Category: Events

1. Strawberry Hill - Walpole's Magical Gothic Castle

   Posted on 10:00am Tuesday 21st Oct 2014

    

   London is full of amazing buildings and one of my favourite is Strawberry Hill House. It was the former home of Horace Walpole, a writer, collector and the son of Robert Walpole, the first British Prime Minister. What makes the house so special is that it is one of the earliest and finest example of the Gothic Revival, a style beloved by the Victorians when they tried to emulate the medieval architecture of the great cathedrals and created their own interpretation of the Middle Ages. Many years ago when I first moved to London I visited the house when it functioned as St Mary's University so it was wonderful to make a return visit with Yannick following it's magnificent restoration.

2. Crime and Cream Teas at the Agatha Christie Festival Part 2

   Posted on 8:00am Tuesday 14th Oct 2014

    

   Agatha Christie Mile Plaque - Torquay

   Crime and Cream Teas Part II features more about my recent trip to the Agatha Christie Festival in her home town of Torquay. In Part I I wrote about my visit to Greenway, Agatha's holiday home but in this blog I am focusing on some of the other things I did.

3. Archibald Leach aka Cary Grant Comes Home

   Posted on 8:45am Sunday 12th Oct 2014

    

   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. 

4. Crime and Cream Teas at the Agatha Christie Festival Part I - Greenway

   Posted on 8:00am Tuesday 7th Oct 2014

    

   

    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.

5. The Art of Brick - A Lego Art Exhibition? Yes, I saw it in Brussels & it's so Cool

   Posted on 9:00am Tuesday 23rd Sep 2014

      

   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.

6. HippopoThames is Just so Cute

   Posted on 10:00pm Sunday 14th Sep 2014

   

   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.

7. The New Heritage Gallery at the Guildhall Art Gallery

   Posted on 7:30am Friday 12th Sep 2014

   

   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.*

8. The Corner Shop - Pretty Baby, I felt in love with you

   Posted on 6:30am Thursday 21st Aug 2014

   

   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 31^st August 2014. 

9. Blooming Marvellous - An Incredible but Inedible Knitted Garden

   Posted on 10:30am Tuesday 19th Aug 2014

   

    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 4^th September 2014. 

10. Books About Town Benches - City Trail Part V

    Posted on 8:30am Sunday 10th Aug 2014

    

    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.