Natalie Dennis Back-up

By 2016, London will be recognised as the leading global city for tourism and as a constantly evolving destination.  Leading up to the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012, West London has a major role to play in helping to deliver a high quality visitor experience, continually surprising and exciting our visitors with a vibrant, contemporary, diverse offer in a historically and culturally rich environment.   
Tourism in West London already contributes to the economic success of the region and to the quality of life for local people. The Games will create a worldwide profile and presents a great opportunity for West London to drive a dramatic increase in tourism and related industries.  The experience of other host cities indicates that London’s visitor economy could benefit from as much as £2 billion.  
Leisure tourists from London, the UK and abroad already enjoy a range of quality attractions, bars and restaurants and a wide-choice of hotels ranging from award-winning B&Bs to international hotel chains.  Business tourists too enjoy world-class conferencing and exhibition centres at venues such as Earls Court Olympia and enjoy easy journeys from London Heathrow – the UK’s largest airport. 
The Olympic & Paralympic Games will help to focus attention on strategic priorities.  These include:
Improve quality of tourism product and visitor experience
Maintain and enhance marketing & promotion of London
Improve skills & training development within the sector
Improve information provision to visitors
Improve accessibility & inclusiveness
Encourage sustainable business practices 
 
These key priorities are included in the London Tourism Action Plan 2006-09 which has been developed to realise these opportunities.   HYPERLINK “http://www.lda.gov.uk/upload/pdf/London_Tourism__Action_Plan_2006-2009.pdf” \t “_blank” Click here for a copy of the plan.
West London Tourism Strategy
The West London Tourism Strategy is a creative joint venture between the London Development Agency (LDA), West London Business and Visit London. Fully supported by the West London Alliance and other major partners in West London, the Strategy capitalises on West London’s assets and opportunities – benefiting the entire community. It covers the London Boroughs of Brent, Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham, Harrow, Hillingdon and Hounslow. 
The strategy sets out the strengths of West London’s Tourism economy, drawing out five key objectives and action priorities. These are:
Leadership & Promotion
Market Development
Evidence and Intelligence
Product Development
People & Entrepreneurship
The Action Plan contains a number of priority actions including research to quantify the benefits of tourism to each borough, specific research into the views of visitors to the area, target markets and product clusters in order that the area can be marketed more effectively in the future.
The current Strategy and Action Plan is due for completion in March 2007 and a review of the sub-regional tourism programme is currently being conducted by the LDA.  Learning from this review will help to shape the next strategy and will incorporate actions to maximise benefits for West London as a result of the Games.  For more information about the review please contact Bianca Lapins, Tourism Development Manager – West London at  HYPERLINK “mailto:biancalapins@lda.gov.uk” HYPERLINK “mailto:biancalapins@lda.gov.uk%20” \o “Email Bianca Lapins” \t “_blank” HYPERLINK “mailto:biancalapins@lda.gov.uk” biancalapins@lda.gov.uk   
The action plan is implemented by the Tourism Development Manager and West London Business together with the West London Tourism Executive and Marketing Group which includes representatives from all sectors of the public & private sector.  A copy of the West London Strategy & Action Plan can be found at  HYPERLINK “http://www.lda.gov.uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.863” HYPERLINK “http://www.lda.gov.uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.863” \o “West London Strategy and Action Plan” \t “_blank” HYPERLINK “http://www.lda.gov.uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.863” http://www.lda.gov.uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.863 
Tourism Network and Forums
The LDA and West London Business also operate a Tourism Network and hold four Tourism Forums a year.  These forums are free to anyone in the West London Tourism industry and provide a great networking opportunity.  Presentations form the main component of the events with industry colleagues presenting on hot topics such as business tourism, maximising West London’s cultural diversity, PR & marketing and developments at Wembley and Heathrow T5. 
The Tourism Network also produces a regular tourism newsletter designed to keep tourism businesses in West London up-to-date with industry news, updates, projects and joint opportunities.  If you would like to join the mailing list please email  HYPERLINK “mailto:biancalapins@lda.gov.uk” \o “Email Bianca Lapins” \t “_blank” biancalapins@lda.gov.uk 
Sporting Chance – Tourism provides information on developments in West London. Keep an eye on our  HYPERLINK “http://www.westlondon.com/events_month.asp?id=0” \o “Events Programme” \t “_blank” Events Calendar for opportunities and presentations. 
For a London-wide view, see Visit London HYPERLINK “http://www.visitlondon.com” \o “Visit London” \t “_blank” http://www.visitlondon.com



River Thames – Polluted River

Drinking water
London’s first clean water supply was a 61km pipeline made from hollowed tree trunks laid from springs at Chadwell and Amwell in Hertfordshire. The pipeline was constructed between 1609 and 1663 by the New River Company.
After 1832, nearly all Londoners drank polluted Thames water and, since unregulated private companies supplied it, the results were predictable. Cholera outbreaks occurred in 1831-2, 1848-9, 1853-4 and 1866, killing more than 36,000 in all.
It was, however, a completely different story in the beginning of the eighteenth century. The Thames passing through central London was a foul sewer by the 1840’s. Water taken directly from the river was evil-smelling and full of waste. Local wells were also polluted. The population of the city was some 600,000 people and at this time there were 150 London slaughterhouses, a fish market, numerous tanneries, a number of gasworks, cement works and factories all emptying their waste into the river. The water was black and produced a smell like rotten eggs.
Flushing toilets
With the introduction of improved flushing toilets from 1810 to 1830, which used greater quantities of water, the cesspools overflowed more frequently and washed their muck down the city’s streets and, eventually, into the river. The 250 tons of domestic sewerage entering the Thames daily was too much for the river to simply absorb or carry away. The filth flowed down with the ebb tide and back up again when the tide came back in.
The Great Stink
By the 1850’s the population of London was 2,363,000 and it had become the largest city in the world. The hot summer of 1858 was known as the ‘Great Stink’. So foul was the stench from the river, all recreational river activity was halted and only necessary river work continued. Members of Parliament were so appalled that they eventually demanded a solution.
Joseph Bazalgette, engineer of the newly formed Metropolitan Board of Works, designed a network of 83 miles of sewers to carry the waste away to the sea. Massive sewers were built running along the north and south banks of the river Thames. These captured the waste that would otherwise pour into the river. The sewers gently inclined downwards to the east, resulting in the waste flowing 26 miles east towards the sea. The Victorians were immensely proud of their engineering, and the pumping station at Crossness in Kent was opened in 1865 by the Prince of Wales.
Situation today
To the casual observer the Thames looks like a dirty river because of its brown and murky appearance. However, the colour is due to tidal activity stirring up the mud on the river bed twice a day. In fact, the Thames is now one of the cleanest metropolitan rivers in the world, with hundreds of different creatures thriving in its environment.
Despite the recent achievements in river improvements, there are still major problems: in the past few years, sudden heavy rainfalls have led to flash floods, causing the sewerage system to overflow from sewage effluent works resulting in de-oxygenised water and thousands of dead fish. In 2000, the various agencies involved in the health of the river combined to set up The Thames Tideway Strategy Group to try to tackle this problem. In 2005 their report recommended running a 21.5 mile tunnel under the Thames, taking the sewage overflow from Hammersmith to the sewage works at Crossness for treatment. In 2007, the tunnel was finally given the go ahead. The project should be completed by 2020.

Travel Writing

One place of appeal to almost every tourist is London – the capital which has numerous famous attractions such as the ‘Tower of London,’ the ‘London Eye’ and ‘Big Ben’.
Consisting of many country’s Queen (which is an attraction in itself) with her many palaces, the most famous of which being in London of course, London supposedly offers something that other countries don’t have. Vast numbers of museums, housing the World’s artefacts from many generations, lure visitors in, claiming that you need to see what is inside, however disinterested in the subject you are. Waxworks of the rich and famous appeal to sightseers, who laugh and pose next to their idols, pretending that they are real.
London, a city in which live millions of people who everyday commute by cramped, dingy, sweaty underground trains to their destinations of tall grey office buildings, which in the past were once gallant green fields, flowing with colour and beauty. Clanking and screeching train tracks can be heard from miles away, that is if you can hear over the sound of beeping horns of impatient motorists, engines revving and polluting one of the most polluted cities in the world. Graffiti smothered walls and pavements – whatever London’s children can find; not even art but blasphemes and gang names. Busy streets laden with hundreds of different nationalities of people, each with their own languages; some so intimidating that you veer acutely away as you cross their path. I don’t see the attraction.
Hate for a place that 27million people visit each year and find amazingly interesting is not common. Maybe living in England but out of London has disheartened my interest. Maybe I can see from a different prospective and not through the rose tinted glasses that seemed to have been supplied to the rest of the World. I find it hard to perceive how such a cosmopolitan place is so worshiped as a destination.
In 5years time when the 2012 Olympic Games is hosted in England, London’s visitor economy is expected to gross as much as £2.2billion, compared to the £15.6million it does at present. That means that there will be even higher amounts of pollution, even more tourists, and even more people to walk the already restricted, dismal streets of London. Public transport will be excessively worse for the frequent commuters, cramped up against the inner walls of trains, unable to breathe while the excruciating heat from the hundreds of passengers aboard makes them swelter and seize up in despair. It all sounds dire.
Giving its due, London may have something that other cities don’t, but is that not the same for all cities? Is the ‘Eiffel Tower’ in Paris (France), not as appealing as the ‘London Eye’? I doubt this highly. So why not go to a sunnier, greener country where the buildings are pleasurable to the eye and where people can walk down the street without feeling intimidated?
Simply, I can’t comprehend why anyone would want to go to such a popular, yet putrid place. Maybe it is the popularity that’s the reason. Or the problem perhaps?

‘Disturbing Discoveries’ Commentary

When I wrote my story I was influenced by a story by Michael Rumaker called ‘The Teddy Bear.’ I have tried to include many devices Rumaker has used in his short story and hopefully to good effect to make my story just as good.
Devices that he has used in ‘The Teddy Bear’ include onomatopoeia, repetition, alliteration, imagery, metaphors and similes. All of these I have tried to include in my story ‘Disturbing Discoveries,’ and tried to make them as effective as they are in Rumaker’s published story. In ‘The Teddy Bear’ a simile is used (page 164, line 18) where he compares the nurse to himself saying she was ‘…like a bright, chirpy bird.’ I have used this comparison – type of simile in my story to create imagery by saying ‘…pierced his eardrums, like a needle pierces flesh’ (paragraph 2, line 3). I think the use of similes in this way is really good and an effective way of creating imagery, which is why I used it myself.
Repetition is something I tried to use quite subtly which is kind of what Rumaker does. There are a few examples of repetition I chose including ‘…around and around…’ (page 167, line 26) ‘…nearer and nearer…’ (page 159, line 14) and ‘…louder and louder…’ (page 160, line 35). I have taken this idea and in my story have used repetition for (paragraph 2, line 5) ‘…one by one…’ to create a sense of depth and time. By repeating the word ‘one’ I think it implies how far he has to go to try and get the noise to stop.
I have used onomatopoeia like Rumaker does to emphasize (negative) sounds, but in my case I am emphasizing positive sounds. This may be strange as I am describing how blood is running, however by using ‘…trickling and twinkling…’ it creates a sense of peace as they are quite tranquil words. I think this ‘peace’ creates the image of how still and peaceful the man (Tim) is. The opposite sense is created by using negative sounds like Rumaker has done. He uses ‘…moaning…,’ ‘…whining…’ and ‘…crying…’ (page 161, lines 29-33) which implies loudness, as the actions to do such things are very loud.
One metaphor that was used in ‘The Teddy Bear’ influenced my choice of words (paragraph 5, line 4) in particular. On page 16 (lines 6+7) he describes how old and sick the boy is by saying it was ‘…as if he were something unfeeling and dead, frozen in the midst of ice.’ This comparison of dead and cold is what made me decide to describe how pale the dead body was, saying ‘…as white as snow…’ I like this comparison, as dead bodies are cold through the lack of blood running through the body. As this is a common assumption, they can create a better sense of imagery for themselves. Also, the white comparison contrasts to the red of the blood really well. As white is associated with purity etc, and red is the colour of blood, it really exaggerates the state and condition of the body and emphasizes the dead man’s innocence.
I didn’t base my story around Doris Lessing’s ‘Through The Tunnel’ particularly as the type of imagery she creates is not what I wanted. Despite the devices I have used being the same perhaps, the way she uses them isn’t what I wanted in my story, where as the way Rumaker does was what I wanted to achieve. I think Lessing uses very soft and ‘pretty’ imagery in ‘Through The Tunnel’ (due to the way she describes things and uses these devices), but it would not be appropriate in my genre of story (that being of murder). Michael Rumaker however, has made his imagery a lot harsher and more realistic, for example where he shows the use of sibilance (page 161, line 12), he says ‘…smelling of stale sweat.’ In this circumstance, Doris Lessing would have probably put ‘smelling of mouldy flowers,’ or something to that effect. I also think that I can relate more with ‘The Teddy Bear’ where as I find it harder to do so with ‘Through The Tunnel’ as I just can’t picture it being real.
One final device I used (primarily) was alliteration, which I did this for many types of sounds including of ‘f,’ ‘m’ and ‘d.’ Examples of this are ‘…first floor…,’ ‘the doorway in disbelief and dismay’ and ‘monstrous and masculine male.’ I like the effect that this gives as it adds to the tension and emphasizes the words that I have chosen.
I have chosen a formal register for my story and hardly used any colloquialisms. I chose to do my story this way as the idea of ‘Disturbing Discoveries’ is for it to be a murder mystery type of plot. Any use of informality in my writing would ruin the ‘tense’ effect that I was trying to achieve in my story (which I hope it portrays).
Grammar was critical in ‘Disturbing Discoveries’ in my opinion as it creates tension in places that I wanted it to. I have used many short sentences to emphasize certain actions and emotions also. An example of this is (paragraph 4, line 9) ‘No. No. No!’ where the word is so exaggerated that you can tell the person is shocked (when in context) and how he feels about what he is seeing 9he is in denial).
The type of lexis that I have used was quite important in my story I think for many different reasons. I have generally not abbreviated any words to try and show that the man (the primary character) isn’t of a low class (hierarchy wise). I think by doing this it shows that where the story is based isn’t a particularly ‘rough’ area, giving the impression that it is not the type of place that murders would normally take place. This in turn emphasizes the fact that it wasn’t something that the man had seen before (hence the state of shock he is in) and how random the murders were. I have abbreviated words, at times when he is thinking to make his thoughts seem faster paced. If for example, the man thought ‘I don’t know how this happened,’ it would seem like it has just popped into his head. However, if it were to say ‘I do not know how this happened,’ it wouldn’t seem like they were his thoughts (to the reader), and this might make them think that it had been an utterance instead (which would not have been what I wanted).
I think my story has turned out quite well as it includes many necessary devices to create certain effects that I wanted to achieve. Despite this, I don’t think it would have turned out the way it has, had I not included the devices and imagery etc, that Rumaker’s ‘The Teddy Bear’ has influenced and taught me to use.

Disturbing Discoveries

Ignoring the drunk man seemed like a wise decision. He tried to walk around him but it was a narrow road and was difficult to totally avoid him, especially as it were a dark night and he had to stay under the streetlights as much as he possibly could. They weren’t much good either, but at least he had a little vision this way. Anything was better than walking in the dark he thought, so this was his only option.
“Better go in boy, the Malting killer may be lurking.” The drunk laughed uncontrollably while the man fastened his pace, hoping to get away as fast as he possibly could.
“Stupid drunk!” he said to himself after he was far enough away to feel safe. With the drunk still on his mind, he continued along the dark and quiet roads, almost slithering in and out through them all while trying hard to not make a single sound. He got to his apartment on the first floor and fell asleep, finally forgetting what the drunk had said, and looking forward to tomorrow.
The man down on the first floor had never heard anything like it in his life. Screams echoed the building and a high-pitched sound pierced his eardrums, like a needle pierces flesh. He was completely over whelmed by such a noise so he ran, almost jumped, up the staircases one by one to where he expected it to be coming from. Every floor was bringing him closer to that unbearable sound, and on reaching the fourth, the noise was at its most deafening. There, he felt like his ears had started to bleed under the immense volume and pitch of the terrifying screams. Going towards the noise, he encountered a room, 4C where he saw a man. A normal looking person, whose face however was white with shock and who was staring into the room, standing in the doorway in disbelief and dismay. He stopped. The screams had, to the man’s relief, ceased, and he realised that whatever it was in this room, was something so putrid and petrifying as it could scare such a monstrous and masculine male.
He edged closer and closer towards the door, ever cautious of the man and what he would encounter when he looked into that room. Freezing, he was lost in thought for a moment. Did he really want to go into the room? Could he live with the consequences of what he might see? He awoke from his frozen state and started to walk towards the door. His body was taking him there whether he wanted to go or not. As he got closer he realised the man standing just inside the doorway, white with fear and paralysed with shock, was someone else that lived in the apartment block. This man known as ‘Mikey’ to his friends on the block, stood at around six foot seven inches and had a huge belly, an extraordinarily sized frame and yet a placid temperament. Despite this however, a person would get the impression to be scared of him, after all a big man like Mikey is the type of person your parents tell you not antagonise for a reaction from him would not be pleasant. The man thought to himself and came to the conclusion that, simply, big men don’t scare easily, especially not enough to spew such deafening shrieking noises so loud that he had heard them. He walked forwards and slowly turned to look into the doorway and he saw it. He gasped like it was the last breath he’d ever take and fell to the floor.
He awoke horizontally just where he had fallen, and on opening his eyes vaguely he saw what he wished that he would never see. Across the room lay a man, so lifeless and visibly cold and rigid. He was pure white with the exception of the blood that had trickled down the side of his face to the floor. It was if they were staring into each other’s eyes, although when the man looked deeply trying to find a glimpse of life, all that stared back was a lifeless sole with no emotion or feeling, no sign of power or strength or any sense of him looking back. No. No. No! It couldn’t be real thought the man. It was all a dream it had to be; just like in the movies where they awake in their bed and everything is ok. It wasn’t. His head was now thumping due to the impact that it got after it ricocheted hard off the floor and the painful thought of what he was seeing. His pain was nowhere near what this man must have gone through though, whatever had happened to him. He got up slowly as still slightly dazed, and walked quietly out of the room, not looking behind him and hardly moving, as he still felt stiff from his temporary unconscious state. At least his was temporary he thought, unlike Tim’s. That was his name. He had not long moved into the block, and from the perception the man got, he seemed friendly and outgoing and not the kind of person who deserved this. He couldn’t have been more than twenty years old either he recalled; not with his youthful looks and partying lifestyle.
He continued to walk and departed the room and slowly as he’d entered it. Turning and going back down the narrowing staircase he couldn’t see anything apart from the image stuck in his head of Tim laying on the floor as pale and white as snow with blood trickling and twinkling from his head as it caught the light. The puddle. He hadn’t noticed the puddle when he had looked at it first. Only now could he see it in his memory of this vile image, as he was too shocked to see past the expression on Tim’s face before. That puddle was the worst vision now he thought about it. Glistening; so wet and fresh; so real. That was death. The state of the body might have been overlooked ordinarily if it weren’t for that. So red, thick and moist. It was disturbing to think about, but it was so vividly embedded in his mind that it was hard to forget.
The corridor seemed a hundred miles long rather than the reality of it being about twenty foot. It seemed to have a sense of depth that it had never had before, as if this was never going to end. Just like his thoughts. Never going to end. Would they? He thought to himself hoping and praying that they would. Why did I look? What’s happened to him? Who would do this? He suddenly remembered what the drunk had said the previous night. Maybe it was true? Maybe there was a murderer about. Where were they now? The Malting killer? He turned to go down the staircase and he felt a sharp and sudden blow to the back of his head. So quick and the most excruciating pain he had ever felt. But it only lasted a second. He fell to the floor, except this time he would not be getting back up.