There is a reason I smile in all my blog photos (or virtually all of them). This is because I look like this if I don't smile! Miserable! CBC met me at Stratford on Sunday to go up to London to a friend's birthday. We got on the central line and I sat down. I was suddenly aware of being watched and saw CBC with his Smartphone up in 'photo position'. I glowered at him sullenly aware that he was mocking my garb and the result is this (with some old-fashioned grainy filter on to make me look even more like an extra missing from a Chekhov film!
With the 'inclement weather' (I do love that phrase- it feels so contrived!) I brought out the big-guns in the hat department with my Joyce Anderson of Corbridge sheepskin cossack hat but decided that it needed cheering up so added the turquoise butterfly clip which CBC found rather incongruous!
We headed up to a place near Embankment tube station called Gordons Wine Bar which is apparently London's oldest Wine Bar, established 1890 (and possibly the oldest in the world) If you want to go somewhere atmospheric and different to drink wine (and not much else I am afraid- the only other choices are orange juice or water but you can bring in your Starbucks coffee if you want, as one of our companions discovered). It is located in a cellar- so you sit at Candle-lit (and lamplight) tables with the roof barely above your head (you have to stoop to stand if you are Giraffe-like). It is surprisingly warm and cosy. We sat in a cubby at the end and happily sat there for several hours. The only downside of it being a snowstorm all day was there did end up being drips on our coats by the walls, since it is a cellar and the walls and roof are near you.
The wine and the food is served a bit higher up some steps with proper ceilings. A cheery-kind man was serving the food. It was buffet-style. You could buy a roast-dinner plate, carvery style for around £10.95 but what we went for was the cheese platter. For £12, you got to choose 3 large slabs of cheeses (and they were big and I tried 3 large chunks of cheeses before I chose) the equivalent of almost a whole baguette sliced and then you can help yourself to pickles, chutney, butter, gherkins etc from the 'cold buffet' (there's also cold meat platters and a pate platter with bread and pickles which we got for £5.95 I think).
The Corsican ghost's cheese was delicious as was Saint-Nectaire and something else! I had a mulled-wine (£4) which is the only tolerable-way for me to drink wine.
If you're interested in the history-side, it really hasn't changed in the years it has been there and apparently, quoting the website, it has an impressive residential history:
...the building in which the bar is situated was home to Samuel Pepys in the 1680s and more recently (1820) by Minier & Fair, a firm of seedsmen who used it as a warehouse. This came to an abrupt end when, in 1864, the river was embanked and the warehouse landlocked, following which it was turned into accommodation and Gordon's wine bar began its life. Rudyard Kipling lived in the building in the 1890s as a tenant and famously wrote “The light that failed” in the parlour above the bar, the building is now named Kipling House. Angus Gordon who set up the bar in 1890 was one of the few remaining “free vintners” who were able to set up and sell wine anywhere without applying for a license as a result of Edward III’s Charter to them in 1364 – granted as a result of his financial embarrassment at being unable to repay a loan made by the Vintners to him some years earlier! The current Gordon family who own the bar are not actually related to Angus Gordon but it was a happy coincidence that Luis Gordon discovered the bar and took it over in 1975 so was able to maintain the Gordon name.
Taken from the website, quoted above.
I really recommend it, it was a really friendly place and I enjoyed the vibe in there, plus it's so convenient being located close to Embankment tube (Circle, District, Northern and Bakerloo lines) on Villier's street.
After we left, CBC and I with a friend, went to look at the river where we delighted in the virtues of waterproof gloves and made really satisfying snowballs without a hint of wet-frozen hand I am used to and attempted to throw snowballs onto the deck of a small rowing boat moored alongside the dock. We almost managed it, but no, we were too rubbish!
You can see me modelling my new Christmas frilly umbrella and also my Yaxtrax snow-grips! Honestly, I really recommend them- you can attach them to any shoe, not only sturdy-walking boots like mine, you can attach them to any of your high-heeled fashionable boots, they have rubber construction at the edges so they wont mark your shoe. I bought mine from QVC last year
****
In other news- I caught a MOUSE!!!!! I spotted a little mickey run across my floor the other day and I bought a humane mousetrap which yielded fruit in under a day. I came home to mickey trapped inside. I took him along to the park and released him where he frantically scurried away. Let's hope he doesn't come back, which everyone has ominously told me they do if you are kind to them! Anyone have mouse-experiences they can share?
