London, December 1995

Hobbies tend to go in circles - I'm scanning old photos again at the moment and in the middle of doing some negatives of a holiday we took in London way back in December 1995. Nineteen and a bit years ago!

This was the first time we had stayed in London and the couple of day trips we had had previously can almost be discounted as we did little apart from faint at the cost of stuff. We were travelling by train (talking of fainting at cost of stuff...) and the holiday started to prove interesting even on the trip down.

We caught the 08:30 train from Preston to London on Monday 4 December. We had booked seats but at Crewe an old nun decided I was in her seat and was very ungracious when I saw on her ticket that she had caught the train an hour earlier than she should have done. She thought that the two of us should have moved for her anyway. She sat across the aisle and spent the journey muttering to herself much to the amusement of two young girls sitting opposite. Mind you, we all found it amusing when she locked herself in the loo and had to be freed by the guard... As she made her way (muttering) back down the train, an anonymous voice (but not unlike my own) murmured "Oh dear... what can the matter be..."

We got into London just before midday and booked in at the Kennedy Hotel nearby Euston Station. I think it became a Thistle hotel a few years later. On coming out of the hotel the first landmark to be seen was the Post Office Tower. London was dull and somewhat chilly. It was to become just downright freezing...

We had bought our tickets for Madame Tussaud's by post and were allowed to dodge the queue to go straight in. What a swiz when we realised the queue wasn't all that long anyway! I'm not going to post photos of anything that they are likely to still have on show but here's just a couple of tasters.

Miss Franny sandwiched between politician Roy Hattersley and miners' leader Arthur Scargill. They were on a balcony overlooking a garden party scene which featured then current top film stars Bob Hoskins and Hugh Grant shortly after his highly publicised and sadly interrupted dalliance with American prostitute Divine Brown.

Not yet 30, Kylie Minogue was at this point still much loved for her appearances in Australian soap, Neighbours, as much for her singing. The iconic hot pants of Spinning Around were still five years in the future. Chris Evans looked as though he had been modelled in the act of stooping to speak to her and there is lots I could say but won't about the suit...!

We enjoyed the rooms with past and present royalty and the tour finished with a short ride through a sort of steam punk London, probably before the term "steam punk" came in to being(?) We came out into winter and decided to walk down to the West End shops.

Our route took us through some uniform and rather unappealing streets though, behind some of these windows in Harley Street, people were making in that one afternoon more money than I would see in a year or three...

And so we reached Oxford Street. Routemaster buses were still to be seen in profusion, though equally in evidence were other more recent double decked buses. At least the horrendous far-too-long bendy buses had yet to infest the capital.

We had a look round a few of the larger shops, bright and seasonal with Christmas goods. This is John Lewis. Easily spotted, he is the one turning away from the camera behind the table on the top floor...

Coming down the escalators in Debenhams where some awesomely large Christmas baubles were hanging down the stairwell!

We walked the length of the street to Marble Arch and then came back down the other side of the street, starting to feel cold and a bit peckish as the sky got darker. The Christmas Lights came on and we decided to have a look at the posh end of the West End shops and find Bond Street. Which we shall, in the next entry, bumping into a rather well known face!

Return to London Weekend 1995 index page

London Nights

We've just come back from a long weekend in London. Went down on Saturday morning and drove back on Monday (yesterday).

So there's a few photos of the weekend to sort out... I took 90 but a few are blurred and some are duplicates so that will whittle down a bit. I love London at this time of year as it's a great opportunity to take photos at dusk or night.

This is Aspley House, the house of the Duke of Wellington, the general who led British troops against Napoleon, finally defeating him at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. He took this house with the fantastic address of "No.1, London" and became Prime Minister and also gave his name to the rubber boot. Later in life, after Napoleon died, he often spent an afternoon standing by the side of the tableaux of his old enemy's deathbed in Madame Tussaud's waxworks.

One of my favourite shots from the weekend is this one. Taken at the end of the afternoon just before dark, of the fairground rides in Hyde Park. There's a massive continental market there, called Winter Wonderland. Great to wander through but so crowded that just getting to a stall was hard work, never mind trying to stand far enough away to take a photo without crowds jostling against you and getting in the way.

We walked from the park past Aspley House and then along Piccadilly until we reached the Circus. The photos I took along this stretch and a quick glance at Regent Street and Oxford Street will make up this entry. Piccadilly boasts some wonderful buildings and architecture, that most of us can only hope to see from the outside! This is the entrance to the ballroom of the Park Lane Hotel.

Whilst just opposite is the Ritz. You can go for afternoon tea there if you fancy splashing out on a pot of tea, a few sarnies with the crusts cut off and some cakes. From what I've seen on the telly, you are supposed to shout at the waiters and generally act like a pompous old fart... I wouldn't last long as a member of staff but I seriously would enjoy shoving a cake into the face of some of those old duffers! I suspect they are just a small minority really. They would never have any staff otherwise!

The Burlington Arcade is a shopping arcade running north from Piccadilly. Immortalised in the song "Burlington Bertie" it exudes atmosphere. Top-hatted beadles keep an eye out for misdemeanors. You can be ejected for whistling, opening an umbrella inside the arcade or running. Mostly though, their time is taken up by giving directions and assistance.

Inside the arcade, the shops retain their original huge windows and wooden framed frontages. At Christmas it's an even better place to wander through, to marvel at the window displays and think that there's a reason for the lack of price tickets. If you need to ask... you can't afford...!

We reach Piccadilly Circus. The statue of the archer (it's not really Eros, though it's pedantic these days not to call it that) has been turned into a giant snow globe. The giant videos are mesmerising, but I can't help feeling nostalgic for the red neon of the Coca Cola sign that adorned the corner of Regent Street for so many years. There's always a crush of people around here and the sound of horns from cars or taxis that suddenly spy a hopeful or just unaware pedestrian stepping out in front of them is almost constant.

Regent Street. A look in Hamley's toy shop windows at Christmas time is almost mandatory. Come to think of it, Miss Franny makes it mandatory... We had a look. I oohed and aahed... Anyone who wants to cheer themselves up should spend a few minutes in Hamley's. Unless you are actually going to spend money (which in these days of "all parts sold separately" can be a sobering activity) then I almost defy anyone to go into Hamley's for a while and come out without a huge grin on their face!

If Regent Street was lit with depictions of the Twelve Days of Christmas, then Oxford Street had giant snow balls floating above it. We found somewhere to eat and took our time over the meal before heading back to the hotel. There's more to come. I keep saying this on the blog. Currently you are waiting for more articles on 78 rpm records and sketches. So let's just whet the appetite a bit...

On our way back up north on Monday we called off in the Midlands to buy a collection of 78 rpm records. I've still not had time to look through them - never mind play them! There are 175 of them plus a big box of postcards that the owner kindly gave to me along with the records. So, more postcard entries to come also! Whenever I feature any of these items they'll be mentioned as part of the Easthope Collection. I've recorded another 16 sides from the 78 rpm records from my parents' collection whilst writing this article - it takes time! It'll be worth it!

A Tale of Lingerie

Friday 21 November 2008. We had arrived into London after a long drive and were hot and sticky. I just shrugged off clothes, letting them fall wherever and went for a shower. I put on fresh undies, socks and shirt and pulled on my trousers and, once Fran had done the same, we set off to have a look up the Oxford Road shops.

As the lift reached the ground floor of the hotel I strode out into the lobby only to feel something slip down my leg and there, lying on the floor of the lift, were the underpants I had travelled in... They must have fallen into the leg of my trousers and when I put them on my leg must have just wedged them inside the leg of my trousers just waiting for an opportune moment to fall out and embarrass me! We killed ourselves laughing for a minute then I shoved them in my coat pocket and we went out to the shops.

It struck me as we were in Marks and Spencers that had I been challenged I would have had a pair of their underpants in my pocket... Imagine trying to explain that away? Fran said "They're not expensive - throw them in a bin," so we did that, though what the street cleaners may have thought the following morning I'm not sure...!

Anyway a little later on we were walking down Bond Street which is the really exclusive street with Gucci and all the other designer label shops and two women were walking towards us. One dropped her bags and all her shopping tumbled out. I started to help her pick it all up and realised that I was handling her newly-bought lingerie! Her friend thought this hilarious enough to photograph us picking it up... It did occur to me after though that had I not thrown my undies away I could have slipped them in her bag ha ha ha! Can you imagine?!? Have I a warped sense of humour or what?

Sunday in London

Well I got to London on time - Virgin Trains actually got in a little early although it was a long journey compared to the more usual weekday one! We went via Coventry and all round the houses it seemed.

Met up with Fran and Gill on Trafalgar Square where they were resting their feet and getting splashed by the spray from the fountain every time the wind blew their way. They didn't have a great deal of time with me as they have to get over to Stansted for their flight back. Why oh why are Ryanair stopping their Blackpool/Stansted flights? Doesn't seem to make sense, every time I've been on them they have been very nearly full and over the past few years I've used them quite a bit!

When you consider the cost of train fares if you have to book close to the date of travelling, being able to get a flight and then be in London by 10:00am was brilliant! Even considering the train to and from Stansted-Liverpool St station, it was still less than half the price of Virgin's fare.

We had a trundle up Regent Street and into the big HMV on Oxford Street where I was delighted to find at last a DVD of "Prehistoric Women", a Hammer film starring the lovely Martine Beswick as a queen of a tribe of women stumbled upon by Michael Latimer. I've met Martine several times over the last few years, she was a Miss Jamaica, a stunning beauty in the 1960s (and not at all hard on the eyes now!) who starred in several of Hammer's films and a couple of Bond films; "From Russia With Love" as a fighting gypsy girl and "Thunderball" as one of Bond's doomed helpers! Anyway, I've never watched this film before so I will enjoy that once I get home again!

A relaxing night in store I think - chance to finish my book, the 10th in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. And yes... I did bring No.11 with me!