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Speedy’s Sandwich Bar and Cafe, with its instantly recognisable red canopy, features in all three television series of the BBC’s Sherlock. It's located directly below the first floor flat which is home to Sherlock and Watson. Since featuring in the hit TV series, with its modern day twist on Sherlock Holmes, the cafe has been welcoming fans who visit. So the other day I stopped by for a delicious breakfast.
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One of the pleasures of writing this blog, apart from eating the scones of course, is discovering new, quirky places, so Yannick and I decided to visit Ham Yard Hotel in Soho, which only opened a couple of months ago. Despite being a Westminster Guide, I have to say to my shame, even I had a bit of difficulty finding it as it's tucked away behind Piccadilly Circus but for me that just added to it's charm. 
I ordered the scones which arrived warm and beautifully presented wrapped in a napkin in a wire basket. They were accompanied with a generous portion of clotted cream and two bowls of jam, one strawberry and the other cherry.
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This weekend Archibald Leach aka Cary Grant Comes Home to his home town of Bristol (11 – 12 October 2014) where there lots of fab and fun events taking place. Yesterday I enjoyed afternoon tea at Avon Gorge Hotel and attended fascinating talks at the Watershed which gave great insight into his personal life and acting career.
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Barnaby
Greenway was Agatha Christie's beloved holiday home in Devon and seems a good place to start the first installment of my blog about the recent Agatha Christie Festival. This annual crime writing festival takes place in and around Torquay, Agatha's birthplace, each September to coincide with her birthday. Since my last visit in 2011 the festival has certainly grown both in the numbers of visitors and organised events.
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The Art of Brick, the first art exhibition to exclusively focus on Lego, is opening later this week in London. It is on from Friday 26 September until Sunday 4 January 2015. In March this year, I went to see the exhibition when it was Brussels and thought you'd might like a sneak preview of the sort of things you may see in London.
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HippoThames is the delightful giant, wooden hippo residing in the Thames near St George's Tower in Vauxhall until Sunday 28 September. It's part of the Totally Thames Festival which has seen Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman creating a 21 metre-long floating hippo sculpture which is semi-immersed in the water so it rises and falls with the tide. I couldn't help but have a big grin on my face when I saw it and here are a few photos.
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Today sees the long anticipated re-opening of the Guildhall Art Gallery which included a new Heritage Gallery. Last night I attended the special reception of the launch which inclued Dame Helen Ghosh, the Director General of the National Trust and the Lord Chief Justice, Baron Thomas of Cwmgiedd, and I was lucky to see the new fabulous display before it opens to the general public today. The centrepiece of the new display is a copy of the 1297 Magana Carta.*
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The Corner Shop in Bethnal Green, East London, at first glance looks like your average convenience store, it sells everything you would imagine a corner store to stock, expect everything here is made of felt.
Lucy Sparrow is the artist who has turned the everyday and ordinary into something amazing and extraordinary. It’s fun, quirky and has to be one of the loveliest things I have ever done in all the time I have lived in London. Don’t miss it as it is only on display here until Sunday 31st August 2014.
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Detail of the picnic rug laid out with tasty treats
Last week I visited a life size knitted garden at the artsdepot in Finchley, North London. Blooming Marvellous, as it's known, certainly lives up to its name. It’s brilliant, bright, quirky, extremely colourful, utterly delightful and great fun to visit. Hurry if you want to visit as it is only on display until Thursday 4th September 2014.
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Usborne's That's not my... Bench by Fiona Watt
Here's Part V of my blog about the fabulous book benches. This one features the remaining benches on the City Trail which I hadn't featured in my earlier blogs. The Books About Town benches are on display in London until 15 September 2014. Designed to resemble an open book and brightly decorated, each one depicts a different novel celebrating London’s literary connections.