Ham and other foods…

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This week saw a visit to an amazing old house in Ham, next to Richmond which is rich in history and decoration, a trip to Camden in the sunshine, a visit to a local festival and a major restaurant festival, and a couple of meals out round a theatre trip.

The very grand Ham House (in Ham!) dates from 1610 and saw great drama during the Civil War and being a royalist household, happily entertained the King and Queen after the restoration. The rooms were expensively decorated to reflect the standing of the guests and is beautifully maintained by the National Trust who are continually renovating the fabric and the fabrics of the house. Bathing and toilets are always a fascination from old times and the Duchess of the house installed a bathroom for herself in 1675, one of the first in the country and even built one for her servants although this was outside in a courtyard! The gardens are wonderful too as you can see and the diary has the most amazing shelving supported by legs elaborately carved as cows’ legs – rather strange for a room tucked away outside the main house! We dropped into the Petersham Nurseries on the way home to look at the plants and take afternoon tea at their famous cafe but nothing happens there on a Monday so we found the Petersham hotel with its views over the river and tea and cake instead.

It’s festival season in London and I went to 2 which were at opposite ends of the spectrum. One was the local Golbourne Road festival which was a low key but fun affair with stalls, dancing and a stage with local bands. There were stalls from the nearby college, a neighbourhood school, a plant stall, the Police demonstrating finger printing (!) and our own raffle stall which was raising funds for Arts Mentoring (http://www.artsmentoring.wordpress.com/) . The dancing was impressive and well worth a photo.

At the other end of the scale was the huge and showy Taste of London in Regents Park where all the top restaurants take a stand and serve 3 signature dishes – everyone from La Gavroche, through Gaucho, The Grill at the Dorchester to Busaba Eathai – sooo much choice! Other stands were selling or doing tasters of all manner of goods from vodka to cakes, to sausages to spicy dips. It started off really sunny but got a little chilly later so here’s a photo of Regents Park early on looking glorious.

I took a trip to Camden market to see how busy is it during the week in anticipation of some It’s Your London visitors coming in soon and was delighted to see it was buzzing on a Wednesday. There’ll be more about Camden soon but here’s a couple of photos of the famous canal and the Vespa bar next to it!

 

Restaurants included the Mall Tavern where we had a meal ahead of the cinema – the meal was good and it’s a nicely done gastropub worth a visit and so was the film – ‘Please Give’ at the top cinema, the independent Gate in Notting Hill. The theatre trip to ‘Holding the Man’ was less successful as I’d hoped to see ‘Dream of the Dog’ on at the same theatre but it was sold out and the second string was not for us. However we retrieved the evening but going back to Terroirs, a wine bar off Trafalgar Square where the Cotes de Rhone saved the day!

It’s full on sport at the moment with the World Cup continuing (tho’ whether England will continue to be in it is yet to be decided) and Wimbledon starts in just a few hours. So hard to get anything done!
Bye for now,
Sue

Happy Birthday your Majesty!

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This week saw the official birthday of the Queen, her real one is in April but she has a second one when all the pomp and circumstance is rolled out. We got our spot opposite Buckingham Palace at 9am, way ahead of the crowds and waited in the sunshine while men on horses, men in carriages and men on foot kept themselves busy and all dressed up in their very shiniest uniforms. Then finally the royals rolled out in their carriages and there she was – very smiley and with Prince Philip who was completely submerged in a huge bearskin! There was more marching than you can imagine and a 41 gun salute from Green Park. The bands played all the usual marching tunes including one loved by the England football fans which made me wonder whether that had been put into the programme in honour of the evening’s World Cup match against the USA (I’ll gloss over that result!) And for the royal spotters here’s a photo of the classic line up on the Buckingham Palace balcony – see how many you know and yes, Harry was missing!

 

It was Open Garden Squares Weekend in London when hundreds of gardens are open to the public many of which are private and inaccessible to non residents. A single tickets gives you entry to them all so I rushed around to pack in several of the more unusual including the roof top garden on the Ismaili mosque in South Kensington, where no photos were allowed but you could get access to their modern styled prayer room – even to women. The guide managed to explain the background to the Ismailis in a few minutes so we all left with a better understanding. One of the stars of the weekend was the Kensington Roof Gardens which is a private club and restaurant owned by Richard Branson where the gardens on a sunny day make you feel like you are on a Spanish holiday. They famously have flamingos living there to add to the exotic feel and they are beautifully pink. Other gardens I visited were so big they felt more like parks but there were also tiny treasures just big enough for the houses that surrounded them but all spoke of a life of substantial money and luxury….

 

Another London treat was the live screening in Trafalgar Square from the Royal Opera House of 3 ballets. This was a wonderful treat as the tickets for the indoor version are terribly expensive and to see it for free with great sound and picture quality was huge fun if a little chilly as it was a particularly poor evening. The programme was 2 modern ballets, Chroma and Tryst followed by a more traditional Symphony in C and to my surprise it was Chroma that mesmerised me with its raw passion and driving score. The dancers wore just singlets and knickers and no ballet shoes so it felt very different to what you would expect from the Opera House and Wayne McGregor’s choreography was completely engaging at all times. These 2 photos show you how the screen works with a close up on Chroma and a shot of the inside of the Royal Opera House to see how the other half enjoyed the show.
A new local pizza restaurant to mention this week – Otto. Started by a couple of young guys who love cornmeal pizza bases and huge toppings. They’ve just opened and started with such a bang that they ran out of food on their first night! Luckily they had restocked by mid week and served a very tasty pepperoni pizza but it does fill you up so certainly go for a half each. They’ve taken over an old cafe which never seemed to work and have kept the casual cafe feel while making it more welcoming so I wish them well.
It’s all world cup for the next month with Wimbledon squeezed in as well as Royal Ascot horse racing so fingers crossed for good weather!
Bye for now,
Sue

Party time – the big launch…

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It’s been a busy week at It’s Your London not because of tourism but a big charity launch event I was organising. We held a fabulous party at the 20th Century Theatre, known as ‘Notting Hill’s best kept secret’, which used to be an active theatre with non other than Laurence Olivier making an appearance here in 1925! It was built around 1860 and Charles Dickens read his work from the magnificent stage so there were lots of good vibes around. We launched Arts Mentoring (http://www.artsmentoring.wordpress.com/), which is set up to send artists and performers to world with disadvantaged children around the world. The party was a blast with brilliant performances from Nina Conti and Monk, Tiger Lilly, Rebecca Poole, the Parlour Room and Ian Gray and thanks to all these fine folk for their support. Photos at: http://bit.ly/aQwhjZ . Phew – back to tourism….

The Royal College of Arts was holding its graduate exhibition, called ‘Show’, so we went to see what these talent BA and MA students were up to. Some good glass work, some interesting photos but overall not overwhelming – or was it just me?
We’ve had some beautiful weather so after ‘Show’ we wandered around Hyde Park by the Albert Memorial, which along with the Royal Albert Hall was built by Queen Victoria for her dearly loved and much missed consort Prince Albert. The memorial was given a face lift last year and you can see it here sparkling in the sun and fronted by 2 wonderful elephants.

 

The Victoria and Albert Museum (see the theme here!) is a wonderful place to visit for its permanent collections and special exhibitions. It is described as the world’s largest museum of art and design but it feels much more with amazing new galleries of medieval artifacts and the massive Cast Courts with plaster versions of huge Roman columns. Perhaps these do come under the art and design heading. I love their precious Ardabil carpet, completed in 1540 in Iran, which can only have lights on it for 10 minutes each hour and is one of the finest in the world. The ceramics are breath-taking and there are many contemporary items too, in fact it’s just wonderful and it’s free! To add to the fun on a good day, there’s a courtyard cafe and when we went it was packed with lunchers and paddling children.
A restaurant well worth a mention this week is El Pirata de Tapas on Westbourne Grove and I made yet another return trip as it is one of my local favourites, serving great tasting small plates at reasonable prices and is always packed. Another place worth telling you about is Coffee Plant on Portobello as people are often wandering up and down looking for a decent coffee. Try these guys- it’s not posh looking but the coffee’s good and they are nice people so that can’t be bad.

The football World Cup starts this Friday with England’s first game on Saturday versus the USA so it’ll be very tense and exciting. There’ll be more about how the World Cup hits London in next week’s blog.

Oh yes before I go, of course we need a few more elephants from the Elephant Parade….


Bye for now.

Sue

Libraries and a ship in a bottle…

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Last week was as busy as ever with a Library themed day out, a sighting of giant ship in a bottle, an evening with the Mayor of London (!), and of course more elephants!

 

Firstly our Library Day. I designed a day out for some ex colleagues as part of my business offering (It’s Your London) as one of them is a former librarian. We started with champagne and then a leisurely lunch at Shanghai Blues, an elegant Chinese restaurant in the former St Giles Library in High Holborn. An excellent meal from their set lunch menu. Cabs were required then to take us to Lambeth Palace where they had opened up their library to celebrate it’s 400th anniversary. There were the most amazing books to be seen: an Irish book dated 945 was the oldest; a copy of the Guttenberg Bible the first printed book to reach this country; and, the enormous and fabulous Lambeth Bible dating from 1150. They were all in incredibly good condition, easy to view and accompanied by an informative audio guide. Lambeth Palace itself is a wondeful building dating from 1663 and is the London home of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

 

After our bit of culture, we walked along the Thames and up Whitehall to take in the sighs like proper tourists do. From there the intrepid explorers set off in search of more theme activities and finished the tour in the Library Bar at the Lanesborough Hotel where the cocktails did not disappoint! The Lanesborough is super luxurious and it’s strange to think it was formerly a hospital until the lease ran out….

 

A visit to Trafalgar Square to view the latest addition to the Fourth Plinth is a must. This time it’s a huge replica of Nelson’s ship The Victory with batik sails to represent the many and complex links between Britain and the continent. It’s really lovely to look at and a very striking addition to the square.

 

 

My evening with the Mayor, Boris Johnson, was actually a public meeting for small

business owners in London to ask questions to Boris and a panel, although Boris was clearly the star turn. He is very entertaining and disarmingly funny, even joking about the problems he’s already having with the new government despite them being largely the same party as him! He’s battling for money for London’s infrastructure and that’ll be one to watch. Many questions about Congestion Charging, electric vehicles and money and support for new businesses.

Elephants of course: here are 2 from Trafalgar Square. It should be noted that they do move around so you can never be sure which one will be where!

 

Bye for now – looking forward to next week,
Sue

Phew what a scorcher!

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Summer has burst out in London and the weekend was amazingly hot and the sky was sparkling blue. We’ve had a long and cold winter so we are all very excited by this change and it’s all the more precious because we know it won’t last…. These photos are taken on the Thames in the centre of London. One is where a gang of sand sculptors use the low tide to create new art works every fine day. And the other is by the Royal Festival Hall where a temporary fountain tempted people to get completely soaked! So, it was like being by the sea side without being stuck in traffic for hours getting there…

 

London has gone mad about elephants and elephant tracking is now a major activity with people trying to snap as many of the 250 as possible (see last 2 blog posts if this doesn’t make sense!) I’ve attached a couple of my favourites from this week. If you are looking for them, try near City Hall and Covent Garden where there are small herds!

 

 

 

There was one day trip out of town this week to St Albans, the old Roman settlement of Verulamium with its fine cathedral and old streets. So much wonderful history that we really needed a guide book but just wandered around instead tho’ we did know that St Alban was the first British Christian martyr and is buried here so it became a site of great pilgrimage.

 

 

 

 

Restaurant report this week focuses on the Blue Print Cafe near Tower Bridge where we spent a wonderfully long Sunday lunch with a great view (see photo) and good food. The big treat was to see an old sailing boat go through Tower Bridge – they opened up the middle and in a mere 5 minutes it was up and down and the traffic and pedestrians are crossing over again. It’s such an amazing sight, everyone stops to watch.

 

 

This week’s theatre trip was to the Noel Coward theatre to see Enron which was a brilliant production, making the story of a corporate failure into a gripping visual feast. I gather it bombed in New York but it’s a sell out here and deservedly so.
Other restaurants included Marco Pierre White’s new place where he’s reviving the old Wheeler’s group – it was good but I chose badly for my main course which was a shame but it happens. Then there was the Carpenter’s Arms, a gastropub in Chiswick with a lovely beer garden which really suited the weather and the crab gratin is highly recommended!
Bye for now,
Sue
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One of the big events in London was the Moonwalk, an overnight marathon and half marathon walk for breast cancer research. Thousands of women, a pretty good showing of men too, walked through the night to raise money. The event sponsor is Playtex so walkers tackled the course in their bras albeit with lots of extra decoration to cover modesty. It was a freezing night so I do admire them as I was really cold just working on the event. I was in the baggage tent making sure that the thousands of bags dropped off were able to be retrieved and returned to tired walkers as quickly as possible – the photo shows the challenge! But it worked and the walkers were remarkably cheery as were the volunteers even after our 12 hour shift.

This week’s elephant report – they are everywhere! It’s a delight as anywhere you go in London one of the beautifully painted full sized baby elephants is there to greet you. Here’s a couple from this week’s selection.
Culture this week was courtesy of the British Museum’s Fra Angelico to Leonardo, Italian Renaissance Drawings. These amazing drawings mark major changes in art as during these times the first European used perspective in his work and the first European landscape drawing was made. The work is incredibly delicate and precise and the exhibition takes you through the influence of Leonardo and his genius. The British Museum itself is always a delight to visit and here’s the imposing exterior.

Also on the culture front, I went to the Royal Court Theatre to see Posh, a play about a group of wealthy students from Oxford University who belong to the Riot Club and through an evening of mad drunkenness plan to take back their ‘rightful place’ in this country. There are rumours of it being based on the Bullingdon Club which our new PM belonged to but who knows! Oh yes, the election outcome, this was of course the big event last week. We now have a new government and a new approach to governing with a coalition for the first time in 70 years so there has been enormous focus on politics this week.

Not much restaurant news this week (not sure what happened there!) but as a change I went to Ragdale Hall for a friend’s birthday. Ragdale Hall is an upmarket health spa in Leicestershire, 2 hours drive from London. We were steamed, sauna-ed, massages and cleansed and returned feeling much better – oh yes there was a good lunch too!
Bye for now.
Sue
itsyourlondon.co.uk

Elephant Parade

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The big story this week was that we have elephants all around town! We have a major new art installation all across London in the form of 250 life sized baby elephants decorated in the most beautiful range of colours and designs. The aims is to raise awareness of the danger that the Indian elephant is in and the elephants will be auctioned at the end of their visit to London -I’d love one but they are just a bit big for my home! They will be around for a couple of months so I’ll feature a couple each week for you to enjoy.

 

We took a trip to nearby Leighton House Museum in Holland Park area which was designed in 1860 as the home of the artist Frederic Leighton. It’s just reopened after a £1.6 million refurbishment and we can see the amazing decorations Leighton chose for his home especially the Arab Room with fabulous 16th century glazed tiles from Syria and neighbouring countries which he’d bought on his travels. The studio is a wonderful huge space with floor to ceiling windows to bring the light in. The outside looks relatively plain but inside it’s an absolute delight.

 

 

 

Thursday night was the first in May so there was the aptly named ‘First Thursday’ to go to where the galleries in the east of London stay open late and a crowd of arty types – like me of course! – wander in and out of each gallery and enjoy the chance to see new work. I particularly liked Caroline Hall’s ‘From a Railway Carriage’ with vibrant colours in horizontal lines as if rushing past the window. This happy band were entertaining the crowd and I have no idea what their costumes were for! Thursday of course was an important day as it was the UK election and we are still waiting to see what is going to happen……
The Pizza on the Park is a long standing London jazz venue which sadly is going to close next month as the building has been sold for redevelopment. So it was great to go and support its final flings and see Gerard Kenny perform. I was not familiar with his work but found he wrote the huge anthem ‘New York New York’ and Barry Manilow’s big hit ‘I made it through the rain’ both of which he sang. He’s a great performer and we think his fan club had made a special trip to see him do his last of 18 Pizza on the Park shows.

 

The SummerHouse in Little Venice is where we went for our Sunday brunch and it has a wonderful location alongside the canal there. We had a window seat so were almost in the water and combined eating with a little bird watching as there were cormorants, Canadian geese and coots along with several ducks. Not bad for the centre of town and a reasonably busy canals with many narrow boats going past for added entertainment tho’ not as many as in last week’s cavalcade.

 

 

Bye for now,
Sue

Four seasons in one day time of year

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It’s May and we’ve had sun, warmth, rain and chills already but the blossom is out and if you can dodge the rain and keep a scarf to hand it’s looking beautiful. Here’s a photo of Westbourne Grove at its finest and I’ll spare you the shots of the rain! The May gathering of narrow boats at Little Venice was a victim of the weather but was still very jolly and the photo attached is – I have to admit – from last year’s event but it looked just the same this year apart from the sun when we popped in for a look this morning! It’s a wonderful sight right in the middle of London.

 

 

My visitors over the weekend wanted something a bit different in terms of exhibitions so we set off to Somerset House for their River Sounding installation and the Pick Me Up Graphics Fair. Bill Fontana’s River Sounding is a really unusual and fun experience. It’s a sound installation and as you walk around the subterranean storage areas and alleys under Somerset House sounds of the River Thames follow you giving an atmospheric feel whether there is a picture projected onto the old brickwork or just a passageway to walk through. These areas are normally closed to the public so it was fun to explore them. A few photos may help – a couple of the projected images and a view of the passageway so just image watery noises to accompany them!

 

 

 

Somerset House’s Pick Me Up Graphics Fair was a show of new work and also a chance to watch prints coming off the press. The work was extremely varied and ranged from accessible to fun to strange and eye bending! I’ve attached a snap of the printing and one of my favourite prints (thanks to Natsko Seki)

 

 

There was a good stand up comedy show at the Amused Moose with the compere Mark Dolan being our favourite. The venue was unusual as the comedy section was a set of chairs on the dance floor of a nightclub which was all mirrors and lights but the acts were funny and we left before the nightclub really got going…..

 

Dining report this week includes Franco Manca, a new pizza place in Chiswick which was a fun, lively room with a good buzz and tasty pizzas. We also had a return to Aphrodite, my favourite local Greek restaurant. The big treat was a visit to Cafe Anglais for a special occasion lunch which lasted several hours. The chef here is Rowley Leigh who has a good name in the London restaurant world which we reckoned is well earned.
Bye for now,
Sue

Is that a plane? Yes they are back!

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What a strange week! The skies over London were clear for 2 reasons, no planes and no clouds! This made for a odd feeling of calm except for the poor folk trying to get home to their own countries and Brits trying to get back here. Then as suddenly as they went, the planes returned tho’ the sun stayed for a few more days and it put everyone in a much better mood and happier times for plane spotters!

The big event this week was the London Marathon when over 36,000 people bravely struggled through 26.2 miles through the packed streets of London. The weather was kind being much cooler than expected. I was at a cheering station working for the charity Water Aid and saw some brilliant sights and some heroic battles with pain. Here are a few snaps to give the atmosphere and show how much people love to dress up even if it makes it more difficult!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was expecting some clients to arrive from America to go on one of my It’s Your London tours. (This is my own company which offers tailor made tours of London). They made it here despite the ash clouds and we had a great couple of sunny mornings, one based around the Tower of London and the other around Westminster. We saw: monuments (Tower), river views (from Thames boat and south bank walk), bridges (Tower and Wobbly), parks (St James), museums (Cabinet War Rooms), churches (Westminster Abbey), shops (Silver Vaults), pubs (Olde Cheshire Cheese and Chandos); and, loads loads more. We walked for miles and hopefully they had a fun packed time here. They were lovely people and I wish them a great time in France too. A couple of photos on the way attached – the flowers are St James’s Park.

 

 

As I only take guests to places I’ve checked out I dropped into the Jewel Tower in case they wanted to visit it as part of our tour. This is an amazing place as it is one of the 2 parts of the old Westminster Palace destroyed by fire in 1834 (the other was the Great Hall in the current Parliament building). The Jewel Tower dates from 1365 and now houses an interesting exhibition about the history of Parliament. Here’s a photo of the little known wonderful Tower.

 

Eating out this week has been quieter but we did have a trip to Assaha Village near Paddington. This is new Lebanese restaurant I went to with some neighbours who are also fans of this cuisine. We enjoyed the food and after the initial surprise of finding they didn’t serve alcohol, we had lovely juices. As usual, we went for a range of starters and, as usual we over ordered but it gave us a great choice with the hummus, the salads and spicy sausages coming out winners.

Just off out for lunch so look out for more reviews next week.

Bye for now,
Sue

Even locals take tours sometimes…

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Even those of us who’ve lived in London for many years like to try new ways to see our lovely city and I went on 2 very different tours this week.

The first was a Duck Tour (londonducktours.co.uk) which is a part road part river tour in an amazing amphibious vehicle. They were built in 1942 and used in D Day to ferry troops ashore, and then they were named DUKWS. We set off with our jolly guide Emma and toured around Westminster by road and then, just by the M16 building, we set off down a slipway a

nd became a boat for about 20 minutes. It was great fun and you get very close to the water in this vehicle/boat.

Hopefully the photos give you the idea – one before ‘take off’, one showing the moment of entry and one from a bridge after so you can see how low the ride is!

My second experience was a cycle tour with Nathan from Cycle Tours London (CycleToursLondon.com) who very kindly gave me my own tour which was a great couple of hours along the Thames, around Westminster, Mayfair and Covent Garden. I know these areas well but it was a really different experience whizzing past on a bike. He’s a great guide and knows his way around all the roads and the traffic. His usual tour is a full day covering Camden, the Olympic site and Greenwich which must be a very exciting tour for cyclists wanting to see a lot of London and have a good stretch of the wheels too. I look almost like a proper cyclist in the photo but not nearly as much so as Nathan does!

 

 

 

It was my week for treats as Gosia from the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge Hotel took time out of her busy day to show me round thisvery new large hotel with lovely rooms and stylish public spaces. It has a brilliant location and has great views from all around the hotel and I took this unusual shot across the rooftops towards the London Eye. One of the key features of the hotel is it’s aspect over Westminster Bridge and it was a most clear and sparkling day so here’s a great view of the Houses of Parliament.


I got to see 2 films this week, both at the Curzon Soho cinema which is one of my favourites especially as it’s a big supporter of independent cinema. I Am Love is a beautifully shot Italian film with the luminous Tilda Swinton and The Ghost is a political thriller starring Pierce Brosnan and Ewan McGregor. One is slowly built and restrained, the other all action and intrigue and we enjoyed them both.

 

As for restaurants, we tried out Quilon which is one Michelin star Indian delight where we had a special deal from Toptable which was a mini tasting menu and really affordable. A second restaurant trip was to Bam Bou, a Vietnamese I’d be hoping to get to for some time, and it lived up to expectations with delicate flavours and a good looking room.
Here’s hoping the ash clouds move away to make our visitors lives much easier….
Bye for now,
Sue