Join a band at Rough Trade East

The 'Drummer Wanted' board at Rough Trade East is a place where East London's musical hipsters come together to scrawl notes about how they need other hipsters to make their dream work, by playing in their band.


London is presumably where hip young things come to try to make it in the music business, and whilst they're not posing in record shops and riding fixed-wheeled bikes, they actually have to do some practice, and find other musicians to play with, so Rough Trade helps them so it all with bike storage, a huge record shop and a noticeboard.

Rough Trade East is on Dray Walk and is open lateish every night. For more on the shop and its opening hours, click here.

Converse with Maggi Hambling's Oscar Wilde

Maggi Hambling's A Conversation with Oscar Wilde Statue was installed in 1998, in Adelaide Street, Charing Cross. She created it from green granite and bronze and shows Wilde rising from a sarcophagus, inviting passers-by to sit down and converse with him.


It wasn't until the late 1980s and early 1990s that people started to publicly question why London did not have a memorial to Wilde, and film-maker, author and painter Derek Jarman suggested a statue. When Jarman died in 1994, the Statue for Oscar Wilde committee was formed to ensure that his dream was realised.

Of twelve artists, Hambling's idea was chosen, showing Wilde rising from his tomb for a chat, smoking a cigarette. The base carries his famous quote from the play Lady Windermere's Fan, "We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars".

For more information click here.

Drink at the French House

A favourite of many of those who work around Soho, the French House styles itself as a bohemian hangout, and maintains its gallic stubbornness so well that it even refuses to serve beer in pint glasses.


Originally opened by a German, and subsequently owned by a Belgian, it wasn't until the Second World War that The French House took on its Frenchness, apparently being patronised by Free French Soldiers looking for a nice bar. It is even said that Charles De Gaulle wrote his famous speech, "À tous les Français" in the pub.

The French House subsequently became popular with local artists and writers, who enjoyed the bohemian style of the bar, with Brendan Behan, Dylan Thomas, Francis Bacon, Daniel Farson, Lucian Freud and John Mortimer all having apparently popped in at some stage.

The pub, which had previously been called The York Minster, changed its name in the 1980s, becoming The French House. Today it is known for its attractive downstairs bar, its wines and cocktails, and its atmospheric upstairs dining room.

For more information, see http://www.frenchhousesoho.com/

Buy choice cuts at The Ginger Pig

Ginger Pig is a posh butchers with branches in Hackney, Marylebone, Borough Market and Waterloo. They aim to provide meat from the best, happiest animals, raised on Grange Farm, East Moor Farm and Blansby Park Farm in the North Yorkshire Moors.


Whether its Longhorn cattle, Tamworth pigs, or Dorset, Texel or Swaledale sheep, it's all jolly nice, and it's available all over town from well-trained butchers who know what they are doing.

And if this sort of thing really excites you, The Ginger Pig also does Butchery Classes under the tuition of their team of skilled butchers at the Marylebone store, but as with the meat itself it comes at a price.

For more information, visit http://www.thegingerpig.co.uk/

_{^Picture © alex_lee2001 used under Creative Commons^}

Learn about Australia House

Another national day is upon us, for today is Australia Day, so let's examine Australia House on the Strand, the High Commission of Australia. When they were handing out High Commissions, Australia certainly lucked out, with a huge building begun by Dove Brothers in 1913, and finally opened by King George V, in the presence of the Australian Prime Minister, Mr W. M. Hughes, after the First World War Armistice, in summer 1918.


Designed by Scots architects, A. Marshal Mackenzie and Son, the building is certainly impressive, and apparently its interior has the dubious honour of having been used as the set for Gringotts Bank, in a children's film about a young wizard called Harry Potter.

Various Australian Agencies operate from the building, including the National Library of Australia, which has an office charged with collecting printed materials, documents, paintings and photographs relating to Australia. With voting in Australia compulsory, Australia House also sets up as a polling station for at election-time, and we are told that London's large expatriate Australian population means that more votes are cast here than at any polling station in Australia itself.

For more information, visit http://www.uk.embassy.gov.au/lhlh/History.html

Remember Robert Burns at the Embankment Gardens memorial

Tonight is Burns night, and the famous poet's presence is certainly felt strongly in London. Not only are there a vast array of London Burns Night events on offer, but the man himself is remembered in various ways across the city, perhaps most notably by a statue in Embankment Gardens.


One of three casts of the same sculpture by Sir John Steell, it was presented to London by John Gordon Crawford and unveiled by Lord Rosebery in July 1884. The other two statues are in Dundee and New York. A bust based on the statue can also be found in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey.

For more information, see http://www.robertburns.plus.com/MonumentsLondon.htm

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Spy the Admiralty Citadel

It's right at the heart of London, just a stone's throw from Trafalgar Square, Whitehall and the Mall, but many people have probably never heard of or spotted the Admiralty Citadel. Marked above ground by a squat windowless World War II fortress covered in Virginia creeper which has died back a bit, possibly because it is currently winter, it is oddly well camouflaged for such a prominent location.


Constructed in 1940-1941, apparently as a bomb-proof operations centre for the Admiralty, complete with gun emplacements, the Citadel has foundations 30 feet deep and a concrete roof 20 feet thick. It is known for its ugliness, described by Churchill as a "vast monstrosity which weighs upon the Horse Guards Parade", and its appearance has even been the subject of a debate in the House of Commons.

Sadly, it isn't open to the public as it is still used as a working building by the Ministry of Defence, but it is interesting to cast your eye over as you walk around the area. For more information click here.

Experience the awful service at Cafe Churchill

Right at the heart of touristland, at 49 Parliament Street, in Westminster, Cafe Churchill is a fascinating place. Obviously not worried about attracting repeat customers, the staff are amazingly abrupt, and prices for average food are inflated to the point that very few of the thousands of civil servants who work within a few hundred metres ever go back.


On one occasion, sitting in a completely empty downstairs area with friends for lunch, your author was asked to move to a smaller table, which he did. He ate at the new table, as his original one, and all others remained entirely vacant, and left before a single new customer had entered the room.

Your author doesn't want readers to think that he is annoyed with the Cafe at all, in fact he has been back fairly often, and finds the bizarre attitude of those who work there oddly endearing, but he wouldn't want people to misunderstand, and take this as a recommendation.

Even the student rioters seem to have taken it, graffiting the awning with the word 'revolution' during a recent protest, perhaps in an attempt to get the staff to notice them.

For more on Cafe Churchill, try clicking here.

Seek out the grave of Giro the dog

In the shadow of the Duke of York Column, at the top of the steps by the Royal Society and Carlton House Terrace is the grave of Giro the dog, whose owner Dr Leopold von Hoesch, whilst he was a well-respected diplomat under both the Weimar Republic and Nazi Government, famously received a full Nazi funeral in London in 1936.


Giro was an Alsatian, who actually died two years earlier in 1934, and probably had no idea what was going on in his home country, being a dog and all. However, often judged guilty by association to the newly-elected Nazi Government, whose British base was at the German Embassy at 8 & 9 Carlton House Terrace, nowadays Giro is almost as famous as his late owner.

Killed by accidental electrocution, having apparently chewed through a live wire during extension work, Giro was laid to rest in what was then the grounds of the Embassy, but is now basically just a patch of bare earth.

Your author is sure he has heard a tour guide tell unsuspecting tourists that Giro's ghost haunts the Carlton House Terrace and Waterloo Place to this day, but that's probably just for effect, and ghosts don't even actually exist. For more, click here.

Eat at the Horseshoe Inn - the Mongolian pub

Tucked away in the back-streets behind London Bridge Station, in the shadow of the Shard, sits a ordinary-looking pub, with a pretty ordinary clientèle. An interesting flash of colour in the story of the Horseshoe Inn, however, is that it has a special Mongolian menu, and Mongolian bar and kitchen staff.


Thankfully, the menu includes English translations, with various dishes on offer, and some interesting Mongolian Dim Sum, all very reasonably priced. It's a good spot for a drink and a bite to eat if you're in the area, and the regulars seem a pleasantly mixed bunch. There was even football on the telly, though disappointingly, it was English and not Mongolian teams playing.

For more information, and a proper review, head over to the Randomness Guide to London.

Gaze into Kapoor's Turning the World Upside Down

There's so much to see in this great city, that until today your author has kept forgetting to highlight Anish Kapoor's Turning the World Upside Down, which is a great piece of installation art showing in Kensington Gardens.


You've probably all seen or heard about it already, but for anyone who hasn't it consists of highly reflective stainless steel mirrors, which, we are told 'create illusory distortions of the surroundings' and 'new vistas in this famous and much-loved setting'.

It's more immediately likable as a concept than the bizarre tower of money he's building for the Olympics, and there are four different ones to choose from, so even if you hate them you get a nice walk around a pretty park in between. Now if only we can secure a decent weekend of weather to make them work properly...

Turning the World Upside Down runs until 13 March 2011. For more, visit http://www.serpentinegallery.org/2010/03/anish_kapoor.html

_{^Picture © McKay Savage used under Creative Commons^}

Find the Golden Boy of Pye Corner

High up on the wall, on the corner of Giltspur Street and Pye Corner, in the City of London, is a full-size golden statue of a small boy. An inscription below recounts that it is here in commemoration of the Great Fire of London, "Occasion'd" we are told "by the Sin of Gluttony".


The reason that the site was chosen is supposedly that at the time, Pye Corner (for that was its name) was one of London’s most sinful places, and the aptly-named Cock Lane was full of brothels.

We are told that the boy once adorned the front of the Fortune of War public house, which stood on the site until it was demolished in 1910. Nowadays, as the picture shows, he retains a role as a place of pilgrimage for those on walking tours of the City of London. For more information, click here.

Drink at the Cockpit

The Cockpit, on St Andrews Hill in the City of London, is a pub with an interesting history. Previously, as the name suggests, the venue for City cock fights, it also stands on the site of one of William Shakespeare's old houses.


However, that was all a very long time ago, as we are told that a pub has been here since the 16th century, when it stood by an entrance to Blackfriars monastery, and cockfighting was outlawed at the end of the 19th century. Though the pub has apparently undergone various adjustments and name changes, the gallery from which cockfights were watched is still very obvious inside.

When your author visited on Sunday, however, the pub was rather relaxed and 24 hour news was on on the big telly. It did gain bonus points for being a City pub which opens on Sundays, though, and the downstairs toilets seemed pretty 'original'. For more information, click here to visit the excellent fancyapint.com

Park your bike at the London Bridge Cycle Park

Your author's bike is basically of no monetary value whatsoever, and that's why he likes it. However, for those with more expensive tastes, the lack of secure cycle storage in London can be a big problem. Yesterday, by chance, he discovered a brilliant solution, and a great example of what can be achieved, for beneath London Bridge Station is a secure cycle park with space for up to 400 bicycles.


Open daily, with secure card entry and changing facilities, the centre, on Weston Street, does make a charge for the peace of mind of having your bike protected. It costs £1.50 per day, £5 per week or £200 per year, with monthly and quarterly plans also available, but if like one of your authors friends you have had a number of bikes - some which cost a ridiculous amount of money - stolen in a relatively short space of time, it can be worth the investment.

The cycle park is presumably aimed at users of the station - in either direction - who want to be able to cycle for part of their journey, and as long as it is financially viable your author is a big fan of the idea.

For more information, see the bottom of this page on the TFL website, or click here.

Attend a service at St Peter's Italian Church

There have been Italians in London for hundreds of years, and the population started to rise significantly in the 19th century. By the middle of the century, around 2,000 Italians had settled in the slums around Clerkenwell, and a Roman Catholic priest decided they needed a church. St Peter's opened on 16th April 1863, operating as a church for all Catholics in the community, with a distinctly Italian look and feel.


Designed by the Irish architect Sir John Miller-Bryson, using plans drawn by Francesco Gualandi of Bologna, modelled on the Basilica of San Crisogono in Trastevere, Rome, the church was originally the only one in the country in the Basilica style.

St Peter's offers lunchtime services on weekdays, with other services on Saturdays and up to four on Sundays. There are also various other community groups and an annual pilgrimage to Aylesford, Kent.

For full details, visit http://www.italianchurch.org.uk/

_{^Picture from Wikimedia Commons, © Lonpicman used under Creative Commons^}