Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Tag: London

  • London – Waltham Forest (Borough of) – The Drum (Being Closed by Wetherspoons)

    London – Waltham Forest (Borough of) – The Drum (Being Closed by Wetherspoons)

    I wrote about this pub last year, it’s been operated by JD Wetherspoon since 1986 and is one of the older pubs in their estate that’s still open.

    Drum Sale Document

    However, as can be seen at the above PDF, the company is getting rid of it and it’s apparently now under offer. It seems a shame to sell the freehold of a pub that they’ve operated for 35 years, but perhaps they’re opening something else nearby or there’s a localised problem that they just can’t fix. In terms of running a pub, I can’t think of a harder challenge of taking on a JD Wetherspoon venue after they’ve sold it, as the customer base is going to be hard to please given what they’ve become used to.

  • London – Westminster (Borough of) – Victoria Railway Station (Unknown Warrior)

    London – Westminster (Borough of) – Victoria Railway Station (Unknown Warrior)

    I’ve walked through Victoria railway station in London on probably hundreds of occasions, but until last week, I’d never noticed this plaque at the end of platform 8. It reads:

    “The body of the British unknown warrior arrived at platform 8 at 8.32pm on the 10th November 1920 and lay here overnight before interment at Westminster Abbey on 11th November 1920”.

    © IWM Q 31492 (copyright of the Imperial War Museum)

    I can’t find a photo at the Imperial War Museums collection of the body at the railway station, but this is from the following day at Westminster Abbey. As an aside, it’s an interesting way to store a body….

    Every year on 10 November, there’s a small Remembrance ceremony held by the plaque to note the sacrifice made by so many during the First World War and there’s more about the whole selection and transportation of the body at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unknown_Warrior. It was a really beautiful way of giving some comfort to families and friends of those soldiers whose burial place was unknown that their loved one could have been honoured in this way.

  • Greater Anglia : London Liverpool Street to Norwich

    Greater Anglia : London Liverpool Street to Norwich

    This was the end of my little trek around the country that has taken place over recent weeks, the Greater Anglia operated train from London Liverpool Street to Norwich. As can be seen with the poor quality of the photos that I took last Friday, I think I had rather given up with trying to document anything more than the basics here. I was surprised to get a cheap fare for this journey, as it was a commuter service, but that at least avoided me needing to wait for the 21:30 evening service which I often get, as time can really drag waiting for that when wanting to get home.

    I got myself a table seat and everything worked as expected, such as the train itself and the power points, which were the only two things that I really needed to work. The train was at seating capacity and there were some customers who were sitting on the floor near to the doors, so it’s unclear why the rail company was issuing cheap fares for this service. I am pleased that they were, but I suspect they’ll be removing that option soon enough now they can see how popular the rail service is at this time. The whole health thing over the last eighteen months has perhaps put commuters off coming into London, but that seems to be coming to an end now.

    There was not much of interest during the journey for me to comment on, everything ran to schedule and the train seemed clean and organised. I didn’t see a guard during the journey, but there are ticket barriers at every stop along the route, so in theory it would be hard to fare evade. For the price of £12.50, I thought that this was a perfectly comfortable service and that meant I arrived in Norwich at a reasonable time ready for what I consider to be an extended stay in the city over the next couple of weeks.

  • London – Hammersmith and Fulham (Borough of) – Holiday Inn Express Hammersmith

    London – Hammersmith and Fulham (Borough of) – Holiday Inn Express Hammersmith

    This is my second visit to this hotel (it seems I couldn’t be bothered to write up the first visit) although it’s the first now that lockdown has come to some sort of end. Located next to the Plough & Harrow pub which is operated by JD Wetherspoon, it’s about a six minute walk or so to either Hammersmith station or to Ravenscourt Park station. I got this night courtesy of IHG’s reward scheme, which has been rather generous this year.

    The room, all brand standard, clean and tidy. I’m not entirely convinced that desks that size are entirely ideal, but it suffices and there are plenty of power points around the room.

    The view from my window, a bit of a construction site, but there was no noise from it. There were more internal noise problems of doors slamming, something which wasn’t entirely ideal.

    Well, it has been known…..

    The welcome drink and the choice of beers was adequate, but I’m content with this Goose Island option. I’m not sure for what reason this drink seems to now be so commonplace in IHG and Accor hotels, but I’m not disappointed that it is.

    Some of the breakfast selection, all of which is included in the room rate.

    And the rest of it. All back to self-service, as last time I visited there were just bacon and sausage rolls which had to be taken back to the room.

    The breakfast area is large, clean and modern, being use as a bar and restaurant in the evening. Plenty of power points dotted around here as well. I was perfectly content with the bacon, which was crispy and slightly burnt (which is how I think it should always be served) and the other breakfast ingredients. They’re not hugely decadent, but it’s a free breakfast offering and there’s a limit to what’s viable here. I went down at around 07:00 and it wasn’t busy, with the signs around the hotel saying that breakfast only really gets busy after 09:00.

    I had a look at the reviews of the hotel, and they’re adequate, nothing overly positive, but nothing particularly concerning either although they’re oddly much more complimentary on TripAdvisor. It seems that they had a debacle last month, judging by a heap of negativity, with a fire alarm being set off overnight by a drunk guest. The negativity seems to relate to that the staff didn’t know what to do, which really is not an ideal situation and that would have annoyed me too. Otherwise though, I didn’t find any reviews that amused me, which was a little disappointing.

    The staff at the hotel were professional, friendly and helpful, so there was nothing wrong with the welcome. The hotel is quite reasonably priced for reward nights, so I’ll likely return here again, as well as being relatively close to central London and also not inconvenient for Heathrow as it’s near to the Piccadilly line.

  • National Express : Hull to London Victoria Coach Station

    National Express : Hull to London Victoria Coach Station

    I left the hotel before 07:00 to get back to London which wasn’t ideal, but a nice sunrise.

    The beginning of the near six hour coach journey, the moderately beautiful Hull Interchange bus and railway station.

    The signage in the bus station was bloody dreadful and it was no surprise there were passengers seeking help from others. It seems to me completely idiotic for this to be the only sign for National Express, which doesn’t even have the correct bus number for the journey I was taking anyway. The overheard screens were displaying incorrect information, just to add to the confusion. If anyone misses the coach, they’d be within their rights to complain to National Express for this in my (rather random) view….

    Having had years of practice at finding the right place to wait for coaches/trains/buses/ferries/planes/etc, I was sitting in the right place for the coach.

    I was able to get my favourite emergency exit row seat. I accept it’s not as exciting as getting the exit row on an aircraft, but it still offers more leg room so I was happy. I was slightly humoured at the elderly couple who were determined to get on first and were edging their luggage closer to the door in the coach station. They then realised that their luggage was setting off the automatic doors so they were getting cold, with the husband then moving it all about again, but carefully blocking anyone else for daring to get in front of them. I’m unsure why they did that, since they sat in a random place midway down the coach, but whatever makes them happy.

    The USB charger on my side didn’t work, but fortunately the coach was never that busy and so there was no-one next to me. The bus stopped at Lincoln and Nottingham and I had expected it to get busy at the latter stop, but the coach wasn’t ever more than half-full.

    I tried to take a photo going over the Humber Bridge, but I don’t think I’ll be entering it into any artistic or photographic competitions.

    And there’s the coach having arrived into London Victoria coach station, around ten minutes ahead of schedule. This was another efficient service and a bargain at £7.60 compared to how much a rail journey would have been. There were no issues en route, other than for what appeared to be a drugged up passenger shouting and swearing down the phone to someone, but all that adds to the excitement for me, so that was handy.

    Anyway, other than for the usual poor signage from National Express, all very efficient and the drivers were polite and helpful.

  • National Express : London Victoria Coach Station to Hull

    National Express : London Victoria Coach Station to Hull

    After the delights of a weekend in London, there was then the thought of the slightly less delightful six hour coach journey to Hull. The waiting area at Victoria Coach Station was packed when I got there, which wasn’t entirely ideal as I noted to myself just how hot it was.

    Fortunately, a seat became available soon enough and that fan at the back (only one, the other was broken) helped slightly. This coach station facility is hopelessly inadequate for the number of passengers, but there’s no obvious way that they can improve the situation. There has been talk about moving it to a new location, but its site near London Victoria is quite handy. That section off the left was once the Megabus customer service desk, but they’ve moved to a slightly bigger bit at the rear of this photo and I note that more Flixbus services are emerging here now. I suspect that the coach market will become quite a competitive one in the years ahead.

    The service before mine was going to Norwich and the driver came over to do a final check to see if there were any more passengers for his coach, but there weren’t. The driver said to a member of customer service staff that “I doubt that anyone here has even heard of Thetford”, but I decided not to get involved with that…

    I was the first to board the National Express Thunderbolt service to Hull, which was stopping off at Nottingham and Lincoln en route.

    The lovely clean coach. Everything seems to be pretty much in order, although the power points weren’t working.

    I got my usual emergency exit row seat, slightly desirable as it has more legroom. The coach was nearly full to Nottingham, but nearly empty after it. The passenger next to me had been to Chelsea Flower Show for the day, spending £85 to get in. I had no idea that there was so much cost to see flowers….. I didn’t envy her getting up at 2am to get the morning service into London, just to go back in the afternoon. She mentioned to me that the driver had run a couple of red lights, but I hadn’t been paying attention (and it wouldn’t matter if I had, there’s a limited amount that can be seen from the back of the coach) and so that might not have been true.

    And a few minutes early, here we are into Hull. The driver was friendly and the service was efficient and very keenly priced, costing me £9 which was entirely reasonable as far as I was concerned. Odd little quirks aside, the National Express service is definitely improving and I like that they’ve scrapped the £1 ticketing charge for those who have signed up to a free account with them. I’d rather get the train as it’s quicker, but in terms of the cost, this was an excellent service.

  • London – Westminster (Borough of) – Oxford Street – Hard Rock Cafe (2nd Visit)

    London – Westminster (Borough of) – Oxford Street – Hard Rock Cafe (2nd Visit)

    This is another venue that I’ve been to before, but The Fork gave me £20 promotional credit to spend and this is an ideal place to spend that as there aren’t that many options.

    I was less than excited to discover that there was a live band on (no disrespect to them, I’m sure they were marvellous, it’s just not entirely my thing) and I noticed that the three sets of customers in front of me all asked to be seated away from it in an area that was closed. The Hard Rock staff are endlessly professional and managed to work that situation out for all of those customers. It’s a reminder perhaps that you can’t really mix a band and people eating nearly next to them, even in a Hard Rock cafe. Fortunately, they stopped banging about shortly after I was seated, there was some technical issue or something. Back to the service, it’s impeccable, but that’s within the brand standard and I wasn’t surprised at the high level of engagement.

    The beer option I went for had run out, but the staff member offered some recommendations. I went for the acceptable Camdens Hells lager which is drinkable. I noticed that half pints were nowhere near half the price of a full pint, which does slightly annoy me (it’s a rare situation now) and CAMRA campaign against that. However, it’s fair to note that Hard Rock Cafe aren’t really aiming to be listed in the Good Beer Guide, so that situation is unlikely to change. They really should be doing a better selection of craft beer though, that’s within their brand remit I’d have thought.

    The chicken tenders, all nicely done and there seems little more for me to add about this as it’s hardly high end cuisine. However, I needed to get to my hotel, so something simple worked for me. The dining environment is very comfortable and Hard Rock Cafe have plenty of musically related things on the walls to look at. The customer base was quite formal, but they seemed to mostly be hotel customers and the prices to stay here aren’t cheap.

    Anyway, the meal cost me £2 which was the automatic tip, so that worked out as far as I was concerned. And The Fork have sent me more promotional credit (which is very kind of them) which means I’ll likely be back within the next few weeks. I’d recommend going here, and book using The Fork does give 50% off eating here most of the time, which makes the prices entirely reasonable.

  • London – Westminster (Borough of) – Brewdog Paddington (2nd Visit)

    London – Westminster (Borough of) – Brewdog Paddington (2nd Visit)

    I’ve visited this Brewdog before, but I thought that it seemed an ideal place to spend a couple of hours before readying myself for a near six hour long coach journey to Hull. I’m not thrilled at the thought of the coach journey, although the price was entirely agreeable which is why I opted for it over the more decadently priced train.

    The bar was nearly empty, which meant that I had a choice of seats around the venue, but there’s usually more drama being located near to the bar. There were also power points and a nice chill from the air conditioning, so that location was perfect for me. I ordered via the app to save the long walk to the bar…..

    As an aside and since it was so good, I went for a third of the Dessert in a Can – Mocha Ice Cream Fudge Cake from the brilliant Amundsen Brewery. It’s on draft and isn’t in a can here so the name is slightly confusing (although there is a canned version which obviously makes more sense) and it was beautifully decadent and rich. I didn’t need to buy anything else during my near two hours in the pub (stretching a third to last that long isn’t ideal, but it wasn’t cheap, so I felt that balanced out fine) as sipping that and getting on with other bits of work worked out nicely. The drink was rich, quite sweet and the taste of fudge was certainly there, definitely a liquid pudding in a glass. Pleasant flavour which wasn’t too strong and a long aftertaste which didn’t readily dissipate.

    For anyone who wants a relaxing and relatively peaceful afternoon in Paddington, I can think of far worse places…..

  • London – Hounslow (Borough of) – Ibis Budget Hounslow

    London – Hounslow (Borough of) – Ibis Budget Hounslow

    I’ve been in London this weekend to have a rather lovely time seeing Liam and his wonderful two boys, a really nice day on the cable cars, the ArcelorMittal Orbit (which we have to go back to as their slide was a bit jammed yesterday), Downing Street, the Houses of Parliament, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, M&Ms World, the Lego Store, the London Transport Museum and about 62 trains. There weren’t many cheap accommodation options, so the best value that I could find was the Ibis Budget in Hounslow.

    The usual basic room, which seems to be the older design, judging by the lovely new set-up at hotels such as Ibis Budget Whitechapel. It was very clean, no issues there. The hotel also isn’t currently offering daily cleaning of the rooms and they’re claiming Covid-19 restrictions, but that is now becoming rarer in hotels within Accor and other chains and is perhaps not entirely believeable now. If they’re short of staff or saving money, I’d personally rather that they were honest about that.

    The main public area on the ground floor, with the staff being friendly and engaging, which seems to often be the case at Ibis Budget hotels. There are no free hot drinks in the rooms at this Accor brand, but there is free tea at reception and there’s chargeable coffee.

    The breakfast buffet arrangement, which only costs a few pounds and I find really quite good value. There’s cereals, jams, Nutella, ham, cheese, yoghurts, orange juice, coffees, porridge and so on, basic but perfectly acceptable quality.

    I was very brave and used the toast machine, although I’m always slightly nervous I’ll set the hotel on fire. All went well actually with the whole breakfast arrangement and I didn’t break anything which is always a positive way to start the day. It was quite quiet in the breakfast area, but I did go down early on both days.

    The breakfast arrangement I went for, or at least, part of it. The coffee was of an unusually high standard, I very much liked that.

    The reviews of the hotel are mixed, although the staff and location are well reviewed. It’s rated a lot better for solo travellers than it is was friends and families, which is entirely understandable. One guest left a negative review, but I liked the hotel’s reply of:

    “I believed that the fact that you kept extending your stay on numerous occasions meant you were satisfied with the hotel”. It’s a fair point from the management……

    I had expected a weekend at Ibis Budget to be a little louder than it was, but there was no internal noise or disturbances at all. Being under the flightpath of London Heathrow was more annoying at 06:00 though, my sympathies to the local residents as the aircraft do indeed make one hell of a noise. I liked this hotel, it’s a short walk away from Hounslow Central underground station and the staff were friendly. I’d happily stay here again if it was competitively priced.

  • National Express : Bradford to London Victoria Coach Station

    National Express : Bradford to London Victoria Coach Station

    Time to return to London and although I would have preferred to get the train, the National Express fare was only £5 from Bradford into the centre of London, so I went with that for a journey that was estimated to take 5 hours 20 minutes. Above is the bus section of Bradford Interchange and the signage is, if I’m being honest, organised by an idiot. The data sent to Google Maps is wrong on where National Express coaches depart from and the signage is terrible. However, National Express have put on their web-site that their coaches depart from Stands T, U and V, although not on the tickets themselves.

    For those who didn’t search the National Express web-site, here’s the ultra clear signage stuck on a window. Anyway, my muttering about the lack of signage aside, the coach turned up ten minutes early and at Stand T, so I was ready and waiting for it. Until 2019, there was a National Express ticket office at the bus station, but that and the National Express customer service staff have now gone.

    The coach did get much busier, although not until Leeds which is when more customers got on.

    I had the emergency exit seat, with the luxury of having both seats to myself for the entire journey.

    The only real excitement during the journey was when the driver said on the tannoy that the National Express control room had contacted him and said that the company had accidentally left someone at a service station on the M1. There must be a very interesting back story to that which unfortunately we weren’t told, but it meant that we had to stop off Tibshelf Services to pick her up and drop her off in Milton Keynes. It delay the coach, but not badly.

    The driver also said that he intended to miss out the stops of Golders Green and Marble Arch in London so that the coach could arrive on time. He urged anyone who needed to get off at those stops to go and talk to him. There was then a little procession of customers tripping down the aisle of a fast moving coach going to tell the driver that they had planned to get off at those stops. The conclusion of that was that we stopped at Golders Green and Marble Arch…..

    This is really nicely written signage, I liked it.

    As for the coach, it was easy to make my seat area nice and cold, with the seats being clean and well presented. The cleaners hadn’t cleaned the seat trays, so I decided against using those, but the toilet was clean. There were USB connections which worked well, so my phone remained fully charged.

    And safely into Victoria Coach Station in London, only twenty minutes late.

    For the fare charged, this really was excellent value for money, a clean and comfortable coach which arrived sort of on time and with a friendly and engaging driver. All very nice, even though it’s not a train.