Cold and snowy? Head for the Savoy!

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I’ve been wanting to try out the new improved Savoy Hotel since is reopened after a massively expensive and lengthy refurbishment (3 years and £220m!). The hotel was built in 1889 and holds a long list of firsts including first hotel to have electricity in London, to have electric lifts, airconditioning and constant hot water. With much anticipation we booked in for afternoon tea which then turned into evening drinks and I can highly recommend the whole experience. We arrived by taxi down the only road in London where you drive on the right side of the road, thus enabling one to exit one’s taxi directly into the main door. We swept in past the glass fountain into a haven of art deco. Tea was the classic sandwich, cream tea, pastries and cake format, making 4 courses of loveliness washed down with a glass of champagne and the Savoy Afternoon Tea blend. A pianist entertained us from within a massive bird cage (luckily a photo will make more sense of this description) and we supped our tea until the Beaufort Bar opened at 5.30 by which time we were ready for cocktails. The bar is very chic, dark and you’ll be tempted to stay all night! Then the fun was topped off by a spotting of Nicholas Cage – definitely him as I heard him speak.

It’s very cold in London and the whole of the UK at the moment so it’s very tempting to stay in, but we’ve only a few flakes of snow so far so really no excuse for being lazy. I was meeting friends at St Pancras station and took the moment for a few snaps with no people in as they were all hiding inside. St Pancras is still undergoing a massive refurbishment, more lengthy and expensive than even the Savoy and the last part will be the opening of a huge top end hotel next year. However the inside of the station now used for UK train services and Eurostar is working and has the most beautiful blue, really blue, arching frame and is full of light, making you want to start a train adventure right away! 2 statues catch the eye, the enormous kissing couple called Meeting Place and one of John Betjeman, celebrating his role in helping the station escape a planned demolition in the 1960s! Opened in 1868 it was the largest single span building in the world at that time and still looks pretty enormous. The restoration and relocation of the Eurostar terminal from Waterloo to St Pancras has helped bring new life to the Kings Cross area which is really up and coming now. When it’s a bit chilly the St Pancras Grand is worth popping into as it’s a good station brasserie when the weather is far too cold for the wonderful champagne bar, the longest in Europe but without any form of heating!

 

That’s all for today so bye for now.
Sue

Loving the Victoria and Albert…

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This week’s blog has a peek inside the V&A, the Victoria and Albert Museum, one of London’s great treasures. They have a few different sites but the one in South Kensington is the leading one. They tell us that it is ‘one of the world’s greatest museums of art and design with collections unrivalled in scope and diversity’ and who am I to disagree! You can explore 3,000 years of amazing artefacts across such a range of media from fashion textiles, carpets, glass, ceramics, metalwork, photography, paintings, jewellery and more…. They have special exhibitions but the permanent rooms are extraordinary especially the rooms of statues and the cast room where the casts include huge Roman columns – have a look at the 2 photos of these. One item I can’t photograph is the Ardabil carpet that is only lit for 10 minutes per hour because it is so delicate. This carpet dates from 1539/40 and is one of the oldest dated carpets and one of the finest in the world The outside of the building is impressive and an elaborate glass sculpture by Dale Chihuly hits you as soon as you enter as do the V&A monograms in the marble staircases. They even have a courtyard with a pond to splash in (best if you are under 10 years old tho’) and several cafes to rest the weary sightseeing bones in and refresh yourself. Enjoy the photos and book yourself a visit. It’s free and will delight any visitor – there really is something for everyone.

Don’t you think Sundays, when the weather is getting chilly and a bit wet, are just made for a great big roast lunch? This week we went to Rosa’s in Notting Hill where the roast beef with roast potatoes, parsnips and a yorkshire pudding was absolutely excellent. Followed up with apple crumble and clotted cream made this the perfect Sunday lunch – if a little too filling for me! It’s a little place with a lovely local feel – have a look for yourselves and give it a try!
We went to the Lonsdale bar, also in Notting Hill, for a quiz night which was great fun despite the fact that we did not manage to win – not sure how that happened! The quiz master was comedian and actor (Torchwood for those fans among you) Tom Price who was very funny and a great host. I’ll be definitely be back for more, the quizzes are every 3rd Wednesday of the month so pop that in your diary and check them out!

 

Bye for now,
Sue

Lord Mayor’s Show in London since 1189!

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Winter is really on its way now and it’s gone rather cold on us but there’s plenty of indoor stuff to do in London and those from northerly climes would not even call this cold – you need just wrap up warmly and walk briskly and you are fine!

Last Saturday was the annual Lord Mayor’s show which has been held in some form or other since 1189 making it the world’s oldest civic procession and in all that time it has only missed one year, in 1852, for Wellington’s funeral! The parade was huge with the armed forces, the guilds of the City of London, businesses and a mix of people on foot, on horseback, in grand carriages, vintage vehicles and even in a massive piece of farm equipment – no idea what that was called…. I went to see this at Mansion House where there was a grandstand for presenting arms to the Lord Mayor and these arms were muskets presented by Civil War soldiers. The Mayor-ship (I doubt that’s the right term!) is a one year appointment so each year this event celebrates the new person taking office. The was a sense of fun running through the parade with many of the serious looking gents in carriages waving hand puppets around! There were huge crowds enjoying the parade who all wandered over to the Thames to ooh and aah at the spectacular fireworks. A great day out for all and all free which is a great bonus with all the talk of cuts at the moment. The photos show the parade, the toys (can you spot the glove puppet sheep?), real dogs and dog costumes from the PDSA charity, the Lord Mayor waving from his carriage and one firework shot across the Thames to St Pauls.
It was a big week for those of us in the travel industry as the World Travel Market arrived in force taking up the whole of the massive Excel Centre in east London. There were fancy stands from every country in the world and some seemed as big as a country! There was so much to see and people to catch up with that it was exhausting but it‘s a major event in the industry year so great to be there. A few photos just for fun – Paddington continues the soft toys theme, the komodo dragon made me look twice and the Korean stand saved me by serving very tasty lunch!

It was a delight to show a visiting American around London and we wandered our way through the tried and tested favourites: Downing Street, Big Ben, Thames Cruise and British Museum. I never tire of these….

Just one more thing to squeeze into this week’s jumbo photo blog was a charity event at Mary Portas Giving and Living shop on Westbourne Grove. It was the kick off for their online auction of Killer Heels against Killer Diseases and they have gathered designer shoes – Manolos, Westwoods and Choos – and donations from famous locals – Pixie Lott, Nigella, Jonathan Ross etc. So we viewed the shoes over a glass of bubbly, with many of the clever window display you can see on the photo, and decided which ones to bid for. Great idea Mary!

Bye for now,

Sue

Scary Jack the Ripper…

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I had some visitors from Texas who wanted to do a Jack the Ripper tour so much they even booked it before they came to London. We had an afternoon tour and the Jack the Ripper and it was properly scary. We met up for our tour just outside Whitechapel Gallery in the East End and set off in the dark with our wonderful guide. She was from the East End and was a real expert on the topic who researches ‘Jack’ every day so she knows everything there is to know it seems and has her own theory as to who he was. She led us around the sites of the murders for an engrossing two and a half hour tour full of stories about the era, giving us lots of context. It was a very tough area at the time with people living incredibly hard lives and especially the women who were driven to drink and life on the streets. She warned us and then came the grisly details of the murders and even photos of the victims, but these were optional! It was not the sort of thing I would usually do as I’m not keen on the horror stuff but our guide was so knowledgeable that the time just flew by. No photos of this tour as it was a very dark night!

The afternoon before Jack saw a great Indian lunch of very tasty curries at Tayyabs near Whitechapel, a wander up Brick Lane dropping into a wonderful bright cloth shop with such cheery staff, a quick shopping trip in Spitalfields and a nip to the Tate Modern to show them the wonderful Sunflower Seeds by Ai Wei Wei (see blog from 22nd October). We spent time admiring the night lights over the Thames and it was a great photo opportunity. What an afternoon and evening – we all enjoyed it and loved packing so much in.

 

The run up to Christmas has started and you’ll be seeing the lights and the shops in future blogs but the big Spirit of Christmas Fair took place in Olympia this week. I was helping out a friend who had a stall and we spent a day selling lovely Xmas decorations and high quality candles. It was a busy day and we did well – I thought so anyway! You can see the Olympia room which is great and our very special stall before the customers emptied it…. I treated myself to a proper visit the following day to start my own present shopping as there was no time when we were working to leave the stall even for a minute!

 

Then there was one wonderful autumn day out which started in my garden where the Japanese maple was brighter than ever (the close up photo), then we set off for a great Portobello market day. The sun was catching the buildings beautifully with more flaming trees. Lunch was taken at the Electric Brasserie as it’s so hard not too and we had to dodge the cameras filming the Channel 4 programme Seven Days so watch out for me passing quickly by! The leaves have nearly gone but it was a bright and vibrant autumn to remember.
Bye for now,
Sue

Making cocktails, tasting cocktails!

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The highlight of the last week was a Cocktail History Masterclass at The Lonsdale. Jim Wrigley gave an amazingly informative talk from behind the bar at the rather fabulous Lonsdale in Notting Hill. They’ve just been refurbished and are on a mission to get us all to go and hang out there and I was invited to a special press event, but snuck in somehow! We had a great evening and Jim’s history lesson went way back to the 1500s. His talk was interspersed with cocktail making from the period he was telling us about, , when he took one person out of the crowd to work on some cocktails for tasting – you’ll not be surprised to hear that I had a go and we mixed and stirred a tasty brew! Some of the cocktails were a bit potent but after several tastings, I confirmed that my usual tipple was indeed my favourite and I will stick to the trusty cosmopolitan. The venue was a bit dark and I didn’t want to use the flash too much so here are a few slightly grainy photos to give you an idea of the bar and the mixing fun.

 

The Affordable Art Fair was my last visit of October’s burst of wonderful art shows in London which hit town every autumn. Their view of affordable is under £3,000 and there was a surprising stall selling some very big names, just under the limit including Damian Hirst and you’ll see the others on the photo. It was set in a starry night ceiling designed big tent in the middle of Battersea Park and as we went on the preview night there was a glass or two of free wine to help the purchasing. We particularly enjoyed some lovely Cornish paintings and some beautiful glass and chatted to a few friends on stalls or wandering around. Sad to know the main art season is over….

A new restaurant opened just round the corner from me on Westbourne Grove (Notting Hill again!) so we dropped in to test out Cote and really like it, as do many others judging from the full tables. It’s an all day French brasserie serving mid range priced good food and I can recommend the fillet steak with thin chips! We’ve had a bit of rain lately so here’s the good looking exterior on a wet evening but it still looks good.

 

Bye for now,
Sue

Just one word – chocolate!

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London was the best place enjoy National Chocolate Week 2010 and Vinopolis was chocolate central! They are normally the home of wine but for one week they were hosting Chocolate Unwrapped where the major chocolatiers were exhibiting and some giving talks. There were tasting opportunities at each stall and extraordinary choc sculptures of steam trains and even shoes! Some stalls were offering competitions and raffles and I won a signed copy of Working with Chocolate by Mark Tilling in an Action Against Hunger charity raffle so watch out for some splendid sweet making by yours truly! One of the talks was given by Paul A Young who was really entertaining and handed out tasters such as marmite truffles which were surprisingly good. His top tip was to put salt into your chocolate mix as it soops up the flavour – give it a go. Photos are of: Paul A Young himself; some of the sculptures; a beautiful displays of cacao pods; and, the finished product all lined up and ready to eat. All that chocolate before noon was a real challenge!

 

One other big excitement was our visit to Ai Wei Wei’s new exhibit at the Tate Modern where he has installed over 100 million painted porcelain sunflower seeds. Originally it was to be an interactive event with visitors walking in amongst the ‘seeds’ but it was decided that the resulting porcelain dust was too dangerous for us and now we can only watch from the sidelines and hold a single seed handed around. Rather sad for the artist I’m sure. It is a truly impressive sight and the accompanying film gives more insight into the work. It raises questions about mass productions, the ‘made in China’ label we are so familiar with and issues of individuality as each seed is different from the millions of others, each painted by hand. The seeds themselves hark back to the famines under Mao when sunflower seeds were the only food for many citizens. The photos give you the full view of the Turbine Hall with its grey carpet of seeds and a close up of the seeds themselves.

 

That’s all for this week’s blog as it’s late going to ‘press’ -sorry about that.

 

Bye for now,
Sue

The ayes to the right!

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A big event in my week was a tour of the inside of the Houses of Parliament. A pre-booked 75 minute tour led by a very well versed Blue Badge Guide (Noel) took us into the very heart of this extraordinary building. I’ve been meaning to do this for ages so we very pleased to finally poke my nose inside this seat of power. You can visit any Saturday at the moment as they are trialling Saturday opening in addition to the usual summer recess visiting days. You can walk through the route that the Queen takes when she opens Parliament past amazingly ornate decoration, huge paintings and numerous statues. The interior of the building was designed to tell the story of the country and, as the guide said, you could study the contents and designs for years. We spent some time in the House of Lords, resplendent in gold and red and then in the less flamboyant House of Commons in green. We saw where they vote in new laws, the 2 rooms to the right and left where the ‘ayes’ (the yes’s) and the ‘noes’ (the no’s) go and heard tell of the rush to get all the MPs into the house in time for the vote.The tour concludes in the Westminster Hall, an impressive and precious remainder of the original Palace of Westminster, built in 1097 with changes made in 1245, but which burned down in 1834. The building you see now is a Victoria edifice except for this huge Hall. which now used for receptions and layings in state – you may have seen pictures of the Queen Mother’s coffin there as the most recent. You can’t take pictures during the tour, just of the hall so you have to remember the rest! I’ve added an exterior shot across the Thames as it’s one of the great sights of London.

It’s a big time of year in London for art lovers with so many fairs and exhibitions and Hyde Park didn’t want to be left out so has set up a few of pieces from Anish Kapoor to delight us. The main piece is wonderful – a curved mirror which sits amoung the trees and reflects back toward Kensington Palace and catches the viewer in shot (yes that’s me with the camera!). The reverse is concave and reflects one back upside down. Kids and adults alike were having great fun with this work – what more can you ask from an artist? He’s also got a reflective witch’s hat in the park. I’m sure that’s not the real title but that’s what it looked like to me! As you can see from the photos it was a wonderfully sunny October day in the park and the deck chairs were full and many visitors had arrived on the new ‘Boris bikes’. These are bikes you can hire by the half hour from stands all across the centre of London. At the moment you have to subscribe online to use them but they plan to offer the option to just turn up and hire one and hopefully that will come in very soon as I want to have a go! Lots of photos posted in to try to show you the Kapoor work and a day in the park.

 

My weekend continued the art theme with a visit to Palace Art Fair, held in the wonderful Bishops Palace in Fulham, followed by Art London held in the grounds of the Royal Chelsea Hospital. We saw some good stuff, some hideous stuff but mostly enjoyed the browsing and the sunshine.
Bye for now,
Sue

Champagne pub tour and a pop up cinema

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Highlight of the week was the champagne pub tour courtesy of Geronimo Inns so yes all paid for this group but the write up is all me! We started at the Phoenix in Victoria for a little champers to get us in the mood then a fun ride to Battersea in an old routemaster – do love these fab old buses. More champagne on the bus and on arrival at the Prince Albert. They’d done up the upstairs room in their Christmas look and it almost got me festive even tho’ it’s only October. The theme here is dogs as it’s next to the park and near the dogs home so the wall paper is all doggy and many drinkers in the main room had brought their four legged friends out with them. Then back on the bus to two more pubs – the Northcote in Clapham and the Elgin on Ladbroke Grove, just near me. Lots more champagne on the bus rides so photos only from the early part of the evening. (Our transport, the Xmas table and the wall paper at the Prince Albert) These pubs are good and I’m not someone who chooses a pub over a bar but I did like them.

 

Some films to report on – firstly The Town and Made in Dagenham. Luckily I have a friend who belongs to the swanky Hospital Club who have a private screening room so the watching experience is delightful! The Town was a bank heist story which was gripping and Made in Dagenham was a slice of industrial history from 1968 and the campaign for equal pay for women at Ford’s Dagenham factory told with verve and humour. Both are worth a look.

 

On this film theme, one great local addition I forgot to mention recently is the Notting Hill pop up cinema on Portobello Road. They were showing shorts as part of the Notting Hill Film Festival til last week and it seems to be staying – I really hope so as it looks amazingly funky and fun – see photos! I went a special showing of Michael Winner’s 1963 film West 11 which was great and very moody. Michael himself turned up to do a Q&A afterwards so here’s a photo of him at the podium.
Restaurants visited this week included Le Cafe Anglais in Bayswater which has just been refurbished and they had a 25% off special in their new oyster bar and cafe section so that was an offer not to be missed. Sunday lunch was very good and we got some respite from the week long rain and the sun streamed through the big windows as we were leaving. Recommended are the steak and the fish pie, reasonably priced even at normal prices. Run by Rowley Leigh the food is bound to be good and we even had a close up magician visit out table and, as ever, I had no idea how he did the tricks!
Bye for now,
Sue

Arts by day, sciences by night

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It was an exciting week at the Natural History Museum as they treated us to a late opening on Friday night so we could meet their scientists. It was mobbed with people and we could hardly get through the crowds at each desk waiting to ask about dinosaurs, plants, rocks and mammals. This event was happening in 200 cities across Europe in other science institutions. It was a fun evening as the bars were open and everyone was wondering around with drinks enjoying the atmosphere and the special tours of the key areas. Hopefully they will do this again as everyone was having a good time in this most wonderful of buildings. Have a look at these 2 photos, one of the outside wonderfully lit and the other putting you face on to the dinosaur you see as you enter this home of natural science, an enormous diplodocus.

Art was on all around London as these weeks in September are the peak time for art exhibitions and shows. There was London Fashion Week, Decorex, 100% Design, Origins and Tent to name just some of them and this week I went to visit the last two. Origins was in Spitalfields Market where the central hall was given over to this year’s show entitled Made not Manufactured. There were hundreds of stalls selling a wide range of original pieces from small traders from glass, pottery and jewellery through to leather goods and hats and scarves. We stopped for lunch at Spitalfields as this area is really good for restaurants and we visited John Torode’s Luxe. They were busy but the wait for the food was worth it as it was very high quality. From there we went on to Tent in the Truman Brewery on Brick Lane where newer designers and more experimental work was on sale/being exhibited. Photos here are the posters at Origins, the outside of the Luxe cafe and the landmark chimney at the Truman Brewery, now an exhibition space.

More art on Wednesday as I visited three galleries that show glass items with a friend of mine who is a glass artist and we are working on how best to market her lovely creations. We went to Flow and Vessel Galleries in Notting Hill and Zest in Earl’s Court and all the folk were really friendly and helpful. They have great stuff too so do poke your nose in their doors.

I had a treat on Wednesday night as I went to a party at the Hospital private members club which was thrown by Wolf and Badger. Lots of champagne is always fun and we had a great night. We’d had lunch at Taqueria in Notting Hill where you can taste more original and authentic Mexican snacks than you find at most places. They serve one of my favourites which is hot black beans with crumbled cheese.

Bye for now,
Sue
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Maps and sneaky peeking on OpenHouse weekend

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I love maps and can spend hours looking at even the most ordinary ones so the chance to go to an exhibition at the British Library called Magnificent Maps was not to be missed! The British Library is not somewhere I go normally as you have to have a readers’ pass to see most of the books but I think I should go more often as this exhibition was wonderful. They also have the most amazing permanent exhibition in the Sir John Ritblat Gallery of world class treasures (as they say) and I really didn’t have enough time to do them justice on this visit.

Back to the maps, which ranged from 11th century Mappa Mundi (my favourites) and maps from the first explorers to a Grayson Perry take off and the satirical map of London called the Island from 2008. They have 80 beautiful maps from tiny psalter map from 1265 to the largest atlas in the world. They explore the themes of maps as art, as propaganda for pride and expressions of power. I was amazed at the accuracy of some of the early works and the skill of these early map makers. The British Library itself is a great modern building and they claim to have 14 million books tho’ I wonder if they are all in this building. I’ve put in a couple of photos to show you entrance to this 1997 building and courtyard with its statue of Isaac Newton by Eduardo Paolozzi and one of the wonderful interior.

 

London threw its doors open this weekend so we could put our noses into buildings that are normally closed to the public. The brochure arrived a week ago and was overwhelming with the amount of choice so we had to put a programme together for the day and set off this morning to see some new sights. Three highlights are shown in the photos: a synagogue in Notting Hill, an old newspaper building and a great hall. The synagogue dates from the Victorian era and is grade 11 listed with magnificent, and newly restored interior mixing a range of architectural styles. We were given a talk and we able to walk around the interior floor which is normally only open to men, to see the Torah scrolls and ceremonial items. Our next visit was to the magnificent Art Deco foyer of the former Daily Express building on Fleet Street. It was all chrome with those wonderful art deco shapes including a snake handrail and it has a striking exterior. One more to mention is the Middle Temple Hall, described as London’s finest surviving Elizabethan hall dating from 1562 and is virtually unaltered today. A bomb fell onto the building during the Second World War damaging one end which has been restored but the wooden hammer beam roof somehow came through undamaged.

 

 

 

 

A couple of restaurants worth a mention this week were Hix at the Albemarle and Khans. Hix is another Mark Hix venture this time in the luxurious surroundings of Brown’s Hotel in Mayfair. His menu majors on British fare and we really enjoyed our Kent ceps for starters and our Hix cocktail with sparking wine from Sussex. Khans on Westbourne Grove is a contrasting place with pillars which turn into palm trees, countryside scenes painted on the walls and no alcohol but they serve a great curry so well worth the visit. One more fun thing on the eating/drinking/entertainment topic was a birthday do. A local gallery was hosting the first birthday party of West London Living, lifestyle magazine and this proved a fun evening with cocktails and entertainment including from a 40s styled trio called the Scarlet Starlets. Here’s a photo of the Scarlets and from the look you can imagine the sounds.

 

 

I think that’s enough for this week so bye for now.

 

 

Sue