Westminster and comedy

Leave a comment

I had the pleasure of a second half day with my It’s Your London client (see last week’s blog for part one) and we had another jam packed few hours together! We started with Westminster Cathedral, just a week ahead of the Pope’s arrival next week. The mosaics are amazing and it is a very impressive building with its Byzantine design which is so unusual for London as you can see in the photo. We then did the classic walk by of Houses Parliament, Parliament Square, Downing Street, Horse Guards Parade with the Changing of the Guard thrown in. The Changing of the Guard is an impressive sight especially as my visitor loves horses so here’s a shot of them. Then a stroll through St James’s Park with a coffee on the roof of the Inn the Park, finishing up with a visit to Buckingham Palace. The tour around the Queen‘s House is well worth it and as they say on the audio guide – a rare chance to see inside the house of a working monarch. She was on her holidays in Scotland so we could walk around the sumptuous state rooms and have a coffee in the cafe in the magnificent and huge gardens. The cafe staff have an extraordinary attention to detail and I couldn’t resist taking this photo of coffee and cake Buck House style – the chocolate on the top of the cappuccino was in the shape of a crown which made us laugh and realise it was no ordinary cafe!

I was lucky enough to get tickets to see the great comedian Jason Byrne recording a radio at BBC Broadcasting House. We were very close to the stage and it was very funny – both the recorded sections and the warm up and ad libs. Broadcasting House is where the BBC started and is undergoing major changes at the moment with a new wing being added to house all the news and world service staff. The iconic main building has been cleaned up and looks great with its Eric Gill statue on the front and its fine art deco lines. The church of All Souls next door looks amazing day or night and here’s a night photo to go with the Broadcasting House one.

 

I went to my first London Bloggers MeetUp where a bunch of fellow bloggers get together in a pub to talk about the fun of blogging and meet other fans. This month there were some good folk from PR agencies to put their side of the story. Some of these good bloggers post something everyday so I felt rather an amateur with my weekly efforts!

 

Only 1 year 318 days to go to the Olympics! Must go to visit the main site again soon. So much to get to see in London – never enough time…
Bye for now,
Sue

Good fun with visitors

Leave a comment

I had 2 sets of visitors in town last week so there was lots of good sightseeing and enjoying London through others’ eyes which is always good fun.

 

The first visitor was an old friend from America who was here on a flying visit for less than a day, en route to elsewhere, so we needed to pack in as much as we could. The first stop was Spitalfields market which is one of the best in London tho’ I have to love Portobello more as it is my local market and Camden is pretty good too! Spitalfields has great one off clothing, inventive jewellery, yummy food, a covered hall, side shops, and loads more. And just as we were arriving we saw a dance company called La Troupe Delicieux doing trailers for their forthcoming acrobatic show called Deja Vu. The power and grace was amazing to see and all to a thumping Shirley Bassey track. We shopped amidst the crowds and then took a glass of wine at Galvin cafe next to the lovely Galvin La Chapelle – worth checking out their Sunday lunch deal but we were in a rush so went for the curry in a hurry!


Here you can see the Galvin La Chapelle exterior, the Deja Vu pose and the crowds in the market.

 

After this burst of retail delight we went to Waterloo Station to see the Railway Children which was staged on the platform of the old Eurostar terminal (which moved to St Pancras). It was very close in storyline to the film of the same title and was so imaginatively staged it even treated the audience to a real steam train coming into the middle of the stage! We loved it and so did all the kids there, young and old ! Sadly no photos allowed and the sneaky ones on the phone didn’t work (but don’t tell them I tried….)

 

Following this we went for a marvellous dinner at the Wolseley restaurant on Picadilly. It’s a grand room, great menu and lots of celeb spotting and our treat was the beautiful Joanna Lumley who joined us in taking the prize for ‘last to leave the restaurant’!

 

My second visitor was a client of my tour company It’s Your London. A businesswoman on a first trip to London she wanted a couple of half days as an introduction to London seeing the big sights and some Harry Potter! I have to admit to not know much about Harry Potter so did some research and arranged us a visit to Platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross, Diagon Alley and the entrance to Leaky Cauldron., both in Leadenhall Market. My favourite is the platform which surprisingly is hidden away in station and has no signs to it so you have to know… We also visited the British Museum, Tower of London and Trafalgar Square with a trip down the Thames thrown in. They even raised Tower Bridge while we were there – how amazing! Here’s a few shots of what we saw:


A second trip to the theatre was a completely different show to the Railway Children as we saw La Bete which was costume piece in rhyming couplets with an amazing cast starring Mark Rylance, David Hyde Pierce and Joanna Lumely (yes her again – twice in one week!). I must say I didn’t warm to it although some of my fellow theatre goers really liked it. But had much more of a laugh at Stewart Francis’s DVD recording on Friday with a show full of one liners and comic timing. Watch out for the release of the DVD later this year and I might even be on it!
That’s enough for this week and I’m packing in loads of stuff to tell you about next Monday.
Bye for now
Sue

Notting Hill caaarnivaaaal!

Leave a comment

The last weekend in August must be kept clear in many of our diaries for just one thing – the Notting Hill carnival. Europe’s biggest street festival (well Rio is bigger) comes to town and brings in over a million party goers to my neighbourhood. There’s a huge parade winding its way through a 3 and half mile route which takes hours as they dance their hearts out. There are loads of trucks with deafening music systems or steel pan bands followed by dancers, many in huge and elaborate costumes, others in very little! The parade is only part of the fun as the other streets are full of food stall, clothes and Caribbean stuff, and the loudest of loud sound stages with a whole range of musical styles but all with massive speakers. Caribbean food has to be eaten – jerk chicken, goat curry and saltfish with ackee are the key dishes, accompanied by plantain, rice and peas. It was the 47th carnival but only my 7th! Here are a bunch of photos which give you a better idea of it all than words can.

 

 

 

 

 

One completely contrasting event in last week’s diary to tell you about was an evening for Historic Royal Palace members at the Banqueting House. In this amazing venue with its masterpiece of a Rubens ceiling, we were entertained by Nell Gwynn telling of her royal escapades. After a little wine we had a go at 17th century dancing and managed as a set of 8 people to go through a whole rotation of a dance – very proud! This historic place saw the beheading of Charles 1st which was a seismic moment in British history but it’s all very lovely now.
It will be a quieter week next week but still plenty to tell you about so see you soon.
Bye for now,
Sue

It was their finest hour…

Leave a comment

The highlight of this week was the celebrations to mark the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. There was a huge crowd packed around the Cabinet War Rooms to hear a reading of Churchill’s famous speech to Parliament with its unforgettable passages. It’s always moving to hear his words: ‘never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few’. They were read by Robert Hardy who has played Churchill in a TV series a while back. There was a very fast fly past of a Spitfire and Hurricane – very speedy in deed and tricky for photos but I guess that was the point back then! A few veterans were there for a photo call with Vera Lynn alongside a Spitfire replica. The veterans looked amazing for their age and one in particular, Geoffrey Wellum, did a walk about with the crowd, shaking hands (including mine!) and you could just imagine him as a dashing young pilot as he was still all smiles and charm, he’s the one at the front of the group photo in case you hadn’t guessed…

 

August has not brought us the wonderful weather that June and July were so generous with , but that has not stopped Londoners putting on their summer events. The good folk of Norfolk Square near Paddington station were not to be put off by a few dark clouds so they set up their summer fete for the children and had a good time. They had all the traditional stalls such as Punch and Judy and some unusual and wonderful ones such as a tall helter skelter and continuing the height theme, there was a group of singers who felt the need to make themselve at least 7 feet tall!

 

 

The restaurant report this week covers Marco Pierre White’s Kings Road Steakhouse. As usual we were on a special deal thanks to Toptable so there was a reasonably priced set menu with plenty of steak on it, tho my starter of beetroot with goats cheese with walnuts with a wonderful dessert of light cheesecake were worth a mention too. I took up my prize of a free dinner at Fire and Stone during this week and we went to their Covent Garden branch to eat as much as we could in their buzzing jolly room and cheery staff. We managed a shared starter, a large and tasty pizza and a shared brownie which sounds less than it felt at the time.

 

One final bit of London fun was a trip to Speakers Corner on Sunday morning. There were a
couple of guys drawing considerable crowds with their religious tracts. One was particularly good at engaging with the crowd which was not easy for him as one of the front row was quite a joker and got the crowd laughing. There was some very robust debate about the merits of christianity versus islam and the next crowd were being enlightened about judaism. The speakers just turn up with a set of steps or a chair and set off – a loud voice is definitely needed tho’. It’s a great institution and you have to love the freedom to rant!

 

Bye for now,
Sue

Edinburgh and all those shows…

1 Comment
I had great fun in Edinburgh on my annual trip to Scotland to enjoy the Festival Fringe- the world’s largest arts festival. It’s only four and half to five hours train ride to Edinburgh through some lovely scenery including views across Durham and the cathedral, Berwick and the coast. You have to go in August as that’s when Edinburgh goes mad with at least 4 festivals at once and well over 2000 shows to chose from. The big challenge is how many to fit into one visit without getting overload and the trick is to mix up comedy, theatre and musical shows during the day. There are shows on all day and late into the night and we managed to get to 8 in all (1 play, 2 music plays, 4 comedians and 1 singer) plus a book reading by Fatima Bhutto and a recording of a radio show – would have been 9 but one theatrical piece over ran badly which was annoying and hard to work out how it happened. The radio show was cut short due to a fire alarm but was good fun with Fred McCauley interviewing a range of comedians from new comers like Paul Sinha to pros like Ardal O’Hanlon, Adam Hills Paul Merton. The photos are of the famous purple Udderbelly tent, 2 views of the wonderful castle and skyline and one of a restaurant – they have a Restaurant in the Sky where a platform is hoisted up on a crane and meals and drinks served with a fabulous view. The view of the skyline was taken from Oloroso’s bar, set atop a building on George Street it is a great place to take a breather from the shows and enjoy great views and snacks. It’s a place we’d wanted to go to for years but the weather had not been quite good enough but this year there was sunshine almost all the time and Edinburgh looked gorgeous. Our other good eatery was the Dome, a converted bank with a magnificent domed ceiling where no expense was spared and which is now a great setting for Sunday lunch.

I didn’t spend much time in London this week but did have time for one cultural excursion to the Camille Silvry exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. He (despite the expectations set by the name) was a French photographer who set up a portrait studio in Bayswater, just near where I live, and developed techniques that we marvelled. The photo which forms part of the brochure in this photo, is a combination of 4 different shots, merged seamlessly to give the clear figures in the foreground against the murky fog behind. He had a great sense of the theatrical and he became well loved of the London theatre scene and photographed many stars of the time as well as working under the patronage of Queen Victoria which gave him access to the upper reaches of society. His 10 year burst of creativity sadly ended in an asylum but left an amazing legacy. We revived ourselves at the excellent National Cafe where a light snack a glass of wine was the perfect accompaniment.
One more restaurant moment to mention was another great lunch at the Electric Brasserie – steak frites and a glass of red makes me feel Parisien and happy with the world!
Bye for now,
Sue

Classical music, rain and bin bags!

Leave a comment

London – so varied, so interesting, such unpredictable weather! I like to think it’s always sunny in London but we do have rain or our parks wouldn’t be so lovely and green. This week’s wet highlight was Kenwood – a series of open air picnic concerts set in the lovely surroundings of Kenwood House on Hampstead Heath. We went for the summer proms featuring Vivaldi’s Four Seasons which turned out to be accurate as we had sun, cold and the most amazing downpour I’ve been out in for a very long time. We were half way through the picnic when the heavens opened on us and despite enormous amounts of plastic we were soaked to the knickers! No photos of this as the camera was safely away in one of the few dry sections of the bag. Being British we ‘kept calm and carried on’, sat it out, finished the picnic and enjoyed the concert tho’ sitting in damp clothes is not my favourite feeling. Here’s a photo of the venue just before the rain…..

Trafalgar Square was hosting a pop-up maze with blue plaques all around inside the maze telling visitors all about the West End. It wasn’t large enough to get lost in but was good fun and in the middle were singers from Dover Street jazz and I read that there were different performers each day. Just a bit of fun and why not. A couple of photos to give you the idea, one on the inside and one of the famous lions taken in the queue – yes of course there’s a queue – surely part of the fun!

It was classical music week with a trip to the Proms in the Royal Albert Hall where we saw Elgar and Vaughan Williams performed by the Scottish Symphony Orchestra. It’s a beautiful venue and I love to hear music there. It was good to see it full as the Proms are a fabulous national treasure from the BBC – the world’s largest classical music festival with over 70 concerts spread over 3 months every summer. ‘Prommers’ queue on the day (queueing again!) for standing tickets at just £5 which makes it brilliantly accessible for the less well off but hardy folk. Luckily for me we had box tickets as I’m too short and too lazy to stand for a couple of hours! Here’s a photo of the inside of the wonderful hall, taken just after the performance finished in case you were thinking I’d taken in mid symphony which would be a major Proms crime…

One of my local galleries was holding their Summer 2010 Collection which was very interesting. Salon Contemporary on Westbourne Grove showcase the best of new British talent in this annual event in its 4th year now and new graduates get to show their work in the trendy gallery. It was invite only and was absolutely packed. The most eye catching was Hye Young Ku who works with bin bags and combines a static piece with performances and the photos shows her is in her bin bag bed creation within which she sang short sets. Salon Gallery has regularly changing exhibitions and is an important champion of new work. They also initiated a great new local initiative, First Wednesdays, where local galleries and fashion shops open late on the first Wednesday of the month (it was in the name I guess!) which just makes Notting Hill even better.

Eating and drinking this week – my fabulous picnic at Kenwood was a highlight! I love putting together my picnic with its massive over-catering and plenty of hot food. Also a trip to the refurbished Chepstow in Notting Hill and Smithy’s Wine Bar in Kings Cross where the Dover Sole was very highly recommended.
Here’s hoping for no rain as I’m off to the Edinburgh Fringe this weekend!
Bye for now.
Sue

Laughs, tears and being very full up!

1 Comment

Read on to see what was happening in my London week: Carnaval del Pueblo fizzing, bike scheme starting, pizza opening, Spurs losing, comedy giggling, restaurant visiting and Toy Story!

 

Carnaval del Pueblo is a huge Latin American festival held in Burgess Park, south London and was indeed huge with 3 large sound stages, endless, endless food stalls, over 100,000 people dancing and picnicing and stalls selling all things Latin American and of course face painting! The festival is in its 10th year and is great fun – I even got to park nearby which was amazingly lucky. I should of course have cycled as London’s new cycle scheme started this weekend. We have new shining bike stands everywhere and once you’ve registered you can use a bike for your journey, taking it from one bike stand and returning it to another. I’ll have a go v soon but in the meantime loved this photo of the bikes all parked and ready to go the night before it all started.

 

The very friendly people at Fire and Stone pizzas kindly invited me to their pre-opening session for London bloggers at the new Shoreditch branch. They gave us a demo of how they make their pizzas and bases and enthused about their emphasis on fresh ingredients from good suppliers. The kitchen had been fired up with it’s pizza oven and pizza kept appearing so we tasted a slice – well several actually, then we were given the chance to make a pizza ourselves! Not as foolish as it sounds as we chose a one off their menu and assembled the ingredients on the base with the help of one of the chefs, so no too much room for making a mess of it. There was a competition for the one that looked most like it should have and somehow I won so here is a photo of me with my fabulous ‘Marrakech’ (all their pizzas are named after towns and use typical ingredients from that place). The bases are different from normal dough as they have to carry quite a weight of toppings and are very tasty I must say. A fun morning and felt immensely full afterwards as we also had to taste the puddings – ‘had to’, yes, would have been rude not too so for those who like to drool over food photos, here’s a pudding one – yummy brownie. Got a doggey bag – had to eat it – still feeling full – all my own fault…..

 

We’ve all moved on from the World Cup (as quickly as possible!) and it’s pre-season friendly time so I went to see Spurs play Villa Real courtesy of some complementary tickets which was just as well because a 4-1 loss didn’t feel very friendly. Spurs’s ground is not the best looking or easy to get to and there is talk of them trying to take on the Olympic stadium after 2012 which would be good except that the team is Tottenham Hotspurs not Straford Spurs! One photo of Spurs almost scoring a 2nd goal….

Kings Place is a new-ish arts venue near Kings Cross and was the venue for pre-Edinburgh comedy at the weekend – the wonderful Chris Addison from The Thick of It. He did a great set and is up there with my other favourites now. I’m off to the Edinburgh Fringe in a couple of weeks so I’m looking forward to getting a few new comedy names on that list. Kings Place has a canal side setting with bar and restaurant and hosts a great range of events and exhibitions throughout the year. It’s easy to get to except at the moment when the tube lines I use seem to be closed for renovation just when I want to use them – thank goodness for buses.

Restaurants this week included Camino near Kings Place – really good tapas and the bar was absolutely rammed with people who’d clearly been there for some time but no trouble at all.

 

And finally, Toy Story 3 – absolutely loved it and just held back a tear as they headed into the fire….. Genius story, scripting, technical brilliance and witty too. We went to the Electric Cinema to see it so we had the added loveliness of super comfy spacious seats and a bottle of wine.

Next week is shaping up – a trip to the Proms and a Kenwood picnic concert if the weather holds up.

Bye for now,

Sue http://itsyourlondon.co.uk/

Great to be back…

Leave a comment

Despite really enjoying a wonderful couple of weeks in USA, it’s great to be back in London. I survived a long weekend in New York which was a blur of activity and excitement. We were there for World Cup weekend (doesn’t that seem a long time ago now?) and I can confirm that NYC has footy fever in a big loud way. We crammed in 4 shows, many meals, a walking tour of Harlem and a trip out on the Statten Island ferry and it was hot and sticky especially on the subway where trains have air-con but not the platforms. Then it was off to New Mexico to visit super arty Santa Fe, Native American pueblos in Taos, white sand dunes and massive caves in the south. A few photos at the end for those who like a bit of vicarious travelling.

My first weekend back in London was fun with the English summer continuing to delight us sun lovers. Our restaurant trip was to Vanilla where the food was good (on our usual Toptable special offer) but the place was a little unsure whether to be a bar or a restaurant so fell a bit between the two. Saturday saw a walk through Hyde Park to visit the new pavillion by Jean Nouvel at the Serpentine Gallery. It’s big, red and wonderful – an installation and a cafe all in one! The exhibition of photographs in the gallery by Wolfgang Tillmans was not my thing – he may have a Turner prize but we missed the special-ness of his work.

 

Saturday evening was spent catching up with friends and having fun in the centre of town from the Old Shades pub off Trafalgar Square, to an outdoor cafe in Covent Garden (complete with busker who sounded amazingly like Cat Stevens as was), to the Rock and Sole Plaice who were out of plaice but the cod was good and finally to Cafe Boheme in Soho – phew! No one told me the tubes finished just after 12.30 as I thought it was later – thanks goodness for buses…

 

Sunday was a quieter shopping day with a good amount of time in Selfridges,which is very smart and trendy and then on to St Christopher’s Place for coffee out in the sunshine. Jet lag has finally hit or is it just tiredness….

 

I’m looking forward to a full week back in London and here are a few photos from the USA, including the one from Roswell which I couldn’t resist! They are: New York Statue of Liberty, Pueblo, Taos, Chimayo north New Mexico, White Sands and Roswell’s great advertising…

 

Bye for now,
Sue

Elephants and tennis and more sunshine…

1 Comment

The London heatwave continues much to everyone’s surprise and there was not a single rain stoppage at Wimbledon – must be that centre court roof acting as a anti rain device! This week’s blog focuses on the elephants and the tennis, with a street party and some Pride thrown in.

All the elephants that have been scattered around London for several weeks now were gathered together for a final parade before being auctioned off for the Indian elephant charity. I went down, as did so many other Londoners, as they were an irresistible sight. I’ve limited myself to just a few new photos but there were 250 to delight the snappers! The location was the old Chelsea Hospital which is famous for being the home of the annual Chelsea Flower Show but more famous for being the home of the Chelsea Pensioners. The hospital which was more a place of refuge for servicemen, was founded in 1682 by Charles 11 for veterans. It still does the same work for about 400 residents tho’ has accepted a servicewoman (!) and the average age is 83 for these famous red coats that we can see out and about and on special occasions. It’s a very large and grand site that you can wander round with a museum and shop so I’ve included one photo of one particularly impressive section.

 

 

 

 

 

Then it was off to Wimbledon as I’d been lucky enough to win 2 tickets in the public ballot for court 1 on the final day of the tournament. This meant we could get in early without joining the huge queue and spend time on Henman Hill as well as in our alloted seats. Being the last day the main event was on centre court but the Hill was great fun and absolutely packed and is a fun way to watch on the big screen – see photo. We then went onto court 1 to rest our weary bottoms (!) and saw the wonderful Martina Navratilova in the invitation doubles, and then Pat Cash in the invitation mens doubles – always good to see old champions at play. I love wandering around Wimbledon, Pimms in hand and we even caught sight of Nadal in the flesh as he waved to the crowds after his match.

 

 

Nearly forgot to mention Pride – a massive gay event which took over the centre of London with streets closed, amazing get up and huge fun being had – have a look at Trafalgar Square to see what I mean!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just one more thing to mention is our annual street party. Where I live in Notting Hill we are in a cul de sac which has a little garden in the middle so each year the neighbours gather in it to catch up and have a few glasses of wine together. It’s always great fun and makes London feel like it’s a neighbourly place to live rather than the big beast it can seem like sometimes…

 

 

 

I’m off to USA for a couple of weeks so don’t think there’ll be any blogging until I’m back on 23rd so have a great time!

Bye for now, Sue http://itsyourlondon.co.uk/

London heatwave!

Leave a comment

This was the week that summer hit London with full force with blue skies and temperatures reaching 30 degrees at Sunday’s peak. Perhaps not so high for some of you reading this but trust me, that’s really hot for London! Sunday was also famous for the debacle of the England football team but let’s not dwell on that…..

One highlight of this week for me was a drive through Richmond Park. This is less than 30 minutes from central London even with London’s busy traffic and is an amazing place to visit as it’s not only a huge and beautiful expanse of open land, but it’s so big you can drive through it. What makes it really special is the herds of deer you can easily see as you drive/walk/run/cycle you way around the park. They are so used to people and vehicles that you can get really close to these beautiful creatures and here are a couple of snaps so you can see them for yourselves.
Sunny days are always great down by the river Thames and I made a trip to the Tate Modern which not only has incredible art but also a couple of great balconies for photographers to indulge themselves with river views. I loved taking these of St Pauls and the famous ‘wobbly bridge’, and one across the maze of buildings in the city of London, old and new sitting next to each other.


Regents Park was the scene of last week’s Taste of London Festival where one section of the park was taken over by stalls and people but has returned to its usual calm untroubled state. We went for a walk through the park during the week and loved the riot of colourful flowers and decided that being a gardener in a royal park must be a wonderful a job. Here’s an example of their work:

 

 

Then it was back to the river where the pubs along the tow path have been packed out with people enjoying the summer weather and feeling like they are on holiday in the heat of the weekend. This one is in Chiswick – one of 3 in a short space of river bank.

 

The coming week will be all about Wimbledon now the football has lost its sparkle for the English and I hear the weather will hold so watch out for more sunny photos of London at its best!
Bye for now,
Sue