Go watch the first five minutes of ‘Notting Hill’ starring Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts. Now be jealous of me and other Syracuse University students for the last 25 years, because that area was where we went to class, killed time and felt at home.

The Syracuse University London Program has announced that it will move from its current location in Notting Hill to a new location in central London and the experience will be less for it. The relocation to central London in some ways is beneficial. Students will literally be in the middle of the city at all times but in others it just wouldn’t be the same.

The small area in the Royal Boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea was a type of refuge where one came to know the local merchants during the week before the tourists took over the weekend market. It was where you felt like a local not a vacationer.

I am sure the new area will begin to feel like that but the experience in Notting Hill was unique. Students visited central London and the West End on a nightly basis, quickly learning Tube routes and night buses. But it seems less likely the same number will take the short trip to Notting Hill and missing out on that part of London will lessen the experience.

They won’t come to know about Mr. Christian’s, the German Food cart on Portobello Road or even the Travel Book Shop featured in the movie that brought the area to the attention of most Americans.

One of the arguments brought up against remaining in Notting Hill is the walk between Kensington Park Gardens and Royalty Studios. The walk never seemed that far and a quick detour into the surrounding neighborhood reminded me of how comfortable I was in my surroundings.

If one of the goals of studying abroad is immersion into a culture, then being closer to Piccadilly Circus is not the type of immersion I would want. I would much rather spend time during the week in the cafes on Notting Hill in a community I came to know. The hidden treasures, not the tourist monuments, are what make living in London the experience of a lifetime.

RYAN GAINOR IS A JUNIOR PHILOSOPHY AND NEWSPAPER MAJOR. E-MAIL HIM AT RMGAINOR@SYR.EDU.

Published on March 30, 2005 at 12:00 pm