English Mr. Struck 1.

Abiturprfung 2011 Schleswig-Holstein Probeklausur The Buddha of Suburbia

29.10.2011 Chris Lawrenz

Information Britains town guide West Ken One of Londons Five Thousand Rooms The old-fashioned London district West Kensington is situated between the wealthy neighbourhood Kensington and decrepit Earls Court, famous for its nightlife. When you walk through the streets of West Kensington, you can see richly ornamented buildings, house entrances decorated with oak beams and five-storey stucco houses. Long time ago famous people like revolutionary leader Mahatma Gandhi, who was the prime mover for Indians independence, twilight landlord Rachman and Christine Keller lived here. West Kingston once was a prosperous residential area as there are hundreds of ornamented stucco houses inhabited by famous people, but today many itinerants, foreign students and poor people occupied those decadent buildings. But these social changes shouldnt hinder you having a wonderful trip through the old streets telling the districts bygone glamour. All those buildings seem to be like a big one, with perceived five thousand rooms, every single room has its own story. You just want to find out, how they are connected and who might have lived there. There are few unremarkable shops and some quiet and pretty done up restaurants and loud bars. You can travel by the underground, as there are the District Line and the Barons Court Road. Karim Mahulla

2.

It seems that West Kingston was 30 years ago inhabited by wealthy people. Those fivestorey peeling stucco houses suggest the district was rather the residential area for rich people than for poors and the common folk: The flat [has] [] formerly elegant rooms, with ceilings so high that I often gaped at the rooms proportions (ll. 1-2). In the text there is talk of famous people, who lived there, for example Thin Lizzys road manager (c. l. 9), Gandhi (c. l. 23) and landlord Rachman (c. l. 24). It is well-known that these people are rich respective wealthy. Beside this the interior decoration is a further indicator of the residents: The sad walls [...] were covered by dark cracked mirrors and big sooty paintings (ll. 11-12). Beside the circumstance the room is depraved there is at least more than one mirror which is an indicator of the residents living style and attitude: He or she is very vain. Paintings are usually uncommon in ordinary apartments and houses. The whole hypothesis is underlined by this sentence: The rooms had ancient crusty mouldings and an iron-handled bell-pull for calling servants from the basement (ll. 7-8). Ordinary citizen would not have the money to aliment a servant. But now it seems that social and perhaps demographic changes occurred (as people immigrate to West Kingston). There is much to be said for the social change hypothesis. The decorative and ornate buildings fell into disrepair: [] with a broken window through which the wind whipped

directly up your arse (ll. 5-6). This might be a reference to the broken window theory which states that depraved areas attract poor people. It is also clearly stated that there are now many new inhabitants: Every night the new groups blew West Kensington into the air (l. 78). There is also a simile with the same message: [The] pubs [are] full of hollering middle-class voices. Those new inhabitants do not take care for their houses and their living area as West Kensington is one the one hand a quieter district (c. l. 47) but on the other hand a much depraved district. It is given in the text, that the bordering district Earls Court inhabits poor people, drug addicts, criminals and whores from the red-light district (c. ll. 37-40). This might have bad influence on West Kingston and led many residents to move away. Now many foreign students, poor people and itinerants (c. ll. 19-20) live in the depraved buildings of West Kingston. The commercial area suffers from the hopelessness surrounding the district: You could see the desolate [shop] owner [] wondering where hed gone wrong (ll. 49-50). As already mentioned migrants without work and unadapted way of living made the district unlivable. This is due to United Kingdoms former immigration policy. To show how tolerant and liberal the UK is most foreigners were allowed to immigrate.

3.

Dear diary,

Sunday, October 29

after living my whole live in Germany it is now very hard to learn how things went up in London. Before I lived in a well situated area in my parents house. Now Im living in West Kingston. It is a district with old-fashioned ornate stucco houses. Every time I came home from work and enter my apartment in the fifth storey I think I am a wealthy man. Maybe the glamour of the good old times is gone and hidden by all the dirt and soot of the last decades, but the spirit of nostalgia lives forever in those old rooms. Actually I moved here in hopes of finding some people who could tell me the history of old London and some local stories of the district. But I didnt find someone. My neighbours upstairs and downstairs are immigrants and most of the buildings around the streets are empty or occupied by some weird students like it happened in the 70ths in Germany. But the longer Im living in my apartment the more I want to find out the stories behind those buildings. Who was the previous owner? Is it a famous film producer or a glamorous diva? I have to take care that my personal investigations do not disturb the locals. Here in West Kingston you have to watch out for yourself. It is a pretty quiet district but many poor people on the streets are aggressive or disingenuous. They have absolutely no perspective so many of them begin a life as pickpockets or drug dealer. I think it is quite hard to make the district more livable. It borders on the one hand directly to Earls Court, the (city) center of night life and red light, and on the other hand to Kensington, the residential area of the wealthy people. I think West Kensington will be the border between rich and poor for the next years, but this makes it that interesting: Its the melting pot of the poor and rich culture. Thats it for now. Lets see what will happen tomorrow.