August 2024 Archives

When I first visited the UK, Fordingbridge was one of the first small villages I visited. For those who do not know, Fordingbridge is a village in the New Forest in Hampshire in the south of England, and it is about a twenty minute drive to Salisbury. I had a friend here, and I went to stay with him and his family from time to time while I was living in north London. At the end of last month, I went back to visit for the first time in over twenty years, and all of those memories flooded back to me. 

Fordingbridge is a very old village, and its most characteristic picture is the bridge. In fact, that is how the village gets its name. It means "bridge over the ford". The water levels are shallow here. On warm summer days, a lot of people hang out here and wade in the water.

A little further up the river, the water gets narrower and a bit deeper.

I stayed for three days in Fordingbridge. On the first night, my friend took me to the Italian restaurant La Lambretta. This Italian restaurant is fairly new to the village, and I enjoyed the pasta and starter and dessert. My friend had the pizza.

On one other night, we went to the Indian restaurant, known as Raj of India. This is under new management, and I always remember it being busy. This was the first Indian restaurant that I ever visited. I was not sure that I would like it, but Indian cuisine is one of my main cuisines now. I enjoyed seeing the village at dusk and dark, which also brought back memories of walking around.

One other memory was getting the bus into Salisbury. I remember seeing the fields of rabbits (hares) on the way, but new houses had been built on one of the fields. There were always wonderful views. 

On the last day, I had Sunday lunch at the pub on the bridge, The George. I sat outside with views over the water.

I had roast chicken, which came with all of the Sunday roast vegetables.

The brownie was for dessert.

From Fordingbridge, there are some walks through the New Forest, and there are the wild New Forest ponies.

I liked this Victorian or Edwardian-style house in Fordingbridge.

I will visit my friend again sometime and hang out more and do some more walking in the New Forest. Fordingbridge is a good base for exploring the New Forest or having a day in Salisbury.

A couple of weekends ago, we had beautiful weather. I had a photo shoot in the morning near Euston, and I decided to walk to Primrose Hill. I have wanted to go to this much-photographed and scenic part of London for many years now. Despite living in London and not really all that far away, I had never been until now. Primrose Hill is located near Chalk Farm and is also walkable from Camden. I walked up through from the southeast of the area and passed next to the river where there is a Chinese restaurant on the canal which I'd like to go someday. From there, I walked through the nice rows of houses and then up to the park itself.

I stopped at Primrose Bakery, which used to be located centrally but retained its branch at Primrose Hill. I loved the cupcakes, and they are my favourite (read about my visit here). My walk to Primrose Hill park was via the northeast corner, where I walked through a fairly flat area.

The hill came into view, and the crowds were enjoying their time along the hill and on the summit. I continued to walk up the hill and looked back to get a glimpse of the emerging view.

It also seems to be a popular place for artists.

At the summit, I was rewarded beautiful views of London's skyline. I saw the Shard, Gherkin, BT Tower, London Eye, and many more landmarks.

After my visit to the park, I walked back toward Chalk Farm along the main street. There were many cafes and shops, and all of these were busy.

I enjoyed seeing this new part of London that I have never visited before and hope to return.

Street art by Jay Kaes is located on one of the prominent walls at Hanbury Street off of Brick Lane, and this artwork has been here for a few months now. Jay Kaes is a Spanish artist who relocated to the UK, so a lot of his work has appeared in London. His style is to use bold colours that are illustrative, and the work mainly features female portaits. His work speaks about social situations and technology as well as contaning elements of popular culture or comics. 

I also captured an older piece that I had not yet published here, and this one was located near Allen Gardens. It uses bright colours with a multimedia colour background showing pixelated and "transparent" elements. The female face has a mobile phone attached to her eyes, and social media actions are placed on it. The prominence of social media and mobile phones is common in the artist's work.

For more work by Jay Kaes on this blog, see the links below:

Recent Jay Kaes Street Art in London 2022
Street Art by Jay Kaes
Meeting of Styles Wall 2018
Jay Kaes Refreshes Pedley Street's Street Art
Jay Kaes and Falko One Murals on Old Street
Jay Kaes on Pedley Street
Early January Street Art and All-Female Paint-up in Blackall Street
Mural on Old Street by Kaes and Core246
The Final Days - Leonard Street and Blackall Street (Street Art)
'Meeting of Styles' London Street Art Festival 2014

"Little Cloud World" is an art installation by Samuel Borkson and Arturo Sandoval III. The art installation creates a "happy place" for visitors. The emoji of the cloud is designed to create tranquility and peace. This creates a positive atmosphere in the covered Covent Garden market. There are fourty of these inflatible flouds hung in the market and one outside to tempt visitors in. 

The clouds will remain in place until 1 October (2024), so visit them before they are gone.

In the past couple of weeks, the world was treated to a daily new Banksy stencil placed up across London. Banksy, who is from Bristol, is one of the most high profile street artists in the world. Whenever his work is placed up, there is worldwide publicity, and his work can sell for millions. The new series of murals has been dubbed "Banksy's Zoo" as all of the murals feature animals with the last mural appearing at London Zoo.

I captured a photograph of the monkey mural that appeared on Brick Lane on the overground rail bridge. Some of the murals were either damaged or removed shortly after their placement, and I have not had a chance to locate them all.

Th artwork included the below, which is a series of photographs taken from Banksy's official website:

• Goat: Richmond
• Elephants: Chelsea
• Monkeys: Brick Lane
• Wolf: Southwark
• Pelicans: Walthamstow
• Cat: Edgware
• Pirahnas: City of London near Ludgate
• Rhino: Greenwich
• Ape and Seal: London Zoo

This isn't the first time that Banksy used animals in his artwork. In Bristol, he used a zoo theme and an anti-fast food theme for his takeover at Bristol Musuem. To see my write-up of that, visit: Banksy At Bristol Museum.

[Update: I attempted to locate the police box, which was moved to the Guildhall, but this is now indoors and I was told that it is not accessible to the public to view until its placement in the Museum of London. Also, the London Zoo shutter was also removed. The elephants and wolf were either removed or tagged over quickly.]

With Oxford only just over an hour away from London, it makes it a perfect place to spend a weekend away. Oxford is the home of the famous universities, and it has a large student population and a lot of trendy shops, pubs, and cafes. There is a castle, botanical gardens, museums, nice restaurants, a shopping mall, galleries, and much more. I spent a long weekend in the city, and it was over the beautiful weather the country enjoyed in mid-July.

I stayed at the castle prison on my visit. The hotel, Malmaison, is located in one of the former prison buildings. You can read about it here.

Of course, I also did enjoy a tour of the castle and prison, which you can read about here.

This blog post includes the different things that I got up to. I primarily wanted to visit Oxford in order to see the sculpture trail, OxTrail. They were located all around the city and further away.

While walking across Oxford to find them, I stumbled upon many places, which I photographed to include in this post.

One of the places that I walked through was Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, where there is some university buildings and this building.

Oxford also felt a little bit magical in the evening at sunset when the sky had a nice glow and the remaining light kept its glow on the tall spires. 

A few of the university buildings are located in the central of Oxford, and they are beautiful to see.

Radcliffe Camera is one of the most picturesque buildings. It is not open to the public.

The Bridge of Sighs is a walkway between two buildings above a street.

Bodleian Library has an internal courtyard in different styles of architecture rendering.

Carfax Tower is the old tower in the middle of the city, and I visited it and climbed up the tower when I first visited Oxford on my own visit back in the year 2000. (I first visited the city as part of a tour group in 1998.) I enjoyed the views and seeing all of the spires. I still have my photographs on old camera film of that day.

There are a large number of independent shops and cafes in the city.

One point of interest is the Eagle and Child pub, which I noticed is now closed. The pub was visited by writers who livesd in Oxford, and it was shown to us by the tour guide when I first visited Oxford in 2000.

St. Hugh's College is pictured below with beautiful gardens.

The Victoria Fountain is pictured below.

The covered market in Oxford is a gem of a place to visit with a lot of independent shops and a few cafes. I had an ice cream.

After seeing the OxTrail sculptures, I had a couple of days to relax and enjoy other places. I had the afternoon tea on a cruise boat. The boat went down to Iffley lock. You can read more about my visit here.

Following the cruise, I enjoyed the botanic gardens.

Where did I eat and drink? Besides the hotel, where I had my breakfasts and dinner one night as part of the promotion, I went to a mixture of different places. I went to Oxford Brunch Bar for lunch before leaving Oxford. One other evening, I had a meal at Thaikhun, which I enjoyed.

Because the weather was so hot and I had spent miles walking to see the sculptures, I ended up having a couple of drinks at Comptoir Libanais.

I also had a few drinks sat outside at George Street Social bar.

After dinner, I went to the shopping mall, Westgate. On the roof terrace are many restaurants and pubs. I went to Victor's, which has a nice seating area outside and open to the elements. I had a couple of drinks here and enjoyed the view over Oxford.

On my last full day, after the cruise, I wandered through Christ Church Gardens. The gardens are beautiful, and some of the universities back onto the gardens and meadows. 

There was a beautiful little spot between the pastures with views over the buildings, and I think this is probably the most beautiful spot I have seen in Oxford. The grazing cattle were also right near the fence. I had a pleasant walk across this parkland to the Botanic Gardens.

I did not do it, but people who are interested to try punting or to be guided around on a little boat by a punter can do so. There are two places to do this. One is Folly Bridge, and the other is Magdalen Bridge.

I enjoyed visiting Oxford, and the journey was very quick and enabled me to see the city without having to worry about driving and parking. There's a lot of shops and things to do, and it is a pleasant place to explore for a weekend. 

One of the former prison buildings at Oxford Castle and Prison has been turned into a luxury hotel. Visitors can stay in a prison cell, but not to worry because the beds are comfortable, and there is a lot more room with the cell having been split to accommodate a larger-sized bed and a bath with shower. The hotel is owned by the chain Malmaison.

The hotel is considered a "luxury" hotel, and that may be because of it being unique. However, I did not find it luxury. It is in an old building, so it's not very bright inside, and the bathroom in particular is very dark. The bed was alright but not the most comfortable that I have stayed in, and there were a lot of oversights with cleaning and room service as well as unfriendly staff.

Upon entering the area of the rooms, I saw the rows of former prison rooms and gangway. I got one of the "cell rooms", which is a former prison room. 

The decor of the rooms includes prison-related motifs. I saw this in the pictures, carpets, and furnishings. There were even lockers.

A bath and a separate shower were provided. The bath was well-needed after all of the walking. The only issue was I nearly fell on the floor as the tiles get very slippery.

I didn't have much of a view, and I couldn't open the windows. I love to open the windows on a warm day and listen to the sounds of outside. On the second night, there was a large noisy group of people who must have been on some tour, and they got a bit drunk.

The deal that I got included dinner in the on-site restaurant on the day of arrival and breakfast each morning.

Dinner included two courses. I had an additional third course and a glass of wine. The food was not great. I received the freshly baked brioche. It was ok, but I really needed to share it with someone. The main was the boneless half chicken. The presentation was not good at all. The amount of greenery and cheese covering it up made me think it did not look edible as they were attempting to hide it. When I ate a piece, I could tell what they were hiding. The chicken was very dry and chewy and over-cooked. I decided to have the baked cookie dough dessert, and that was good, but I was a little bit too full to enjoy it.

Breakfast the next two mornings included a breakfast buffet and a choice of cooked breakfast. I ordered the vegetarian option. The breakfast buffet was in one of the other rooms, and there was a selection of pastries, toast, and cereals and yogurts.

Overall, staying at this hotel was a bit of a unique experience as how many hotels are in a former prison building? Would I stay here again? No, I didn't think it was worth the money and I certainly would not consider it five star and luxury.

Thaikhun in Oxford is a restaurant that serves Thai food, and I went along to enjoy some dinner while I was in the city. The cocktail menu really caught my eye to try. The interior of the restaurant is quirky. One of the seats was made out of an old bath tub. The interior had an industrial feeling to it. I got a frozen bubblegum daquari and a Sam Lor Smash, made with blackberry gin and fruit juice. 

I got the vegetable spring rollls to start.

I had the Chili and Thai Basil stir fry and coconut rice. The portions were so large and I would have been more than happy to have received half that.

I enjoyed the food. The cocktails were a bit miss for me, and I would try different ones. They do a bottomless brunch with some of the cocktails, which looks amazing.

On my last morning in Oxford, I opted to enjoy brunch at Oxford Brunch Bar. I had booked a table in advance, but they did not have my booking, which meant that I had to wait as it was busy. The cafe is only small inside, and it was so busy that the tables were all crammed up against each other. It's good that these places are busy, but I think they definitely need a larger space. I already knew what I wanted as I had previously looked at the menu. The cafe has thirty years of experience and delivers food made with fresh and local ingredients.

Unfortunately, they were out of chai. I was still able to get the frumpets - toasted "French Toast" style crumpets with bacon and syrup.

I was not that impressed, possibly due to the vast amout of customers, so I would be willing to give it another go when it isn't so busy.

When I was in Southampton at the end of last month, I went on a walk to see all of the lighthouse sculptures around the city. The Light the South trail has been launched by Wild In Art, which put together many sculpture trails of this sort to raise money for charities. Light the South is raising money for Southampton Hospitals, and there are forty large-scal sculptures and many more smaller ones. 

The Light the South trail runs until September, and there is a farewell event to see all of them in one place in case you missed it.

At the end of last month, I visited Southampton. I have been wanting to visit Piecaramba! for a few years now; I first knew about it in Winchester, and I saw another one had opened in Southampton too. Piecaramba! opened its doors in Winchester in 2016, and the Southampton branch opened the following year. The pie restaurant has many comic book, cartoon, and video game themes decorating the interior. Visitors can sit on tables where they can play video games while they are waiting for their food.

All of the menu items are named after characters in video games, comics, science fiction, or cartoons. I wanted an alchoholic slush cocktail, but they did not have the machine working. Instead, I had the "Melon of Troy" fruit smoothie.

To eat, I had the Chick Norris! pie. This pie was like the contents of a fish and chip shop. Chicken, chips, and curry sauce was mixed together for the pie filling. Visitors can then choose their flavour of mash (I choose cheese) and mushy peas or baked beans. I choose mushy peas, which also had chilli in them. The pie was delicious.

For dessert, I ordered a cherry pie with custard, but that went back with me as I was full. 

When I was in Southampton recently, I noticed a new mural by street artist Nerone. The mural covers two walls of a series of buildings located opposite the train station, and with the windows and the grooved rendering of the building, this would have been a difficult piece to paint. Nerone is a street artist from France who often uses floral illustration and also neon. This was painted in December of 2023.

More street art by street artist Nerone on this blog can be seen below:

Nerone Shine Your Light at Zetland House
Eine and Nerone Collaborate on "Unity" Street Art in Penge
Fanakapan and Nerone Collaborate on "Neighbourhood Watch" in Penge
Nerone on Kingsland Road
Nerone Paints Great Eastern Street
Street Artist: Nerone

Salisbury in Wiltshire is located in the south of England and is famous for its cathedral and medival features in the city. The city is located around two hours by train or car from London. I lived in Salisbury for a short time nearly 25 years ago, and one of my friends lives near. I frequented the city a lot, and it holds a special place for me. It was one of the first places that I visited in the U.K. outside of London, and it is a place that I came to know well. 

At the end of July, I spent a day in the city.

Salisbury holds their market in the city square every Saturday, and Saturdays are the busiest day. The market has virtually everything. 

Not far from the market square is the Poultry Cross. This is the market place where polutry was sold in the medieval times. Behind the structure is the Haunch and Venison pub. This is a pub that I would take people to for a little bit of history. The rumour has it that a severed hand holding a playing card was discovered when the pub was being refurbished. A model of the servered hand (I assume it's not the actual hand) is on display on the first floor of the pub and tucked away inside the wall for all to see.

Salisbury Cathedral and cathedral close is a beautiful part of the city. When I worked in Salisbury, I would somtimes take a small lunch here on the bench. I remember on lady telling me her father scaled Nelson's Column during the blitz for some reason. I cannot remember the complete story. The spire of the cathedral is the largest in England.

The woman statue has always been there, and it's always looked ghostly to me. There was also a new sculpture near it which wants to draw attention to rising water levels due to global climate change.

In the cathedral close, I saw a couple of vintage cars.

I also visited Mompesson House, which is managed by National Trust. You can read about my visit here.

The wall that marks the cathedral close entrance and exit I have walked under hundreds of times. In the below photograph, I am walking out back into the town.

From there, I walked along the road and entered the park. There is a nice riverside area here, and it's usually busy. I often see children in the water standing and collecting small fish. There's also a new child playground here.

At the end of the park there is a path that heads over the river, and this leads to the water meadows. 

I love the water meadows. There's wonderful views of Salisbury Cathedral and the other side is always a pasture of sheep.

At the end of this footpath is Harnham, and there is a nice pub here in the former mill.

Salisbury is a lovely place, and it's not that far from London. I encourage a visit. 

At the end of July, I visited Southampton art gallery John Hanard Gallery. The gallery is a relatively new building that brings additional culture and art to Southampton. There were two exhibitions when I visited the gallery. The first was a community takeover, and the second was artwork by Permindaur Kaur.

The Community Takeover showcases talents of local Southampton people, and it explores the theme of food. This could be about Southampton's food, sustainability, or more. Several plates of food were created by clay and other materials and presented onto a table. 

The second exhibition is artwork from Permindaur Kaur, "Nothing is Fixed" and it includes child-like figures. The work seems to hav an innocent but sinister-like quality. One of the rooms includes the series "Camouflage", which includes the fabric doll-like figures hung on the wall like wallpaper, covered. In one other room, a very large chair is placed. Another room contains several figures in black seeming to be standing still in a dark space with giant-sized nails. This reminded me of a nightmare or a "Doctor Who" episode in which I expected the figures to move when I was not looking, and visitors could walk around them. 

Both exhibitions are worth seeing.

While I was visiting my friend in the New Forest at the end of last month, we decided to celebrate our birthdays but going to Cosy Club in Salisbury for bottomless brunch. We had spent the morning at Mompesson House and then walking along the water meadows, which was always a favourite place of mine when I lived in the city. Cosy Club is a chain of restaurants that was founded in 2002 and has expanded to a lot of cities in Britain. The in Salisbury is not too far from the cathedral.

The interior of the restaurant is vintage trendy, and all of their restaurants that I have visited have a 1920s art deco feeling about them.

The bottomless brunch at Cosy Club includes Prosecco, different types of spritz cocktails, Bloody Mary, and different mocktails or smoothies. The bottomless drinks are a set cost, and any food on top of that is priced as per the menu. 

To start, we ordered some Asian Fried Chicken, which was quite good.

My friend had a hamburger and fries as his main.

I had the American pancakes for my main.

For dessert, he had a sorbet, and I had a chocolate mousse.

Overall, the food was nice, and the drink were okay, but the problem was that we had to wait quite awhile before we were served our drinks. I was finished with my drink, and it took too long to get served. So, I did not even feel tipsy by the time our brunches were finished. Even when ordering a top-up of Prosecco, they took the glass away and went to the bar. They should have just had a bottle and poured it. So, I felt the service was not great and not efficient.

Mompesson House is located in the centre of Salisbury on the cathedral close, and it dates from the start of 1700. It was leased to several families, and it was last inhabited in 1975. A female member family who lived in the house until 1939 enjoyed painting, so several of her paintings are located on the walls. The last people to live in the house was an architect who modernised it and added plumbing and electricity. The house has been opened to the public by National Trust since 1977. I visited the house with my friend at the end of July, and we had a beautiful warm day. We arrived a few minutes before the house opened.

There was a lot of information about the servants in the house. The servants lived in their own servant's wing next to the house in a red brick building and in attics. In larger houses, they would live in the basements. 

Right inside the house is the entrance hall with rooms and a staircase connected to it. There would have been one or more footmen to receive guests. The hallway was always built to be impressive, and the plasterwork was added shortly after the house was constructed.

The large drawing room is the largest room in the house and would have acted as a hub for entertaining and activities. The ceilings are high, and this would have allowed paintings to be displayed. This was the best-decorated room to show off. There would have been music performed in this room, and a doorway to the smaller drawing room (Parlour) at the front of the house would have been a place for people to withdraw from the noise and activities. 

The dining room would have been "the best parlour" and set up for dining depending on guests. 

Upstairs there is a small room at the top of the stairs and then two rooms connecting on both sides. Both of these rooms have views over the front of the house, the cathedral and close.

At the back of the house and on the ground floor is a small room tucked away before the exit to the garden. This is the library. It was re-painted in the original colours.

There is a spacious garden with flowers, and there's a stable and some other outbuildings.

Mompesson House was a nice visit, and there is a cafe and a bookshop in the garden buildings. 

David Shillinglaw is a street artist who has painted many times in London. The most recently mural I saw from him was actually in Salisbury, and this is a large-scale mural located along the riverside on Fisherton Street.  Shillinglaw's artwork is inspired by tribal, abstract, and pop art. His work is always very colourful. This new mural in Salisbury seeks to restore faith in the local community.

More posts on this blog with David Shillinglaw's work is located here:

David Shillinglaw New Mural at Zetland House
Street Art: David Shillinglaw
Street Art Round-Up to July 2015
Malarky Returns to Create Street Art on East London Shutters

Tristan Menard is a street artist and illustrator based in London, and he has worked for some big brands. His art style varies, but this blocky illustrative style shown in the below photographs has been used on a few walls by the artist. The illustrations use thick and bold lines and shapes with minimum detail. All of the walls were painted in early 2023. All of the work is near Shoreditch High Street station or Brick Lane.

This summer, Oxford is hosting a public charity art sculpture trail across its many streets and locations. OxTrail is the name of the trail, and it features around 40 large-sized ox sculptures and several more smaller ones for people to find. I set out on a journey to find all of the large-sized sculptures, and that took me from one end of Oxford to the other (literally!) all on foot. The sculptures are in place until the end of August, and the trail aims to raise for charity Sobell House Hospice and is managed by Wild in Art. All of the sculptures are painted in unique styles by different artists.

I spent a day looking at all of the sculptures, a few of which were located outside of the city centre. I enjoyed searching for them.

The sculpture trail runs until the end of August, and the farewell weekend takes place in early September where all of the sculptures can be seen together.