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It’s Wednesday morning and the game is on Watson

sherlock1Yesterday I arrived at the Museum of London at 8am. I am always a keen bunny but I’d heard that there were free coffees and pastries so this hastened by desire to get there.

I was attending an event at the Museum, visiting the Sherlock Holmes Exhibition and listening to a short talk from its curator. This was organised through the Art Fund, of which I am a member. I love the work of the Art Fund, they help museums and galleries to buy and show great works and keep them in the country. However, these events always make me feel like a freak show as I’m generally about 30 years younger than any of the other attendees and am looked upon as some kind of novelty species. Is it really only the over 60’s who support the arts? Or perhaps it’s only the over 60’s are free on a Wednesday morning?

The exhibition is great, I didn’t realise how much I love Sherlock Holmes. I wasn’t keen as a kid in the 80’s as Jeremy Brett scared me but almost by accident I have watched all of the modern adaptations; the Robert Downey Jr/Jude Law films, the new BBC version with Benedict Cumberbatch and Elementary, my current appointment to view Sherlock, with Jonny Lee Miller.

sherlock2

If you love film memorabilia then this is for you, Benedict Cumberbatch’s dressing gown is draped over a chair and you’ll also find the deer stalker from the 80’s and the famous tweet coat. I enjoyed this part of the exhibition but the stand out pieces for me were the maps (I love a map) and images of London from the original Holmes period. They were all smoky and played to my romantic vision of Victorian London.

My particular favourite was a huge painting; The Bayswater Omnibus by George Joy. It features 7 characters, mother with baby and small child, fashionable young woman, a City man, a milliner and a nurse. This piece feels so timeless. Those people existed when Conon Doyle was writing and, like Homes, so easily exist today.

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Coveting things I just can’t afford

Liberty

As I pulled the buggy over the threshold tonight I ran over the post. As I picked up the white envelope, now with a buggy tire mark across it, I realised it was the Liberty catalogue. It’s so glossy and sophisticated, I felt as though I was in a different world.

Surprisingly, I’m a Liberty card holder. It all happened about 10 years ago when I worked somewhere that gave proper bonuses and I bought my mum a necklace for Christmas. They obviously thought I would become a loyal customer and signed me up. Now I can barely afford a button or birthday card from Liberty but I still enjoy looking at all the shiny things that are beyond my reach.

Scarves, bags, jewellery, glasses, make up and skincare all glimmer from the pages and Liberty have been kind enough to give me £30 discount, but only when I spend £150.

The final page of the magazine is devoted to Camila Batmanghelidjh’s Kids Club as Liberty are selling cards which have been designed by some of the children Kids Company works with and Liberty will also be giving over the store front to showcasing these designs.

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Get the stretchy pants out, it’s eating time 

sandwich

A couple of weeks ago Time Out helpfully listed the top 13 most indulgent dishes in London. My first two thoughts were (1) I bet there were plenty of hands up when the idea was muted at the subs meeting and (2) Why 13? unlucky for some to try all?

This list is brief but epic, it features a great diversity of cuisine. There are the obvious American favourites: sandwiches (as featured above), hot dogs and doughnuts. However, the ‘soup’ at Bone Daddies and the fondue at Androuetdo sound very intriguing.

Despite my best efforts I am still yet to sample any of these dishes, I am hoping for a woman vs. food episode soon.

http://www.timeout.com/london/food-drink/the-13-most-indulgent-dishes-in-london

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A fitting way to remember 

poppies

It’s Remembrance Day and this year the 11th November is more poignant than before as 2014 marks 100 years since the start of WW1. It was the conclusion of this conflict which created Remembrance Day marking the official end at the eleventh hour on the eleventh day on the eleventh month in 1918.

Every Remembrance Sunday, the Cenotaph Parade runs through Whitehall to remember those killed in conflict. However, this year Londoners have been able to remember and pay their respects from 5th August as 888,246 ceramic poppies have progressively filled the moat of the Tower of London.

I was late to the party and didn’t manage to visit ‘The Poppies’ until late October. I was also lucky as I arrived early (there are some benefits to being regularly woken at 5.30am) so could take in the view without too much jostling.

I have never lost a friend or family member in conflict so it’s hard for me to appreciate the feelings of loss and sorrow. ‘The poppies’ did help me to appreciate the scale of the loss of life in WW1, as each flower represents a British fatality during the war. The flowers cover such a huge area (it normally takes about 10 minutes to walk around the whole moat) you are left with the impression of a sea of red as if blood is flowing through the dry moat. Shelia Hancock has said the poppies should be mown down and left shattered to really show the sacrifice of those who lost their lives and stop viewers romanticising the loss of life.

I am no supporter of war or conflict and I’m not sure I believe that ‘Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori’ is true but I found the instillation very moving and a fitting tribute to those who fought bravely for their country.

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Up-cycling; it’s not just for clothes

attendent

Any city as old as London will have many buildings that have changed use over the centuries. Banks have become ‘trendy wine bars’, churches have become luxury homes and graveyards have become playgrounds.
Recently, I came across two of the most quirky examples of building up-cycling.

The first is a men’s public toilet which has been transformed (and thoroughly cleaned) into an artisan coffee shop with great coffee and delicious looking cakes. I spent a lovely half hour in The Attendant, enjoying a coffee & croissant. Perhaps I enjoyed it because it’s so quirky or perhaps because I was alone, child free and managed to finish a coffee without having to pick toys off the floor between each mouthful.

This week, I’ve also visited a posh burger restaurant above a Spar on Hackney’s achingly trendy Chatsworth Road. As the man and I entered the convenience shop we were greeted by bright lights and benches of hipsters drinking coffee, not the night I’d imagined. We turned round and realised this was not the right location. Heading up the stairs we entered Eat 17, it’s based in a former snooker hall and has a stunning curved celling, low level lighting and lavish decor. The interior was far from the usual Hackney Shabby chic and reminded me of plush places in New York, the delicious cocktails and burgers only added to the Upper East Side feel.

As ever the night ended too soon, 11pm came round and we realised Granny was babysitting and would want to go to bed. We jumped in a cab and zipped home through the bright lights of Clapton.

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Water fountains for London

Six architects have been asked to design water fountains for London. For inspiration, they were taken to Istanbul to view the public fountains there (tough life). I wasn’t sure about this concept when I heard it on the radio, as I had envisaged the sort of thing we used to have at school. Now I’ve viewed the designs I can see that they are far bigger and more impressive than I’d thought. They have the potential to become real London landmarks and I might even be persuaded to refill my plastic bottle.https://www.standard.co.uk/go/london/exhibitions/the-kiosk-design-challenge-new-drinking-fountains-for-london-9135626.html

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Tunnel Boring machine

cross rail

I’ve recently been watching a documentary on the building of Crossrail. Generally, civil engineering isn’t really my bag but somehow I was convinced to watch this. The scale of the Crossrail construction is immense; 73 miles of track with a marathon length of tunnel and 10 completely new stations.

The most interesting part was viewing the path of the tunnel through Soho. As London is so built up and effectively full, there are so many obstacles for the tunnel boring machine (TBM as it’s known in the trade) to avoid. The tunnel will be 6 meters wide and there is a point at Tottenham Court Road dubbed the eye of the needle. Here is the tightest point the 26 mile tunnel has to pass through.

At this point the 6 meter tunnel is built in a space 85 cm above the Northern line platform and only 35 cm below one of the escalators at Tottenham Court Road station.

When the man and I heard these stats we almost fell off the sofa. We knew the passage had been successful but the tension as the TBM passed through the eye of the needle was huge, it was as if we were watching an action movie.

Yes, perhaps I do need to get out more.

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Friday culture and cocktails

royal acad

The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition is always a pleasure. This year I visited with a friend and we prepared ourselves for an evening of culture by indulging in a glass of fizz on the steps of Joshua Reynolds, bars at evening exhibitions are a really good idea.

On entering each room we tried to guess which pieces the other liked. This confirmed what I knew about my taste in art, it is pretty limited to bright pop art pieces.

Unlike other exhibitions, you can actually buy prints of the pictures featured. It’s fun to wander around and decide which piece you’d have in the lounge, only to find it’s 160 grand.

After realising we could afford little of the art we decided to drown our sorrows across the road at The Ritz. Here we could just about run to an eye wateringly expensive cocktail.

After a false start and a rather rude security guard (we didn’t really look like guests) we located the entrance which is NOT on Piccadilly, must remember that for my next visit.

I always rate a place by it’s amenities so we headed straight to the loo. It was disappointing, the decor was tacky and outdated and the whole place felt like it needed a refresh.

However, we were not disappointed by The Rivoli Bar, the service was excellent, there were lots of nibbles and my £20 ‘New York Sour’ cocktail was delicious. As far as I can remember it was some sort of combination of gin, lemon juice, cherry wine and egg white all poured over huge ice cubes. It sounds totally disgusting but when combined by a Ritz trained mixologist it was sensational.

My friend chose a ‘Prudence’, which included gin, aperol and was elegantly finished with some kind of small purple flowers. It too was delicious.

After slowly drinking our cocktails we decided we’d better leave. Another drink would have slipped down nicely but by then we were both feeling a bit peckish and might have been tempted by the £26 sandwich.

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London revelations

21st Century London Bridge

Today I walked along the Medieval north bank of the Thames.

I was on a walking tour with an archeologist who had excavated under most of the buildings we walked past. His medieval knowledge was phenomenal and during the walk I learnt things I couldn’t believe I didn’t know.

Firstly, the original London bridge, built by the Romans, fell out of use in around AD 350 and there was no bridge across the Thames for about 700 years. The bridge would have actually been a hinderance as it stopped boats moving up the Thames but was eventually built to prevent Viking invasion.

London really began to thrive again when the bridge was rebuilt some time in the 12th century.

Which brought me to another revelation. LONDON WASN’T ALWAYS TO CAPITAL, I can’t really get a handle on the dates but around 871 Alfred the Great made Winchester his capital. This fact was mentioned almost in passing, I couldn’t believe it. To my knowledge London had been the capital from Roman times onwards. Perhaps this is a myth that Londoners are not trying to dispel.

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History and booze in at a National Trust property in Hackney. Sutton House is not where you’d imagine a National Trust property would be found. It sits in the heart of urban London on a bend of Homerton High St and is almost surrounded by local authority housing.

We were taken on a candlelit tour of the house by a brilliant guide called Ray. There were two sources of light, one from street lamps and the other from flashes of blue neon from the ever present emergency vehicles. Yet, the glow of the candles gave me a small insight as to how dark life in the evening was before electricity. There must have been nothing to do except go to bed, perhaps the real reason there were do many births?

The tour took us thought the whole house, there are Elizabethan, Georgian and Victorian sections which each has it’s own story. What struck me most was the great job the National Trust has done in showing the checked history of the house. They have not been afraid to mix the modern with the 15th century. In the attic there is a mural painted by squatters who were there in the 1980’s. We were also shown where these squatters had taken an axe to the original Elizabethan door.