November 2019 Archives

Dyce Ice Cream Parlour opened in August, bringing an Instagram-worthy ice cream parlour to London. Founder Zahra Khan created the concept after launching a cafe known as Feya a couple of doors down last year. Both the cafe and the ice cream parlour follow the dining-as-a-lifestyle concept with a photogenic decor interior and food to match. The decor is complementary in pastel pink with blue  pods.

Dyce's products range from ice cream, bubble tea, milkshakes, and bubble cream (a blend of ice cream and bubble tea). Visitors can create their own treat creations by selecting ice cream flavours and choices of toppings and extras to create an indulgent and eye-catching treat perfect for photographs and Instagram.

Visitors are encouraged to take photographs of themselves (selfies) in the unique seats and curved furniture in pink and blue pastel colours.

The ice cream experience is documented in the menu with visitors choosing a base, such as a waffle nest, brownie or cookie. I had the brownie with a scoop of vanilla and a scoop of pistachio ice cream. I also had two toppings: fruity pebbles and mixed fruit. There were a selection of other usual toppings as well. Additional toppings could include a bar of chocolate, golden cone, or macaroon. I had a golden cone and created the unusual treat pictured below.

Overall, the mix was tasty and photographic, as you can see. The ice cream wasn't the best that I have had, but the delicious brownie and toppings mixed into it made all the difference. I would visit again to create another one, keeping in mind that you do need to pay for the additional toppings and not judge it by the ice cream alone.

Dyce Ice Cream Parlour is located in Marylebone on St. James Street, around the corner from Bond Street station, Selfridges and St. Christopher's Place.

Happy Thanksgiving! I will confess that I had other plans for Thanksgiving this year, but I could not do them in the end as "home renovation phase two" is taking place at the moment, and I've got to save money and also be around for input. So, I booked the Riding House Cafe for Thanksgiving a few weeks ago. This Thanksgiving had come up on my radar, so I had high expectations.

Riding House Cafe is located at the top of Upper Regent Street and a couple of blocks past Great Portland Street. It is a trendy bar and cafe, and it is often frequented by television and radio personalities. 

The Thanskgiving menu is a set price including sharing platters of the sides, main, and dessert. It also includes a pre-dinner cocktail, known as "Ginger Pilgrim", a cocktail made of bourbon, honey, lemon and ginger. Thanksgiving begins at Riding House Cafe from 4:00pm. Apparently, the day is popular at the cafe and they struggle to fit everyone in.

The meal was brought out all at once with the plates to eat off of. There was a slice of turkey each, sausage stuffing, maple sweet potato mash, macaroni and cheese, creamed corn, glazed sprouts with bacon, green beans with praline, Calvados gravy, and cranberry/orange relish. For dessert, we were brought a sliver of pumpkin pie and a sliver of pecan pie.

I had high expectations and did not really care much for the food. We only got one slice of turkey, which was mainly brown meat but reformed slices. The green beans and sprouts were too under-cooked and needed a few more minutes because they tasted raw. I did like the creamed corn and the macaroni and cheese. Unfortunately, Riding House Cafe did not really wow me.

If you're looking for Thanksgiving Day feast in London, please also read some of my other posts and reviews for the places that I have tried:

Thanksgiving Day with Benjamin Franklin House @ Clothworker's Hall (London)
Thanksgiving Lunch @ Jackson + Rye, Chiswick
Thanksgiving at The Jones Family Project
Thanksgiving at Balthazar (Covent Garden)
Thanksgiving at Christopher's Restaurant in London (Covent Garden)

If you're not in London but in England for Thanksgiving, you can also try to find a Toby Carvery. I've eaten a Thanksgiving meal there before as well, and it's a standard British roast carvery meal, and they have a selection of meats (and vegetarian options) to choose from in case you don't want just turkey or want to avoid the turkey on Thanksgiving Day.

Apsley House was built at the end of the 1700s by Lord Apsley and is a Grade I-listed building now owned by English Heritage. The mansion passed into the 1st Duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, who became famous for finally defeating Napoleon. Out of the fame, the duke became very famous and wealthy and also became involved with politics/a prime minister. The house includes a very good collection of paintings commissioned by the duke, given by friends and other leaders, or discovered/retained by enemies. In addition to paintings, other gifts were given by other country leaders as gratitude for defeating Napoleon. 

While Apsley House is still a current home of the ancestors of the Duke of Wellington, eleven of the rooms are open for the museum and display many of the gifts and paintings. 

The Duke of Wellington had built onto the original house through the years, and the original dining room was an extension as well as the new and larger dining room (known as Waterloo Gallery) to accommodate over eighty guests and the floor below. The new dining room was used yearly for several years in the mid-1800s to host very large parties. The Waterloo Gallery was inspired by Versailles Palace and the wall of mirrors. The windows have shutters for which mirrors are hung.

The adjoining room, a withdrawing room, is a more intimate space and contains the oldest foot-pedal piano in the world. 

Another piece that lives in the house in the grand staircase is a monumental statue of Napoleon, which was inspired to look like a Greek god. The classical nude statue depicted a classic physique and Napoleon's face, and he was so embarrassed by it that he had it banned from display. The Duke of Wellington also had a few paintings of Napoleon and some items that he used to own; perhaps he was inspired by Napoleon's strategy.

Over the Christmas season, the rooms are decorated with Christmas decorations and Christmas trees, cards, and garlands to create a festive atmosphere. At the moment, they are hosting carol singing in the house. 

I actually found the house to be interesting, and the audio guide helped me to learn about the house and the collections of artwork. I'd recommend a visit. It took me just over two hours to complete the tour. You can also combine this with the other Duke of Wellington monument across the road (Wellington Arch), which is also an English Heritgage property. I'd previously visited this in February of this year, so you can read more about it here: A Visit to Wellington Arch, London. 

Earlier this month, street artists Thierry Noir and Stik unveiled their sections of the Berlin Wall to mark thirty years since its fall. I went to the Imperial War Museum in south London to see the finished pieces, which have simply been named "WALL". The artwork is currently on display there until December 1. When it was unveiled at the beginning of this month, the artists greeted their fans, completed an interview, and gave out autographs.

What was the Berlin Wall? The Berlin Wall is a symbol of the Cold War, which many viewers of the artwork did not get to live through. The wall was built in 1961 as a division between east and west Germany, which had suffered greatly after the country was defeated in World War II. East Germany was controlled by the Soviet Union, and the wall was constructed to prevent the people from escaping to west Germany. The wall was guarded so that people could not cross it; people were shot and killed if they attempted to. The wall tore friends and families apart.

Thierry Noir actually started his career as an artist by painting grafitti on the wall when it was in place; he was the first to paint on the wall in the 1980s. He was a French national living in Berlin at that time. Stik, a London-based artist, started to paint his stick figure characters around 2008-2009 when he was homeless. This is the second time that they have collaborated together. The duo painted together for the first time on the Village Underground Wall in Shoreditch, east London in 2013, and a picture of the artwork is located in the post Street Art: Thierry Noir.

Although the Berlin Wall is a symbol of separation, the artwork created by STIK and Thierry Noir symbolises connection between people, such as the two figures by the artists that seem to interact.

Another section of the Berlin Wall is a permanent artwork in front of the Imperial War Museum. When the wall fell on Novembr 9, 1989, it signalled the end of the Cold War and reunification of Germany. Of course, Europe is still evolving today, and walls are a relevant subject matter today just as they were thirty years ago. 

For more posts about STIK, see:

Stik's "Past, Present & Future"
Bristol Upfest 2015
South Bank Street Art Festival 2013
Street Art: Stik
Baroque the Streets: Dulwich Street Art
Street Art: Thierry Noir

More posts by Thierry Noir:

Thierry Noir Returns to London for Academy Of Art Summer Show at Protein Studios
Thierry Noir Paints New Murals in London
Thierry Noir and Street Art at Shoreditch Food Village
Street Art in Soho by Paul 'Don' Smith, Broken Fingaz, Amara por Dios, Thierry Noir, and others
Thierry Noir's Shop Front on Shoreditch High Street
Thierry Noir's New Murals on Rivington Street
Thierry Noir, RUN, and John Dolan Murals at the Museum of London
Street Art: Thierry Noir

The Vyne estates near Basingstoke in Hampshire dates from the 1500s, and it is open to visitors as it is owned by the National Trust. Despite living and working in Basingstoke for just shy of a decade, I had never visited The Vyne until recently when I went with friends. Like many properties, the estate changed hands a lot and was once visited by Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. The estate is linked to J.R.R. Tolkien's inspiration for the "Lord fo the Rings" books. I'll explain more about this later.

The estate contains the 16th century house and large grounds with woodland and riverside walks, and the autumn colours were starting to appear when I visited in mid-October. 

One of the owners of the estate was Speaker of the House of Commons. The building was then a girls' boarding school int he 1920s, and it was also used by a boy's school who left Kent in World War 2 to shelter in the building. In the mid-1950s, the estate was left to the National Trust. Visitors can walk around the estate and visit the house.

The most detailed room, without a doubt, is the staircase and entrance to the upper floor. The staircase and the ceilings are intricately-designed.

One of the other rooms is a long gallery with a fireplace, hanging portraits, and busts of important historical figures.

The library was one of my favourite rooms. The National Trust is busy cataloguing the books.

The trees were starting to turn colour at the Vyne. I am sure it will look its best at the end of this month. 

J.R.R. Tolkien was inspired to write "Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" due to the estate. A Roman ring, known as the Ring of Silvianus, was discovered in the late 1700s nearby in a field at Silchester, which was a ruined Roman town (you can see my visit of Silchester here: Pub Lunch at Mattingley's "Leather Bottle" Pub and a Visit to Silchester Ruins). The ring became the property of the Vyne. In the 1920s, a tablet with a curse was discovered in Gloucestershire, cursing the person who stole the ring. Tolkien, then a professor in Anglo-Saxon history at Oxford, became aware of it because he was asked to study it. A few days later, Tolkien was inspired to write a similar story about a stolen/lost ring. The ring can be seen at the property.

I enjoyed my visit to the Vyne in Basingstoke. I always enjoy getting out to enjoy nature, and the Vyne has some good walks.

Wembley Park hosted their first ever immersive winter lights trail this year, which is being described as both a light trail and a Christmas trail with giant Christmas decorations. Tonight was the first night of the event with the "light switch on" taking place with a live band, carol singing, and people dressed as elves; the event will be in place until 3 January, adding a spark of colour to the shorter and darker days.

There are plenty of photograph and selfie opportunities amongst the light installations, and a few of the installations are immersive.  Visitors also have a choice of station where the light installations are placed between with a 15-minute walk between the two stations: Wembley Park and Wembley Stadium. There are plenty of places to grab a bite to eat or drink or to do a little bit of shopping. Fortunately, all of the light installations were working on opening night, so I managed to photograph them.

Shadow Wall: Jason Bruges

Shadows are created from people who walk by the walls of the underpass (Royal Route), leaving an imprint into the side of the wall made of light. Visitors created unique shapes by moving and posing. The light installation mimics those who walk by, imprinting their shape onto the wall.

The Hopeful Tree: Elyne Legarnisson

This is London's tallest LED Christmas tree towering over the crowds at Wembley Park. It is lit with 100,000 low-energy bulbs and is the centrepiece of the event. Visitors can admire it from a distance or walk through it. The tree changes colour and pattern continuously.

Royal Wave: Jason Bruges

This digital Mexican wave on the underpass of Royal Route was created using portraits of people who live in the community. The artwork shifts with movement of the viewer. Its placement and subject is perfect for the venue as the Mexican wave is performed by crowds in stadiums, such as the one here at Wembley.

Murmuration of Hopes: Elyne Legarnisson

LED banners and illuminated trees line the walkway through Wembley Park. The light banners twinkle, mimicking birds in flight. There are two sections of this installation on both main walkways.

Saturation Surge: Maser

This is not a light installation and is a permanent installation here at Wembley, but it has been included in the list as I suppose it is a work of art and can brighten up the gloomy wintery days. The artwork is created with colourful geometric shapes by street artist Maser from Ireland. 

Love Spot

This installation is simply for the purpose of photographs. The lit-up heart has mistletoe hanging from it, encouraging couples to visit it for a photograph or a kiss.

Illumaphonium: Halos: Michael Davis

This immersive installation allows the viewer to become a part of the work by creating soundscapes and light display from the lights using their hands.

Star Box

Star Box premiered last year for the Christmas season and encourages visitors to step inside and to get their photographs with the giant gold gift box.

Sonic Runway: Rob Jensen and Warren Trezevant

One of the highlights of Winterfest Wembley is this 130m tunnel of lights, which is making the European debut here at Wembley Park after Nevada's Burning Man Festival. The rings of lights are constantly moving and creating different patterns and colours set to music in a multi-sensory installation that is certainly a crowd-pleaser.

Crossover: miriamandtom

This artwork is a pattern of geometric colour transforming Bobby Moore Bridge near Wembley Park station. The top of the bridge and walls in the underpass are bright with shapes of complementary colour.

Also lit up was the star of Wembley itself, the stadium with its massive arches that can be seen from miles away. The arches were covered in a rainbow of colour for the evening. 

To see the mixture of interactive artwork and Christmas decorations and get photographs, visit Wembley Park before January 3rd. The area now has quite a lot of shops and restaurants to visit, though I found the shopping area not sign-posted well when I visited a few weeks ago to visit the cinema and get a bite to eat, though it was easy to just find the two main walkways with the light installations; I didn't venture into any of the shops. This area of London seems to be transforming a lot.

Nottingham has a lot of street art, and most of it is located around Sneinton Market and Woolpack Lane on the edge of the city centre and in the creative area. More street art has been painted in Nottingham this year for a street art festival, but I am afraid my photographs from Nottingham date from last summer.

I will kick it off with one of my favourite murals that I discovered in Nottingham, "The Usual Suspects", a witty ensemble of colourful characters fashioned out of sock puppets. This may have been a collaboration piece with artist K1030.

Opposite Woolpack Lane is a large salmon-coloured building with characters in the windows.

Also in this area is a multi-eyed fish.

A chicken and a seahorse. 

And this crying monk/friar.

Sneinton Market is located a short walk away, and there are a couple of pieces on the walk down the hill and at Sneinton Market.

Kaption One

The below mural features some familiar characters (in a blend) from "Futurama", "The Simpsons" and other cartoons.

K1030

I did not register who created many of the artworks, and some of them were not tagged. Please comment if you know who created the work. I was happy to see so much talent in Nottingham, though I don't think I've seen any of these artists create anything in London.

Waddesdon Manor is a property managed by the National Trust in Buckinghamshire, England. At this time of the year and throughout the festive season, the staff at Waddesdon Manor decorate the house and grounds. I visited Waddesdon Manor with friends this weekend on its opening day. The Christmas festivities here include two illuminated trails through the woods, several of the rooms in the house decorated for Christmas and open to the public (which requires an additional fee and booking well in advance), and a Christmas market. Members of the National Trust can visit the grounds for free, but the house is only accessible via timed tickets purchased in advance at an extra cost.

Each year, Waddesdon Manor house is decorated to a theme. This year's theme for the decorated rooms at Waddesdon Manor is festive music. Each of the rooms (or each area in the house) was decorated based on the inspiration from a festive song, such as "O' Christmas Tree", "The Nutcracker", or "The Twelve Days of Christmas". The Rothchilds (the very wealthy family who lived in Waddesdon Manor from the late 1800s until the end of the 1950s) enjoyed music and would have had live music performed during the house parties at the weekends. 

"O Christmas Tree": This is a traditional German song about the fir tree as a sturdy and faithful tree. The tree became one of the symbols of the season in the 1800s after Queen Charlotte introduced the tradition and then later when Queen Victoria was pictured with one. The Christmas tree is relatively a new tradition in the United Kingdom.

"Three Kings of Orient (We Three Kings)": This room was decorated inspired by the three magi who went traveling across the desert in order to find the hold baby and bring him gifts. A large camel stands in a corner, and king-related ornaments (with animals such as elephants and camels) on placed on the trees. This song was written in the mid-1800s and is still a popular song for the season.

"While Shepherds Watch Their Flocks": This song describes how the holy baby news reached the ordinary people, such as the shepherds who tended to their flocks of sheep. The room and tree is decorated with sheep, stars, staffs, and angel's wings. I thought that the sheep looked very cute.

Upstairs, a few more rooms were decorated.

"The Twelve Days of Christmas": This song from the 1700s is probably of French origin and was a memory game for children. The Twelve Days is about the traditional twelve days when the festivities lasted for twelve days and the Twelfth Night, the largest celebration. This was widely celebrated in place of Christmas. The tree included ornaments for the items in the song, including the dancing ladies, swans, geese, pipers, and maids.  

"I Saw Three Ships": The song "I Saw Three Ships" was a traditional traveling folk song (possibly sung by sailors); it was not a holiday song at all. The song dated from the middle ages but then became a festive song with some symbolism and word changes. The centrepieces on the table are of three porcelain ships that would hold pot-pouri, and the placemats and tree ornaments include paper ships and ship wheels.

"The Nutcracker": "The Nutcracker" ballet has become a festive tradition due to the story. The story is about a young girl's toy nutcracker that comes to life at night. The child-like wonder evokes a festive mood, so it is often now used as a symbol of the holidays. The room is decorated with nutcrackers on the fireplace and ballet shoes as a centrepiece of the table.

Christmas Hits: This area, which descends some stairs, is dedicated to the number one songs during the week of Christmas. Many of them are not festive songs.

"The Little Drummer Boy": This tune originated in the 1940s and is a story about a little boy with a drum and his gift of music to the baby. The song has been recorded by a lot of artists.

"We Wish you a Merry Christmas": This song originated as a carol sung by groups who would go around asking for donations. One of the Christmas messages is about giving to the poor or needy in the community. The room is decorated with festive items, such as Christmas pudding and games, treats, and crackers.

Classics Christmas: The room across the hall represented classical Christmas music, symbolising the importance of music to the family.

"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer": This is a very recent song about the misfit reindeer who finally gets accepted because of what he can do when people start to realise how important he is that he is different. It is based on a children's book and a film that was launched at the same time. Inside the small room is the title character.

"White Christmas": Written in the late 1800s, this song is now one of the most famous (if not the most famous) Christmas songs. It became even more famous when Bing Crosby sang it in the 1940s to troops in France. The room is decorated as a child's room with ice blue decorations.

After the visit to the house to look at the rooms, we checked out the lights.

This illumination was located in the stables at the bottom of the hill, and the orbs of light changed colour and moved to music.

Waddesdon Manor had a light show projected onto it, which was also set to music.

Two rows of Christmas market stalls were available to browse in front of the manor house, and some of the lights here were projected onto the trees or made from wine bottles.

The Illuminated Winter Woodland Trail was a circular walk with many smaller displays inside, such as the one set to music below with orbs that changed colour and pulsed with the music.

Some of the lights twinkled, looking like a million fireflies, due to disco balls rotating with light, high up in the trees.

One tree had fiber-optic lighting dangling down from the branches and in a pool below.

One of the other light attractions included smoke stacks where visitors could press a colour button for the smoke to turn a different colour.

Another light show was set to music from "The Nutcracker" with patterns created in light and shadow and of different colour.

The real treat was the projection onto Waddesdon Manor.

We didn't have time to walk around the Christmas market, which looked like it was selling some really good and different products at a quick glance of some stalls, and we also ran out of time to walk the second illuminated trail, which had some lanterns and a few additional light projections. (The main trail was the one near the aviary, which we did walk.) 

I visited on opening day for the festive attractions, and the venue was very busy and actually too busy for my liking really as it was difficult to look around properly, and we had to wait awhile at times. This is certainly one of the most popular festive National Trust places, so it must be one of the better ones or most people just want to start to think about the holidays to get other things off of their minds. 

This is a throwback post to this past summer when I went to Kew Gardens to see Dale Chihuly's glass sculptures on display: Dale Chihuly at Kew Gardens: "Reflections on Nature". I've only been to Kew Gardens twice before (and once of those was for the holiday lights when they first started to do them), but I did not get much time to look around and did not see much of the gardens at all. On this visit, I spent several hours at Kew Gardens and had a quick look around most of it, though I would love to go back to see what I rushed through. 

First up is one of the buildings I've already spent a lot of time in previously, the Palm House. I spent a lot of time admiring the beautiful flower gardens in the front of it. Rose gardens (which were over when I visited) are located on the other side.

I had previously visited the Tree-Top Walks, so I did not do this on this visit. The Tree-Top Walk lets visitors get up and personal in the canopy of the trees.

I also visited the Marianne North Gallery of botanic art, which was fascinating, but photographs were not allowed. The gallery of Marianne North contains over 800 paintings from her world travels, covered floor to ceiling in two main rooms of the gallery. The gallery was left with Kew on the condition that the layout of the paintings were not altered at all, and it's the only permanent exhibition dedicated to one woman. I really enjoyed seeing the artwork here and thought it was very good! I was impressed that she managed to go visit so many countries, especially countries "off the beaten track", especially in the 1800s.

The Waterlilly House (pictured below) was a repeat visit for me. It contains a pond with various plants that enjoy the humidity. It was a very humid environment in this house.

The interior of the Palm House is below.

I even managed to capture some bananas, which you can see in the below photograph.

King William's Temple was a building that I had walked past on previous visits, and I went inside it this time. It's just a large room inside without anything to see. The building itself looks attractive set in the gardens, and it borders Mediterranean gardens.

The olive trees in an oliver grove make up part of this Mediterranean garden.

The Temperate House was one of the buildings that I had not been in before, and it included a lot of tropical and sub-tropical plants throughout the different sections of the building.

I saw oranges.

I loved these colourful flowers in pots.

The middle of the Temperate House helps to see the large size of it.

This is the exterior (below).

On this side of Kew Gardens is the famous pagoda, a building that can be climbed to the top. It's a building that I had not seen up close until this visit, but I did not visit it. I will save that for another day. It was quite a warm day with a lot of walking, and I did not fancy walking up all of those steps and killing my legs.

Also on this side of Kew is the Japanese Gateway, a reconstruction of a traditional Japanese garden.

A short walk away is the Ruined Arch (pictured below).

I had lunch near here. I had chicken, and it came with two sides. I had the chips and macaroni and cheese. There are a few restaurants and cafes dotted around Kew Gardens for visitors. Note that the prices are a little bit expensive here, but I would say the ingredients are good quality.

I visited Queen Charlotte's Cottage before continuing to the north-eastern part of Kew Gardens. I have a separate post about the cottage: Queen Charlotte's Cottage, Kew Gardens. The north-eastern side borders on the river Thames, which is not very wide on this side, and there is a walking and cycle trail bordering it. On the opposite bank is Syon House and gardens.

I then returned back to the southern part of the gardens to visit the south-eastern side, a part of Kew Gardens which I have not been before. I walked across Sackler Bridge, which is a steel-like structure that arches in the middle.

I came upon Minka House, located in a grove of bamboo. It is one of the newest additions of Kew Gardens from the Japanese festival in 2001; the building dates from 1900 and was moved from Japan to be placed here.

Next up, I went to the Kew Palace and the Georgian Kitchens (A Visit to Kew Palace and Kew Palace's Kitchens), located on the eastern part of Kew Gardens. I had never been to this part of Kew Gardens before, but I have included another post about Kew Palace and the Georgian Kitchens.

A nice and quiet part of Kew is Cambridge Cottage. It has a small flower garden. There's also some other buildings and gardens near-by that I did not really get to visit.

Princess of Wales Conservatory was a building that I walked into, but I was hot and tired, so I did not explore it much. I plan to visit this side of Kew Gardens on my next visit. 

This is a view of Alpine House, which I took a photograph of but did not walk inside.

The Rock Gardens are another stop, and they had fountains.

This is a part of the expansive (and busy) garden located near the Rock Gardens. This is also on my to-do list on my next visit.

And that was a fleeting discovery of Kew Gardens. Kew Gardens is a huge place to explore and should not be under-estimated. I would try to stick to one part of the gardens in order to get much more out of it, and wear sensible shoes and plan what you are going to do for the day. Each part of the gardens has its own refreshments area, so you will have something near-by if you need food or drink. Also, Kew Gardens changes with the seasons, so there is bound to be something to do and see no matter when you visit, and the time of the year will help you to plan your day.

Built in 1631, Kew Gardens is most famous for being the home of King George III and his family and the smallest palace. When it was built, it was actually built as a Dutch merchant's house. In 1728, it became the home of members of the royal family who got a leasehold on the property and Frederick, George III's father, built a property opposite known as "the White House". At the beginning of the 1800s, George III moved to the palace for treatment of physical and mental illness; he moved in with his wide Charlotte and their 15 children. The palace is a large red brick building on the eastern edge of Kew Gardens.

King George III and his family lived in the palace until 1818. He preferrred this country retreat. In 1817, Queen Charlotte became very ill at the palace and died the following year, and the family moved out and never lived there again; it was also not occupied by the royal family after this time. After they moved, the house remained pretty much as how it was left when they moved out.

Visitors can walk through the rooms of the palace and visit the bedrooms of the family; some of the rooms are not yet restored.

The palace's kitchens are also open to view, and this is located a short walk away. The Georgian kitchens are re-constructed to what they may have looked like in 1789 when King George III lived in the palace. The palace kitchens contain the kitchen gardens outside the building and rooms used by the staff for the running of the kitchens, storage rooms, the kitchens with the stoves, and the living quarters of the staff.

Below are a couple of the rooms on the ground floor. Note how much more simple it is than the rooms of the palace.

Kew Palace and Kew Palace's Georgian Kitchens are open to the public at the weekends and other busy times throughout the summer, but they are closed to the public in the winter months. 

Queen Charlotte's Cottage is located in Kew Gardens, London. The cottage is over 300 years old and is located in a bluebell wood on the eastern side of the gardens. The rustic cottage was built by Queen Charlotte in the mid-1700s for George III, who had problems with his health. It was only used as a country retreat when the royal family wished to take walks in the countryside and gardens and have tea. Exotic animals were kept in the paddocks near here, such as pheasants, kangaroos, and oriental cattle. It is thought that the cottage was a favourite place for the king.

The cottage was used for the last time by the royal family in 1818 after the double wedding of William IV and Duke of Kent (who was the father of Queen Victoria). Queen Victoria gave the cottage and its grounds to the public to commemorate her Diamond Jubilee in 1898.

One of the room displays Hogarth's prints, pictured below.

A room upstairs was painted and designed by Queen Charlotte herself.

The cottage is only open at Bank Holidays and on weekends during the summer months, and it is closed for the winter.

I've recently gone through some old photographs of street art that I have taken and not published over the years and found these various ones of street artist Artista who paints large slices of toast and flowers/floral patterns. She's painted many walls in London over the past several years, and her work is colourful and always a pleasure to see. In the past couple of years, she has not painted too much in London.

One of the better editions was a series she posted on one wall on Blackall Street, which has since become gentrified with a new hotel built on the street. Some of the walls still contain paste-ups and street art, but it's not often used these days, which is a shame because it used to contain some great work. This is where Artista painted a series of her toast character with different colours and backgrounds, the final one being a New Year's Eve celebration with fireworks, which was largely tagged over quickly and before I could get a photograph. Many of the editions did not last long, and I only managed to photograph a few.

Previous posts on this blog about Artista are listed below:

Artista and Atomik Street Art 
Street Art: Artista, DecoLife, Binty Bint, Ino, Irony, Pixie, SeaPuppy
New Street Art by Artista, Saki and Amara por Dios

One of London's newest street art walls after gentrification are the "Connectivity Matters" walls in Shoreditch. Last year, the walls were painted by different street artists from London and abroad, and the last section of the walls remained unpainted for some time. In late June, I noticed that the walls had finally been painted by street artist Autone1 and Neist. Autone1's work is very linerar with patterns and colour. His "PrideMatters" mural covers the back of the large building and the railings around to create a rainbow effect. 

It's a colourful artwork in this very concrete part of London. A close-up of the artist's technique is below.

Street Art on ConnectivityMatters Wall
Hunto and MisterThomas collaborated together on this ConnectivtyMatters wall
Mr. Cenz Paints "Connectivity Matters" Wall

I took some decent autumn photographs of the privately-owned and secured lake (pond) off Chertsey Road in Sunbury-on-Thames/Lower Feltham. The pond (it's too small to be considered a lake in my opinion) is owned by a private large corporation who have a large campus here, so you can only enter if you have permission to do so. I took the walk last week during the early afternoon, and it was a lovely walk with very few people around. A small pathway winds around the pond, and there are a few boards on bird identification.

There are several nice views of the pond from different angles, picnic benches for food, and a couple of people who had brought fishing gear in order to fish along the pond here. The trees were at their most beautiful here when I visited. Overall, the colours have been decent this year.

This is private property, so you would need to get permission to go onto it, and I don't think you could get permission unless you are working for the company or know someone who is. It's not a large area/pond, but I thought the photographs would be good to post because many cannot enjoy this space, and I thought it was such a peaceful location with beautiful fall colour to share. The pond does not have a name as far as I am aware of, but it is located beside "Lakeside Sports Ground" and just south of Greenham's Pit. It was probably created as a pit as well, but I am unable to find out anything about it. There are quite a few lakes, ponds and resevoirs in this area of London.

Readers may remember that a few weeks ago, I went to Hampstead to Fenton House for Apple Day (Apple Day at Fenton House (National Trust in Hampstead, London)). After this, I walked for ten minutes to 2 Willow Road, opposite Hampstead Heath, another very different National Trust property. This property is a home (three homes) created by Erno Goldfinger, an architect in the 1930s of the modern architecture movement. This movement rebelled against the traditional-style homes that contained ornate details. The modernist movement was to use reinforced concrete and create simplicity with open plan livings to maximise space and light. In the 1930s when the modernist architecture began, it was very different and controversial. 

Goldfinger and the woman who became his wife met in Paris as they studied at an art school. She became heiress to her parents' soup empire, and they managed to develop the house with that money. They choose Hampstead because it has always been a place where artists, writers, and liberal minds gathered. They had friends in Hampstead too. Three derelict cottages were torn down to create the modern building, which was originally designed to be taller and contain flats for a communal area for other writers and artists, but planning permission restricted this. However, they were lucky to get the building built there. Instead of flats, it became the architect's family home (in the middle) and a home on either side. The home on the right was sold outright, and the one on the left was rented out. 

Visitors first watched a film about the architect and the house before the guided tour. Photographs were not allowed to be taken inside the building, but everything else remains completely as the family left it after Goldfinger. The house was given to the National Trust, and all of the artwork and furnishings and fittings created by the architect remain. It is rare for a building to contain everything as the original occupants left it.

Inside the house, the spiral stairway holds the engineering together, and all of the doors can be opened to create open-plan living. For example, the two children and the maids had their own room with fold-out beds, but in the day-time, the walls were removed to create a large nursery. The storage is in-built, and the architect designed the light switches and other aspects. The result is simple and modern open-plan living with an industrial theme as a lot of the furniture has been created or upcycled from factory and steel materials.

In addition to this property, Goldfinger built Lawn Close, which is a 15-minute walk away from this property. It was the first modern architecture built in London. 

Other important notes are that the architect was apparently a little difficult to work with, and his name inspired Ian Fleming to use it for the villan in his 'James Bond' novel. He did not know Goldfinger, but the architect came up because a friend of his knew the architect's wife. When the book was printed, Goldfinger had his lawyers sue because of the uncany resemblance. As a result, he was given a few signed first edition books for free, and one of these is located in the house.

Cookies are my weakness, so when I learned about "My Cookie Dough" in Westfield shopping centre, it was on my London foodie bucket list. "My Cookie Dough" sell cookie dough squares or cookie dough stacks with lashings of toppings and whipped vanilla ice cream. The ice cream helps to balance the sweet dough. Keep reading on if you can resist the decadent-looking photograph below.

I opted for the rose and pistachio stack, which was delicious but "oh so sweet" and filling. The cookie dough is delicious, but after a couple of bites, you'll want to take it away. At least, that's what I did. The flavours of rose and pistachio work well together with a stack of cookie and cookie dough, which is slightly gooey inside.

The cinnamon bun cookie was also delicious and mimics the cinnamon bun taste very well. I love cinnamon buns too!

Overall, "My Cookie Dough" was a win for me! The kiosk is located on the first floor of Westfield in West London in the new section toward John Lewis. If you're going to visit, let me know what you think.

An old mansion house in Trinway, Ohio (near Dresden, Ohio) is rich in history and has connections to the infamous "Underground Railroad" to help slaves escape. The mansion is in my home town and always in a derelict state, though I always wanted to go inside it when I was growing up. I know that the last time that it was open to the public was in the bicentenial year 1976 because my parents told me that they had visited it then. It remained closed up after that and until 2001 or 2002. I visited it with my friend when it was first opened to the public again in 2001 or 2002, but I have not been back until the end of October. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The mansion was built for the Adams family (G.W. Adams) in 1856. Actually, he had a diagreement with the architect, and the architect set fire to the first finished mansion so a new one was built right afterward. The mansion was built with revolutionary ideas, uncluding indoor plumbing with a cooper tank cistern on the second floor. This pressurised water through the house. Two coal stoves had copper tanks from the cistern system so that the water could be heated for the home. When the mansion was rebuilt after the fire, it was built to withstand a second fire with thick solid brick between the floors to stop fire spreading. It also had a unique refridgeration system, using the basement to draw up air into ducts inside the walls.

The family owned a lot of land in the area and operated mills; this small village is a few miles away from Trinway and is known as Adams Mills. G.W Adams was one of thirteen children, and his father owned a plantation in the southern states but freed the slaves and moved north. The family were abolitionists and donated to the cause. He and his brother operated the "Underground Railroad" from their business. They owned several warehouses along the Ohio and Lake Erie Canal and the flour mill in Adams Mills and a boat yard/cooper shop in Dresden. (Parts of the canal can still be seen today, but it doesn't exist as a road was built over the top or next to it.)

Because the family bought from Louisiana, the boats would bring back the escaped slaves. They would be hidden in fake floors of the boats. From there, they would be hidden in warehouses or canals or possibly in the mansion. It has always been local knowledge that the mansion was used as a stop on the "Underground Railroad" and that they possibly used the cupola to signal. It was said that there was a tunnel from the river to the basement of the mansion where the slaves could hide. However, no tunnel or secret area was found in the basement of the mansion when it was renovated. There may be some truth to the story. The slaves certainly would have been helped through here and would have possibly come up via the signal at the mansion from the river. They also may have stayed here and hidden in an area in the basement behind something.   

Some of the information in the cases at the mansion was a discussion on slaves and the "Underground Railroad" because of the history. Other items were found in the house, and one of the items had just been found after my visit nearly twenty years ago. In the ballroom, a mask was found. It is displayed in the above case.

It is also said that Abraham Lincoln visited Trinway Mansion. However, there is nothing to confirm this as concrete evidence, so the Trinway Mansion cannot claim it until they are certain of this. Adams and Lincoln were friends and mentioned together in some texts, and it is highly likely that he did indeed stay. Prospect Place would receive more funding if they could prove this as a fact, but documents were not kept then like they are today. As it has been noted that Lincoln did stay here AND he was a friend of Adams, I believe that he did visit and stay in the house.

The reason why Prospect Place was closed throughout my childhood was that it had become a ruin and unlived in. Thieves also broke into the house and trashed it. It was set to be demolished in 1988, by Dave Longaberger bought the house to preserve it; I am glad he did. Dave Longaberger founded the basket company, which was a huge thing from the mid-1980s until the early 2000s. He was going to use the mansion as the company headquarters, but he then built the basket-shaped building in Newark. Longaberger died of cancer in the late 1990s. However, his security on the mansion prevented it from being damaged further. For many years, the windows and doors were all boarded up. 

A relative of Longaberger and ancestor of Adams decided to open a restaurant in the mansion, but the investors pulled out after September 11, 2001. The building was meant to be restored, but little has changed from my visit in 2001 or 2002. For the past couple of years, a different group has been tidying it up and bringing it back to life. This time, I hope it truly gets completed.  

The photographs show the rooms in the wealthy part of the house. Prospect Place was actually divided into two parts. The smaller side on the left (when looking at the building) are the quarters belonging to the servants. These are now off-limits to view because they are being used by the renovation team.

Every year, Prospect Place host a party for the mansion at the end of October. This takes on a Halloween party feeling as it is so close to Halloween. The party is held in the ballroom on the top floor (directly under the cupola). Prospect Place has five floors: the basement, ground floor, first floor, ballroom (half the head hight and without windows), and cupola. The servant's quarters have only and upstairs and downstairs.

The basement had to be partially dug out with years of dirt and bricks. There are stories associated with the basement, including the numerous ghost stories. Prospect Place has been featured in several ghost television shows. From 2001 to 2002, ghost tours were taking place at Prospect Place with visitors staying over night in attempt to see/hear/feel ghosts. My friend and I would have done this, but it was too expensive.

The bathroom on the second floor has an access above the bath; I am assuming that it is one of the water tanks.

I know that they are repairing the banisters of the building. The mood lighting is for the haunted event that they had going on, and this is the second floor. The doorway at the end of the hallway here goes into the servant's quarters. The stairway that goes up actually goes up to the ballroom.

The ballroom is half a story between the roof and the first floor. The back and side above the servant's quarters contains a set of small windows, but there aren't any windows on the front. People had come in and vandalised this room, and it was the most creepy. Apparently, youths had drawn bad grafitti into the walls, such as an upside-down cross, which was corrected and is located on the back of the wall. The ballroom was where the mask was found. I am sure the ballroom entertained a few notable guests in the area and perhaps Lincoln attended a party here.

The cupola was out-of-bounds during my visit years ago. This year, I got the chance to go up inside it. It is a small room with three windows on each side, overlooking the land. The river can be seen from here. I am sure they had lantern signals here to communicate.

Here are the stairs up to the ballroom.

The below photograph is from the side where the servants' quarters were located. I do have photographs of the mansion and these rooms, but they were taken with an older camera and not a digital one.

A three-storey barn is also included next to the house. I did not know the story, but apparently there was another local legend here about some bounty hunter getting hanged in the barn. No one has ever found any truth to this, but there are two ceiling 'doors' on the upper levels. 

For more information about Prospect Place or to find out how to visit it, see: https://www.gwacenter.org/ or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospect_Place

Glossybox is a monthly subscription box that sends between four and five sample and full-sized beauty and skincare products. I received this box as a free box with a new subscription that I took out in August, and this box actually dates from November 2017, so that is why I am just reviewing it now. The November box did not have a theme, but November is all about comfort while the nights are getting longer and colder. Read below to see what I received in November's Glossybox.

When I opened up the box, it smelled lovely and was perfumed. The smell is actually from one of the products, and it smells beautiful.

Natural Bodywash geranium and peppermint: This is the product that has the November Glossybox smelling divine. I love the smell of geranium in products, even though I am not too keen on the flowers themselves. It is a calming and relaxing scent, and this product is good for people who have sensitive skin.

SportFX Double Time Brush buffer + powder duo: Sport FX creates products that can be packed in a gym bag and used on the go. This product is a double-headed make-up brush. The larger end can be used to apply creams and powders, and the smaller end is to create definition.

ModelLauncher Safari Sun Bronzer: This is a compact bronzer that looks like a leopard print when opened, and it uses minerals to create a nice bronze colour when swirled together.

Rodial Glamolash Macara XXL: This is a long-wearing mascara that applies quite thickly for lashes that have extreme volume and definition.

Boots Charcoal and Willow Bark Sheet Mask: This mask from High Street brand Boots contains willow and charcoal, which helps to remove impurities in the skin and clean pores. The remaining product on the mask can be massaged onto the skin.

Welcome to my Halloween street art edition of 2019 and 2018. I took photographs last year a week or two after Halloween had passed and forgot to post them for last year's street art. Many of these hung around for a long while, so it is possible that you have already seen them as a few of them did linger around for a few months. If you haven't, you can see them below. If you have, hopefully they will bring back some fond memories. Additionally, I managed to get to east London earlier this year to photograph what street art I could find. Sorry that the photographs are dark; since the time change has happened, it's more difficult to find an opportunity to get to east London during the shortened daylight.

First up are the photographs that I took from 2018.

Haser - mouse and jack o' lantern

Haser - bird mask

Ewan Blackford - scary abstract face (this follows the artist's artistic style and probably isn't specifically Halloween, but this one fits Halloween)

unknown - horror film character with spray can 

unknown - glowing fox with severed arm

unknown

unknown glow-in-the-dark fox

Envol - skull (top); woman's face detail (bottom) - again, probably not created for Halloween but fits the theme

Below are the Halloween street art murals that I managed to capture this year.

Gums and Tongue - killer vegetables

Gums and Tongue - probably not for Halloween as this is the style of the artist group; spacemen, robots, and scary smoking snail

Voyder and Fanakapan - balloon ghost and blood red grafitti

GOT - Spooky text

Core64 - possibly not Halloween; woman with orb

Tizer - bar fly

Jim Vision - dragon (possibly not Halloween as fantasy is one of the artist's favourite subjects) 

Gums and Tongue - alien creature and shapes in Halloween colours

 I hope you enjoyed this edition of Halloween street art.

Although it is a day after Halloween, I am still in the Halloween mood and wanted to share with you some fantastic Halloween foodie treats that I found in London this year. This year seemed to be a much bigger celebration of Halloween than previous years, and I am sure that the Halloween-inspired goodies will continue next year with these featured brands and other brands; I obviously could not check them out all. On the heels of Halloween is also "Day of the Dead", Diwali, and Bonfire Night. Bonfire Night seems to have faded into the distance in more recent years, which is a real shame as it deserves its place too. 

First up, we have a celebration of Halloween and "Day of the Dead" in a fusion created by Nosteagia (London Bubble Waffles @ Nosteagia), a popular bubble-waffle ice cream vendor who sell in Box Park in Shoreditch and who have recently extended to sell in Old Spitalfields Market. Their themed product is created with pumpkin spice ice cream, condensed red milk (which is meant to look like blood), marshmallow pumpkin, sugar skull biscuit, an Oreo cookie, whipped cream, and little Halloween candies. All of this is served in their famous bubble waffle, which is similar to an American waffle instead of a European one. The pumpkin ice cream tasted more like pumpkin pie to me, possibly helped by the combination of cream and waffle. It was the most delicious ice cream. I rate this one the highest.

Next up, popular Wheelcake Island (London Street Food 'Wheelcake Island') had their own take on Halloween with their wheelcake but with a pumpkin and vanilla filling. Wheelcake Island used to set up at weekends and during the week at times on Brick Lane. They became extra-successful and opened a kiosk at Old Spitalfields Market last year before opening up a new one recently at the brand new Seven Dials Market. I had high hopes for this creation as I love their wheelcakes, but the pumpkin lacked flavour. If this pumpkin had been similar in taste to pumpkin pie (or pumpkin spice) with a touch of cinnamon and combined with the vanilla, this one would have been a winner. The right combination would provide very popular throughout the autumn for them, I am sure, and I'd buy multiple from them if they got it right because it has much potential. 

Okay, next isn't really a food unless you want to bake one or use the seeds, but these pumpkins are traditionally for carving rather than food. These pumpkins were on display and for sale at London's newest market, Seven Dials Food Market (Seven Dials Food Market, London's Newest Food Market). The pumpkins that are grey in colour (or very deep orange and flat in shape) are the ones that are used for baking. These orange ones are really only suitable for carving as they just lack the depth of flavour. But, if you want a pumpkin or thirty, here you go.

Lola's (Happy Valentine's Day with Lola's Cupcakes and Lola's Wimbledon Cupcakes) is famous for cupcakes, and they've consistently provided themes throughout the year. These cupcakes were no surprise here. Lola's can be found in various locations across London, and they seem to be centralised around train stations and some of the larger underground stations. 

If you're extra lucky, you may spot a jack 'o lantern.

Milk Train (London's Milk Train Autumn Special "Maple Tree" and Milk Train - Ice Cream and Candy Floss/Cotton Candy Clouds) has been around for a few years and is an Instagram favourite. They are located in Covent Garden. They have been exploring the themed ice cream for their Instagram followers. They had an autumn special earlier, and their Halloween special was a pumpkin-shaped pumpkin ice cream. The ice cream was okay, but the Nosteagia one was much better.

Additionally, I covered Yolkin separately in another post: A Visit to Yolkin for Ice Cream Macaroon Sandwiches as I visited them earlier for Halloween. I loved the pumpkin spice macaroon, which tasted like pumpkin pie. They also had various flavours of ice cream sandwiches (ice cream macaroons), and they all look so cute.

Of course, Peggy Porschen (near Victoria/Sloane Square and Chelsea) have their own Halloween treats, but I didn't get there. If there is anywhere else that you saw that put on a creative Halloween foodie treat, let me know in the comments. I will try and visit them next year.