Walking. Gossip. Travel.

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  • Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 156

    Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 156

    The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the current health crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored….

    Hobson’s Choice

    This phrase is defined by the dictionary as “that or none; from old Hobson, a famous carrier of Cambridge, who used to let horses to the students; but never permitted them to chuse [sic], always allotting each man the horse he thought properest for his manner of riding and treatment”.

    The phrase is in common usage still today and I had thought when reading this dictionary that the origin was likely apocryphal, but it does seem to be true. It’s named after Thomas Hobson (1544–1631) who ran stables in Cambridge, owning 40 different horses. Some horses he used for the mail run between Cambridge and London, but he also lent them out to students and academics. Hobson wasn’t being awkward, but he wanted the choice of horse to be random so that people didn’t just keep picking the best horse and then wearing that one out. All very sound thinking.

    The phrase came into more common usage following Hobson’s death and now just means that you’re getting what you’ve given, there’s no choice to be had.

  • London – Ibis Styles – Kensington

    London – Ibis Styles – Kensington

    This is my first stay in an Accor hotel since March, with an offer rate of just over £25 per night including a basic breakfast. I’m not sure that I’ve seen that rate in a relatively central London hotel operated by Accor, so it seemed appropriate to take advantage of it.

    The bar area, located next to reception. I think I encountered four staff members during my stay and I’d say that they were all friendly, welcoming and engaging, so that was rather lovely. Check-in was swift, informative and polite.

    The sign at reception explaining what’s changed. Cleaning is now only offered on the third day and breakfast has been switched to a bag offered at reception. I had guessed this, but it’s perhaps inadequate that Accor don’t make this clear. Accor’s press office says that every hotel offers the same breakfast (I had wanted to ask numerous hotels what breakfasts they were doing, something they’re communicating badly), but this is a complete nonsense and their PR agency does no-one any good by suggesting it is. They didn’t offer the same breakfast before, so why they should be now, I have no idea. Anyway, I digress.

    The wall decoration in the reception area, a really quite nice and decorative map of the local area.

    There’s a Japanese theme to the hotel. I’m not sure why and it seems a bit of a half-effort, but I do like Ibis Styles themes.

    This is the single and small room, a feature of many hotels in the Kensington area of London (and many other areas of the city as well). In terms of cleanliness, it met my expectations, but I saw no evidence of a deep clean for a few reasons, such as the staff hadn’t realised there was nearly no soap left which I’d suspect would be obvious if everything was spotlessly cleaned and checked. But, expectations have to be a little measured given the room price and how many staff they have to clean the rooms. I thought the cleanliness was fine, just not perfect.

    That floating ‘l’ annoyed me. Not in a big way, but just a little bit.

    The breakfast, which remained the same every day other than on my final day when they mixed it all up by swapping the Coco Pops for a Frosties bar. It’s a nice effort, I thought the hotel did fine on this.

    The drinks voucher was offered, the welcome gift wasn’t. In normal times, that is rare for an Ibis Styles, but my expectations were more measured given everything going on.

    There was a choice of what I would considered to be three bloody awful beers and this was the best of a bad lot. It’s fair to say though that most people aren’t as bloody awkward about beer choices as I am (although I can name one). But, having said that, Ibis Styles is meant to be an on-trend brand, it’s time it moved on from rubbish beer like other hotel chains have done. Well, some hotel chains.

    In normal times, this was the breakfast area.

    The coffee machine, alongside spare coffee sachets and tea bags, was kept in action for those who wanted to venture down to the basement.

    So, all told, I thought that the hotel was doing really well. The staff seemed happy, they were engaging and friendly, the hotel public areas were kept clean and there were no noise disturbances. The air conditioning was better than in some hotels, but it never really chilled the room to the temperature that I like (frozen). There’s nothing essential that I thought that needed changing (a better beer selection would please me, but it’s hardly critical), so the value for money was excellent given what I paid.

  • London – Shoreditch – Goose Island Brewpub

    London – Shoreditch – Goose Island Brewpub

    This one was Nathan’s recommendation (he’ll be here next week to buy an expensive bottle, more on which later on in this post) which was the Goose Island Brewpub, located a short walk from London Liverpool Street railway station.

    All on-trend and modern, there was a relaxed atmosphere and the staff member at the bar was friendly and helpful. Actually, the staff were always engaging and welcoming, the service style was all quite American.

    The beer selection is chalked up on the board and it’s also printed out and available on-line. Goose is an American company and they have a few brewpubs there, so that’s somewhere else that I have to go when I return to the United States. Their main operation is in Chicago, which I visit most years (well, those when there’s not a pandemic on), so I shall make sure I go there for the real deal (that sounds a dreadful phrase, but let’s live with it). They also have international outlets in Seoul, Shanghai, San Paulo and Toronto, as well as this one in London.

    There were no shortage of tables when I went, and it remained relatively quiet during the entire time that I was in there.

    The downstairs brewing area.

    On the left is the Eire of the Dog, a rather luxurious little beer which has caramel and chocolate flavours, very decadent after my meal. On the left, which was my starter before the food (and during it) is the Ruby which is a rhubarb sour. There was a suitable sharpness from the rhubarb, but it remained drinkable and I liked the flavour, although the aftertaste wasn’t particularly rich.

    As it was a Wednesday when I went, the food was half price as part of the Government’s ‘eat out to help out’ campaign. So, this pizza was around £6 and was larger than I had expected, even though they said it was 12 inches on the menu. All filling and the Italian sausage was excellent, very sausagey. I liked the serving style as well which wasn’t on a plate, it made it easy to plough on with work whilst sitting in a bar. I say this, I spend most of my time doing work in bars, restaurants and pubs, but I must admit a little bit of that time is used faffing around on WhatsApp. Perhaps I need to get out more….

    The payment process was swift and I was pleased to see that, unexpectedly, the Amex Shop Small kicked in, which meant that I got £5 off the bill. So, all of this meant that I was able to get two drinks and a pizza for £7.50. How very lovely. I await to hear how much Nathan spends next week when he cracks open the bottle of Bourbon County Brand Stout, which I must admit sounds rather delicious.

  • Demise of Sam Smiths Pubs….

    Demise of Sam Smiths Pubs….

    There are very few pubs that I won’t visit, but Samuel Smiths have made their outlets so hostile and soulless that I’ve given up going to them. I’m conscious from reading reviews that a fair few of them are still good as the staff at least partly ignore their Head Office, but it’s difficult to know which are which. Which is a shame, they’ve got some fabulous buildings packed with history and heritage, as well as some marvellous staff. Their ban on any mobile devices is inevitably careering them towards disaster, and they have launched one of the biggest round of price increases in recent weeks that I can recall from any pub chain. And now they have admitted that they are unable, and unwilling, to operate track and trace in a final fingers up to their staff and customers.

    The Morning Advertiser quoted their spokesperson:

    “There is also confidentiality – there was a man who followed a pretty woman into a pub and saw her write down her name and phone number and then copied it and bothered her”.

    Normally, I’d be astounded that any pub company used such sexist communications in their messaging, but nothing surprises me about Sam Smith pubs. They’re also refusing to accept cards and they seem blithe to any notion of staff safety, as nearly every other major pub chain encourages customers to use cards.

    Anyway, people can do what they want, but I recommend any pub in the Good Beer Guide instead. Or indeed pretty much any pub instead.

  • London – Lambeth – Imperial War Museum (Air Raid Damage in Norwich)

    London – Lambeth – Imperial War Museum (Air Raid Damage in Norwich)

    From the collections of the Imperial War Museum (© IWM HU 140004), I’ve never seen this photo before. There’s no address on it, but it was taken in Norwich following a Baedeker Raid which took place on 29 April 1942. The man was the owner of the shoe shop which had been destroyed, looking through to see if he could salvage any of his stock.

  • London – Lambeth – Imperial War Museum (Still Smiling After Air Raid)

    London – Lambeth – Imperial War Museum (Still Smiling After Air Raid)

    I’m still rummaging through the Imperial War Museum’s on-line collection of photos (© IWM HU 36206) and this is very much smiling in the face of adversity. Perhaps it’s a little stage-managed, but maybe the home-owner is pleased to be at least able to save their plant and clock. The exact location was never noted, but the photograph was taken in London in 1940.

  • London – Kensington – Natural History Museum (Snake…..)

    London – Kensington – Natural History Museum (Snake…..)

    I’m sure I saw a snake just like this last year when walking near to Hoveton….. They’re everywhere….

  • London – Westminster – Tate Britain (Captain Thomas Lee by Marcus Gheeraerts)

    London – Westminster – Tate Britain (Captain Thomas Lee by Marcus Gheeraerts)

    I like the sign to the left of this painting by Marcus Gheeraerts (1561/2-1636) which reads “what would you wear in a photo if you really wanted to impress someone?” as this certainly looks like some sort of dare. But, it’s not, it’s very serious and it was the uniform of an Irish soldier, who kept their legs bare for reasons that I’m not sure that I can understand (but is probably related to the need to fight in Irish bogs). The embroidered top isn’t quite part of the uniform, that’s just an indication of how wealthy Captain Thomas Lee (1551-1601) was. The painting is also seen as an attempt by Lee to impress Queen Elizabeth I, although his life plan didn’t quite work out as he was executed at Tyburn in 1601 and the Queen didn’t stop it.

    The artwork was painted in 1594, which was the prime of the artist’s career as he fell a little out of favour after this. The museum holds a few paintings by Gheeraerts, but I’d say that this one is the most spectacular looking and the gallery was able to acquire this painting in 1980.

  • Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 155

    Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 155

    The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the current health crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored….

    Hobbledygee

    This is quite apt, thinking about my plan to walk the LDWA 100, it’s defined by the dictionary as “a pace between a walk and a run, a dog-trot”. I’m not sure that I walk that fast, as my walk pace tends to be between a walk and a walk, there’s no running involvement. The word origin is sadly a little lost, it can also mean someone who walks with a bit of a limp, which is more like me if I’m tired. If I can work out how to pronounce this, then I might just try and use it in conversation on LDWA walks, as there are a few members who naturally walk at this hobbledygee pace.

  • London – Westminster – Tate Britain (Lady Kytson by George Gower)

    London – Westminster – Tate Britain (Lady Kytson by George Gower)

    This artwork doesn’t make Lady Kytson (1547-1628) look the most glamorous, but it wasn’t the done thing at this time to smile for portraits. She was a brave lady and remained a Catholic at a time when this wasn’t perhaps entirely wise under the Protestant rule of Queen Elizabeth I, meaning that Kytson was arrested and her activities were monitored.

    The artist was George Gower (1540-1596) who was a popular portrait painter of the period (there were more P’s there than I initially intended). This artwork was acquired by the Tate in 1952 and is the oldest surviving work by Gower, along with the portrait of her husband, Sir Thomas Kytson. By 1581, Gower had become the Serjeant Painter to Queen Elizabeth, meaning that he had become something of a court favourite. As an aside, the gallery only worked out what the hat she was wearing was meant to look like when the painting was thoroughly cleaned in 1995.