Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: London

  • London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – National Army Museum (Ruhleben Fighting City)

    London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – National Army Museum (Ruhleben Fighting City)

    This sign at the National Army Museum is from the area of Berlin that the British used to train for any attack on the city from the Soviets. The sign dates from around 1985 and the site was made to look like a city centre, even with some train carriages to add to the realism. The United States military had their own mock-up city nearby, known as Doughboy City. Ruhleben has survived today and is used by the German police for shooting practice.

    If the Cold War had taken place and fighting had broken out in Berlin, the troops that trained here would have been the ones who were called into action. Today, the area is a little more mundane, there’s a McDonald’s and an Aldi nearby. There’s a lot to be said for peacetime….

    https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fighting_City#/media/Datei:Fighting_city_ruhleben_Berliner_Polizei.jpg

    And here’s what it looks like today. Well, in 2018 I think.

  • London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – Brompton Cemetery (Richard William Shimes)

    London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – Brompton Cemetery (Richard William Shimes)

    This grave in Brompton Cemetery commemorates the life of Richard William Shimes, the son of William and Edith Elizabeth Shimes (nee Green), who lived in Chelsea, London. Richard was born in the final quarter of 1918. The 1921 census won’t be released until the beginning of 1922 and Richard doesn’t appear on the 1939 register, perhaps because he was already in the military. Edith appears as a housewife, living at 297 Guinness Buildings in Chelsea with her son Charles who was a gas-fitter and another person whose details have been redacted.

    Richard joined the RAF as an aircraftman and his service number was 534975. He died on 20 March 1941 at the age of 22 and was buried on 28 March 1941.

    And there’s little more story I can find to tell on this one, he’s even listed on one site as one of the few airmen that further information isn’t available on. Until his military records are released, this grave feels just that bit anonymous. Unless I’ve missed something obvious (which is always highly likely).

  • London – Brent (Borough of) – Wembley – JJ Moons

    London – Brent (Borough of) – Wembley – JJ Moons

    I have to confess to another little trip to JD Wetherspoon for breakfast, since it’s cheap on Mondays to Wednesdays and also much cheaper than anything that the Wembley Ibis was offering.

    I last visited this pub in 2012, so have managed to forget everything about it. It’s a much larger pub that I expected (I’m not sure why I expected anything since I’d forgotten everything about it, but I digress) and it wasn’t particularly busy either. The interior is all inoffensive and clean and JD Wetherspoon opened here in 1989, so this is one of their earlier projects. Before it was used as a licensed premises, this was the shop which was run by William Perring & Co Ltd, House Furnishers.

    Another photo of the interior. The staff here seemed friendly and welcoming, so it was a comfortable environment. I don’t know if they still do it, but I know a few years ago that surge pricing was in operation here, so prices were higher on match and event days, since it’s near to Wembley Stadium. It must be challenging running a pub like this so close to Wembley, as the volume of customers would be potentially huge in a short period of time.

    The pub has this display about John D Barrow, a cosmologist who was born and educated locally. He died a few weeks ago, on 26 September 2020, aged 67.

    And the £2.99 traditional breakfast, which was all as expected. Not more to add about these, they’re cheap and cheerful, with the quality of the ingredients being OK.

    So, a perfectly nice pub, and they’ve also handily made sure that there are plenty of power points for customers, which is always useful (well, for me). Friendly staff, clean environment and a suitably interesting range of beers.

  • London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – Ibis Styles Kensington (Fifth Visit)

    London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – Ibis Styles Kensington (Fifth Visit)

    If my blog had a higher readership then I probably wouldn’t post about this hotel, but it hasn’t, so I will. The reason is that this Ibis Styles is offering continually cheap prices, whereas their fellow Accor hotels are charging more again. It seems they’re keen to fill the hotel, whereas other hotels are trying to stabilise pricing, but I don’t know. Either way, this is what I think is my fifth visit to this hotel and I’m hoping that these lower prices continue.

    I booked a single room, but it was again upgraded to a double room. I’ve still yet to get the same room twice in my game of room bingo that no-one else is going to be interested in. The room isn’t overly large, but it’s clean and comfortable. The bathrooms in this hotel are generally small, but the rooms have been carved out of former residential properties which didn’t used to have shower facilities in every room and space is at a premium.

    The Tiger was the welcome drink I went for (I won’t tut again that the hotel could do more here), which isn’t high on my list of favourites, but it adds some variety to proceedings. There’s a rather more decadent kettle in this room than in the other ones….

    My room was on the third floor which offered some quite decent views, mainly of pigeons flying about.

    The basic breakfast is included and hasn’t much changed over recent weeks, it’s all acceptable given the low room rate. This sort of set-up is quite simple for guests and the hotel, it’s a fair compromise to the whole breakfast arrangement.

    Anyway, although I’ve written about this hotel before and can’t add much, it’s served me well over recent weeks. It’s a short walk from Earl’s Court underground station and is near to numerous shops and restaurants. There’s a 24-hour reception and a bar area which has a basic range of drinks, crisps, noodles and the like. And the staff here have always been friendly, so although I haven’t had any challenging problems for them, I suspect they’d be happy to resolve them.

  • London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – National Army Museum (Captain Sir Tom Moore)

    London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – National Army Museum (Captain Sir Tom Moore)

    The museum is quite proud of this new addition to their collections, an official painting of Sir Tom Moore (or Captain Tom) by the artist Alexander Chamberlin, himself a former British army officer. Moore became famous in 2020 for his fund-raising efforts in walking 100 laps of his garden to raise a little money for the NHS Charities Together. This attempt to raise a little money ended up being just under £40 million, perhaps slightly more than he had initially anticipated. Moore, who is 100 years old, joined the British Army in 1940 and served in India and Burma.

    Moore said about the unveiling of this painting in August 2020:

    “It is wonderful to know that the portrait will be displayed at the National Army Museum to connect the public with this history, and I hope it continues to help tell the history of the British Army for decades, maybe even centuries, to come.”

    All rather lovely.

  • London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – Brompton Cemetery (Geoffrey Donovan Hadley)

    London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – Brompton Cemetery (Geoffrey Donovan Hadley)

    Located at Brompton Cemetery, this is the grave of Geoffrey Donovan Hadley. Geoffrey was born in Brixton (then in Surrey) in 1893 and he served in the 4th Dragoon Guards (Royal Irish), with service number D/7987. His sign-up papers have survived, he was working as a clerk when he volunteered to join the army, but this was before the First World War, on 19 March 1913 having completed his medical on 17 March 1913 and he went to Seaforth Barracks near Liverpool on 20 March 1913.

    The records give lots of information about what he looked like, he was 5″7′ tall, he was 11.6 stone in weight, his waist was 35 inches, he had blue eyes and brown hair. He was Church of England, he had a pulse of 100 and he had a linear scar on his face, on the left-side of his forehead.

    He died on 12 November 1914 at the age of 21 at the First London General Hospital in Camberwell, so he must have been injured on the battlefield and transported home although the records don’t give information about this. He was in the military for a total of one year and 249 days, which was carefully worked out by the authorities. His next of kin was listed as his father Edwin James Hadley and his step-mother, Mary J Hadley, who lived at 37 Comyn Road in Clapham, a residential property which is still there today.

  • London – Tower Hamlets (Borough of) – Limehouse – Craft Beer Co

    London – Tower Hamlets (Borough of) – Limehouse – Craft Beer Co

    I’ve been to a couple of other pubs in this small chain, notably the Brighton and Clerkenwell ones and I’m going to make an effort to tick all them off my list over the next few weeks. This one is located pretty much under Limehouse DLR and railway station, indeed the rail bridge is visible in the above photo.

    I arrived shortly after it opened at 17:00, which is a little later than before the current crisis when it opened earlier on in the afternoon.

    The pub was formerly known as the Railway Tavern and was operated by Charrington’s, a larger brewery who became part of Bass.

    The beer menu, which is different to what is listed as the latest one on the web-site. On checking, this is because they haven’t updated their web-site since July, which isn’t perhaps ideal. Anyway, there’s a decent list of beer styles here, although a few of these beers aren’t particularly well reviewed, many are from smaller breweries and so it’s good to support them. The Mexican Cake which I had a couple of weeks is on there, but although it’s a quite brilliant beer (one of the best that I’ve had), I felt I’ve tried it enough in 2020 at that price.The Pentuple from Hoppin’ Frog sounds amazing, but it’s nearly £30 per pint and I wasn’t feeling that decadent.

    I went for a third of the Strip and Drift from Polly’s, a small brewery in Wales, and the staff member apologised that she had over-poured it, although the pub didn’t charge for that. This wasn’t a problem for me. It’s not my normal beer style, but experimentation is the key as I’m sure someone once said, and this was delightful. I’m not used to the flavours in this kind of beer, but there was a sweetness, pineapple (which isn’t in there and no-one else noticed, so I’m likely just wrong on that), citrus and even some biscuit. OK, I think I’m going overboard here again, but there was a decadence and richness to this that was rather lovely.

    The staff member was friendly and engaging throughout, although she got a bit behind as she was trying offer table service, which meant that two tables walked out without ordering. I felt that the atmosphere was relaxed though and I felt really welcome, this is definitely one of my favourite pubs in this area. It’s not a large pub and Monday is the day that they don’t serve food, so I imagine that it’s often quite hard to get a table. It was also clear that many of the customers were regulars, but the pub didn’t have a cliquey feel.

    So, I liked this pub and I very much like this chain. It might not be the cheapest, but I like the innovative choice of beers that they have. Nice.

  • London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – National Army Museum (The King’s Man Film Set)

    London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – National Army Museum (The King’s Man Film Set)

    This post is mostly just photos and it’s of the set of the King’s Man film, which is the third film in the Kingsman series and also the prequel, just to make things more confusing. The film is meant to be released in February 2021, although I’m not sure that anyone knows what is happening with the world of cinema at the moment. The film was initially meant to be released in late 2019, so the production team are probably quite fed up with the whole thing at the moment.

    Anyway, it was evident from the displays at the National Army Museum that a lot of attention and care has gone into the clothing and sets, they’re detailed even when standing close up. And now that I’ve seen these props in real life, I might actually watch the film. I have seen the first in the series, but not the second, with this prequel being from the time of the First World War and the run-up to that.

     

  • London – Tower Hamlets (Borough of) – Canary Wharf – Brewdog

    London – Tower Hamlets (Borough of) – Canary Wharf – Brewdog

    Carrying on with my theme of working around the Brewdog pubs of the UK, this is their outlet at Canary Wharf. As may be visible from the photo, their rolling shutter was broken and so one of their staff had managed to get underneath to get in, but it was impossible for anyone else. This did mean that the inside of the pub was closed, but they could serve customers with the staff getting in and out via the fire escape.

    So, this was the limit of the Brewdog seating, this covered external area which was actually rather comfortable. There were a couple of other customers during the time that I was here, but a surprisingly small number of customers who tried to get in. This can’t be a good time for Brewdog at Canary Wharf even if they could open up properly.

    The Velvet Vengeance is Brewdog’s own beer and I’ve never had this one before. Poured badly and in a glass that was slightly chipped at the top, it wasn’t a tour de force from the staff. But, they were clearly in trying circumstances and they were unfailingly polite. There were tastes of chocolate and biscuits I thought, with it all being smooth, although not quite as rich as I had expected. Still decent though and at the appropriate slightly chilled temperature.

    So, this was all perfectly OK, although it’s not quite the visit that I had expected and there are of course no photos of the interior. I’m sure that I’ll have chance to pop in again at some point in the future though.

  • London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – National Army Museum (Note Written in Blood)

    London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – National Army Museum (Note Written in Blood)

    Well, this is cheery, a note written in 1810 by Joseph Fenwick in his own blood. The note reads “I am shot thro the body and arms – for God’s sake send me a surgeon, English if possible. If I do not recover God bless you all”. Unfortunately, Joseph died shortly afterwards.

    The note was written to Colonel Richard Blunt and this note was given to the National Army Museum by his grandson, Lieutenant-Colonel G E E Blunt. Fenwick had been wounded at Chamusca, in Portugal, whilst fighting for the 3rd Foot Regiment (the Buffs) in the Peninsular War.