The Top Floor Flat

If Monday had been the City of London: The Grand History, Tuesday was the Devil Wears Prada version of London Tourism. We were going to be hitting some of the top shopping the city has to offer. We first hopped a number 10 bus which would take us east through High Street Kensington, all the way along Hyde Park, and up to the western end of Oxford Street where we disembarked the bus to check out some of London’s high street shopping, beginning with Selfridges, the Harrods of central London. While the Gaps and Esprits and H&Ms of the street could be found in the US, there were plenty of brands that were a welcome change from the standard American shopping fare.

Where things got much more interesting, however, was on Regent’s Street, which offered many more boutique-like shops, as well as a Caffe Concerto which, while a standard pastry and ice cream shop, offered a European flair in display which caught my mother’s eye.

For lunch, we walked south to Covent Garden, which is situated in an area with plenty of its own unique shops and boutiques. We grabbed a pizza at the outdoor Italian cafe in Apple Market of Covent Garden then took a few minutes to enjoy the open air market offerings that surrounded us. Covent Garden is also home to the London Transport Museum, a museum I haven’t yet visited (aside from the gift shop which, in addition to being free to enter as opposed to the museum itself, has some really great unique London gifts) but have heard great things about.

Covent Garden could probably have occupied us for much of the afternoon but we pulled ourselves away to head back north a few blocks to Carnaby Street. This is one of the most famous shopping areas of London and is blocked to vehicles so it’s an ideal place to stroll through the shops. Over the past few years, pop up shops and restaurants, that is shops that only exist for a few weeks or months, have become increasingly popular and there was a pop up shop just at the southern end of Carnaby Street. Proceeds from the clothing and jewellery (made by local designers) was going to charity and we had a long chat with the jewellery designer, a friendly Canadian who swapped visa stories with me.

Finally, at the top of Carnaby Street, we reached a destination my mother was quite keen to visit: Liberty of London. The building itself is impressive enough, an old fashioned wooden structure that houses some of the best designer fashion in London. Oddly, my mother informed me that Liberty has recently launched a line of products they sell at Target in the US which seems to strongly counter their expensive, posh brand here in London but the store is still fun to visit, even if you’re not planning on shelling out £500 for a scarf designed by Vivienne Westwood.

It had been a long day of shopping (amazing how that can take nearly as much out of you as walking around the entire city!) and we were looking forward to meeting Spoonfed co-founders and my bosses, Alex and Henry at a highly traditional British pub for a highly traditional British dinner. We arrived at the Mall Tavern in Notting Hill eager for a glass of wine, some pork crackling, lamb scrumpets (they are exactly as delicious as they sound), mackerel pate, chicken kiev and pork medallions. It was a fantastic dinner and a great end to the day. However we had another early night as the next morning would be one of our most exciting outings yet….