On to Oxford! Harris Manchester College after a side trip to Museum of London

This was our last morning in London. I had decided to go to Museum of London
and Rebecca went to Tate Brittain Museum of Art since 1500

We both thoroughly enjoyed pursuing our interests today. The museum of London traces the earliest origins of the area (450,000 BC) up to present London. Absolutely fascinating. The link I shared with you goes into depth about each era. Some concepts that resonated with me were the richness of life and cultivating of early livestock raising and farming that prospered along the Thames River and valley. Up until the bronze age humans lived communally together due to the richness of the land, wealth or resources and adaptable populations. It wasn't until the Bronze Age that territorial protectiveness set in, battles were fought, and stratified society came into play, with class systems emerging. I also didn't realize that Rome held power and influence over "Londinium" as London was first known from 50 AD to 410 AD. The Romans brought modern engineering, roads, sewer systems, the first "London Bridge" navigated water ways, and organized dwellings/building around common grounds/civic buildings. Amazing. Subsequent years held many invasions, rise and fall of many different groups.
Some other areas of interest:
 St. Paul's Cathedral was first built in 600 AD, many renditions with the most prominent being destroyed in the great fire of London in 1666. Christopher Wren was commissioned to rebuild the Cathedral, which took many years into the next century. It is amazing architecture as are the other several churches and edifices built by Christopher Wren. He is buried in the Cathedral.
The 1666 fire burned for  5  days and destroyed 13,000 houses, 80,000 left homeless. King Charles the II was in power then and tried mightily to stop the spread of the fire to no avail.
The city was eventually rebuilt, along the same city plans but with wider streets and more fire resistant building materials. Very interesting reading here: http://greatfireoflondon.net/
Other interesting things were the similarities between US and Great Britain's cultural histories in terms of social justice, especially over the 20th century. Women Suffragest Movement, Civil rights era both in the 50s and 60s, intertwining of music reflective in culture, culture reflective in music. Just very interesting. The Monarchies and how those Monarchies also rose and fell over the centuries to the benefit or detriment of the British People...

How fitting that I went from this experience to Oxford! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford
We arrived at Harris Manchester College late this afternoon and were escorted to our dormitory rooms. Rebecca and I each have our own room in the Sekyra House.
Here is a link to Harris Manchester College, the pictures at the bottom are where we are staying. We ate in the dining hall picture here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harris_Manchester_College,_Oxford
Mom, note the connections to the Unitarian Church.
Here are some other pictures:

Name of the dormitory building we are staying in, right next to the Arlosh Hall, where we dine with our fellow colleagues from all over the United States; Egypt, Russia and Canada are also represented. The title of the Conference is International Round Table Symposiums. 

Entry way to our dormitory

Arlosh Hall (Dining Room Door) http://www.hmc.ox.ac.uk/conferences/dining/

Courtyard 

Gateway into courtyard leading to the dining hall, college and dormitories

Front entrance to Harris Manchester College

We had dinner in the dining hall tonight and met some of our fellow "delegates" (colleagues). Tomorrow the conference starts with breakfast at 7:30. Tomorrow afternoon we will have time to explore Oxford a little bit. We present on Tuesday.