The Victorian Afternoon Tea at the Victoria and Albert Museum had me at seed cake. These two words always bring my childhood back in a whoosh of nostalgia wrapped in a cocoon of Englishness. If seed cake was good enough for Bilbo Baggins and his Unexpected Party, then it’s good enough for Londoness. And thanks…
10 children’s books set in London
As a young Parisienne, I would dream of floating across the Channel to London’s rooftops in the company of a sooty Bert and his Mary Poppins. Pan and Tinker Bell would whisk me over to Big Ben in the blink of a sleepy eye, and for breakfast, I would make marmalade sandwiches with Paddington Bear….
Behind the Scenes of the new Royal Academy
The Royal Wedding isn’t the only big event in London on Saturday 19 May. The Royal Academy opens its newly buffed doors to a new two-acre campus with 70% more public spaces and a bridge linking Burlington House on Piccadilly to 6 Burlington Gardens in Mayfair. And to mark its 250 year-anniversary, there’s a…
A London Literary tour for Kids
It’s time to hop into your winged slippers and take a trip round a magical London – one where childhood dreams never end. These London tales tell of a honey-loving bear from Harrods, an eccentric detective, boys with magic powers, giants and a Gothic vampire. So, without further ado, let’s take a swashbuckling, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious literary…
Londoness Loves May 2018
It may not look like May outside my window with the relentless grey tinge that accompanies that most uninvited of all types of weather: gusty winds and general sogginess. Even April’s tree blossom has resigned its fate to raining down onto the city’s pavements. The good news is the bank holiday weekend promises to bring…
Londoness Loves – April 2018
Forget the Beast from the East and get out in London this April. Here’s my guide to the best London theatre, classical music, opera, exhibitions, and yes, there might even be a couple of outdoor activities to put a spring in your step! Favourite this Month An Ideal Husband – Vaudeville Theatre Oscar Wilde’s thoroughly…
Charles I at the Royal Academy
Drum roll please, I am about to tell you about an exhibition worth curtsying for, a show fit for royalty. It has pomp, it has circumstance, and its hero is the bad boy of the British royal family, the king who takes the prize for being the first, and last, to have his head chopped…
Floating Palaces at the V&A
Ocean Liners: Speed and Style at the Victoria and Albert museum is an exhibition with some serious swagger. You might want to dress up for this one, as it’s all about the glitz and the glamour of the golden age of travel, and it might leave you feeling, well, a tad mundane. Ocean Liners is…
Lunch at Harry’s Dolce Vita
Harry’s Bar. Don’t you just love those two words? It instantly brings to my mind the bitter taste of a pomegranate-coloured Negroni, Harry’s style, in Venice. There really is nowhere else in the world where I would rather sip my favourite drink. So, imagine my excitement when I heard Harry’s Dolce Vita, had opened in…
Afternoon Tea with Alan B’Stard (well, sort of)
The Palace of Westminster, or Houses of Parliament as it’s commonly referred to, is one of London’s ultimate tourist hot spots, even if Big Ben is hibernating for the next three years whilst he gets a makeover. When I first arrived in London in the late 1980s, I would count the days until megalomaniac MP…