Category: London

London Thirteenth Trip

In the summer of 2024, we finally made the eminently sensible decision to purchase a Two Together railcard which chops a commendable third off the price of your train fares. This is especially beneficial when considering the extortionate Avanti prices down to London and this inspired us to arrange a day trip down to the smoke.

Unfortunately, the train we were scheduled to be on was cancelled but we picked this news up in sufficient time to undertake a scamper to Stockport station and jump on an earlier one. As a result, we had no seats booked so commandeered some unoccupied ones that were booked from the earlier station of Manchester.

Twenty minutes later and by this stage comfortably ensconced in situ with coffee and croissants in hand, we were approached by a lady who claimed our seats. To my perfectly reasonable question of ‘Why did you not sit here from Manchester?’ she replied that she wanted to obtain some forward facing seats for her and her son, but she had now been slung out of the ones that she had purloined. Grudgingly and with some under the breath muttering we packed up and vacated but thankfully we found some better seats in the next carriage!

Covent Garden basement. Image Credit storage.googleapis.com

It was fine summers day so en arrival we walked down towards the river and arrived at London Covent Garden Basement and undertook a pit stop. Covent Garden is dually linked to the Royal Opera House and to the old fruit and vegetable market in the central square which is now a regentrified and touristy shopping area. It is bordered on one side by Drury Lane, where I believe the Muffin Man lives (the Muffin Man!!).

The Covent Garden metro stop also lays a claim to fame as having the shortest tube journey, a princely 270 metres to Leicester Square station and the London Transport Musuem is also in that district. There are sixty pubs and bars in the borough, which sounds like an attendance challenge I would have undertaken if I was a local resident! The area is referenced by Charles Dickens, Hitchcock and within My Fair Lady and Pygmalion. Whilst we were in residence there was a local singer called Joe Corti performing.   

We then had an al fresco lunch on one of the rare precious green spaces purchasing some tucker from the nearby Pret et Manger. Now I am always astonished regarding how many Pret’s are in the capital as it seems there is one on every street corner and undertaking some quick research, I have gleaned that of the 474 branches they currently have in the whole of the UK, 369 are contained within London.

We then mulched over to the southern side of the river where there numerous summer events and stages set up for entertainment later in the day. We deviated into theLondon Southbank Centre, which is linked to the Royal Festival, a venue I have covered in a previous blog when I saw Mogwai there. Within the open area of the centre, we saw an act called 3318 performing.  

  

Southbank Centre. Image Credit fabrique.com

Within the territory lines of Covent Garden there are thirteen different theatres, including our intended destination of London Adelphi Theatre for a matinee showing of a musical version of Back to the Future. The theatre, originally built back in 1806 is now located on the Strand and has traversed through three previous derivations and the latest building is now Grade II listed.

In 1997 the London production of Chicago opened at the theatre and had a subsequent eight and a half year run. In 2006, Brian Wilson had his last UK performance of his album Pet Sounds on the stage there.    

Back to the Future was a movie released in 1985 and I personally think it is proper popcorn fun and a very fine film and was immensely popular garnering around $400m at the box office. The musical soundtrack was provided by Huey Lewis and the News.

One of the amusing legacies is that a Chicago band was named 1.21 Gigawatts after possibly the most renowned line in the film, which is in itself a classic example of life imitating art. Also, to this very day it appears I cannot help myself from exclaiming ‘The Libyans’ every time I see an old blue Volkswagen campervan!     

1.21 Gigawatts. Image Credit facebook

We then headed onto the Somers Town Coffee House pub which is a regular go to establishment situated on an adjacent street to Euston train station. The hostelry dates back to the eighteenth century, and its name derives from the simple fact that it was previously a coffee house! There is also apparently a late night speak easy cocktail bar called Cosy located in the basement.

Nearer to the station, some essential drinks and snacks were then purchased for the evening train back. Upon reaching our carriage and our booked seats, I was surprised when a lady turned round to me and said whilst grinning that hopefully nobody was going to move us from our seats, at which point I realised she had also been on the morning train and witnessed my earlier altercation!   

London Eleventh and Twelfth Trips

I have travelled a few times down to London with work and at one stage was visiting a company who were based nearby to Moorgate station and adjacent to London Finsbury Square. In 1784 the Square witnessed the first successful attempt of a hot air balloon flight and there is also a memorial installed there to commemorate the 1975 Moorgate tube crash where 43 people perished.  

Finsbury Square. Image Credit londonplanning.org.uk

In the summer of 2017 after leaving a meeting I was headed back to the tube for the journey home and heard music playing. In the early 20th century, the square was home to the London Royal Yeomanry and on that day the Band of Royal Yeomanry (Inns of Court & City Yeomanry) were playing a gig.

Their regimental history dates to 1548 and the band formed in 1961. They perform at many events, including D-Day memorials in Normandy and 6 Nations matches at Twickenham. They still maintain their original ceremonial uniform of French blue jacket and trousers, chain mailed shoulders, George boots and spurs and Chapka helmets.

Band of Royal Yeomanry Band. Image Credit flickr.com

I have always been a huge fan of Hold Steady and have now seen them nine times in total and they sit in bronze medal position of my bands most seen list. That figure would undoubtedly be higher if not for the fact that they have not played a Manchester date since 19/10/14. The reason for this dearth is that they have chosen since then to just play an annual three-day residency in London with no other regional dates.

As a result, we decided to make a pilgrimage down to the smoke in 2019 as I was missing my Hold Steady fix! Their base for their seasonal jaunt is in the thriving Camden suburb of the city. I met Uncle George and John Dewhurst off the train, and we dropped our bags at the handy location of Euston Premier Inn.  We then headed off on the Northern tram line to find our first hostelry, the Dingwalls pub on Camden Lock overlooking the canal.

My first visit to that establishment was in 1987 when I saw Brilliant Corners supported by a yet undiscovered Happy Mondays. The pub has certainly gone through a regentrification phase since then, but they still have live music there on a regular basis.  We also had a foray to the Old Eagle public house and to refuel we hit a local pie shop but there were unfortunately no butter pies on sale!

The Hold Steady show took place at London Camden Electric Ballroom. The Ballroom is a long-established venue and has been in place for 80 years. It began its days as an Irish club where the crooner Jim Reeves used to play and adopted its current name in 1978. There used to be a weekend indoor market staged there and was in place until 2015. It survived potential demolition in 2004 when there was a proposal to redevelop Camden Town underground station.

Camden Electric Ballroom. Image Credit Electric Ballroom

There are two dance floors and four bars contained within and it has a capacity of 1500 and there was good viewing of the stage from any vantage point.  They launched straight in with the vibrant ‘Stuck Between Stations’ and didn’t let up for the next 24 tracks, it was another thoroughly enjoyable performance.

It was also appropriate as a milestone event as it was Uncle George’s and I 500th gig together, a mere 32 years since our first, a staggeringly good Pogues show at Manchester International 2. Our 100th was also a belter with Black Rebel Motorcycle playing the Mill, a small club in Preston.  

After the set had finished, George and I progressed onto London Camden Monarch for number 501. The original Monarch prior to 2000 was in another area of Camden which then became the music venue Barfly. The new Monarch opened in 2008 in a new site on Chalk Farm Road and the DJ on the opening night was none other than Amy Winehouse!

The pub subsequently closed in 2020 but reopened the following year under the new moniker Monarchy retaining the live music in a downstairs events space called the Vault.  On the night we visited a local indie band called Stay Club took to the stage.