So it’s been a week since we arrived. Our two hour drive from Heathrow to my flat in Borough SE1 at 8am on a Monday morning reminded me why public transport is best for getting around London. This and the 117gbp black cab ride. Should have used Uber. Actually, we hear Addison Lee cab service is best to use for the London airports and have booked them for our trip tomorrow to city airport.
A trip to SE1 is always a trip down history and memory lane. My maternal sides are all from Borough and although born in East London it has always felt like my real home.
Bermondsey Street is a very old street. It led to an earlier London Bridge, and where the Bermondsey Square hotel now stands was, 1000 years ago, a Benedictine Abbey with Royal connections. The Abbey disappeared but its legacy is a stunning 1800th century church at the Long Lane end of the street and the ‘square’ became a market for antiques that opened at 2am. (Which really was a place for stolen goods to be sold!)
The street, because of it’s location to the river was full of warehouses and my great grandmother worked in the warehouse my apartment now resides in when it was a cork factory in the depression.
As time moved on, the warehouses became storage for antiques and by the time I moved into the area in the 90s the boom of the antiques era was waning. Today I can look out of my window and see the Shard along with the old warehouses and it’s wonderful compliment of the old and new.
Today, the warehouses have been converted to office and residential. The huge storage depot across from my flat is now the White Cube Gallery and the shop fronts are very trendy restaurants and bars. You want to eat in this street? You better make a reservation a few weeks out. The close location to Borough food market means that the standard of food is, well…outstanding! Jose and Pizarro have amazing tapas and I love Village East for its vibe. I hear Casse Croute is an incredible French bistro (it certainly looks nice) and you can’t go past ‘Fuck Coffee’ (yes, that’s the name of it!) for a coffee that can match any made by an Australian Barista. There are plenty of other places but really, give us more than a week to review!
Steve spent Friday and Saturday night here on his own entertaining friends and found a few hidden bars. They are so well hidden; he can’t find them when sober…..
So that’s the area we’ve based ourselves in but what have we done? The first few days we got reacquainted with English spring (rain and cold) and the Southbank before heading back to Essex to celebrate both children’s birthdays. The folks live in Thorpe Bay, which is on the seafront a few miles down from Southend on Sea, and, is at the mouth of the Thames. When I say seafront, don’t think Bondi beach! It is however a very lovely ‘English style’ seafront. The beach extends for miles down past various suburbs and allows several hours of gentle strolling or a good power-walk. It also now has a great bikeway for those liking pedal power. The tidal change is huge and the kids couldn’t believe the tide went out about a mile. While they loved the ice cream we purchased they were more interested in Adventure-land where we took them for their birthdays. An amusement park with rides. Based in Southend at the base of the pier – what’s not to like when you turn 12 and 10? With English cousins they bolted off quicker than I could say ‘fish and chips anyone?’ and came back only when one cousin looked a bit green after several turns on a rather sinister looking ride.
The rest of the time in Essex was spent catching up with parents who had just arrived from Sydney, my brother and in-laws, a friend from school and eating two lots of birthday cake.
Today we went to Madam Tussauds, London Eye and Tate Modern. Walking most of the way home along Southbank. All of these are worth undertaking in a single day and I was grateful to be doing this during school time, as queues were short. Downside is that Erin has lost a most beloved teddy and was inconsolable this evening. After yoga (me, in Bermondsey Street at Bermondsey Fayre) Steve ran all the way back along Southbank to see if he could find it .Nothing. We have to hope it’s been left in one of the places we visited and that someone was kind enough to hand in…
Tomorrow we head to Paris. We are flying from city, as a flight with Airframe was several hundred pounds cheaper than Eurostar. Perhaps I should have booked this more than 2 weeks ago!
Au-revoir!
