Hidden Treasures - 9 March 2008

There is only one way for the public to enter the perimeter of St James’s Palace, just off the Mall, and that is to go to a Sunday service in the Chapel Royal. To make it just that little bit more difficult, services are only held there between October and Easter. So with only a couple of Sundays still available, we set off for Piccadilly.

As is our way, a walk needs to be incorporated into the day so we selected another walk around the area that we have visited twice in recent months and found new things that we had not seen before.

Naturally, we detoured to Green Park to see the daffodils and crossed the Mall to check out the spring flowers in St James’s Park. While there we came across a pelican perched, in what seemed a most uncomfortable position for a web-footed bird, on the fence around the lake. It seemed quite happy to pose there for the many pictures that were being taken.


However, it was time for the service and it was just as well we were early as the small chapel was almost at capacity by the time the service started. The Chapel Royal choir has a long heritage and the 10 choirboys looked splendid in their red and gold livery.

Just around the corner is Spencer House, also only open on Sundays when you are able to take a guided tour around the recently restored principal rooms. Nothing much is original as it was all stripped before the war, so the fitting and furniture you see are mainly modern copies; there is acres of gold leaf and the effect is absolutely stunning.

Stepping even further into history we visited the British Museum to see the current exhibition, The First Emperor, a look at the life and times of the Emperor of Qin who had created for his after-life the terracotta army. Among the displays was a warrior re-created in the colours that the entire army were originally painted. It looked fantastic: what a sight the original army must have looked 2000 years ago when they shut the doors on the vast underground horde.

Pretty in pink - 8 March 2008

It is daffodil time again and we were told that Trent Park had good daffodil displays so we went to check it out. While we were too early for some beds, others were in full bloom and there were many roadside displays on the way there and back to brighten the drive through suburbia.

We also visited Forty Hall, home of the Parker Bowles until 1951. On display there is a photo of a cupboard door that has the heights of children recorded on it dating back to the 17th C. There are over 600 names, dates and heights recorded on this one door.

We walked to the Hall from the parking area at the Whitewebb golf course which is near the South Lodge; from the days when this area was all part of the Whitewebb Estate. This is the first Grade II listed building we have seen that is pink to the top of its chimney pots.

Arriving at the hall we chanced across a lady who had a totally new approach to taking her dog for a walk.

Capital Ring - 2 March 2008

Having had a city based, pavement walk on Saturday we like to alternate with a “country” walk where the ground is softer underfoot. One of the beauties of London is that you do not actually have to leave the city to have such a walk; there are so many interconnected green spaces that are readily available. One way to enjoy them is using the Capital Ring series of walks. There are two walking tracks that circumnavigate London: the inner Capital Ring and the outer London Loop. Each is broken into manageable chunks, usually based on rail links.

By judiciously parking our car near one station we were able to take a £1 Tube journey, walk the 5.5 miles of section 8 of the Capital Ring about a mile of section 9 then carry on another mile or so along the canal back to where we had left the car.

The walk began on the Grand Union Canal where it uses the Brent River; and near the start of the walk was a mile post giving the distance to Braunston, a wonderful reminder of our own canal trip when Braunston was the place we turned and retraced our journey. Not long after that, the river and canal divided and we followed the non-navigable Brent River back towards Greenford before joining the Paddington branch of the Grand Union Canal.

Poet and Pacifist - 1 March 2008

There has been much coverage in the media about the new international rail terminal at St Pancras station so we thought it only proper that we should go and take a look.

We started with a walk around Islington and then another from Islington to Kings Cross/St Pancras. The first walk took us through a square surrounded by very attractive houses built in 1840. Such a contrast to New Zealand where the only stone building in 1840 was the Stone Store at Kerikeri.

We also passed by the closest thing we have come to a Banksy graffiti, same sort of style but not the genuine article.

Ultimately, we arrived that the re-developed station and it is, indeed, a fabulous space to welcome visitors to London as they arrive on the Eurostar. The building, under threat in the 1960s, was largely saved by the efforts of poet John Betjeman and a larger-than-life statue on the concourse of the new station salutes those efforts.

Leaving St Pancras we wandered down towards Russell Square by way of Tavistock Square where there is a statue of Ghandi. The irony is that this great man of passive resistance sits gazing serenely over the location where 13 innocent bus passengers were killed on July 7 2005 in a terrorist bombing.

Our last visit was to the Foundling Hospital Museum where the work of the hospital, founded by Thomas Coram, which took in abandoned infants in C18th London is commemorated.

Checking out Chequers - 24 February 2008

Not far from London is Chequers, the country home of the British Prime Minister. The Ridgeway walking path used to go almost past the front door but was rerouted, for security reasons, a few years ago and now the closest one gets is about 400m.

Today’s walk began from the estate church in Ellesborough; joined the Ridgeway to cross the Chequers’ estate then circled back through the foot of Coombe Hill to our starting point.

Our return journey took us through Princes Risborough, a charming town that deserves a return visit.

Glitz and Glamour - 23 February 2008

Although the Empire is no longer what it used to be and Britannia no longer rules the waves, London still retains its influence in finance and fashion. While we are never going to get a taste of the City bonuses we felt we should get a taste of the fashion.

London Fashion Weekend seems to be the public’s chance to see a little of the glitz and glamour after London Fashion Week has finished, and comes complete with its own catwalk show so we booked our tickets and off we went.

Given the lack of attention that we pay to the latest trends, it was very much a been-there-done-that outing but quite fun to have front row seats at a London fashion catwalk show nevertheless, even if we were several decades out of place.

The show is held in temporary marquees erected in the grounds of the Natural History Museum so it seemed silly not to visit it while we were so close. There is, currently, an exhibition of some fabulous gems stones, including a private collection of 296 diamonds of all different colours.

Being mid-term break the place was full of families and there were special attractions such as a woman dressed as Mary Anning, the fossil woman (1799-1847), standing by one of ‘her’ many fossil finds and explaining it to the interested children.

Cattle, Castle and Crooked House - 16 February 2008

Over the years we have visited many country estates, looked at many fine English houses and explored many ruined castles. This weekend we were invited to stay on a country shooting estate and had the opportunity to explore their privately owned ruined castle.

Ngaire and Stuart have changed lifestyles and now work on the Chartley Hall Estate and accommodation in the Mews Cottage is provided.

The estate is in Staffordshire and the current dwelling is the fourth moated manor house to occupy the site after the castle was abandoned in the mid 1500s. Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned in the Hall shortly before her execution in 1587.

The estate is home to a rare breed of cattle that are said to date from Roman times and that were recorded in the Doomsday book. Chartley Cattle are one of a few herds of Old English White Park Cattle and are descendants of what is reportedly the oldest breed in the country.

On Saturday we were taken to see The Crooked House pub built in a semi-collapsed building that is situated over a collapsed mine shaft. After the ground subsidence left one end of the pub 4 ft lower than the other the building was condemned in the 1940s before the Banks pub chain took it over, strengthened and stabilised the building and reopened it as a popular tourist destination.

The Indie Travel Podcast might give me Lonely Planet books for writing this!