Living In The City
Walking down the roads of london there is always more to expolore and experience... I first moved to London. I wanted to see different places all the time so I hung maps in my room and marked off streets as I walked them. This helped
me keep track of where I’d been, but also helped me map out the city in my head and see how it connected. I have a freakishly spatial mind, and once I have been somewhere I know it — it’s on my mental map and it stays put pretty solidly for a long, long time.
That’s where the idea of walking down every street originated, I think, from a personal desire to create a big map of the city in my head and not need to carry one (although I still do because I love maps!). Last autumn, I had to finally admit to myself that
my time in London is going to be over very soon, and I could not bear the thought of leaving without having seen it all. I fired up the project again and really got to it in October (with some breaks here and there for work and holidays). In many ways,
this project has been a process of saying goodbye. I have walked many of these streets many times in my four years here, but I chose to walk them all again. Some days have been almost painfully nostalgic as I see shadows of myself sitting at cafes
with friends, picnicking in the parks, ringing in the New Year, stumbling home from the pub, etc. Some of it has been new and has made me sad I didn’t know about it sooner. But overall it has been a really intense bonding experience with the city,
Samuel Johnson might have said,”If you are tired of London, you are tired of life.” His exact words should have been,”If you are tired of shopping in London, you are tired of shopping.”I am never tired of shopping, especially in London. Its retail landscape reflects the town as a whole: sprawling, hard to pin down, alternately proper and profane, and above all tolerant—freewheeling enough to accommodate the tastes of everyone from Miss Marple to Marianne Faithfull to Kate Moss. My earliest London mem ories are of gazing upon Aubrey Beard-
sley-esque gowns at the long-vanished Biba and wondering whether buying a parasol at Fortnum & Mason would make me feel like Virginia Woolf. (The first thing I actually purchased was a wool turtleneck from Marks & Spencer, London’s July weather having taken me by surprise.) I may no longer rush to the market stalls of = of Palgina Goodman stilettos. Here, then, some of the very best London has to offer. ernately proper and profane, and above all tolerant—freewheeling enough to accommodate the tastes of everyone from Miss Marple to
enough to accommodate the tastes of everyone from Miss Marple to Marianne Faithfull to Kate Moss. My earliest London memories are of gazing upon Aubrey Beardsley-esque gowns at the long-vanished Biba and wondering whether buying a parasol at Fortnum & Mason would make me feel like Virginia Woolf. (The first thing I actually purchased was a wool turtleneck from Marks & Spencer, London’s July weather having taken me by surprise.) I may no longer rush
to the market stalls of Camden Town, but some things haven’t changed. I am still besotted with British fashion, though my definition of classic has expanded to include a velvet cape from Georgina von Etzdorf and a pair of hand-painted Georgina Goodman stilettos. Here, then, some of the very best London has to offerernately proper and profane, and above all tolerant—freewheeling enough to accommodate the tastes of everyone from Miss Marple to Marianne Faithfull to
Smollensky’s on The Strand is a stylish American basement Cocktail bar and Restaurant on one of London’s most famous streets. The menu is modern typical American, but also has a few twists to it. It is designed to appeal to all tastes, particularly anyone who loves good meat and fish. The all-American staples include steaks, delicious hickory-smoked Ribs, Chicken wings. There is also salt and pepper squid , scallops, and succulent king prawns, Our famous Jambalaya, sweet boiled crayfish, chicken and spicy chorizo. Homemade sinful desserts, the peanut butter cheese cake is to die for. Our Happy Hour run daily from 5-8pm. The cool bar area at the front is always busy with postwork drinkers and pre theater diners waiting for their tables. Smollensky’s always provides a great night out and is an ideal restaurant for any occasion from Birthdays,
Enjoy the Diverse City cusine of London A honky-tonk roadhouse serving deep-fried pickles and chili-cheese fries. A Parsi café straight out of old Bombay. A semi-secret chef ’s table, tucked behind a hot dog joint, that’s giving Copenhagen a run for its foraged nettles. If you haven’t eaten in London lately, get back as soon as you can— and expect the unexpected. Over the past six months I’ve made multiple visits to the city, running the gaut of its ever-expanding food scene. My focus was on new or recent openings, along with a few old favorites still going strong.
claves as Marylebone and Fitzrovia—the latter home to two of the city’s best restaurants. Two: there is no “London dining scene,” in the singular sense. Though certain tropes and trends pop up, there’s little to unify the city’s food offerings, except that the bill is calculated in pounds sterling. As with music and fashion, the culinary realm here has been niched and sub-niched so much that the options are now near-endless.Three: few cities on earth offer food this good across the board. That’s not a judgment; it’s a fact.
As I crisscrossed the city, three things became apparent.One: you can travel a long way to eat at a great local restaurant here. (On, Bermondsey, Clapham, Hackney, and Brixton!) Today’s standouts are often in neighborhoods well beyond the West End. You could liken it to the Brooklyn effect in New York, but a proper comparison would have to throw in the Bronx, Staten Island, and New Jersey as well. Still, central London is far from over: Soho is enjoying its umpteenth revival, and Covent Garden is suddenly red-hot for dining. Meanwhile, the buzz has shifted to such once-humdrum en-
Pound for pound, nose to tail, there’s never been a better—or, frankly, wackier—time to eat here. So which London are you after?What a drag to live in London and have a job—a dreary morning-interrupter that keeps you from lingering over the day’s best meal. Options are myriad: Tom’s Kitchen for the full English, Daylesford for poached eggs, the Wolseley for every damn thing on the menu. But the new Granger & Co. is not only the prettiest breakfast spot in town, it’s arguably the best. Opened by Australian chef Bill Granger, whose Sydney café Bills is legendary for
eggs and pancakes, it occupies a prime block of Notting Hill where geraniums fill every window box. Sunlight pours through double-height windows, casting a glow on the radiant crowd, most of whom look as if they’ve come from a morning swim at Bondi. Order an Aussie-style flat white, grab a paper from the granite-topped bar, and indulge in a platter of silky eggs, gently folded with I don’t want to fathom how much cream, and served with chipolata sausages and avocado relish—or go all out for Granger’s famous ricotta hotcakes, topped with sticky, molten chunks of honeycomb butter. For a more old-world vibe, head to Sloane Square and join the air-kissers at Colbert, the latest from Chris Corbin and Jeremy King, the gifted duo behind the indefatigable Wolseley. They’ve taken over the corner spot long occupied by Oriel, whose food was so lousy that the building’s landlord, the Earl of Cadogan, purportedly refused to renew the lease. He turned the space over to Corbin and King, who upgraded it in the manner of an all-day Parisian grand café. With stage-set lighting,
Food on the go... In London grab your food on the go from the various cafes and food stores such as Pret and Eat.
Pret A Manger is the sort of chainbut-better, like Chipotle or Starbucks, beloved by urbanities who would never confess to loving McDonald’s or KFC. That it started out in London might have something to do with it; so too might the perception of Pret as a benevolent enterprise, one that has spread over major metropolitan areas but isn’t really fast food. Privately owned and committed to (in their words)
“avoiding the obscure chemicals, additives and preservatives common to so much of the ‘prepared’ and ‘fast’ food on the market today,” they’re easier to think of as a health-minded, “real food”-minded sandwich shop that just happens to have hundreds of locations.
Covent Garden, square in the City of Westminster, London. It lies just northwest of the Strand. For more than 300 years it held the principal fruit, flower, and vegetable market of the metropolis. Adjacent to the former market site stands the Royal Opera House (Covent Garden), home of Britain’s oldest national opera and ballet companies.
the low, solemn-porticoed St. Paul’s Church.
Covent Garden Market operated informally for many years before it was established “forever” by Charles II in 1670. It was rebuilt and reorganized in 1830, and in 1974 it moved to a new, more spacious market site south of the River Thames at Nine Elms, Wandsworth. The 19th-century Flower Market Building Originally a convent garden owned by the was refurbished in the early 1980s and now Benedictines of Westminster, the site was de- includes a variety of shops and attractions, veloped by the 4th earl of Bedford as the cit- including the London Transport Museum. ies of London and Westminster grew together along the north bank of the River Thames. It The Covent Garden Theatre, the original theawas laid out in the 1630s as a “piazza,” or resi- tre on the site, was opened (1732) by John Rich dential square (the first of its kind in London), and served for plays, pantomimes, and opera. to the design of Inigo Jones. Surrounded on During the 1730s, when George Frideric Hanthree sides by tall houses with an arcaded street del was associated with the theatre, opera was floor, the square was bounded on the west by emphasized, but later the focus shifted to plays.
Explore Londons various markets full of arts, crafts, handmade items and food and drink...
Old fashioned houses, long winding roads, beautiful historical churches, greenery and little shops - is the countryside for you or is it th city that you love?
Rural life is friendlier, more peaceful and I know more people in the area in the five years living here than in the last 20 years where I previously lived. Ed Cumming clearly thinkseveryone cuts themselves off from civilisation, but within a 10-minute walk from our house we have a pub, butcher, doctor’s surgery, chemist, post office with cash dispenser, newsagent, petrol station, mini supermarket and much more. Within five minutes in the car, we have a DIY shop, chip shop, and a hospital with an A&E department. Matlock and Haddon Hall are hreemiles away and Chatsworth House and Bakewell are about six miles away.
supermarket, post office, library, doctor’s surgery, optician and several pubs (there is a butcher in a village a mile away). As for cinemas, we have greater choice here than when I lived in the Thames Valley, with three cinemas within a 10-minute drive (yes, these are in village halls, but they show upto-date films with Argo and Quartet coming very shortly and Anna Karenina showing last week).
4x 4, it is likely to be mud-covered, old and not driven in the middle of the road by a WAG.
When we can drag ourselves away from the blazing log fires fed by locally-sourced, free supplies, we are spoilt by a wealth of local pubs serving an extensive selection of real beers and food. Any trip to the city for cultural treats is just that; a treat, rather than taken for granted. Broadband We also have theatres in Taunton, speeds/phone signal issues have Bristol and Exeter. We have a reg- been overcome with boosters, ular and punctual half-hourly bus making it possible to stay in conservice into Minehead and Taun- tact with friends and shop online. ton and yet we are a five-minute drive from the Quantock Hills The only issue is the bruises obfor brilliant walking and 15 min- tained by pinching myself to see utes from Exmoor. I can get from if this has really happened, and Taunton to London by train very the odd bump from low beams! Finally, my seven-year-old grand- easily; however, apart from getson’s school is up the lane ad- ting to the airports I rarely go. FANS OF THE CITY jacent to our bungalow, across two fields, and is where I go to Why would I? I had years of be- Annette Mills collect him most afternoons. ing squashed on tubes, pushed Could life be more convenient and shoved on pavements, con- I read your article and couldn’t and better than Whenever I read stantly keeping my hand on my resist writing my thoughts as articles like this, I wonder who bag to prevent pickpockets and I prepare to leave the counthese people are who think there fighting for a seat in a restau- tryside after seventeen years. are no facilities in the country. rant. If I have to go to a city, give Not everyone has to live five miles me a Bristol or Exeter any day. Originally a Londoner, I had from shops which when found looked forward to moving away close at 2pm. In fact, probably the Ruth Hulme, Cheshire from the city. Unfortunateonly people who do are farmers. ly, nothing here is as it seems. In May last year we moved I find it quite odd anyway that from Wilmslow, just south of Are the people friendlier? Not Ed Cumming, when going to the Manchester, 30 miles away to at all. The locals are at best suscountry for a visit, is desperate to the beautiful village of Bun- picious and greedy, at worst visit shops – is that really what bury, near Tarporley, Cheshire. downright vindictive. If you own he wants to do on a weekend land, be prepared for repeataway? Similar thoughts sprang The advantages are many, ranging ed requests to walk dogs, ride to mind when reading your main from the beautiful countryside horses and shoot pigeons on it. article. Does Clare Myers-Shaw complete with canal, real working The sleepy agricultural tenant really think that there is no de- farms, locally-sourced meat from and his benign looking wife, in cent coffee outside London? the brilliant butcher Burrows and the cottage next door may well mud-covered veg purchased from turn out to be malicious gossips I and many others in this beau- Brosters farm shop via an hones- who do not pay their rent and tiful part of West Somerset have ty box – which in itself is a great ask for large handouts of cash. the ideal location. I am in a small place to meet locals. The drivers town/large village with a small are courteous and, if driving a There are pop guns (bird scarers)
However, for young people the lack of rural jobs paying a living wage and high transport and housing costs continue to make it hard for them to live in the countryside, and we urge the Government to support this group to prevent country homes being affordable only for second homeowners and city commuters.’Last week senior Conversative MP Graham Stuart claimed that rural areas were still suffering a serious ‘injustice’ in the amount of money they receive for local services.He said that the coalition’s failure to address the shortfall in funding endured by councils in rural parts of the country was ‘inexcusable’.tuart, MP for Beverley and Holderness, said that rural councils received around half the funding of their urban counterparts per head of population – a socalled ‘rural penalty’ – due to the way Government funding formulas work.‘The rural penalty of 50 per cent more per headgoing to urban areas is just not right,’ Stuart told the Commons.
Beautiful country homes
Farming at your doorstep However, for young people the lack of rural jobs paying a living wage and high transport and housing costs continue to make it hard for them to live in the countryside, and we urge the Government to support this group to prevent country homes being affordable only for second homeowners and city commuters.’Last week senior Conversative MP Graham Stuart claimed that rural areas were still suffering a serious ‘injustice’ in the amount of money they receive for local services.He said that the coalition’s failure to address the shortfall in funding
endured by councils in rural parts of the country was ‘inexcusable’.tuart, MP for Beverley and Holderness, said that rural councils received around half the funding of their urban counterparts per head of population – a so-called ‘rural penalty’ – due to the way Government funding formulas work.‘The rural penalty of 50 per cent more per headgoing to urban areas is just not right,’ Stuart told the Commons. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/ article-2458600/People-living-countryside-happier-optimistic-towns-cities.html#ixzz3a7kX9TAK
Explore our english heratige...
Both genteel and wild, there’s nothing quite like the English countryside for rural escapes with its patchwork hills, dramatic dales, ancient woodlands and winding country roads. All well and good, but what is there to do in England’s countryside exactly? Quite a lot, actually. Admire the grand interiors of a stately home before catching
a play in the surrounding gardens, travel back in time with visits to ancient stone circles and crumbling castles, or step into a chocolate box of quaint villages and market towns and live like a local, trying farmhouse cheeses, cream teas and real ales along the way. Both genteel and wild, there’s nothing quite like the English countryside for rural
Both genteel and wild, there’s nothing quite like the English countryside for rural escapes with its patchwork hills, dramatic dales, ancient woodlands and winding country roads. All well and good, but what is there to do in England’s countryside exactly? Quite a lot, actually.
Both genteel and wild, there’s nothing quite like the English countryside for rural escapes with its patchwork hills, dramatic dales, ancient woodlands and winding country roads. All well and good, but what is there to do in England’s countryside exactly? Quite a lot, actually. Admire the grand interiors of
Admire the grand interiors of a stately home before catching a play in the surrounding gardens, travel back in time with visits to ancient stone circles and crumbling castles, or step into a chocolate box of quaint villages and market towns and live like a local, trying farmhouse
a stately home before catching a play in the surrounding gardens, travel back in time with visits to ancient stone circles and crumbling castles, or step into a chocolate box of quaint villages and market towns and live like a local, trying farmhouse cheeses, cream teas and real ales along the way. Both genteel
Your Country Pub
what could be better than eating at a pub on your travels?
A Great Country Pub serves local cask ales and excellent food based on local ingredients. It’s located in idyllic rural surroundings. It’s a building that clings to its heritage, radiates a friendly atmosphere and offers a comfy bed for the night. Most importantly, a Great Country Pub has been assessed to meet our high standards. If you’re looking for a special place to eat and drink with family and friends or rest your head then you must choose a Great Country Pub.
Living In The Countryside