London Calling 🇬🇧

design and culture in UK's capital city

I have spent a few weeks in London in the past few years, mostly for work, but some weekends for fun! What a cosmopolitan city: the best Indian food, gorgeous parks and gardens, world-class free museums, and those double-decker red buses from the Spice Girls movie 😉.

A friend who recently moved there has been attending all kinds of fun events, from a woodland witches pagan full moon ceremony, to a dinner with strangers evening, to “the Boat Race” between Oxford and Cambridge. With so much to do, it’s hard to pick favorites! Here are my top three from London.

Coffee and a Pastry

Without fail, my favorite kind of pastry to get in the UK is a scone with clotted cream and jam. Despite the less-than-appetizing name, the fantastically rich, high-butter content perfectly accompanies the bland-yet-fluffy scone. My British friends also argue over the order in which cream and jam are applied. The Devon way dictates the cream goes first, with the jam dusted on top. The Cornwall method argues that it will make the scone too soggy, and the jam must go first. I like to apply it with every bite instead of spreading it on the whole thing, which is probably the British equivalent of cannibalism.

I liked Boxcar Bakery, the pastry room at Harrods (drool), Aux Merveilleux de Fred in Chelsea, where I saw the sweetest boy dressed in knee-high socks and a jumper, and I honestly don’t hate Gails, which is a chain, but it’s where I got the above-pictured scone and it was great. As longtime readers know, I am a decaf latte kind of girl, but I’ve been known to make an exception for a London Fog.

Adventure

My recent trips to London have been with design lovers. They took me to some gorgeous places to simply soak up patterned textiles and superior craftsmanship. We set out for a day in Marylebone, a beautiful and design-heavy neighborhood in London right between Regent’s Park and Hyde Park.

Our tour started on the beautiful floral couches the Chiltern Firehouse, where we enjoyed extremely overpriced cocktails for the pleasure of being surrounded by hanging plants and brass barware. The hotel and restaurant sadly seem to be temporarily closed due to a fire, but hopefully, it will open again soon.

We continued on our way to Niwaki, a Japanese-inspired “hardware store”. A normal hardware store has “tools” - this store has the most elegant utensils and gadgets ever designed.

Next was VV Rouleux, a ribbon and hat shop. We were told VV Rouleux sources their ribbon from the same factory that makes the ribbons for Chanel. It was fun to try on different headbands and fascinators and pretend we were headed to a wedding.

After all this window shopping, we topped off our design tour with a drink at another gorgeous and cozy pub, The Golden Eagle. I would go on a design pub tour if it doesn’t exist already! From a design perspective, pubs normally have gorgeous bright paint colors, hand-painted signage, pops of vivid tile, pretty wooden bartops, and cozy benches that create an intimacy in the space. When I was working in London, the pubs near the tube stations were all jam-packed after work every day. Going to a pub for a pint seems to be important to British culture.

Culture

I visited the Victoria & Albert Museum, which my Scottish friend called the “A&M". It was a wonderful museum filled with art and design - plus, it’s free to enter!

The object we were most excited to see was Tipoo’s Tiger, which was made for Tipu Sultan. Tipu Sultan was the “tiger of Mysore” - the ruler of the south Indian Kingdom of Mysore from 1782 – 1799. He fought off the East India Company and prevented them from taking over Southern India for many years and was one of the few Indian rulers to have defeated British armies (the official British colonization of India was from 1858 to 1947, but the British East India Company engaged in military operations from 1600). He famously said it is, “better to live a single day as a tiger than a thousand years as a sheep”.

This object was found in Tipu Sultan’s palace after he was defeated by the British East India Company. It’s a wooden sculpture of a tiger mauling a large man around his neck. It’s also a mechanical toy that operates similarly to a robot. The tiger’s belly opens up to reveal an organ, and when it’s played, you can hear the sound of the man moaning, presumably a terrible death, and his hand moving up and down. The man looks very much like a soldier who represents the East India Company.

I thought this piece was very moving to be displayed at the A&M, especially given Tipu Sultan was used as propaganda for the “British defeating evil Muslim rulers” for lots of history.

I definitely felt a little uneasy when to my surprise, I saw this Tiger’s Head in Windsor Castle. It was an ornament from Tipu Sultan's throne, which was stolen by the British East India Company and presented to William IV in 1831. I don’t think Tipu Sultan would be very pleased that this object has remained in British hands.

Have you been to London? What are your favorite things to do and see? It’s great to be back and posting! My work trip to London combined with my kitchen sink being clogged has really thrown my normal habits for a loop. If you love London, here are some great shows to watch:

• Obviously, the Crown. The show has such rich cinematography and every episode feels like a movie. When I visited Windsor Castle I did geek out a little bit since I loved the show so much.

• I haven’t seen it, but a colleague recommended Wolf Hall

• For the Love of Kitchens, a tv show from the British company deVOL, who makes beautiful kitchens usually in residential buildings with historical elements

• Churchill at War - I learned so much about WWII history in this one, and it features original film from the time

• The Great British Bake Off, if you want heartwarming. Or Junior Bake Off, which is even more charming.

My city guides always feature my favorite things to do in any city: get coffee and a pastry, go on an adventure, and learn something cultural. Check out my other guides here:

• Tallinn, Estonia

• Bolzano, Italy

• Nice, France

• Backlog of all city guides