I am going to have to watch the films again so I can check out similarities and differences.

Ethan and Emily enjoying a Pizza Express lunch in Diagon Alley

After lunch, I headed to the Victoria & Albert Museum, an art and design museum. The focus is on textile, sculpture, and photography. I was particularly interested in the fashion exhibit. They displayed historical costumes, famous outfits (such as Di's dress), and up-and-coming designs from the students of the Royal College of Art.

Still a little obsessed with Princess Diana... her "Elvis" design by Catherine Walker
(photo by dianasjewels.net)

Chandelier by Dale Chihuly in the lobby of the V&A

I have to admit, I am a great lover of museum gift shops. The V&A had an especially interesting array of beautiful items... that were a bit out of my price range.

The door to the V&A.. it is huge!

On the way home, since I was in the neighborhood (and not at all because I am mildly in love with this glamourous store), I stopped in Harrod's again. Talk about out of my price range! Harrod's makes the V&A shop look like the clearance aisle in the Dollar Store!

Where people are headed for Weekend No. 2:

1. Christina, Kelsey, Mal, Emma, Alison: Rome
2. Prof Williams and company: Sorrento, Italy (jealous!)
3. Charlotte, Mike, Jeff: Dublin
4. Ros and Jenny: a trip around Wales and Scotland
5. Myself, Ethan, Emily, and Perry: sticking around
6. Muriel, Angie, Nicki: Munich