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The Parlour at Fornum and Mason
Fortnum and Mason is world renowned as a luxury grocery shop. However for the discerning visitor, who can manage to drag themselves away from their beautifully presented food hall, they will be rewarded with a delightful treat The Parlour, a traditonal ice cream parlour.
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The Wonderpass is now open. The Marylebone subway, next to Baker Street Tube Station, has been transformed to showcase the area's colourful history and its cultural attractions. In 2014 Baker Street Quarter Partnership, who commissioned the project, approached me to research the timeline for the Wonderpass. When it opened in January 2016, I was very proud to visit and see the results of my research on display.
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Left to right: Basil, Bob and Harney with Tim Wood
I love exploring London and when I heard that Stanfords, reputedly the world's biggest travel and map bookshop, have just launched a London sightseeing tour by horse drawn Victorian omnibus I just had to check it out. So last night joined by Julie and Carolyn, friends and fellow guides, we were taken for an utterly delightful ride by Basil, Bob and Harney, three magnificent Dutch Warmbloods.
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David Barber, The Queen’s Swan Marker
Swan Upping is an ancient ceremony which counts the number of mute swans on the River Thames. This still relatively unknown tradition is an annual event, which takes place during the third week in July. Earlier this week Julie and I went to Oakley Court hotel to watch this spectacle and to partake of afternoon tea (seperate blog to follow).
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As a volunteer at Barts Pathology Museum and a lover of all things macabre, quirky and unusual when I heard about the Coffin Works, a former coffin fittings factory in Birmingham, I just had to visit. I booked myself on a guided tour and just loved it. It's utterly fascinating, certainly not morbid or gruesome and it's suitable for children. It's an industial heritage museum, simular to Ironbridge or Beamish, but just on a much smaller and more intimate scale as it is a single building and it focuses on the death industry.
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Before the days of package holidays and low cost airlines, back in the early 1900s the thrill of air travel was only available to the wealthy. In 1920 Croydon Airport became London's first international airport when customs and passanger handling facilities were introduced. Today the main terminal building, with its control tower, has been converted into offices and is home to a fascinating visitor centre which is open to the public on the first Sunday of every month.
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York in North Yorkshire, England, has a fascinating history, beautiful architecture, a fabulous selection of places to eat and drink and there's plenty to see and do. It's one of my most loved cities and here is a brief list of some of my favourite things to do in York.
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On Good Friday hot cross buns are distributed in the churchyard of St Bartholomew the Great. The ceremony known as the Butterworth Charity, was named after Joshua Whitehead Butterworth who created the trust in 1887. It was set up to provide the sum of six pence to twenty one needy widows in the parish and buns were to be handed out to children who attended the distribution. With the understanding that nowadays anyone who attends can have a hot cross bun I went to investigate further.
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The transformation of King’s Cross is well underway and there’s a lot to discover. So whether you are looking for somewhere nice to eat in a fascinating heritage building or wanting to enjoy a family day out, King’s Cross is well worth checking out. Last week I was delighted to be taken on a private tour of the area and hear more about some of the projects which are opening soon
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I was delighted to discover recently a small (no pun intended) model village in a secluded corner of Vauxhall Park. It’s utterly charming and evokes a wonderful sense of nostalgia with its olde worlde character.