Vignettes from England

Thank you for the many, many emails inquiring about my well being and asking when I am going to start writing my blog again!  First let me say that all is well here.  Life just got busy, and I got out of the regular habit of writing blog posts.  I wasn’t planning on taking so much time off – I ended up taking the entire summer off (technically today is the last day of summer, so one post for the summer).  It was a wonderful time full of travel and time with family– I was gone for over five weeks of the summer, and visited two continents, six countries, and six states.

A highlight of the summer was the two weeks that I spent in England.  I was in London for most of the trip, but also spent a few days in Hampshire, a charming county on the southern coast of England, southwest of London.

A picture perfect English cottage. I believe this is in Alton, very near the Jane Austen House Museum.

Another charming cottage, called “Limes End”. I would love to see the inside of these cottages!

One of my favorite things to do in England is visit magnificent National Trust houses.  This one is Hinton Ampner, which featured both this house built in 1790 (but extensively remodeled in 1867) as well as a beautifully designed garden.

A highlight of any trip to a museum or National Trust house is a visit to the tea room for scones, clotted cream, jam, and tea.

On the topic of a great cream tea (I didn’t know where else to mention this in the post, but I wanted to mention it) this is one of my favorite places to go in London…The Muffin Man in Kensington, not far from the High Street Kensington underground station.  I think it was entirely full of Americans when I stopped by this trip, and the atmosphere is low key. However, the food is good and the price for a proper cream tea is a fraction of what you would pay at any of the hotels.  I think that the Muffin Man’s scones are among the best I have had (I also love Marks & Spencer scones).

So, back to the trip.  I spent the majority of my time in London and its environs.  I had no schedule or agenda, so I spent most of my time walking – four self-guided tours from Walking London: Thirty Original Walks In and Around London, as well as extensive walking with no particular destination – often not knowing exactly where I was, but never fearful of getting lost due to my favorite London map, The London Mapguide. I have used many maps, and this one is the best. Although using a map may seem quaint in this day and age, I did not have an internet connection while roaming around London, so it is still handy to have a physical guide. Plus, it gives an excellent overview of larger areas of London, as well as the bus routes on all of the major street. I find it indispensible.

However, when I did have a wifi connection, I used a free app my cousin told me about, Citymapper.  It is pretty amazing – you simply enter where you want to go, and the app maps out the route, including options for public transport, car and foot.  The estimated cost and time is noted too. Citymapper is available for several major cities around the world, including DC, NYC, Boston, and Paris – I highly recommend it.

I had my pedometer on every day, and I averaged about 25,000 steps a day (that’s more than 10 miles in distance). A few days I exceeded 30,000 steps.  I only took one taxi when I was there – to get from the train station to the flat that I rented – the rest of the time I walked and occasionally took the bus and the underground.

Here are some snapshots of things that caught my eye on my extensive walks around London.

A stately townhouse in London.  Many of the houses in this square have been converted into private clubs.

I love taking pictures of interesting doors in London, and this one caught my eye.

The soft purple tinged gray of this door also appealed.

The combination of white stucco, gray door, and striped awnings made a memorable combination.

As always, the beautiful arrangements in planters caught my eye.

I thought this was a clever and interesting way to feature the many looks that can be achieved in wood floor stains.

I spent days exploring Knightbridge and Kensington on foot, and found many wonderful and interesting houses.  I can’t even imagine what this property must be worth. Is there a Zillow equivalent for the UK?

Another stately mansion, right in the heart of Chelsea.

I always keep my eye out for the blue plaques around London. According to wikipedia, they are permanent signs that commemorate a link between a location and a famous person or event.  I stumbled across quite a few interesting plaques on this trip, given my meanderings all over London. 

This is the house where Winston Churchill lived, and he died there in 1965.

A highlight of the trip was a visit to the wonderful Henri Matisse: the Cut-Outs exhibit at the Tate Modern, which just last week set a record for the most visited exhibit in Tate Modern history. It is headed to the Museum of Modern Art in New York next month. I highly recommend it.

Another highlight of the trip was a self-guided walking tour of Richmond, a beautiful town on the Thames that is in southwest London and easily accessible by train or the underground.  The walk was surprisingly long (this was one of my 30,000 plus step days) – and I arrived at Ham House, a 17th century National Trust house, right when it closed.  I was disappointed, but I plan on visiting Richmond again when I return to London next summer.

I had lunch at the beautiful Petersham Nurseries Café in Richmond. I was lucky to get a table as a walk-in; reservations can be made two months ahead of time, and they can be hard to get.

As I mentioned earlier, I rented a flat while in London.  It was a mixed experience, mainly because the flat was located in a basement and was absolutely awful.  It was a good price, and the location was truly superb.  The flat wasn’t misrepresented by the agent – when looking through the pictures and the description, everything was as pictured. But what pictures could not capture was the oppressive and musty feel of a basement flat that has not been renovated in a long time, and has no fresh air and the smell of decades of who knows what. 

I hope you enjoyed these vignettes from London.  I am already looking forward to returning next summer! I kept my eye out for potential flats to rent next summer, and am thinking that I might stay in Chelsea or South Kensington.  If you have any recommendations for small one bedroom or studio flats (that are not in the basement!) I would love to hear them! Email thingsthatinspire@gmail.com.

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Details from London

I recently returned from 10 days in London and Paris – first London for my cousin’s wedding (the wedding actually took place in Richmond, a charming borough of London that is right on the Thames), then Paris as a special trip for my middle daughter’s 13th birthday. 

I always love visiting London not only because it is my favorite city, but also because I have been so many times that I feel no real pressure to do all of the tourist activities. Different things catch my eye on each trip, and I particularly enjoy wandering around the neighborhoods in London and taking self guided walking tours.

It has been almost 5 years since my last visit, when I was attending my grandmother’s 90th birthday festivities. I stayed in Belgravia during my last visit, and spent quite a bit of time walking (with a focus on Holland Park, Chelsea, and Kensington). I documented my discoveries in this blog post - http://www.thingsthatinspire.net/2008/07/drive-by-or-walk-by-london.html.  It’s interesting to see what caught my eye 5 years ago– it was before we decided to build a house, and architecture was clearly on my mind (although flowers and planters are also well represented).

My recent trip was busy with family activities, and I was staying in an area of London that was not quite as familiar to me – Marylebone. It is located north of Oxford Street, south of Regents Park, Northeast of Hyde Park.  I wish the weather had been better (it poured many of the days we were there) and I wish I had more time in London – I would have liked to explore the area a bit more!

Looking back at the post from 5 years ago, I noticed that I took a picture of number 15 Wilton Crescent. I had a new iphone at the time, and it is amazing to realize how much better the camera has become on the iphone over the past 5 years.

When composing this post, I realized that I coincidentally took a picture of the same house - it clearly caught my eye again!  The planters are the same, as are the trees (I think they are bay trees – they were by far the most common type of tree in a planter that I saw – does anyone know more about them?).  

A closer view of the planter, flowers, and tree. The purple flower seen in the base of the planter was all over London this year – purple seems to be quite in fashion when it comes to flowers.

Planters seem to catch my eye on this trip. I love the pattern on these planters.

More bay trees, in planters with seasonal flowers planted in the base. I really like this look.

I believe this was outside the Rag and Bone store in Sloane Square. I thought it was a charming look – a black Versailles style planter with a flowering tree and pretty white flowers at the base.

Another set of planters that caught my eye – a great way to incorporate planters into a narrow space.

After my cousin’s wedding, we took the Eurostar over to Paris for a 5 day visit.  The details that caught my eye in Paris will be in the next post (including scenes from my first visit to the famous Paris flea market)!

I know quite a few people heading over the London this summer. Have you ever been?  What catches your eye?  Another thing I noticed, London looks wonderful these days - everything is quite polished and spruced up given that the Olympics and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee took place in London last summer.

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"Drive By" (or Walk By) London

I have been travelling much of the last month. Last summer I barely went out of town at all (which gave me the time to start a blog), but this summer has been the complete opposite. I am out of town much of the rest of the month and most of August, so please forgive the sporadic posts!

One of my favorite cities in the world is London. Perhaps this is because I go there so often that I do not feel like a tourist in the city. On my recent visit, I did not go to a single museum or tourist destination; instead, armed with my book of walks in London, I explored the beautiful area of Kensington and Chelsea. This borough of London is west and south of Hyde Park, and is identified as 'the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea'. It is the most affluent borough in Britain, and is home to Kensington Palace (former home of Diana, Princess of Wales), the Victoria and Albert Museum, Notting Hill, Holland Park, and Harrods (to name a few). Even though Britain is also experiencing a severe housing slump, prices in Kensington and Chelsea prices are still going up, reflecting the desirability and demand for this area of London.

In 2004, Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal purchased this home in Kensington for a record breaking $128 million, the most expensive residential home purchase at the time (it was recently eclipsed by the purchase of a home on the French Riviera by a Russian billionaire for $500 million). The home is on Kensington Palace Gardens , which has the nickname 'billionaire's row'. The home has almost 50,000 square feet, and is the largest private residence in central London after Buckingham Palace. It boasts garage space for 20 cars as well as a ballroom. This year Mittal bought two more properties on Kensington Palace Gardens: one of them cost $234 million dollars, and the second one was purchased for his 32 year old son for $140 million. The home purchased for his son was the former embassy for the Phillippines, and is in need of extensive remodelling. It is a mere 16,500 square feet, but boasts views of Kensington Palace.

Map of Kensington and Chelsea. Chelsea goes all the way down to the River Thames.

As I was exploring Kensington, and snapping a few pictures of some houses that I liked, I thought of the 'drive by' postings from Melissa (of the Inspired Room) and her readers. In these posts, Melissa and her virtual team take pictures of some of their favorite neighborhoods. I wish I had thought of this at the beginning of my trip, but better late than never! Here are some pictures of London from my walks through Kensington and Chelsea (and a few from Belgravia too). Enjoy!

I always look for the blue plaques that announce who lived and died in the buildings. There is even a website where you can search for people by name, and find out where they lived (unfortunately, not people who are currently living!)

From Gaetan Lee's flickr photos

This Chelsea townhouse caught my eye because of the attractive way in which the owner matched the flowers to the bold vermilion door.

A unique gate of a home on the Chelsea embankment


Some lovely flower boxes in Kensington and Chelsea. There are so many beautiful flower boxes in London, I suppose because they are like the 'front yards'.


For those lucky enough to have front steps, there are lots of beautiful potted arrangements too.

Kensington

Here is a different style - more Victorian, and represents the time when living in flats (apartments) became more in fashion.

This is a rare thing in central London: a stand alone house. It was recently purchased by a billionaire and completely refurbished. Note the Rolls Royce in the drive way. This house probably cost tens of millions of dollars, knowing how expensive London real estate is. The interiors were recently featured in a British magazine.

As I was strolling around Holland Park, I came across a tucked away street with beautiful Georgian homes and townhomes. Each one had something unique about it that caught my eye. I love the greenery on the facade of this home.

The door captured my attention on this home.

I liked the neat front landscaping and window boxes of this home.

The door with its fanlight, and the welcoming front landscaping appealed to me in this home.


The beautiful door and manicured hedges stood out on this home.

Although this home appears to be standalone, it is actually attached to the home next to it. This is a very large home by London standards, and ideally situated next to the side entrance of Holland Park.

A beautiful standalone home on this street. Very rare!

Most of the doors on the street are black, so this taupe door caught my eye

Another house with greenery on the front. How I would love to see the inside of one of these homes!

A couple of pretty townhomes in Belgravia, which is to the south of Hyde Park, and to the east of Kensington. Belgravia is very posh and is primarily residential. It is home to many embassies and beautiful historic squares. The majority of the land is owned by the Duke of Westminster (Richard Grosvenor), and is part of the Grosvenor Estate. The land owned by the estate is leased, and when you purchase a property on land owned by the Grosvenor Estate, the number of years left on the lease is noted (presumably it will be no problem to re-up the lease!). Many of the former embassies are being reconverted to grand residences in Belgravia, as London has experienced an influx of the super-rich in recent years (many of whom are from Russia and India).

I hope you enjoyed this little 'walk by' tour of London!