Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: London

  • London (Central) – Sky Garden Views

    Further to my post about a visit to the Sky Garden, below are photos of the views.

  • 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.

  • Heathrow T5 – British Airways B Gates Lounge

    I’ve realised that despite visiting the B Gates Lounge at Heathrow T5 that I’ve never managed to take any photos of the interior of it. With the exception of the food, which I appear to have taken multiple photos of on numerous occasions. Strange that.

    Anyway, this is my favourite BA lounge at Terminal 5 out of the three which I can access. There’s also the First Class lounge for those with gold cards and the Concorde Room for those flying first class, names which don’t quite make sense but are logical for reasons I’ll go into on another occasion.

    B Gates Lounge is the quietest of the BA lounges as it’s generally used only by passengers flying from B or C Gates and they usually are only there for a short period of time. There’s a legacy reason for this, as a few years ago there was no way to get back from B or C Gates (or no easy way) and so it would be ridiculous to go there before the gate numbers were announced. However, there are now public tunnels to B Gates, so passengers can walk there at any time, and more importantly, they can walk back.

    So, that’s what I do, I usually stay at the main galleries lounge at A Gates (which is the main terminal) for a short while and then wander over to B Gates. Sometimes I get fortunate if my flight subsequently departs from B Gates, but usually it doesn’t so I have to walk back.

    This is the breakfast selection, which is bacon rolls, beans, hash browns and pastries.

    The salad selection.

    Some kind of fruit stuff.

    From lunch-time onwards the sandwiches are also brought out. The coronation chicken is in my view the best sandwich offered.

    These photos are from two different visits and they show the main food selection which is available from lunch-time into the afternoon period. I like these selections, usually there’s a curry, chilli or casserole option and there’s rice or pasta to go with those. The food has a decent flavour to it and the meat, which is usually chicken, is tender and flavoursome.

    There’s a full drinks selection available at the lounge, including wine, champagne, soft drinks and there’s also a coffee machine. Take care if using the coffee machine as I managed to smash one of the plates which were meant to be unbreakable. It was stuck to the base of the milk jug when I picked it up, although the bloody thing managed to unstick itself as soon as it got into the air.

    There’s a story about that actually. I went to reception and mentioned in a casual manner that there was now a plate smashed across most of the floor. The staff member told me that I shouldn’t worry (although being honest I wasn’t particularly worried) and that he’d come and have a look. He did do exactly that, he went to have a look and then returned back to his desk as he couldn’t find anyone to clean it up. He wasn’t being lazy, he was the only staff member at the reception desk, and they do need someone there.

    The situation for the next fifteen minutes was that I was sitting there with my rather lovely coffee, surveying how far this plate had smashed across the floor. Customers carefully walked by the random shards and I pretended not to know anything about it. Then, eventually, a member of the cleaning staff comes along and does a double take at why there is a smashed plate across a tennis court size space of floor. Out come numerous warning signs, some tutting from the member of cleaning staff and then lots of furtive action at cleaning it up.

    I don’t know why I got distracted there recounting that story. I did incidentally mention I could clean it up, but the staff member at reception seemed adamant that neither I, nor indeed he, would need to do that. For anyone interested, my coffee was lovely.

    Anyway, I got distracted there. The lounge is spacious and there are plenty of different types of table and seating depending on what the passenger wants. I like the high chairs and tables as I can use my laptop. By high chairs, I don’t means the ones that toddlers use, just that the chairs are high. Unfortunately these are mostly near the kids area of the lounge, but it’s rare that there are any bloody screaming children, so that’s fine. By bloody I’m just randomly swearing, the children don’t have blood on them.

    The newspaper selection is reasonable and BA also have the system where you can download magazines and newspapers for free in the lounge. Most of the television screens are on silent, but there are instructions on how you can download an app which lets you listen to them via headphones. I like this, the less noise in an airport lounge the better, and televisions blaring out aren’t conducive to quiet and calm.

    There’s also a spa area of the lounge, although I’ve never engaged with that. There are also showers available at this lounge and the queue for these is usually minimal, so there isn’t the wait that there might be in other lounges.

    So, that was my quick explanation of why I like the B-Gates lounge. Spacious, quiet, clean and comfortable. Fortunately not many people will actually read this random splurge of text, otherwise they’d all go to B-Gates lounge and then I wouldn’t like it as much.

  • British Airways (Heathrow T5 to Baltimore)

    This post is more just to upload the photos than anything else, as I can’t remember much else about the flight now. I flew from London Heathrow T5 to Baltimore on an A380 in August 2015. Unfortunately, the photos aren’t very clear, but since they’re the only ones I’ve got of that flight, they’ll have to do.

    I was travelling in Club World and obviously I wasn’t paying since otherwise I’d have been in World Traveller.

    The aircraft at Heathrow T5.

    The Club World cabin during the boarding process.

    This happens too often….

    The starter and salad.

    Corn fed chicken, mashed potato and batons of carrot.

    Some sort of mousse.

    An ice cream from later on during the flight.