Sunday 5 July 2009

A Look At...The United Kingdom Pavilion

With it being 4th of July weekend across the United States of America, I thought what better time than to talk about the United Kingdom Pavilion. After all, it is a weekend to celebrate ridding the British out of America!

Of course, I am from the UK and the Pavilion is a place I hold near and dear to my heart. I have talked about it many times before on this blog, but today I thought I would take you on a whistlestop tour of the place I called home for almost 12 months.

You start walking along High Street, passing the Rose and Crown pub on your left, but we're going to take a right turn into Tudor Lane, just when we reach the Tea Caddy.

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As you walk along Tudor Lane into the heart of the Pavilion, the buildings you pass on either side represent different time frames of the United Kingdom. Predominantly illustrating English design, we pass by the Tea Caddy which is of Shakespearean Design, as well as the Sportsman Shoppe which is of Tudor and Victorian time-period.

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As we travel toward the Toy Soldier - where you can usually meet Winnie the Pooh and friends - we reach a more Georgian design (if I am not mistaken). Why is the street, however, called Tudor Lane? Because it predominantly showcases Tudor architecture. For those of you unaware of it, the Tudors were a Dynasty that ruled the Kingdom of England from 1485 to 1603 (not just a television show!).

We follow the Lane round to Upper Regency Street and the Hyde Park Square. Upper Regent Street is a well-known street in London, which is where I believe the Imagineers got the idea of the Street from. The park is one of my favourite areas in the whole of Epcot's World Showcase, and you can see the popular Beatles tribute band, the British Invasion (or the BIPs as we used to call them!). There is also a beautiful, traditional British hedge maze that you can try your hand at. Just don't get lost!

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One of the things I love in this area is the detail that has gone into the architecture. For example, have you noticed the brickwork on the chimney stacks on top of the Georgian buildings? I wonder if Bert can dance okay up there with the other chimney sweeps?

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And don't forget to check out the Pavilion at night - just after Illuminations, the streets and the square get quieter and you can almost feel like you're in the United Kingdom...all we would need, would be some rain...

United Kingdom at Night

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