Somerset House Ice Rink

It's one of London's most famous Christmas institutions and this year the Somerset House Ice Rink is just as popular as it's ever been. We headed along to see what the deal was. 

Ticket prices start from £7.50 so it's easy to see why the ice rink set in the neoclassical courtyard is so popular; however, even if you don't feel like skating, it's well worth a visit - to watch the people that do! 

The rink attracts skaters of all ages and abilities and is supervised throughout by stewards who are sturdy skaters, happy to help and very friendly. It's open all day and for your money, you get an hour on ice, which seems plenty of time to freeze your socks off and fall over at least three or four times. 

Alongside the ice rink is the front-facing Skate Lounge in which you can enjoy a range of drinks and snacks whilst keeping a close eye on the skaters whizzing past; if you're feeling more extravagant, you can tuck in to a Fortnum and Mason's Afternoon Tea at the Fortnum's Lodge in Somerset House's Christmas Arcade. 

I'd recommend wrapping up, getting a hot drink and standing rink-side watching the skaters take tumbles, try out new moves and edge their way around the sides - it's great fun to watch without having to get cold, wet and sore yourself! If you go on a Tuesday evening, you'll be serenaded by the choir singing Christmas carols!

Somerset House's Ice Rink is open NOW until the 11th January 2015; you can skate Christmas Eve and Boxing Day, it is however closed on Christmas Day. 

Tickets

Visit Ticketmaster
or call 0844 847 1520

Session Times
08.45 - 09.45* / 10.00 - 11.00 / 11.15 - 12.15 / 12.30 - 13.30 / 13.45 - 14.45 / 15.00 - 16.00 / 16.15 - 17.15 / 17.30 - 18.30 / 18.45 - 19.45 / 20.00 - 21.00 / 21.15 - 22.15 / 22.30 - 23.30*

The Southbank Winter Festival

One of the many things going on in Central London this advent is the Southbank Centre's Winter Festival which runs until the 11th January 2015; my partner and I went along to see what the bankside had to offer...

 The highlight of the market is the Christmas tree maze which features over three hundred trees, all lit up with twinkly lights - it costs £4 to enter (which seems a little steep in light of the fact that it's open for three months, ergo will certainly recoup the cost of the trees/lights) and on making it to the centre of the maze, all children receive a Christmas pressie. It's very pretty after-dark and it's really rather magical in its setting alongside the Thames. 

Photo: http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/festivals-series/winter-festival

Sat underneath a huge - apparently 'designer' - Christmas tree, sits the Christmas Tree Cafe which looks very tempting and, again, very pretty; however, on heading up there, it's all a little lacklustre, and doesn't feel in any way Christmassy - it'd put this down to the accompanying drum and bass soundtrack, which is nothing but isolating, incredibly grating and an odd juxtaposition to the family-orientated festival. Each to their own, but not for me. 

Photo: http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/festivals-series/winter-festival

I'm dating a cider-hater; however, the Rekorderlig Cider Lodge at the heart of the Udderbelly complex looks very welcoming, cosy and, done-up it's Scandinavian style, very Christmassy indeed! Here you can tuck into traditional Scandi street food as well as sampling the pop-up bar. 

Photo: http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/festivals-series/winter-festival

The Southbank Centre Express is the little red train that is sure to be a hit with the young ones in your family. You can jump aboard at Hungerford Bridge and travel along the riverbank, up to Festival Pier and back, for the price of £4. I was horribly tempted to become a passenger on the pint-sized choo-choo however, my sensibility, my tight-fistedness and the sheer embarrassment of my better half, prevented me - I did make him take a picture though...

If you want to rocket yourself into Christmas and you've got the time to potter around, head down to the Southbank and have a look at what it's offering up this Christmas; if any of the above don't take your fancy, make like we did: grab a mulled wine, wander through the Christmas Market chalets, and enjoy the Thames all lit-up of an Advent evening.


The Southbank Winter Festival, in association with Natwest:

Tuesday 11th November - Sunday 11th January 2015
Monday to Thursday 10am – 9pm 
Friday and Saturday 10am – 10pm 
Sunday 10am – 9pm

www.southbankcentre.co.uk

Christmas in London Shops

Every Christmas, I love going into stores and oggling their Christmas displays; so this year, now that I'm in London, I've got plenty to choose from. This week, I went pottering to see what Central London has to offer its customers for 2014...

SELFRIDGES - Oxford Street
5/10

Although originally established in the early 1900s by an American, Selfridges has come to be a symbol of 'the British department store' and so I had high expectations for it's Christmas set-up.

The 2014 lay-out is designed as a 'Christmas Emporium' and the store's decorations and gift ideas are all situated on the fourth floor together. To be honest, it lacks 'wow' factor and it feels like the emphasis has been placed on re-marketing their stock as 'Christmas gifts' and not on creating a specifically Christmas-themed shopping experience. 

LIBERTY - Regent Street

9/10

In true Liberty fashion, their Christmas Shop is a refreshingly quirky take on the season's trends; here you can pick up a dainty decoration for a few pound or blow a couple of grand on a life-sized polar bear! 

Because the store has an innately cosy, close-knit, homely feel to it, the time you spend in it is relaxed; I could happily browse the day away, nestled in the beamed rooms of Liberty. Perfect for an easy-going shop; especially if you're looking for unique decorations and pressies (- great to see the ever popular Gisela Graham decorations in-store: a reliable and reasonable favourite for Christmas-time!)

JOHN LEWIS - Oxford Street

8/10

The housewife's staple store, John Lewis was high on my list to check out, and they've got some lovely things in stock (including the adorable Monty the Penguin) and it's all beautifully laid out for customers to see, but it's frustratingly over-priced and it rather takes the shine off the products. If you've got the cash to splash, or if you've got little ones who'd like their picture taken with Monty, it's worth a visit; if not, you're better off somewhere else. 

THE CHRISTMAS SHOP - Tooley Street 

10/10

This shop was recommended to my partner and I by a friend, and we went along, with some trepidation; we were sure that it'd be lovely, but very pricey; to our delight, it wasn't: The Christmas Shop is a little bundle of joy, hidden away in the Hay's Galleria, near London Bridge; the stock is good quality and they keep prices low; we picked up two large fireplaces stockings, two Victorian decorations and a gold tree-top star for £12 - that'd buy you a packet of ribbon in John Lewis. The staff are ultra friendly and the whole experience feels akin to that of visiting a Santa's grotto. I'd heartily recommend it: great stock, great prices, great central location; great service. 

HARRODS - Brompton Road 

8/10

Another 'quintessentially British' store, but one has lost that vibe somewhere along the way. Harrods have opted for a very chic Christmas shop, with a collection of trees dressed in varying styles: a mood-board selection to tempt the customer; there really is something for everyone. However, here, the things that caught my eye were the Scandinavian-style decorations that would fit in with our rustic Christmas home and the miniature cat/dog tree decorations that would fit in with my pet obsession! 

More than the goods on sale, the best aspect of the Harrods Christmas shop is the customer service, the staff here seem to go above and beyond; we were served by Mark, who took us round the shop, answering our every question and pandering to our every whim. 

In conclusion, don't be tempted to blow every penny you have in the biggest stores, shop around; there are some gorgeous Christmassy bits and bobs out there if you are prepared to look for them - we found easy-to-bulk-out Christmas wreaths, pretty napkins, gold bean chaining and candy canes in Poundland and you'd never guess they were a pound a piece; similarly, Butlers, Tiger, Paperchase, Tesco and Sainsburys all have decorations and gift ideas in-store and on-line, so enjoy hunting!

Clissold Park

After repeated recommendation from our friends, my partner and I paid a visit to Clissold Park in Stoke Newington. The park, voted 'The Heart of Hackney', is a wonderful surprise in an urban environment; featuring children's play areas, a cosy cafe, a bowling green, tennis courts and sports grounds it's a lovely family park; however, it makes its transition to a brilliant park with one further addition...

The park is home to a collection of animals from terrapins in its lakes, to deer and goats in woodland enclosures, birds in the aviary and free-roaming ducks and geese, the leafy land is a really tranquil, family-friendly place, suitable for young and old; all the paths are suitable, and wide enough for even the biggest prams and wheelchairs and the park is on a number of nearby bus routes. 

Until 1882, the park and its accompanying house, was privately owned property, created by Jonathan Hoare as his personal idyll; however, once acquired by developers at his death, it was opened to the public and a central fountain was erected in memoriam of the founding owner. 

In 2007 the park was granted the lottery funding to restore the villa Clissold House, a Grade II listed building, to its original 18th Century design and, after completed in 2010, the magnificent house is now a venue for weddings and private events. Click to see Clissold House

In short, Clissold Park is lovely - so, go!

The Craft Beer Co.

Just a quick one, to shout about the Craft Beer Company in Clerkenwell...

After numerous bus journeys past the CBC, we finally decided to pay it a visit one evening when meeting some friends for Friday night drinks. The bar itself was completely packed, upstairs and down, and we were left no choice but to brave the chilly evening weather on the cordoned-off pavement area; thankfully, the bar has invested in outdoor heating, so we were safe from hypothermia for one night at least!

The USP of the pub is that it sells a wide variety of craft beers, from small producers in the back of beyond to large international brewers based all over the world. To this end, I feel like the FOH arrangement leaves a little to be desired and the focus is very much on the beer, not the venue. 

Now, to be fair, I'm not a beer-drinker, so I'm not the pub's target audience, and I have to say that the people I was with had nothing but excited, enthused things to say about the variety of beers that they sampled, but I was left wishing that there was somewhere to sit, more space to move in and a better display of what was behind the bar. 

However, if you want a pub that is going to offer you a ridiculously vast choice of beers, all chosen for their innate flavour and/or novel appeal, this is the place to go, it's the perfect place to start a stag night or for a post-work tipple; but it's not cosy and it's not comfortable. 

The company also have pubs all over London and one in Brighton. For all bookings, details and further reviews, visit http://thecraftbeerco.com/

Chinatown

Newport Court is the 21st Century home to London's Chinatown; however, the brightly coloured streets, filled with restaurants, street-food vendors, supermarkets and speciality stores, were not always the haven of Eastern culture they are today.

The History of Chinatown

In the 1670s, the owner of the area, gave permission for what was - at the time - military ground, to be converted into a liveable housing area;later, after the surrounding land to the east was acquired from Lord Newport, further houses and a livestock market and slaughterhouse were built. In the next hundred years, the area had developed a pretty lively reputation and was now known as an immigrant area, a go-to place for the incoming French Huguenots.  Very quickly, Gerrard Street became a hot-spot for many of London's creative elite, housing many of the centuries most famous painters, metal-workers, writers and politicians in a liberally alcoholic atmosphere. 

By the 19th Century, the area was well-known as a criminal slum of London and it kept this reputation until the new streets of Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road became driven-through in the late 1880s. During this time, the immigrant population of the area continued to grow, with Italians, Jews and Maltese filling the small court. 

By the 1920s, the area was known for its clubs and cheap commercial rents: the notorious '43 Club' came to the area, and by the 50s, Ronnie Scott's late-night jazz club; it was then that the Chinese community moved from its home in Limehouse, originally chosen for its proximity to the HQ of the East India Company, but now an area badly bombed in the Second World War. Soon this move was followed by an influx of Chinese workers arriving from Hong Kong, which was at the time, a British territory. 

And so, by the 1960s, the Chinatown we know today was really established; the area became home to the shops and restaurants we recognise today and it developed a reputation for world-class Chinese cuisine. The Chinese Gates, the Pavillion and the street furniture was added as the community came of age, signalling its success as an Eastern cultural heritage area in this part of Central London. 

Chinatown Winter 2014

Along with its fascinating history, the reason I've chosen Chinatown for the blog, is because of another yummy secret I discovered recently.

In these cold winter months, with every day getting colder, you'd be forgiven for spending your weekend tucked up in bed with a blanket and a hot cocoa; however, I'm here to say: DON'T! Wrap up and head down to Chinatown where, for a few pound, you can sample some of the amazing hot street food the area has to offer. 

My partner and I were walking through Newport Court a few days ago, when he stopped dead and  stood pondering the temptation of a small food stall tucked into the red brick wall. We've passed through Chinatown millions of times, but now with the cold London wind blowing off the river, he had been completely drawn in by the idea of a hot pork bun to warm him up. I was easily persuaded to accompany him in his choice and soon we were walking along the West End, clutching these wonderfully hot pork buns, steaming in the cold air. 

AND THEY WERE DELICIOUS.

Filled with a patty of juicy marinated pork these soft, fluffy buns, ideally formed into one hand-sized blob, were the perfect remedy for the cold and I'd recommend them in a heart-beat.

Head to the Yang Guang takeaway bun stall in Chinatown, near Leicester Square tube, and spend the best £1.70 you possibly could in this winter weather!

Belgo: Covent Garden

For those of you that haven't come across it yet, Belgo is a chain of four London restaurants that claim to bring Belgium to you; specialising in mussels, monk-brewed beers and frites - and I love it!

I've eaten at Belgo Centraal (Covent Garden) twice now, once for an evening meal and once for a lunch; both times I've had the same thing and it's always absolutely delicious. I hate seafood, so choosing a restaurant where mussels make up most of the menu might seem an odd choice, but I'm simply potty about something on the Belgian Classics menu: the crisp pork belly. 

The pork belly is served with creamed mash, Belgo apple sauce and buttered spinach; it's cooked to perfection, leaving a crunchy crackling top sitting a top a beautiful soft, moist belly. It's just scrumptious and it'd be a crying shame if more people didn't know about it. 

If you're not a pork fan, Belgo's menu offers a multitude of non-mussely options: beef carbonnade, posh sausages, fish and chips, sea bass, a mushroom bouchee, burgers and steak frites, to mention a few; however, I have it on the trusted opinion of my, very particular, partner that the Snob mussels are also utterly "delish". 

Belgo has restaurants in Bromley, Covent Garden, Kingsway and Chalk Farm. To book a table or to see the menu, visit http://www.belgo-restaurants.co.uk/

Grayson Perry: Who Are You?

For my partner's birthday, he desperately wanted to see Grayson Perry's exhibition at The National Portrait Gallery - so that's exactly what we did, and I would heartily recommend it.

The exhibition, entitled "Who Are You?" is Perry's investigation into the idea of how an identity is formed; his work is intertwined with, and alongside, the great and the good of British traditional history and this set-up really hammers home the idea that these long-treasured, antiquated figures are no more lofty than the modern-day characters Perry chooses to portray, that 'identity' isn't just the love-child of a Twitter bio generation, something forged in the modern day - and neither is it the privilege awarded to the men (and yes, it's predominantly white, heterosexual men) hung on the NPG's walls; it's a time-honoured, essential search to justify a person's existence. One particularly moving juxtaposition of the new and the old was finding Perry's resplendent, Africana "I Am A Man" sculpture, which depicts the epiphany-like journey of Jaz, a black teenager, undergoing HRT in order to become a man, opposite the traditional bronze bust of General Gordon of Khartoum; here in one room, you have the pious Victorian war-martyr, who gave a free voice to the Sudan, looking towards the sexually transformative, Peter Pan-inspired sculpture of a young black boy, sounding his horn in praise of his independence and individuality. It was a rather lovely scene, the old and the new commerated and celebrated together: Gordon, who is often thought to have suppressed his apparent homosexuality in order to devote himself to his faith, to his military duty and to adhere to the social convention of the time, looking on at a once oppressed black girl who is now free to live life as a man. 

Each of Perry's pieces has a typically tongue in cheek tone to it, and each tells a different story: he looks at the identities of a group of deaf people, a religious commune, the Brits as a nation, a fast-track celeb and a white Muslim convert to mention a few; each piece feels instantly familiar and recognisable, each dredges up an emotion you know you've felt before. Here, in these portraits, Perry taps into something that is perhaps an innately British idea, a subconscious awareness of identity, of who and what we are - and why. 

The whole exhibition is thought-provoking and most certainly worth a look. The exhibition is free to see; however, perhaps as a result, there seem to be a few eedgits dithering around, taking selfies, pointing at penises and live-tweeting, but if you elbow them out the way, the portraits are worth putting up with the eedgits. 

"Who Are You?" runs until March and is accompanied by a channel 4 documentary series. http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/graysonperry/display.php

Welcome!

Hello! Welcome to the very first post of Maybe It's Because I'm Not A Londoner! I hope you'll stick with me on my journey here, so I thought I'd start by telling you a bit about me and a bit about what I'm going to be up to with this blog...

Me

Simply put, I'm a Welsh ex-actor living in London; I went off to drama school, graduated, flitted between West Wales and Central London and after a few years, I decided that leotards, late-nights and line-learning just wasn't for me. 

Alongside working as a wedding industry copywriter, I found a hobby in blogging and started a follow-up blog (www.bridalway.blogspot.com), a roll aimed at prospective brides, with the aim of discussing wedding tips, trends and the trade. Much as I love the wedding industry, I began to look for something else to blog about and - seeing as I've relatively recently made the move to London - it seemed like an obvious transition to start writing about my experiences here.

The Blog

I'd like to say from the outset, if you're looking for Time Out's latest P.O.V, you're in the wrong place; I'm not an expert on London life, I'm just a girl from Wales who is starting out (and over) in the nation's capital. I'll be sharing my thoughts on the areas I visit, the places I eat at; the things I see and all the goodies I find  in The Big Smoke and beyond. 

I hope you enjoy the blog; watch this space!

Isabella