The travelling was starting to take its toll. I was constantly tired and had a sore throat that wouldn’t go away. Lack of sleep plus being close to other people’s germs every day (train and tube) isn’t the greatest recipe for good health. This made my decision to enjoy an hour of fresh air and light exercise every day all the more important. Lunch hours exploring the streets of London were the one thing that I did on a daily basis that was good for my health.
Like all animals humans are creatures of habit and I had got into the habit of going to the same places each lunchtime – usually Trafalgar Square or the South Bank. Eating your sandwiches and watching the world go by in Trafalgar Square is of course a great experience: Not only do you feel that you are in the centre of London (and therefore England), you get to do some quality people watching. The steps leading to the National Gallery may not have the same romance as the Spanish Steps in Rome but they are certainly not without their charms. For me, one of the most heart-warming sight to be had in London is a toddler chasing after a pigeon. The sheer joy they get from a bird that is hated by most adults is a great example of the innocence and beauty of childhood.
Trafalgar Square may be a great place to go for lunch but I was aware that I had been visiting it and my other regular lunchtime spots (South Bank, Covent Garden) all too often and it was time for a change. So the next available lunchtime I went somewhere different. Walking west along the Strand I went past Trafalgar Square and up Whitehall to Horse Guards. Normally I just pat the horses on the head when I walk past but this time I thought I’d wonder in and take a look at Horse Guards Parade, home of the famous changing of the guard.
In the archway between the street and the parade ground was a soldier in uniform standing with what appeared to be the sole reason of having is picture taken with tourists. For any man who is a trained killer this must be quite a strange experience. What’s more surprising in this finance-obsessed time is that there was no charge to have your picture taken with the soldier. Hundreds of tourists pose for photos every day and I’m sure they’d be more than happy to pay a few pounds for the privilege. If the silver spray-painted statue artists of Covent Garden do it then why shouldn’t the Household Cavalry?
After taking in Horse Guards Parade I took a side street back onto Whitehall. I looked to my left – the Foreign Office and then to my right – the Treasury Office, and wondered how many important decisions had been made in these buildings. The next thing I noticed was a fleet of brand-new 60-registration top of the range silver Land Rovers, about 20 of them, probably pool cars for the Treasury or Foreign Office. How do these vehicles, costing close to a hundred thousand pounds each, fit into the Conservative government’s promise to cut Whitehall waste?
Walking back along Whitehall I took in many of the national monuments – from the field marshals – Montgomery and Hague to the women’s memorial and the Cenotaph. There are probably hundreds in total, all in black and all memorials to the horrors that were suffered to keep Britain free. From Trafalgar Square to Whitehall, wherever you are in this part of the city you can’t help but feel that you are in the centre of London and therefore the centre of England. So it’s perhaps no surprise that many people who live and work in the capital think that London is England. Of course it’s not, it’s a very different and unique place – one that I have the pleasure of exploring every day.
Wednesday 29 September 2010
Friday 3 September 2010
23 August – 3 September: Why is Chinese food cheap? How do Covent Garden street performers earn any money? And what do Canadians drink?
If, like me, you occasionally go to Victoria Embankment Gardens to eat your lunch then you’ll notice the dozens of workmen, strewn out on the grass, relaxing after a hard morning’s labour. Their labour is to refurbish one of the most famous hotels in the world – the Savoy. I had a quick wonder past this famous hotel to see what the workmen had been up to, but there’s not much to see from the outside at the moment. Apparently when it reopens in October there’ll be an Art Deco bar open to the public, so I’ll definitely have a look in there, though it will probably cost me about £10 for a drink.
Disappointed by the current state of the Savoy I decided it was time to see some major sights again. So one lunchtime, myself and my workmates walked through Covent Garden, on to Leicester Square, then past the Trocadero to Piccadilly Circus, through the streets of Soho and then back down through Chinatown. I hadn’t realised how close everything is in central London – the above sights and the ones previously mentioned in this blog are all within about 20 minutes walking distance of each other.
Of course it’s fine to go for a walk when the weather’s nice but on the day that I saw these sights it was unfortunately raining. Leicester Square may be the scene of many glamorous film premieres but on a wet Wednesday lunchtime it isn’t that stunning. Likewise with Soho – infamous as a setting for nighttime debauchery but during the day you’d hardly realise it. There’s a few signs for strip bars and sex shops but it appears positively tame compared to, say, the red light district of Amsterdam.
Chinatown is distinctive because of its smell – the aromatic smell of sweet and sour sauce flavoured with MSG. There’s a lot of all you can eat £3.99 lunchtime buffets in Chinatown; which while good value makes you wonder why Chinese food can be so cheap. Illegal labour and questionable food hygiene practices were the first answers that came to my slightly xenophobic mind. I’m sure it still tastes good though.
We went back to Covent Garden a few days later to spend lunchtime as a tourist. Covent Garden is famous for its street performers, and large crowds stand round watching drawn-out performances by budding entertainers. The large crowds are annoying if you’re in a hurry to get to the Tube station to catch the train home, so we thought we’d join them for a change. It didn’t last long as the performance we saw by an amateur magician was typically poor. Yet the crowds still took it all in – probably because it was their one day out in London and they wanted to take in as much as they could, good or bad.
One thing we did notice around Covent Garden was the large amount of pubs and bars that are within a short walk of the famous market square. These vary in quality from traditional pubs to soulless wine bars (All Bar One) to themed nationality bars (we noticed one Australian, one South African, one Irish and even one Canadian – which begged the question: what do Canadians drink?)
We didn’t know so the following lunchtime we went for the safe choice of the Irish bar – the Porterhouse. I like real ale and was impressed to find that this place had a beer menu about 10 pages long. I settled for an enjoyable pint of something refreshing and fruity (I forget the name, though it was English and began with a ‘w’) and flicked through the menu, thinking how I could happily spend the rest of the day there, trying to drink my way through the beer menu alphabet.
Which brings me back to a familiar theme – if you’ve got the money then you are spoilt for choice for places to go for a drink in central London. This blog could quite easily turn into a review of all the beers in the Porterhouse or all the pubs in central London; I’d have to start remembering the names of the beers I’ve drank though.
Disappointed by the current state of the Savoy I decided it was time to see some major sights again. So one lunchtime, myself and my workmates walked through Covent Garden, on to Leicester Square, then past the Trocadero to Piccadilly Circus, through the streets of Soho and then back down through Chinatown. I hadn’t realised how close everything is in central London – the above sights and the ones previously mentioned in this blog are all within about 20 minutes walking distance of each other.
Of course it’s fine to go for a walk when the weather’s nice but on the day that I saw these sights it was unfortunately raining. Leicester Square may be the scene of many glamorous film premieres but on a wet Wednesday lunchtime it isn’t that stunning. Likewise with Soho – infamous as a setting for nighttime debauchery but during the day you’d hardly realise it. There’s a few signs for strip bars and sex shops but it appears positively tame compared to, say, the red light district of Amsterdam.
Chinatown is distinctive because of its smell – the aromatic smell of sweet and sour sauce flavoured with MSG. There’s a lot of all you can eat £3.99 lunchtime buffets in Chinatown; which while good value makes you wonder why Chinese food can be so cheap. Illegal labour and questionable food hygiene practices were the first answers that came to my slightly xenophobic mind. I’m sure it still tastes good though.
We went back to Covent Garden a few days later to spend lunchtime as a tourist. Covent Garden is famous for its street performers, and large crowds stand round watching drawn-out performances by budding entertainers. The large crowds are annoying if you’re in a hurry to get to the Tube station to catch the train home, so we thought we’d join them for a change. It didn’t last long as the performance we saw by an amateur magician was typically poor. Yet the crowds still took it all in – probably because it was their one day out in London and they wanted to take in as much as they could, good or bad.
One thing we did notice around Covent Garden was the large amount of pubs and bars that are within a short walk of the famous market square. These vary in quality from traditional pubs to soulless wine bars (All Bar One) to themed nationality bars (we noticed one Australian, one South African, one Irish and even one Canadian – which begged the question: what do Canadians drink?)
We didn’t know so the following lunchtime we went for the safe choice of the Irish bar – the Porterhouse. I like real ale and was impressed to find that this place had a beer menu about 10 pages long. I settled for an enjoyable pint of something refreshing and fruity (I forget the name, though it was English and began with a ‘w’) and flicked through the menu, thinking how I could happily spend the rest of the day there, trying to drink my way through the beer menu alphabet.
Which brings me back to a familiar theme – if you’ve got the money then you are spoilt for choice for places to go for a drink in central London. This blog could quite easily turn into a review of all the beers in the Porterhouse or all the pubs in central London; I’d have to start remembering the names of the beers I’ve drank though.
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