London and home

17 January 2011

Left a fog covered Zagreb this morning for our flight back to London. Our continental journey had ended all too soon. But… we love London and so as we headed westward we enthusiastically planned our next week in a favourite city that is very dear to us.

It seems we just can’t keep away from Carnaby St – and it’s there that we spent the last couple of hours of the day. Finished our day with a great meal at a little pub behind Liberty of London.

And as we’re back to our ‘new pub and new beer every day’ challenge (how upsetting for you, Phil!) :

New pub: The Claghan

New beer: Deuchars I.P.A.

18 January 2011

First up this morning was a trip to Abbey Road to cross the zebra crossing and see the studio.

The surrounding neighbourhood is really beautiful so we just walked and walked, looking at all the wonderful houses and dreaming of living here.

Continuing the music theme, we walked to Warwick Avenue tube station (fans of Duffy will understand) and then spent the afternoon at Camden Town – a favourite haunt.

Finished the day with a performance at the West End – The Country Girl starring Martin Shaw and Jenny Seagrove. What an amazing play – can’t say enough about the quality of this performance. Louise has been a Martin Shaw fan for years (from the days of ‘The Professionals’ right through to ‘Judge John Deed’) and it was a treat to see him tread the boards. Absolute quality.

New pub: The Lock Tavern – Camden

New beer: The Forty-niner

19 January 2011

Started the day with a walk through Camden Passage antique market at Islington and then continued on to Stoke Newington where Louise used to live. Found the old house and spent a good deal of time walking around some old familiar places.

Our afternoon was spent around Covent Garden, Regent Street and Oxford Street visiting favourite places and discovering new ones.

Tonight’s entertainment was a performance of The Rivals – a play written by Sheridan and first performed on 17 January 1775. One of the main characters is Mrs Malaprop (of malapropism fame) and Penelope Keith played this part. The other main character was played by Peter Bowles. To see the two of them together on stage was a real treat. Penelope Keith in particular, was brilliant. It can’t be easy to play a part when your lines don’t actually make sense and there’s no context for the words – but she was superb. A great night out.

New pub: oops – can’t remember (somewhere behind the The Theatre Royal – Haymarket)

New beer: can’t remember that either – so must have been good!

20 January 2011

Today we ventured out of London and took the train to the seaside – Brighton, in fact. What a beautiful day. We strolled through ‘The Lanes’ looking at all the little antique shops, we walked along the promenade and out onto the pier, we even walked on the beach (with our shoes on…!).

 

Found a fantastic little art gallery on the beach, in a cavern underneath the road. Couldn’t resist a clever little triptych that will look perfect on the wall at our place – hopeless…!

No shows booked tonight so we stayed on and had dinner before heading back to London.

New pubs: The Bath Arms and The Seven Stars

New beers: The Bottle of Britain – Spitfire

                   Winter Warmer Sussex

21 January 2011

Spent today around Knightsbridge and Chelsea. Started off with a walk through the food hall at Harrods – always a spectacle – before making our way to Harvey Nichols. First stop was the champagne bar on the fifth floor, then we separated – Phil to the menswear floors and Louise to the ladies wear floors. Both had a ball shopping, but then couldn’t find each other. In the end, met up back at the champagne bar… where else?! It was like something out of Ab Fab – but we’re not sure who’s Patsy and who’s Edina!

Enjoyed the late afternoon walking through all the beautiful streets, past the beautiful houses, to Chelsea.

Spent a fantastic evening with our friends Tim and Stephen at the ballet at Sadler’s Wells – Matthew Bourne’s production of Cinderella. Fantastically choreographed and performed, this version of the old favourite is set in London during the blitz – a really unique perspective. Another great night.

New Pub: The Old Red Lion

New Beer: Winter Warmer San Miguel

22 January 2011

And so… from ballet to shopping to football to more theatre!

After checking out Vivienne Westwood’s store in Conduit St (off Regent St) we spent a fantastic afternoon at Fulham Football Club watching a premier league match between Fulham and Stoke City. Neither of us had ever been to a game in England before and it was a real experience.

Fulham FC is located in a nice part of London – on the Thames, about a 20 minute walk from Hammersmith tube station. The walk itself is quite lovely – through a park, along the river, past lovely terrace houses. The actual grounds are quite beautiful – very traditional wooden stands and a lovely old club house. We each bought a Fulham scarf before the game and so were relieved to see our seats were right in the middle of the Fulham supporters section! Our seats were brilliant, in fact, front row on the centre line. We had a ball, chanting with the crowd – a real experience.

We knew that there was a play being performed at the Lyric Hammersmith that we really wanted to see, but it was sold out for the next few days. The people at the box office did tell us, though, to head to the theatre around 6pm just in case there were any returns. As we were in the neighbourhood, that’s just what we did and – three minutes before the show – we scored two returned tickets. The play was Roald Dahl’s Twisted Tales – adapted by Jeremy Dyson who is one of our favourite comic writers. It was so fortunate that we were able to get tickets because it really was a fantastic show – very much worth waiting in the foyer for!

New pub: The Hop Poles
                 The Swan

New beer: Nicholson's something-or-other (it was dark and so was the beer!)

23 January 2011

Only two days left in London – so we made a list of everything we wanted to do before leaving.

One of the things we've never done is visit a lovely little cemetery not far from where we stay (just a couple of blocks, in fact!), Bunhill Fields. Among the notables buried here are Daniel deFoe and William Blake.

Next stop was the mandatory visit to the National Gallery – no journey to London would be complete without this.

Paid a final visit to Covent Garden and surrounds before heading to Hampstead Heath – a Sunday afternoon ‘must-do’. It’s beautiful to walk through this huge expanse of green which commands brilliant views of London while so many others are out doing the same thing – a great atmosphere.

Had a great meal at the beautiful Spaniards Inn, a favourite pub on the edge of the heath – built in 1585 as a toll gate inn and frequented by Dick Turpin.

Finished the day at Islington for our regular pilgrimage to Islington Town Hall (where we were married) and then to the pub across the road (where we first celebrated our wedding) for a night cap.

New pub: The Chandos

New beer: Samuel Smith's Alpine Lager

24 January 2011

Our last day!

Walked down Cheapside for a visit to St Paul’s. Marvelled at the interior of this magnificent building and then climbed to the top of the dome for brilliant views over London.

Paid a final visit to Oxford St, Regent St and Carnaby St and did a bit of last minute shopping!

Met Tim and Stephen for a quick drink to say goodbye.

Finished the day with a final visit to the theatre – ‘The Painter’ – another fantastic off West End production. Ironically, the theatre is in an old disused paint factory which made a great setting for this play about the life of Turner. Just being in the theatre itself was an experience – rows of stackable chairs on a beautifully crude wooden structure, no heating (and it was freezing!), a gorgeous old, original wooden floor which creaked and moved as the actors walked about. The play itself was brilliantly written and brilliantly performed – it told the story of life in 19^th century London as much as it told the story of the life of Turner himself. This is what we love about London; little theatres everywhere, every night a great performance, every night something fantastic to see or do. And it needn’t be expensive - tickets to this show cost ten pounds each. Oh and Niamh Cusack was in it. How good is that?

Had a late supper at a great little Italian restaurant in Farringdon – felt like we were back in Rome!

Old favourite pub: O’Neill’s – Covent Garden

Old favourite beer: Smithwick’s

25 January 2011

London - Brisbane

Alas this trip has come to an end – but it’s been another great one! Lots of new places visited and some old ones re-visited – a really great mix of adventure and relaxation. And there’s still so much more to see. Stay tuned for the next Phloss adventures!