Fickle Finger of Fashion

I haven’t seen any members of the Michael Jackson Fan Club out and about in the City with their protective masks on but I did hear a couple of reports of sightings yesterday in London. When I happened to go into Boots yesterday they were quite conspicuously not selling protective masks, but then that may just be because they don’t have a stock of them. I’m happy to write our current situation off as being predominantly panic but then part of me thinks that wearing a protective mask on the Tube is probably a good idea on any day of the week…

Moving onto fashion of a more conventional sort the current economic climate is forcing many stores to find imaginative ways of clearing their warehouses so for those of you who, like me, prefer their ideal couture to be at equally attractive prices you might be interested in a couple of things going on for the next few days. First Reiss are having a “Warehouse & Sample Sale” near Bond Street (details below) and secondly Ghost are having their warehouse sale up in Westbourne Grove (details below). I might give the Reiss one a go but my wardrobe’s still creaking from when Gieves & Hawkes and Purdey had their clearouts a while back so may have to bow to practicality and keep the wallet firmly in pocket!

Reiss - Warehouse & Sample Sale
The Music Room in South Moulton Lane, W1K 5AB
Thurs & Fri 8.30am to 8.00pm, Sat 9.00am to 7.00pm
Sun 10.00am to 4.00pm (10-11am for browsing only)

Ghost - Warehouse Sale
20th Century Theatre, 291 Westbourne Grove, W11 2QA.
Thurs to Sat 11.00am to 7.00pm, Sun 11.00am to 5.00pm

James Purdey & Sons
http://www.purdey.com/

Gieves & Hawkes
http://www.gievesandhawkes.com/

Business Directory for The City

TheCity.co.uk has launched its very own business directory allowing businesses that serve customers in the square mile to promote themselves on this website. The search-engine friendly section of the site is powered by our publisher brand, Hyperlocal.co.uk, and lets business list all their contact details, a description of services offered and a Google map showing where they are.

Click here to visit the City of London Business Directory and be one of the first to get your company listed.

Bike Hire Scheme Details Emerge

One of the Mayor of London’s election promises was the introduction of a bike hire scheme similar to the Velib in Paris. If all goes to plan, the scheme could be up and running next year, and TFL and started the job of putting in planning applications for the installation of bike “docking stations”.

In the City, the following bike hire docking stations are planned:

• Golden Lane
• Aldersgate Street
• Primrose Street
• Bishopsgate
• Silk Street
• Moorfields
• West Smithfield
• Aldersgate Street / London Wall
• Wood Street
• Finsbury Circus
• Blomfield Street
• Devonshire Square
• Chancery Lane
• Stonecutter Street
• Newgate Street
• Gresham Street
• Wormwood Street
• Bouverie Street
• Ave Maria Lane
• Cheapside
• Bartholomew Lane
• Bishopsgate / Leadenhall Street
• Carter Lane
• Godliman Street
• Queen Victoria Street
• Queen Street
• Crosswall
• Blackfriars Millennium Pier
• Great Tower Street
• King William Street
• Byward Street
• Lower Thames Street

More information here

8-10 Moorgate Development Approved

Property Week reports that a planned development at 8-10 Moorgate has been approved by the City of London Corporation.

The development by Stanhope would see the demolition of three buildings and the creation of a single building “with 164,442 sq ft of office space, one retail unit and nine flats”. If it goes ahead, the development would retain the 1920s facade currentlty in place.

More information is available at the Stanhope website.

Racing towards a conclusion - updated

For those of you who are sat at your desk in the City with your morning coffee your thoughts might be straying towards what to do this this Bank Holiday weekend. If you have any kind of interest in motor racing it’s the penultimate round of this year’s A1GP Championship at Brands Hatch from Friday to Sunday with the possibility that the Championship may be decided over the course of the two races. A1GP describes itself as “The World Cup of Motorsport” as each team represents a country rather than a commercial interest and it’s not always the same driver in the team car so it’s less about personalities than F1 is. Sunday is race day and there’s a “sprint race” in the morning followed by the longer “feature race” in the afternoon with both races scoring Championship points.

Team GB aren’t in contention after a difficult year but there’s a three-way battle between Switzerland, Ireland and Portugal with only six points separating first from third and with the identical Ferrari-powered cars there’s sure to be some close racing, and perhaps some tears before bedtime! Another thing to factor in is that with the current “swine flu” precautions across the globe it’s possible that the last race of the season, scheduled in Mexico City at the end of May, might not happen so this really could be the season finale!

Last year’s event was staged in the sunshine, unlike the cold and wet of the British Grand Prix, and with the weather for this weekend looking pretty good the petrolheads amongst you won’t need too much convincing to spend a warm day outside but if you have other family members in tow they might be suitably entertained by the A1GP Global Village with a variety of things to do such as the chance to experience freefall in the vertical wind tunnel, see the latest games in the EA Games hub or just sit back and relax with something to eat or drink from one of the many outlets.

If you order your tickets before midnight tonight you can get the discounted entry price of £29 instead of the gate price of £35.

Personally I’m going to be cheering for Portugal’s Filipe Albuquerque, who I had the pleasure of being introduced to last year, so you may want to keep an eye on my Twitter feed on Sunday to see how it goes.

UPDATE - The planned race in Mexico City has now been cancelled making Brands Hatch  the season finale [@ 9.30am 29th April]

A1GP
http://www.a1gp.com/

Buy tickets
http://www.a1gpbrandshatch.com/

Boris Johnson and Gary Rhodes at Leadenhall Market

Mayor of London Boris Johnson was at Leadenhall Market with chef Gary Rhodes today to celebrate St George’s Day and arrived, slightly late it has to be said, on a red Routemaster bus and gave a speech in the Market expressing his pride in England and London and about drawing on St Georges Day as an opportunity to celebrate the great things about London and England:
“What better time than St George’s Day to bring us all together to express the pride we have in our country”

Moving to a theme of absorbing foreign culture he did also point out that Saint George was a Cappadocian merchant who sold bacon to the Roman army, so there’s my useless fact for the day!

The folk musicians were playing and a fair crowd of assorted folks were there with the inevitably high proportion of suits and I never thought I’d be even slightly moved by the sight of Morris Dancers but they were there doing their thing as a reminder of bygone, simpler times and a crowd of passing foreign schoolchildren stood watching them for a while with a certain amount of bemusement. Now they know how we feel watching men in lederhosen slapping themselves or each other!

Town Crier Peter Moore, who shares the unique distinction amongst town criers of being a Freeman and a liveryman, was there giving the proceedings a more properly formal air and I also bumped into Dave Jones, who’s one of the organisers of this Saturday’s Saint George’s Day concert in Trafalgar Square.

A great celebration to be sure though even Boris can’t get a bus to run on time apparently…

Greater London Authority Press Release
http://www.london.gov.uk/view_press_release.jsp?releaseid=21797

St George’s Day concert on the square
http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/culture/st-georges-day/concert.jsp

Peter Moore - Town Crier
www.londontowncrier.com

Saint George’s Week at Leadenhall Market

On Saturday I was partying with the Dutch but as this week is Saint George’s Week and Leadenhall Market is celebrating by showing off the best in English wine, ale and food so I popped along to the combined shop and cafe “Cheese”, who are marking the week by highlighting the great British cheeses that they have available such as the gloriously named Stinking Bishop and Isle of Wight Blue, to name but two. I suspect I’ve been one of many people who’ve lingered under the misapprehension that cheese basically comes in two varieties, namely the edible variety that comes on pizzas and burgers or the smelly variety which was created purely to challenge the gag reflex of young children.

I spoke to the immensely affable and approachable owner and manager Sue Cloke who dispelled that particular myth with a fabulous range of artisan cheeses and was able to tempt me to one of their upcoming events,
“informal master classes, where Sue will guide the student through the tastes and textures of selected cheeses and discover how cheese is made, their characteristics and suggested uses in cooking and entertaining.

Sue certainly knows her stuff having been at the helm in the cheese department of the well known Harvey Nichols store and prior to that was at Leathams Larder and Jermyn Street cheese emporium Paxton and Whitfield so if you’re either a cheese connoisseur looking for a knowledgeable cafe/retailer in the City or a cheese newbie who wants to leave the beginners pool of cheddar and mozzarella then I can thoroughly recommend “Cheese” to you. Tempted beyond endurance I bought a selection of cheeses, and accessories, to start me off on the road from cheese-novice to cheese-ninja!

Other events in the Market this week include the variously bearded bohemians who make up the lunchtime folk musicians and apparently on Thursday beloved London Mayor BoJo will be making an appearance at some point as part of his admirable display of support for Saint George’s Day events in London although it’s pretty unlikely that he was English and it’s quite possible he didn’t set foot in England at all. Never mind, let’s not quibble over the details.

… and I managed to get through the whole post without mentioning Monty Python’s “Cheese Shop” sketch….

Leadenhall Market
http://www.leadenhallmarket.co.uk

Cheese At Leadenhall
http://cheeseatleadenhall.co.uk/

St George’s Day on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_George%27s_Day

Cheese Shop Sketch
http://stuff.mit.edu/afs/athena/activity/h/humor/Special/Monty.Python/cheese

Hup Holland Hup!

Tonight and tomorrow gives us City-folk the chance to err a little westward and head to Trafalgar Square. “And why would I want to leave my cosy City to mingle with tourists in the West End?” I hear you cry. Well, my well-read friend, our dear Dutch neighbours are putting on a bash called “Holland House 2009″ and tonight you can party Dutch-style with “Dutch Therapy” with Ferry Corsten at SeOne with the doors opening at 9.45pm tonight and tomorrow sees a host of live bands, events and other cultural stuff going on at Trafalgar Square, where I’ll be scoffing poffertjes and broodjes for sure.

For the unintiated the Dutch are a European neighbour with a reputation for having a laid-back approach to some things which in England would be at least frowned upon if not considered downright illegal and with whom we’ve managed to have a few fairly inconclusive wars through the centuries but in such a friendly way as not to leave any bad feeling about it, which I think says more about them than it does us (I’m thinking France and Germany here). They have also contributed a disproportionately large and influential number of decent footballers to the Premiership through the years so if England bomb in the next World Cup I’ll be throwing my support behind the ‘Oranje’, if for no better reason than they have some seriously decent parties.

I am so there!

Holland House 2009
http://www.holland.com/uk/hollandhouse2009/

Ferry Corsten
http://www.ferrycorsten.com/

Hup Holland Hup
http://dwotd.web-log.nl/dutch_word_of_the_day/2008/06/438-hup-holland.html

Jackie Stewart is still good in the wet

A crowd has gathered in the persistent drizzle to have their books signed by the legendary F1 driver Jackie Stewart at the Waterstones event I’d mentioned in my previous post.

If you’re reading this in real-time there’s still a chance to get one signed if you get your skates on!

Frosty welcome at House of Fraser

I’m not a “New Man” or metrosexual in any way, shape or form but for a variety of reasons I do use after-shave balm and for years have used Calvin Klein’s Eternity, which has served me very well. Now if I’m honest the origins of this habit involved a long liquid lunch on a hot Summer’s day after which an equally tanked and not unattractive female colleague and I went shopping and she said that she thought it was particularly good on me. Ever prone to flattery and far too indolent to research an alternative I find myself still using it several years later and have even read the delightfully complex Derren Brown’s guide to shaving. Anyway, as a result I have to periodically re-stock my bathroom shelf and it was that need which cast me upon the unwelcoming shop assistants of House of Fraser.

The City branch of House of Fraser, down by Monument station, is a very nice place to shop and my experiences there have previously been good ones which is, I suppose, why I was so disappointed this time around. Barely a few feet in through the door I quickly homed in upon my chosen cosmetic and made my way towards the till awaiting the effusive fawning which is normally the order of the day in these kinds of establishments, particularly around the cosmetic counters, only to receive the kind of surly treatment one might expect from, say, a US Border Guard. Now call me churlish but if I’m about to shell out 31 quid for my chosen product I DO actually think it’s worth them interrupting their conversation about their colleague who they think is being a bit off and the video that they want to discuss and try to persuade me in both manner and deed that I wouldn’t have done better buying it from www.cheapsmells.com. Actually, having had a look at Cheapsmells latest price I think I’d have been better off there, more fool me.

Cheapsmells or Aspreys next time? Decisions, decisions…

House of Fraser
http://www.houseoffraser.co.uk/

CheapSmells
http://www.cheapsmells.com

Derren Brown’s guide to shaving
http://derrenbrownart.com/blog/?p=119

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