Regent's Canal and Clerkenwell

Posted on 2011/08/29 11:33:50 (August 2011).

[Sunday 28th August 2011]
Chie proposed going for a stroll along Regent's Canal this afternoon, from Mile End to sort of Clerkenwell-ish. Whilst this stretch is not exactly lined with idyliic scenery, it was at least interesting, and an area of London I'd never really seen before.

Conveniently, near where Chie's route had us leave the canal was a pub called the Wenlock Arms, which I've been meaning to try for some time. It's very much a locals pub, but very much unspoilt and reassuringly rough around the edges. They had an impressive seven real ales on tap, most of which rarely seen in London, and also a real cider (Thatcher's Cheddar Valley) which I plumped for.

After that we continued our meander towards Smithfields Market, in the hope of finding somewhere open for a late lunch. The only place still serving food was a little Sam Smith's pub called the Rising Sun, next door to where John Betjeman used to live, that surprisingly I'd never been to before. Had some very basic pub fare there, and then continued our stroll.

Next we wanted to have a wander round Charterhouse Square, and in particular Florin Court, which is used in the Poirot TV series as Whitehaven Mansions, where Poirot's apartment is.

We finished off our afternoon's outing with a visit to the Musem of London, where there's currently an exhibition of historic street photography in London, which was quite interesting. Although possibly even more interesting was the exhibit they had in the cafe there, a set of time lapse videos around London over a 24 hour period. It was fun trying to see how many places we could recognise. Had a very pleasant cup of tea and a slice of lemon drizzle cake there.

Back at home in the evening Chie made a slightly unusual Japanese curry with beetroot in, which had a fantastic colour to it. Later on I watched Page Eight on the telly, which I quite enjoyed, particularly as again I could play the game of seeing how many places in London I could recognise. In particular they had a scene in Santini, an Italian restaurant in Belgravia I've been to a couple of times, and at one point they mentioned having a meeting at a "coffee shop on Ebury Street" which I assume must be referring to Tom Tom, another regular haunt of mine.

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