location

English Literature: Stratford and London, England
Shakespeare

July 31 - August 26, 2008

English-Stratford Location

Accommodations

Participants will reside in centrally-located hotels in Stratford and London. Rooms are double occupancy. In London, rooms include a small, fully-equipped kitchen.

UCLA Summer Sessions reserves the right to change housing location. Should this become necessary, we will arrange comparable accommodations elsewhere.

Meals

In Stratford, a buffet breakfast is provided daily and dinner is provided Monday through Friday. In Stratford, you must provide one meal during the week, as well as lunch and dinner on Saturdays and Sundays. In London, no meals are provided. Rooms in London include a small, fully-equipped kitchen to prepare meals. There are a number of restaurants and fast food places near the hotels in Stratford and London.

Vegetarian options are available. However, if you have strict dietary requirements this program may not be able to accommodate your needs. Please let us know when you apply for this program if you have any special dietary needs as well as any physical or medical conditions. We will advise you accordingly.

Excursions

This program includes 6-7 theatrical performances as part of its curriculum. A complete schedule of performances will be available at a later date. In addition to performances, students will be required to visit select sites on their own while in London.

Tentative London Excursions

Required London Sites:

Middle Temple Hall, Mon.-Fri. 10-11:30 a.m. & 3-4 p.m.; free; Temple or Blackfriars tube
Whitehall Banqueting House, Mon.-Sat. 10-5; Students £3; Westminster or Embankment tube
National Gallery, Mon.-Sat. 10-6, Wed. until 8, Sun. noon-6; free; Leicester Square or Charing Cross tube
National Portrait Gallery, Mon.-Sat. 10-6, Sun. noon-6; free; Leicester Square or Charing Cross tube

One of Following Two Sites Also Required:

Hatfield House, Tues.-Thurs. & Sat. noon-4, Sun. 1-4:30; £6.60; Hatfield town train station, on the King's Cross-Cambridge line, approx. 1 mile walk from station
Hampton Court Palace, Mon. 10:15-6, Tues.-Sun. 9:30-6; Students £8.25; Hampton Court train station from Waterloo; or take the tube (District Line) to Richmond, then the R68 bus from Richmond station to the palace.

Recommended Sites to Visit:

Southwark Cathedral, daily 9-6; free; London Bridge tube
British Library "Treasures of the BL" Exhibit o Mon. and Wed.-Fri. 9:30-8, Sat. 9:30-5, Sun. 11-5; free; Euston tube
Theatre Museum, Tues.-Sun. 11-7; free; Covent Garden tube
Dulwich Picture Gallery, Tues.-Fri. 10-5, Sat. 11-5, Sun. 2-5; £4 (Students free); West Dulwich train station, from Victoria, then a walk through the grounds of Dulwich College
Portrait miniatures at Victoria and Albert, daily 10-5:45; £5 (free after 4:30); South Kensington tube; miniatures on level 4 of Henry Cole Wing
The Rose Theatre, daily 11- 5; Students £3.00; London bridge tube
-----[Joint tickets for Globe and Rose available; groups of 10 or more, call +44 (0)20 7593 0026]
Prince Henry's Room, 17 Fleet Street; Mon.-Fri. 11-2; Blackfriars tube
Lincoln's Inn, Common areas, Mon.-Fri. 9-6; Early seventeenth century chapel, Mon.-Fri. noon-2:30; Chancery Lane or Holborn tube
Greenwich, by boat from Charing Cross, Tower Bridge, or Westminster piers; by train from Charing Cross; or take Docklands Light Railway to Island Gardens, where the Greenwich Foot Tunnel leads under the Thames
--Queen's House, part of National Maritime Museum, daily 10-5; free
--Ranger's House, daily 10-6; £2.50; on Blackheath; take train from London Bridge to Blackheath, then lovely walk to Ranger's House, can continue onwards to Greenwich Park and Queen's House

Assumed Sites Visited:

Westminster Abbey, Mon.-Fri. 9-4, Sat. 9-2 & 4-5, also Wed. 6-7:45 p.m.; Students £3; Westminster or St James's Park tube
British Museum, Mon.-Sat. 10-5, Sun. noon-6; free; Tottenham Court Road tube (short walk from Drury Lane Moat House)
Tower of London, Mon.-Sat. 9-6, Sun. 10-6; Students £8.75 (combined ticket for Hampton Court Palace and Tower of London, Students £14.50); Tower Hill tube
St. Paul's Cathedral, Mon.-Sat. 8:30-4; Students £5; St. Paul's tube

Optional Excursions

Free time is built into this program for independent sightseeing. If you plan on traveling extensively, we recommend that you budget additional spending money.

Location

The program is centered in Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare. From its early history as a market town to the present day, Stratford has remained one of England's most picturesque towns. A good many of its buildings date back to Shakespeare's day, including Anne Hathaway's cottage and Mary Arden's home as well as the house in which John Harvard (founder of Harvard College) was born. Trinity Church, where Shakespeare is buried, is beautifully situated on the banks of the Avon. Only a stone's throw from Stratford is Warwick, with its magnificent castle, and, in the other direction, lies the Cotswolds, with its many beautiful villages, rolling landscape, and houses cut from the golden stone found in the area. But it is the three theaters that still form the center of action in Stratford. These are located only a short walk from the Moat House; down the street from the Swan theater lies the notorious Dirty Duck, a tavern still regularly frequented by thirsty actors after the evening's performance. Hikes around the hills of Stratford offer beautiful vistas, and in the past students have made daytrips to Oxford and Bath and on the weekend have traveled as far away as the Lake District, Edinburgh, and Dublin.

Take a virtual tour of Stratford!

In order to see theater at the New International Globe on the Thames, we will spend 10 days in London. Samuel Johnson, in the eighteenth century, remarked that when a person tires of London, he or she tires of life, and the sentiment remains as true today as then. To find out more about London visit:

The official internet site for London!