London & UK Tour Guide Angela Akehurst

The Shard

2011-04-18T16:00:00.001-07:00

A new building, "The Shard", is appearing on the skyline of London, and it's set to be the tallest in the UK by a long way, and one of the most strikingly beautiful.

It's 10 years since property developer Irvine Sellar sat opposite architect Renzo Piano in a restaurant in Berlin. Sellar wanted a tall building for his site; Piano famously doesn't like tall buildings, but was persuaded to give it some thought, and on the back of a menu he began to sketch shapes inspired by the masts and sails of boats on the River Thames, and the church spires visible on the banks of the river; he gave his sketches bold lines inspired by the railway lines beneath the proposed site - and so evolved "The Shard".

However, the passage of a new building is never smooth, and Londoners are uncertain about their attitude to modern architecture. Sir Christopher Wren found this in the 17^th century, when his first designs for St Paul's Cathedral were rejected outright for being too modern. The plans for the Shard went all the way to the Deputy Prime Minister's Office before they received definitive approval. In the face of objections from traditionalists like Prince Charles, who said “London seems to be turning into an absurdist picnic table. We already have a giant gherkin [Foster + Partners' 30 St Mary Axe building]; now it looks as if we are going to have an enormous salt cellar”, approval was finally obtained when the Deputy Prime Minister assured himself that this was a building of exceptional design and quality - ie one that London couldn't do without! And although we are uncertain about changing the profile of our city, we do have a history of taking exciting new buildings to our hearts - everyone now loves the highly controversial "Gherkin", and even its architect has been overheard using the nickname we've all adopted for it.

"The Shard" will be a very beautiful building, tapering into the sky like jagged pieces of broken glass, set against each other to catch and reflect the changing skies and light conditions. It will be highly efficient environmentally, and has been designed with 21^st century safety standards to the fore. As a way of offering something back to the local community, the plan includes a new entrance to London Bridge station, which has always been notoriously difficult to find your way into! No more excuses for being late to work, then!

The bottom section will be offices, the top will be apartments with a price tag in the region of £10 million - and in the centre, a 5-star hotel belonging to the Shangri-La group. I'm looking forward to being able to try the hotel's 'infinity swimming pool', which will offer unrivalled views over London as you swim, or one of the top restaurants for a romantic meal looking down on the lights of the city. To cap it all, there will be a viewing platform for visitors.

The accommodation and facilities have already been put to test - by Romeo, a local fox cub. Yes, you read that correctly! A fox cub made its way up to the 72^nd floor of this building site, in search of such delicacies as builders' discarded sandwiches, and it took two weeks to trap him and return him to ground level. My recommendation to Romeo would be to try Borough Market, just around the corner - a foodies' paradise!

What else is there to see in the area? Well, apart from the obvious Tower of London, Tower Bridge, the Tate Modern art gallery, or Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, just beneath the Shard is the Old Operating Theatre of St Thomas's Hospital; the poet John Keats began medical training at this hospital's school, and would have been familiar with the gruesome type of facilities exhibited here. The Fashion & Textile Museum is always worth a visit, with exhibitions of contemporary fashion design - 'Tommy Nutter: Rebel on Savile Row' will open in May. And a few moments down the road is the George Inn, a 17^th century pub with galleries around a central courtyard - just the sort of place where plays and entertainments might have been performed during Shakespeare's lifetime.

L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon

2011-02-24T16:08:00.000-08:00

In January, London's local newspaper had the following headline - "London named food capital of world … by French chef". In the article that followed, it was reported that Joel Robuchon had said that he "would argue that London is very possible the gastronomic capital of the world." This was praise indeed, and certainly worth listening to, as Joel Robuchon has the largest tally of Michelin stars of any chef, and was once named 'chef of the century'.

So I decided to investigate. I've never thought of going to Michelin-starred restaurants before; I always imagined they would be way beyond my price range, even for a celebration. But to my surprise, many seem to have lunch menus that are affordable. OK, not every day maybe, but for something a little bit special, a two course menu at £22 seems extremely reasonable for the world's most awarded chef! And at that sort of price, it's not too much to add into a holiday budget.

M Robuchon has a restaurant neatly positioned between Soho and Covent Garden, convenient for both shoppers and theatre-goers. In black and red, the decor gives the L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon a very individual atmosphere. The ground floor, where we sat for lunch, is arranged around the bar, and from our stools we were able to see into the kitchen. Judging from their lovely website, a more intimate atmosphere exists upstairs.

My friend and I were cautious, ordering salmon on a fennel cheesecake followed by lamb with tempura vegetables; another time, I might go for a more adventurous mix of flavours. The food was beautifully cooked and presented; the service charming and friendly. The waitress could not have been nicer when I mumbled that I was too squeamish to eat my meat red. It was taken back to the kitchen red; it returned to me brown, just how I like it. It may not have been what they intended, but it was still the most delicious, tender piece of lamb I think I have ever tasted.

Many of London's hotels have excellent restaurants, but anyone travelling as part of an organised trip is likely to miss this side of London life. I have certainly been horrified by meals that are served up to groups I work with. Why do we present so many visitors with "bangers & mash" or "shepherd's pie"? I have stared in disbelief at plates of runny mashed potato and rather grey meat, and just felt extremely embarrassed that so many visitors go away from Britain with the impression that nothing has changed since 1950 and wartime rationing!!

To return to quoting M. Robuchon, "It's only in London that you find every conceivable style of cooking. When it comes to what's new in cooking, to innovative cuisine, it's all happening in London." Not to be missed, in fact!

L'Atelier Robuchon is at 13-15 West Street, London, WC2. The nearest underground stations are Tottenham Court Rd., Leicester Square or Covent Garden.

Salisbury Cathedral

2011-02-03T10:19:00.000-08:00

Water Towers - an Illuminated Musical Maze by Bruce Munro, until 27th February 2011

If you need any other reason to visit Salisbury Cathedral, apart, that is, from the beauty of this magnificent 13th century building, or the presence in the Chapter House of an original Magna Carta, then Bruce Munro's installation certainly adds a certain something!

Arranged around two sides of the cloister are 69 towers of plastic water bottles, 15,000 bottles in total. Each tower of bottles is lit by fibre optics, and the colours move and change to a soundtrack of choral music. Munro was inspired by reading about synesthesia, a condition in which some people experience sound as literally having colour, but it has also been commented that the installation is reminiscent of light falling through the stained glass windows of a cathedral.

We arrived late afternoon, while it was still quite light. The colours in the bottles were only just discernible, and the installation looked like nothing more than rather a lot of water bottles, so we repaired to the cafe for coffee and cake.

As the light waned, so the sculptures took on a new life - the colours began to appear, delicate at first, but as it darkened so the colours became richer and more vibrant. Walking between them was a rich experience of music, colour and light to equal anything one might have seen INSIDE the cathedral.

The cathedral is generally open until 6.15pm, and there are a number of late openings during the next three weeks. Salisbury is very easy to reach from London by train or bus.

Modern British Sculpture at the Royal Academy of Arts

2011-01-29T05:27:00.000-08:00

The Royal Academy of Arts is one of London's most venerable art institutions, dating back to 1768 when it was founded by a group of prominent artists and sculptors, including Sir Joshua Reynolds, to enhance their professional standing. Alongside this, they also established a school for artists, and a space for exhibitions.

Today the Royal Academy has a programme of changing exhibitions, as well as smaller displays from their permanent collection, which includes Michelangelo's Taddei Tondo. It's Summer Exhibition is unique, bringing together a large assortment of contemporary work from both known and unknown artists. Its current exhibition of Modern British Sculpture, now showing until 7^th April 2011, is one not to be missed.

My favourite parts of the exhibition are the early rooms. The first looks at two works by Edwin Lutyens and Jacob Epstein, and invites you to think about the process of design and creation for architectural settings in London - the Cenotaph on Whitehall and the BMA building (now Zimbabwe House on the Strand).

The second room leads you to think about sculpture in the way a sculptor might, and particularly a sculptor working during the early decades of the 20^th century. The Royal Academy has assembled many examples of sculpture from cultures separated by time and distance from early 20^th century Britain, but which were a source of inspiration to artists working here because they could be seen in collections such as the British Museum. The sculptor's preoccupation with material, technique, line, surface pattern, the fall of light, volume, weight, balance, narrative, portraiture, the depiction of ideas and beliefs - all these can be explored through both the new(-ish) and ancient sculptures on display here.

I found this second room particularly inspiring, and it led very naturally into a third room dominated by one piece that was almost entirely alone, Epstein's stunning Adam. Massive, unmissable, one can still imagine the intake of breath with which it was greeted when first created. For me, this piece seems to draw together all the strands of thought behind sculpture of the early C20; its power and presence is equalled only by Picasso's Guernica. It has had a difficult journey through life, ending up recently at Harewood House, but I can't imagine a more effective way to display or understand it than its present position at the RA.

Tiny, in a corner, was a snake by Henry Moore; certainly the snake belonged in the room, having shared Eden with Adam, but I couldn't help wondering at its smallness, and at the relationship between Epstein and Moore, particularly as I moved into the room occupied by two splendid works by Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. After the power and impact of Adam, somehow these two seemed to me to be empty exercises, beautiful in form but lacking in emotion. For a moment I wondered how it was that Henry Moore, rather than Epstein, had become the great name in British 20^th century sculpture. But, time to readjust; British sculpture was moving on, captured here in Moore's Festival Figure and Hepworth's beautiful Single Form.

I've seen work by Anthony Caro that I've liked better. Richard Long always looks out of place in a gallery. Damien Hirst's Let's Eat Outdoors was reminiscent of a summer picnic, but thoroughly horrible to look at. My interest waned, which is not to say that someone else might not have preferred the newer works.

The Royal Academy is on Piccadilly; the nearest underground stations are Green Park & Piccadilly. It is open daily from 10am-6pm (10pm on Fridays). The Modern British Sculpture exhibition runs until 7^th April 2011. I hope the RA, and the owners of the sculpture, will not mind me using their photos as illustrations.

Sculpture by Sir Anthony Caro in Bourbourg, France

2010-04-16T08:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Soane & Partners took a small group to Bourbourg, near Calais, to see some extraordinary sculpture by Sir Anthony Caro in the Choeur de Lumiere at the church of St Jean Baptiste.

Caro described himself as a surprising choice for the restoration of this war-damaged church, and one can only imagine the controversy his work must have caused in this tiny town. But I can't think of a more effective and successful juxtaposition of ancient and modern; this is a very powerful visual account of Creation, by one of Britain's foremost sculptors.

Harry Potter Film Locations

2010-04-16T08:10:00.000-07:00

The locations used by the Harry Potter films continue to be popular with children - late March found me in Lacock village to see where Harry's parents had been killed, Lacock Abbey, Gloucester Cathedral and Oxford where many of the Hogwarts scenes are set, and Chepstow Castle, imagining a game of Quidditch

Spring in the Cotswolds

2010-04-16T08:05:00.000-07:00

March came and went with barely a sign of Spring. I went with Soane & Partners to look at daffodils in the Cotswolds and at Batsford Arboretum on 24th, when there should have been a blanket of flowers - instead, just one or two daffs, a lovely pink tree, and a very fierce swan

Irving Penn exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London

2010-02-17T14:50:00.000-08:00

An exhibition of the work of photographer Irving Penn opens at the National Portrait Gallery on 18^th February. The gallery has chosen to assemble a collection of portraits of the great & the good in the 20^th century arts world, photos that are a visual treat, often elegant and striking.

Interestingly, this selection gives the impression of a photographer who chose to impose his own style upon a portrait rather than to analyse the character of his sitter. For someone like me who was not already familiar with Penn’s work, it was good to be able to look as well at the books on offer in the shop, to see the rich variety of his work not represented here.

Well worth a visit, and of course there is so much else to see in this wonderful gallery.

Snowdrops at Colesbourne Park

2010-02-15T11:42:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, despite the cold weather, a small number of enthusiasts travelled with Soane & Partners to see the snowdrops at Colesbourne Park.

In 1874 Henry John Elwes discovered the snowdrop that bears his name, Galanthus elwesii, in the mountains of Turkey. Since then, his family have developed one of the finest snowdrop gardens in the country.