The London Traveler

James Bond is the quintessential Englishman, and unsurprisingly, London figures largely in the James Bond books and films.
For instance in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Bond visits the College of Arms – he intends to impersonate genealogist Sir Hilary Bray, who has been working to secure the villain Blofeld a coat of arms.
In Octopussy, again, the real world appears in the film, with the Fabergé egg being auctioned off at Sotheby’s.
But London turns up in some rather odd ways too, if you actually track the locations through the films, as Tony Reeves does in Movie London.
MI6 starts off location …read more

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There’s a superb piece in the Independent today looking at the decline of the traditional English pub, and featuring interviews with landladies, a pub quizmaster, and regulars.
It includes  one lovely old favourite that every Londoner should try once – the Wenlock Arms in Islington.
But I’m not so sure that the great British boozer is on its way out. Look at the Jerusalem Tavern near Farringdon tube station – owned by Suffolk brewery St Peter’s. When I first started drinking there, Farringdon was still the wild west of the City, and the spit-and-sawdust feel of the pub was not post …read more

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Every English child grows up knowing that Hadrian built a wall to keep the Scots out.
But very rarely do we learn anything more about Hadrian. In fact, he’s a fascinating character – a very complex man who left his mark on the city of Rome and on the Roman world.
He didn’t just build the famous wall. He also built  boundary defences  in North Africa and Germany.  He built a new forum and a wonderful set of markets in Rome, and restored Agrippa’s Pantheon. He was interested in architecture – bringing some ideas from the Hellenistic east – and was one …read more

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There’s an interesting post on Venere suggesting a checklist of London activities that every visitor or resident ought to tick off.
What’s nice is that it’s clearly affectionate about the city – and doesn’t just suggest the tourist highlights. And I agree with most of the list, though personally, I wouldn’t bother with Harrods….
For what it’s worth, my top ten ‘Londoner’ things;

Go to Smithfield Market early in the morning, see the market at work, the huge articulated lorries humming gently in the streets around, and get a pint of Guinness with your breakfast in the Fox & Anchor.
Go to Columbia Road …read more

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Frugality is the new ‘in’ thing.
First of all there’s the credit crunch which is making many people tighten their belts. My friends all know I’m the kind of person who loves finding a nice bit of Betty Barclay or Paul Costelloe in a charity shop – but up till now they’ve regarded it as rather infra dig. Now, they’re all up to it too!
And secondly, of course, there’s global warming, and a lot of people are now thinking about living more sustainable lifestyles.
So a lot more people are interested in sewing or customising their own clothes.
Junky Styling is  just the …read more

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New plans have been announced for Battersea Power Station – one of the capital’s biggest and most shockingly neglected building sites.
This must be the third set of plans for the property, at least, and I’m amazed that in the current economic climate such a grandiose set of plans is being touted. It will cost at least £4bn (that’s about $8m US) and won’t be completed till 2020.
The plans envisage the creation of a huge glass and steel chimney which will dwarf the power station alongside. That just seems to me a massive piece of vandalism. The power station is a …read more

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Wimbledon is one of Britain’s great icons. Tennis on grass courts, not clay. Players clad in their pristine tennis whites. The gentle sounds of tennis balls bouncing from racquet strings, the thunk-thunk of the ball, polite outbursts of applause.
And, of course, strawberries and cream.
There’s something very British – very middle-class British – about Wimbledon. For instance, the queue. It may not always be apparent when you’re waiting for a bus – not nowadays – but we like to think that while the French have cheese, and the Germans have beer and sausages, we have queues. We’ve made them into a …read more

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You might think a museum of waterworks sounds rather dull. But Victorian London excelled in the creation of excellent waterworks – Bazalgette’s huge sewers, fine pumping stations and public fountains – and it’s a heritage that deserves celebration, and gets it at the Kew Bridge Steam Museum.
The museum is set in a superb Victorian pumping station, which blends functionality with elegance. The fine Italian renaissance style standpipe tower is a local landmark, its restraining arches and cornices clearly asserting its architectural pretensions.
Still, although I’m a bit of a nerd, I’ve never been a model railway fan, and I find the …read more

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I’d heard quite a lot about Silvercane Tours – Simon Rodway’s special interest tours of London. He’s obviously quite busy at the moment, but he agreed to do an interview for The London Traveler about the mysteries of becoming a Blue Badge guide, his favourite sights in London, and his various tours.
LT: How did you first get interested in the history of London? (And are
you a Londoner – or did you grow up somewhere else?)
SR: I am a sufferer of ‘The Alexander The Great Syndrome’. Meaning, someone not born of the culture, but the biggest fan of it. I am …read more

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There’s an interesting suggestion in the Times today that Boris Johnson may revive some of London’s lost rivers.
The Westbourne already surfaces in the Serpentine, but the Fleet (which gives its name to Fleet Street) is completely buried. Other rivers that might resurface are mainly suburban – the Ravensbourne in Lewisham, for instance, or the Wandle in Croydon.
It’s difficult to tell from the Times article whether this idea has got past the kite-flying stage. It would certainly take years to put into practice.
But I do know of one city where a river has been rediscovered – Mechelen, in Belgium. It …read more

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