The London Traveler

Visit Doctor Johnson’s house in Gough Square and you’ll find one of London’s most unusual statues outside. Instead of the portly, bewigged figure of Doctor Johnson himself, here is his cat – Hodge.
(For those unacquainted with this animal, Doctor Johnson’s famous dictionary offers this definition; “a domestic animal that catches mice.”)
In fact Hodge wasn’t the Doctor’s favourite cat. Boswell recalls Johnson saying “’Why yes, Sir, but I have had cats whom I liked better than this;’ and then as if perceiving Hodge to be out of countenance, adding, ‘but he is a very fine cat, a very fine cat …read more

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“They’re changing the guard at Buckingham Palace
Christopher Robin went down with Alice” -
a couplet I’ll always remember from my bedtime story when I was a little girl. They’re still doing it, of course, and even if we Londoners tend to be a bit sniffy about this particular piece of our heritage, it remains one of those things you just have to do.
But to get the most out of it, you can’t just turn up. First of all, in winter – until the end of March – it’s only every other day. Over the summer, it will be daily. And it …read more

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There have been grumblings from the Bangladeshi Caterers’ Association recently that landlords in Brick Lane and the surrounding area are putting rents up too far. Rents, apparently, have doubled in the last four years. Though some of the Indian restaurants in the area have gone upmarket, I’d be very surprised if they had seen anything like a doubling in their revenues.
What’s worrying is that if rental pressure continues, we may see ‘Banglatown’ disappear.
There’s a precedent just down the road, in Spitalfields. When I moved to the East End in the 1980s, there was a great Sunday market in the old …read more

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An intriguing new exhibition has just opened at 176. Gerry Fox, a documentary film-maker, has created an installation using film to portray a very personal view of London.
I’ve never been satisfied with photographs of London because, for me, London is always moving, always changing. Fox’s movie screens show London in movement – sometimes speeded up, sometimes slowed right down.
He visits a busy Soho street. He climbs around an old, overgrown cemetery. He floats around the figure of Peter Pan as if, like the lost boys, he’s learned how to fly. It’s all reminiscent of a silent movie – …read more

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Welcome to the year of the Rat!
Rats may not be your favourite creature but it will be worth celebrating, anyway. The Chinese New Year celebrations on Sunday, February 10th will feature a parade from the Strand, at 11 in the morning, along Charing Cross Road and Shaftesbury Avenue, as well as lion dancing in Trafalgar Square and fireworks (at 2 and 5 pm) in Leicester Square. (Don’t forget that it was the Chinese who invented gunpowder, and they still know how to make a party go with a bang!)
Finish off if you like with a meal in one of Chinatown’s …read more

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Just in front of St Mary Aldermary, in Watling Street in the City, is this statue of a cordwainer – a leatherworker.
In the medieval City, just as in an Arabic souk today, each trade had its own particular streets. This was the shoe and bootmaking area, and it’s still called Cordwainer ward (a district of local government).
The word ‘cordwainer’ is derived from the name of the city of Cordoba in Spain, which was renowned for its fine leatherwork.
You can see another more famous cordwainer outside the nearby church of St Mary le Bow. He may have started as a mere …read more

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