News and Events
Event Reviews
Year 8 'Heaven and Hell' Trip
Although we were all ecstatic, and knew that the day would be fantastic and full of fun, it started at a gruelling 7:30 in the morning. (6:30 if you count when we had to get up!)
The school grounds were overcrowded with cars and the pupils running and laughing, racing to get going as soon as possible. After the monotonous registration we clambered (in an orderly fashion of course) onto the buses awaiting us. We left the school grounds and the usual predicted activities commenced; iPod earphones were plugged in, a few powerful voices belted out 101 of the most annoying songs ever orchestrated by man, and phones were whipped out, to play snake or something similar, or so that when someone asked – every five minutes – what the time was, they would get a definite answer right away.
A long while later, the songs, animated laughter and phone games had subsided. We parked outside St Paul’s Cathedral (which is just as spectacular as people say.)
It was HUGE! The gold balls on the tip of the dome –I’m sure – could be seen from miles away.
We entered through the crypt – which wasn’t as morbid as it sounds – where the designer, Christopher Wren, is buried along with many other famous historical figures.
A stout little tour guide lead us up the stairs into the main chapel. We were all – as you probably expected – wanting to get the St Paul’s Cathedral part of the day out of the way, and hurry along to The London Dungeons – now that is morbid! So we were all a stampede as we hurried into the main chapel and stopped dead.
The beauty of the intricate art work was so overwhelming we all sighed in disbelief. The sensuous stained glass windows brought on a new wave of awe as we stared through them into the blinding sunlight outside – lovely weather for a lovely day.
A petite woman lead us forward, and we sat directly under the HUGE dome we had seen from outside. She spoke for a few minutes, until interrupted by the speech and prayer from the priest that commences every day, every hour on the dot!
After being shown around the chapel, and mentally preparing ourselves and each other for (what it seemed like then) as imminent doom. And no, I’m not talking about The London Dungeons. I’m talking about the 1000 or so steps up to the top of St Paul’s Cathedral.
Then came the time…
It started off okay, with big wide, spaced out stairs, winding up and up and up. Just as we became very blasé about the whole thing, wondering what on earth we had been so worried about, the stairs got thinner and thinner, and steeper and steeper.
The long ascent of staircase was full of ‘huffs’ and ‘puffs’ from the group, filing up the steps in single file. Finally, after what seemed like ages, we reached daylight.
Everyone gasped sighs of relief, and for the second time…Stopped dead.
That wasn’t it. There were more and more and more steps. Sighs of relief became groans of displeasure. We dragged our arms up the stairs, lugging our rucksacks behind us. After hundreds of steps later we reached the top. (The real one this time.) The view was magnificent and worth the climb. Some people had found it really hard to climb to the top, but felt a sense of achievement at making it.We circled the dome and returned to safe, sturdy ground level.
Half an hour later and the whole group were outside, lounging lazily on the grass, eating our various packed lunches. After a while of gorging ourselves on mountains of food (to be fair we had just worked it off on the stairs,) lead to more walking. (Groan!) We walked to The Tate Modern, past The Globe Theatre, past The Golden Hinde and straight to…an ice cream van! We exclaimed in outrageous disbelief at the price of a ‘99’ ice cream for £2.00, but that didn’t stop us. After consuming the ice cream, the cone and the flake, we finally set off to The London Dungeons.
Terror commenced as I’m sure you can imagine. Men in costumes, and laden in blood resembling make-up, roamed the sidewalks, handing out leaflets to passers by and giving them a fright if they crept up unexpectedly!
This street entertainment made time pass quickly and it was not long before a ghostly woman came over and led us through the dark front door. We filed in after her in great trepidation, and, after more queuing entered the start of The London Dungeons experience. If the fluorescent lights had not been guiding their heads, the black figures in the shadows would have been entirely invisible and would have leapt with no warning what so ever – which did happen every so often. The whole experience was littered with screams from the boys and girls, laughs from the various jokes told, sighs of relief as we walked past the men who we knew had jumped out at our friends in front of us, and hadn’t leapt at us.
We learnt about Sweeny Todd, The Great Plague, Doctors in the Medieval times, Jack the Ripper, How the courts worked in the Victorian era, The Burning of the Protestants and lots more of the most gruesome and blood curdling parts of history. (Nice!)
There was a ride at the end that I don’t think anyone will be forgetting in a hurry! It was called ‘The Gallows’. It went up and up and up. Then…We SCREAMED as the ride flew down back to ground level, and a light flashed in our face (taking a picture we could buy later if we wished).
For a while we were motionless. Completely at a loss to what had just happened. With our hair in disarray, our breath coming back at sporadic intervals, and our eyes permanently glued open; we left the ride and entered the gruesome, ghoulish gift shop.
We bought LOADS! Including jelly beans, coke, voodoo dolls, books, pens, pencils, notebooks and lots, lots more. We left the London Dungeons exhausted, and reassembled by the buses, and dragged ourselves into our seats, all ready to enjoy a – hopefully – peaceful journey! It had been a great day and I’d thoroughly recommend it to next year’s Year 8 students.
Mollie Barnes
Go to the Gallery for images from this event.
(Article published on 29/06/10 at 15:45)
