Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: London

  • London – Camden (Borough of) – Euston Travelodge Central

    London – Camden (Borough of) – Euston Travelodge Central

    Travelodge had an offer on a week or so ago which was get one night half price when booking at least two nights, which meant that this hotel became really quite affordable despite its central location. It’s literally a one-minute walk from Euston railway station, and around five minutes from King’s Cross St Pancras railway station, so ideal for those needing to catch a train.

    When I entered the hotel I was surprised and delighted to see that they had ripped up most of the floor, and even more surprised when I left to go out two hours later and they had restored the flooring. Whatever work they were doing, the tradespeople were very efficient at least. The staff member at reception was helpful and everything seemed in order, other than I struggled to hear her amidst noises of the floor being ripped up. No mention was made of breakfast or the cafe, which was of no relevance to me anyway as I wasn’t using them, but I was slightly surprised there was no upsell tried. Although, to be fair, the staff member already could hardly hear themselves think with the sound of their floor being ripped up around them.

    The room is standard Travelodge fare, but actually it was entirely satisfactory and I had no complaints. The window opened and the air conditioning was very effective, something that I don’t necessarily expect in budget hotels. There was a bath in the bathroom, another feature that many hotels lack. I was given the quiet side of the hotel, although I don’t mind road noise, but reviews of the hotel are littered by complaints about the sound of traffic keeping people awake.

    The hotel has started to renovate its rooms and they have the SuperRooms which you pay a bit extra and get a decadent coffee machine and a KitKat. I decided against going for such luxury. I didn’t have any noise problems internally or externally, despite this seeming to be the most common complaint from guests.

    As for the reviews, the staff are being creative with excuses and not blaming Covid for shortages:

    “Rooms are unvacuumed and dirty. Toilet is dirty. Shower curtains ( bleurgh) Rooms are sprayed liberally with air freshener instead of cleaned and it’s suffocating. The reason, apparently, is ‘Brexit’.”

    Firealarmgate doesn’t sound ideal either…..

    “Finally, on the second night when I was getting out baby ready for bed, the fire alarm went off. I scrambled to get us both semi-decent and grab the essentials, then ran down to the foyer. I didn’t take the room key as I thought there was a fire tearing through the building. The fire alarm stopped on the way down. I reached the foyer, and stood there, with a half-dressed baby and myself shoeless, for 20 minutes with no sign of staff.”

    And I know some people like this:

    “I spent half of my time going down to the reception to complain about something.”

    There are over twenty reviews of guests who have been given keycards to already occupied rooms, something which I still think is unforgivable incompetence from a hotel. I merrily barricade a room with a chair behind the door to try and prevent such things, but I’d be demanding my night be refunded should it ever happen…. Fortunately, it hasn’t (although it has to Nathan, he gets all the excitement….).

    Although one customer was livid about a series of things and noted:

    “We advised of the issues and all they were able to do was give us a handful of free Kit Kat’s, not exactly a suitable response.”

    That would have won me over…..

    Anyway, I liked this hotel as it was central, clean and quiet, although I likely won’t stay here again as it’s normally relatively expensive. I understand that there are some rooms in the cellar and that doesn’t sound ideal, probably best to try and refuse those at reception if possible.

  • London – Westminster (Borough of) – The Cambridge Pub

    London – Westminster (Borough of) – The Cambridge Pub

    I got an e-mail from Nicholson’s pubs last week that said they had half-price main courses available on most weekdays over the next couple of weeks. That seemed like a very reasonable deal, so I thought that I’d pop to some of their London establishments that I haven’t been to before.

    This is the Cambridge pub in Charing Cross, which is in the area of Soho. Nicely decorated ceiling and it’s also got an upstairs dining area. The pub says about its history:

    “Deep in London’s theatre district, The Cambridge is popular with audiences and actors alike. Built in 1887 on the site of The King’s Arms, it is next to the Palace Theatre, formerly the Royal English Opera House. The Cambridge lies in the heart of Soho, a royal hunting ground in the days of Henry VIII. We bet you didn’t know that Soho takes its name from a hunting call.”

    The pub’s location (the PH just above the CAM of Cambridge Circus) on a map from the early twentieth century, an arrangement named after the Duke of Cambridge.

    The beer choice is quite limited here, or at least for my decadent needs, so I sufficed with half a pint of London Pride. It was well-kept, at the appropriate temperature and tasted as it should, that’s about all I can say.

    The fish and chips, which looked a smaller portion that it actually was, I think because of their plate of choice. Anyway, this was actually very good, the fish flaked away and was of a decent quality, with the batter having some flavour to it. The batter wasn’t greasy, the chips were fluffy inside and the mushy peas had an air of sophistication to them although they were a tad cold. And lots of tartare sauce, I liked that.

    Service in the pub was friendly and engaging, with the member of bar staff being warm and conversational. The pub was clean and comfortable, as well as being surprisingly busy. I can imagine how busy this pub must get when things are a little more normal in the country and the nearby theatres are packed. The reviews are generally very positive and the management responses on TripAdvisor to the negative ones are some of the longest and most comprehensive that I’ve seen. They’re actually very professional responses, it made me like the venue even more as I imagine they’d resolve any actual problems if they occurred.

    The whole cost of this decadent lunch was £10, which I thought was reasonable as it’s the same as the nearest Wetherspoons and it’s good to visit somewhere different. I’d rather Nicholson’s work on its beer options, but the venue seemed very well managed and so I haven’t got any complaints beyond the lack of decent and perhaps even innovative beers. Certainly not a bad lunch option, although the pricing is a little rich for me when there aren’t offers on.

  • London – Waltham Forest (Borough of) – Chingford Mount Cemetery

    London – Waltham Forest (Borough of) – Chingford Mount Cemetery

    There’s something quite reassuring about the large ‘no’ in the above photo since it’s the entrance to the cemetery in Chingford Mount.

    This information plaque notes “developed in 1884 by the Abney Park Cemetery Company on land originally called Caroline Mount, named after the landowner. The original chapel and gate lodges are now gone, but the impressive gates, railing and gate piers survive”. The Abney Park cemetery had been created in Hackney as a non-conformist site, but it was running low on space, hence this new opening.

    It’s an enormous site, taking up just under 42 acres. It was run by a private management company who managed to go bust in the 1970s, meaning that some of the unused section of the site would have been turned into housing. Local opposition to this arrangement was quite strong, with the site eventually being taken over by the London Borough of Waltham Forest in 1977. Unfortunately, the lodges and chapel had become vandalised by this time, hence their demolition.

    The war memorial at the cemetery. There are 137 war graves from the First World War and 182 from the Second World War located around the cemetery.

    One of the avenues which was useful during my visit as the graveyard was particularly soggy in places as I tried to look for some of the war graves.

    One of the most infamous graves in the cemetery, the gravestone of Ronnie and Reggie Kray.

  • London – Westminster (Borough of) – West End Comedy Club

    London – Westminster (Borough of) – West End Comedy Club

    There was a Time Out offer on last week to get a comedy club ticket for £5, instead of the usual £12, and as I haven’t been to one before, I thought this seemed like a good idea. Live comedy has been rather decimated over the last two years, so there are big efforts being made to try and bring people back in. The West End Comedy Club is a new set-up upstairs at the Covent Garden Social Club, at Great Newport Street. It was easy to find and the signage was clear.

    I read that it was good to get there at opening to get a seat as it wasn’t a large venue, with an absolute limit of 70 people. It certainly wasn’t a big space, just one quite large room with a bar in it, so it felt quite an intimate performance area.

    There was a friendly welcome from the organiser, who mentioned to me that it was sold out and to find a space that wouldn’t take up a larger space give that there were groups coming.

    Given what I was told, I decided to opt for a seat by the bar, this is always a comforting place for me to be. Only two people had got there earlier than me, so I didn’t have to fight for space.

    I had also read about the decadent drinks prices, although £5 for Staropramen isn’t entirely unreasonable given the location. Since this was a night of comedy I won’t comment on the lack of beer options, humorous as the limited selection was. Incidentally, the bar mostly served cocktails and there was one poor barman on his own making these drinks and causing quite a queue to develop although not because he wasn’t actually a decent barman, but because those drinks take so long to serve. And the bar is also brave as any customers wanting a tab had to leave their card behind the bar, which will likely haunt them at some random point in the future. Anyway, bar commentary aside, onto the main event.

    Photos from the venue itself, with Michael Odewale (top-left) being particularly good and I hadn’t realised that he had been on BBC’s Mock the Week before. There was one performer who wasn’t named before the event, and was just listed as a celebrity, and that transpired to be Simon Brodkin (bottom left) who I’ve never really paid much attention to in the past other than reading about some of his stunts, the best known to me being Brodkin’s great work in annoying the disgrace that is Sepp Blatter and also his handing Theresa May a P45 at a party conference.

    Inevitably some material was stronger than others and one comedian had a more muted reaction from the audience as his content was a bit strained. Some of the material is new and the comedians are trying it out with a live audience, with Tom Ward (top-right) having the most surreal of the content, but he integrated music well into his act. Brodkin seemed the smoothest performer out of them all, but he’s had the chance to have more experience and opportunities so I guess that’s inevitable. Incidentally, I hadn’t realised that Brodkin was a trained doctor (I say that not to suggest that some doctors are untrained, just to show he had completed training) before starting a stand-up career, which made his Covid health jokes seem even more appropriate.

    There was a smattering of political humour through the performances and inevitably Boris Johnson and Priti Patel didn’t come out too well from that. Covid humour was also in there quite regularly, but not to excess as that would have likely grated after a while given that people want to get away from it. It was a decent balance of different styles of humour and content, all nicely done.

    Fortunately, my seating location meant I avoided any of the audience participation, although I think the comedians were most interested in those sitting just in front of them on the sofas. Anyone sitting there would deliberately want attention, so that seems fair enough. And a Scottish man who kept shouting, but the comedians had him sussed quite early on. It all went quite quickly, which must have meant that it was an enjoyable enough experience and I thought rather good for a total cost of £10 for the entry and the drink. Something different at least.

  • London – Waltham Forest (Borough of) – Holiday Inn Express London Chingford North Circular

    London – Waltham Forest (Borough of) – Holiday Inn Express London Chingford North Circular

    The hotel option for the last two days has been this Holiday Inn Express, around a fifteen minute walk from Highams Park Overground station and around a thirty minute from Walthamstow Central. And indeed, about a 15 second walk from the North Circular, but that was less relevant to me.

    I didn’t have any particular problems here and the staff at the hotel were all friendly throughout my stay, with the check-in process being efficient enough. For reasons unknown, the atmosphere at reception felt more like a stressed budget American hotel, but the environment seemed safe and organised.

    My IHG and Accor preferences both say that I prefer a room on the top floor away from the lift, and it’s unusual for me not to get that. Here, the staff gave me a room next to the lift on the first floor which wasn’t entirely ideal, but didn’t give me any particular noise issues. The room was clean and felt sufficiently modern, with housekeeping cleaning the room daily and fully restocking everything. There were no plugs by the bed, but there was a USB socket, so that was all sufficient.

    There was the noise of traffic from the North Circular, but I like that random hum of city life, so it didn’t disturb me. The room had working air conditioning and also a window that opened, so ventilation was just as I liked it. There were also no real noise disturbances either internally or externally, although I don’t think that the hotel is that busy at the moment.

    The carefully completed welcome drink voucher.

    The beer choice was far from ideal, it was effectively this, pints of Stella or bottles of Corona. I’m not expecting craft beer heaven from a Holiday Inn Express, but this is weak even by the chain’s standards. I’m not sure why if a hotel has one draft line on for beer that it would choose Stella, that’s brave to say the least. And the hotel didn’t burden themselves with offering the free snack that was promised.

    The breakfast arrangements were a little better than the usual Holiday Inn Express brand standard, and I’ve never seen tinned tomatoes available in this chain. I’m not going to claim that this is hugely decadent or exciting, but I thought it was a useful addition given that there are usually only ever four hot options (sausages, bacon, baked beans and scrambled egg). The area was clean and tidy, although they probably need to deal with their dishwasher which isn’t working as well as it perhaps could (and I’m assuming here they’re using a machine) judging by the state of some of the dishes.

    Just down the road is Walthamstow Stadium, which I remember when it actually had a stadium behind the frontage. Other than this section it has all been demolished now, with housing behind the frontage.

    The hotel is generally well reviewed on-line, although the average friendliness of the staff score is lower than usual, not that I experienced any issues along those lines. I did like the review on the IHG web-site which said simply and without any other comment:

    “The lady at the front desk refused to sell me a kit kat at the front desk”.

    I’d like to think that there’s an exciting back story there, but I suspect that it’s just because the hotel is card only and the guest was trying to pay with cash. Not that I have to worry as I don’t have a vehicle, but there appear to have been a fair few thefts which have taken place in the car park, which I can imagine is more than a little annoying for any tradespeople staying here.

    Anyway, as a hotel I thought that it was all entirely reasonable, especially as the price came in at under £35 per night including breakfast. They’re playing just a bit fast and loose with the IHG Rewards Programme, but given the hotel was clean, the staff were friendly and the breakfast was as expected, it’d be hard for me to complain too much (or no more than normal anyway).

  • London – Waltham Forest (Borough of) – Chingford Mount Cemetery (War Grave of William Henry Drew)

    London – Waltham Forest (Borough of) – Chingford Mount Cemetery (War Grave of William Henry Drew)

    This is the war grave of William Henry Drew which is located in Chingford Mount Cemetery. William was born on 26 July 1909, the son of William and Anne Drew of Walthamstow.

    He was the husband of Elizabeth Blanche Drew (born on 10 August 1910) and on the outbreak of the Second World War they lived at 105 Northbank Road in Walthamstow (the property is still standing), with William working as a wholesale meat salesman. After joining the military to fight in the conflict, he served as a Corporal in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC), service number 14626305.

    William died on 14 January 1947 at the age of 38. His wife, Elizabeth, died on 17 January 1989. I can’t find the reason for William’s death, whether it was ill health or linked to the work of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, which in 1947 was mostly the disposal of ammunition. Even the archive of the Royal Logistics Corp (the successor organisation of the RAOC) has no information about him. This will have to be a mystery that hopefully I’ll resolve at some point in the future….

  • London – Waltham Forest (Borough of) – Chingford Mount Cemetery (Grave of Charles James Kray)

    London – Waltham Forest (Borough of) – Chingford Mount Cemetery (Grave of Charles James Kray)

    Charles James Kray (1927-2000) was the older brother of Ronnie and Reggie Kray and he’s buried at Chingford Mount Cemetery next to his infamous brothers. The actress Barbara Windsor is known for her one-night stand with Reggie Kray, but she had a full-blown affair with Charles. He was sentenced to ten years in prison in 1968 and was released in 1975, saying that his name was a major problem for him after this time given the reputation that his brothers had. Kray returned to crime in the 1990s and he was sent back to prison, which is where he died.

    The grave mentions his son Gary, who died in 1996 and was the only child of any of the three Krays. Gary is buried with Reggie’s wife Frances Shea, but more about that in another post….

    The grave’s location in Chingford Mount Cemetery.

  • London – Waltham Forest (Borough of) – Chingford Mount Cemetery (Grave of Ronnie and Reggie Kray)

    London – Waltham Forest (Borough of) – Chingford Mount Cemetery (Grave of Ronnie and Reggie Kray)

    This large cemetery in Chingford Mount was opened in May 1884 and covers an enormous site, still being actively used.

    I can’t claim to be a particularly huge fan of Ronnie Kray (1933-1995) and Reggie Kray (1933-2000), but they are a major part of London’s history, so I was interested in finding their grave. They have a family plot, but they were refused permission by the Home Office to come here in 1982 following the death of their mother Violet. I’m not sure that the family had any particular connection with Chingford, but this is one of the largest cemeteries where people living in the East End were buried. Incidentally, I don’t know what is in the flasks….

    For anyone who wants to watch the funeral and burial of Ronnie Kray.

    For anyone wanting to visit themselves, go in the main gate and head to the back left of the cemetery. I’ve created this professional image (I accept graphic design isn’t a strong point of mine) with a reddish circle to help find it.

  • Chiltern Railways : Wembley Stadium to London Marylebone

    Chiltern Railways : Wembley Stadium to London Marylebone

    And another in my niche series of rail journeys around the UK, which are primarily for me to remember what rail companies I’ve travelled with, primarily with an interest in how they do things differently.

    Wembley Stadium isn’t the most exciting of railway stations and the history of railways around here is confused, as there was a different station with the same name at one point. This station opened in 1906 as Wembley Hill, was renamed Wembley Complex in 1978 and took its current name of Wembley Stadium in 1987. Incidentally, the Wembley Complex isn’t what I would consider to be a traditional way of naming British railway stations (and sounds more like a psychological conjecture) so I’m pleased that it was changed. The railway station is around a five minute walk away from Wembley Stadium, so the naming is appropriate.

    In the above photo, at the back is the White Horse Bridge, opened in 2008 and replacing the old concrete footbridge which was built for the British Empire Exhibition in 1925.

    The railway station is solely used by Chiltern Railways on their mainline to Birmingham and it’s a fast connection into the city centre as it gets into London Marylebone in only around ten minutes. I stood here and then realised that the train stops a little back way, with the platform being longer than it needs to be as occasionally they bring in longer trains when there are matches or events taking place at Wembley Stadium.

    The train was about a third full, not overly busy. I don’t know if there was a guard on board the train, but if there was, I didn’t see him or her at any stage of the journey. Legroom isn’t ideal and the interior of these trains probably need a more modern refit soon with a return to 2+2 seating rather than 3+2 which doesn’t really fit.

    And here we are ten minutes later in London Marylebone. There are usually two services which operate between Wembley Stadium and London Marylebone every hour, so the service is relatively frequent.

    As I’ve written about before, Marylebone is the smallest London mainline railway station, and also the last one to be completed.

    And the station’s frontage. Everything ran to time, the train was clean and the service was easy to get a ticket for as it just uses contactless at each end. Looping back to the start, there’s not a lot that Chiltern Railways seem to do differently of particular note, especially for a short journey such as this, but they’ve invested considerably in the infra-structure of this route over the last couple of decades. Only a few weeks ago a new franchise was given to the company to operate this route and this lasts until the end of 2027, but with the proviso that the contract might change with the introduction of Great British Railways in 2025ish.

  • London – Brent (Borough of) – Wembley – Remains of Old Wembley Stadium

    London – Brent (Borough of) – Wembley – Remains of Old Wembley Stadium

    My random excursion of the day was to see this, in Brent River Park in Wembley.

    And OK, it looks a little random in its current landscape. Without any clues, no-one I showed this photo to was able to tell me what it was, although I would have been surprised if anyone did know as it’s quite out of context here.

    But, as this sign suggests, it’s one of the few things that remains from the Old Wembley Stadium and its the base of one of the flagpoles from the Twin Towers. Work on that stadium started 100 years ago, in 1922, and it was completed in 1923. There was a major renovation to the structure in 1963 before the World Cup in 1966, but the stadium was demolished between 2002 and 2003 to be replaced with the current arrangement. There was vague efforts made to save the famous twin towers which had been Grade II listed in 1976, but as they were made of ferro-concrete and had only ever been designed to be temporary, the developers claimed they couldn’t possibly be saved. Lots of planning arguments were made about this, but in the end the developers got their way and they were destroyed.

    This remaining section at least seems quite robust and it has been here since June 2003, a reminder of the Wembley Twin Towers.

    This is what the site looks like today with the modern stadium.