The Year Of The Dragon

It's the start of the Chinese New Year today, and this year it's the turn of the dragon.
More about chinese astrology signs etc here. I am a tiger... grr!!
For a a dragon with a difference, go to Spitalfileds Market and see Roger's wonderful balloon creation outside Giraffe restaurant.
I have put some images of dragon together before here and here, but I have since found some more firey beasts to add to my collection, and none are in Gerrard Street, Chinatown, where the main Chinese new year celebrations will be in full swing.

Top row: Cheapside, Holloway, West Hampstead and Smithfield
Middle row: London Bridge, Borough, Smithfield and Harley St
Bottom row: Fitzrovia, Piccadilly (RIP), Bermondsey and Kensington

Wood carving exhibition in Richmond

My very talented sister will be featured in an exhibition at The Riverside Gallery's Good Wood / Wood Works: Contemporary Wooden Art & Craft show at Richmond's Old Town Hall from 21st January to 7th April.
Go... and be inspired. It's free.

Below are some carved wooden pieces from the streets of London (clockwise from top left): Bishopsgate, Bayswater, Kennington, Bishopsgate, Clapham, Kings Cross.

The 'Trafalgar Sun' art installation

Here's a way to cheer up January....
On Monday 23rd giant ball of light, equivalent to that of 60,000 lightbulbs (or is it 260,000?), will be installed high above Trafalgar Square designed to brighten us up from dawn until dusk.
Weather permitting, it should look amazing at dawn break when the light effect will be at its most intense.
Sadly, I won't be around to see it this so please do get snapping and send me some links or photos.
Update:
Here's a video of the construction of the event
and here's another one of the 'sun' itself

Mixed up with images of Trafalgar Square:
Top row: Brixton, Albert Embankment, Cornhill, 
Middle row: Liberty's, Albert Bridge, Marylebone
Bottom row: Tottenham Court Road

I have been discovered in LivingEtc

Thanks to littletree designs for blogging about me after seeing the piece in LivingEtc magazine.

Celebrate Epiphany at The Connaught

I am a little behind with this... 
Hélène Darroze, head chef at the lovely Connaught Hotel has created a special Galette des Rois to celebrate Epiphany (6^th January) which marks the arrival of the Three Kings in the nativity story. 
Hélène's Galette des Rois will be served with afternoon tea at the hotel during January and, if you are lucky, you may find a piece of French jewellery hidden within the puff pastry and frangipane making a lovely afternoon break even lovelier. 
More information here.

Here are three British kings on London pubs in Leytonstone, Marylebone and Borough, plus a quirky alternative version in Clerkenwell:

What a boob! Breasts are go go go!

News this week is that thousands of women are to get their fake boobs de-commissioned by the NHS because the private clinics who installed them (yes, installed) in the first place say it isn't it's their responsibility. Our money is about to be spent on (in the most part) self-obsessed vain women who wanted quick fixes.
I agree with the clinics; after all no one forced these women to have operations they didn't want to have. The women made free choices to spend their own money on something they thought was going to make them feel better.

I can't be the only one who isn't surprised that the breasty bags of seepy goo are starting to break down and infect these women's bodies.   

A thought: if they fall over in their silly high heels and break their legs are they now going to expect the shoe shops to pay up for that too? And, whilst I am on the high shoe subject, what about the osteopaths they are going to need sometime soon too? It's gonna get really expensive...
Yes, there are women whose lives have been radically improved after the loss and then replacement of a breast after cancer treatment, but on the flip side, I have actually heard mothers encouraging their 18 year old daughters to have a boob job; girls that look absolutely lovely as they are and should not have someone, least of all their mother, suggesting that they are sub-standard. That's wrong on so many levels.
The money might be better spent getting these women into therapy to help them understand why they are being duped into thinking they 'need' this invasive surgery in the first place. As I write this I am reminded that when my mother was receiving radiotherapy the nurses told her that women were often coming in to the hospital to ask for the treatment because they had heard that it destroys the hair follicles and was therefore better than waxing.
It's all about quick fixes. Getting the latest look. And it's been going on for centuries – I bet these women with their gravity-defying chests would probably be outraged at the beauty regimes of the past...
To get that perfectly pale look Elizabethan women applied lead directly to their skin to lighten it (a practice that dates back to the Ancient Greeks) and they used mercuric sulphide for those must-have cherry lips. Finally, a dab of belladonna to brighten the eyes. Ooh lovely. But no pain, no gain.
The Egyptians used a variety of metals to keep them looking attractive including lead sulphite and copper. More recently the Victorians used arsenic for so many things its hard to believe they lived as long as they did.
These days the beauty industry is still enticing woman to part with their money in the most macabre of ways. What will future generations think when they look back at all this? When they remember the women who thought it was normal to have their faces injected with poison for that constantly surprised yet dim look. And had bits of cows put in too for the perfect fishy pout?
Is your arse not round or pert enough? Whack in a a few bags of silicon to get that bootylicious behind. Too fat? Eat a few pies and get a man with an oversized dirt devil to vacuum it out for you.
Luckily I don't need all this. I have perfect breasts and a fabulous arse. Yeah.
Fried eggs for breakfast anyone?

Breasts:
Top: Lime Street, Holloway, Dalston, Paddington 
Middle: Isle of Dogs, Leon, Long Acre, Haymarket
Bottom: Bloomsbury, Paddington, Rotherhithe, Shaftesbury Ave

One Eye Grey now on Kindle

The erudite, informative and entertaining Mr Chris Roberts has just informed me that his collection of strange London tales, collectively known as One Eye Grey and previously available in pamphlet form, is now available on Kindle.
I urge you Kindlers to get clicking and downloading.
Enough said, because I have written about these tales before.

The eyes have it:
Top: Battersea, Islington, Marble Arch, SE1
Middle: Acton, Haggerston, Battersea, Holloway
Bottom: Hoplloway, Harlesden, Islington, Spitalfields

Tired of London, Tired of Life

The very lovely and lively Tom Jones has been suggesting a different thing to do in London every day on his site.
The book of the site is now available to buy. It's stuffed full of ideas so there'll be no more "what shall we do today?" moments.
Tom's been on The Robert Elms Show and on BBC London News promoting it (and, I am sure, many other promo opportunities that I missed).
I am chuffed to report that I am mentioned on the acknowledgements page within the same sentence as Samuel Johnson... praise indeed.
Well done Tom.

A little bit of what you fancy

Walking past Angels in Shaftesbury Avenue Road the other week I stopped in my tracks. Didn't they only used to sell dance gear, ballet shoes etc? I am sure I remember their windows used to display tutus, satin pumps and tap shoes, but these days it's all about fancy dress. And you can see into the shop from the street. Am I going mad? I don't remember that either.
I am not a fancy dress party fan. Most of them are too 'organised' for me. By which I mean I like a party with a loose theme where you can invent something subtle, but I am not into the big dos full of the kind of people who never come out all year round but will splash out for a gorilla or Elvis costume for New Year's Eve so that they can pretend to be someone interesting for a change. These are the same people who think it's disgusting to wear second hand clothes yet they will gladly hire something that has been danced about in and dribbled down by 17 other people beforehand.

Ooh, got that off my chest!!
I am not sure yet what I will be doing for this New Year's Eve. I've got a few options. Last year I wandered up to Parliament Hill with my sister and a friend and we stood with hundreds of other like-minded souls and waved sparklers, quaffed champagne and ate chocolates whilst watching fireworks across London. It was really lovely.
Whatever you do, have a great time and here's looking forward to a happy and prosperous 2012.

Fancy ironwork. Now this I like:

Top row: Marylebone x2, Highgate, Queensway

Middle row: Piccadilly, Holloway, City, Kew

Bottom row: Belsize Park, Belgravia, Kings Cross, Bloomsbury

More metalwork here.

Christmas Day Walk 2011

When most people were opening presents or stuffing turkeys I was walking around an almost deserted West End with Peter Berthoud and a group of like-minded souls.

My walk started at 9.15am when I set off from Holloway, taking every opportunity to walk in the road. Because I could. People that passed me said 'hello' or 'merry Christmas'. How nice. It wasn't until about noon that tourists started emerging from their hotels.

I kept stopping to take photos on the way but still managed to be only five minutes late to meet Peter and the others under Admiralty Arch at 10.30am.

He led us up St Martin's Lane, into Covent Garden and Seven Dials, across to St Giles, over into Soho, a meander along the blissfully quiet and empty Oxford Street, then down Carnaby Street and Regent Street, across Piccadilly Circus and into Leicester Square, ending up with a few pints in the Bear and Staff.

Peter pointed out some things I had never spotted before such as little bits of street art and that donation pipe at the side of the House of St Barnabas on Soho Square – how on earth have I managed to miss that all these years? Ditto the story behind one of the statues on Trafalgar Square, and Renzo Piano's rationale for the colours of those bullying buildings at St Giles. I also spotted a few new things of my own along the way (fire alarm bells with old telephone codes etc, a bizarre green plaque etc).

All in all a really nice day. I met some lovely people and learned some new things. Then, when I'd tramped all the way home again, I made myself a bowl of comfort food and watched TV until I dozed off... lovely.

Peter says he enjoyed doing the three walks so much that he plans to do them again next year. Good on him!

More pictures on Flickr.

Coal hole covers as stars and snowflakes

Walking through Bloomsbury the other day I had this seasonal idea...

Stars

Snowflakes

Keeping a diary

From the age of about ten I started to write a diary. It became an obsession; I thought missing a day would be terrible – what if something amazing suddenly happened and I hadn't written it down?!

I continued the ritual until about eight years ago when I was finding it a bit silly, what with boyfriend, job and other commitments. It's not like anyone else ever cast an eye over my thoughts (not that I would have cared if anyone did read it; it was, of course sort of coded, with nothing specifically spelled out). If anyone had bothered to read any of my musings I doubt they would they have cared about what I'd had for lunch or what I thought of that woman in Safeways. Looking back on past writings now, I wonder who the hell was John/Jim/Mary in the pub that night who I thought was worthy of a mention for being so funny? They have been lost to me now.

I hated to miss a day and would sometimes play catch up, so I would scribble something down before I went to sleep most nights, so the funniest days to read back on are the almost indecipherable scribbles and rantings written when I got in at 3am rather the worse for alcohol.

I never took my real diary away with me on holidays because I was scared I would lose my it, so I would write in a notepad and then copy it all up when I got back. How bloody ridiculous is that?! What if the house burned down in my absence? So I just had to stop.

These days I just stick to keeping a day diary which I fill with notes of to dos and appointments. And I still prefer to write things down on paper. With a pen. Yes. Really. It's much faster than typing into an all-singing all-dancing do-it-all phone.

I used to get the wonderful Time Out diary because it's packed out with useful London info. But it took me about 12 years to realise I never really consulted said info. So I downsized to anything I could find in a pound shop. Sometimes I'd even find one with a free pen attached. Result.

But this year I have treated myself to the little gem that is Santoro's London Underground Pocket Diary with it's tube map on the outside (no flicking to some miniature thing on the inside back page) and tabbed months and planners in the colours of the tube lines.

I also have another diary which is really quirky but is really aimed at those people who don't really keep diaries – Keel's Simple Diary. Available in a range of gorgeous colours (mine's the lovely Dark Red), as they say on the blurb it "entertains, helps you focus and keeps you company". Every page is open for you to write in it as and when you please. There's no pressure to write every day. In fact you could take years to fill it in. Or not fill anything in at all because every page/day throws up thought-provoking suggestions, questions, ideas and quotes. It's really novel(!).

Here are some of my photos of London dates taken from my larger collection on Flickr. One of these was in the news earlier this year. . .

London street markets

Mary Portas has been in the news lately talking about injecting some life into our ailing local high streets. Her solution is to (re)introduce street markets.

Well, nice one Mary – whilst I totally agree (hell, I do stalls myself; and let me tell you it ain't fun when it's raining or windy) it gets me thinking about all the markets that we don't have anymore and the dwindling sizes of some of the ones that are still clinging on. The ones that immediately pop into my mind are Lambeth Walk, Hoxton St, Chalton St, hey, even Chapel market in Angel is only half the size it used to be.

I grew up in Romford and the market was amazing when I was a child. You could spend a whole day there going up and down the aisles of stalls and buy everything from soap and vegetables to puppies and haberdashery. Mum told me stories of the cattle market that used to be there when she was young. But today it's a shadow of its former self, now being ignored by people who just want to shop in the adjacent air-conditioned covered homogenous shopping malls.

A while ago I took some photos of pages of a Picture Post from December 1938 showing Lambeth Walk how it was pre-war. Under one picture about the market it reads, 'There's all kinds of stalls including food and clothes and cats' meat . . . really more of a meeting place". I will type it all up post the whole lot up at some point in the future.

And now I recall that on a wall in a restaurant I go to in Turkey(!) there is a photo showing a bustling street market in Farringdon Road in the middle of the 20th century. I have no idea why it's there, and nor does the owner. To the left of it is another photo from the same period shows the main Britannia junction at Camden during the same period. Strange, and very out of place.

But, back to Mary; she's basically right... we're losing our town centres and our sense of community and something needs to be done to rectify this. Farmers' markets are proving popular (though perhaps their high prices deter most people on a budget), and more and more craft markets are springing up.... bring it on... more pitches for me! (it's all about me!).

Speaking of Mary, I recently went and had a look at her clothes outlet in Oxford Street's House of Fraser. I was very disappointed. Considering she is aiming at selling to women of 'a certain age' the boutique is swimming in man-made fibres; hardly appropriate for ladies who 'glow'. Where are the natural basics such as wool jumpers, silk scarves, simple cotton long-sleeved tops and Ts? It all looked like cheap rubbish to me. I left quickly and went to Uniqlo instead. Yes, that's a high street shop, not a market stall...

Top: Broadway, Shepherd, Exmouth, Columbia

Middle: Hoxton, Lambeth Walk 1938, Petticoat

Bottom: Middlesex, Church, Chapel, Portobello

Summer in the winter beer garden on the South Bank

For 3 days we can forget winter, cold weather and Christmas, and instead hang out within the heated dome of the 'Corona Extra Summer' pop-up bar on the South Bank's Riverside Walkway (between Waterloo Bridge and Gabriel's Wharf) from Thursday 15th to Saturday 17th December.

Well, hell, why not? What's not to like?

Charles Dickens 200th anniversary

Charles Dickens was born on 7th February 1812. Which mean next year is his 200th 'birthday'.

The wonderful Museum of London has put on a special exhibition to commemorate this much-loved story-teller. As well as lots of Dickens' personal items and effects, including manuscripts and paintings, the museum has recreated Victorian London using sound projections.

The exhibition runs from 9th December until 10th June. More info here.

Dickens and some of his characters and places. All are fairly self-explanatory excluding The Lord Clyde which is in Clennam Street.

Notting Hill Festive Shopping Night

Oh gawd... you wait for ages and then they all come along at once...

Prior to Lamb's Conduit Street's Christmas event on Friday 9th there's another special shopping night on the eve of Thursday 8th in Notting Hill.

The area around the junction of Westbourne Grove and Ledbury Road is teeming with independent boutiques and eateries selling a wide range of fashion and lifestyle goods.

Between the hours of 6pm and 9pm on Thursday they will be offering all sorts of goodies, including festive treats, discounted products, carol singers and lots more.

So this week you have two good reasons to avoid the banality and homogeneity of Oxford Street and Westfield.

Happy St. Nicholas Day

Today is the feast day of St Nicholas, patron saint of many countries and many things.

I'd write more, but it's all here in this fabulous site. I can't stop poking around in this site... I have things to do and this is distracting me... it's just too good.

Thank you Paul Bommer.

Lamb's Conduit Street

Lamb's Conduit Street, for those of you who do not know, is situated in Bloomsbury between Holborn and Coram Fields. It continues north across Theobald's Road from Red Lion Street and roughly forms the western edge of some of the oldest Georgian Streets in London, namely Doughty Street, John Street, St James' Street and especially Bedford Row which, I am told, contains one of the oldest complete Georgian houses in London (or something like that – please feel free to put me right about this – I seem to recall either Dan Cruikshank or Maxwell Hutchinson talking about this on a TV programme years ago).

This area is great for those one-off gifts – a shopping experience very unlike Oxford Street. And nothing at all like Westfield (ech spit).

Ignoring the prescence of one of the major coffee chains (ech spit 2), Lamb's Conduit Street, and adjoining Rugby Street, boasts a range of independent shops offering all sorts of wonderful things – groceries, homewares, gifts, books, bicycles, lingerie, food, alcohol, curiosities, clothes and proper coffee. Plus a chemist, a florist a funeral director, and a community-run supermarket. So much in such a small area.

Every time I visit the street I wish I lived closer to it. Years ago I had the option of buying a flat near this area and I let someone talk me out of the idea. What a fool I was! Did I mention the good pubs and choice of restaurants too?

There's a late night shopping event coming up soon on Friday 9th December. The shops will be open until 8pm and there will be mulled wine on offer.

Actually, don't tell too many people about this gem... please only tell the lovely people who will appreciate it. We don't have enough areas like this left in London – I remember when Camden Parkway was similarly special... sigh.

Santa's reindeer in Holloway this Sunday

The main stretch of Holloway Road's Nags Head shopping area will be closed to traffic this Sunday when Islington's Christmas extravanganza comes to town.

From 11.30am on Sunday 4th December the street will be taken over by sideshows, music, entertainment, a hog roast, mulled wine, and food and craft stalls which will include locally-produced Amelia Parker clay pipe jewellery. Oh, and Santa's reindeer will be there too!

Click here for a video of last year's event.

More craft shopping opportunities at Chapel Market, Angel, on 10th and 17th December.

Devonshire Place

I was just thinking the other day that I haven't seen any 'new' bootscrapers for a while; just the same designs repeated over and over. I walk about mentally saying, 'got that one, got that one' (how sad!).

But then I had to go for a super-dooper 3D dental Xray doobrey in Devonshire Place yesterday and spotted lots of lovely bits of ironwork along the street. I am sure there are plenty more – time was of the essence and I only had my Blackberry with me and so couldn't take decent pics and I only walked the stretch from Devonshire Street to Wigmore Street so there must be plenty more to see. I must make a return visit.

Below are my finds which also include a coal hole cover plate with a name I haven't seen before, a pretty doorway mosaic, and a strange wall-mounted hook thing with a hole at one end where something must have been fixed to it at some point– any ideas what this item was used for?

The Connaught is lovely

On the corner of Mount Row and Chandos Place, opposite where there used to be an 18th century workhouse, sits the wonderful Connaught Hotel.

I've never been the kind of person who has the money and inclination for prestigious expensive hotels, preferring low budget rooms with a good bed and shower (after all I will be out all day tramping the streets with my camera, meeting people and seeing the city, not lounging about in my room), but the Connaught could change my mind. Hmmmm, now all I need is the means.... If I did have money to burn I think I'd stay there a few times so that I could try out all the different types of rooms.

Most hotels are having to constantly revamp their suites to keep up with all the high tech nonsense we all seem to need these days yet, unlike other hotels I have visited, The Connaught has managed to achieve this without loss of style or elegance. In addition to this, the communal areas are wonderful; the staircases, carpets and floors, and the two little lifts, one dark purple and the other dark green... it's like stepping into a film set.

The ground floor is given over to some top quality bars and restaurants; and they are really good. I had some lovely canapés and martinis (and champagne too!) in the award-winning Connaught Bar but had no time to stay longer to sample the restaurant. If anyone wants to take me to Hélène Darroze at the Connaught any time, my response is 'yes please!'.

Oh, and there's spa in there somewhere. I wasn't interested in checking that out as I'm not really into spas, but I hear their Aman spa is good. What is with hotels and spas? Isn't the great big bath in the room enough?! I do like the idea of outdoor spas of old though; taking the waters and all that. I've never said or written 'spa' so many times. Spa spa spa.

Finally, situated on the pavement outside the main entrance to the hotel is the marvellous and bizarre Tadao Ando water installation, which I have yet to see in action. I have heard it looks great after dark when it's all lit up and the steam is in action.

London photo mosaics

Yesterday someone said they liked my my Spitalfields photo mosaic (see previous post) and asked me if I was selling prints. It had indeed crossed my mind to print this particular one at a decent size and hang it on my stall at Spitalfields market, but what with one thing and another I have been too busy to promote the idea of prints-for-sale properly.

So, to confirm, all of my montages are available as prints. I am also in the process of re-configuring some into portrait format (3 squares wide x 4 squares tall) and will also be printing some of them as greeting cards.

A limited stock of my Christmas cards are still available – 'The 12 London Pubs of Christmas' and 'Clay Pipe Tree'.

Available from my Etsy shop or find me at a market or contact me at jane@janeslondon.com for further details.

Old Spitalfields Market now open on Saturdays

Old Spitalfields Market is now open on Saturdays from 19th November with the usual mix of stalls, similar to their Sunday market.

This Saturday 19th, and every third Saturday of the month, 70 designers/makers will also be there selling all sorts of contemporary hand-made and one-off items.

It's a great place to find those special Christmas presents.

More info here and here.

Some Spitalfields letters:

Top: Woodin's Shades, Sir Robert Peel, Suskin, letterbox

Middle: The Golden Heart, letterbox, Commercial Street, doorbell

Bottom: Gillette ghostsign, letterbox, Godfery Philips Ltd., Bishopsgate

Tarted up newsagent in Dean Street

There is a lot of fuss lately about how the renovation of a newsagent in Soho's Dean Street.

Am I the only one who thinks this was a bad idea?

I was walking past it on Saturday 5th and stopped dead in my tracks, horrified at how it is now a pastiche of its former self.

As shown right, for years it had faded flaky paint. It was old, and it looked old. You could clearly see that. But now the paint has been stripped off back to the wood – a process that the Georgians certainly couldn't be bothered with – and what we have now is an impression of how the shop might have looked on the day it first opened for business.

I agree the windows look better now they have been painted to match the shop (though they could have been even better if they had been replaced with smaller panes) but all the signs needed was a coating of clear varnish. Gone are the layers of history that gave its charm. Can you imagine the uproar if Berry Brothers & Rudd on St James's Street did the same thing and removed its thick dark green paint? There'd be an outrage!

Also in Soho, not far from Dean St, between Ed's Diner and The Spice of Life, I notice another Georgian(?) shop has been reclaimed. At the moment it is stripped down the wood. I will be watching to see what happens.

This cleaned-up, pretend history brings to mind two horribly retouched wall advertisements in Covent Garden (here and here). I am all for preserving history but what is the point of retouching a defunct sign? Why not just leave it as is? As a reminder.

All this revamping and reclaiming London's history actually contradicts the rape of St Giles by plastics and Westminster's plans to renovate a section of the east side of Charing Cross Road that contains Gaby's. But more about that in a future post.

Oh dear.

William Morris Gallery at 2 Temple Place

The wonderful William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow is closed whilst renovations and refurbishment take place. However, a lot of the exhibits can be viewed at one of London's hidden architectural gems at 2 Temple Place, owned and managed by The Bulldog Trust.

This exhibition is the first of a series of shows at this lovely building aimed at showcasing the UK's publically-owned art. It runs until 29th January 2012.

Click here for more about The Bulldog Trust and these events.

The courts, gardens, chambers and alleys of The Inns of Temple are a haven of peace hidden behind Fleet Street's bustle; it sometimes feels if it has been forgotten by time. I love taking friends there who had no idea it was there and seeing the looks on their faces.