Tea Time in Wonderland

Posts Tagged ‘chelsea’

I’m back! Now, let’s see what’s new in the city…

- On Thursday, don’t miss this aquatic exhibition…

- …or enjoy a free curry!

- This way for a free musical @ Sadler’s Wells…

- A few dance steps @ the Tate Modern… (By the way, time Out has a 2 for 1 offer for the Exposed exhibition)

-… or an alternative village fete, maybe?

- Always a favourite: Notting Hill carnival!

- Feel nostalgic with this exhibition on Jimy Hendrix…

- I never tire of this yearly press pictures exhibition…

- Discover a few secret places in the National Theatre…

- Treat yourself to an afternoon tea with an Asian touch…

- So you think you know London?

- By the way, do you know the story of the Crystal Palace?

- Yes, pubs and opera can be in harmony, who would have thought so!

- Try to get a ticket for this fab underground dinner!

- Fed up with pop-up shops? Why not give this pop-up cinema a go? It used to be a petrol station.

- Get the kids to learn more abour bats!

- Be zen in a Japanese garden… (give this one a try too!)

You’ll find me… strolling through Chelsea Physics gardens… Testing this edible exhibition… Checking out the Natural History Museum’s 8m long knitted squid… Enjoying some retro glamour at the V&A late night… Where will YOU be?

This is a real summer. I am amazed every single day by the lovely temperatures. Makes me feel like dancing and jumping around! Unfortunately,  when you are 3 weeks from giving birth, you look more like a whale, the elegance is gone. Soon snails will overcome me on the pavement. I’m counting on you to tell me about London gems!

- The free ping-pong tables project finally is launched tomorrow. Rush to St Pancras!

- You have until Friday to enjoy the food festival @ the Old Spitalfields market – cooking demonstration and free tasting, yummmy!

- On Friday, the Design Museum goes mad for recycling and green art. You can even try electric bikes. All this listening to a fab percussionist!

- Visit the parliament!

- Why not celebrate the 60ies @ Carnaby Street?

- Time to revise your Picasso knowledge…

- London parks are getting festive too!

- Add a pinch of poetry… and learn about Keats’ life right in the house and gardens where he used to live…

- Summer school holidays are on! Struggling to come up with ideas to keep the kids busy? You’re gonna love O2: mini golf, water games, trampolines…

- Or initiate them to opera with this version of Mr Fox -  only a few pounds.

- Did you know a few falcons actually nest on the Modern’s Tate chimney? Here is a chance to learn more!

- Sushi AND fusion food? Count me in!

- oh, and I’ll have cherry granita for desert…

- Speaking of ice-cream, Ben and Jerry’s launch their music and sweet treats festival this week-end @ Clapham…

- How could you resist a designers’ market?

- Follow Time Out to discover the oldest parts of London…

- Opera, art, walks, a pinch of madness with the in-transit festival….

- Too hot? I know what you need: a water tournament!

You’ll find me having a mocktail with friends @ Vista, a bar on a roof with a view on Trafalgar Square… I’ll also be following my friend Celine, a street-art specialist, to discover some more in London!

4 acres of garden, sheltered by warm terracota brick walls…

You have just stepped into the oldest botanical garden in London. Founded in 1673 by the Society of Apothicaries, it was meany both as medicinal and educational for the novices. The choice was meticulous -  the area was already know for its orchards and its microclimate. You will find the lagest olive tree in  Britain here!

Quite important for the time was the proximity of the Thames. Roads were unsafe and the river provided the quickest way to travel.  Hundreds of smalls boats would have travelled up and down but if you were rich, you would have had your own barge.

Little by little, exganges of seeds and plants were arranged with other famous botanical gardens. Quite a collection here,  I tell you! Although this is now open to visitors, it still remains of scientific importance, helping researchers to collect plants for remedies (even members of the public can leave their own list) and participating in programs with great names such as the Eden Project or the Natural History Museum.

Flowerbeds alternate between elegants  squares or a little meadow crazyness. You’ll glimpse the triangular roofs of houses around the place behind a sunflower or a clematis…

The cafe is quite a place – the locals (golden wallet, smart clothes and all) do love to lunch here on a Sunday. You’ll get to see trays with 5 Cokes and a bottle of champagne! Do book in advance if you want a table. Most people do settle for the wooden benches of the lawn. The food’s great – worth a first class gastropub (duck confit with truffled mash! The mixed salads are a must -  creative and filling). Lavender scones are also found at tea-time… Many families do come with a picnic hamper and settle under the trees. Children love to run around, gathering fallen leaves.

Do take the kids to the big pond! Frogs and tadpoles hide under the lilies. Brown and blue dragonflies dance around, unsure where to stop, bees jump from a water flower to another… Even water snails make an appearance! A fascinating nature lesson for the whole family.

It feels like Beatrix Potter’s garden somehow. Surely Peter Rabbit will appear in the vegetable patch, between the tiger nasturniums and the blushing cherry tomatoes?

Chelsea Physics Gardens
66 Royal Hospital Road
Chelsea
London SW3 4HS

Fee: £8/adult, £5/child over 5 years of age
Alternatively, try the Friends of the garden card! £30 for the year, you and a friend can go free each time: it will take only two visits to get the most of your money.

Pssst: don’t forget to say hi to the Chelsea pensioners! You’ll even find an elephant there. Feeling hungry? Well Partridge’s just a stone away from the modern art gallery Saatchi, always worth a visit.

A few weeks ago ended the largest London safari. No more elephants to be hunted down and photographed, no more surprise behind the corners.

The streets look a bit sadder somehow, they had camouflaged themselves elegantly in this urban jungle, you would always meet one at least on your way.  An emptiness we had not quite anticipated, an absence where we had got so used to see them.

They have all gone to nice new homes, sold to fans with a golden wallet. they will look fab in a private garden or an ultra-modern lounge. We know we’ll see them again, one of those days, in the glossy pages of a decoration magazine…

But, oh, wait, there is one left! Just by the entrance of the Royal Chelsea Hospital, where they last met before being auctionned, the very last elephant is trying to look local…

The Royal Hospital Chelsea
Royal Hospital Rd
London SW3 4SR

Mondays to Saturdays 10.00-12.00 then 14.00-16.00
Sundays 14.00 to 16.00
Free

A bank holiday week-end, 3 days of freedom – doesn’t it make you wanna dance?

- Well, how lucky, there is a tea dance @ Spitafield Friday afternoon…

- Don’t forget the V&A late night opening, dress up to it!

- Celebrations definitely are in order with the Greenwich beer and jazz festival… Unless you’d prefer a free cocktail?

- It’s that time of the year again, the famous Chelsea Flower Show is open! Harvey Nichols even has dedidated a floral afternoon tea to it…

- Alternatively, Kew gardens also is in summer mode…

- Wanna play the culture card? Well, the Natural History Museum new exhibition on abyss fish certainly looks amazing… So does Exposed @ the Tate – paparazzi pics or paused ones, cctv or real camera and of course classics like Cartier-Bresson or Lee Miller.

- Marilyn Monroe fan? Stop @ Harrod’s to see three of her dresses on show…

- Of course, there’s plenty of events linked to Sex and the City II these days…

- Kids in tow? Why not try the animation film festival? They could also meet sheep @ the Spitafield fam wool festival. Or have a picnic @ Alexandra Palace!

- Gourmet will rush to the Hampton Court food festival…

What are your plans? I’ll celebrate the week-end with friends with a bubble tea @ Chinatown. I will anticipate a very hot summer with Pimm’s sorbet.  Oh, and I need a closer look @ the Trafalgar Square boat, didn’t get a chance to see it yet!

Bordeaux had seen a panda invasion. Bath had a pig one (including a flying pig). Londons had seen herds of cows and kangaroos.  But what would an urban jungle be without 250 extra elephants?

Usual story -  the sculptures were decorated by artists, designers, celebrities… In the lot: John Rocha, Lulu Guinness, Sir Terence Conran, Sir Paul Smith, le Prince et la Princesse de Kent, Cartier, Tommy Hilfilger. An inspired artist even used Swarovsky elements on his. They will be auctionned in July to support Elephant Family, an association protecting Asian elephants.

Up to you to fight your way through the London streets and catch them all. Some are really easy to spot, others blend in and can be passed without noticing.

The official map is here. The best place to start (especially if you’re taking the kids on an adventure) probably is the Scoop -  15 there. Or take them on a picnic safari @ Green Park and find the 25 hiding there!

If you do not have the time to play elephant bingo, you’ll find the herd @ the Royal Chelsea Hospital between June 23 and July 02.

The Elephant Parade

Through the whole of London, until June 22, 2010
@ the Royal Chelsea Hospital , from June 23 to july 02, 2010

What an amazing art installation in the Saatchi basement.

I had read the presentation, knew what to expect -  but still your mind tricks you. You step closer and you brain is so confused for a second. How to limit the ceiling, ground, walls? How deep is the place? You’ll find yourself trying to analyse sunshine rays…

Only in a second time will you get back to reality -  a smell tickling your nose.

Yep, this room is filled with a sump oil sea. Not a line on the surface, not a movement – you even have a crazy thought that it looks like one could walk on it. The camera will be the best traitor here.

It will keep you mesmerized for a good ten minutes. Another kind of art sulpture!

Richard Wilson 20:50 installation
Saatchi Gallery
Chelsea
London, SW3 4SQ
Metro: Sloane square

Free! Until May 07, 2010

First – get yourself in the mood with the V&A Renaissance ball on Friday night…

- Try one of Babylone’s Friday night concerts – the restaurant is famous for its roof gardens (if you go there by daylight, look out for the pink flamingos who live there. Yep, real ones. )

- More of a dancing queen? Go to the Abbaworld exhibition! Or @ Proud Camden for spendid pics of rock’n'roll animals, Elvis or Blondie.

Or make it an arty week-end:

- Use your imagination at Visible Invisible…

- Marvel @ ingeniosity @ 1001 inventions….

- Add a pinch of exotism…

- and a little rainbow at the Tate…

Nostalgic? try the photo exhibition @ Kenwood house instead, on lost London. Or dream of other lands with these projections of the Arctic on the Hayward Gallery external walls…

You can also participate to this strange project to recycle works of art…

Much prefer a quiet week-end with the kids? Try the free workshop sessions @ the Somerset house or take them for a bit of Dr Seuss rhyming! Even better? Go and find some dinosaurs…

You’ll find me @ the Saacthi for their new Indian exhibition (and possibly getting some cornbread mix from the nearby Partridges and there’s a Saturday morning market there too) and at Jen’s cafe for a bubble tea.

What about your best plans for the week-end?

Another rainy week-end ahead… Smile! Just take your umbrella on an adventure…

Here’s to put you in the mood:

- The Portobello Winter festival starts this wednesdau and will have thematic nights every Wednesday till Xmas

- Don’t forget to get prepared for those Xmas parties and meals: celebrate Thanksgiving!

Feeling better? Here’s for the week-end:

- Head for the new pop-ups before they blow away with the fashion wind… Nes-cafe @ Liberty and the famous Parisian Colette on Brick Lane

- Need your weekly dose of street art? Hoorray! Mutate opens its doors again @ Portobello.

- Even Damien Hirst is back @ the White Cube Gallery. It’s still time to see his No love lost @ the Wallace collection

- Spendid news pictures @ The Royal Festival Hall…

- Alternatively hum Only you @ Proud Chelsea… Great pics of a young Elvis.

- Kids will find happiness in Covent Garden – there will be a real reindeer to pat Saturday afternoon. Parents will probably prefer the amazing jewel exhibition that flashes magic lights under UVs…

You’ll find me @ the Secret Cinema… and having an underground afternoon tea. What’s YOUR program?

Going through Chelsea? Why not stop at the Royal Chelsea Hospital?

Charles II (you’ll see his golden statue in the main yard) had the idea, 300 years ago: veterans had to be taken care of. Christopher Wren, London’s most famous architect then put his skills at work to create a massive hospital with red and white bricks, inspired by the Parisian Hopital des Invalides.

Pensioners exchange their military pension for a berth (2.74m x 2.74, slightly bigger these days), clothes, 3 meals a day, healthcare and access to a library, a gentlemen’s club, a billiard room, a 6 acres park. Not bad a deal, eh?

Through the open windows, you will get a glimpse of yeasteryear…

300 pensioners live here these days.This stayed a male only environment till very recently: only in March 2009 did a few ladies step in.

Wander from a yard to another – such a quiet place… The gentlemen only wear their scarlet uniform for ceremonies and prefer dark blue clothes on a daily basis. You’ll meet them in the corridors, happy to chat, smiling at young kids…

Look up in the corridors and count the regiments decorations…

You can also stop at the museum to learm more about the suits and medals. The chapel – another of Christopher Wren’s works – is splendid. Do have a look at the dining hall where pensioners still enjoy their meals, how grand!

Just before the exit, turn in the old cemetary. Beautiful graves, very Victorian, with beautifule engravings on some. Brompton cemetary has replaced this one – I’m told it is well worth the detour.

Disappointed of not having seen our heroes in their spendid suit? There’s a surprise for you and a great photo opportunity…

Pssst! Did you know the Chelsea Flower Show is actually help here every year?
Psssst(2): don’t know what else to do aroud here? Have a yummy shopping trip @ Partridge’s… Admire Modern Art @ the Saatchi Gallery… Or have a stroll @ the Chelsea Physics Gardens!

The Royal Hospital Chelsea
Royal Hospital Rd
London SW3 4SR

Mondays to Saturdays 10.00-12.00 then 14.00-16.00
Sundays 14.00 to 16.00
Tube: Sloane Square
Free!