London Calling! Part 2

by Mary Jo

On Wednesday I talked a bit about museums I visited on my recent week long getaway in London, and they were great. Today I'm going to riff about the people and non-museum spaces, which was even more fun!  (The very British shop window to the left was in the St. James area, about which more below.)

A catalyst for the trip was the opportunity to take an interesting workshop, which I did and very interesting it was, but what made London special was the people. Firstly, I stayed with a writer friend at her home in Chelsea, a gorgeous little townhouse just off the King's Road. In the 17th century it was literally the King's Road, a private route that King Charles II used to travel to Kew, and it was private until 1830. (Though a privileged few could also use it.)

 

Close to 200 years old, my friend's house is lovely and similar to the charming cul- de-sac at the right. The house has been very well modernized over the years, but it's an extremely VERTICAL house: 4 floors connected by many staircases, which the owner says keep her knees in good shape. Plus the house was FULL of books! (I did mention that the owner is a romance writer? <G>)

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea was the hotly beating heart of London's swinging 60's. The era moved on, but the area is still a delightful, diverse mélange of people and restaurants and pricey boutiques, which I admired through shop windows. When we went out to dinner my last night, there was this gold Ferrari casually parked just around the corner on the King's Road. A very flashy toy belonging to a rich princeling, perhaps!

Chelsea figured in one of my very first books, The Bargain. Originally entitled The Would Be Widow, the plot has the heroine in need of a husband in order to receive her full inheritance, but Lady Jocelyn has zero desire to marry. With her 25th birthday fast approaching, she goes to the Chelsea military hospital to visit an officer friend wounded at Waterloo, meets a dying man and impulsively strikes a deal with him so she'll quickly be a widow and his sister will be provided for. Then he doesn't die and life gets much more interesting for them both. <G>

The book was written way pre-internet, and finding a London military hospital was a challenge. I was grateful for what scraps of information I could find. Rather randomly, a scene later in the book takes place in the Chelsea Physic Garden, which was created by Sir Hans Sloane in the 17th century and operated by the Worshipful Society Apothecaries to grow plants from around the world in hopes of discovering some with valuable medical properties. (The statue on the right is of Sloane.)

All these years later, I can't remember how I learned of the Physic Garden, but it sounded interesting. When visiting London, I hauled my agreeable Mayhem Consultant there so I could look at the trees and plants, and it made a nice setting for a scene in the book. 

I wanted to visit the Physic Garden again, and I found it is practically next door to the Royal Chelsea Military Hospital. In between the hospital and the garden is the Army Museum I mentioned on Wednesday. All these delights that I'd researched from afar were right next to each other mere minutes away. I discovered this when my hostess took me for a walk my first afternoon in Chelsea. Thirty years on, the Physic Garden is much more oriented to visitors, with cool programs and even a charming café where we had lunch. As you can see, it's an oasis of greenery surrounded by city buildings.

Another delight of my visit was taking the Georgette Heyer walk with Sophie Weston, who wrote one of my all time favorite romances, To Marry a Prince under the name Sophie Page. I won't say much about this tour of aristocratic Regency haunts in St. James and Piccadilly because Anne Gracie has written wonderful two blogs about the Heyer tour she took with Sophie several years ago: Part 1  and Part 2.

Anne's blogs are full of rich detail about real people like Byron and Brummell, and Heyer's fictional characters who hung out in these places. I was struck by how compact an area was involved, and how many shops that were patronized by Regency people still exist. I was much taken by this homey sign in a cheese shop.(Click on the image to enlarge the picture so you can read about ewe's milk cheese.)

There were wonderful little cul-de-sacs throughout St. James, sometimes with elegant boutique hotels or famous institutions tucked away in them.  I was surprised to a building that was home to the legation of the Republic of Texas from 1842-1845, Who knew?

The weather was on the gray and rainy side, so naturally we ended our Heyer tour at a tea shop where we could get a proper cream tea.  Yum!!

One of the chief delights of my trip was visiting an old friend from my Oxford days. She lives in the charming old town of Reigate, which sits at the foot of the North Downs a 45 minute train ride south of London. Retired from a career with the planning commission, my friend now does wonderful and diverse creative work.

She took me to visit Standen House & Garden, a splendid estate built and decorated in the arts and crafts style of William Morris. It was catnip for a former designer like me--and like so many British National Trust properties, it had a pleasant café most suitable for lunch. (Elderflower beverages are popular these days, a trend I quite approve of.)

Then it was home again to the book I should be writing, but filled with happy memories of friends, food, and history. I hope that someday I can make a similar visit because the delights of London and vicinity are limitless!  (To the left is the compact but beautiful garden behind the house of my friend in Reigate.) 

On Wednesday I asked you about London museums you enjoy or would like to visit. What other things would you like to do if you had a few footloose days in London? Gardens, shops, eateries?  Dare to dream!

Mary Jo

Comments

[Sonya Heaney]

Holy moly, that gold Ferrari! I've seen one once in my life: some oligarch's car in Russia.

Your "Wednesday" link isn't working for me...

[Mary M.]

When I was in Moscow a few years ago, we went to see the view of the city from a bridge in front of Moscow University. I have no remembrance of the view because parked on the bridge was (probably) a Ferrari that was covered all over in Swarovsky "diamonds." That car was rented out for weddings and other events, and in this case was part of an advertising photo shoot. It was all we could look at, despite the vast view and the handsome university.

[Mary M.]

Meant to add, it was nighttime and the sparkle of the car from the street lights was just overwhelming.

[Mary M.]

There's just sooo much of interest in London that I have to agree with Samuel Johnson's famous line (updated), "When a (wo)man is tired of London, (s)he is tired of life." I tend toward topical museums: The Museum of London (with the Lord Mayor's gold carriage), Fire Museum, Transport Museum, the Old Operating Theatre (medical, not theatrical), Household Cavalry Museum, Postal Museum, Sir John Soanes' House (including the lovely fan collection), Dickens House, and many others. Concerts at St. Martin's In The Field, tea in the crypt of St. Paul's. The Highgate Cemetery, the London Zoo (where you can overnight near the lions' enclosure). A notable canal boat tour with stops at Camden Market and the Canal Museum. An excavation of a Roman amphitheatre under a plaza by an art museum in Olde London. And the cherry on top, as I mentioned earlier, the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries atop Westminster Abbey.

And those are all from local walking tours or wandering on our own. I can hardly imagine the treats to be uncovered if we'd had friends there, as Mary Jo does. Well, I'm tired of traveling, but not tired of life and certainly not tired of London!

[Sue McCormick]

Again I thank you for the virtual tour. Instead of picking what I want to see (aside for the earlier mention of the Victoria and Albert) how about a fairy granting us a few younger years and 6 months to spend ONLY in London?

That way, we could probably see about half of what we'd love to see.

[Karin]

I would love to visit the gardens in and around London. Those glimpses in your photos are beautiful. And drink tea, tea and more tea!

[Lillian Marek]

I would want to wander, just wander up and down streets and neighborhoods.

I woman I know spent several months living in London while her husband was being a visiting professor there. I was so jealous, but she hated it! She's very social, but none of her friends were there, and she didn't think there was any point in making new ones.

Different strokes, I guess.

[mary jo putney]

Sorry, Sonya! I've repaired the link, and here it is also: https://wordwenches.typepad.com/word_wenches/2019/05/london-calling-part-1.html

That Ferrari definitely looks like an oligarch's car!

[mary jo putney]

Lillian, wandering is wonderful! Healthy, too. *G*
It's always worth making friends--conferences are great for that and they last only days. Maybe harder in a city when other people already have their social lives. But one can TRY!

[mary jo putney]

Whew, imagination boggles!!!

[Jeanne Behnke]

London Calling - Loved both blogs! I wish I could have been a tag-along. Also - now I have to read The Bargain. :-)

[Elf Ahearn]

If I were in London, the West End would be my destination of choice. As a former actress, I adore all things theatrical-Covent Garden, Drury Lane.
Way back in the late 1400s, one of my ancestors, William Craven, came to Spitalfields and made his fortune in the fabric industry. Later, he was appointed Lord Mayor of London, and his son, William Craven, 1st Earl of Craven, had a (some say) torrid affair with Elizabeth Stuart, the Queen of Bohemia, who was James IV's daughter. William's property was what is now Drury Lane. Someday, I'll get to England and trace his footsteps.

[Amy J]

The estate and garden looks amazing. Definitely approve of finding as many gardens and cream teas as possible when in London. :-)

[mary jo putney]

Mary M, what a wonderful list! The Museum of London is one I want to get to some day, and I hadn't realized that there was a canal boat tour within the city. I'd love that! We did a Thames tourist cruise once that was much fun.

[mary jo putney]

Sue, tell the fairy to make it a pied a terre in St. James where you can spend several months a year until you've seen all the wonderfulness of London. Which would never happen, of course. *G*

[mary jo putney]

And England being England, there will surely be some delicious shortbread or cake to go with that tea. *G*

[mary jo putney]

Jeanne, I hope you'll enjoy your virtual visit to the Chelsea Physic Garden! If you go for the ebook, it's a bargain priced $3.99, I think.

[mary jo putney]

Elf, sure these are the Cravens that Nicola Cornick has written about? She's a docent at the Craven estate as well. Her book House of Shadows https://www.nicolacornick.co.uk/house-of-shadows is about Elizabeth Stuart, and William Craven is one of the characters. The West End is wonderful, but since my time was limited, I passed, with regret. Maybe next time.

[mary jo putney]

A most noble ambition, Amy!

[Nicola Cornick]

I agree, Mary,The Diamond Jubilee Galleries are a real treat!

[Nicola Cornick]

Thanks, Mary Jo! Yes, these are the same Craven dynasty. I actually offer a Craven tour of London so anyone who has a connection or is interested in their history can see lots of places in the capital associated with them. I love that you have that theatrical connection as well, Elf.

[Peg from DC]

In the warmer months, another wonderful garden to visit is Queen Mary's Garden in Regent's Park. Amazing roses and other flowers. The surrounding "terraces" boast Regency style villas. And I definitely want to do the Georgette Heyer tour on my next visit.

[Elf Ahearn]

OMG Nicola, how incredibly exciting--I'm totally geeked that I'm writing to someone familiar with the Craven family history! I'm going to buy your book right away.
A few years ago, I put together a family-oriented history of the Craven line. If you'd like me to send you a copy, feel free to contact me at [email protected].
The Cravens accomplished some amazing feats in the U.S.

[Nicola Cornick]

Hi Elf- I went past Craven Street in London yesterday and thought of you. I would love to hear about the US branch of the family!

[Elf Ahearn]

Nicola,
The book is on its way! Thank you for your your interest; it's just super cool to be sharing the family connection with a bestselling author.
Best,
Elf