Happy birthday to me! It’s the special one – the one where your age and the date match. Glorious. I’ll be out celebrating with a few of my closest friends at my favourite Moroccan restaurant tonight.
In the meantime, I have put together a list of 28 things I want to do in London whilst I’m 28. Any suggestions I shouldn’t miss out on, leave them in the comments and if I haven’t already been there, done that, I’ll add it to my list. Also, if you’ve done any of these things, tell me if they are worth it!
1.) Find a shop or market stall that sells interesting jewellery making supplies for my Etsy creations. Any suggestions?
2.) Interview at least one different Londoner each week for LLO. Any volunteers?
3.) Visit the Thames barrier.
4.) Take a tour of Dennis Severs House on one of the Monday night candlelight tours.
5.) Learn how to take those awesome streaky, long-exposure night photographs.
5.) Enrol in a Spanish course.
6.) Cocktails or wine, a brownie and a film and Electric Cinema on Portobello Road.
7.) Meet Graham and walk around Camden with our cameras. He doesn’t know that yet but he might now.
9.) Visit as many cemeteries as I can find to take photos. Know any good ones I may not have been to?
10.) Take a photograph of this muddy canal bit with the reflection of a very colourful building that I can see out of the Southeastern train window coming into London Bridge just before Deptford.
11.) Go on an organised photo walk in an area of London I’ve never explored.
12.) Have a market stall at least one weekend to sell the jewellery I make.
13.) Find some quirky new local-ish pubs to try like The Cat’s Back in Wandsworth.
22.) Try some teas from around the world at Postcard Teas on Bond Street.
23.) See a film at Lexi Cinema in Kensal Rise. Funny enough, I lived in Kensal Green two years, walked down Chamberlayne Road a million and one times and never went here.
28.) Walk into London very early one morning to see the sun rise on nearly empty streets.
So, help me celebrate my 28th. One of the best birthday presents would be to recommend a favourite place in London that I need to know about! Thank you!
Listen to a Londoner is a weekly interview with a Londoner – someone who lives in this city, born here or elsewhere. If you’re up for being interviewed, email littlelondonobservationist@hotmail.co.uk.
Novelist, film producer, fashionista, rock n’ roll queen, journalist, Ibiza party girl, teacher, DJ, editor, stylist, poet, traveller and, most importantly, born and bred Londoner, this is Kirsty Allison…
LLO: As a born and bred Londoner, what are the biggest changes you’ve seen over the years? Anything in particular you miss? KA: I used to frequent a goth club called the William Morris in Wimbledon, I drank snakebite and black, and pretended to be an art student before I became one. I was thirteen or fourteen. I’d like to take a time machine back to those times, and have a talk with myself. London will always have speakeasys and people trying to fight the powers that they think restrict them, it’s the nature of British culture, thankfully, like the city itself, it’s all about contrasts. The best advice I got at primary school was being told to look up – at buildings…there’s more sky around London than there used to be – rooftop bars, penthouses, I like feeling elevated, rather than suppressed by the towering infernos of our city, although they inspire me.
LLO: Which area of London are you most familiar with? Write us a mini-poem about why it rocks. KA: Shoreditch, is my bitch, She’s the devil to my itch, Roaming there, my artistic lair, Makes my teenage dreams fall fair. The seen it all before they were twelve year olds, or the enthusiastic old boys and girls, We’re hunting for where we lost our souls, and this is where I like to roll.
LLO: You’ve challenged yourself to wear a different outfit every day for a year. If you were to do it again next year, which five London shops would you hit first to build up your wardrobe? KA: I’d drop by Fiona Doran’s (aka Mrs Jones) Emporium on St John’s Street. She’s an alma mater who’s guided me like a lady with a lamp in her dress for years. Beatrix Ong has recently opened a shop in Sloane Street, she knocks class and sex into heels. I collect Alexander McQueen, so it’s hard to think of a wardrobe without some of his original pieces. The Vivienne Westwood shop at World’s End features clothes she’s sewn herself. The Shop below Maison Bertaux in Soho is great, and I love Kokon Tozai. Off Broadway rocks, set up by the divine Donna Kernan. Concept stores like http://www.ln-cc.com and Dover Street Market…I could go on…Liberty’s is a pleasure to shop in…whoops, how many was that?!
LLO: Ambit just featured an excerpt from your first novel Medicine and you made the cover! You’ve got three sentences to sell your book. Ready, go… KA: So tough to compress a work into a small space, but, it’s set in 90’s Shoreditch in an exclusive scene where fashion and music industry myths are accepted as truth. It’s rock n roll to the max, following the downward social adventures of a fashion designer who starts managing a band, Chernobyl, fronted by a male model. As their fate becomes stardom, she travels from Ibiza to Paris and a world tour, letting her fashion designs become increasingly bonkers. It’s a funny tale which makes people cry. I’ve been working on it for 15 years…
LLO: You’ve been a celebrity stylist and a model, coming across some influential names in the fashion industry. Which up-and-coming London-based designers should we keep an eye on? KA: Louise Amstrup. Holly Fulton. Elliot Atkinson. James Long. SD Yohans.
LO: Best London discovery? KA: Churches and graveyards are always good value.
LLO: I’m in London for one night and want to veer off the tourist trail for some food and drink. Any fabulous recommendations? KA: I like La Trompette in Chiswick, I’ve taken my mum there. The Seven Stars, off Fleet Street behind the law courts is entertaining, it’s proper characterful landlady stuff. If you want to keep it cheap, C&R on Rupert Court does a good Singapore Laksa, and follow it with a few drinks at The Coach & Horses in Soho, where every table has served me as an office. Cay Tre on Old Street is always busy, but if you like Vietnamese it never disappoints. Lemonia on Regents Park Road. Wholefoods Market is a palace. Cecconi’s is proper Jackie Collins territory. A curry in Southall. There are always new places everywhere.
LLO: In the late 90s, you were DJ-ing internationally with the likes of Kris Needs, Irvine Welsh and Howard Marks including a residency at Manumission Motel in Ibiza. Where’s your favourite place in London to party the weekend away? KA: The party is where you’re at. Aside from that, The Sanctum Hotel in Soho is cool. Quintessentially is fun. The lure of a private member’s bar is something I fall victim to but I love a decent bass, and there are so many warehouse parties going on again, it’s easy to get lost partying.
LLO: Tantric Tourists is one of your latest creative projects. Tell is a bit about what inspired it. Any London screenings or events scheduled? KA: Tantric Tourists follows a self-proclaimed guru as she escorts 10 American students on a quest for enlightenment across India. It’s a comedy road movie. The director, Alexander Snelling, and I first met the guru, Laurie Handlers, in India where she was “whirling on the beach”. We did a test shoot at a workshop she was hosting in Primrose Hill and cracked up at the rushes. It was too good a story to turn down.
It goes on limited release from Valentine’s Day. The DVD is available with a discount by becoming a fan on Facebook. More info: www.tantrictourists.com
LLO: Do you have a favourite London-based book or a great bookshop to recommend – one of those cosy ones with the slightly musty basement smell or great in-house coffee shop? KA: This is mainstream but I used to like Borders, they had chairs, it was an easy place to get lost in. Waterstones in Piccadilly does a good job, as does Foyles (if only the Westfield rates weren’t so high they’d still have a second floor). There are many indie shops doing a great job. Broadway Books is hitting the mark. And my local library has a cafe in it, long may it last. The Daunts in Marylebone is great because it has all these wonderful wooden bannisters, and they are so excellent at travel books. Judd Street Books is lovely for art books and oddities, towards Bloomsbury from Kings Cross. The Oxfam bookshops are always great. The customer service in Hatchards is good. I love a good bookshop, I clear my head by walking through them, flicking through those who manage to hold their fort on the shelves. The Espresso Machine is a concept I’m excited about – it’s so called because in the time of a coffee you can order whatever book you desire in whatever paper you choose – so if I wanted Lolita in baby pink, Bob the Paedo is my uncle…(almost) any bookshop or library is serving the future of England a favour.
This is a guest post by Katy Robinson, a travel guide writer. Katy has been working as a travel guide writer for a number of years and loves to relate her own travel stories.
London is home to a number of Gordon Ramsay’s restaurants. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that not all of them are beyond the average budget. One of my favourite Ramsay restaurants is The Warrington and surprisingly it is very reasonably priced.
The Warrington is a pub and restaurant which was originally built in 1857. It is no ordinary pub – this is a Chef Ramsay pub and so unlike the run-of-the-mill establishment located on the corner of most streets in cities in the UK, this joint has an extravagant interior, great menu and even better food. There are two floors: the downstairs pub is where you can enjoy bar snacks, a few drinks or a roast dinner on Sunday afternoons; upstairs is a sophisticated restaurant where you can expect great service and innovative cuisine. Yes, you should expect to spend a bit more on your lunch or dinner at this pub-restaurant. However, I think you will agree that it is worth it for the Ramsay dining experience.
I have also eaten at Gordon Ramsay’s Plane Food in London Heathrow Airport Terminal 5. I was waiting on a British Airways flight to Glasgow and I decided to treat myself to something nice. I think that all airport restaurants are generally more expensive and so I was happy to pay the prices (which seemed similar to other good restaurants in the airport) and I can confirm that the food was excellent. I was set up for my flight and didn’t need to purchase a meal on board, although I was offered a complimentary drink.
Not only does the F Word Chef have restaurants in the UK, but also in destinations all over the world such as Australia, Japan, the USA and Dubai. Check out the official website for more details of Ramsay’s restaurants worldwide.
A new “kick ass” Mexican grill called Daddy Donkey has popped up over near Brick Lane. (The word “burrito” means “little donkey” in Spanish.) I walked by last weekend to a bit of a fiesta with song and playful protest for the rights of burritos going on. Apparently there are a few other burrito-mobiles around, but this one is the biggest.
Listen to a Londoner is a weekly interview with a Londoner – someone who lives in this city, born here or elsewhere. If you’re up for being interviewed, email littlelondonobservationist@hotmail.co.uk.
Mary Higgs, 30
Mary lives in Battersea. She’s an interior designer by day and a London dating guru by night. She set up the Great Date Guide to help give Londoners inspiration and advice on where to go for a great date in this fantastic city.
LLO: Tell us about the Great Date Guide.
MH:I had the idea for the Great Date Guide a few years ago, when it started its life as a homemade book for my older brother. He had recently found himself new to London and single (after ending a 7-year relationship) and with an unenviable yet unavoidable lack of dating know-how. As it turned out, he wasn’t alone. I realised that I had so many friends in their late twenties who had hit the “make or break” stage in their relationships and had opted for “break”. This meant that their last “first date” was about seven years ago and often at university – a distant memory from a distant city!
Fed up with my brother’s constant emails at lunchtime on a Friday asking where he should take his date that evening, I decided to take action. I put together a book of eighty dates for him, written in the format of a travel guide. Each date was given a number based on its stage in the dating game (1 for a first date, 2 for early days etc.), and also a symbol to tell him what type of date it was – a heart for romance, a wine glass for drinks… you get the picture!
Anyway, he (and all his friends) absolutely loved the book and I kept an idea, in the back of my mind, that I’d like to do more with it. A few years later I decided it was the right time to do something with the idea and here it is – a website designed to take the hassle out of dating for busy Londoners who need a bit of inspiration. Single, married or somewhere in between, we should all be dating. Whether it’s cocktails in a ritzy bar, a romantic dinner for two or just a leisurely stroll through one of London’s fabulous parks, it’s our belief that dating should be a firm fixture in everyone’s weekly schedule.
LLO: Would you consider London a romantic city?
MH: Absolutely! Although, I believe that any city can be romantic if you approach it with the right attitude. It’s less about the city – more about how you interact with it. That is one of the reasons we started the website, to help people find the great dating spots in London that might otherwise have passed them by. I do think London is special though, and full of quirky romantic places.
LLO: Where’s the best place for a date in your postcode?
MH: For a first date, I think my local pub, the Lighthouse in Battersea, is pretty perfect! There’s a great garden for the summer and a roaring fire in the winter. The atmosphere is seriously relaxed so you can start off with a glass of wine, and if the date is going well you can settle in and order food. If the date is going really well you can finish off with a romantic stroll around Battersea Park and then reward yourself with a cheeky kiss on Albert Bridge – definitely the most romantic bridge in London!
LLO: Tell us about the best date you’ve ever had in London.
MH: I’m in the lucky position of having had lots of wonderful dates in London with my boyfriend. It’s hard to pick a favourite but I think I’d have to say when we took a day trip to Greenwich. Taking the boat down the river, you’re really reminded what a fantastic city London is. Then in Greenwich there is so much to do: fascinating museums, beautiful art, colourful markets, romantic walks with spectacular views, not to mention standing on the line where time officially starts! We finished off the date with a delicious meal at the Rivington Grill and then a very tipsy boat ride home in the dark, mesmerised by the lights of London and the romance of it all. It was a perfect day.
LLO: Any great date disasters you’re willing to share?
MH: Hmmm, I had a pretty bad first date once when my date wanted to take me out for dinner, but it turned out he hadn’t booked anywhere. Every restaurant that we tried was fully booked until an hour later and we ended up going to Pizza Express – not exactly the height of romance! Then to top it off we went to a nearby pub after dinner to bump into a bunch of his male friends who were having a pretty boozy night and thought the fact that he was on a first date was cause for relentless “banter”. Anyway, it wasn’t too bad as we went on more dates and are still friends now!
LLO: Can you recommend a cozy, quiet, candlelit restaurant for us?
MH: Of course! Plenty to choose from… We love Julie’s in Holland Park as it’s full of romantic little nooks and crannies, making it the perfect place for dinner. Clos Maggiore is another favourite – you’ll be hard pushed to find somewhere more romantic, with it’s indoor courtyard complete with roaring fire, fairy lights and blossom laden trees (all year round)!
LLO: Best place for a first date in London?
MH: Again, there are so many options (we’ve got a section about this on the site)! Also, it sounds obvious, but you really have to think about who you’re going on a date with. If they’re an art lover then the top floor bar at the National Portrait Gallery would be perfect, but more of a foodie would like Moro in Exmouth Market, oh, and a music buff would like 606 Jazz Club in Chelsea!!
LLO: What about a date of people who have been in a relationship for a long time and want to do something completely out of the ordinary to help rekindle the passion?
MH: Lots of options here but if you lead a busy stressful life and have forgotten what it felt like to fall in love, then a spontaneous candlelit supper picnic in one of London’s parks will do the trick (summer or winter). It involves a bit of effort and that’s what makes it so special – you’re saying you can do more than just pick up the bill. However, if you do want to go to a restaurant then Dans Le Noir would be perfect. From the moment you enter you are blind-folded so all your senses are heightened and you can focus on each other with no distractions.
LLO: It’s summertime and London is full of rooftop terraces just waiting to be filled with cocktail drinkers. Can you recommend the best place to wine or dine above the treetops?
MH: We’ve actually got a list of our top 10 roof terraces on the website – we couldn’t pick a favourite! For the best view in town it probably has to be Vista at the Trafalgar, where, as the name suggests you can see the whole of Trafalgar Square and beyond. You do have to queue which is a pain but it’s worth it for the incredible view. If you’re in the City then Coq D’argent is a must with it’s roof terrace and garden and the kind of quality food you expect from the D&D group.
LLO: What’s your favourite unique London discovery?
MH: I discovered the Chelsea Physic Garden recently. Like so many places in london I’d walked passed the entrance for years and never gone in! The gardens themselves are a complete oasis from the traffic on the Embankment and the bustle of the Kings Road. In the summer you can eat in the garden: either bring your own food and a picnic rug or tuck into the seriously delicious food on offer in the cafe. But, as you’ll have guessed from the rest of this interview I’m not very good at picking favourites!
Little London Observationist 