London in 50 Walks

One of the birthday presents that Jackie bought for me was a box of London City Walks. Picture below.

Inside the box there are 50 cards, each with a relatively short walk mapped out on one side and a description of the sites you will see on the walk on the other side.

Walk #49

Last weekend we decided to tackle walk Number 49, Kennington - which is a suburb not too far from where we live. We caught the bus from Balham as it is cheaper and also gives you the opportunity to see the sites along the way, whereas with the tube it's more expensive and you're underground the whole time so don't get to see the sites. Fortunately there is a bus (#155) that would take us pretty much to the start of the walk.

I've tried to include a map of the walk that we did.


View London Walks #49 in a larger map

We got off the bus in Elephant & Castle, an odd name for a suburb and not a particularly nice suburb, just a bit dirty and run down. Although there is a very tall new building in the middle of Elephant and Castle which is quite out of place.

There wasn't a anything of particular note in the first part of our walk along Blackfriars Road. There was Valentine Place, which was photo worthy given it was the day before Valentines Day.

At the end of Blackfriars road with the pub The Ring at which point we turned in to The Cut, not long into The Cut we turned off the official walk to a backstreet so I could show Jackie a bar and restaurant I'd went to, in the same lane there was a Turkish cafe which was open so we went in and got a coffee, feta and leek bread thing, kind of like a pide and a piece of yummy carrot cake. They had lots of yum looking salads and other bread things which all looked great so we think we'll go back there one time for lunch.

After this pit stop we carried on along The Cut, past the Young Vic theatre, which we've been to once and then on to the Old Vic theatre at which Kevin Spacey is the Artistic Director.

 On from The Cut we moved to Lower Marsh Road behind Waterloo Station, at the beginning of this street is the bar Cubana, in which Fidel Castro is rumoured to be an investor.

We had lots of different views of the London Eye in between buildings as we walked around, below is one of the views...

On a bit further we turned into Waterloo road and past Lambeth North Tube station which was closed along with some roads with quite a few police around, we later found out that someone got hit by a bus around here which we assume was the reason for the commotion.

On a bit further and we got to the Imperial War Museum which I convinced Jackie we should pop in and see. It was busy but worth the look, took quite a few photos but have included just one below

After the War Museum we took a kind of short cut without realising it back to our bus which took us right back to Du Cane Court. 

Walk #49 done, 49 more to go!

Inamo

Last week we went out for dinner in town with a couple of friends who always take us to interesting places. This time we were booked in to go to Inamo which is a Japanese restaurant in Soho.

The difference with this restaurant is how you order your food, it's a bit tricky to explain but I'll give it a go.

You're seated at a table which is normal except for a small mouse pad in the bottom right hand corner, above the table is a projector, which projects onto your table. With the mouse pad you control a cursor which you use to select from various icons on the screen which is projected on your table. The icons allow you to view the menu, you can select a dish from the menu and the projector displays an image of the dish on your plate, so you can see what you would be ordering. When you are ready to order you simply select the order option using your mouse and then as if by magic your order is delivered to your table by a waiter.

Other cool stuff you can do included

• changing the 'table cloth' which was basically the main image that was projected on to your table
• watch 'kitchen cam' which was a live camera of the kitchen
• play games - just a memory game but we all played it
• view a map of the restaurant and bar
• call for the waiter
• request the bill

Mouse pad at bottom of picture with menu at top, this image shows the drinks menu

Jackie ordering up large

An example of a meal being projected onto the plate, this was an image of tuna benito maki, which we did end up ordering

The system works quite well, although I expect they get a lot of people that order way too much food. The food comes out quite quickly so you can kind of order one or two things, eat them, see if you're still hungry and then order some more if you want to but I don't think everyone is so restrained.

The food was good but not exceptional and the price is on the high side, you're definitely paying for the experience as much as the food but I'd say it was worth it as a one off kind of thing.

Crystal Palace

In our quest to visit new and interesting parts of London, last weekend we took the train from Balham, 15 minutes down the line to Crystal Palace. We actually got out at Gipsy Hill and walked up the hill to the Crystal Palace town.

Crystal Palace town is based around the triangle, made up of Westow Hill, Westow Road and Church Road.

Hollybush pub on corner of Westow Hill and Westow Road

Crystal Palace is an interesting place to go in London for a number of reasons. The first that struck us was that there were proper hills which mean views over London

London town in the distance

The hills also make it a good place for aerials, such as the one below, there's a couple of these around Crytsal Palace, they're hideous but kind of landmarks of the area.

It is also interesting as it has several antiques shops and Haynes Lane Market which as a freind from work commented "the only thing weirder than the stuff for sale is the people selling it". It really was a jumble sale of the highest order with some interesting stuff and some junk. Jackie picked up a couple of items for her glass collection here.

Jackie venturing in to Haynes Lane Market

Some of the merchandise. 

Jackie in her enjoying checking out the antique and second hand shops.

Crystal Palace is also known to us as we had some friends that used to visit for a specific restaurant which is known to serve casu marzu, commonly referred to as maggot cheese in reference to the live maggots in the cheese (which you eat). We didn't go to sample the cheese but we did see the restaurant. Perhaps next time we'll go, but I don't think we'll be eating the cheese.

Most of all though, I'd say Crystal Palace is most famous for the Crystal Palace. We went to the Crystal Palace museum to find out more about it and it was really interesting. If you want the full low down check out the wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crystal_Palace. It was originally built in Hyde Park for The Great Exhibition of 1851 - essentially a trade fair. After the trade fair it was moved to a park in Sydenham Hill where it stayed for over 80 years before it burnt down. Walking around the park where the Crystal Palace was you get  a sense of the scale of the building, it was massive.

Aerial view of Crystal Palace

View of Crystal Palace in all its glory, a shame it's not still around. 

Remains at the cite of the Crystal Palace

There was a whole lot of these, unfortunately named, Routemaster buses parked up in Crystal Palace park, some red and some green.

 

We had a great time in Crystal Palace and will definitely go back, they had lots of interesting restaurants and pubs and in summer I think the park will be a nice place to be as it is on a hill and should get a nice breeze. 

Glass Addiction

So I have managed to acquire a whole lot more glass then ceramics (will need a lot of bubblewrap to bring this all home).

Glass collection so far...

These pink bowls spawned my glass collection

Great for fruit salad and desserts

Pink frosted glass
These sit on my dressing table

Art Deco style bowls in citrine glass (clear and opaque)

Amber glass

Water jug & glasses brought in Oban, Scotland

more Amber glass

Sweets dish

Dramatic Art Deco bowl

Selection of green glass bowls

Dressing table set missing the lidded pot which usually comes with these sets. Tray is chipped but candlsticks in very good condition.

Simon gave these to me for Christmas.
(He brought them from an Antique store)

A couple of reference books to help with the collecting.

Glass overtakes Ceramics

About a year and a half ago I decided I wanted to start collecting ceramics (primarily functional domestic tableware). Simon wasn't too happy about my new found hobby but I managed to convince him that shipping all my purchases back to NZ when we eventually head home wouldn't cost a fortune. Ceramics have always interested me from my days at Masterworks Gallery. So I started scouting in charity shops for pieces to add to my collection. Charity shops in the UK are of a very high standard clean, tidy and with really good quality merchandise (I buy quite a lot of 2nd hand clothes and books but that's a whole other blog) and they are everywhere. Just in Balham alone there is six and they are all pretty good. I assume they must get some sort of subsidised rents as they occupy prime shopping locations on all high streets. I wanted to collect tableware so that we would actually get to use it not just have it on a shelf collecting dust.

Ceramics so far.......

Poole England
This set is a recent purchase. I spotted the cups and saucers in one shop but wasn't 100% sure I wanted them so carried on to another charity shop and found the teapot then had to race back to get the matching pieces

Windmill logo made in England
I found these in York again from two different shops.

Left: WAKBRZYCH Made in Poland (Purchased Rye)
Centre: Windmill logo made in England (Purchased York)
Right: Staffordshire Potteries Ltd, UK (Purchased York)

Made in England
These are great soup bowls with a green and fine gold rim.

Myott Son & Co Made in England
Very pretty oval platters

Jug: Melbaware England
We use this jug all the time it's a favourite!

Brought this plate today at Oxfam in Tooting £1.49 I couldn't resist the botanical print.

My collection has started slowly with very few ceramic pieces catching my eye so I have decided to collect glass as well after picking up some pretty pink dishes will post photos of glass separately.