A “sweetshop” for London obsessives

Today, after a very interesting walk around Clerkenwell with City Highlights and a brief stop for some soup (to warm up) I decided to go to the Guildhall Library with the hope of discovering some new information for my Mayfair and Belgravia walks coming up soon.

Guildhall Library is a reference library filled to the brim with books about London history amongst many other subjects. Although it is open Saturdays it’s not open after 5pm on weekdays so unless I make a very quick visit in my lunch hour or organise myself on a Saturday I can’t normally get there.

At the moment I have no idea how the shelves are organised; to me the books don’t seem to be in any obvious order. However that is part of the fun. It’s rather like a second-hand bookstore although obviously you can’t take the books away.

The first book I discovered today was entitled “The London Pub”. My intention was to find out more information about the pubs on my walks but I couldn’t help but look at every single page just in case there was a pub in Central London that I didn’t know about! The authors had picked 116 of their favourite pubs in London as at the date of publication which was 2003. When I got home I looked up The Archery Tavern, W2 as this was a pub I had never heard of. Unfortunately it closed down in 2007. Another recommended pub, The Feathers in Marylebone has now been renamed the Swan and Edgar and seems to have been modernised in the process. I think I agree with Fay Maschler in that I would be horrified not impressed to see a bar made out of stuck together old paperbacks. The Star and Garter, Poland Street, Soho, is however still there so I’m looking forward to visiting soon.

Secondly I picked up “Belgravia” by James Dowsing. With repeated trips to Westminster libraries (including Belgravia library) I have struggled to find books on Belgravia so this was good. However the style of the book wasn’t really to my taste and I gained little from it. Thirdly I picked up Mayfair Madams by Maria Perry which I had borrowed from Mayfair library before and which gave me some more useful information.

I was starting to get hungry so my plan was to return the books to the shelves and go home. However when every book you see on the shelves is of interest Guildhall Library is a very hard place to leave. My fourth and final book was bizarrely a Mills and Boon publication entitled “Romance and Realities of Mayfair and Piccadilly”. What attracted me to this book was the amount of detail about who was occupying which house in which road in Mayfair. The book was dated 1927 so was interesting from an historic point of view.

I put this book back but couldn’t resist another look at the shelves. However I managed to restrain myself as I really needed to go home. After 2 hours I felt drained but happy.

I really must find the time to return more often and looking at the Guildhall website realise there is much more to see than just the books on the shelves.

London Quiz Part 3/Invasion of the Pipers

Another night, another quiz.  This time it was the City of Westminster Guide Lecturers Association Christmas party at the Adam & Eve pub and the questions were even more difficult than the Visit London quiz earlier in the week.  Having said that with M, the highest scoring runner up in the current Brain of Britain (and also in the winning Londonist quiz team) on our team we came joint first.

After the Visit London quiz I had committed to memory all the answers just in case they came up at the Guides' quiz as wouldn't have been able to forgive myself if they had done and I couldn't answer them.  However I needn't have troubled myself.  Questions weren't specifically London based apart from one round and many were simply impossible (for me anyway).

The obscure questions included what well known airline once included a seahorse in its logo, the answer being Air France.  We actually got this right as A knew that D the quiz master had once worked for them.

Out of a maximum score of 48 we got a respectable 36 and tied in first place with Team 2.  The tie break question was however too easy so the prize (6 chocolate Santas) had to be shared between 12 people!  Wish it had been the prize from the Visit London quiz - each team member won tickets for a flight on the London Eye.

After the quiz had finished and we were all standing around socialising the pub (which we had hired) was gatecrashed by some Irish guards, 3 in their red tunics and 2 pipers dressed in saffron kilts.  One of the pipers marched up and down the pub playing some tunes (a good way to gatecrash as no-one can hear a thing).  The medley was finished and some of us wanted more but the landlady was conscious of annoying the neighbours so the piper stopped.  A bizarre end to another really good night.

London Quiz - Part 2

Being in the winning team for the Londonist Quiz a few months ago I was excited when I read about a London quiz for London experts on the Londonist forum.

Unfortunately the response from Visit London to my enquiring email was that the team quota had been filled and there was no room for a guiding team.  However Londonist were lacking a team member so I filled the space.

The venue was upstairs at the Shepherd Tavern one of my favourite pubs in Mayfair.  The drinks were flowing and Visit London were paying.  The teams consisted of cabbies, the Big Bus Company, Londonist and loads and loads of London bloggers.  It was quite a bizarre experience to meet the people behind the blogs I'm signed up to.  Ian Visits was there as was Faded London, Jane's London, Caroline's Miscellany and Tom Tired of London.

The questions ranged from fiendishly difficult to extremely easy.  I had tried to do "revision" ie studying some of my books including statues, blue plaques and churches, but this didn't really help. 

Londonist came a respectable third although there were only 4 points between us and the winners (the cabbies).  Next year there will definitely be a hand-picked guiding team and we will win!

Practice Makes Perfect

Today I took part in the first of a series of walk shops aimed at those of us qualified guides who are looking to get away from our comfort zone areas (mine being St James's and Mayfair) and explore new areas with a view to putting together walks there too.

Thankfully the rain had stopped by 11am when we met at the Charles I statue at Charing Cross for our walk around Whitehall.  I was dressed (as is usual for me for winter walks) in thermals.  I was too hot.  Better to be too hot than too cold though.  I was down to do 2 stops and whilst the adrenalin would be pumping when I would be talking I would be standing around the rest of the time.

One of my stops was Horse Guards and as we walked through the arch that only the Queen is allowed to drive through we were confronted by a gale.  During my spiel my hair was I think keeping everyone amused as it was flying in all directions.  Mental note to always carry a hair tie for similar situations.  I was quite pleased with my talk as had found out several obscure/interesting facts including that the beach volleyball competition will be held at Horse Guards during the Olympics and that one of the statues on Horse Guards Parade - the first Viscount Wolseley - was the model for Gilbert and Sullivan's character the Modern Major General in Pirates of Penzance.  I'm always looking for the obscure rather than the dry history.  Not that I know the words but I've had that tune in my head all day! 

It was an interesting walk as although I knew most of the guides from guiding meetings I hadn't seen them all in action.  One of the most surprising was M who astounded me by quoting a Scottish poem in a convincing Scottish accent in the middle of his talk about Derby Gate.  He was fantastic.  He told me later that he had a Scottish English teacher at school and all the poems he learned when he was a child had stuck in his head.  C who incidentally lives around the corner from me stopped opposite Downing Street and rather than talk about the human inhabitants talked about the various cats that had been in residence there.  It was really different and funny.

Needless to say we retired to the pub afterwards The Old Shades  where incidentally there is a BookCrossing zone (another of my interests) but I managed to resist the temptation to leave with any as have some walk planning to do.