The Top Floor Flat

Today marked the first sunny AND warm day of the year and it seemed that all of London was taking advantage. The number of people outside in frankly overly optimistic clothing (sundresses, flip flops, mini shorts) was indicative of how long we’ve been waiting for the weather to turn.

Eager to join them, I donned a tank top and made my way south west towards Fulham Palace, a former residence of the Bishop of London from the eighteenth century up through the 1970s. It’s a fairly unknown landmark and hidden within Bishops Park alongside the Thames in Hammersmith and Fulham, just across from Putney. It was a lovely walk but I was completely surprised by the Palace when I arrived. Apparently it was better know, at least by locals, than I thought! The cafe was absolutely packed and dozens of families were enjoying picnics all around the grounds. I had clearly been missing out.

The Fulham Palace is a gorgeous manor house, like you might expect to find in rural Kent or Essex (not surprising as, when it was built, Fulham was far enough outside London to be considered a bit of a hike and definitely a different, rural town). Initially it just served as the summer home of the Bishop of London but later became their year-round residence.

There is a small museum in the Palace that outlines its history and the role of the Bishop of London in the Catholic or Protestant churches (depending on who was in charge at the time) and a lovely little gallery that is currently displaying a series of botanical watercolours of local plants. There’s also a - apparently incredibly popular - cafe and small restaurant and an expansive lawn and set of gardens. The lawn was taken over by picnickers but the gardens, some of which were pleasantly overgrown and hidden behind crumbling walls from the original buildings, hid locals who had turned up with books to enjoy the sun and outdoors in a more secluded area.

Fulham Palace doesn’t seem to be so much a royal (or in this case clerical) tourist destination but a local secret enjoyed by the residents of Hammersmith and Fulham. I think the Palace gardens may join Holland Park as my summer destination of choice for an afternoon in the sun. A wonderful afternoon and lovely bit of local history.

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On my last day in Cornwall, I found myself with a seemingly endless stretch of sunny day before my evening train back to London and no plans with which to fill it. At a bit of a loss for what to do - there being little useful public transport, having checked out of my hotel and not being familiar with the area - I decided to walk the half mile or so to Charlestown, just next to St. Austell where I had been staying.

The first evening in Cornwall I had walked to Charlestown so had seen the one street, few shops and, most impressively, the gorgeous bay and working docks where a couple of full pirate-like sailboats were still docked. This, however, was not a brisk walk along the ocean, this was a full seven hours to fill so I busied myself with finding something to do.

Being drawn to museums, I decided to investigate the wonderfully named Shipwreck, Rescue and Heritage Centre, a small museum built into the clay mines and loading tunnels from Charlestown’s still existing china clay trade. Let’s see, how can I possibly describe the Shipwreck, Rescue and Heritage Centre?

The museum was a kitschy cross between a middle school poster project, an antique shop and Disneyland in the 70s. In fact, nothing in the museum (artifacts aside as of course they were expected to be old) could be more recent than 1989 including the quarter of an hour welcome video that described the clay mining history of Charlestown; and the importance of the dock to the few families that populated Charlestown’s handful of streets. Featuring 80s swimwear, hairdos and turns of phrase, it was a perfect segue into the winding corridors of animatronic rooms depicting olden day Charlestown life, a vast amount of history on the numerous shipwrecks that took place off the Charlestown and Cornwall coast, artifacts from these wrecks and - the most modern part of the museum - a 2009 Royal Navy recruitment video.

View from one of the china clay loading tunnels at the Charlestown Shipwreck, Rescue and Heritage Centre

I have to say, I was completely entranced and ended up spending almost two hours reading the history of local shipping trade and rescue teams. I’m not sure what it was that captured my imagination about this local attraction (perhaps I it was the wooden pirate statue out front holding a sign “fun for dads, mums AND kids!”) but I think the Centre will live on in popularity accompanied by those American roadside attractions such as “World’s Biggest Plastic Dinosaur,” “Amazing Stream that Runs Uphill” and “Mystical Rock Garden” where parents know, at the very least, after hours of listening to a child beg to visit the overbilled attraction there will be a shop selling ice cream bars at the end.

The rest of my day in Charlestown was spent enjoying the local delicacy, a Cornish pasty, at the Atishoo Gallery Cafe; a long wander down the short dock and stretch of beach; and a delicious Easter chocolate cake at Charlie’s Coffee Shop. Amazingly I had filled my day quite happily and Charlestown is not only gorgeous but full of some of the most friendly people I’ve encountered in the UK. Maybe it’s local pride at their lovely Heritage Centre.

Steak and stilton Cornish pasty from the Gallery Cafe in Charlestown, Cornwall

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While there is something to be said for randomly wandering a foreign town until you find the local favourites, when planning a trip in advance nothing can beat a good browse through TripAdvisor for restaurant recommendations. Before my trip to Cornwall I made a point of looking up the top ranked restaurant in St. Austell for a special Easter weekend meal. All signs pointed to Austell’s as being the area’s top pick (additionally, it’s listed in the Michelin Guide!) so I emailed my reservation for Saturday night in advance and headed off to Cornwall ready for a delicious dinner.

Unfortunately, and to my great surprise, I heard back that they were entirely booked so I swung by the restaurant to plead my single traveller case - thank goodness I did, they kindly found a spot for me and allowed me to enjoy the most delicious meal I’ve had in ages.

Austell’s operates on a set menu - always a good sign in my opinion as it means the menu options will be well prepared rather than a whole range of short order meals coming out of the kitchen. I could choose between a small array of starters, mains and desserts for a fixed (and incredibly reasonable) price. While located in a fairly unromantic area (next to a fast food Chinese buffet and Indian takeaway restaurant in what Americans would call a strip mall), once stepping inside the restaurant it was like being in a whole different location.

I started with a fillet of bream served with fried squid and a light, lemony fregula which was perfectly prepared. The fish was salty and light and had just enough fishy flavour to taste fresh but not enough to overpower the rest of the meal. The squid was incredibly flavourful and not the least bit chewy (which I thought was a given with squid) - it cut with my fork. The grains balanced the dish nicely, adding a bit of texture to the fish.

Next I decided on the Cornish beef ribeye served with a red wine jus, sauteed mushrooms, green beans and potatoes. I don’t eat red meat particularly often at home and so it was a very special treat, even moreso in that it was perfectly done to medium rare and I polished off the plate in much less time than I would have probably done in polite company.

Finally, I finished with the hot dark chocolate lava cake, served with mint chocolate chip ice cream. Simple, delicious and amazingly chocolatey, it was the ideal end to the meal.

Overall I’m so glad I picked Austell’s for my Easter meal (even if it was a Saturday dinner rather than Sunday!). The staff were wonderful - my waitress stopping to chat with me when she had a moment as I was sitting alone and of course the fact that they squeezed me in - which really added to the whole meal and ambiance. If you can get a table, I highly recommend a visit to Austell’s if you’re ever in the area.

Austell’s
http://www.austells.net/
10 Beach Road
St Austell
PL25 3PH
Tel. for bookings: 01726 813 888

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For a small town, St. Austell - home of the Eden Project and located on the south west coast of England in Cornwall, has a surprising number of hotels, bed and breakfasts and campsites. While this is due to the nearby Eden Project, which is not only a tourist destination in its own right but also a location for massive concerts during the summer, the fact that the surrounding area is absolutely gorgeous definitely doesn’t hurt.

So I was faced with numerous choices for where to stay while in St. Austell over the Easter holidays, and didn’t have much to go on when I selected, a bit at random, the Porth Avallen hotel on Carlyon Bay. What a wonderful decision! I was immediately impressed by the breathtaking views of the Bay and ocean beyond (their motto is “the only thing we overlook is the bay”) and their interior was filled with common areas to sit and read or just enjoy the view - including the lovely restaurant (where I enjoyed a full English breakfast each morning), the bar and the lounge. My single room was comfortable and - as promised, had a view of the bay. The brand new television and absolutely massive bath towels were just added bonuses.

View from the Porth Avallen Hotel in St Austell, Cornwall

But what was most impressive throughout my stay was the overwhelming friendliness and kindness of the staff. From the moment I arrived, I was greeted warmly by the receptionist (who I later learned was also staffing the bar and brasserie!) who provided me with maps of the area and suggestions for dinner that night. After my first night in the Porth Avallen, I awoke to a torrential downpour and upon wandering down stairs to ask how I might get to the Eden Project (my plan had been to walk) the owner of the hotel, George, offered to give me a ride! It was clear he was proud of his hotel and rightly so.

The Porth Avallen made a fantastic home away from home for my holiday and I would highly recommend it for anyone visiting the area, in particular single travellers as the welcoming air and amazing views much more than compensate for any travelling companion.

Porth Avallen Hotel
http://www.porthavallen.co.uk/
Sea Road,
Carlyon Bay
St Austell
Cornwall
PL25 3SG
Tel 01726 812802

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The UK seems to be quite generous about time off - in addition to the 25 days annual paid leave (that’s five working weeks, people!) there’s also a goodly chunk of Bank Holidays scattered unevenly throughout the year. Two of these fall on either side of Easter, namely Good Friday and Easter Monday.

With a four day weekend at my disposal, I decided to make the trek to the far southwest of the country and to Cornwall, an area of the UK about which I’d heard lots of nice things but hadn’t had the opportunity to visit. I decided to tie into my trip a visit to the famous Eden Project - a giant garden with two massive biodomes containing plant life from the Mediterranean climate and rain forest climate respectively. I’d heard a lot about the Eden Project, mostly because they put on a number of big music festivals throughout the summer, but as this is the time of year that everything seems to be bursting into bloom, it seemed as good a time as any to visit a new part of the country and the Eden Project itself.

Four hours on the train deposited me in the tiny town of St. Austell where I would be staying. The coastal village was fairly nondescript but had the benefit of being right on the water - and the hotel where I was staying was wonderful (more about that in a later post). My first evening in town I took a long walk to get my bearings but the highlight would be the Eden Project the next day.

Rather than try to explain the Project, and the amazing flowers within the biodomes, below is a series of photos from the trip:

Lots more photos

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Not too far from The Top Floor Flat is one of my favourite areas of London. I’ve mentioned it before, the home of the Queen’s Head pub (in my opinion one of the coziest in London) as well as a number of other local amenities (church, doctor’s office, tennis courts….). I was particularly fond of the Green last autumn when the leaves were changing colours but now that it’s nearly nice outside again, Brook Green is starting to pick up in activity. The playground was packed with kids, all the tennis courts full, dogs running around and the daffodils in full bloom.

My trip to the Green (not that it generally needs a reason) was to scope out the Brook Green Hotel for my mother who will be coming to visit The Top Floor Flat after nearly two years of residence here. While I am incredibly excited, it’s also important she finds a good place to stay nearby. The options are varied - being as near as we are to the Olympia Exhibition Centre and Earl’s Court Exhibition Centre, we get a lot of year-round traffic for people attending conferences. The Brook Green’s website was gorgeous and I knew the area was lovely so I thought I’d take a peek today while on my walk.

Unfortunately they were so busy I didn’t have a chance to take a look at a room (generally a good sign, though!) but the downstairs pub, also the main reception area for the hotel, was frightfully British with a full bar and very traditional pub feel. This is fine if you don’t mind sharing your hotel lounge area with ordinary evening punters but probably not ideal if you’re looking for a relaxing, low-key common space during the evenings. Additional, I had slightly misjudged the location of the Hotel, expecting it to be further on the Green while instead it was at the far end which, while absolutely fantastic for public transport (this has to be one of the easiest hotels in London to get to from Heathrow), would be less fantastic for noise level and view - half the rooms faced the Green, but also a busy high street; the other half were quieter but faced a parking lot and giant Tesco.

Having not seen one of the rooms I of course can’t judge the hotel overall - and it looks ideal for someone visiting the area and looking for a comfortable, easy to access, authentic British pub hotel stay. For anyone who is particularly sensitive to road noise at night (don’t come to London!) or wants a more traditional hotel offering with a quiet public area, this might not be the best bet.

I have to say, what would swing the stay in my favour, if I were travelling alone, would be the basement pub at the hotel which was offering up some pretty high profile comedians over the next couple of nights. Perhaps I’ll have to swing by for one of their shows, even if I am not visiting my family in one of their rooms.

Regardless, Brook Green is still a fantastic area, a gorgeous neighbourhood and a great place to grab a bit of sun, a game of tennis, a bit of fresh air or a pint.

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The Affordable Art Fair in London occurs twice yearly and offers the chance to take home a piece of quality artwork from both up and coming and established artists for anywhere from £20 to £3000. With pieces ranging from prints to paintings to pottery and with over 120 galleries displaying work, it’s a huge event and for the first time this weekend, I had a chance to visit the fair with our Spoonfed arts editor Tom.

While I didn’t end up leaving with any affordable art (seeing as their definition of affordable and mine don’t entirely match up), there were a number of pieces that caught my eye and I would have loved to own - along with a number of pieces so hideous I wondered if it was some sort of joke. All in all, it was a fantastic art fair with the whole range of pieces to laugh at, gaze at in wonder and covet. And butterflies. There were lots and lots of butterflies.

Favourite Pieces

Here are some snapshots (in appalling quality) of some of my favourite pieces. Embarrassingly, I managed not to get the artist, title and gallery name in all cases, so if you like it as well but I haven’t listed the details, sorry, can’t help you out there!

“Old Books and a Porcelain Jug” from The Framers Gallery in London

“History of England” by Thurle Wright

“Octosub” by Graham Carter at Boxbird Gallery

“Magic Benni” by Hilary Twiselton

By far my favourite gallery was the Boxbird Gallery in Hove (just near Brighton). I didn’t end up buying any prints or pieces which I am just beginning to regret although Tom took home a cute piece by one of their artists, Zara Wood, and I had to talk myself out of spending £250 on a print by Graham Carter.

It was a great afternoon and I really enjoyed the event - I’m looking forward to the Autumn AAF and who knows… maybe next time I’ll even go home with some art!

“Polkabrella” by Graham Carter at the Boxbird Gallery

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Can I just say that I love Courvoisier and their venue, The Future Gallery? While I was first introduced to the cognac brand and their Future 500 network through our Spoonfed directors who are part of the network, I’ve now had the opportunity to experience first hand three of the events that Courvoisier has hosted and boy, do these guys know how to throw a party (and make punch). First was the Mixology Event which saw top bartenders from London helping us create the ultimate Courvoisier-based cocktail. Second was the rather epic giant Punch Bowl Experience which saw me floating across a giant cocktail on a wooden orange slice.

Continuing in the tradition of events that at first cause visitors to ask “what’s the point of this” and see them leaving asking “when can we do this again?” this weekend Courvoisier is hosting the Cafe du Pique-Nique at the Future Gallery in central London. Described as follows:

From the 13th to 20th March, The Future Gallery will be transformed into a vast indoor picnic area. For just one week, while the wind, rain (and most likely snow) rage outside, you can enjoy your indoor picnic, in a perfect grassy setting, in contented warmth.

Exactly as described, we stepped into the Future Gallery which, rumour has it, was jointly designed with SAD experts who advised on the optimal amount of sun lights needed for the perfect cheery summer effect, to discover a carpet of fake grass, a room of fake sunshine and a really great summertime feel. Dozens of visitors sat on picnic blankets in summer dresses, enjoying the Courvoisier punch, nibbling finger sandwiches. Our group grabbed a drink and stretched out in the artificial sunlight. My coworker immediately started sneezing, his apparent reaction to the nice weather and anticipation of pollen, and we all agreed we were feeling much more cheerful - the pique-nique was certainly having the desired affect (or was that the punch?).

Regardless, it was an excellent opportunity to relax after a very long week and I can’t wait until Courvoisier’s next event.

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Finding a place for a quiet drink after work was proving to be a bit more difficult than I had imagined - the issue was the friendly between England and Egypt which meant that any pub with a screen would be packed with punters eagerly awaiting the first of England’s efforts as we move towards the summer World Cup.  This meant that I had to find a place off the beaten path, without a television and with easy transport access. Where else to look than Notting Hill in West London?

After a few false starts (both of the original pub choices had TV screens and, in an indication of how noisy it would be, numerous England flags already hung in anticipation of the match) we decided on the gastropub/wine bar The Mall Tavern which, while only a few metres from the Notting Hill Gate tube station, felt quite removed from the busy high street.

As far as a gastopub goes, The Mall Tavern was much what you’d expect, comfortable tables, dimly lit, nice wine - my friend was at first impressed at their range of imported beers on tap, then less so when it turned out they were out of nearly all of them. It would have been a fairly average pub-going experience had it not been for one thing: the free scotch eggs and pork pies.

For whatever, reason, the kitchen decided that this was the day they would provide all punters with some of these traditional British delicacies. Having never had either a pork pie or a scotch egg before, this was an opportunity to expand my British horizons. A scotch egg is a rather hideous creation of a hard boiled egg wrapped in sausage, wrapped in bread crumbs. With an off the charts calorie, fat and salt count, it’s probably not something you’d want to eat more than once a year but having heard so much about them, I figured I might as well give them a try (that and my friend was in shock I’d never had one before).

While I can’t say I’ll be ordering a scotch egg again any time soon (for health reasons much moreso than taste) nor was it, according to my friend, the best example of a scotch egg that Britain might provide, I will certainly be returning to The Mall Tavern. It’s quiet, friendly, provides decent drinks and, best of all, bribed us to return with free food. Works for me!

The Mall Tavern
71 Palace Gardens Terrace
London W8 4RU
020 7727 3805‎

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This past weekend I, along with a few coworkers was invited by a work colleague to spend the weekend at his home in the country. It was absolutely amazing to get out of London for a few days and I was completely spoiled with good food, fresh air, glorious weather and two incredibly friendly dogs. It was exactly what I needed after a month and a half of missing California and dealing with dreary London weather and we made the most of our time with long walks (with the dogs of course) across the fields, a lot of time in front of the fire, and the talent samplings of our two peers who play the guitar.

Although getting back to London (where it immediately began to rain) was less than pleasant, the city and its terrible weather is definitely made more bearable through weekends like this one. Here are a couple of snapshots of the house, the fields and our walk through the British countryside.

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