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The Pudding Club was founded in 1985 to celebrate traditional British puddings. Each meeting offers a choice of 7 different puddings for an informal evening of sheer (over) indulgence, fun and British eccentricity! The weekly meetings are held at the Three Ways House Hotel in Mickleton village in the picturesque Cotswolds, UK. Attendance is open to everyone but pre-booking is required.
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The Flying Scotsman returned to service on Thursday 25 February 2016, following a £4.2 million restoration. Scheduled to leave London King's Cross for York at 7.40am, I felt totally privileged to be there and wave her off. A huge Thank You to the National Railway Museum in York for leading the campaign to save this magnificent locomotive. Here are a few photos of an unforgettable day. Enjoy!
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QM Catering
November brought a wonderful scone surprise, when I visited Centre of the Cell to attend “Was the First World War good for medicine?” by Professor Tilli Tansey, the latest lecture in their wonderful The Big Question series. The lecture itself was fascinating but at the end of they had a special buffet serving sandwiches and scones provided by QM Catering. In this scone extravaganza I was joined by friends Katie, Head of Learning at Centre of the Cell (huge thank you to for organising the catering), Rebecca, Ros and Amardeep.
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Lavenham, in Suffolk, is one of Britain's finest medieval villages. With its magnificent timber framed Guildhall and pretty cottages it is the quintessential, picture postcard town. However in 1968, its picturesque Market Place became the film location of one of the most horrific scenes in Vincent Price's Witchfinder General. Last month I was thrilled to attend the Witchfinder General Location Tour with the Vincent Price London Legacy Tour 2015 and Victoria Price, Vincent's daughter.
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In the 1630s room the table is laid out with sweet dishes
Updated with 2015 opening times
One of my favourite places to visit in London is the Geffrye Museum, located in former eighteenth century almshouses. The Museum is named after Sir Robert Geffrye, a former Lord Mayor of the City of London, at whose bequest the almshouses were built. The Geffrye features eleven period rooms which reflect the styles and fashions of the English middle classes from 1600s to the present day.
It is worth visiting at any time of the year but it is at its most magical during its annual Christmas Past exhibition when the rooms are transformed and decorated as they would have been for their era. The rooms are laid out sequentially with the earlier rooms tending to have just very simple evergreen decoration.
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Nurse Edith Cavell was executed on 12th October 1915, during World War I, for assisting over 200 allied soldiers escape occupied Belgium. There is an annual public wreath laying ceremony that takes place at her memorial, in London, on the anniversary of her death. This year's ceremony, organised by the Cavell Nurses' Trust, will be extra special as it will mark the centenary of her death. It will be held on Monday 12th October at 10.30am and is free to attend.
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Utterly delighted that Stanfords, reputedly the world's biggest travel and map bookshop, liked my blog post about our ride on their horse drawn omnibus tour and have re-blogged it on Stanfords blog.
This is a huge honour for me as I love Stanfords, I can spend hours in their shop absorbed in their books and I also feature them on my Covent Garden and its Hidden Corners walking tour, as it's where Sherlock Holmes goes for his map in Hounds of the Baskervilles.
The author of this blog is a qualified City of London and City of Westminster Tour Guide who leads guided walks combining world famous landmarks with hidden treasures often missed by the crowds.
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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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Quetzalcoatl III by Aubrey Williams
No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960-1990 has just opened at the Guildhall Art Gallery and is on until Sunday 24th January 2016. Last week I enjoyed a private view before it was open to the public. The exhibition is a celebration of contemporary artists and has an array of amazing and beautiful art.