The last 36 hours in London – May 25, 2015

Greetings

My last note (yesterday) focused on my first 36 (or 48) hours (and mostly gastronomy) and this second note focuses on my last 36 hours here in London. Short trip indeed.

It’s now about 10 pm on Monday (Memorial Day — which is also a “bank holiday” here in the UK. I think I left off on Saturday night after dinner.

On Sunday morning (yesterday), I strolled the neighborhood which was deserted given that I’m really in the very center of the old City of London, where all the banks are located (hence, my tube stop is Bank Street!). It’s the area where all the big bank headquarters (the old bank buildings) are located. Indeed, my hotel is a repurposed old bank building. The Bank of England is located just a stone’s throw away and has been located here since 1734. The London Stock Exchange used to be here on Threadneedle Street. So the street is buzzing with “suits” Monday through Friday, but given that I’ve been here over a weekend, it’s totally dead.. but very convenient and walkable to most places and the Bank Street tube station has the Central, Waterloo, Northern, and City lines.. so everything is close at hand. I worked for several hours catching up on all the work I brought with me and was committed to finish.

Then mid-afternoon, I strolled back to Spiralfields Market which is known to have a special “made market” on Saturdays and Sundays. It was packed.. stall after stall filled with handmade clothing by locals, jewelry, and other goodies. I didn’t buy anything, but took in the site and the numbers of stalls. I also strolled up a few blocks to St John’s wine and bread bar and was able to get a nice bottle of champagne to bring to dinner. Walked back to the hotel so that I didn’t have to carry the bottle around for the rest of the day, and also made sure it stayed chilled. Then ventured to Covent Garden to stroll that neighborhood and to find a small housewarming gift to bring to Emma and Hem’s. After many false starts at this shopping goal, I finally found a really nice (well designed) watering can with rain spout and great gardening gloves — which seemed ideal, given the great interest in getting the garden going at their house (and the jump start with plants purchased the day before when we had lunch at Petersham Nursery).

By then it was drizzling (that kind of misty dampness without any noticeable rain drops).. I caught up with Lara and we headed back to pick up the chilled champagne and off we went to Leyton to see the new house that Emma and Hem purchased just a few months ago.

To get to Leyton from Bank Street is actually quite easy — about four stops on the tube and then a city bus (or a walk of about 40 minutes). Given that we were running late, the bus made the most sense. Getting out of the tube at Leyton you are transformed into a very different place than my little world on Threadneedle. Leyton is within Greater London — in East London and part of the Waltham Forest Borough. I think it’s basically about 6 miles from central London. Leyton includes part of Olympic Park, where the 2012 Games took place. I gather there are some remainders that locals enjoy, including a fantastic swimming pool. Leyton is mostly residential, with some neighborhood shops (or at least that’s what it seemed like from the bus window). Houses (many of which, like Emmas, are row houses of a nice scale) seem to have been built in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

My quick and dirty research reveals that some housing in Leyton was ruined during WWI, and then about a decade later the area was built up to become a strong industrial zone where neckties and thermoses were manufactured. But Leyton suffered during WWII because of its proximity to the docks and the rail yard. After WWII, Leyton faced significant industrial decline that lasted about 50 years… But as East London began to develop (and gentrify) things began to change. And with Leyton’s proximity to the site of the Olympics, many improvements were made to the infrastructure.. Leyton is clearly a place where many immigrants moved and remains a population that is majority non-white. Most people would say it’s a working class district, but it’s clear that there are also many Emmas and Hems settling there — given the high cost of real estate in East London and other neighborhoods located closer to the center. The bus from the tube to their house was heavily populated by Pakistanis, but our short walk from the bus to their house on Simonds Street gave a sense that many Asians, Eastern Europeans, and Africans are also living in Leyton.

The house is adorable — two stories but with some interesting stair configurations: three bonafide bedrooms; 2-3 bath rooms, depending on how you count; great kitchen and dining and a really good size living room with bay style windows. The guy who lived there previously did a fairly good job renovating, so it was in move-in condition. Other than the fact that there truly aren’t any closets, the house is great. (But they are tackling the closet issue — trying to decide between armoires or built ins –my guess is they will go for the latter, since the house is old, but definitely updated with clean lines and well thought out modern details). All wood floors that have been scraped and sanded. Oh, they also have a garage which they use for storage since they don’t have a car.

We had a great dinner (Lara and Elliot joined in) — definitely in the Michelin star category — cooked by Emma and Hem (who are very busy planning their August wedding). After a long night of food, wine, champagne, and good conversation, we called for a cab to take us to the tube station. It was pretty funny, since Hem called the local taxi number and the guy said: “Well you live right around the corner from us — the taxi company — so why don’t you just walk over and the taxi will be waiting. So off we went.. I took the tube back to Bank Street and got there just in the nick of time.. as the tube shuts down at midnight. Got out of the station at just about midnight and only one exit from the tube was still open.. so I had to meander a bit to get back to Threadneedle.

Gotta get to bed so as not to miss the 5:00 am wakeup call… But I’ll send one more note from the plane about today’s adventures, including another great meal, and seeing Lara and Elliot’s place which is in “council housing”…

Best — 86 hours is really a short time for this visit.

Fern