Penny Blood's Black Book » Special Mention

Fortnum and Mason

Penny Blood — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 18:59:19 +0000

Fortnum and Mason is a palace of food, it’s also a one-stop-tourist hole from hell. What was once the grocer to Queen Victoria’s court is now a giant food themed gift shop (unless you buy all your food in pretty tins). But what a gift shop it is. The window displays are worth a visit alone. Every British condiment and edible commodity from days gone by is sold here in [re-produced] original packaging. There are also counters dedicated to all and everything delicious, chocolate, pastries and cakes, cheese and exotic coffee and tea in delectable wooden boxes. It’s a good a place as any to get all your gifts in one go and when you feel you have just about enough, drop into the fountain tea room for an authentic, I mean expensive afternoon tea. Actually don’t its a bit tacky, designed for American tourists. Afternoon tea is a cherished British tradition from days when the upper classes had the time to sit around and eat finger food and chat. That’s why many such places including fancy hotels try to re-create this experience in lavish and fake settings which charge anything upwards of £40 a head making them little more than overpriced tourist traps. Like I said great for gifts though.

http://www.fortnumandmason.com/

181 Piccadilly, London, W1A 1ER
020 7734 8040
Monday – Saturday 10am-8pm Sunday 12pm – 6pm (with browsing time from 11.30am to 12noon) 020 7734 8040

Selfridges

Penny Blood — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:09:53 +0000

Selfridges always serves to remind me that money does not buy happiness. Yet it’s not happiness I want it’s money. On every visit I mentally spend hundreds of pounds. This department store (for want of a better term) is the best in the world. Forget dowdy and dated can’t move for the fat tourists Harrods go to Selfridges it’s the most perfect shop in London (after the Dover Street Market). It’s my favourite foodhall stocking everything you would expect an expensive food hall to stock, including an aisle dedicated to American junk food that was probably banned from Britain. The building itself is stunning and the window displays far outdo any other rival like Harvey Nichols or any art installation I’ve ever seen. Not surprisingly it’s expensive and filled with designer clothes and luxury goods but additionally it does have concessions of the better high street stores like Topshop all housed under one roof.

http://www.selfridges.com/

400 Oxford Street, London, W1A 1AB
0800 123 400
Monday – Saturday 9.30am – 9.30pm Sunday 12pm – 6pm

Liberty

Penny Blood — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:09:08 +0000

Okay so perhaps Liberty is the most perfect shop in London. It’s like Selfridges just smaller and more edited. They sell the most beautiful stuff, Diptyque perfume, Prestat chocolate, Aesop cosmetics all housed in an amazing Tudor building. It should have “Dreams are the only luxury of the poor” as its motto. I adore luxury. I have a greater need for it than a peasant has for a loaf of bread. Almost the entire interior of the building is dark wood paneled, with carved ceilings and grand staircases and elevators. It doesn’t really feel like a shop as much as a stately home. The tea room is great in itself, expensive but they do a wonderful afternoon tea with huge scones and homemade jam. Everything is beautifully and lovingly displayed in a manner of which screams “You can’t afford anything so don’t touch!”

http://www.liberty.co.uk/

Great Marlborough Street, London W1B 5AH
0207 734 1234
Monday – Saturday 10am – 9pm Sunday 12pm – 6pm

BFI Southbank

Penny Blood — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:08:34 +0000

BFI Southbank is kind of a one-stop shop for going out, you can get dinner here, drinks and go to the cinema. It’s the best thing on the Southbank and I thought an appropriate place to go with my Mother as I thought it would be minimal stress as everything was in one place. Well I was wrong there. First off it’s busy as hell, like…. always, and she wanted a bottle of water. Well the bar (after queuing forever as despite my best efforts, I’m invisible to bar staff) only had bottled water in a glass bottle and this was not ok, as she knew she wouldn’t finish it and a glass bottle was too heavy to carry in her bag. So she settled for a glass of water, as at least this was free. Then by the time we got to buy tickets they had practically sold out so we couldn’t sit together, so she’s yelling across a crowded room at me that she wants to see another film where we can sit together and what do I want to see? In the end we just went to the bar, which is pretty and retro. BFI has just been refurbished and they’ve done a really good job. It’d intellectual but stylish, the kind of place that sells ‘Artificial Eye’ DVD’s of obscure Swedish films that cost £15.99 that people who live in Notting Hill and Islington buy and never watch yet let to point out that the Seventh Seal is their favourite film. you know the types, those people come here. It gets a special mention as I love the atmosphere and I love come to the cinema here and getting drinks before and dinner after.

http://www.bfi.org.uk/

Belvedere Road, South Bank, Waterloo, London SE1 8XT
(cinema booking) 020 7928 3232
(switchboard) 020 7928 3535

Sketch the Gallery

Penny Blood — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:07:48 +0000

So once a year I turn a year older and my darling sister softens the blow by taking me to the restaurant of my choice. This year it was Sketch Gallery. I’m already a huge fan of Sketch, it can do no wrong in my book despite the fact that people think it’s ridiculous and that the food is bad (but I say that’s just their insecurities talking) I love the food, it’s modern European and there aren’t many places where you can get a desert that reads; “bubblegum ice cream with green tea snapping candy and citrus panacotta” quite simply the most exciting desert I’ve ever had. The restaurant itself looks like a set for a fashion shoot with David La Chapelle, all white with chairs illustrated by the fashion illustrator Julie Verhoeven, sculptures made out of Barbie dolls doused in white paint and falling show projected onto the walls with a deer bounding by once in a while. To top it off after 11pm a giant disco ball descends from the ceiling and the restaurant turns into a nightclub. Expect to have to book way ahead though.

http://www.sketch.uk.com/

9 Conduit Street, London, W1S 2XJ
020 7659 4500
Monday – Wednesday 7pm-2am (last food order 11pm)
Thursday – Saturday 7pm-2pm (last food order 1am)

Top Shop

Penny Blood — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:17:08 +0000

It didn’t need Kate Moss to make this the most popular clothes shopping spot in London and I doubt I even need to mention it, even to those not from here but to anyone who stumbles across my little guide it would be a shame for you to miss it. I can’t lie, at least 50% of my wardrobe comes from here. Having just come back from Arizona someone commented on my fringed waistcoat and I attempt to keep up the pretence that it was a local find but I break down and admit that like everything else, it’s from Topshop. The designers take inspiration from the recent catwalk shows, re-package it and tailor it to the girl-next-door. Whether it’s a Christopher Kane cashmere biker jacket or something Mary-Kate Olsen has worn recently there is just too much here to bankrupt me. They have everything here from a vintage section to a nail parlour with everything in between including a hair salon, café, menswear, clothes for tall people, clothes for short people, an entire jeans department, a personal shopping service, an entire floor dedicated to accessories, a shoe department, gifts and sweets it just goes on and on….

http://www.topshop.com

Oxford Circus, London, W1W 8LG
08448 487 487
Monday – Friday 9am – 9pm Saturday 9.30am – 9pm Sunday 12pm – 6pm

Selfridges

Ace Café

Penny Blood — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:16:21 +0000

The place to come if you like burgers and chips or greasy fry-ups. It’s a one stop biker rock n’ roll heaven with a classic silver diner style bar, jukebox and a chequered theme throughout. It’s been here since 1938 and being located on the north circular road it’s still the real deal concerning a highway hang out for classic car enthusiasts and motorcyclists of the Hells Angels variety. Originally built to cater for haulers it soon started to attract passing bikers as the owner added 10 pumps, a washing bay and repairs shop. It quickly became a hot spot, later becoming a hang out for the 60’s youth generation, (for part of my oh-so-intellectual college degree I specialised in Mod fashion of the 1960’s, hmmm yeah that’s useful). Now it’s just a bit of a novelty with a fairly extensive gift shop and their own range of merchandise, it’s our version of what you might find on route 66 except surrounded by concrete rather than open desert.

http://www.ace-cafe-london.com/

Ace Corner, North Circular Road, London, NW10 7UD
020 89611000
Monday – Saturday 7am-11pm Sundays, bank Holidays 7am – 10.30pm
7am – 2am (When operating as Nightclub)

Les Trois Garcons

Penny Blood — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 12:17:03 +0000

As Hunter S Thompson said “ I am down to 10 US dollars but have developed a theory which will go down as Thompson’s law of travel economics. To wit: full speed ahead and damn the cost; it will all come out in the wash”. I’ve got £40 left in my bank account and what better way to spend it, after all I love anything French and anything taxidermy. I was irrepressibly drawn to Les Trois Garcons because it just looks so great, it’s on every best London interior list. As a refurbished old Victorian pub it has most of the original features, an old heavy wooden bar, painted glass mirrors and tall ceilings, they have just added several stuffed birds and other animals including a stuffed bull dog with wings. It never gets weird enough for me. I adore the food, they always have some kind of vegetable that I have never had before and they always bring you something interesting in between courses. It’s just a pity it’s so expensive.

http://www.lestroisgarcons.com

1 Club Row, London, E1 6JX
020 7613 1924
Monday – Saturday 7pm – 12 midnight Sunday closed

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Dover Street Market

Penny Blood — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 12:16:34 +0000

Not so much a market as five floors of unadulterated gorgeousness. I take people here when I want to impress them with my good taste. I also like people to think I shop here. The reality is with a tshirt averaging about £400 it’s somewhat out of my price range. I like to think of this place as a museum of clothes, artefacts, shoes, accessories and a bunch of other random (very expensive) junk. It’s also the Japanese showing off (it’s owned by Comme des Garcons, Rei Kawabuko – the coolest person alive). Everything about this place is visually perfect, its a creative heaven and perfect for any budding stylist to come for inspiration. I have never actually witnessed anyone buy anything from here apart from the odd Persian tourist (and her mother). Also everyone I know who loves the place can only afford to buy a key chain and even then it will cost them a weeks salary.

http://www.doverstreetmarket.com/

17-18 Dover Street, London, W1S 4LT
020 7518 0680
Monday – Wednesday 11am-6pm Thursday – Saturday 11am-7pm

Lounge Lover

Penny Blood — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 10:45:14 +0000

Far too good for most of the people who come here. Although it’s taken a lot of creative input to put together, sadly it’s too expensive to attract a particularly creative clientele as each cocktail costs at least £10, it’s better to be with someone who is paying and trying to impress you. I don’t know how they came up with this stuff you’d have to be high on something but then again did William Burroughs sit around worrying about taking dope or did he just do it and then write immortal books? It’s a menagerie of stuff, taxidermy, giant champagne glasses holding exotic flowers, weird and wonderful furniture, strange paintings and mirrors covering every inch of the walls, antique birdcages, chandeliers, red tinted windows and neon signs. It’s a stately home crossed with burlesque crossed with a Japanese spa, complete with wooden decked bathrooms, pebble water fountains and bamboo and they only serve sushi and last I checked that was pretty much it in the way of food.

http://www.lestroisgarcons.com/

1 Whitby St, London, E2 7DP
020 70121234
Monday – Saturday 9am-6pm

Hookah Lounge