London is always a delight, and also contains both comforts and surprises. We usually go for around four days at a time, this being no exception. This will be a review of our time spent in Bloomsbury, Trafalgar Square, Southwark, Islington and Carnaby Street. After this, we would be heading up North on the train to Yorkshire (which will be my next blog post), but we weren’t thinking about that just yet!
We arrived at Gate B24 at JFK about 9pm, and had a long but very pleasant wait for the 11.10 Virgin Atlantic flight. We had Premium Class, not Business Class of course but very nice. You can choose your meals in advance and excellent they were. Marie, tikka masala (a tame one I think) and me salmon. Real cutlery, glasses and mugs. We both watched ‘Arthur’s Whiskey’, a pretty bad, whimsical comedy film but likable. On my Sony Walkman I played albums from Fiona Apple and Thievery Corporation. Also, whilst Marie slept I enjoyed a gentle, non-fiction programme with Martin Clunes called ‘The Secret World of Guide Dogs’, in which he adopts a young, blind Indian woman’s retiring guide dog.
Flight staff were lovely.
Day 1 – Thursday, April 18th London
We got an Uber from the airport, with a very talkative Albanian driver. $60 to Bloomsbury, and to the Kimpton Fitzroy Hotel. We were going all out! My wife Marie loves to stay in Bloomsbury – we both do – but this time prices were sky high at all the Bloomsbury hotels due to the London Marathon. But we had wanted to try this Kimpton for some while, after we had pressed our faces to the windows from our cheap President Hotel next door about twenty months ago. You get the service to match though. It was lovely staying there, though even at a higher end hotel the rooms are small in London. The décor was extremely classy and ornate. They even have an hour each afternoon in which alcoholic drinks are free as you can mingle a bit with other guests on one of the stair landings. We never got around to it, but you can see a load of empty glasses on a table as you walk past!
We were a little early to check in, so we of course strolled over to Russell Square which is one of our favourite places in the world. With the Italian cafe, Tropea, on the corner and one of the most idyllic green spaces in London. A young woman was like the pigeon whisperer.
We sat outside Tropea with a cappuccino and spinach pie. Then a walk around the square, we also stopped at a Mister Softee van for soft serve ice cream, a ‘Flake 99’ each. Marie stated it to be one of the best soft ice creams she’s ever had, and vowed to have one a day though we were too busy and it never happened.
After checking in, we napped until 6.30pm, then walked to our top pub, the Lamb on Conduit Street. Busy but we found seats upstairs and had drinks and shared a steak and ale pie. Superb. The pub is drenched in a rustic, classy atmosphere with great, thespian-esque characters. Then to another staple favourite, to Brunswick Shopping Centre and to Waitrose supermarket where we picked up desserts and prawn cocktail crisps for the hotel. We watched ‘QI’ on the tv, Dave Ja Vu channel. All-in-all a typical ‘us’ first half day in London, and we were in heaven.
Day 2
At Tropea again, for breakfast. Marie a sausage baguette and me a bacon bap. We also shared a sfogliatelle pastry which Marie’s aunt loves back in NY. We may have fed some squirrels with our bag of walnuts, which we’d bought specifically, though I think it was a day or two later before we found any in the park.
Then by bus to the National Portrait Gallery in Trafalgar Square. We just did about an hour and twenty and enjoyed it immensely. From Waterloo Bridge we walked to Fortnum and Mason to shop for a wedding present, as we had a family wedding to look forward to next week. We also bought a chocolate ganache “scotch egg” for ourselves too!
from the National Portrait Gallery, below…
Spike Milligan
Then a bus to Southwark (American readers, it’s pronounced ‘Suthuk’). We had a 3pm reservation for afternoon tea at the Oxo Tower, at the side of the Thames in the wind and light rain. We’d read reviews and watched this exuberant, American woman review it on her youtube channel and it seems to be a fairly under-the-radar classic for afternoon tea. It was amazing, not just for the cakes and scones but for the savoury food, for the service (the waitress even insisted on folding my napkin and putting it on my lap) and for the panoramic views. It’s owned by Harvey Nichols, but prices aren’t at all bad at 40 GBP per person and you can dwell for the full two hours. We’ve had around seven afternoon teas in London over the years, each one at a different place. This is the new number one, with the Wolseley at number 2. From what we can tell, the fanciest places that charge double or more aren’t anything like as good.
Rich and delicious savouries included unusual finger sandwiches like roast beef, truffle cheese, horseradish and watercress on charcoal bread and smoked salmon, cream cheese, lemon and chives on malted wholemeal bread, then gourmet miniature items like smoked duck croquettes with quince aioli. Desserts included coffee opera cake and banana and hazelnut tart. Sumptuous quality throughout.
A bus back to the hotel, and a bit later on we’re out in the evening for the short walk to Bloomsbury Theatre. It turned out to be quite modern, and it pertains to the university. We were to see Lucy Beaumont comedy stand-up (and for only about twenty five pounds a ticket). She’s one of the comedians we’ve got to know through watching British tv comedy panel shows over the past year. We knew that she was married to another comedian on those shows too, John Richardson and there has been a Osbournes-style, comic tv series called “At Home With The Richardsons”.
A quite-good supporting comedian warmed things up. Lucy Beaumont’s show is called, ‘Trouble and Strife’, which in Cockney Rhyming Slang means “wife”. We were very surprised to find they had divorced!! She started by saying, in her strong East Yorkshire, Hull accent, that she was sorry if the audience didn’t know that that she and John were no longer together, and that the show is no longer “Trouble and Strife, it’s just Trouble!”. In her slightly nervous, shy and cheeky way she was hysterical the whole evening and she probably could have done three hours.
Marie and I then got kebabs and fish and chips from a down-to-earth, friendly cafe/take away called Valencia and ate them on a towel on our expensive hotel bed before more tv (Joe Lycett’s show, live from Digbeth, Birmingham) and lights out!
Day 3 – Saturday, London
We got up a bit later, and had a coffee and a cheese & marmite panini at a Starbucks. Marie’s coffee was a clotted cream and fudge latte!
Then to the vast British Museum only a short walk from our hotel. We’ve been before, but last time Marie hadn’t had much time to look at the Rosetta Stone, which is their most popular exhibit. Sunny now, we waited in a short, fast-moving queue outside with the free tickets Marie reserved online.
We managed to spend just 1 ½ hours there!
After that we started our planned, slow walk gradually through Kings Cross, stopping for a great vegan/vegetarian lunch at Mildred’s – really good hot mango glazed veggie chick+n burger.
Then onwards and literally upwards for a bit to Islington. Initially, a workaday High Street which then became more interesting and more attractive as the walk went on. The neighbourhoods are leafy, well-to-do and beautiful. Back on the high street one of us needed a lavvy so we plumped for any decent pub. The Hope & Anchor wasn’t at all bad, and it turns out it was a great venue for alternative music in the 80s. We checked Marie’s pedometer. We’d done 19,000 steps so far today, but we’d do some more. Our friend Chris had recommended the Island Queen pub. It was well worth walking some extra steps through graceful back streets to get to it and it was a great, leafy neighbourhood place. We squeezed in to a corner table. In-between we went to two bakeries for cakes include the famous Ottolenghi.
Back at the hotel, we tried the Fitzroy’s bar, The Fitz, where we had a cocktail for me and a soft drink for Marie, some sliders (very delicious) and posh bar snacks. So nice to relax like this when your hotel room is just upstairs!
Day 4 – Sunday, London
Our last full London day, already!
Again, we had a bit of a lie-in and later start. On tv, we stumble upon Bob Ross doing one of his very soft-voiced, fine art tutorials (for Brits, think Rolf Harris but a lot more wholesome). Very relaxing tv.
We had a 1pm reservation at the Lamb in Bloomsbury for Sunday roast lunch. I hate to say it, but though the food is wonderful at the Lamb, the Sunday roast fell short in my opinion. They default to extremely rare on the beef. I thought I’d have a go anyway, and Marie enjoyed the beef even though it was close to raw. Still, the pub is magnificent in all other ways and we had a nice time. I could have said, ‘can you re-fire it?’, but I’m British and I didn’t like to. The trimmings were quite good.
I had a Young’s original beer.
We walked to Soho next, stopping for excellent cakes at Maison Bertraux. We then got to Carnaby Street and had a look around and took photos. This was the fashionable spot in the 1960s, especially for rock and pop stars and fashionistas in general.
Very colourful and photogenic!
We shopped at Fopp, and bought a couple of British comedy-drama dvds and also wandered around Leicester Square and tourist areas. Then a bus back to Carnaby Street, we had a very hearty and satisfying pie-and-mash and bangers-and-mash meal each at Mother’s Mash! Absolute champion!
To be more detailed, Lincolnshire sausages with bubble ‘n’ squeak mash for Marie and a drink of fizzy dandelion & burdock, and for me a steak and stout pie with champ mash and washed down with a Cornish lager.
go on, get in there my son!
And then we went to a small, tiered square with shops and eateries to look for a cocktail bar recommended to us. Cahoots. Despite that it’s not a hidden speakeasy but is in plain sight, we almost gave up on finding it when we finally worked out where it was! They pretend not to let you in, and that they’re “full” for publicity reasons but never mind the slight frustration of that because we very much enjoyed it. It’s been converted from a disused old underground rail station, and is a partly 1940s war-time themed bar (I say partly because they did play some 1960s pop and rock). A lot of fun, and quite stylish, we had two cocktails each.
Even the toilets downstairs feels like the Twilight Zone, with deliberately flickering half-light and old war time broadcasts in the background.
Another really memorable few days in London then, and each time is so different if you want it to be. Or, as I mentioned at the start, a perfect blend is returning to your original favourite spots but also picking at least one new thing or area each time. Can’t wait to come back again!
TravelHoglet 