Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: London

  • London – Central London – Salters’ Hall Gates

    London – Central London – Salters’ Hall Gates

    These gates are near to Fore Street, situated a few metres away from the Minotaur sculpture, but these have just a little more relevance to their surroundings. They are the gates purchased in 1887 by Salters’ Hall for their building then located off St. Swithin’s Lane. The gates weren’t specifically created for them, they had been displayed at the International Exhibition and were commissioned by Prince Albert (1819-1861) and designed by John Thomas (1813-1862) at the beginning of the 1860s, but they then both died and so it’s fair to say the project lost its shine a little. There were a few little amendments for the new owners, such as the addition of the Salters’ crest, but then they were good to go. And I’m sure that everyone was pleased with the gates until the 1941 Blitz saw Salters’ Hall destroyed. On the bright side, they still had the gates. In 1949, they were moved to Salters’ Almhouses in Watford and in 2017 they were moved to their current location, near to the new Salters’ Hall.

    The original location of the gates at the old Salters’ Hall (clicking on the map makes it larger).

  • London – Central London – The Minotaur Statue

    London – Central London – The Minotaur Statue

    With a stretch of Roman Wall in the background, this is the public space in front of Salters’ Hall.

    Part human and part bull, the sculpture of the Minotaur was designed by Michael Ayrton (1921-1975) in the early 1970s. I was interested to understand the significance of why the monument was placed here and the link, but it transpires that there’s absolutely none. It was originally designed for a private estate, with this cast going to a number of locations before the Corporation of London purchased it in 1973. They then placed it in Postman’s Park, but after just over twenty years it was thought that the sculpture needed a change of scenery and it was moved to a high walkway near to the Roman wall. When that was all redesigned, he was brought down to ground level on the terrace outside the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

    The sculpture does feel a little incongruous to its surroundings, as if it’s trying to make an artistic statement, but no-one is quite sure what it’s saying. It’ll perhaps be moved about again at some point in the future, maybe it’s more suited to somewhere like Canary Wharf where an aggressive sculpture might be more fitting.

  • London – Westminster (Borough of) – Plaque to Pret

    London – Westminster (Borough of) – Plaque to Pret

    I learn something every day (well, most days and a lot of what I learn is broadly irrelevant), and I’ve discovered that the existing Pret shop at 93-95 Victoria Street is just a stone’s throw from where it all began for the company in 1986, at 75B Victoria Street. There was actually a shop in Hampstead but that went bust and Sinclair Beecham and Julian Metcalfe purchased the name and imagery, and they opened at 75B. There are now 500 Prets around the world, with plans to open many more.

    Pret renamed their Head Office, which is nearby above Platform 1 at Victoria railway station, 75B in honour of their first shop. Incidentally, their designers have put up photos of the interior of their head office, very decadent….. I wonder if Greggs has a plaque anywhere.

  • London – Central London – Roman Wall at St Alphage Garden

    London – Central London – Roman Wall at St Alphage Garden

    This stretch of Roman Wall is located next to the Tower of Elsing Spital, by what is now the road named London Wall.

    This is the listed building map of historic buildings in London, with the red line being the scheduling of the remains of Roman Wall that still stand (or where foundations are known to survive), a series of large and small fragments which show the size of early Londinium. This section of Roman Wall is near to the top of the image, a little closer to the Blackfriars end rather than the Tower of London end.

    Looking down from the aerial walkway, this would be a much busier scene in summer months with people eating their lunches or just taking some time to get outside in the relative peace and quiet of the surroundings.

    That’s Salter’s Hall in the background, now a large charitable institution, but previously one of the Livery Companies of the city. It’s a modernist style building which is in keeping with the nearby Barbican development in its post-war contemporary architecture, although it doesn’t fit quite as easily with the Roman wall.

    The plaque is now harder to read, but notes when this area was laid out as a public garden in 1872.

    Much of what is visible isn’t part of the Roman wall, although the foundations of the original structure are still there, but they were built on during the medieval period when it was being strengthened. The brick section on the far right of this photo is from 1477 when Ralph Jocelyn ordered substantial repairs to the wall, at that stage in a bad state in some sections, during the War of the Roses. He bravely raised taxes to fund this endeavour, as well as purchasing large quantities of bricks and lime.

    There was also a church, St Alphage, which backed onto this site and the former wall lines are marked on the ground. This church was constructed in the eleventh century, but was knocked down during the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

    Another Victorian stone, but it’s now nearly entirely unreadable, damaged by the decades of London smog, pollution and not helped by the bombing of the area during the Second World War.

    The medieval putlog holes are still visible where the wooden scaffolding was once placed against the structure.

    The rear of the wall is visible from the gardens of Salter’s Hall which are sometimes open to the public, but which were closed when I visited. The medieval brick additions, and the only stretch of crenellations along the wall which survive, are much more easily seen from this side. The reason that so much of this wall survived was due to it being incorporated into later buildings, although it was only after the bombing of the Second World War that it became quite so visible.

  • London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – Gordon Ramsay Burger at Harrods

    London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – Gordon Ramsay Burger at Harrods

    As someone who considers my occasional £20 per month Pret subscription as an arguably unnecessarily decadence, it’s not like me to pop to Harrods for lunch. Indeed, I don’t pop to Harrods for anything.

    After getting lost in the store (as a spoiler for someone who hasn’t been, the store is ridiculously big and maze-like), I found Gordon Ramsay’s burger restaurant on the fourth floor. To be fair, I did know it was on the fourth floor, but I still had to hunt around for it when I got to the right level. I had pre-booked as part of The Fork’s promotional offer which is really ridiculously generous, but which in short gave me £50 to spend here.

    Back to the restaurant, I really don’t like those tables by the rope in the above photo, that’s in the middle of the women’s clothing department, which doesn’t feel a great fit (excuse the pun). Fortunately, I wasn’t seated here, but was shown to a table in the main part of the restaurant and I suspect that these external seats are used only as a last resort. They should be better sheltered from the corridor in my view, but there we go.

    Service here was friendly, efficient and engaging from the start. There was an immediate welcome, my booking was found and I was shown to my table. The timing was well measured throughout and I was never left waiting for service. The training here is clearly professional and the staff were always engaging.

    This isn’t a cheap place to visit, although it’s also not off the scale in terms of the cost. There are burgers, hot dogs and salads, but although the hot dogs sounded tempting, I thought it appropriate to go for a burger. The restaurant only cooks them medium well or well done, so I went for the former but I would have preferred something more medium. There is an £80 Wagyu burger on the menu for those who want to lift their experience even more, or just if they want to spend a lot of money. I didn’t.

    That’s a very poor beer list and it transpired that they didn’t even have the Curious Brew, with a manager coming over to apologise that I had been able to order it. Although I accept that people don’t necessarily come here for beer, there’s no excuse to not have a couple of decent craft beer cans available on hand.

    The 1849 Premium Lager, which is made by the Bavarian brewer Hofmark Brauerei KG. It was perfectly acceptable and had clean flavours, a suitable middle of the road lager. Despite the fancy branding, this isn’t that exciting a drink though, although it was served at the appropriate chilled temperature.

    The meal was brought out promptly, after around 12 minutes. The portion sizes all veered towards the generous side and everything was at the appropriate hot temperature.

    The burger itself was nicely presented and the tomato was of a good quality, the pickles and onion added texture with the relish adding some extra flavour. There was some lettuce which never does much to anything. This was a nice burger which had a meaty flavour and was suitably seasoned, but it didn’t stand out as being anything beyond the sort of food I’ve had at decent pubs. I can’t fault the restaurant for serving a burger that I enjoyed, but it wasn’t quite as marvellous as I expected, but maybe my expectations were a bit high.

    The fries came with a lovely homemade ketchup and they were evenly salted, firm on the exterior and nicely seasoned. The onion rings weren’t that good at all though, they were the weak part of the meal. They were too doughy, the batter lacked flavour (they were beer battered, but I suspect they’ve used something like Greene King IPA) and the bottom onion ring was burnt. Personally I wouldn’t have had the Parmesan coating on them, but each to their own. They came with a pleasant chipotle ketchup, although the ranch dressing was a little strong in flavour for me and wasn’t like the ones I’ve had in the United States.

    My bill totalled £1.69 and it’s fair to say that I was pleased by that arrangement. I’m not sure I’d ever come here and pay full price as it’s all a bit too expensive, but for an experience at a Gordon Ramsay restaurant in Harrods the menu pricing felt reasonable. The food would be better served with a beer that complemented it better, and a rich stout here would have lifted things somewhat. Perhaps I shouldn’t view things from the prism of craft beer, but if a restaurant is going to do something, it should do it properly. The onion rings also weren’t really that good, which would be a disappointment if I had paid £9.50 for them.

    This was a rather pleasant way to spend New Year’s Eve lunchtime though and the dining environment was clean, comfortable and relaxed. The turnover of customers was quite swift, but I didn’t notice any customer being hurried and I was never rushed anywhere. I would though recommend against being seating in the aisle of the department store, that isn’t ideal and takes away somewhat from the experience, so I was glad they didn’t try and put me there. The staff engagement was high which made for a nicer visit and there were no issues with my £50 The Fork payment credit.

  • London – Central London – Tower of St Elsyng Spital

    London – Central London – Tower of St Elsyng Spital

    Located on London Wall, the road named after the Roman defensive wall, this is all that remains of St Elsyng Spital church. It was part of the structures built by William Elsyng, a wealthy London merchant, as a hospital in 1330 to help the poorest members of society in medieval London.

    Clicking on this image will make it larger and it’s the site in around 1900 and next to it, what there is today. Reconstruction following the Second World War saw much of this area swept away, but the remains of the church were kept. The landscape has changed substantially though, London Wall now ploughs through this part of London and the area has been opened up to the public. The little cursor on the map on the left is where the remains of the tower stand today.

    Through the central arch would have been the main part of the church, the choir and then the nave.

    The hospital section of the site was the first to be constructed, with the priory church being completed in 1340. This was later turned into a parish church in 1536, following the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Much of the rest of the site was damaged in 1541 and some of the buildings were turned into a private house, which all became part of Sion College in 1630. There was substantial damage caused by the Great Fire in 1666, but the College remained here until 1886 when they moved to a new site in Victoria.

    The cloisters and cemetery would have been off to the right, under what is now London Wall road. The church was damaged in a First World War air raid and part of it was reconstructed in 1919, but the nave was removed in 1923. This wasn’t an entirely destructive process in terms of the history, as the nave of the building only dated to between 1774 and 1777 when it was rebuilt as the old church was falling down, but they did keep the original tower. Following the demolition, the tower and porch were turned into a small church of its own, but this was in turn damaged during an air raid during the Second World War, with the area being comprehensively redesigned.

    The stone steps into the tower remain, although are gated off. The steps aren’t easily visible due to the assorted litter that has collected up here.

    There’s now a walkway to get a better view of the church and in the centre is where the stone steps come out.

    The remains of the church in their new post-war surroundings in what is a decent public space, with numerous interpretation boards explaining the history of the site. Although the medieval street plan has been lost here, the tower is now more visible than it would have been in previous centuries since all of the buildings around it have been removed. I’m sure that there have been many times in the past when planners thought that it would just be easier to remove this section, but it’s now an important part of the local landscape.

  • London – Central London – Postman’s Park

    London – Central London – Postman’s Park

    This park is a short walk from St. Paul’s Cathedral and was once three separate churchyards before being merged together in 1880 as a space that the public could use to exercise and relax. It’s a relatively sizeable space for such a central area of London, but it had long since struggled to deal with the number of burials that were needed at the site. With London’s central churchyards being not only full by the 1840s but also a dangerous health hazard where diseases spread, the idea was to open up cemeteries around the city (the Magnificent Seven) and turn sites such as this into public spaces.

    This map from the end of the nineteenth century also gives a clue to the reason for the park’s (named as the recreation ground) name, simply that it was commonly used by staff from the General Post Office.

    The park is made up of three different churchyards, those belonging to St Botolph’s Aldersgate church, Christ Church Greyfriars and St Leonard Foster Lane. Only the former is still standing, with Christ Church now being in ruins due to bomb damage during the Second World War and the third was lost in the Great Fire of 1666. Some of the ruins of the latter church remained until the nineteenth century, but they were destroyed during the construction of the General Post Office in the nineteenth century.

    The former Christ Church churchyard entrance.

    Looking across the park to St Botolph’s Aldersgate church.

    A rather large tree that has been here for some considerable time, with some graves which were once in the churchyard of St Botolph’s Aldersgate, but which were shoved against the wall in the late nineteenth century when the park opened.

    A rather lovely little water feature.

    The St Botolph’s Aldersgate church entrance to the park.

    Also in the park is the Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice.

  • London – Central London – Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice

    London – Central London – Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice

    Located in Postman’s Park and on the site of the former graveyard of St Botolph’s Aldersgate church is this memorial to those brave individuals who have died through acts of great self-sacrifice. This is the idea of George Frederic Watts, a painter and sculptor, who wanted the bravery of ordinary men, women and children to be remembered for generations to come. The memorial opened in 1900 and most of the tiles were produced by William De Morgan (later on Royal Doulton produced the tiles), but the project slowly ground to a halt and by 1931 only 53 of the planned 120 tiles were in use. The church has recently started adding more tiles again, bringing the original concept back to life.

    There was a memorial held in the church in December 1905, a year after Watts had died, which was attended by the Bishop of London. A statue of Watts was unveiled and the Bishop referred to the “humility of character and simplicity of life” of the former painter.

    Some of the names on the memorial, with some tragic stories amongst them.

  • Greater Anglia : Norwich to London Liverpool Street

    Greater Anglia : Norwich to London Liverpool Street

    I’m used to the journey from Norwich to London Liverpool Street, but it’s rare for me to be getting the 07:00 train as that’s normally an expensive commuter service. Today though, it was £12.50 which I thought was reasonable all things considered (namely how expensive some other Greater Anglia services are which are of a much shorter destination).

    Norwich railway station wasn’t packed with people, but there were a few services about to leave, including the service to Liverpool Lime Street, so it wasn’t entirely quiet.

    Here’s the London thunderbolt that would hopefully get me into the city at 08:51. I boarded and had a carriage to myself, which was rather lovely. I then had a woman come up to me and she said that I looked strong (can’t fault her logic there) and could I open her bottle of water for her. This sort of scenario isn’t ideal, as if I can’t open it then I look ridiculous. Fortunately, I gave the impression of huge strength since I opened the bottle immediately. That’s a decent start to a journey.

    What wasn’t a decent start was seeing that the train was marked as delayed, with no announcements made about it. I’m not sure what caused this, as the signs soon lost their delayed status and the train was ready to rock and roll at 07:00 as expected. The announcements made by the staff were all friendly and informative, with a guard checking tickets. This process didn’t exactly take him long and to my slight disappointment (as I like watching drama unfold) everyone seemed to have a valid ticket.

    Here’s the packed carriage. I also managed to sit at the only block of seats on the train that didn’t have working power, so had to move to the seats opposite. This wasn’t the only technical problem on board, as the shutter at the cafe had broken and jammed, so the staff had to walk up and down the train with the trolley. The service though arrived into London on time, so no complaints there. It didn’t get much busier either, just a handful of people on the entire train.

    This is London Liverpool Street at commuter time, but on a morning between Christmas and New Year’s Day, which is perhaps never going to be packed with hordes of travellers. Nonetheless, it was still quieter than I expected.

    And outside London Liverpool Street station, with a calmness in the air.

  • London – Islington (Borough of) – Mikkeller Bar (Exmouth Market)

    London – Islington (Borough of) – Mikkeller Bar (Exmouth Market)

    There are now two Mikkeller bars in London, there’s one in Shoreditch, and there’s now this one at Exmouth Market (named after the Exmouth Arms Pub) which isn’t too far from King’s Cross. This visit is from early November, when a few of us gathered here before we went to meet Scott at King’s Cross railway station, which was very kind of us to meet him off his train. Mikkeller was founded in 2006 and it now has something of a global reputation, once a cuckoo brewery which brewed wherever it could, but now with its own locations which include this bar.

    The beer selection is chalked up behind the bar, but they’ve also got it listed on Untappd as well which is handy. They do have beers from other breweries, but they inevitably have a focus on the beers that they’ve brewed themselves. It’s inevitably all very on-trend, not just the beer selection, but also the location and the service style. I had absolutely no complaints about the balance of the beer selection either, there was an excellent range of different styles available.

    The food options at the bar, and the company said when opening that:

    “This is not a restaurant with a brewery, it is a brewery with a restaurant”

    I liked the menu, which was quite simple, but had some interesting options on it, including the ‘Ndjua Scotch Egg and the Nordic Summer Salad, a very firm nod towards the origins of the brewery. Decent mix of vegetarian and meat options as well, it’s actually quite a tempting little selection.

    I had three one thirds here, with all the drinks being brewed by Mikkeller. I went for the Can’t Say No 2 U (a stout), the Heliosphere (an IPA) and the Parasol Paradiso (a fruited sour). That last drink, and the lighter coloured one in the photos above, was beautifully decadent, a nicely balanced sour with strong flavours of mango and passion-fruit. The drinks were all served perfectly, in smart little branded glasses and everything was at the appropriate slightly chilled temperature.

    The venue was relatively busy, but seemed clean and organised. The service was attentive and polite, with the bar staff being knowledgeable about the beer options. If I’m being overly critical, the noise volume was a little higher than ideal, but it’s a busy bar in London and so perhaps that’s not an entire surprise (although Goose Island have better acoustics as far as I’m concerned). The on-line reviews are nearly all positive and glowing, which isn’t unexpected, and I’d quite happily return here and recommend it to others. All really rather lovely.