Life in London – January 2010

It was a short January in London for me as I’m off to southern Africa for a few weeks so your Sixt blog arrives a little early.

January has been dominated by the weather and although London has fared much better than other parts of the UK, it’s very unusual for us to see any snow at all. It’s been the focus of conversation and has made travelling for many people really difficult as we are really not geared up for this rare occurrence.  Boy has it been slippy on the icy pavements!  Also, events have been cancelled, including my photography course which I was very annoyed about. On the up side it has been quite beautiful at times and have a look at these photos of Notting Hill in the snow – Portobello Road itself, a flower stall in the area and one of Notting Hill’s pretty gardens.

Photos of the snow in London

We got out and about for an arty day along the South Bank of the Thames, visiting the Hayward Gallery and Tate Modern.  The Hayward was showing Ed Ruscha: 50 Years of Paintings.  The Tate Modern’s key exhibit was in the massive turbine hall and was a huge black box conceived by Miraslaw Balka. We walked into complete darkness with our hands out in front of us and it was completely disorientating, Eventually we came to the back wall covered in velvet and turned round to be amazed that we could see back into the full light which had been there all the time. To me it was about different perspectives but the concept was much sadder and reflected on recent Polish history of ghettos and concentration camp trains.

On a more cheery note, but continuing the art theme, I went on an Artfeelers tour in London’s East End. Artfeelers is a new company which offers small tours of contemporary art galleries and shops, guided by Claire Flannery, whose brainchild this is. We were taken to wonderful new places, talked to the owners and Claire gave us great insights into what we were seeing.  Below are a few photos – one of some street art (the squirrel), one of some of the interesting work in one of the galleries and one of a container which hosts Caveman Bob – a video installation of the cave of a Canadian (Bob!) with his commentary on what’s in his cave. The container’s interior is also cave like but made of plywood and makes the most original setting.

Street Art - The Squirrel

Art work shown on the Artfeelers tour

Caveman Bob Container

There has been a bit of shopping done as the January sales have been very good and it’s been hard to keep out of the wonderful department stores such as Selfridges, John Lewis and Harrods. However the bank account has survived so I can’t have been that naughty!

A couple of good restaurants and bars to tell you about. I always get asked to recommend a good pub which I find hard as so many pubs are full of slot machines and are not comfortable at all. The Churchill Arms in Kensington is a notable exception as it is big but cosy, full yet not rammed and has lots of different sections to explore and all with enormous amounts of stuff hanging off the walls. The outside is no exception as you can see in the photo and you can imagine when the hanging baskets are in bloom, it’s quite a sight. It was the first pub to offer Thai food which is now so widespread.  The food here is good and extremely reasonably priced.  A new bar which is part of Mark Hix’s Soho restaurant proved a welcome refuge for us from the snow, it’s called Hix as he’s so famous now he needs no surname (!) and the downstairs bar offers the right mix of smart, cool and friendly with a couple of wines that do not break the bank and the world’s best parsnip crisps, clearly made to order. It can be almost as hard to find a good bar as a good pub and Hix hits the spot for me.

Churchhill Arms in Kensington

A more upmarket restaurant to note is La Sauterelle in the Royal Exchange, formerly a centre of commerce built in 1844, but now a very posh shopping, eating and drinking area. We had one of January’s special restaurant deals and the meal was extremely good with the lamb being worth a special mention for its fullness of flavour.  The photos show the exterior and interior of this fine building that really add to the dining experience.

La Sauterelle in the Royal Exchange

Inside La Sauterelle

I’ll be back from Africa mid February to report on the best that London has to offer!
Sue
www.itsyourlondon.co.uk

Related posts:

1. Life in London… a look back at 2010
2. Life in London – April 2010
3. Life in London – March 2010
4. Life in London – June 2010
5. Life in London – February 2010