Primark threatens Hanway Street

I have just heard that Hanway Street, that handy cut-through from TottCtRd to Oxford Street, is under threat from a retail giant.

It seems Primark, the makers of mass-produced throw-away tat, sorry, clothes, are moving into the old Virgin Megastore and this narrow street at the back isn't wide enough for their delivery trucks. They have made proposals to Camden Council which will include widening the loading bays and altering the street to include designer boutiques. Mind you, it's been widened before (see below).

So Hanway Street, with its quirly mix of bars (mainly Spanish bars where I have spent many a late drunken night over the years), restaurants, record shops, offices and homes, may end up looking like Neal Street.

And I can clearly remember Neal Street when it had real shops in it... and Camden Passage... and Camden 's Chalk Farm Road... and Upper Street... and charing Cross Road... and... and...

Andaz, Anzac, Antz, Ant and Dec Hotel, or whatever it's called

Up until this week I'd never been inside the Great Eastern Hotel at Liverpool Street. I'd always meant to wander in and have a snoop about, convinced as I was that inside would be like stepping into the past. Victorian and Edwardian railway hotels were always set up as showcases; just check out The Midland Grand Hotel in St Pancras and Gare D'Orsay in Paris, to name but two.

These days, however the hotel is owned and managed by the Hyatt group and they have seen fit to change the name to Andaz. Why they couldn't have kept the the original name or come up with a compromise such as 'The Hyatt Great Eastern' is beyond me because as I am having trouble remembering the new name (see title above!).

Apparently andaz is a Hindustani word which translates as 'personal style' but, having checked out the hotels rooms I'd say it just looks like Hyatt has been bulk-buying along TottCtRd, especially from Dwell and Elephant.

Much is made of their unconventional lobby area which has no 'traditional' desk or receptionists. Instead guests are welcomed by one of a team of meet-and-greeters who, they say, can organise everything for you whilst they whisk you to your cheerless 1980's-style-pale-grey-with-red-accents room. These are bland bland bland rooms and every one of them has the same colour scheme. Oh that plain dark brown wood is going to date so fast. It's all so charmless, cheerless and lifeless. How about a few tasteful pictures on the walls to remind the guests of the hotel's history? This would neatly tie in with the effort being made to link in to the area's East End cultural heritage – art exhibitions have been organised, and there are 'relevant' quotes on the walls in and around the circular atrium, but no-one seems to know who they are attributed to.

The connecting corridors and utilitarian 'Metropolis'-style stairwells and atriums that link the old and new parts of the building, all made me feel like I was in a sanitorium rather than an exclusive hotel. The lift is encased with industrial mesh that barely conceals electric wires and chalk marks. Looking down from the 2nd floor into the internal courtyard made me feel like a prisoner who isn't allowed to go down to the exercise yard.

But I did like gobo signage. At least letters can't fall off light projections, which is what had happened to the 3D signage. Shame. But then I'm all about interesting details, and there weren't many to see.

On the plus side, the room prices seem reasonable. Much is made of inclusive iPod docks, wifi and organic non-alcoholic minibars (eh?!)... but you only get one silly-shaped chair in a King-sized room!

Moving across to the older part of the hotel (still with bland rooms, but nicer doors)... and – wow! Like a smack in the face, and completely at odds with the new renovations, there's the old original marble staircase with moulded ceilings and grainy marble walls and... get this... just past that, a 'hidden' windowless Masonic temple/room that's wonderfully OTT.

The bars and restaurants on the ground floor are really lovely and still have their fabulous high ceilings and original features. The Champagne Bar mixes the old with the new perfectly and has some small architectural features picked out in modern vibrant green paint. If only the main part of the hotel had followed suit.

We had champagne and sushi (I hate the taste of wasabi so could only safely eat one of the pretty little things) and then, in Catch restaurant, we had fish cakes in consommé (lovely) and a cod dish (disappontingly tasteless and soggy), followed by a selection of scrummy cheeses, chutneys and delicious wines in 1901.

So to conclude... lovely restaurants and bars, friendly and helpful staff, hidden history, horrible hotel rooms.

My pics aren't really up to scratch this time... sorry; I was using an iTouch. Tom's are better. More hotel info and better pics are available here... go check out those posed model shots!

One Eyed Grey – a Penny Dreadful

Time for an embarrassing confession.

I've known Chris for a few years now. I have been on a couple of his walking tours. The man is a wonderfully engaging story teller and a mine of intriguingly bizarre London facts. So how come I have only just got hold of a copy of the superb One Eyed Grey?

OEG is billed as "a penny dreadful for the 21st century" and contains macabre and scary London-based stories penned by a collective of writers. Order your copy here.

The red headings on some pages of the website are pretty scary too!

Top row: Battersea, Great Eastern Street, Grays In Road, Vauxhall Street

Middle row: St John Street, Blackfriars pub, Skinner Street, Millwall Docks

Bottom row: Mount Pleasant, Eastcheap, Harlseden, Seymour Place

Jerry Sadowitz is painful

And that's a bloody compliment!

I went to see his stand-up show last Friday night at the Leicester Square Theatre.

He was relentless... clever and ironic and offensive and intelligent and blasphemous and very funny indeed. I ached... I was exhausted from all the laughing and the concentration needed to keep up with him.

I think it was Billy Connolly who said that the only type of person who it's safe to offend these days is a white heterosexual man. I pretty sure Jerry doesn't agree with that!

He's playing again soon.

Here are just some of the subjects he covers:

Top row: Cockspur Street, Haggerston, Holloway Road, South Tottenham

Middle row: Upper Street, Westminster, Rivington Street, Goswell Road

Bottom row: Crouch End, Holloway Road, Stamford Hill, West Smithfield

Pavement Poetry

It seems I am not alone in my fascination for coal hole covers.

I was recently contacted by Maria Vlotides regarding a book about a public art project she has put together in conjunction with the Notting Hill Improvements Group.

Seven new coal hole covers have been designed, created and embedded into the pavements of W11 showing relevant quotes and poems by writers who live in the area including Sebastian Faulks and P.D. James. The project is backed by the Royal Society of Literature.

My copy of the book arrived this week. It's lovely. And full of great info. Plus, in the 'other sources' section at the back she has very kindly included the link to my set of coal hole photos on Flickr.

A similar project can be found in and around Brick Lane.

Shelter's Vertical Rush

For those of you feeling fit (note I didn't say 'us') you might like to take part in a charity event organised by Shelter whereby you can run up to the top of Tower 42 in the City of London.

Starting at 7.30am on 3rd March, eight waves of runners will set off every hour.

Check the site here for more info.

The London Art Fair

It's that time of year again when Islington's Building Design Centre is packed full of lovely things (and bad things and over-priced things). It runs from today until Sunday 23rd.

This year I will specifically be going along to see Payne Shurvell who I have been following since their opening show in June 2010. They may well be the newest/youngest gallery there. I'll be also coveting any palette-knifed landscapes by Sir Kyffin Williams' as they're far too expensive for my pocket, however, if anyone is ever feeling altruistic in my direction...(!). And, in amongst seeing all the new stuff, I'll be trying to stop myself buying another Stephen Walter map from Tag Fine Arts, and popping in on Beaux Arts Gallery who have some lovely stuff by Nathan Ford... oooh ... shame they are based so far away in Bath.

If only I had more money and a bigger house...

Aerial photography in Not Going Out

Lee Mack's enjoyable sit-com Not Going Out is back on TV for it's 3rd series. I was chuckling away to it the other night, trying to ignore that he's depicted living in a HUGE central London warehouse conversion that would cost a bloody fortune, when I happened to notice that one of the aerial shots of London that are used to punctuate the scenes must be at least 2.5 years old.

It quite clearly shows Centrepoint with the fountains below it and, dare I mention this again, my favourite old gig venue, The Astoria, plus all the shops and other outlets on that stretch all of which have bulldozed to make way for this glass monstrostity masquerading as a tube entrance (see pic bottom left in that link... as I have said before, what a waste of space... There are horrible holes all through London in the name of Crossrail... a future post is in the making).

Oops, I am ranting again...!

So I paused the programme and took some snaps of the aerial shots just to see if the other shots had some architectural ghosts in them too. I would assume that these shots were accurate when the first series went out in 2006.

And then I recalled all the photos I took from my plane seat coming back into Heathrow last year:

See some of them larger here.

Hugh's Fish Fight

Sign up here to stop a terrible waste of life and resources.
Half of all fish caught in the North Sea are thrown back dead.
It just doesn't make sense.
Further afield tuna is being caught to the detriment of other marine life... despite what it tells you on the tins. And as for what farmed salmon are fed on... it just beggars belief.
Watch Hugh's three programmes on the subject here.
Hugh, I love you. Really, I do. And not just for this.

Also see the link in the first comment below re pirate fishing.

Top: Berkeley Square, Billingsgate, Manzi's (Lisle/Leicester Street, now demolished, though it's still on Google Streetview)
Middle: Leytonstone, East Acton Lane x2
Bottom: Battersea (batter!), Malden Road, Cheapside

A Flea in Her Ear

Last night I went to see A Flea in Her Ear at The Old Vic.

My evening didn't start very well as just before curtain up they announced that the wonderful Tom Hollander was not performing. I was so disappointed that I didn't properly hear the reason why. I hope he's not unwell. It almost ruined the play for me before it had even started just by him not being there. Actually, no, I hope he's incapacitated, I will accept no other excuse (LOL), especially as the posters for the play read, "So good they cast him twice". What a shame, I'll just have to keep watching him in this and this.

So, to the play. For the first 15 mins or so I thought it was me who had a flea in the ear, or some kind attention deficit, as the actors spoke so fast with such daft accents or speech impediments, and all over the beginnings and endings of each other's sentences, that it was almost impossible to accurately comprehend half of what they were saying.

When I discussed this in the interval with my three friends they were so relieved because they are French, Spanish and Malaysian which is all rather ironic seeing as the whole play is a French farce based on the mis-understandings of a bunch of Europeans. (Yes, I do know Malaysia isn't in Europe.)

But it turns out it's a fab play and I loved it. There were some great comedic performances in there, especially from Jonathan Cake and Greg Baldock who really did a wonderful job standing in for Tom Hollander, so let's hope for Greg's sake that Tom's ill for longer, ha ha!

Here are some insects and stuff:

Clockwise from top left:

Golden Jubilee Bridge, Kentish Town, Holland(er) House EC3, Rugby Street, Bank, my garden, Spanish Place, a Gregg's cake.

Red feathers and black lace

It's been drawn to my attention that there were a load of semi-naked women in Trafalgar Square last week taking part in an attempt to break the Guinness Book of World Records' attempt for the largest burlesque dance. Sponsored by Virgin, it tied in with that ad that's showing on TV at the moment, hence all the red and black being worn.

I'm no prude but if I was going to parade around semi-naked I'd rather fly off on one of their planes and do it on a beach in the Caribbean or the Far East wearing a bikini. And I do have one in both colours should they need me!

Top row: Walthamstow Village, Rosemary Branch, Serpentine Gallery, Stoke Newington

Middle row: Islington, Surrey Docks, Highgate Village, London Bridge

Bottom row: Battersea, Clerkenwell, Bayswater, Holloway.

Death duties

I went to a funeral earlier this week at St Marylebone Crematorium in East Finchley.

Not the jolliest of subjects I know, and I did promise earlier this week to post about some more positive things, but this was a lovely Humanist service and all about the life of our dear dead friend including a few poems and poignant (actually amusing) music. No hymns, no religion. Everyone there thought it was a wonderful send-off.

It was a far cry from how it was in Victorian times, especially after the death of Queen Victoria, when people were encouraged to save and plan for 'the right kind of burial' which might include horses with feathers, pall bearers, even mutes, who were sad looking people who could be hired to stand silent for hours looking grieved. It was understood that the more you paid the more you cared. There were also strict codes on what one should wear and for how long that ought to be depending on the relationship to the deceased.

It became a very lucrative business as people tried to out-do each other. And check out theses strange customs and superstitions from that period.

These days the lovely old funeral parlour shop fronts in our high streets, complete with cut glass, gold lettering ironic clocks, probably make up a huge percentage of the handful of Victorian shops left in London.

Death is the only certainty of life and so this trade will never really be out of fashion.

Top row: Malden Rd, Tottenham, New Cross, Willesden

Middle row: Hoxton, Finsbury, Walthamstow, Kentish Town

Bottom row: Bloomsbury, Willesden (ghostsign), Hoxton, Limehouse (any news on this place greatly appreciated... it was closed for years and last seen looks like this fabulous frontage may be heading for the wrecking ball...)

See all these here.

The root of all evil

As this goes live I will be seeing my dentist. He'll be drilling and packing my dodgy molar. But once done, joy of joys, I will be able to eat with it again and swill cold water around it. And then I can look forward to getting a nice expensive crown made.

Crown (& Sceptre, now a restaurant) Gt Titchfield St; enamel off Essex Rd; Sweetoof Brick Lane; Drill Hall, Chenies St; gum Crouch End; Regents Canal; teeth Fleet St; filling Earls Court.

No trimmings at Alfie's in Bermondsey

I had my Christmas dinner this year with friends at Alfie's, the restaurant on the ground floor of the Bermondsey Square Hotel.

Well I say Christmas dinner, but that's not what was put in front of me, even though it was Christmas Day and it was my main meal of the day.

Hmmm... so what went wrong?

At £35.00 for 3 courses plus drinks etc and a 'discretionary service charge of 12.5%' call me a fool, but I was expecting something reasonably good. But what I got was tiny and tasteless.

My terrine starter was nice but then the main course was placed in front of me. I waited for side dishes or something but nothing came – that was all I was going to get – a few bits of pan fried turkey on a bed of cabbage with 3 or 4 strands of carrot and some one inch cubes of potato, all drenched in an over-powering gravy, served in a pasta bowl, yes, a pasta bowl...!

Where were the parsnips? The cranberry sauce? The proper roasties? It certainly did not fulfill the description on the menu as being "with all the trimmings". I ate it in about 7 mouthfuls in less than 5 minutes (nutritionists say the main meal of the day should take approx 20 mins to eat).

Then the pudding arrived. It was an unattractive individual blob of a thing about 6cm in diameter and 3cm tall. I cut it half. It was squishy and one tiny mouthful confirmed that it was barely cooked and watery. I don't recall any brandy sauce coming with it.

It was too much to take. I was so disappointed. I complained and got my main course removed from the bill and agreed to a little sticky toffee pudding as a replacement for the wet blobby thing. It was OK but it wasn't very sticky.

Needless to say I shall not be going to eat at Alfie's again.

Here's another not so good review.

Oh, I almost forgot, the male and female signs on the toilet doors are horrible – they are bronze casts of a woman's bra and a pair of Y-fronts. Due to the colour of them and their crumpled-ness both items lead one to think that the hotel is promoting casual sex in the toilets or is renting the rooms by the hour!

Ah well... The streets in and around Bermondsey are littered with interesting gems... all of pics above are less than 10 mins walk from the restaurant.

Poison Apple

Season of goodwill and all that but here comes another rant...

I work on an AppleMac. Years ago Macs were only used as work tools by designers like me. But Apple had to pull it socks up and appeal to a wider market and now it seems everyone and his mother owns something with an i in front of it.

My latest gripe involves upgrades and unhelpful advice. Here goes:

I can't have an iTouch until I upgrade my Mac to 10.5 or higher. It seems I need to be running Snow Leopard. For those of you who are confused about that, you're not alone... read on...

After two hours of checking specs and forums on the web I was none the wiser as to which SL product I needed to buy so I booked a 'Genius' appointment at the Apple Store in Cov Gdn.

When I got there the place was packed – after all, it is just an internet cafe without the food and drink. There is no signage to say where the Genius Bar is; one has to keep asking. There is also no signage anywhere to say where anything else is either.

Two red-shirted numpties came up to me and asked if I had a one-to-one booked. Er. Yeah? Dunno? What? My name wasn't on the list. When I explained why I was there they looked me like I was the most stupid person in the world and and told me (d'uh!) that I had a 'technical' query, and then mentally patted themselves on the back for being so jolly and obsequious yet perversely condescending and patronising.

This did not put me in a good mood. And I had to wait ver 20 mins before I was seen. My grinning nerd, sorry, genius, said I needed Snow Leopard. It occurred to me at this point that he just assumed I knew what this was – Apple seems to think that we know about every Apple product they sell in advance, both in-store and on-line. It's not very helpful.

I explained my problem and my genius asked what system spec I was running. Had I not had the foresight to take with me every bit of info I could find he would not have been able to help me. Ooh dear reader, how further pissed off would I have been then?

But, good news – the diagnosis is that I only needed to spend £25 to upgrade my system. Phew!

So... as I'd only used 5 mins of my 20 I thought I'd quiz him about other things, and bloody glad I did because I needed some info about upgrading my iPhoto. (In order to create the montages for this site I have set up a lot of cross-referenced files for the 16,000+ images I have on file – I have hundreds of folders and sub-folder in there – a bootscraper pic may be filed in 'Bootscrapers', 'Bloomsbury' and, due to its cat shape, in 'Animals' too. It's an old package and is suffering with overload.)

BUT, get this... hold onto your seat... he told me when I upload Snow Leopard my old iPhoto won't work! And, furthermore, if I upload the new iPhoto (part of iLife, which contains 3 other things I don't need) it won't retain all my existing folders. Aaaargh! I almost self-combusted.

The genius gave me nothing in the way of advice how best to get around this but instead just looked at me as if to say, 'that's it, I am done... next!".

It's like throwing the whole contents of a metal filing cabinet into a skip.

Yes, I have the originals all backed-up chronologically but what an uphill struggle it's gonna be... once I get iLife, I will have to re-make my folders (see you all in February when I have finished) and then load SL, and then possibly get an iTouch. Or not.

Or I may just give up and go and live in a hut on a wi-fi-less beach somewhere...

What really annoys me about this is that Apple have made us all their puppets. Once hooked, we have no choice but to keep upgrading*. Hard to believe that not so long ago Mac-users were derided by PC users convinced, as these people were, that Macs would be phased out. But thanks to Mr Jobs, what was once a piece of kit that I used to do my job on is now a toy for the masses, complete with family and friends.

The i in iTouch, iMac, iPhone etc is obviously a reference to Steve Jobs, not us – there is no me or you in Apple; it's themMaster, themControl, themBoss.

Thoughts... I can't help but think that we are losing a lot here; where are we going with all this in the future? Backing-up to DVDs and CDs is all well and good but discs have a short shelf life, yet a vinyl record can still be played, a Box Brownie will still take pictures, 35mm film can be scanned to any size...

What would happen to my photos on Flickr and this blog should I drop down dead tomorrow?

And finally, it just occurred to me that I create these montages using Quark... don't get me started about that other bully, Adobe...

*until the next must-have system comes along...

The state of my health in ghost signs

Less than 2 weeks after shaking off the last headcold and I've somehow picked up another one.

This isn't funny. I have been coughing and sniffing and sneezing for 3 days now and I am really not happy about it. I can't remember the last time I felt like like this. Oh gawd.

I read somewhere that there are over 147 common colds... we don't stand a chance... perhaps I have been mixing with the dirty public too much lately...?

Ironically I am working at the British Medical Journal this week!

So stay healthy, build up those antibodies, wash your hands, fight those germs, but don't get silly! I fear that in the future the human race won't consist of the survival of the fittest, but instead people will be cocooned in head-to-toe latex, and babies will be made in laboratories.

All of these and more here.

Festive Fair at London Docklands

This is where I will be showcasing my Amelia Parker clay pipe jewellery...

It's just occurred to me that some of you may not have taken in that this not at the main Museum of London, but at the sister museum here.

If you are planning on coming, the museum galleries are open as usual during the day but the fair does not start until 6pm.

Stalls will start clearing up 8.45pm.

Thanks.

And a really big thanks to the guys at Londonist for writing such a brilliant feature about Amelia Parker clay pipe jewllery in today's Santa's Lap.

Charles Dickens Museum in Doughty Street

The home where Charles Dickens wrote The Pickwick Papers, Nicholas Nickleby and Oliver Twist is getting £2 million from the National Lottery Fund.

The house in Doughty Street, WC1, is now home to The Charles Dickens Museum and they intend use the money to store more than 10,0000 books, manuscripts etc relating to Dickens' life.

Dickens lived in the building for only two years (1837-39) and this brings me to my blue plaque bugbear... how long does someone need to have lived somewhere for a blue plaque to be deemed appropriate?

OK, in this instance, a few novels were written on the premises, but has anyone else noticed how many blue plaques in London represent Dickens because he slept on someone's sofa one night, popped in for a cuppa, or lived 'nearby'!

But the museum is well worth a visit, and Doughty Street and the adjoining Bloomsbury streets are worth a stroll down any day as the area is a mine of wonderful architectural features, as shown in the montage below.

And here are 15 interesting facts about the man.

The best that London has to offer

London Ambassadors, a scheme run by London Mayor's office, is aiming to recruit 8000 volunteers who can help show off the best that London has to offer during the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012. Apply to be an Ambassador here. Or go to Facebook.

In conjunction with this drive they are also running a competition asking Londoners to recommend a place that they think no trip to the capital should be without. As per Jane's London this should be not just the usual visitor attractions; they are looking for hidden gems such as small museums, cafes, restaurants, shops, alleys, etc that are not on the usual tourist trails. The 60 winners will be chosen at random (which in my opinion is a bit daft) and will get a ‘Take Two London 2 for 1’ Voucher and Guide Book which contains £900 worth of potential savings to be cashed in at over 70 London attractions, restaurants, bars, museums, galleries and tours. Enter here.

The competition closes on 10th December 2010.

Picture refs here.

Christmas markets

There are a lot of Christmas fairs and markets in London this year. Perhaps I am ultra-aware of this having left it too late in the year to apply for a stall at one of these markets to sell my own stuff.... ah well, next year...

Some of this year's bigger markets are listed here and here. But there are lots of smaller events worth checking out here, plus others this weekend in SW17, N16, and next weekend in SE17.

However, the good news is that I have managed to secure a stall at The Museum of Dockland's Festive Fair taking place on the eve of December 9th. There will be 50 stalls selling various kinds of unique arts and crafts, plus a bar, live music and carols, and the museum galleries will be open for the duration... so please do come along and say hello.

Top row: Hampstead, Stoke Newington x2

Middle row: West India Quay, Carey Street, Hyde Park

Bottom row: Crouch End, South Bank, Belgravia Mews

Ice, Ice Baby

Bloody hell... has London gone ice skating mad?!

There are plenty of rinks here in London already – the indoor ones in Streatham, Finsbury Park and Romford, and the seasonal outdoor ones that have been about for years at Somerset House and Broadgate – but it feels like very other day I hear about yet another rink opening for the Christmas season. Have we gone ice skating mad?!

I say 'we' but I haven't attempted to skate for over 30 years. It wasn't a good night; I wasn't very good at it, my friend had her hand cut by another skater's blade when she fell over, and someone went home with my brand new wedges such that I had to go home sad and shoeless. Now I am dare try to ice skate in case I put my back out!

But if sliding about on slippy things is your kind of thing, here's a fairly comprehensive list of where to do it.

Top row: Greenwich, Queensway, Tower of London, (Highgate)

Second row: Somerset House, Natural History Museum, (Regents Canal, Commercial Road), Hyde Park

UKCG urging their worshippers to go into debt

I just read this in today's Times...

It seems the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, which occupies the old Astoria/Rainbow building in Finsbury Park, is encouraging its congregation not to pay their personal bills so that they will have more money to give to 'God'.

UCKG say that only when people sacrifice all their worldly possessions will their financial prayers be answered. They even offer financial 'help' with this.

It saddens and angers me that this sort of thing is still going on, and less than a mile from my front door.

Read the articles here, though you have to subscribe to the Times site (I will attempt to upgrade this in due course). And here's a 'review' of the church.

The only positive thing I can say about all this is that having a church in residence has meant that the interior of the lovely old cinema has been kept relatively intact. You can wander in and have a look around – just be sure not part with any cash when you are there.

Bar Boulud at The Mandarin Oriental

Earlier this week, thanks to Travel Onion, I went for a lunchtime treat in Knightsbridge with a few other London bloggers. I wasn't sure this was gonna be my kind of thing as when I started this blog I wanted to be specifically about things on the streets. But I am so glad I accepted the invitation as the place and the people were lovely.

I'd have been happy just wandering the hotel's corridors, lobbies and staircases as the inside of the building is beautiful – a lovely mix of old England with touches of the East – but we were also taken inside some of the rooms including the spa, the beautiful and ornate dining room that overlooks Hyde Park, the original entrance on the park side of the building, a standard room (did they say approx £800 a night depending on the season?!) and then to the Royal Suite which was stunning... if you are interested in the price for a night there, then multiply that last room rate by about twelve!! If anyone needs a roommate for a night, just get in touch. (Actually, does that sound a bit forward?!)

After our tour we were treated to lunch in Bar Boulud on the ground floor. The food was scrumdicious (my own word!); plates of charcuterie consisting of patés, hams and terrines, plus seafood platters and salads, followed by a main course, my choice being one of their fantastic hand-made burgers – the one I had had foie gras in it but is only available on Sundays and Mondays.

Oh, and we had four different wines, all of which were explained (what's the word I want here?) to us by the Head Sommelier. Excellent! In a nut shell, I'd love to eat there again, especially as I was impressed at the competitive prices. But I suspect it'll be hard to get a table there soon as the place is becoming very popular. Rightly so.

Oh, and if it's not enough the hotel having David Boulud, it seems Heston Blumenthal is opening a restaurant there soon too, though the hotel's site says Autumn 2010.

And the light fittings throughout the whole building are gorgeous.

Islington royalty and nobility

Walking from New North Road to Angel tube station via Prebend Street the other day I noticed that most of the pubs I passed were Lord this, Duchess that, Earl whatever.

So I have delved a bit deeper and found that within the N1 postcode there are.... eight Dukes (Cambridge, Clarence, Richmond, Sussex, two Wellingtons and two Yorks), two Duchesses of Kent, an Earl of Essex, the Marquess Tavern and a Marquis of Salisbury and Lords Clyde and Wolseley.

And there are lot of Royals about too – Kings Edward VI and VII, William IV, two George IVs, Charles I and the King of Denmark. Plus Princes Albert, Arthur, of Wales and Regent and a few heads and arms of non-specified Kings and Queens.

So what's all that about then?

These are all fairly self-explanatory except the Balls Pond Road image which used to be the Marquis 0f Salisbury.

Bulldoze Battersea Power Station?

Ooh this should rile a few people... but here goes...

The latest plans for the shell of what used to be this wonderful building is to convert it into shops and offices; er, haven't we been here been here before? A few times, even?

And is it really going to happen this time?

I have always hoped that BPS could be brought back to life in a good way, but after all the years of neglect I am starting to think that someone should have the balls to just knock the thing down now and start again from scratch – after all, the new developments that surround it, like the Howard and Warwick buildings, haven't exactly been built with any sympathy to it – it just looks silly surrounded by all those charmless glass boxes.

When BPS was originally built as part of the National Grid system it was an architectural showcase full of polished metal and waxed wood, to show the rest of the world what Britain was capable of. Workers there had to wear felt over-shoes so as not to mark the expensive parquet flooring. But all that is long gone and what is left has been ruined thanks to the removal of the roof decades ago. It's all so sad. What are we really trying to hold onto anymore? And do we really need yet another shopping centre?

The latest plans look to me to be extremely similar to the Kings Cross development. Everywhere is gonna end up looking the same; it's all so homogenous.

Below is a collection of architectural images mostly taken in the immediate Nine Elms vicinity. Also included are two shots featuring that hideous Albion Riverside Building, which is further upstream.