Walk: Rockin' in the West End

I had to be up in the morning.. uhh.. Laurence Summers and the 45+ Not Grumpy Old Londoners were headed on a new walk, Rockin' in the West End! Got myself out of bed with a sigh, dug out the summer clothes, including a U2 t-shirt.. it certainly promised to be t-shirt weather! Didn't go for a skirt.. the legs are not yet summer-ready, and I didn't leave myself time, in the end, to make them so. I did leave slightly later than intended - but still made it before he left - he does hang around for 15 minutes, for latecomers. And TBH, I was glad not to have been hanging around with him in the sun for that time - it was, as they say, scorchio!

As he said, we'd be more strolling than walking - and we stayed in the shade, mostly. Crikey, what a difference from yesterday, never mind the rest of the week.. our walk took us straight down onto Charing Cross Road, where we passed that marvellous installation, just south of Tottenham Court Road Station - I didn't think to take a photo there, being, frankly, too fascinated with the pictures of Star Wars spaceships drifting through the image. We were, of course, headed to Denmark Street, with its numerous musical associations - and it so happens that the installation seems to have another entrance there! So I snapped off a quick one:

Anyway, we positioned ourselves outside Regent Sounds, which used to be a recording studio, but has now morphed into a guitar shop:

And wouldn't you know it, as we were stood there, one of the workers came out and produced a list of all the famous people who have recorded there. In fact, he started to read us the list.. gave up about halfway through, and just hit the highlights. Wow, huh? Pity about the bloke who popped out after him, offering to sell us merchandise - nobody was as interested in him. But it's good to know they have it, if you need it.

As we went around, Laurence's audience were as vocal as he was, sharing their experiences - not surprising, considering the importance that people attach to the music they love. My personal association with the area dates from when I was based at an office around here - which, as it happened, we passed. Now, I've noticed the frieze on the cinema next door before - what I didn't realise is that it depicts the arts!

There's some dispute over the origin of the name! ;-)

Damn, I could have used one about then..

We stopped outside the famous Ronnie Scott's:

and saw some Pride:

Chinatown baked in the heat, which increased as we went around:

As usual, we went for lunch afterwards - unusually, however, nowhere had been booked! He took us to Caffe Inn - where they were a bit nonplussed to see this group of eight descend on them. We weren't sure, at first, whether you could have a full meal here - but you can, and although menus aren't left on the tables, they do have them. What they had left out at the counter didn't appeal to me, and I had a ham and cheese melt - which was pretty light, just what I needed in that heat. I also didn't think they did wine, until I spotted the bottles behind the counter - so I ordered a bottle of "light and crispy" pinot grigio, to share. And things looked up - especially with a fascinating chat about travel. Ah yes, been there, bought the guide books.. our meal was a bit fraught, however, what with constant mistakes with the orders: but hey, it all got sorted in the end. I wouldn't be rushing back, though.

Afterwards, we repaired to the nearby Ye Grapes:

where more wine, and much excellent conversation, was had before we braved the heat again. Sadly, I dunno when I'll next be with them - he doesn't seem to be doing a walk in two weeks' time, and apparently is only doing one Saturday walk next month, which I can't make. So we'll have to try and coordinate for August..

This evening, I was supposed to be having my monthly get-together with my ex-work colleagues, too - at The Lucas Arms - but two couldn't make it, and the other two of us decided to wait for next month, and do it properly. A pity, but I appreciate the chance to have a rest..

Tomorrow, back with the Crick Crack Club, for Dauntless - Grace O' Malley, Pirate Queen, at the British Museum. AKA Granuaile, she was a real person.. the pirate queen of the West of Ireland, who did one better than Mary, Queen of Scots, and actually did get to meet Elizabeth I! This one isn't told by Clare Murphy, though - it's Debs Newbold. 

On Monday, taking myself off to see The Accidental Death of an Anarchist, at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. I've heard only good things..

On Tuesday, giving up on Meetup, I'm with TAC, for Mixed Omens - an improvised horror show, at the Drayton Arms.

On Wednesday, thinking film - and what's coming up is a documentary called The Pearl Button, set in Chile. Scenery looks spectacular.. this is showing in the ICA only. Wow, it's years since I was last there, too!

On Thursday, back with Up in the Cheap Seats, for All of It, at the Royal Court. And then I'm back to Ireland for the weekend.

Walk: Highlights of Westminster

Ah well, so much for a relaxing weekend - in the wee small hours, the landlord sent us all a message (except, probably, the guy who's moving out next week), giving us notice to quit - he wants his flat back. So we have two months to find another place - took me that long to find this one! Fingers crossed.. it's mad out there.

Today, I was back at last with Laurence Summers and the 45+ Not Grumpy Old Londoners! It's been too long.. This walk was Highlights of Westminster. Unfortunately, I spent so long looking for flats last night that I missed out on quite a deal of sleep - so it was a groggy start. But, as usual, I managed - and what a beautiful day for it! Funnily enough, I'd have worn a lighter top, but when I put it on this morning, I felt chilly - but what I did wear was probably a bit heavy. Couldn't win - and in particular, I could have left my coat at home. Ah well, again..

Made it to St. James' Park Station quite early - just as well, what with the multiple entrances! Now, Laurence had said to meet at the Broadway entrance - yeah, but Broadway actually curves around the building, so there are technically three Broadway entrances.. the first time I met Mandy, she started from here, and had the same problem, chasing around to make sure no-one was lost! Well, we all seemed to find him - and gee, I met so many people I hadn't seen in ages! We started with the building itself - an imposing edifice:

and, of course, soon found ourselves battling the crowds outside Westminster Abbey:

Mind you, that was better than joining the queue to get in:

and isn't the Palace of Westminster lovely in the sunshine!

I don't think I'll ever get used to seeing Big Ben (yes, I know that's not its official name) without the scaffolding:

Tourist London was buzzing, and looking its best:

For all the crowds, though, I wasn't really expecting a queue to get into a pub!

The horse guards were out, as usual - and as someone remarked, they must have been stifling in those uniforms!

Not sure I ever before noticed this statue of George III! It's rather unassuming, as statues go:

And I got to see the renamed "HIS" Majesty's Theatre, for the first time!

We finished in Piccadilly Circus, with the statue that's turned the wrong way:

My though, it was exhausting, tramping about in the sunshine - it was a relief to get to lunch at last, which was at Henry's again. And we were exceedingly well fed - following which, after some discussion, we ended up in The Market Tavern, down the road a bit. Where good drink and good company were in abundance. Delighted to see folks again! Roll on the next one. I did go to bed for a few hours when I got home, though - I really needed it.

Tomorrow, with CT at The Bedford, for Wicked Wonderland: Burlesque Cabaret. Unusual for me not to be doing a walk on a Sunday - hallelujah, a lie-in!

On Monday - which is yet another bank holiday, but the last for a while - I'm with Discover London for a walk entitled The Great Plague 1665: The Full Story. Certainly makes a change from the Great Fire.. and another group I don't get to see often enough!

On Tuesday, having tried several sold-out shows, I finally plumped for Dixon and Daughters, at the Dorfman. Got the last cheap, restricted-view ticket in the pit..

On Wednesday, back with Up in the Cheap Seats at last! Well, I couldn't resist a performance of Aspects of Love, with Michael Ball - I've never seen it. Showing at the Lyric - there have been cheap offers, but the best I could find were with the official website. Aisle seat, for the legroom - thanks for the advice, Seatplan!

And yes, film on Thursday - and I thought I might finally get to see The Blue Caftan! It's Moroccan, and again showing at what is still, for now, my local cinema. Although, checking the listings again, I found a new one - A Crack in the Mountain is a documentary about Hang So'n Doong, the largest cave in the world, which is in Vietnam. Looks gorgeous - but it's only on in the Curzon Wimbledon, at 5.40, which I'd never make in time if I stay at work as long as I should! However, it is on their Home Cinema.. which would also save the fare.. Then I'm back to Ireland for the weekend again.

Walk: Clerkenwell - A Village of Contrasts

Today, I was back with Laurence Summers and the 45+ Not Grumpy Old Londoners again! This walk was Clerkenwell: A Village of Contrasts - not so far from me. How fortunate am I, to be living close to so much history.. Now, I had half a suspicion that I'd done this walk before - and I was right. Under a different name, mind - that last time was Down and Out in Clerkenwell, but the blurb was copied straight from there. Ah well, I figured I might get something new from it - and actually, I was right! Anyway, I love coming with these folks.

So, off I schlepped - slightly late, as always when I can walk it! And I ended up being slightly overdressed, for what turned out to be the first day this year that I could really call warm. I found our group fighting for space beside another tour group - and the day got off to an interesting start when I accidentally paid Laurence in Euros! Lordy, I don't know whether I'm coming or going - well, as it happens, he's heading off to Amsterdam for a few days shortly, so he said they'd come in handy!

Well, we started at the Barbican, moved on to Smithfield and the church of St. Bartholomew the Great - which is always worth a look, and where they turned out to be having a modern art exhibition!

We were still being shadowed by that other tour group - and as we waited for everyone to finish inside, I overheard an interesting tidbit - someone once asked me where the street Little Britain got its name, and I didn't know: but that tour guide confidently told his followers that it was from the Dukes of Brittany.. now, looking that up further, it seems he is probably mistaken. Ah well, the mystery continues..

And so on to St. John's Gate:

on the other side of which we passed a group of chess players! 

And witness the sad and strange tale of Thomas Britton:

The chap was best known as a concert promoter - but someone decided to play a practical joke on him, employing a ventriloquist to pretend to be the voice of God, communicating with him! The superstitious Thomas believed it, so the joke worked - but the event affected him so that he took a turn and expired, a couple of days later..

On Clerkenwell Green, we had to look at the Karl Marx Memorial Library across a building site - but there was no mistaking its distinctive red door:

On the way to lunch, we passed the Betsey Trotwood - apparently, they were booked up today, or we might have eaten there. Nice that they have a picture of the lady on the scaffolding:

And so to The Marian Anderson, which was the Bowler last time - now named for the lady whose striking portrait gazed down on us as we ate, who was a singer and civil rights campaigner:

I had steak, which was decent - the sauce was lovely though, and the chips very moreish. And the chenin blanc was tasty, so I was happy. A few of us then repaired to the Old Red Lion, whose dog is now in nappies (the American decor is in honour of the play they have upstairs):

And a most convivial afternoon was had. Look forward to my next meeting with these folks! A sunny walk home followed (mercifully downhill), and I see the town is starting to show some interest in the coronation:

For tomorrow, I got a free ticket for David McSavage's new show, Lazy Bastard, at the Top Secret Comedy Club. Still available, still free, if you're interested..

On Monday - well, there's a ton of stuff on Meetup! I finally decided that the most attractive thing was the Vintage Soho guided walk with Barrie, again with the 45+s (it's a bank holiday, you see). As with so many of his walks, however, tickets are also available with TAC - and even though I still have to pay him £5 cash on the day, it represents a saving!

On Tuesday, I was thinking film again - but another late listing has the World Music Meetup (WMM) advertising Sounds of Sudan, at St. Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation and Peace. At a time when Sudan is in the news for all the wrong reasons, this sounds a lovely concert by Sudanese artist Mo Sarrar. So now I'm going to that.

On Wednesday, again, loads of stuff on Meetup - but two of my groups are running events that would interest me, but are sold out. The Horror Book Club, meantime, is reading The Yellow Wallpaper - a novella that I found on Kindle, and downloaded a free sample for. Mind you, it came as part of a collection.. and is so short that its entirety was included in the free sample! so I read the whole thing in half an hour. How different from our last assignment.. I wasn't that keen on it - although the ending is good. So I'll probably head to yet another film that night. That blasted film listings site still has, as of now, partial listings up for it. So - subject to change, as so many films are listed with the caveat "no information available at the moment" - Wednesday's film is looking like How to Blow Up a Pipeline, the fictional account of climate activists attacking a pipeline in Texas. Showing in my local cinema - not that the listings site let me in on that secret, but from experience, I tried the cinema website myself directly..

On Thursday, I booked a livestream from the Crick Crack Club, from the Story Museum Oxford. This is King Lear Retold. However, these tend to be available for a week after - so I've taken the opportunity, also, to book another concert with the WMM! This is La Chinganera, in the Finnish Church - and the concerts organised by Eleanor Salter Thorn of TunedIn London are always good!

Then back to Ireland for the coronation weekend..

Walk: A City Built by a Genius - Wren's London

Now, I have an old friend, Vicki, in Cork, whom I usually go down to see once a year, staying the night - usually at Christmas, but she was too busy for me last Christmas. So we arranged for me to go and stay last Tuesday, coming back next day. (Just when the first storm of the season was supposed to hit! Typical.) Now, that realistically meant I couldn't fly to London before Thursday - but with nothing unmissable yesterday, I booked to fly back last night instead. I checked on my holiday request, and it looked approved.. Long story short, the "severe weather" we were promised didn't appear as scary when I tested it - and I was lucky with petrol, which I got on Monday night, and which jumped by 2c/l overnight! And gee, it was great to see her.. tricky to organise things with people you don't see often, but in this case, worth the effort. Roll on the next time..

On Thursday, I thought about Plan 75, showing at the Belltable as part of the Japanese Film Festival - people aged 75 or older are given the option of assisted suicide, with free burial, and a $1000 grant to do with as they please in the meantime. Mentioned it to my mother, who raised no objection.. until, of course, I had booked it, whereupon she suddenly started begging me to stay in that night. Bah humbug - I was half expecting it, but she could have said it earlier..

Flying back, I couldn't get the early evening Ryanair flight, and was on the late one again. Which was, of course, late.. only by an hour, this time though - I've known it much worse. Main thing is to make the Stansted Express, whose last departure from Stansted is at 12.30am, and which I did. I definitely had to be back in London for today though, when I was booked on another walk with Laurence Summers and the 45+ Not Grumpy Old Londoners! This one was A City built by a Genius - Wren's London. He's now scheduling walks I haven't done for days I can make them! Very cool.. because I do love his walks. And lunches.

Still, it was hard to pull myself out of bed - but it's been worse. And I just made the bus. Changing buses (because I could, and it saved me a lot of walking), I was privy to some excellent high-speed driving by a car with a siren and flashing lights, zipping in and out of the traffic; I couldn't have bettered it myself! Arrived at The Liberty Bounds - where there was no-one outside. Correctly assumed - on what wasn't the warmest of days - that they were sheltering inside, and joined them there. Mind you, as someone remarked to me - stay away from the hot chocolate. Funny, I've never had it here, but that exact thought occurred to me en route.. Rather lacking in chocolate, it seems!

And in due course - after determining that the no-shows weren't just lost - off we went. Now, this was primarily a church walk - but not exclusively. For example, we passed the evocatively named Hung, Drawn and Quartered pub, just down from the Tower of London - which bears the following amusing plaque:

Speaking of churches, I'd heard of Sir Christopher Wren proving the stability of one of his structures by having his daughter sleep under it - behold, that church turned out to be St. Dunstan-in-the-East!

Destroyed by the double-whammy of Great Fire and Blitz, it's now a picturesque garden. Where a party was in swing as we passed:

Again, there was more to see than churches:

Of course, our path took us to the Monument (to the Great Fire) - where we had a chat about the architect:

D' you know, they used to have a telescope inside! Well, why not..

Our most successful church of the day was St. Mary Aldermary ("Older Mary", there having been a previous St. Mary's on the site). Turned out to be open - unusually for a Saturday; they were preparing for Orthodox Easter, tomorrow! And not only were we let in, but got a detailed lecture on the building's history from someone who works there - runs the church on occasional Saturdays. And graciously, he gave us all a flier on the church's history, and told us everything he knew about the place! Really, he couldn't have done more.

He helpfully explained to us that this is not Wren's typical style.. and pointed out to us the stained glass memorial to a benefactor:

Most of the stained glass windows bear the arms of the livery companies that sponsored their restoration, following the Blitz. Lovely place to visit, all in all - and they have a cafe on weekdays, if you want to check it out.

And so to St. Mary-le-Bow, within the sound of whose bells you must be born to be considered a Cockney. I'd heard that before - but not the story of the balcony, reminiscent of an earlier, wooden one, which had collapsed, taking the King and Queen with it, during celebrations for the birth of their son!

Finally, to Wren's masterpiece - St. Paul's: on the corner where we stood, of course, you can see four of his churches at once. And, massive as it is, I'd forgotten that a line of sculptures, rounding the edge of the area where it sits, mark the original expanse of the cathedral that preceded this one! Now, that must have been a sight..

Lovely tour, plenty of winding alleys, unexpected corners, and well - nooks and crannies! It's amazing how there's always more to explore. Fair enough, as he said, you have a better chance of finding churches open on Fridays, when he normally does the tour - but yay for the weekend outing for those of us who can't typically manage that! And needless to say, entertaining as ever.

Ah, I miss working in the building we were standing in front of at this point.. great area for shopping, as I remarked. And for lunch. Speaking of which, we then dispersed, most of us coming for lunch, in the Punch Tavern. Where I wasn't sure I'd been, but thought so - but no, methinks now I only saw it in passing! Hey-ho, I had steak again - and while not the pinnacle of all steaks I've ever had, it was very welcome. Lovely peppercorn sauce with it - and massive chips! And a real character of a manager - you can't miss him, tall as he is, with a booming voice. And a jovial time was had. Ah, great to see folks again.. Roll on the next, although I'm limited when I can come:

Rolled home at last - to find the most passive-agressive parking I've seen, in my road!

Now, my boss suggested - quite a while ago - that we might have a jaunt to the head office in Tel Aviv tomorrow! I hadn't heard anything since, though - so I finally asked him. He confirmed that it won't be until at least next month now - wants to get the latest release out. (Just as well really, with all the unrest over there.) So I'll be in London this week. And in fact, tomorrow, I finally found something good to do - London Herstory Guided Walks is doing Movers & Shakers of Marylebone! Great to be back with Mandy again.

However, there isn't honestly much coming up that interests me on Meetup - so I'm thinking of heading to the cinema on Monday and Tuesday. I've been having terrible trouble with that film listings site, though - even at time of writing, the listings for this week aren't complete! and new listings have been added since yesterday. Anyway, for Monday, what it's currently looking like is The Beasts - set in Galicia, in Spain, this is the story of a French couple who move to a rural area, only to spark an argument with a couple of their neighbours.. I hear good things. Showing in my local cinema, the Curzon Bloomsbury. Not that you'd know it from the listings site, which - last I looked - had no listing for that, in that cinema, for Monday!

For Tuesday, what's coming up is a Ginger Rogers film - the BFI is doing a season of her films. This one is a comedy called Bachelor Mother - daring for 1939, it has her as a single mother! Mind you, in her case, she finds the baby abandoned outside an orphanage.. also stars David Niven, and Charles Coburn as her father.

For Wednesday, I've booked For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide.. at the Apollo. I have a front-row seat in the Dress Circle - now, I seem to remember ridiculously tight legroom, here - so I'm at the end of a row, and Seatplan says it'll be OK if I lean forward.. Just today, they asked me to "check in", and thereupon sent me my ticket..

On Thursday, I'm with TAC for a talk on Arab & Islamic Roots of Europe's Architecture, at St. Mary Magdalene Church.

Then it's back to Ireland for the weekend. On the 24th, back with Up in the Cheap Seats for The Secret Life of Bees, at the Almeida - no seats left in the stalls, when I booked! Seatplan made me wary of the cheapest seats, so I'm in the next bracket up..

And on the 25th, back with Over 40 Living the Life, for dinner at the Greenwich Yacht Club again. Well, it was good last time - good food, cheap prices, good company. Four of us going so far - I'm sure there'll be more!