Posts tagged ‘London’

Feb 7

Big Ben at close Quarters – the Elizabeth Tower Tour

It’s almost certainly one of the perks of the job of working for the British Government that occasionally you get to peek behind the scenes of the nation’s famous landmarks, monuments and buildings – icons which have made Britain and in particular the city of London famous throughout the world. And without a doubt one such perk, in which I have most recently indulged, is getting a tour up London’s most famous landmark of all: Big Ben.

Of course I didn’t actually go up Big Ben. For as we Londoners are so fond of telling everyone who mentions the BB words, “Big Ben” is not actually the name of the bell tower at all – rather the tower is now officially titled “Elizabeth Tower”, a title bestowed upon it only last year in celebration of HRH Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee. “Big Ben”, meanwhile, is the name of the massive bell which sits atop the tower and rings out across Westminster at every quarter past, to, on and half past the hour. And having stood right next to it today as it bonged out the hour at midday, I can confirm that it is both very big and very, VERY loud!

The Tower itself was an innovative new feature of the Palace of Westminster when it was redesigned by architect Charles Barry (who also designed Highclere Castle, none other than the real Downton Abbey for those Downton fans amongst you) following a great fire which destroyed the original Parliament building in 1834. For the tower itself, Barry looked to Augustus Pugin for assistance, an expert on the Gothic revival style of architecture, the likes of which has become characteristic of the Palace of Westminster and makes the finished complex look far older than it actually is. The tower went up slowly – it took some 16 years to build to its full 315 feet before finally being completed in 1859.

As for Big Ben and the clock itself, when this was designed it was fashioned to be the best of its kind and surpass all clocks like it around the world. And for a time, it did so (it’s still the 3rd tallest free-standing clock tower in the world, and probably the most famous). Designed by a barrister, no less, Edmund Beckett Denison, together with George Airy, Astronomer Royal, and constructed by Edward John Dent, the clock was a feat of engineering for the time, not least because it was designed to be within a second’s accuracy at all times, despite the fact that up in the tower, the clock faces are exposed to such a battering from the elements. Without getting too techy (largely because I don’t understand the technology all that well) the clock consists of various counterweights which move up and down the full height of the tower, which in turn power the clock faces and the various hammers which create the clock’s characteristic bong every 15 minutes. The clock needs to be wound up 3 times a week, and various clock winders are always on hand for the job, although electricity today does much of what it once took an army of men to achieve through brute strength alone.

The stairs looking up (a little daunting) (Parliamentary copyright images are reproduced with the permission of Parliament)

Stairs looking down (not good for those with vertigo) (Parliamentary copyright images are reproduced with the permission of Parliament)

The machinery of the clock (Parliamentary copyright images are reproduced with the permission of Parliament)

The clock is an incredible marvel to bestow, and all the more so from up close. Getting there wasn’t exactly easy. Entering Portcullis House, the new modern entrance to Parliament, we had to go through airport style security before being taken down stylish escalators, descending into the earth which in turn led us to a passage taking us directly beneath Parliament Square and into the grounds of Parliament itself. From there, the starkly modern architecture of Portcullis house metamorphosed rapidly back in time to the iconic gothic decoration of the Palace of Westminster. Soon reaching the small door of the tower, our descent began up all 334 stone spiral steps to the top of the tower.

View from the Tower

This wasn’t as bad as it sounded. Luckily we were allowed to stop roughly one third of the way up for a very informative talk about the tower’s history from tour guide Catherine Moss, before making the final trek, first up to watch the machinery of the clock itself before continuing to see the infamous bells. Well timed as ever, our visit to see the huge cogs and wires of the clock coincided with a quarter to midday, enabling us to see all of the still-original machinery in action, but missing none of the action on the hour itself. This great joy was reserved for the upper platform, above the clock-face, where we emerged just before 12 to stand by the incredibly large Big Ben bell as the clock struck 12.

A quarter bell (Parliamentary copyright images are reproduced with the permission of Parliament)

Big Ben from above (Parliamentary copyright images are reproduced with the permission of Parliament)

Big Ben on the right (Parliamentary copyright images are reproduced with the permission of Parliament)

The chime of the tower, with its melodic 20-chime sequence played by the four Quarter bells, followed by the deep bong of Big Ben itself, is a sound which is well known to us Londoners, and has particular significance every 31 December as it heralds in the new year to the accompaniment of a spectacular firework display. But being up close to the bells as they played out this celebrated tune was nothing short of incredible. The vibration which went through our bodies made for a totally immersive experience (we were given ear plugs I should note), and I must admit to being ever so slightly emotional as I saw, and felt, the familiar chime of Big Ben in action but centimetres away (luckily the wind was so strong that if I had been caused to shed a tear or two – and I’m not saying I did! – the wind disguised it). The chime, by the way, is apparently a variation on a phrase from Handel’s Messiah – the part shortly after the Alleluia chorus.

Our tour guide, Catherine Moss (AP Photo)

The famous clock face (Parliamentary copyright images are reproduced with the permission of Parliament)

The clock face (Parliamentary copyright images are reproduced with the permission of Parliament)

After embracing the great bong of Big Ben and the various Quarter bells in all their mighty fortitude, the final stop of the tour was to head down a level to the most prominent feature of the tower – the four sided clock face. We were able to stand just behind the world-famous clock faces, and see the now fantastically environmentally friendly long-life bulbs, especially designed to light up the huge clock faces with maximum efficiency by Philips, which are placed evenly behind the huge stained glass clock faces. Yet again, this was quite a marvel to behold, not least being able to appreciate just how huge these clock faces really are.

So heading back down the tower, perhaps a little more deaf than when we came up, I descended feeling extraordinarily lucky – access to Big Ben isn’t easy – you need to organise a tour through your local MP, although once organised, the trip is free. But that aside, I would have paid good money to enjoy this exposure to one of the country’s most loved national icons at close quarters, not least to learn the fascinating history of the tower, and gain an understanding of just how that all important national timekeeper keeps ticking onwards day after day.

Details on how to visit Big Ben can be found on the Parliament website.

Jan 15

4 Comments

Burger and Lobster

Monopoly players across the world will recognise Mayfair as the uber expensive dark blue site which the most prudent property developer should aim to develop with little plastic green houses and fat red hotels should they wish to sweep the board of this favourite winter’s weekend family game. And in reality, the real Mayfair has existed in parallel to its board game namesake, boasting amongst the most valuable reality in London, from lavish luxury hotels including the Ritz, and refined shopping such as Fortnum and Masons, and swanky car showrooms, packed to the rafters with private drinks receptions of the well healed and fur-wrapped gentry, to private members clubs aplenty and restaurants whose prices are conspicuous by their absence from well-bound menus.

Yet in a city where ambition is the fuel which keeps the big urban pump grinding, and the lavish lifestyle of the London yuppy class predominates as the ultimate aspiration for career ladder climbers and socialites alike, Mayfair is as ever the ultimate in London hangouts, but one which is becoming more and more accessible as a place for everyone with a little taste to embrace the highlife. Take Fortnums, the refined department store, which last Christmas reported its best ever sales in the shops 300 or so year history, swamped by the thousands who decided to prioritise the traditions of a heritage Christmas, despite the economic downturn all around us.

Fortnum and Masons

Then there is Burger and Lobster, the location of my dinner tonight. The name just about says it all. You can have burger, or lobster, or both (or lobster in a brioche roll). That’s the extent of it (hence why perhaps their website is so decidedly bare). The dishes are £20 each. Simples, as the meerkats would have it. Yet for your highly reasonable £20, you get a lobster which is so meaty, and so decidedly unfiddly, that you barely need that funny little fork thing that comes with lobster, and can munch on the freshly grilled flesh to your heart’s desire, along with the moorish salad and chips which accompany it.

The eponymous lobster

Burger and Lobster, Mayfair

So need Mayfair be monopolised by the dark blue hue of extravagant wealth? Apparently not. Our dinner tonight was excellent value, and came accompanied by a healthy portion of salted caramel cheesecake and some bubbles, all billing at around £40 per person. The only slight snag is you can’t book ahead. We went along shortly after 6pm and at that time had an hour to wait, but this was conveniently filled by some quail eggs and wine at Fortnum’s local winebar – a suitable restoration for two lawyers after a full days work of legal wrangling.

Shanaz’s lobster roll

Cassandra’s grilled lobster

So for your fill of mid-week extravagance, head along to one of Burger and Lobster’s 4 London branches (Soho, Mayfair, Farringdon, City), and if you do have to wait for a table, fill the waiting time (in Mayfair at least) with a drink in Fortnums, a guilty peek at nearby Laudurée’s delectable macaron selection or, if you’re really lucky, why not pop into the Royal Academy, Mayfair’s pre-eminant art establishment, where a Manet blockbuster is due to open its doors within days.

I leave this post with some shameless self-promotion – my paintings of lobsters (sans burgers) – just to get you in the mood 🙂

The Gentleman (in Paris) 2012 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, acrylic on canvas

Joie de Vivre/ Zest of Life 3: Casino Nights (2005 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, acrylic on canvas)

Nicholas in the Renaissance (detail) (2008 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, oil on canvas)

Goodnight!

Fortnum & Mason has record-breaking Christmas (telegraph.co.uk)
Food Glorious Food: Burger & Lobster (onefinestay.com)

Jan 8

7 Comments

Duck & Waffle – a combination worth climbing 40 floors for

There are restaurants, and then there are Restaurants. You have your bog-standard local, great for a catch-up with friends, a quick snack when lunching alone, or a dinner when you really can’t be bothered to cook. But then there are the Restaurants – the crème de la crème of gastronomic performance, where a reservation is a date with the chef, a ticket at food theatre, or a seat in a location which dazzles like a cinematic display of visual glory. It was to one such gastronomically glorious location that I headed at the weekend, in celebration of my partner’s 30th birthday, which clearly called for something special. And where does one go to celebrate such a magnificent (if not daunting!) event, to mark the ascension to the ripe old years of proper, responsible adulthood? Why, I could think of no better than to ascend the dizzying heights of London’s newest skyscraper: The Heron, upon which, at the dazzling 40th floor, sits the Duck & Waffle restaurant, in a supper sleek, panorama-spectacular glass cube all of its own.

This was a super-exciting event. I’d kept the reservation a secret, but knew nothing of the restaurant itself except that the views promised to be nothing short of spectacular. So ascending from Liverpool Street station, and catching my first glimpse of the heroically high tower which was to be the location of our dinner made for quite an eye-full. As we passed the foot of the huge glass tower, and saw within the main foyer a fish tank bigger than my entire flat, I knew that we were in for a treat. And soon, thereafter, did my partner, as I took a sharp turn into the building that was to be the host of his birthday treat, and we ascended, at super-sonic pace, all 40 floors up to the restaurant. The speed not only made our stomach’s lurch, but the visual spectacle as street turned to streets and district turned to entire glittering city struck us both pretty dumb with awe. Almost shaking as we reached the top, I managed to vocalise the name of our reservation, before we passed through a bar, where a plummeting orange glass spiral staircase overlooked (yes, that’s overlooked) the shorter Gherkin tower to stunning effect, and into the restaurant.

The interior

Most tables benefit from the great view

The restaurant is surrounded on three sides by an unbeatable panorama which extends so far over London that the horizon blurs with the sky and all you can see is a galaxy of twinkles. From our beautiful window-side table, we looked straight onto the Gherkin, and beyond Tower Bridge, under which the Thames snaked its way towards the towers of Canary Wharf from where the view grew misty. In fact by dessert the whole view had gone rather misty – I think we may have found ourselves in a cloud. Anyway, I digress. The interior is funky and modern, with a golden yellow ceiling which appears to be rippling, and an open kitchen which allows you to check out what the busy chefs are up to.

Our view with chef reflected

and again

The great thing about the restaurant is that for the views, it’s very unpretentious. The menu is even affordable, and the whole outfit is quite casual and trendy. The food is served in a tapas style – the intention is to share dishes which range from snack-sized bites, sushi-style raw fish and a range of mediterranean breads, to cold cuts and speciality mains including the restaurant namesake, duck and waffle. The dishes then come as and when they are ready which, in our case, was sequenced pretty much in size order starting with the snacks, bread and raw fish and ending with the duck.

Our table!

We went for 6 dishes spread from across the menu. We started with dates wrapped in bacon with a creamy mustard side sauce – the flavours were so good I could have eaten a whole basket full of these things. From the breads, we went for a garlic and rosemary foccacia. The smells immediately transported us to Italy’s mediterranean coast, and the flavours were deliciously pungent and well seasoned, although the bread itself was a bit doughy in the middle. Onto the raw fish – exquisite strips of tuna, served with a small cube of watermelon, a tiny basil leaf and drizzled with a balsamic glaze which made for a perfect balance of flavour. As ever, the aromatic basil won me over as it does in most food combinations.

Onto the slightly bigger choices, we had a sizzling baked golden beetroot dish which was accompanied by creamy goat’s curd and honeycomb – so good, although the delicious honeycomb did tend to cling onto my teeth with unnecessary enthusiasm. We also had a deliciously spanish octopus cooked with chorizo. However the best dish of all had to be the trademark duck and waffle. Oh my goodness, the very thought of that dish makes me salivate like the Niagara Falls. A Belgian-style waffle was topped with an unctuous leg of duck and a gooey fried egg, over which one poured (to taste) an ambrosial syrupy nectar which appeared to be maple syrup with mustard seeds giving a slightly fiery, textured edge. The dish was so delicious, and the syrup so exquisitely sinful that I actually ended up drinking the residual syrup straight from the jug (no one was looking!). I would walk the 40 floors to get to that dish if I had to!

The famous duck and waffle

We ended our evening with two selections from a great dessert choice. My partner had gooey chocolate brownies, again with honeycomb and peanut butter icecream. I had a spiced pear “cappuccino” which was a pear syrup and froth, spiced, with chunks of pear and gingerbread – very festive and just about appropriate as it was the 12th day of Christmas.

And so ended our fantastic night. This restaurant is a must for those who love a good view. It is simply mind-blowing. The food is not overly expensive, although it can mount up if you have too many dishes (which is the temptation – the portions aren’t that large). The wines are expensive though. The cheapest bottle of red I could find was £40 so we opted for a couple of glasses instead. The main drawback for me was the fact that the open kitchen was very smoky. The aromas of all the cooking, grilling and frying were very cloying in the air which is not ideal for an enclosed glass space – like frying bacon inside a hot greenhouse. This left us smelling quite heavily of fried food when we left. But we weren’t overly bothered. That view will stay with us for much longer, and as for the lift journey down, we took the lift up and down about 3 times – it was like a fairground ride with the best ever view – priceless!

It was a long way up…

The staircase in the bar – check out the gherkin outside

Details of the Duck & Waffle can be found here. Allegedly they’re open 24/7 so if you ever happen to be strolling through the city at 3am (which won’t be such a novelty for the city lawyers I know) that syrupy duck treat will lift your spirits in no time.

Dec 18

6 Comments

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas – Part II

Christmas isn’t just about the festive spirit outside of doors, although as I demonstrated yesterday, in London, the tangible celebration of Christmas evident all around certainly helps to get one in the mood. But it’s indoors, in the home, that the real heart of Christmas beats a unified rhythm with the yuletide spirit, and personally, I cannot get enough of the constant reinvention of my home in its Christmas guise, from the comforting glow of my Christmas trees at the break of a still dark winter’s morning, and the spirited twinkling dance of fairy lights to the jig of Christmas pop playing on the radio, to the reflective flicker of candlelight as the day draws to a close, and my home is lit exclusively by the staccato movement of my tree lights and the red warming glow of my candles lit in almost every room.

In fact so fervent is our love for the ambience given off within our Christmas-decked home that my partner and I have a moment, just before going to bed, when we play some choral carols or, even better, monastery chants, emulating a Christmas straight from medieval times, and with that soothing soundtrack, set about sitting, calmly in the subdued light of our Christmas trees, watching the lights and sparkle dance and flicker around the room. It’s almost epiphanaic to meditate amongst such warm Christmas tranquillity, and is almost certainly my favourite time of the day.

Now I’ve already shown you my Christmas decorations in two posts a few weeks back (links below), but this post is, I suppose, further reflections on a theme – my almost poetic interaction with the yuletide spirit manifesting all around me both in words and pictures. Moving to the latter, posted here are some further glimpses of my Christmas expression around my home. I start with my Scandinavian forest, an oasis of calm, an installation of little small Christmas trees intermingled with cute forest animals – I’ve noticed that this simple, white Scandinavian style has really hit it off in London this year with all its woods, and whites and an emphasis on nature. I love nothing more than lighting these beautiful sparkling silver tealights amidst my forest, creating in so doing something akin to a magical Narnia-like wonderland which comes alive under the candles’ gentle flickering.

Talking of candles, one of my favourite parts of Christmas has to be decorating the table, whether it be for the big event on Christmas day, or for a small meal in the run up to the 25th. I usually incorporate as much foliage as I can, including oranges and pine trees, red berries and fir cones, and then set amongst the foliage many candles of different shapes and sizes. Then I like to leave the candles to burn gradually down, lighting up the foliage around them with a warming winter glow.

Moving on to more of my decorations, here is another homage to the Scandinavian Christmas, where the fusion of a glitter covered tree hung with delicate glass baubles appears to emulate droplets of ice hanging in a snow-covered forest.

I also love these photos of my Christmas lights out of focus. One of the great advantages, to my mind, of being dreadfully short sighted (and there aren’t many) is that if you look at a tree having taken off your glasses, the lights blur and intermingle with the sparkle from the nearby tinsel and glittery baubles – it creates a blur of light which is sensational to the eyes, and these photos almost replicate the effect.

Finally, I close my post with a selection of miscellaneous shots, from the lights upon the fireplace of my family home where I will be spending Christmas this year, to the oversized paperchains which my partner, mother and I were making over the weekend (they’re uber fashionable this year, we hear). Check out too the understated extravagance of my little diamond-covered Eiffel towers (fake diamonds, sadly). London may arguably be the capital of Christmas, but there’s always room for a little Parisian glamour to compliment the excesses of the festive season.

Righto, I’m off to share a moment with my Christmas trees now… until the next time, hope you’re enjoying the run up to Christmas!

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas – Part I (daily-norm.com)
My Christmas Wonderland, Part I (daily-norm.com)
My Christmas Wonderland, Part II (daily-norm.com)

Dec 17

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It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas – Part I

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas in London, which, as cities go, surely springs to mind as one of the most festive locations in which to spend the Christmas season. It is, after all, the city that brought us A Christmas Carol, and whose foggy streets, holly-trimmed Georgian town houses and fairy-light filled shopping streets fill Christmas cards across the globe, images which are synonymous with the festive season everywhere.

True, we don’t have many cinnamon-scented, mulled-wine quenched Christmas markets, gingerbread houses or ski slopes, and when we get snow, it does generally turn to grey mush within the hour, but what we do have is a series of super-festive ice rinks set amongst backdrops of picture-perfect architectural grandeur, huge trees filling our squares and besides our most important buildings, an almost guaranteed cold wintery climate, and shopping streets crammed full of shoppers from all over the world. It’s the very image of a contemporary Christmas.

For we Londoners, 2012 has been an incredible year, for obvious reasons, but nothing quite tops the icing on the cake than a great festive season. I’m a working man, and my blog, as with my art, takes second place, sadly, in my day to day activities, and therefore I have been unable to go skating, to traipse around the shops for hours on end, nor to meander around the allegedly popular winter wonderland in Hyde Park. However, with what hours I have spared, I have noticed a tangible sparkle of festive feeling laying upon every facet of London like a sprinkle of freshly laid snow. And I’m loving it. So, I decided to share a few of my haphazardly shot photos and Christmassy experiences so that you too can share in the festive spirit which is cursing through the city.

The lights on Regent Street

In its shopping, London is practically unrivalled, and for Christmas splendour, the shopping districts and large department stores know how to lay on a show. The other night I headed to Covent Garden market which, despite being almost paralysed by cold, sparkled like a finely polished diamond. Inside the giant market, huge oversized baubles hang intermittently between giant disco balls and the permanent elegant iron lighting. Meanwhile, in the market square is a huge tree in an even bigger pot, while besides it, mulled wine stalls and hoards of shoppers help to make this one of the most festive areas of London.

Covent Garden market

Covent Garden’s tree

As for me, well I met my dear friend Celia for dinner not far from the market – we headed to the Green Man and French Horn in St Martins Lane – an intimate french affair in the setting of an old pub, with low cosy lighting and some pretty hearty food – I had a feather-blade beef which almost melted away on my tongue when washed down with its rich wine sauce and our accompanying bottle of vin.

Talking of food, a few days before, my friends Cassandra, Jeremy and I headed off to trendy Islington in the North of the city, again an area of London giving boast to some excellent shopping, as well as the slightly more niche antiques and interiors market. However, it wasn’t our homes we went to indulge – rather, we were headed for Feast, a large undercover Christmas food festival, set within the very ramshackled surroundings of the old post office sorting offices, which made for quite the industrial contrast with the very popular festive spectacle below, as stalls from many a local restaurant offered a rich variety of culinary oblation, from glorious cupcakes (pictured), spicy asian cuisine, seared thai beef and mexican enchilladas, to gourmet burgers, Spanish chorizo sandwiches and fluffy pork buns. As for us, well, apart from and perhaps instead of the aforesaid, we managed to gorge more upon the liquid libations provided, from mulled wine, to mulled cider, to mulled wine again. Nothing makes one merry and festive quicker, particularly at 1 in the afternoon.

Back to the shops, and none can doubt the breadth and variety of Christmas shopping on offer in this great city, not to mention the decorative supremacy of the city’s most established shops. In Selfridges, one of my favourite department stores, the 5-floor high galleries are hung with huge dinging bells, which move up and down all day long, bonging a gentle, almost hallucinogenic Christmas tune. In both Harrods and Liberty, Christmas decorations fill a generous proportion of the shop floor space, and queues for the latest quirky bauble wind around the stores. However, for the best decorations, Fortnum and Mason, my favourite of all London shops, does simply the best in my view. Pictured are some of the white decorations they had this year, but just look at their lavish tree and old fashioned staircase. What I would give to import this entire set up into my sadly staircase-less flat! Meanwhile, with the decorations bought and wrapped, head around the corner to Regent street, where a lightshow worthy of the 3 Kings themselves awaits, strung across the busy shopping streets below.

Selfridges bells

and Fortnums decorations

No overview of London’s Christmas would be complete without a quick mention of those wonderful ice rinks. My favourite has to be the rink set within the glorious confines of Somerset House on the banks of the Thames. With flame torches flickering around the blue glowing ice and the imposing facades of the Somerset House quadrant standing majestically all around, this has to be the picture perfect Christmas scene. It’s so good in fact that when studying at King’s College London next door some 10 years ago, I painted my very own homage to the ice rink (below). See also the rink outside the spectacular gothic palace that houses the Natural History Museum in South Kensington. This again creates a remarkable backdrop to an intrinsically festive scene.

Ice Skating at Somerset House (acrylic on canvas, 2002 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown)

But while being out in the frosty busy streets of London is all very well, at the end of it all, there’s nothing quite like home. This very evening I have just finished gorging upon wooden platters loaded with fresh cheeses, festive chutneys, smoked salmon and ham, while with friends round for the evening, we toasted christmas with champagne in one hand and mulled wine in the other. For Christmas in the city is the jolliest place to be, but share it with friends and loved ones, and Christmas will truly have come home.

Tomorrow, as if you haven’t had enough already, I just have to share more photos of my Christmas decorations, candles, installations and more. See you then.

Sep 12

4 Comments

Wenlock and Mandeville – the Mascots that got London walking

If there’s one thing I will miss in London now that our “golden summer of Sport” has come to an end, it’s the pleasurable sight of the Olympic and Paralympic mascots dotted all over the city. The mascots, with their one eye (the design of which is apparently something to do with a camera topped by the light of a London black cab) and curvaceous organically shaped bodies (meant to resemble drops of iron left over from the construction of the Athletics Stadium) have become synonymous with the playful spirit of the games.

Just a few days before the games begun, life-size statues of the twosome began to appear all over London, painted up by a host of different artists to reflect both different characters (soldiers, a business man, a beefeater and so on) and the location where the statues are standing. As artistic creations, they were not always painted with faultless skill, but for imagination, and playful depiction of the theme at hand, these painted statues are surely worth a mention on this art-based blog.

Big Ben Wenlock

One of my favourites – a Soldier of the Horse Guards

And not only did the statues have some artistic merit. They were also designed to mark out “strolls” around London, pointing the way to points of interest across the city so that tourists and Olympic visitors alike could make the most of our great city while visiting for the games. Ingenious.

Once I had seen one, I wanted to see them all. Of the 80 odd on offer, I got to see around 50 enjoying seeking out each statute in turn like a mass treasure hunt of capital city proportions. Not bad, although I wish I had had the time and energy to see them all. Here are a host of photos showing the mascots I befriended, and which, any day now, will disappear off to the homes of the anonymous bidders who have been buying them up for 4 figure sums on the London 2012 memorabilia website. The prices were a bit steep for me, otherwise I would have been tempted to have moved one of these figures into my flat 🙂

: Big Ben Wenlock

: Aquarium Wenlock

: Butterfly Mandeville

: All in green – Tennis Wenlock

: Diamond Wenlock

: Theatre Mandeville

: Amazing: Soldier Wenlock

: Regent’s Street

: Trafalgar Square Wenlock

: One of my favourites – movie Wenlock in Leicester Square

: Inspired – afternoon tea Wenlock

: Some form of tree mascot

: Builder Mandeville!

: This one was random – dog walking Wenlock

: Pirate Wenlock

: Regency Mandeville

: Safari Mandeville

: Union Jack in Regent’s Park

: China Town

: Cycling Wenlock

: London Bus Wenlock

: Hippee Wenlock

: Arty Wenlock

: London Zoo

: Midsummer Night’s Dream

: One of my favourites – Victorian Mandeville

: Musician Wenlock

: Tourist Wenlock

: Busking Wenlock

: Garden Wenlock in front of Parliament

: Mascots of the United Kingdom

: Rose garden – Regent’s Park

: Flower market Mandeville in Convent Garen

: Floral Wenlock

: Tourist Mandeville on the Albert Embankment

: One of my favourites – a Soldier of the Horse Guards

: Literary Wenlock (that’s Oscar Wilde)

: Somerset House Mandeville

: The Victoria Embankment obelisk

: Westminster Cathedral

: Southawk Cathedral stained glass windows

: Pond in Regent’s Park

: Doctor Wenlock

: Speaker of the House of Commons

: Map of London

: The HMS Belfast

: Lambeth Palace

: Victorian gardens

Afternoon Tea Wenlock – London’s Offical Mascot (fashion-stylist.net)
Where’s Wenlock? Mandeville is missing! (afterthomas.wordpress.com)

Aug 27

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Out and about with my iPhone – Part III

It’s that time of the year again, when The Daily Norm shifts the focus to the ordinary things in life – the “norms” of life if you will – which are often ignored by day, but look pretty spectacular when captured on camera. It’s a point I’ve made before in my previous “Out and about” posts, but the real benefit of the improvement of mobile phone camera technology is that wherever you are whatever you are doing, it becomes possible, upon seeing something surprising, or spotting something mundane which suddenly, out of the blue, appears beautiful, to capture that shot for prosperity. These often make the best photos of all – uncontrived, original, surprising.

As before, I’m posting a few shots of miscellaneous sights which, over the last few months, I have encountered while living the humdrum of an otherwise normal life. This part of the “Out and about” collection concentrates mainly on clouds, skies and a good few flowers to boot. Enjoy.

: Clouds mount over Clapham Common pond

: Light shines through a vase of gladioli

: Red hot pokers at Glyndebourne

: My white gazpacho

: Silhouette at the National Gallery

: Clouds overlaid with a silhouette of my blinds

: Iconic London – red bus, St Paul’s and the sun reflecting off a skyscraper

: Another iconic view of London

: Wafer thin gladioli

: Cemetery at Lambeth Palace

: London’s Houses of Parliament

: A rather phallic sculpture at Chelsea’s Physic Gardens

: Beautiful barlotti beans

: Sunset over Clapham Common

: Daisies in Regent’s Park (I love the lone black one on the right)

: This condom poster tickled me in Paris

: Tennis court lights up the darkness in Clapham

: Multi-coloured flowers brighten up London’s parks

: My paints!

: Sky reflected in my coffee table

: Ducklings in Wandsworth Common

: This stunning 1920s fox fur was found in my partner’s grandmother’s closet

: More glorious gladioli

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Out and about with my iPhone – Part I (normsonline.wordpress.com)
Out and about with my iPhone – Part II (normsonline.wordpress.com)
My urban balcony garden (normsonline.wordpress.com)

Aug 22

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The Genius of Hitchcock Part One – The Lodger and Stage Fright

Although now best known for his blockbuster epics where birds attack the innocent in Bodega Bay, James Stewart struggles to cling on to a skyscraper’s edge in the dizzy heights of San Francisco, and Cary Grant and his suitably blonde counterpart risk life and limb to escape the group of villainous assassins pursuing them across the slippery carved facade of Mount Rushmore, Alfred Hitchcock, the master of suspense and one of Britain’s most famous cinematic exports, innovated his psychologically thrilling style of filmmaking in the smoke and fog of London long before he ever hit the sunny slopes of Hollywood. In celebrating the genius of Britain’s most influential and celebrated film makers as part of London’s 2012 cultural olympiad, the British Film Institute is concentrating, not just on the Hollywood blockbusters of Hitchcock, but on the London-based films where, for this budding film maker, it all began.

Hitchcock makes a characteristic brief cameo appearance in Stage Fright

I must admit, I have fallen head over heals in love with Hitchcock films. Ever since my partner and I stumbled upon the huge open-air showings of Hitchcock classics in Bologna’s film festival under the stars in July, whereupon the wonderfully clipped 1950s accents of the films’ stars resonated across the majestic medieval architecture of Bologna’s Piazza Maggiore, we have been hooked. From buying a box set of Hitchcock’s best, we have taken to watching one or two films per week. Almost besides ourselves with excitement were we then when we saw a poster on the tube advertising that the BFI too will hold a Hitchcock festival this summer. It may not be Bologna, but it was back to the big screen for us as we sampled yet more Hitchcock amongst an enthusiastic audience of London Hitch lovers.

French poster for The Lodger

The first film we saw is not available in any box set, at least not in this form. For in presenting one of Hitchcock’s earliest films, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog, the BFI give us a digitally remastered spectacle which, it’s being a silent movie made in 1926, comes complete with a new soundtrack by none other than the multi-award-winning composer (generally found to be mixing Indian and Spanish vibes), Nitin Sawhney. How was this going to work? A film so early that its black and white pictures moved and crackled with music by one of our most contemporary and ethnically vibrant composers? Well it worked a treat. It’s worth going to see The Lodger just to sample Sawhney’s score. Perfectly thrilling, almost traditionally 1920s in parts, but occasionally intermingled with strains of contemporaneity which worked just perfectly to emphasise the emotional potency of the scenes.

There is, for example, a scene when the stunningly stylish and devilishly debonaire Ivor Novello, playing the illusive Lodger, begins to fall for the golden-curled daughter of his landlord, Daisy (played by June Tripp) and vice versa. The love is forbidden, but unwittingly irresistable, and as the emotions begin to stir between them, the contemporary vibe of the lovers’ harmony introduced by Sawhney perfectly resonates, translating to the modern audience the depth of emotion experienced by these characters who, in every other way, are the very image of 1920s clipped and distant glamour.

Whether it be the music by Sawhney or the wonderfully expressive faces and actions of these silent movie actors, we fell in love with this movie which has since been called the first truly Hitchcockian film – full of suspense, twists, “MacGuffins” (decoys), mistakes, suspense (made all the more potent with scenes enveloped in a dense cloud of fog and mirk) and pyschological character examination. I shan’t give anything away though. As ever with Hitchcock, it’s important to come to the film ready to ride the wave of suspense which Hitchcock sets in action. All the more reason to get down to the BFI, on London’s South Bank to see it or, if you’re a little too far away, the Nitin Sawhney version is being released on amazon next month.

Next up was a second London-based Hitchcock, but filmed some quarter of a century later, long after Hitchcock had moved to America and yet yearned to return to the city of his birth to make another film amongst the naturally thrilling backdrop of London. Yet when he returned to make the next film we saw, Stage Fright, Hitchcock must have found London to be a very changed place. Shortly after the end of WW2 and with the scars of the Blitz evident for all to see, the landscape of London was visibly changed from the unharmed elegance of The Lodger’s Edwardian London. As though to emphasise the change, Stage Fright opens on a large vista of St Paul’s cathedral which, as miraculous survivor of the bombings, is shown almost unnaturally intact, stood amongst a landscape of flattened streets and desolated buildings.

Marlene Dietrich

It is along one of these desolate streets that the film’s central characters, Eve (played by Jane Wyman) and Jonathan (Richard Todd) drive in the opening scene, escaping the police from what, as Jonathan then describes, is a grizzly murder which has put him in the frame. Also starring the wonderfully glamorous Marlene Dietrich as an equally chic theatre star, Michael Wilding (who bares an uncanny resemblance to Alan Cummings) as the piano-playing Detective Wilfred, and Alastair Sim as the lovable jolly Commodore Gill, the film is a catalogue of Britain’s best of that time (asides from Dietrich of course who is evidently not English, but every bit as marvellous all the same). Again, I cannot describe the film without giving away the plot except to say that for thrills and twists, the work is equally Hitchcockian, enthralling and decadently charming. Amazing really how a film older than my mother can suck younger generations into its plot and captivate us as though it were made only the other day.

That, of course, is the beauty of, Hitchcock films, and the key to their success. They are as thrilling now as they were then, as brilliantly original, even in these days of computer graphics and 3D animation, and as completely captivating. The only difference between them and the films made today, is that in being older, when fewer tricks were possible, they include imperfections, and attempts at illusion which may, to the modern audience appear amateur, but which, in their crudeness exude charm and historical ingenuity, as they throw moving, living light on the world as it was then, an elegance now lost, a past which was naive, perhaps happier, and full of hope.

The BFI Hitchcock festival continues until October.

Genius Of Hitchcock: The Lodger Revisited (thequietus.com)
Hitchcock silent films restored for London Olympiad (cbc.ca)
The Lodger – New Classical Score For A Hitchcock Masterpiece (blazingminds.co.uk)
Hitchcock’s on a high (standard.co.uk)

Aug 19

3 Comments

Sunday Supplement – Cityscape I: London

London is the word on everyone’s lips right now. Yes, the olympic games are over, but the paralympics will start in just under a week, and the buzz around them continues to grow. For the influx of visitors descending upon our currently hot and humid jam-packed olympian city, the river will be a highlight of their sightseeing tour, the huge central artery which snakes through the crowded metropolis, marking the physical divide between the characteristically different North and South, providing grand vistas aplenty from the many elegant wide bridges, and, on the South Bank, playing host to the rejuvenated cultural heartbeat of the city. On the river too stand some of London’s most prominent sights: the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, the London Assembly Building, the London Eye, and this one: The iconic Houses of Parliament.

What the Eiffel Tower is to Paris, Big Ben is to London. Strangely enough, Big Ben is the bell in the tower rather than the tower itself, but it’s this high-gothic, grand and decadent campanile which gets the tourists excited and marks the beginning of each new year with such ceremony and aplomb, surrounded by fireworks, the iconic spectacle marking the passage of every significant moment in the city’s history. The view of Big Ben and the House of Parliament to its side have understandably inspired photographers and artists throughout the ages. Monet was fascinated by the effect of light in the dense fog surrounding the looming silhouette of Parliament, while Turner painted the fiery ravage of Parliament’s predecessor repeatedly.

This is my take on Parliament. It’s part of my cityscape collection, a small group of city views which I painted back in 2007 when I was trying to get the hang of oil paints after a long period of painting in acrylics. So it’s more of a study piece really, but still one of my favourite pieces of London.

Oh, and if you like it and fancy my painting hanging in your home, you can get limited edition prints of the work on my main website here.

Have a great Sunday.

London 2012 – a city celebrates (normsonline.wordpress.com)
Sunday Supplement ITALIA – Cityscape IV: Rome (normsonline.wordpress.com)
The Daily Sketch London 2012 – Final voyage of the Olympic Torch (normsonline.wordpress.com)
The Daily Sketch London 2012 – 100 metres at the Athletics Stadium (normsonline.wordpress.com)

Aug 12

6 Comments

London 2012 – a city celebrates

Being a Londoner, in London, when the Olympics rocked up on our doorstep and the focus of the world followed suit, has been an incredible experience which I wouldn’t have missed for the world. London has changed. Yes, Big Ben still chimes where it always did, and the London Eye still turns steadily next to the mighty River Thames. But during the two weeks of the olympics, the spirit of London underwent a tangible transformation. It was like being at school when a special holiday was being celebrated – the school was the same, but being their felt different, exciting. Similarly, being in London during the games has felt incredibly exciting, thrilling and the source of utmost pride.

Of course if you were a “Games Maker” or attended the huge olympic park, the excitement would, undoubtedly, have been explosive, breathable, physically all-encompassing. But for those of us, like me, who had to work during the games, and who, like many others, were unable to get tickets to the grand olympic park over in Stratford, the changing mood of the city was still unmistakably discernible. On the tube, people did not rush on with stern moody faces, pushing past each other, losing all semblance of civility. Rather, they would walk around with smiles, reading excitedly about the latest gold medal rush in the papers, and listening enthusiastically to the plethora of foreign languages which could be heard all around. On the streets, the feeling of British patriotism has reached an all time high, but mixes convivially with the respective national pride which is evident in those millions of foreign visitors who have descended upon our city from all over the world. Along the River Thames, the many bridges have been illuminated to spectacular effect, and all along the southbank, a brilliant cultural olympiad has celebrated the arts as well as sport. On TV and in the press, journalists have run out of superlatives to describe these games. Well organised, welcoming, record-breaking, fantastically attended. It’s been brilliant, amazing, a life-changing experience, a moment of insuperable national pride.

Huge rings welcome tourists from eurostar

A feeling of internationalism is everywhere

Like the end of any summer holiday, the climax of the Olympics tonight will be a sad moment for us all. Going back to work, as the olympic flags come down and the city returns to normal, will be tinged with an inexorable feeling of depression. But through it all, the memories live on, and London, as a city, will continue to thrive in the spirit of goodwill and international recognition. More than anything the olympics have made us Londoners proud of our city, which has so much to offer, so much going on, incredible sites and wonderful facilities. For these reasons, people will continue to visit us, long after the olympic spotlight has passed, and for those of us living here, a new inbuilt respect and admiration for our city has been created, an optimism for the future, and a celebration of the past.

The photos I enclose with this post are not really sports-related. Trying to get hold of tickets was like a search for the holy grail. Consequently my photos are confined to the small changes I have witnessed while carrying on my normal London life – rings on Tower Bridge, banners on the lamp posts, and those cute little mascots springing up all over the city. Enjoy!