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  • London (Central) – Sky Garden

    Our visit here was part of Steve’s trip to London and the component parts of the day were mostly kept as a secret to surprise us. When he told us that we were visiting a garden I made clear how unexcited I was, expecting that I’d be looking at some silly little planting effort.

    So, it’s fair to say that I was pleased when we got to 20 Fenchurch Street, which is better known as the Walkie Talkie. There are free tickets available to the three storey garden at the top of the building, and Steve had obtained these for us.

    The Sky Garden isn’t provided by the generosity of the landlord, it’s a requirement of the planning process as this skyscraper wouldn’t normally have been allowed to be built where it is. It seems that there is some controversy about how much effort has been made with the gardens which spread across three floors, but I still think that they look impressive.

    I thought it was an interesting and exciting experience, with the views over the city being extensive (more of which in a separate post). There’s a security process to get into the tower where bags are checked in an airport style arrangement, but this didn’t take too long.

    For anyone who fancies hiring the entire gardens, it’s a bargain, just £35,000 per day plus VAT, and a minimum spend of £25,000 plus VAT for catering.

  • London (Central) – Whitechapel Threads

    This sculpture was designed by brother and sister Tim Coppard and Hattie Coppard and was installed in 1996 as part of the Bethnal Green City Challenge Regeneration Programme. It is sited at the entrance to the Brick Lane Market and is designed to be a reminder of the garment and textile industry which was once so important to the local community. Standing five metres high, the bronze sculpture was made at Meridian Fine Arts Foundry.

  • London (Central) – Nomadic Community Garden

    This community garden is located a short walk from Brick Lane and I understand that it’s a temporary project until the landowner wants to build on the site again. This means that the developer gets a tenant that won’t abuse their land and the community get a project for a period of time. This is one of these wonderful ideas where there don’t appear to be any losers, it’s an entirely positive project.

    The gardens are on a two and a half acre site, with the land being divided up into numerous plots. There’s a quirky design element running throughout the project and there are reading areas, resting areas and there’s also an on-site cafe as well. There’s lots of photos below and more information is available at http://nomadicgardens.weebly.com/.

  • London (Central) – Limousine

    I would say that this was part of Steve’s secret plan for the Hike Norfolk trip to London, but this one is down to Dave…

    We were on our walk and I discover that Dave, one of our most social members who keeps chatting to everyone, had introduced himself to the driver of the limousine. Before we know it the driver is letting us have a look in the car, which was quite fancy in its layout. The driver was particularly friendly and engaging, although he probably didn’t have much choice with Dave chatting away.

    I’m not really one for cars, but this is what it looks like inside. Apparently the car is a Hummer, but I have no idea…..

  • London (Central) – Sclater Street Signs

    My medieval English dictionary says that sclater is an alternative word for slater, so it’s perhaps formerly a street where roof-slaters lived. There’s also a suggestion that it’s an old word for slaughter, so could have been where animals were killed before they went to the market.

    Either way, the interesting element here for me were the three streets signs. The first one is from the eighteenth century, the second is twentieth century and the third in another language which is of more relevance for the new population of the area.

  • London (Central) – Shoreditch Underground Trains on Offices

    These four former Jubilee underground carriages have become a little bit of a local tourist site in Shoreditch, now being used as offices on top of a building.

    The trains are located on a railway viaduct which is part of the old line which went into Broad Street railway station. That’s the railway station to the left of Liverpool Street Station on the above map, and it was demolished in 1986 as it had become surplus to requirements.

    So, on the above map, the railway line on the right is the current Liverpool Street to Norwich line, and the railway line on the left has been terminated where it ended at Broad Street and joined up with the section of railway line which is showing as a dead end above. The four tube carriages are located on the piece of line which has thus fallen out of use.

    The railway carriages can’t be visited by the public other than on special open days, but they are available for private hire as they do offer something of a talking point.

  • London (Central) – Duck and Waffle

    Our breakfast location on the Hike Norfolk day trip to London was a little shrouded in mystery as Steve was keeping it a surprise. We discovered, and I think the view was that we were impressed, to find out that we were going to the fortieth floor of Heron Tower (now formally known as 110 Bishopgate).

    The view looking up in the lift.

    The lights in the bar area of the restaurant. We were running a little early so we had a wait in this area for the table to become available, with another customer looking a little the worse for wear. Although this is a 24 hour operation, and indeed the highest 24 hour restaurant and bar in London, so perhaps that is a little inevitable.

    The views from the restaurant.

    A morning latte, which was excellent with its rich flavour and it was served at a drinkable temperature.

    I went, after much deliberation, for the spiced dahl which had two poached hen’s eggs, fresh coriander, flat bread and sumac sprinkled over the top. This was way above average, with the eggs being runny and brightly coloured, the sumac added flavour, the flat bread was lightly toasted and moist and the chickpeas were perfectly cooked. The sauce had a deep flavour and the dish was well seasoned, with everything being at the appropriate hot temperature. The portion size was also larger than I had expected, so this was a perfectly adequate breakfast meal.

    The pricing wasn’t the cheapest, but there was inevitably an element of paying for the location, with the drink being £4, the breakfast £10 and there was a compulsory service charge of around £2. The service was efficient and professional, but not particularly engaging. However, the efficiency was useful as we had an hour slot for the table and this proved to be entirely sufficient for our needs.

    We had booked across two tables so that we didn’t have to order from a set menu, which is required from larger groups. However, the staff seated us at neighbouring tables, so we could still hear what Dave was talking about.

    Overall, I thought this location offered better value than I had anticipated when we entered, although there is perhaps a need for a refresh of the interior as some of the seating was looking a bit worn.

  • Zagreb – Mimara Museum

    I’m a little unsure what to think of the Mimara Museum in Zagreb, which I spent a couple of hours meandering around. It’s a well designed conversion of a former gymnasium building and there’s an extensive area for the exhibits. Unfortunately, there are persistent allegations against the museum that a chunk of their exhibits are fakes and forgeries.

    The museum doesn’t seem to be doing much to defend itself against these persistent allegations, so goodness knows what the truth actually is. There’s an interesting article about the museum at https://www.lootedart.com/MFEU4T15383.

     

  • Zagreb – Vagabund Pizza

    This is going to fall into the category of pretty much pointless blog posts, although to be fair, I have a lot like that. Unfortunately, I visited this restaurant in Zagreb two years ago and I appear to have forgotten just about everything about it. Which isn’t ideal when trying to write a little something about it.

    The kitchen area.

    This is the house pizza, which would explain why I ordered it, which has toppings of salami, bacon and mushrooms on it. If I could remember anything about the visit then I’d mention if it was a decent pizza. But I can’t, so I won’t.

    This is why I should write about stuff at some point fairly close to the event taking place….

  • Zagreb – Harat’s Pub

    Harat’s is the largest chain of Irish bars in the world, although they’re nearly all in Russia and eastern Europe. There is now though a solitary presence in the United States, as a Harat’s opened in Miami a couple of months ago.

    That’s an eclectic mix of beers to say the least, but the presence of Belhaven Black and Guinness make it entirely acceptable to me. The prices aren’t cheap, something like £3 per drink, but there must be a transportation cost in getting these beers over to Zagreb.

    Most Irish bars around the world are a little over-stated and gaudy, well, with the exception of the Irish bars in Ireland which have heaps of character and charm. The bar was fine though, staff spoke good English, beer selection was acceptable and the atmosphere felt welcoming. There’s an outside area to the pub which overlooks the market, although that was rather too smoky for my liking.