Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: London

London – City of London – Gilt of Cain (Slave Trade Monument)

This was on the wonderful walk around London led by Des yesterday evening, focusing on the issue of slavery and the links that London has to that (and there’s no shortage of such links). It’s a monument that was unveiled by Desmond Tutu on 4 September 2008 and I’m not sure that I’d have ever noticed it if it wasn’t for Des pointing it out. Not that it’s entirely hidden away, it’s next to 74 Fenchurch Street in what was once the churchyard of St Gabriel Fenchurch which was destroyed during the Great Fire of London and wasn’t rebuilt.

I like this monument, as the messaging behind it is clear without requiring a 62-page guidebook to explain its meaning and purpose. I initially thought that the pulpit was one where anti-slavery campaigners would preach their message and although this is the case, another meaning is apparently also that it is symbolic of how slave auctions might take place. The columns represent sugar cane and show people listening to the message at the pulpit, or, alternatively waiting to be sold to their new owner.

The sculpture is located near to where John Newton of St. Mary Woolnoth parish was the vicar between 1780 and 1807 and he was buried here, although he was later moved. This is important as Newton was a slave trader who changed his views and decided to campaign to end the trade and he’s perhaps best known today for writing the words to the hymn Amazing Grace.

Anyway, this sculpture is thoughtfully located, has a depth of meaning and is creatively intriguing. This is perhaps an ideal which similar projects should try and match in the future. The spelling of the word ‘Gilt’ in the name is also deliberate, it’s a play on the financial term and a nod towards how important that was to London at the time of the slave-trade, and still is today.

There’s a poem written by Lemn Sissay (who later became the official poet of the London Olympics in 2012) and some of the text of that is incorporated onto the monument.

May 19, 2021
London – Little Hail Storm

I was five minutes later for my visit to Little Creatures, because this happened in mid-May when I thought the weather might be quite moderate. I didn’t think that it was ideal as the hail was like people chucking gravel at my head (well, I’ve never had anyone chuck gravel at me, but I’ve used my imagination), so I had to hide in the entrance to a shopping centre….. The whole weather arrangement caused joy amongst the children in the area though.

May 19, 2021
London – Camden (Borough of) – Little Creatures London

I had only vaguely heard of Little Creatures, but they’re a United States operation which has now expanded to locations mostly in Asia and Australasia, but also now in London. They’ve got themselves quite an on-trend location in the new area to the north of King’s Cross St Pancras, which is all rather in keeping with their modern image.

All modern and shiny inside, although it wasn’t overly busy when I arrived in the early evening. The staff here are suitably engaging as I would expect for a chain such as this, friendly and welcoming. They serve food as well such as burgers and flatbreads, and they even have cauliflower bites for those who fancy nibbling on, well, a cauliflower.

Little Creatures are very much about their IPA, so I didn’t go for their beer and instead went for two options from Fourpure brewery, which were the Citrus Session IPA and the Last Train stout. Not necessarily the cheapest, but the on-line ordering system was easy enough to use. There is poor phone signal in the premises, which the staff warn customers about when they arrive, so it’s fairly essential to connect to the free wi-fi. The beer isn’t perhaps the most exotic either, they stock a fair chunk of Magic Rock Brewing products and although I like those, they’re easy to find in supermarkets.

Anyway, this was all a nice environment, welcoming, clean and organised. For the ideal visit, perhaps some rather more decadent or unique beers might be a useful innovation. All on-trend and comfortable though, not a bad choice for a group visit.

May 19, 2021
London – Tower Hamlets (Borough of) – Travelodge Docklands

Judging from the price of hotels in the city, there is still not a huge enthusiasm to travel to London at the moment, not least with the obvious lack of international tourists and business travellers. This was the keenly priced Travelodge Docklands, which is a shortish walk from Canary Wharf that came to a total price of £24.99. Staffing here was minimal, but friendly, which suffices me when paying £24.99.

I’m not sure that Travelodge rooms vary much, and they haven’t departed from the standard here. All clean and well presented, and most importantly perhaps (to me) they have windows that actually open so that the room isn’t hermetically sealed. There were no noise issues either internally or externally, I suspect partly as there weren’t that many people actually in the hotel. But either way, that made for a peaceful night. Although I’d add that it’s quite a hike to get back to reception if you’ve placed in a room right in the far corner of the hotel. But if I can walk 100 miles (have I mentioned that before?) then I can get back to reception I suppose.

The view from the room, with Canary Wharf over on the left-hand side. For those who like taking their cars everywhere, there’s a large car park on site although I suspect they might charge a hefty sum for that. I wasn’t burdened by such issues though, the DLR stop is a three minute walk away.

The most exciting element for me was the history behind this whole site, as until 100 years ago, this was East India Docks. The Travelodge sits towards the top of East India Import Dock, but all of this is now gone, with the exception of the East India Dock Basin which is still there. The streets in the area around the Travelodge are named after products which were once imported into these docks, such as Coriander Avenue, Rosemary Drive, Saffron Avenue, Nutmeg Lane, Sorrel Lane and Clove Crescent.

My room was somewhere about where that boat is in the centre at the front, so it’s fair to say that quite a lot has changed here since this illustration was made around 200 years ago.

Anyway, for £24.99 I thought it was all excellent value for money. I suspect it’s usually a lot more than that and so perhaps less exciting value for what is quite a basic hotel. I didn’t need their wi-fi, but that’s a chargeable service (there’s 30 minutes free) and the whole arrangement is all more functional rather than luxurious.

I had a little look on TripAdvisor and the hotel isn’t badly reviewed, although there are of course some angry customers. The hotel’s lack of mattress protectors is incredibly brave of them, since they’ll end up chucking mattresses away at quite a pace (or picking up negative reviews about that). I liked the “upon arrival in the room there was no Kit Kat chocolate bar”, which reminds me of an episode of The Hotel with Mark Jenkins.

And the customer who was “shocked” at:

“The room cleaning service women was from Eastern Europe which is not an issue but the issue I had with her was she didn’t speak or understand a word of English”.

Odds are they did understand quite a lot of words of English (but studiously ignored the guest), but I’m not sure why a guest really needs an in-depth conversation with the room cleaning staff anyway, who are probably distracted with cleaning rooms. There was another angry guest that check-in is “very late”, despite it being 3pm which is hardly unusual.

And another guest who noted:

“To top it off there were people running around in their underwear in reception.”

I suppose readers have to picture the scene as they feel appropriate, as no more details were given. But my favourite of all was:

“We requested a wake up call and taxi for the following morning but nobody woke us up”.

The hotel reminded the customer that Travelodge don’t offer wake up calls, but I’d like to hear more about what the staff members had promised. A mischievous evening staff member perhaps…..

May 18, 2021
London – Tower Hamlets (Borough of) – Hackney Wick – Crate Brewery (II)

As with the neighbouring Howling Hops, I’ve visited Crate before, and just wanted to note my visits today as a reminder to myself of the big day of pubs fully reopening. What a time to be alive…..

I don’t really entirely understand the set-up with Crate as the upstairs restaurant Silo seems to dominate some of the signage and I’m also never entirely sure what Crate brew themselves as they don’t give their beers decadent names and don’t seem to experiment much. And, rather ridiculously given that I can now sit inside pubs, I found myself sitting outside. But the weather allowed it and there were no bees, wasps or other random animals or insects waiting to attack me. And there were some nice views of the nearby river.

There was a beer from Brew By Numbers which meant choosing a beer was easy as I like them and this was a peach melba fruited gose. I can’t remember who got me into those, but I’ve developed quite a taste for that beer style, and this was a perfectly good example of it. Lots of peach flavour, ideal for a refreshing lunchtime drink. And, Brew By Numbers toasted my check-in on Untappd so I like them even more now, as I’m easily bought by such things.

The staff member was helpful, so this was another easy visit, which I coupled with popping into Howling Hops briefly. All really rather lovely. Normality is a wonderful thing.

May 17, 2021
London – Tower Hamlets (Borough of) – Hackney Wick – Howling Hops (II)

I won’t drone on for too long about Howling Hops, since I’ve visited before and wrote a little more that time. However, today is a big day for pubs as they can open inside once again, so I feel the need to record that for my own record, even if for no-one else’s interest.

Service was friendly and helpful, although no real surprises there. Customers can drink beers straight from the tanks (well, not literally, they are served in a glass) which adds theatre to the proceedings. It wasn’t particularly busy, I think that most of the people who were there worked for Howling Hops, but it felt laidback and welcoming. It’s a nice place, convenient for when I’m passing by on the London Overground (which is nearly never if I’m being honest, but I’ll make special trips).

I opted for the Morning Ride, a New England IPA with Enigma, Simcoe and Mosaic hops (I didn’t know that obviously, I’ve just copied it) and I liked that the brewery mention the “sweet shop pick-n-mix finish”. I wouldn’t disagree with that, it was a sweet and citrusy beer which worked well for me as a refreshing lunchtime drink. I was also a little tempted by the Gentle Storm beer which Howling Hops brew, which seems to be so new that absolutely no-one has reviewed it on Untappd. But everything in moderation.

And it’s nice for me to be back inside pubs, something which I hope is now a permanent state of affairs for the hospitality industry (I mean being allowed to have customers inside in general, not necessarily having me inside).

May 17, 2021
London – Islington (Borough of) – Hammerton Brewery

The Hammerton Brewery has been trading since 2014, although they brought back the name of an historic brewery that had closed in the late 1950s. I’ve had some rather decent beers from Hammerton in the past, so thought this made a handy taproom to visit. I booked on-line earlier in the week, although it didn’t like me trying to book a table for myself (it needed two people). I booked anyway with a note on the booking, but didn’t receive a reply and so I assumed they were content with what I’d done.

Normally I write about how good customer service is at pubs and breweries, indeed, it’s perhaps just a little dull how I keep writing about the engagement and passion of the staff. The staff weren’t unfriendly here, but they weren’t really engaging with any customers in a way that I thought they might. Not this overly bothered me, being British I don’t need too much social interaction.

In a bid not to be too awkward, I just booked a table for two (as I have already mentioned I had to) in an uncovered area. This was loyally provided, although I suspect it might have been better to just move me to a table that was undercover and larger since they had so few other customers. They didn’t complain though when I self-upgraded when it started to rain. I was slightly humoured when a table for two turned up and were then shown to a table that was drenched in water and that didn’t seem ideal.

Anyway, I was perfectly content here and had no complaints, it just wasn’t quite what I expected in terms of customer engagement, especially given the incredible beers that they brew.

It’s all a perfectly serviceable set-up and they had a pop-up kitchen offering calzone pizzas, which I thought was a rather lovely idea. The food offering changes to add some variety to proceedings. Ordering is done via an app and that all seemed to work well, with beers brought out within a couple of minutes of ordering.

The inside is closed due to the current lockdown situation, but it’s an on-trend and fun sort of place. I say on-trend, it’s an industrial unit, but they’ve done it up nicely. I don’t really do interior decor commentary if I’m being honest. Bung a few beer barrels, a couple of pot plants, a dangling electricity cable and I’ll happily call it on-trend if there’s craft beer.

Before anyone comments, these are actually slightly over-poured as I had ordered half pints, so there were no short measures. One thing I do feel best to dwell on here is that Hammerton make some bloody good beers. Actually some seriously good beers, and they way exceeded my expectations. I knew Hammerton for their cans of Crunch, which is a peanut butter milk stout stocked in many pubs, not least the Artichoke in Norwich.

I had four half pints at the brewery, namely Wald, Le Roux Project, Pecilla and City of Cake. All of these are stouts, and it’s rare that I get such a plentiful choice of these in one venue (and they had another two stouts on top of those). City of Cake is a chocolate fudge cake milk stout, Pecilla is a vanilla & pecan pastry stout, Le Roux Project is a chocolate salted caramel pastry stout and Wald is an Black Forest Gateau imperial stout.

Despite all four beers being delightful, it’s the Wald that I feel I shall dwell on here for the longest. Their tasting notes say:

“Wald, this year’s Black Forest Gateau Stout brewed with a more complex malt bill, to create a strong, deep, rich, milk stout. Then conditioned on 140kg of fresh cherries, balancing roasted coffee and chocolate notes with aromas of vanilla, caramel and cherry”.

Very decadent. And this is one of the best beers that I’ve had, certainly full-bodied and it felt like an imperial stout in terms of the alcohol content whilst also retaining some sweetness. The cherries were up-front in the flavour, but there was a rich chocolate and cherry aftertaste that was as strong as a cherry brandy liqueur. Smooth, not too powerful and with subtle notes to add to the whole proceedings. And that of course all sounds pretentious, but this was a beautiful beer and apologies to my friends who I felt the need to tell immediately about the situation.

It’s fair to say that I was pleased that I visited Hammerton and I shall likely opt for their beers whenever I see them again in the future.

May 15, 2021
London – City of London – St. Dunstan’s Court

Like the yards of Norwich, I rather expected the series of courts off Fleet Street to have some kind of long heritage.

But, at first this didn’t seem to be the case. The red cursor on the above map from 1920 shows where the court goes through the building today. Indeed, on late nineteenth century maps, it shows that this was the site of a pub rather than a court. The court takes its name from the nearby medieval church of St Dunstan in the West (this makes sense as there’s another one in the East, albeit mostly destroyed during the Second World War, which isn’t too far from the Tower of London).

However, the 1886 Insurance Plan of London shows that the court was there and this tallies up with 160 Fleet Street being the Hole in the Wall pub. The court doesn’t really go anywhere, it just reaches what was a playground in 1886 and then joins onto Bolt Court, which is as it is today (although the playground has gone). Also visible in this map is an electrotype facility, a useful and quite modern publishing device at the time. There’s a photo on Wikipedia of a set-up in 1902 that was used at the New York Herald, and I imagine that it was equally cramped.

Each of the courts off Fleet Street on the north side of the road has tablets which show the heritage of the newspaper industry, which is what this area was once known for. This one shows the 1980s computerised printing technology that was introduced, that brought about the demise of the traditional printed processes. The usage of the Space Invaders as an example of something from the 1980s is perhaps a little obscure, but it stands out on the pavement.

There was a court case heard at the Mansion House in September 1896 when a Mr Charles Pensotti was accused of stealing letters from a post box on St. Dunstan’s Court. He had been interfering with letters placed there by Dean & Son, a publisher of some note, who wondered why cheques and postal orders had been going missing. When arrested, Pensotti was found to have a number of blank cheque books and six picklock keys, but he said to the police that it was a big mistake.

May 14, 2021
London – Tower Hamlets (Borough of) – Virginia Settlers’ Memorial

This area near East India Dock has changed considerably over the last 100 years, with the bulk of the docks now completely filled in. Just to the left of the cursor on the above map is where the Virginia Settlers’ Memorial is now located.

The buildings to the left of this photo are on Jamestown Way, standing on what 100 years ago was Blackwall railway station, although that closed in 1926. There’s a DLR station of that name today, but it’s a little distance away.

It was from this location in Blackwall on 19 December 1606 that three ships, Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery, set sail for the new world. It took them four months to get there, which I can’t imagine was a pleasant cruising arrangement, and then two thirds of the settlers died by 1608 when further relief ships arrived. It was all an enterprise established by the London Company who wanted to establish a series of colonial settlements along the coast in what is now the United States, not a project that went entirely well.

The plaque here was placed on a nearby building in 1928 by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, but that structure was badly damaged during air raid bombings during the Second World War. The memorial plaque was moved onto this current memorial in 1951 following an unveiling which was attended by the United States Ambassador. The memorial was left abandoned and was vandalised, with someone pinching the mermaid that was on top, although in 1999 this was replaced by an astrolabe following the redevelopment of the nearby residential properties. It’s all a much more salubrious area today, peaceful and with extensive views along the River Thames.

I wonder what those who set sail over 400 years ago would have thought about the Millennium Dome (or whatever it’s called now) in the background, and indeed what would they have thought about Virginia today. There’s not much at Jamestown now, which is where the settlers ended up, just a heritage site noting the colonial landings. The plaque notes those who went on the ships as “adventurers” and it’s hard to deny that since they founded the first permanent English colony in America.

May 13, 2021
London – Greenwich (Borough of) – Conor Harrington Street Art

I thought that this was really quite striking on Trafalgar Road in Greenwich, an artwork created by Conor Harrington as part of the London Mural Festival. There are photographs of the artwork being created at https://arrestedmotion.com/2020/10/streets-conor-harrington-london-mural-festival/. The site in the front of the photo was going to be used for housing, but agreement hasn’t yet been reached with the local council as to how that’s all going to work out. The artist said that his artwork was “big flag energy”, all part of the debate about international policy.

May 12, 2021