My name is Sloane Lipshie. I am a junior and an English major and political science minor. I had the privilege of traveling to London this January and the reading from BBC history mentioned a few of the places I visited. It was an incredible experience but knowing the city’s history would have been advantageous beforehand. I rode the tube to the Piccadilly circus stop as well as Sloane Square in Chelsea. Sloane Square was a clearly affluent area and all the shopping was high end or souvenir shops for those who could only afford to look in the windows and purchase snow globes (me). The influence of the past is evident. In the Tower of London there was a torture device exhibit which correlates to the heavy emphasis on crime and punishment in the Victorian Era. The past’s connections to the the present and how things developed to what they are today is what makes history worth studying. I was unaware of the directional separation of the city before but it is clear when traveling. I stayed in Sutton and traveled to London at night and I felt as though I was in another country thirty minutes away. Places developed at various rates due to the transportation and demographic and it is evident even if it the history was unknown to the traveler.