Completely London // Issue 16 // Autumn 2014

COMPLETELY LONDON • ISSUE 16 – THE GOOD TIMES ISSUE • AUTUMN 2014

kfh.co.uk Issue 16 · Autumn 2014

LEAVE YOUR CARES BEHIND: NORMAN JAY MBE • BURGER BLOWOUT • GET YOUR GLAD RAGS ON • THE GOOD OLD DAYS • LOVE-STRUCK IN LONDON • ROLL OUT THE BARREL • ROYAL JOKER

COMPLETELY · WELCOME · 03

Donna Hardie, editor donna@completelylondon.co.uk

G ood times.

ILLUSTRATION:

AGATA MARSZALEK. PHOTOGRAPHY: PAUL MITCHELL. C OVER PHOTOGRAPHY: PIP. COMPLETELY LONDON BUNTING MADE BY JEANNE LAINÉ. FABRIC: LIBERTY OF LONDON

In London? Naturally...

This city knows how to kick up its heels.

So in this issue, we’re giving three cheers to all those having a blast in their borough. Rave about DJ Norman Jay talking clubs and Carnival. Feel all fuzzy over the Blackheath pensioners sharing tales of a bygone Blighty. Tread the boards of the world’s oldest surviving grand music hall. Revel in the riotous tale of a royal court jester. Gaze longingly at the gourmet burgers crying ‘Eat me!’. Find your house of fun for sale or rent at kfh.co.uk. And have a bash at our prize draws and offers. Want to celebrate your postcode?

Give it the acclaim it deserves at donna@completelylondon.co.uk.

S ay hello to…

T HIS ISSUE’S COMPLETELY LONDONERS Christa Larwood

Journalist Christa writes about food and travel, whether it’s interviewing the best barista in Shoreditch or sampling deadly pufferfish in Tokyo. She tucks into the Capital’s best burgers on p39-41.

Jim Naughten

Photographer Multi-award winner Jim lives on a barge on the Thames and shoots cover portraits for The New York Times, Time magazine and The Sunday Times. He snapped our retired volunteers on p32-35.

Lauren Bravo

Journalist Lauren fell in love with London as a student – and never left.

A columnist and lifestyle writer for Channel 4 and Time Out, she takes us – and her best friend – for a big night out on p42-44.

Christoffer Relander

Photographer An experimental fine-art photographer, Christoffer’s work has appeared in national and international exhibitions, and in magazines around the globe. He captures DJ Norman Jay on p13.

Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward COMPLETELY LONDON

kfh.co.uk

04 · COMPLETELY · STOKED

‘ WHEN I FIRST

VISITED WILTON’S, I WAS KNOCKED OUT. IT WAS LITERALLY ALIVE WITH HISTORY…’ DAVID SUCHET

Turn to page 28 to read about London’s grand music hall

Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

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with bells on From bingeing on burgers to raising the rafters on London’s music hall heritage, we’re having an absolute ball in the Capital. what’s inside?

07 12 16 26 28 32 37 39 42 46 48 56 58 66 70 72 78 82

HIGH JINKS IN THE CITY THE GOOD TIMES OF NORMAN JAY SHOESTRING CHIC IN SW4 CAPITAL PLAYGROUND VICTORIAN VARIETY MAGICAL MEMORIES FOOLING AROUND BURGER ME! BIG NIGHT OUT NEWS FROM KFH THROUGH THE KEYHOLE IN THE KNOW: RENOVATION GAME AISLE LOVE LONDON ACCLAIM FOR ISLINGTON BERRY GOOD WINE THEY DID IT THEIR WAY ONE FOR THE ROAD SATIRICAL ELEGANCE

offers 09 15% OFF! MINI MODERNS ONLINE 11 WIN! SHOREDITCH WILD LIFE

kfh.co.uk

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P HOTOGRAPHY: MURIEL MAXWELL, AMERICAN VOGUE COVER, JULY 1939 © CONDÉ NAST/HORST ESTATE

JUST THE TONIC: FEELGOOD THINGS TO DO IN THE CITY

IN LIVING COLOUR Vogue veteran Horst P Horst was the original master of striking a pose.

He created an astounding 90 of the magazine’s revered covers and became one of the first photographers to perfect the new colour techniques of the 1930s.

Alongside 250 photographs, haute

couture garments and ephemera, you can feast your eyes on large colour photographs – newly printed using original transparencies from the Condé Nast archives – at Horst: Photographer Of Style. The exhibition runs until 4 January at the V&A Museum. vam.ac.uk

☞ barely there! So shocked was Queen Victoria by the cast of Michelangelo’s David at the V&A, that a fig leaf was made to protect his modesty kfh.co.uk

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eye candy at the Frieze Art Fair 2014, from 16 to 19 October, friezelondon.com

FESTIVAL FINERY Inspired by street sweeper Henry Croft, who collected money for charity wearing a suit he’d covered in buttons, a society of Pearly Kings and Queens was formed in Finchley in 1911. See them in their sequinned best, collecting for the homeless at their Harvest Festival, 12 October at St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden.

EAT, DRINK AND BE VERY, VERY MERRY Make sure you take an empty stomach to Taste of London Winter at East London’s Tobacco Dock, where you can leave your diet at the door and fill your belly at the cheese, wine and chocolate tastings. When you’ve filled your boots, watch live cooking displays and masterclasses from some of the UK’s top chefs. Then stock up on foodie gifts for Christmas and visit some of London’s finest restaurants in the vaults. london.tastefestivals.com

& FUN E S M A G

Fitness group Rabble describes its fitness sessions as exercise, gamified.

That means rousing games like Nashball (football and basketball in one) and Capture The Flag (your enemy’s, that is). joinrabble.com

☞ croft in the crypt A life-sized marble memorial statue to original Pearly King Henry Croft lies in the crypt of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

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master of ceremony at The Lord Mayor’s Show, 8 Nov, lordmayorshow.org

P HOTOGRAPHY: PA IMAGES, SUPERSTOCK, V&A LONDON, ARTISTS: LAURIE SIMMONS, PETER WHEELWRIGHT AND BOZART, 2001

MEMORY LANE As well as a love of mid-century British textiles, London designers Keith Stephenson and Mark Hampshire of Mini Moderns draw on memories of childhood holidays, vintage toys and 1970s music when it comes to designing their nostalgic interiors collection of fabrics, wallpapers and accessories. Who of a certain age doesn’t look at this C60 cassette design wallpaper (£45 for a 52cm x 10m roll) and fondly remember sitting by the stereo, taping the Top 40 from the radio on Sunday nights? Happy days.

offer: 15% off all online orders

≥ Mini Moderns is offering Completely London readers 15% off all online orders until 31 January 2015. Visit minimoderns.com and use the offer code COMPLETELY at the checkout.

COMPACT AND BIJOU Be transported back through the history of everyday domestic life at the V&A Museum of Childhood’s Small Stories: At Home In A Dolls’ House. Each of the 12 dolls’ houses will be brought to life by the characters that live or work there, through tales of marriages, celebrations and the politics of the time. Highlights include the 1930s Modernist Whiteladies House designed by artist Moray Thomas and the Kaleidoscope House filled with replicas of Ron Arad, Cindy Sherman and Barbara Kruger furniture. museumofchildhood.org.uk ☞ money in miniature The world’s most expensive dolls’ house is a £200,000 replica of Spencer House, created in Bath for an American collector kfh.co.uk

10 · COMPLETELY · AMUSED

slip-slidin’ at the ice rink in the Tower of London moat, from 16 Nov, hrp.org.uk

BUILDING YOUR DREAMS The East End has its own version of the famous Serpentine Pavilion, created every year by a different designer. The Triumph Pavilion returns for its third year to Bethnal Green’s Museum Gardens in 2015 and following last year’s ‘dream’ theme, organisers Arch Triumph have asked entrants to design ‘a temporary, freestanding, transportable and contemporary pavilion’ with the sky in mind.

The deadline for entries is 5 November and the winning masterpiece will be exhibited in the Gardens from 28 May next year. archtriumph.com

A BIT OF HOW’S YOUR FATHER…

HOP TO IT

From 20 November, the Wellcome Collection lays bare the physical and attempts to ‘undress your mind’ in The Institute of Sexology. Dedicated to the pioneers of sex studies – among them Marie Stopes and Sigmund Freud – the exhibition explores how sex has been observed, analysed and questioned from the late 19th century to the present day. Over 200 eye-popping objects make up the display, including erotic carvings, paintings, photographs and films.

Did you know that Beavertown was the old Cockney name given to the De Beauvoir area (Hackney and Islington borders), famed for its riotous revelry? Raise a pint to the past with a Beavertown IPA, now brewed in Tottenham Hale.

wellcomecollection.org

beavertownbrewery.co.uk

☞ brahms and liszt One of the privileges of being granted the Freedom of the City of London includes ‘unchallenged public drunkenness’ Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

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fly high The Snowman at the Peacock Theatre, from 26 Nov, sadlerswells.com

shoreditch wild life… win one of five books Hoxton Mini Press is an independent publisher making captivating and collectable art books about East London, and one of its co-founders is photographer Martin Usborne who shot this issue’s weddings feature on p58. Meanwhile, get a sneak peek inside its latest exciting title, Shoreditch Wild Life by Dougie Wallace, on p78. hoxtonminipress.com

≥ Win one of five copies of Hoxton Mini Press’s new title, worth £14. Email your name and address to comps@hoxtonminipress.com with Shoreditch Wild Life in the subject line. Closing date is 30 November 2014. T&Cs below.

P HOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES, REX FEATURES, GIACOMO CANNATA/IPT ARCHITECTS

WELL HELLO DOLLY Daily pressures mean it’s not always possible to resist your dark side coming out. If you could use a little help rising above it, these figures from The School of Life are little reminders of your better nature and are a gentle nudge to be good. Virtue Dolls are inspired by traditional Japanese dolls and each embodies an exemplary quality: Calm, Bravery and Kindness, £22 each. Better now? Then you might want to take that good mood and use it productively using their 15 Minutes – a glass timer that encourages you to spend just that on what truly counts, £15. theschooloflife.com

H A LL OF FAME

See historic shots of The Who’s Pete Townshend and The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger at Michael Putland: A Life In Music – 50 Years On The Road at Getty Images Gallery from 22 October to 22 November. gettyimagesgallery.com

PRIZE DRAW RULES 1. Open to UK residents aged 18 and over, except employees and immediate families of August Media Ltd, Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward, prize draw offerers or their agents. 2. The closing date for the receipt of entries is 30 November 2014. 3. Prizes valid for a limited period and subject to availability. 4. One entry per person. No third party. Spammers and bulk entries will be disqualified. 5. Proof of entering is not proof of receipt. No responsibility can be accepted for entries incomplete, delayed, damaged, corrupt, wrongly delivered or not received for whatever reason. 6. Prizes must be accepted as offered and are non-transferable and non-refundable. There are no cash alternatives. 7. The winner will be notified by post within 28 days of the closing date. 8. The promoter’s decision is final and binding. No correspondence will be entered into. The winning entry will be the first to be drawn at random by an independent person after the closing date. 9. August Media Ltd reserves the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater value. If the prize is not claimed within three months, a re-draw will take place.

10. Names and counties of winners can be obtained by sending an SAE to Completely London Results, August Media Ltd, Zetland House, Scrutton Street, London EC2A 4HJ, 28 days after the closing date. Promoter: Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward, Registered office: KFH House, 5 Compton Road, London SW19 7QA.

☞ body freedom of work fighter On Shoreditch’s Scottish rebel Curtain William Road, Wallace you’ll find was hung, some of drawn London’s and quartered best tattoo forartists high at treason the Good at West Times Smithfield Tattoo studio. on 23 August, goodtimestattoo.co.uk 1305 kfh.co.uk

12 · COMPLETELY · TUNED IN

L

ondon is head and shoulders above; the pinnacle; number one,’ says Norman Jay. ‘I can say that unequivocally because I spend most of the year playing in the biggest party cities all over the world. Right now Shoreditch and Dalston are still riding high, while the really cool, creative and cutting-edge places are south of the river, in Peckham, Brixton and Clapham. London has been the epicentre since the mid-1980s. Before that it was New York. America gave us the soundtrack, with jazz, blues, rock ’n’ roll, disco and house. But it could never have given us punk rock, mod or drum and bass. Britain has a maverick spirit. We subvert things, we take risks.’

The risk that sparked Jay’s stellar career was inspired by his first trip to New York to visit family in 1979. Then an Olympic-standard soul boy, whose weekends were spent cruising the country’s motorways in search of the next dressed-up dance night, Jay lapped up Manhattan’s clubs. But it was his uncle Leo who really opened his eyes when he borrowed the sound system from his calypso club The Flamingo and wired it up to a street lamp outside the family home.

Soon, a thousand people were dancing to a mix of

In the intervening decades Jay reshaped London’s clubbing scene with his warehouse parties, cofounded pirate dance music radio station Kiss FM and record label Talkin’ Loud (with Gilles Peterson), released a string of highly successful compilation CDs and was awarded an MBE for services to music. Good Times, pumping feelgood, cross-genre sounds from its signature 1956 London double-decker bus at the junction of Southern and West Rows, is far and away Carnival’s biggest draw.

So its absence from this summer’s event loomed large.

‘Heartbreaking,’ says Jay. ‘We were desperate to be at Carnival as usual, especially as this year was its 50th anniversary, but redevelopment work close to our spot meant it just wasn’t possible to do it safely. But what that did was fast-track another plan the Good Times crew had been cooking up for 10 years or so – Good Times in the Park [pencilled in for next summer]. It’s an upgrade and an extension of the Carnival Good Times experience with great food, and stuff for kids to do so the fans from way back can bring the next generation with them. Plus amazing, crowd-pleasing music, of course.’

Jay was the original superstar DJ, before the housepowered, superclub-spawning dance music explosion

London clubbing pioneer and Carnival legend DJ Norman Jay tells Rupert Mellor why our city remains the unparalleled party capital of the world

reggae, disco, Latin, calypso and jazz like nothing Jay had ever heard. Flying back to Britain with dreams of recreating the scene in a London style, one track looped in his mind – Chic’s Good Times.

Persuading his Rasta brother Joey to rename his Great Tribulation sound system for the disco anthem, Jay launched Good Times at the following year’s Notting Hill Carnival. An instant hit it was not, with Jay’s dance club buddies staying away, fearing the kind of violence that had ripped through the Carnival in 1976, and the reggae purists kissing their teeth at his ‘soul boy music – take it off!’. But within a few Carnivals, further innovations such as the obscure funk and soul he christened ‘rare groove’, and twin decks, began to inspire bouncing crowds.

of the 1980s and 1990s coined the concept. But try telling him that. ‘Nah, not having that. I’m no superstar.

I guess in terms of the eclecticism of what I play, I was a bit of a pioneer. But I was just doing what felt exciting.

That’s the London punk rocker in me – making it up as I go along. My buzz was always to get a great mix of people from all backgrounds: black/white, gay/straight, wealthy folks from the shires to Soho lowlifes to ’burbs dwellers from zone whatever, and giving them a good time. Whether that means chucking in soul, disco, mod, ska, hip-hop, even the odd bit of punk or classical. I’ve often said, Norman Jay didn’t make sense until the iPod came out. The shuffle button – that’s digitised Norman.’ normanjay.com

☞ streets ahead The Notting Hill Carnival took the form of a procession in 1966 when Russell Henderson’s steel band led a walkabout Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

DOUBLE EXPOSURE PHOTOGRAPHY: CHRISTOFFER RELANDER

LIFE & SOUL

kfh.co.uk

14 · COMPLETELY · À LA MODE

Find all the best properties available to buy or rent in ever-fashionable Notting Hill at kfh.co.uk

NOTTING HILL AND BEYOND

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The grand period properties and the effervescent street life of Notting Hill and its environs continue to appeal.

To buy 1 Beethoven Street, W10 This is a light-filled three bedroom house in Queen’s Park, which is arranged over just two floors and boasts a fantastic entertaining space, designer kitchen and bathrooms and beautiful patio. £1,550,000 • Simon Corringham at KFH Holland Park 020 3542 2111, scorringham@kfh.co.uk

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2 Russell Road, W14 This two bedroom garden flat benefits from a vast open plan living space. Finished to a high specification throughout, it includes a highly desirable Philippe Starck bathroom. £1,250,000 • Ben Williams at KFH Brook Green

020 3542 2020, bwilliams@kfh.co.uk

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3 Lancaster Gate, W2 Set in a handsome stucco fronted building moments from Kensington Gardens, this is a bright and spacious two bedroom flat. £1,250,000 • Paul Hyman at KFH Bayswater 020 7724 1222, phyman@kfh.co.uk

To rent 4 Kensington Park Road, W11 A stunning and exceptional two bedroom short let apartment finished to the highest of specifications, boasting a private garden and located in the very heart of Notting Hill. £1,500pw • Michael Palmer at KFH Holland Park 020 3542 2120, mpalmer@kfh.co.uk

Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

2014

USING LABEL.M OFFICIAL HAIRCARE PRODUCT LONDON FASHION WEEK

FOR YOUR NEAREST SALON CALL 0800 731 2396 WWW.TONIANDGUY.COM

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16 · COMPLETELY · HOSPITABLE

The couple built an extension that now houses an airy living and entertaining space with a wide entrance to a garden.‘I wanted outdoors and indoors to blend into one, which is why I used similar colours in both areas.’

Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

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WELCOME HOME

Marisa and Hugo Jones’s Victorian house had been left unloved until they came to its rescue. Now the crumbling Clapham pile is a bright, white, uplifting home with plenty of space for entertaining, discovers Dominic Lutyens

WHO LIVES HERE?

Marisa and Hugo bought their Victorian house on the fringes of Clapham Common two years ago, and it provided Marisa with the perfect opportunity to vent her creativity.

Having recently given up her job working in marketing, Marisa, who originally studied architecture at Greenwich University, was able to focus for a few months on one of her major passions, interior design.

Asked how she feels about her career switch, she replies, ‘I much prefer being creative. I give a lot of advice to friends on

how to redo their flats.’ But before she could begin decorating her own house, originally bought, incidentally, through KFH – she had to radically revamp and design it.

‘The house had been occupied by two elderly French sisters and was in a terrible condition. There was no central heating, the house had to be rewired and plumbed, and the walls and ceilings started caving in. Amazingly, the refurb only took seven months. I drove the builders mad writing lists for them all the time. But it definitely helped that I’m a trained architect.’

Completely kfh.co.uk London

22 · COMPLETELY 18 change · of· scenery HOSPITABLE

‘the ground floor is great for parties. we put all the food on the large kitchen island and in the summer fling open the doors to the garden’

Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

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20 · COMPLETELY · HOSPITABLE

‘i project-managed the work. i did lots of research by visiting show homes to check out the latest trends’ SAVE V STEAL

Marisa has recently founded an e-commerce site selling baby products and, as becomes apparent during the tour she gives me of her five bedroom house, she’s an online shopping fiend.

Although her elegantly furnished, high-ceilinged home’s aesthetic is ritzy, she has a flair for pairing high-end design with high-street homeware, much of it snapped up online.

The style of the interior is subtle and multi-layered. She tells me her design hero is Kelly Hoppen – often referred to as the ‘queen of taupe’ thanks to her love of neutrals (other Hoppen hallmarks are a penchant for orchids, Buddha heads and cantilevered or ‘floating’ shelves).

Marisa reveals her favourite homeware shops. The feather pictures in the living room, the dining table and a Buddha head in the main bedroom came from Oka, the living room’s coffee table and mirror from Kesterport and its 1960s space-age chandelier from website notonthehighstreet.com. The many framed black and white photos were bought online. ‘I had them blown up for me by Kall Kwik,’ reveals canny shopper Marisa.

Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

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‘There were two bathrooms but the toilets were in separate rooms, which shows how old-fashioned it was. Now we’ve got four bathrooms.’ They also converted the top floor into three guest bedrooms for when friends and family stay over after a gathering.

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‘i like scandinavian simplicity. the paint tones recall the fashionable gustavian style of interior’

PHOTOGRAPHY:

MEL YATES. STYLIST: LUCY GOUGH

COMMON INTERESTS

Marisa and her husband are about to move from their home because they feel that it’s ultimately a ‘family house’. They’re relocating to Wapping to be near the river, though she says they’ll miss Clapham Common as it’s a lively social hub. ‘You can do group outdoor fitness sessions there. I love Northcote Road too, a five-minute walk away. My favourite place there for lunch and tea is artisan bakery Gail’s.’ And the transport links are excellent, she stresses. ‘Clapham South Tube is a 15-minute walk away.’ Parties aside, what good times did her Clapham home bring her? ‘The moment the builders left and I could get stuck into decorating.’ Her answer seems so obvious, I can’t believe I didn’t anticipate it.

Clapham Common West Side, SW4, £2,500,000 Set in a wonderful location overlooking Clapham Common and close to the boutiques and cafés of Northcote Road, this property offers an exceptionally high standard of living throughout.

Contact Danny Hardy at KFH Battersea Tel 020 7228 2666 Email dhardy@kfh.co.uk

kfh.co.uk

24 · COMPLETELY · SOUTHSIDE

Looking to make Clapham your stamping ground? Find more properties to buy or rent at kfh.co.uk

CLAPHAM GRAND

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With its lively mix of cafés, nightlife and green space alongside good transport links, Clapham remains a draw for buyers and renters alike.

To buy 1 Victoria Rise, SW4 In an excellent location just north of the Common, this huge six bedroom property is arranged over five floors in a handsome period building. £1,790,000 • Leigh Munday at KFH Clapham Common 020 3700 8555, lmunday@kfh.co.uk

2 Reed Place, SW4

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An exceptional and unique two bedroom mews house with eye catching vaulted ceilings and exposed beams, this dynamic open plan property is part of a gated development. £899,950 • Leigh Munday at KFH Clapham Common 020 3700 8555, lmunday@kfh.co.uk

3 Queenstown Road, SW8

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Set in the heart of the highly desirable Diamond conservation area, this two bedroom, two bathroom ground floor flat is beautifully presented and boasts a secluded rear garden. £549,950 • Leigh Munday at KFH Clapham Common 020 3700 8555, lmunday@kfh.co.uk

To rent 4 Cautley Avenue, SW4 Excellently located just moments from Clapham South Tube, this gorgeous two bedroom conversion with access to a communal garden is in a great location in the midst of trendy Abbeville Village. £1,800pcm • Sarah Burgess at KFH Clapham Common 020 3700 6300, sburgess@kfh.co.uk

Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

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From raving before work to going hoopla for hula, kick up your heels and have a blast with our Capital fun and games spree…

BREAKFAST CLUBBING Rave your way into Wednesday at Morning Gloryville. From 6.30am, Oval Space, E2 or Mode, W10. Espresso on tap.

HEAVY HARMONIES Prefer rock over requiem? Get vocal at a London Rock Choir session. From St Marks Church, SW19 to Bromley Baptist Church, BR1.

ANGSTER MANAGEMENT Londoners make you squirm with their genuine teenage diaries at a London Cringe evening.

The George on The Strand, WC2.

ROUND, ROUND WE GO Marawa the Amazing can hoop 133 at a time.

Test your hipster skills at one of her Hoola Schoola classes at Shoreditch Town Hall, EC1.

GET UP, STAND UP Because there’s nothing like having a crowd in stitches. Take a stand-up course at Laughing Horse, Lancaster Gate, W2 or City Academy, WC1.

HOPPING MAD Let loose with a Lindy Hop at one of Swing Patrol’s many London classes. From Angel, EC1 to Wimbledon, SW19.

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WHAT’S THE STORY? Listen to Londoners tell the funny, sad or inspiring tales that have shaped their lives at Spark London, Hackney Attic, E8 or The Ritzy, SW2.

RAPPER’S DELIGHT Got the gift of the gab? Take your attitude down to Hip Hop Karaoke and get mouthy on the mic.

Hosted weekly at The Social, W1.

MUCKING IN The Keeper for a Day experience at London Zoo gives you the opportunity to get up close and personal with penguins, meerkats and monkeys.

FREQUENT FLYER Soar through the air and try an exhilarating trapeze session at Gorilla Circus, the Hanger Arts Trust, SE18 from September to May.

URBAN ACROBATICS Make the city your gym and practise parkour on the metal and concrete of The Chainstore, E14 – the UK’s only free-running zone.

GET OUTTA HERE!

ILLUSTRATION: MARTIN O’NEIL/DÉBUT ART

You and up to four friends have an hour to crack the codes to help you escape a tiny room at HintHunt, NW1. Will you be stuck there forever?

kfh.co.uk

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GASLIGHT & GAIETY Down a tiny alleyway in Tower Hamlets, a neglected Georgian frontage hides a glorious secret. Wilton’s is the world’s largest surviving Grand Music Hall and its time has come to shine again

Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

W

hen I first visited Wilton’s, I was knocked out,’ says actor David Suchet, who lives not far from the Capital’s only remaining Victorian music hall in Shadwell. ‘It was alive with history – a beautiful, fragile place – but time had not been kind. Poor drains and leaking roofs had caused subsidence and there were huge holes where walls and ceilings had crumbled away.’

Some 155 years before Suchet became a patron, Wilton’s Music Hall had been a glittering pleasure palace lit with 500 gas burners. People from across the Capital gathered to eat, drink, sing, dance and fall in love. The story of Wilton’s shows how, in London, good times don’t last forever. But they always find a way back.

‘There was a pub here from at least the 1740s,’ says Jody Kelly, a Wilton’s staffer and sometime tour guide.

But it was Somerset lawyer’s clerk John Wilton who, in 1859, turned the seedy hangout into a music hall.

‘Music hall was a bit like Britain’s Got Talent,’ says Jody. ‘Some had naked female wrestlers and dancing bears. Most had acrobats, comedians, illusionists and ventriloquists. One act at Wilton’s was a “dissolving panorama of the ascent of man”, which we think was some form of early magic-lantern show.’

If you came to Wilton’s at its height in the 1860s, you might have seen famous performer George Leybourne, aka Champagne Charlie – a spoof dandy permanently drinking from a bottle of fizz. He died at 42 of liver disease and exhaustion; music hall went the same way.

‘By the 1880s the biggest stars had moved on to purpose-built variety halls,’ says Jody. ‘The smaller halls

went downmarket. John Wilton sold up in 1868.’

Wilton’s became a Methodist mission in 1888. It might have been what saved it: London’s 300 other music halls were wiped out by the birth of cinema, radio and modern building regulations. In 1956, the mission closed and the building became a storehouse. It would have been demolished if a group including John Betjeman, Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers hadn’t had it Grade II listed. Even so, it sat vacant.

It was only in 1997, with Fiona Shaw’s successful solo performance of TS Eliot’s The Wasteland, that Wilton’s reopened for partial use.

‘The hall was built cheaply in the 1850s without a long-term view,’ says managing director Frances Mayhew. ‘We needed £4 million to put it right. We applied for Lottery funding, but were turned down.’

Two big donations, from a football pools company and the environmental SITA Trust, were what Wilton’s needed to start the current repairs. When it fully reopens next summer, music hall will live again.

‘There’s a new 80-seat performance and rehearsal space,’ says Frances. ‘There’s a 60-seat cabaret space with a cocktail bar and two studios that could be used for after-school clubs. And disabled access throughout.’

The crisis is over. But there’s no happy ending yet.

‘Fixing Wilton’s is one thing,’ says Frances. ‘The bigger project is keeping it alive. Now it’s about getting people to buy tickets, buy drinks and get involved.’

Convincing Londoners to go out and drink? There must be a way. Where’s that naked female wrestler? · simon lewis wiltons.org.uk

☞ curtain call Wilton’s distinctive barley twist columns can be seen in Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Relax video and Kate Bush’s Wow kfh.co.uk

30 · COMPLETELY · CONVIVIAL

STAY IN, STAY SOCIAL PARTY ON

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Dinner parties, kids’ birthdays, summer barbecues or film nights – these properties entice you to throw open the doors and invite everyone in.

To buy 1 Putney High Street, SW15

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This gorgeous split level penthouse apartment has been finished with a meticulous eye for detail. It has two bedrooms, plus a galleried living area, two roof terraces and private lift access. In a Thames-side location close to Putney Bridge, the property offers panoramic views across the river and city. £1,500,000 • Tim Beattie at KFH West Putney 020 8785 2122, tbeattie@kfh.co.uk

2 Eaton Rise, W5

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This is a beautifully refurbished Victorian era family home with period features, which boasts fantastic entertaining spaces.

With five bedrooms and two receptions, this property can also offer a landscaped garden, bespoke kitchen, underfloor heating and a potential wine cellar. It is in an excellent location for Ealing Broadway station and Walpole Park. £2,000,000 • Jason Scott at KFH Ealing 020 8799 3890, jscott@kfh.co.uk

3 North Hill, N6 This eye-catching new home in Highgate Village has been converted from a Grade II listed building and offers a spacious reception room and kitchen/ breakfast room alongside four bedrooms and 135ft garden. £3,750,000 • Matthew Smith at KFH Highgate 020 8341 6666, msmith@kfh.co.uk

Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

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Find entertaining spaces of all shapes and sizes in properties available to buy or rent at kfh.co.uk 4

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To rent 4 C heyne Place, SW3 This enormous eight bedroom long let property in the heart of Chelsea has three receptions, six bathrooms and two cloakrooms. Perfect for leisure and entertaining, this incredible space has been refurbished throughout to the highest of standards and boasts an indoor swimming pool, sauna, roof terrace and a lounge area with home cinema. £12,000pw • Michael Palmer at KFH Holland Park 020 3542 2120, mpalmer@kfh.co.uk

Completely London

32 · COMPLETELY · GOLDEN

THE GOOD W OLD DAYS Blackheath’s Age Exchange is keeping wonderful stories of a bygone age alive. Thanks for the memories, says Jessica Cargill Thompson

Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

ho doesn’t love a good story? And how much more thrilling when it’s told first-hand by the person who’s lived it: growing up in 1930s Bermondsey when the Thames was still an industrial river; going into town to a glamorous dancehall; the day-to-day experience of living through the Blitz; or the days when the Woolwich hunt used to ride through the open farmland of South London?

Blackheath’s bijou Age Exchange is a living storybook, a unique local institution whose army of largely retired volunteers are always ready to regale visitors with their personal tales of London life as it was 70, 80 or even 90 years ago. Behind the centre’s tiny red shop front, in a complex of outbuildings and an old bakehouse, are knitting groups, art classes, film clubs, pre-school sessions and tea dances; displays of personal artefacts; a friendly café; a second-hand bookshop; a theatre with an enthusiastic amateur troupe spanning all ages; and Blackheath’s public library.

The Age Exchange, set up in 1983, is based on the idea of the power of reminiscence – as a social document, a link between generations fostering mutual respect and as a therapeutic tool. Outreach groups visit schools, old-people’s homes and dementia groups, sharing stories with young people eager to hear about local life decades ago and using the creative arts to tap into memories of older people and Alzheimer’s sufferers, who may be struggling to hold on to their sense of identity.

‘We’ve got about 85 volunteers, mainly over retirement age, including a couple of ladies in their 90s,’ says the centre’s new CEO, Rebecca Packwood. ‘We couldn’t run the centre without them. But for us, volunteering for older people is also about active ageing. You’ve got a purpose, it develops your networks, your friends, and it keeps you in touch with what’s going on. It works both ways.

‘I think the WWI anniversaries have helped people understand that personal history is important to get written down, but it’s also very good for the person telling it because it’s about validating their lives.’

We asked five of Age Exchange’s sprightly volunteers to share some of their stories of the good old days based around an object from their past.

COMPLETELY · GOLDEN · 33

TERENCE COWLING, 70 PARTICIPATES IN THE AGE EXCHANGE THEATRE GROUP AND DOES OUTREACH WORK WITH DEMENTIA SUFFERERS This is my favourite guitar – an Australian Ashton that I bought 11 years ago in Lewisham for about £250. It’s three-quarter size – useful for travelling. I’ve taken it on train journeys around Europe and the US. And I’ve played it on a flight to Ireland on St Patrick’s Day. There were loads of jolly Irishmen on board and we had a big sing-song.

I’ve done lots of jobs during my life but music has always been a part of me. I finally went to drama school in 1967.

My parents thought I was mad to give up my job in the civil service, being a working-class boy from Brockley, but I’m glad I did as it changed my life. It’s where I learned to play the guitar – I was in digs with a guy who taught me.

I meet people all the time through the medium of music.

We have an Alzheimer’s group here every Monday and once we start singing the group comes alive. I play music hall songs like Pack Up Your Troubles and It’s A Long Way To Tipperary. Music taps into people’s memories because there are certain songs in everyone’s life that take them back to the moment they first heard them.

kfh.co.uk

KITTY FINCH, 81

JEAN HOGBEN, 84

MEMBER OF AGE EXCHANGE’S DANCE AND THEATRE GROUPS, AND HELPS OUT WITH THE DEMENTIA GROUP

WORKS ON RECEPTION AND FUNDRAISES WITH THE FRIENDS OF AGE EXCHANGE

I was going to take my first exam for ballroom dancing when I bought these shoes. I was nearly 15. I saw them in the window of a local shop in Deptford, where I lived. They were all glittering gold, so beautiful. Two pounds 10 shillings, they were. It took me two weeks to save up to buy them.

In them days I went dancing nearly every night. We’d go to Greenwich town hall for a shilling every Tuesday. And up London to the Lyceum. If we didn’t have much money, we’d go to the church hall in Deptford for sixpence. We all had on our dirndl skirts, our high-heeled shoes and a nice blouse.

I’m a tap dancer and ballroom dancer. My father taught us to do the waltz, quickstep and foxtrot when I was three years old. My mother had the voice; my father had the shoes.

I’ve got five children, 13 grandchildren and 24 greatgrandchildren now, and I can still do a high leg kick.

The shoes still fit me. Size 4. When I put them on now it feels lovely – I just want the music to play.

I was born on the Isle of Dogs and stayed there until I married, when I went to live in my husband’s mother’s house. We had a couple of rooms. My husband used to say, ‘Anyone would think you’d emigrated.’ And I’d say, ‘Well, I have come across the water.’ When our children were about 14, it must have been 1974, we went on our first holiday abroad, to Ellmau in Austria. One of our day trips was to a woodcutter’s garden in the mountains. My daughters had saved their pocket money and wanted to buy me something. So I wandered around and I fell in love with this carved man. There’s so much detail when you think of the books he’s got tucked under his arm, and his glasses. You could have bought a cuckoo clock, but who wants a cuckoo clock? I think he was about £11 – which was quite a lot of money in those days. He’s known at home as The Old Man and he has pride of place on my mantelpiece. I think he’s lost a lot of his colour, though, as he was more vibrant back then. When I pop off, I know my daughters will argue over him.

‘we’ve got about 85 volunteers… including a couple of ladies in their 90s’

P HOTOGRAPHY: JIM NAUGHTEN. HAIR & MAKE-UP: CHARLOTTE GASKELL

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RALPH GOODING, 85

EILEEN O’SULLIVAN, 91

WORKS WITH HIS WIFE ON RECEPTION AND GIVES TALKS IN SCHOOLS AND TO OLD PEOPLE’S GROUPS

TENDS THE AGE EXCHANGE GARDEN AND HAS BEEN INVOLVED WITH THE THEATRE GROUP FOR 18 YEARS

My father made this fort for me when we lived in Lee. We had a three bedroom house and one room was a workshop where my dad used to make all sorts of wooden toys. He was an accountant, but he was also a brilliant woodworker.

As a boy, several of my friends would bring their own forts and soldiers and we’d line them all up to have a battle. We were always in and out of each other’s houses, playing with toys. Back in the 1930s, families were more sociable.

The soldiers inside now are from a much later era – our sons collected them. The original ones were lead, which wouldn’t be permitted in this day and age. Mind you, I was a letterpress printer so I’ve been handling lead all my life.

This has been all round the family. Our sons had it. Our nephews. Our grandchildren. And it’s come back to me.

It’s been thumped around a lot but it’s generally in good condition. I keep it in the window of the Age Exchange now.

This is my dad’s work and it’s a sentimental memory of him.

Dolly belonged to my great-grandmother. It was kept in my mother’s house and she remembers her grandmother giving it to her. But she never played with it. It was kept on a shelf.

We’ve always just called her Dolly. Dolly the dolly. I think her hair is wool. And her face is painted on a canvas. And she’s wearing pantaloons under her dress. She’s falling apart now, but she’s been smiling all this time.

When I think of my mother I can always picture Dolly on the shelf, like part of the room. Growing up in Bermondsey, most people worked on the river and my father was a stevedore.

It was like living in a village – everybody knew everybody else, you did your shopping in the local market and you didn’t travel far. Going over Tower Bridge for me was like going to Australia.

It was a happy time because you didn’t know any different.

There were no evening meals. You’d have your dinner at lunchtime, then teatime would be tea, and maybe bread and jam. It was a different way of life altogether.

GET INVOLVED… The Age Exchange welcomes visitors and volunteers.

Blackheath Age Exchange, 11 Blackheath Village, SE3, 020 8318 9105, age-exchange.org.uk

kfh.co.uk

36 · COMPLETELY · AGELESS

Potty about period features? Find properties from all eras to buy or rent at kfh.co.uk

CHARACTER COUNT

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If you care about cornicing or are mad about Modernism, these properties offer period features alongside the best elements of contemporary living.

To buy 1 Dressington Avenue, SE4 This is a newly refurbished two bedroom apartment in a grand period building. The property boasts solid wood parquet flooring, newly fitted kitchen and wraparound garden, and is also close to Ladywell station. £599,950 • Simon Smith at KFH Brockley 020 8469 0202, ssmith@kfh.co.uk

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2 Abbotshall Avenue, N14 Located on the sought after Michenden Estate, this detached four bedroom house with large roof terrace dates from the 1930s and is boldly Modernist in style. £800,000 • Ozi Salih at KFH Southgate 020 8882 3333, osalih@kfh.co.uk

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To rent 3 Queen’s Gate Terrace, SW7 This is a stunning and spacious one bedroom conversion featuring beautiful period details and located close to Hyde Park, South Kensington and Gloucester Road. £695pw • Michael Palmer at KFH Holland Park 020 3542 2120, mpalmer@kfh.co.uk

4 Shooters Hill Road, SE3 Set within a Captain’s House overlooking the open space of the heath, this is a stunning two bedroom apartment with an abundance of original features and secluded garden. £460pw • Kelly Durdey at KFH Blackheath 020 8297 0181, kdurdey@kfh.co.uk

Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

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Looking for a bit of light relief among the noble rot, King Henry VIII made quipster Will Sommers his courtly clown

Will was both friend and confidante to the mercurial monarch

A

s job descriptions go, a great salary, with palatial lodgings, private healthcare, fine dining and bespoke tailoring thrown in for free, sounds appealing. The gig? Simply, keeping the boss amused. You’re thinking ‘good times’. But would you be as quick to submit your CV to an employer that made Lord Sugar look like Bambi by comparison? For staff who fell foul of Henry VIII, ‘Off with his head’, not ‘You’re fired’, were the words they dreaded. In an era when ‘getting the chop’ was to be taken literally, court jester was a vacancy ye olde recruitment agencies found hard to fill.

Step forward, Will Sommers. Presented at court in 1535, this Shropshire-born misfit had been identified by a merchant, hoping to curry favour with Henry, as a suitably droll peculiar to entertain the sovereign. In a Merrie England’s Got Talent-style audition, the jester’s barmy banter made Henry LOL. Will was appointed official royal Fool.

Modern clinicians would recognise Sommers as someone with learning disabilities. To the Tudor Establishment, however, ‘dumb innocents’ (as Shakespeare would later term them) were part family pet, part oracle. Invariably highly observant – yet mentally incapable of guile, deceit or malice – whatever nonsense spewed from a fool’s lips must contain a grain of truth, reasoned the aristocracy, making the idiot savant a useful spy as well as a source of mirth.

The Fool’s role was chiefly to make merry with the monarch; a tough ask as Henry’s reign wore on. Weighed down by affairs of state and of the heart, His Maj was prone to dark depressions and frequent rages.

Like some Tudor version of Russell Brand, Dynamo, Keith Lemon and Ian Hislop rolled into one, Sommers’ comedic therapy relied on puns, magic, slapstick and sharp satire.

On most subjects, Will was permitted to give Henry a light royal ribbing where others, for their cheek, would have their ribs rent

‘ the jester’s barmy banter made henry lol. will was appointed official royal fool’ asunder on the rack. But when Sommers broached a taboo topic, Henry went ape.

Sir Nicholas Carew, a staunch supporter of Catherine of Aragon – cynically divorced so Henry could marry Anne Boleyn – saw in Will a way to make the King query the morality of the legitimate Queen’s usurper.

It’s claimed Carew persuaded Sommers to refer to Boleyn as a ‘ribaude’ – French, as was oft spoken in Court, for sexually promiscuous – and their daughter, Elizabeth, as a ‘bâtarde’. Henry went totes Tarantino, threatening to Kill Will with his bare hands.

Fortunately for the Fool, the King’s temper cooled. Aware his Fool was not the full shilling, he twigged that Will had been set up.

Sommers’ life was spared; Carew was less lucky, executed in 1539 for his part in the Exeter Conspiracy aimed at deposing Henry.

The odd couple’s relationship restored, Will outlived Henry, serving both Queen Mary and Elizabeth I, whose coronation in 1559 was his last official duty before he retired, with pension, a year before his death.

Fools remained an important presence until 1649, when killjoy Cromwell killed off the monarchy and, with it, their role. Wags hold that the post has recently been revived.

Isn’t Guy Pelly said to play the Fool to the future King William V’s Court?

PHOTOGRAPHY:

JAMIE LAU, ©NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, LONDON. WORDS: KEITH BARKER-MAIN

PLAY THE FOOL

☞ anyone for tennis? Built between 1526 and 1529, the Royal Tennis Court at Hampton Court is one of fewer than 50 real tennis courts in the world kfh.co.uk

COMPLETELY · BURGERED · 39

Dripping, molten cheese smothering a big, juicy patty and squished between a soft bun.

DROOL PHOTOGRAPHY:

ROB WHITE. WORDS: CHRISTA LARWOOD

We were thrilled to test London’s best burgers for you (burp)…

kfh.co.uk

40 · COMPLETELY · BURGERED

BLEECKER ST. BURGER

PSYCHIC BURGER

Zan Kaufman is a straight-talking New Yorker, flipping burgers in a sleek black food truck around London’s East End. The menu is simple – cheeseburgers and fries – yet in the two years since her arrival in London, Zan has gained a cult following with her aged-beef burgers, served medium rare with a toasted sesame bun and laced with gooey American cheese. ‘I’ve got a no BS approach,’ Zan says with a grin. ‘There’s nothing on these burgers that’s unnecessary and everything is the highest quality. That’s it. I have nothing to hide.’

This philosophy led Bleecker St. Burger to victory at the fiercely contested London Burger Bash contest, held at Borough Market in April. The winning Bleecker Black burger had one special added ingredient: a layer of Irish beef black pudding. ‘As far as I’m concerned, beef is precious and shouldn’t be messed with,’ Zan says, ‘but black pudding adds this amazing richness.’

Zan is often asked how London’s burgers compare with those of her home town, and her answer is definitive.

‘London is electric about burgers, and there are a few that nothing else can compete with. If there are better burgers in the world, it would surprise the heck out of me.’

Old Spitalfields Market, E1, Wed-Sun, plus changing locations,

Early this year, Psychic Burger’s head chef Will Dennard burst onto the scene with a rather unique creation: the horse meat burger. ‘It was controversial,’ he says, grinning broadly. ‘But we used ethically sourced meat from a farm in New Zealand, and so many people loved it.’

Currently installed at The Old Queen’s Head in Angel, the pop-up diner has built a reputation for burgers with unorthodox ingredients, such as their menu favourite featuring whole soft-shell crabs deep-fried in spices.

Will cut his teeth in the kitchens of high-end London restaurants, including a stint with Gordon Ramsay, and brings a fine-dining edge to his burgers. ‘You learn all these skills in that environment,’ he says, ‘so why not put it between two pieces of bread and create a kind of Michelin-style burger?’ Like his recent Pig Salad burger – a nose-to-tail affair incorporating eight different cuts of meat, from chorizo emulsions to confit pork belly.

Despite these adventurous tendencies, Will insists he won’t abandon tradition. ‘If anyone ever asks me what is the best burger I’ve ever made, I always say it’s the classic burger, with lettuce, cheese and a pickle.

It’s great to experiment, but for me, as a purist, that is what a burger should be.’

see bleeckerburger.co.uk

The Old Queen’s Head, 44 Essex Road, N1, psychicburger.com

Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

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PATTY & BUN ‘What we wanted was an understated, banging burger joint,’ says Joe Grossman, the brains behind Patty & Bun. His laidback restaurants come after years creating pop-up burger bars across the Capital and honing the ‘premium, filthy British’ flavours of the menu. ‘You’ve got to have an obsessive attitude towards what you’re doing, always trying to evolve. If you think you’ve reached a place where you’ve got a perfect burger and you stop tweaking it, you’re going to go backwards.’

The key ingredients of Joe’s menu are, as the restaurant’s name implies, a perfectly balanced, juicy British beef patty with a demi-brioche bun, accompanied by speciality sauces, from smoked mayonnaise to chilli chorizo relish. Purists clamour for the Smokey Robinson, a bacon cheeseburger piled with onions caramelised in a red wine and pancetta reduction, while others opt for the Lambshank Redemption, a lamb and coriander burger with pickled aubergine and cumin aioli.

‘It’s pretty intense,’ Joe says. ‘There are so many great burger places out there, it keeps you on your toes. You’ve got to be passionate about it and a lot of love goes into every single thing we put out. It’s corny, but it’s true.’

54 James Street, W1, and 22/23 Liverpool Street, EC2, pattyandbun.co.uk

‘london is electric about burgers. there are a few in this city that nothing else can compete with’ zan kaufman

MORE BURGERS TO TRY MEAT LIQUOR

At this pioneer of the London burger scene, the clue’s in the name: the two specialities are cocktails and delicious meaty burgers. Don’t miss: the Dead Hippie burger with two mustard-fried patties, American cheese and special house sauce. 74 Welbeck Street, W1, meatliquor.com/london

LUCKY CHIP

Currently in residence at the Sebright Arms pub in Hackney, in addition to a trailer on Netil Market in London Fields, this outfit delivers some of the biggest and juiciest burgers in the Capital. Don’t miss: the Kevin Bacon burger, with aged beef and applewood-smoked bacon. Sebright Arms, 31-35 Coate Street, E2, and Netil Market, 11-25 Westgate Street, E8, lucky-chip.co.uk

HONEST BURGER

This Brixton Village original, which now has branches across town, specialises in British flavours and ingredients: burgers with mature cheddar or Stilton, onion relish and dry-aged British beef. Don’t miss: the Honest burger with pickled cucumber, accompanied by rosemary-salted chips. honestburgers.co.uk Keep up with the London burger scene at hamburger-me.com

why don’t you?

MAKE YOUR OWN BURGERS Want to serve up perfect patties at home? London’s two L’atelier des Chefs cooking schools at Oxford Circus and St Paul’s now offer 30- and 90-minute burger-making classes. atelierdeschefs.co.uk

kfh.co.uk

ILLUSTRATION: HARRY MALT/DÉBUT ART

42 · COMPLETELY · HAVING IT

Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

COMPLETELY · HAVING IT · 43

M

y best friend has just moved to London. It’s the first time she’s ever lived here and, as such, I’m helping her through the umpteen little adjustments that need to be made before the city fits her perfectly.

There’s the commuting, of course (‘think of it as your “reading a book” time’), the shopping (‘you tried to go to Westfield on a Saturday? Then you deserve the broken ribs’) and the trickiest mission of all – the socialising.

I am teaching her to go out like a Londoner.

‘Throw out your provincial rule book,’ I bellow, marching her through Soho like a lamb to the (meaty new pop-up concept restaurant called) slaughter. ‘Forget about going “out-out” – we’re going “OUT-out-out”!’

Under my bossy tuition she’s retraining her stomach to eat dinner at 9pm, not 6pm, learning to sidestep pools of sick on the pavement like a special urban form of dressage, and developing a taste for drinks served in basically anything except a glass. Jam jar! Teacup! Gravy boat! Misted with an atomiser and trussed up in ribbon! We’ve been to bars in bike shops, bars in Victorian public toilets and bars you get through by crawling into a fridge, like a kind of hipster Narnia.

The city might be elitist in many ways; we still haven’t got over disguising our clubs as launderettes and book shops, just to weed out the easily confused (there is no more determined ‘styling out’ than the styling out of people who’ve walked into a ‘barber shop-inspired bar’ to find it really is just a barber shop).

The rule is: if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it’s probably a speakeasy in Camberwell.

But we’re inclusive, too, because in London you can be part of the night scene simply by going out and walking around in it. If sitting on a reupholstered commode, sipping a lavender and bacon martini from a washed-out ketchup bottle and watching a friend of a friend play the lute in their conceptual skiffle band doesn’t appeal, you can just wander the streets and watch people instead, as they tumble in and out of bars, restaurants and chicken shops like happy, tipsy moths.

kfh.co.uk

44 · COMPLETELY · HAVING IT

Of course, food is a cornerstone of London nightlife. Not for us a pre-club dinner of two Ryvita and a Nurofen – we want clubs that look like a WI member’s front room, which also serve up half an artfully cooked pig. And in a city of endless options, our nocturnal meals can be more elaborate than the ones we eat sitting down, and sober.

‘So… we have to queue longer for a kebab than we did to get into the club?’ my friend asks, as I drag her into what looks like a queue at a casting call for The Kooples. ‘Yes,’ I tell her. ‘Except these aren’t kebabs. They’re Korean burritos.’

‘Korean burritos?’ ‘Yes. You know, like normal burritos but with kimchi.’ ‘Kimchi?’ ‘Fermented cabbage. It’s delicious.’

We have more or less the same conversation over why it’s okay to wear jelly shoes to a pop-up gallery opening, or to go to a casual date in an outfit Liberace might have thought a tad gaudy. The trick to London dressing, I explain, is the element of surprise – sequins in the daytime! Culottes at The Savoy!

Likewise, fashion editors will enthuse about Londoners’ laissez-faire attitude to evening grooming; just a flurry of dry shampoo and a slick of MAC Deranged Geranium and we’re good to go. But the secret is, Londoners can’t dress up for weeknights out – because it would take us so long to get home after work. And we all know, deep down, that if we did go home, we’d sit down for a five-minute breather… and wake up 10 hours later with false eyelashes stuck to our chin.

No, we wear outfits that have been assembled in the office toilets, because the secret to the best nights out in the Capital is spontaneity, not planning. The nights where you pop for a quick drink after work and find yourself, seven hours later, duetting the Elephant Love Medley from Moulin Rouge with a drag queen called Sheila Blige who you met in a 24-hour Tesco.

These are the nights London does best, and the nights I know my friend will love too – that is, as soon as we’ve found the entrance to this bar disguised as a travel agent.

Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

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F or more houses and flats that make the most of their city-centre locations, visit kfh.co.uk

G RAB A PIECE OF THE ACTION

1

Wave goodbye to last trains and nightbuses with a pad that’s located right in the heart of city life.

To buy 1 O ldbury Place, W1 This is a remarkable and picturesque four bedroom two bathroom house located in a charming cobbled mews in the heart of Marylebone Village. £4,250,000 • Mai Pexton at KFH Marylebone 020 7486 5551, mpexton@kfh.co.uk

2 C ato Street, W1

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Just minutes from Marylebone and Marble Arch stations and close to Hyde Park, this four bedroom, three bathroom townhouse offers spacious accommodation in an unrivalled central location. £2,250,000 • Mai Pexton at KFH Marylebone 020 7486 5551, mpexton@kfh.co.uk

3 R ed Lion Court, EC4

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This immaculate one bedroom apartment is located in a contemporary Galliard Homes development in a highly sought after location in the heart of the City of London and close to City Thameslink, Chancery Lane and St Paul’s. £815,000 • Paul Bent at KFH London Bridge 020 3465 9230, pbent@kfh.co.uk

4 O ld Marylebone Road, NW1 Minutes from the buzzing Edgware Road, this stunning one bedroom flat is newly refurbished to a high standard and its open plan reception area delivers space and light. £650,000 • Mai Pexton at KFH Marylebone 020 7486 5551, mpexton@kfh.co.uk

Completely London

46 · COMPLETELY · ON THE UP

K FH NEWS

To find out more about KFH, or to view properties available to buy or rent all over London, go to kfh.co.uk KFH Corporate Services manager Mat Paramor

MOVE IT! If your company needs a helping hand to relocate its employees smoothly, KFH’s new Corporate Services division can help.

Complementing existing short and long lets and property management services, the new division is headed up by Mat Paramor.

Contact 020 8739 2000 or mparamor@kfh.co.uk

PHOTOGRAPHY: MASTERFILE

A PERFECT 10 More than 50 KFH employees have raised an impressive £10,700 for the charitable organisation Housing for Women after taking part in the London Estate Agents’ 10k run around Clapham Common in June.

Anna Macleod, Head of Marketing and Communications at KFH, commented, ‘With housing Londoners at the core

George Sifonios, Highgate lettings manager

of our business, raising funds for Housing for Women was a cause that really appealed to us as a business.

This feeling was further amplified internally when so many of our staff members got behind the cause, with more than 50 opting to run and the rest helping to raise funds. The outcome has been phenomenal and one that we’re very proud of.’

LETTINGS FOR HIGHGATE London’s booming rental market gathers pace in North London with the KFH lettings division’s expansion into Highgate. Joining the sales branch at 58 Highgate High Street, the new branch means KFH is even better placed to assist landlords and tenants in the area.

Contact 020 8342 7030 or email lhi@kfh.co.uk

KFH From sales and lettings to surveyors and a range of financial services, KFH has them all, see p80-81 Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

T HROUGH T HE KEYHOLE Four properties that promise to bring their new owners good times galore

Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

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SHOOTERS HILL, SE18

PHOTOGRAPHY:

JOANNA HENDERSON. STYLING: EMILY BLUNDEN

FEELGOOD FACTOR When Jenny and John stumbled upon this huge Georgian gatehouse 25 years ago, it was both breathtaking and a bit battered.

‘It was in a slightly sad state when we moved in,’ Jenny confesses. ‘But we took our time to get a feel for the place and how it could work for us.’ Formerly the Royal Artillery Commandant’s residence, this detached four bedroom house is set within mature gardens surrounded by Woolwich Common and the Royal Artillery Barrack Field.

‘The portico is the most amazing sight and was the first thing that caught my imagination,’ Jenny continues. ‘One of the best things about living here is the huge windows, which fill the place with light.

From each one there are views of the garden and the panorama of trees that surround us.’

In keeping with the setting and Palladian architecture, the interior lives up to expectations. The spacious library was fitted with wall-to-wall shelving made out of recycled wood from another part of the house. John is a nuclear engineer, hence the need for all those tomes. Jenny and John are now planning another adventure and hope to move to East Yorkshire to live by the sea.

Repository Road, SE18, £2,000,000 This large detached and unique property is set in a one-time Georgian gatehouse and stands alone in open ground.

Contact Patricia Irwin-Brown KFH Blackheath Tel 020 8852 9451 Email pibrown@kfh.co.uk

kfh.co.uk

50 路 COMPLETELY 路 WELCOMING

Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

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BRIXTON, SW2

PHOTOGRAPHY:

JOANNA HENDERSON. STYLING: MAXINE BRADY

HOUSE OF FUN Saskia and Jacques’ professions have had a tangible effect on the look and feel of their home. She works in fashion, he in property development, and they are both demonstrably stylish. Transforming this three bedroom terrace in the heart of buzzing Brixton has been as satisfying as it is successful. It is their first home together as a married couple, and it works because it’s designed around their desire for a party-ready pad that could incorporate their large family and band of friends.

‘Entertaining here all year round is amazing’, says Saskia. ‘When it’s sunny we fold the doors back and enjoy the garden; when it’s cold and rainy we light the woodburning stove and make it more intimate.

‘We’ve renovated the entire house and added the large kitchen extension, as we wanted an entertaining area that had the “wow factor”. It’s great to be able to fit everyone in without hassle.’ Having a garden in such a central spot is a real boon and being in the thick of things has been important to the couple during their time here. ‘The buzz of Brixton these days is quite unique and we‘ll miss the good vibes of the house.’

Baytree Road, SW2, £1,100,000 This is a lovingly renovated three bedroom house situated just moments from Brixton Tube and trendy Brixton Village.

Contact Jimmy Carr KFH Clapham Tel 020 8675 5436 Email jcarr@kfh.co.uk

kfh.co.uk

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SHOOTERS HILL, SE18

P HOTOGRAPHY: JOANNA HENDERSON. STYLING: EMILY BLUNDEN

GARDEN PARTY ‘When we found this place, 30 years ago, the fabulous ornate ceiling mouldings in the hall were a dark green and there was a rainbow painted on the sitting room wall,’ says owner Shirley of her three bedroom semi detached home in Shooters Hill, South London. She and husband Graham had chosen the house because so many of the original Victorian features were still intact, but they had their work cut out.

‘Aside from new central heating, two bathrooms and redecoration throughout, we removed the wall between the sitting and dining rooms to make a more spacious area allowing views from the roses in the front garden through to those in the back.

In the summer, it feels as if you are living in the middle of the garden,’ Shirley reveals.

Graham takes the credit for the impressive garden, while Shirley’s talents as an artist have informed the tasteful decor. ‘Seven years ago we had a large extension added to the kitchen, which really changed the quality of our life here.

The bi-fold doors open up right across one wall of the kitchen/diner, allowing the garden to become part of our living space.’

Eaglesfield Road, SE18, £825,000 This standout family home boasts three bedrooms, an extended eat-in kitchen and beautiful mature garden.

Contact Patricia Irwin-Brown KFH Blackheath Tel 020 8852 9451 Email pibrown@kfh.co.uk

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CROUCH END, N8

P HOTOGRAPHY: JOANNA HENDERSON. STYLING: MAXINE BRADY

RAISE THE ROOF Stephen and Elaine are lovers of light. That much is obvious from the airy, expansive feel of their Edwardian terrace on the boundaries of Alexandra Palace Park. ‘It’s so peaceful having no houses behind us,’ says Stephen. ‘When we bought the house five years ago, we were attracted to the fact that most of the period features were in place.

The house hadn’t been touched for many years, so we could adapt it for our lifestyle.’

‘The place has been completely renovated,’ Stephen continues. ‘We started at the top and worked down, replacing the roof and bathrooms, replastering and redecorating all the rooms.’

The property’s crowning glory is a large open plan kitchen/diner opening onto the double reception room, all finished in white to maximise light. ‘We extended into the garden and fitted sliding glass doors that give us views over the newly landscaped decking and garden to Alexandra Palace.’

It sounds pretty perfect but there’s one downside – they’ve been bitten by the renovation bug. ‘We’re moving on because doing up this place has given us a taste for another project.’ · kathryn reilly Redston Road, N8, £1,600,000 This stunning five bedroom home is on a sought after street in desirable Crouch End and boasts a 29ft reception.

Contact Barrington Dutton KFH Crouch End Tel 020 8348 8181 Email bdutton@kfh.co.uk

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I N THE KNOW: RENOVATIONS

This issue we look at how you can boost your home’s desirability. Is a new kitchen worth the investment? Would an extension add value?

And what are the improvements to avoid?

Wages for builders are rising at the fastest pace in at least 17 years and revenue at Topps Tiles has grown by 6.3 per cent in the third quarter of this year, compared with a fall in revenues of 1.5 per cent for the same period last year.

Clearly, there are lots of us renovating our homes. And with the market still healthy in the Capital, but showing signs of slowing down, home owners will be particularly aware right now of the need not to get carried away.

So which improvements are a good investment – those where you get to enjoy your improved home and see the money back, if not more, once you sell – and which are not?

Research conducted by the

National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) in April this year shows that 49 per cent of estate agents suggest that adding an extra bedroom – usually by converting loft space – is the best way of adding value to a property.

Other less drastic changes can also have significant, positive effects on value: over a third (34 per cent) said that enlarging a kitchen was the best way to boost the price of a property.

‘Our research suggests that bedrooms and kitchens are considered the most sensible areas for expansion, which certainly appears true when a property comes on to the market,’ says Mark Hayward, managing director of the NAEA. ‘The number of bedrooms is usually the first criteria house hunters select. Therefore, if it’s possible to add another bedroom, this can result in an immediate effect on price.’

RENOVATION DOs: Divide the bedroom into two if you have a large one bedroom flat and want to sell. This is a good way to enhance profits, says James Ripp, sales manager at Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward’s West Hampstead branch. ‘Likewise, some vendors with a large reception and kitchen turn the kitchen into a bedroom and fit a kitchen in the reception area.’

Extend the side return to the rear. If a homeowner has sole ownership of the rear garden, this is another option. These extensions are popular with potential purchasers who are looking for good family entertaining space. Side returns are increasingly common as spacious open plan kitchen/ dining areas become sought after among young families.

Where possible, create a dormer window in your loft extension to ensure you have light.

•

•

•

RENOVATION DON’Ts: Forget to inform your freeholder if you live in a flat.

Consider a basement conversion unless you’ve done your sums: it’s expensive and, if not done right, can result in dark rooms with restricted ceiling height.

Overcapitalise. Ensure that the cost of your improvements will add equivalent value to the property. For example, vendors spending £50,000 on a new kitchen in a £450,000 flat may not necessarily add the same in value.

‘Adding extravagant gadgets to a property may not always be appreciated,’ says Robert Cornthwaite, sales manager at Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward’s Streatham branch. ‘Televisions in the bathroom, for example, are very expensive and don’t always see the cost returned when it comes to selling.’

Jessie Hewitson is a property writer for The Times

• • •

KFH Got a question about London property we can answer next time? Email donna@completelylondon.co.uk Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

WORDS: JESSIE HEWITSON.I LLUSTRATION: STEPHEN SMITH/ NEASDEN CONTROL CENTRE

Improving to move? Not all renovations will increase the value of your home. But which are worth your time and investment and which see the least gains?

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F or more properties that have been renovated to the highest standards, visit kfh.co.uk

N EW LEASE OF LIFE

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Imaginative renovation and refurbishment has opened up underused spaces and given a whole new desirability to these properties.

To buy 1 C houmert Mews, SE15 Located in a private gated mews in the heart of the Bellenden Road area, this two bedroom property is architectdesigned and beautifully presented and decorated. £975,000 • Jason Davis at KFH Peckham 020 7639 2029, jpdavis@kfh.co.uk

2 G reenend Road, W4

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A stylish family home that is located close to Bedford Park conservation area and Turnham Green Tube, this four bedroom property has undergone full remodelling and refurbishment to the highest standard. £1,150,000 • Paul Cooney at KFH Chiswick 020 8987 0090, pcooney@kfh.co.uk

3 H aldon Road, SW18

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A beautifully presented two bedroom period house, which is arranged over three floors and boasts two bathrooms, courtyard garden and cellar. £850,000 • Judy Urmossy at KFH Putney Hill

020 8780 0033, jurmossy@kfh.co.uk

To rent 4 C handos Road, N2 This is a fantastic four bedroom family home with a spacious kitchen/diner, which has been renovated to a high specification throughout and features a large decked garden. £4,312pcm • Paul Read at KFH Muswell Hill 020 8883 2340, pread@kfh.co.uk

Completely London

PHOTOGRAPHY:

MARTIN USBORNE. ORIGINAL WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY: KRISTIAN LEVEN

58 · COMPLETELY · JOYOUS

Simon and George looking out from London’s only lighthouse at their wedding in June

☞ oh buoy! Trinity Buoy Wharf was established in 1803 as a Thames-side workshop making and storing wooden buoys and sea marks Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

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&

MR MRS You’re cordially invited to meet the Londoners who said ‘I do’ with an iconic corner of London as their venue GEORGE & SIMON, THE CHAINSTORE AT TRINITY BUOY WHARF 2014

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or City workers Simon and George, there was no question that their nuptials would be held in the Capital. ‘London is where we love to be,’ says Simon, ‘so it would feel a bit forced to get married anywhere else. It’s a fantastic city to have fun in, and we wanted a big party!’

The couple, who live in East Dulwich, settled on The Chainstore at Trinity Buoy Wharf, a 19th-century building that incorporates London’s only lighthouse. ‘When we first saw it, we thought it was magical,’ George says. ‘It’s down on the Thames, so you can see the whole city from Canary Wharf to the O2. You can see just how eclectic London is.’

As big music fans, the presence of the O2 on the opposite riverbank wasn’t lost on the couple. ‘Music is very important to us – I’m in a band and play guitar,’ says Simon. ‘It became a theme to the day; all of the tables were named after different genres, and we had access to the Longplayer music installation that’s being played in a listening room in the lighthouse. It’s been running since the millennium and is designed to play for a thousand years, so I guess it was cool that we got married opposite one of London’s biggest live-music venues.’

‘A lot of the guests said the venue was very us,’ George remembers.

‘Somewhere a bit different, unique and non-traditional.’ Simon adds, ‘It was a fairly unconventional wedding insofar as George walked down the aisle to Jamaican skank!’

64 Orchard Place, E14, trinitybuoywharf.com

☞ electric dreams The roof space in the lighthouse housed the workshop for Michael Faraday, inventor of electromagnetic induction kfh.co.uk

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JULIA & PATRICK, SOMERSET HOUSE 2013

W

e really wanted to show off London,’ says Notting Hill resident Julia Wolfe of her Somerset House wedding, ‘and we really wanted to create a different experience of the city for our guests.’

As qualified architects, Julia and her husband are familiar with many of the city’s great buildings, ‘so the space we were going to get married in was always very important to us, and this is a really stunning London landmark’.

As a student, Julia used to spend hours sketching the rotunda of the Nelson stair. ‘Not that I managed to do it justice, but it’s one of my favourite spots in the building, and where we had this picture taken.’

Public access to the wedding venue didn’t initially prove to be a problem.

‘I like that it’s always open to the public – I think it makes it more fun at a wedding,’ says Julia. ‘The only difficulty was organising my entrance so Patrick and the guests didn’t see me. I had to sneak in through the Embankment entrance and up in a lift.’

Following the ceremony in the Portico Rooms overlooking the courtyard and river, the couple re-created a shot from the 2010 film The King’s Speech, which used the balcony as a stand in for Buckingham Palace for a ‘royal’ family photo.

The wedding party then piled onto a boat for champagne and views of Tower Bridge and the Houses of Parliament before a reception at Brunswick House in Vauxhall. ‘Getting a boat was a big part of the experience,’ explains Julia.

‘After all, how many Londoners actually get on the river?’

•

Julia is the founder of Wolf & Ink, makers of handmade letterpress wedding stationery wolfandink.co.uk

Originally called the Navy Staircase, the Nelson Stair suffered bomb damage in 1940 and was subsequently restored

‘ we wanted to create a different experience of the city for our guests’

☞ new town Somerset House was constructed between 1776 and 1801 on the site of a Tudor Palace built by Edward Seymour (the king’s uncle) in 1547 Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

P HOTOGRAPHY: MARTIN USBORNE. ORIGINAL WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY: NAOMI GOGGIN

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☞ float your boat In the King’s Barge House in Somerset House lies one of only two surviving 18th-century Navy Commissioner’s barges kfh.co.uk

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‘ i sat up on the balcony, awestruck by this really grand space’ RUTH & MARTIN, ISLINGTON TOWN HALL 2013

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ondon was the natural choice for media professionals Ruth and Martin’s spring wedding. ‘We’d met in the city and spent the last seven years building a life together here,’ explains Ruth. And Islington Town Hall, where they tied the knot, had particular significance for Martin. ‘As a kid I lived on the De Beauvoir Estate and I used to walk past it every day on my way to school.’

The building’s Council Chamber had made an impression on the 11-year-old Martin. ‘I went to a prize-giving for my brother and sat up on the balcony, awestruck by this really grand room.’

Opened in 1923 and given Grade II listed status in 1994, the building’s neo-classical stateliness is particularly evident in this stunning octagonal space with its domed plasterwork ceiling, oak panelling, stained-glass windows and chairs decorated with the Islington coat of arms. ‘The horseshoe layout of the seating meant that everybody felt part of the wedding,’ says Ruth.

On the day, an unseasonable blanket of snow made the occasion even more memorable. ‘Our friends married on the same day in March the year before, and it was 25 degrees then! But we wouldn’t change our day for the world,’ says Martin.

The reception was a good old knees up at a local pub in Chapel Market with ‘posh picnics’ that guests could help themselves to.

‘I used to get my pie and mash in Chapel Market,’ says Martin. ‘Pie and mash, now wouldn’t that be an ideal London wedding feast.’

Upper Street, N1, islington.gov.uk

why don’t you?

GET HITCHED IN A LONDON ICON Unique Venues is a collection of over 80 special places to get hitched, from Somerset House to the Tate Modern and London Zoo uniquevenuesoflondon.co.uk Ullam, cum simus peruptatquae velia quidebis volore everaep

☞ equally wed In March 2014, Islington Town Hall played host to London’s first same-sex wedding between Peter McGraith and David Cabreza Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

P HOTOGRAPHY: MARTIN USBORNE. ORIGINAL WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY: CARL BARTRAM

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☞ put a ring on it Islington has the highest rate of resident singletons, with almost two in three men and 57% of women being unattached kfh.co.uk

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F or more properties with bedrooms that promise to capture your heart, visit kfh.co.uk

FIND TRUE LOVE

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Whether in expansive suburbia or classy Holland Park, romance is well and truly alive in the beautiful bedrooms of these seductive properties.

To buy 1 Newton Park Road, BR7 Situated on a private gated development a short walk from Elmstead Woods station, this stunning five bedroom family home offers high ceilings and spacious rooms.

OIEO £1,550,000 • Laura Knight-Smith at KFH Chislehurst 020 8285 9900, lknight@kfh.co.uk

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3

2 Kings Hall Road, BR3 Take your pick of five stunning bedrooms in this semi detached house that boasts a wonderful open plan kitchen/diner. It is situated on a sought after road close to Kent House station. £1,250,000 • Maxine Harris at KFH Beckenham 020 8650 8268, mharris@kfh.co.uk

3 Hill Brow, BR1

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A well maintained six bedroom detached home with planning permission to enhance even further and which is located close to Chislehurst and Bickley stations. £1,495,000 • Laura Knight-Smith at KFH Chislehurst 020 8285 9900, lknight@kfh.co.uk

4 St Quintin Avenue, W10 This is a stylish, light filled two bedroom, two bathroom flat with a brand new kitchen and beautiful large reception room, and which is situated in a handsome Victorian building. £935,000 • Simon Corringham at KFH Holland Park

020 3542 2111, scorringham@kfh.co.uk

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GET IN THERE

north london

islington

P HOTOGRAPHY: ADRIAN BRISCOE. ILLUSTRATION: ALEX HEDWORTH/EYE CANDY

A

s one of London’s most fashionable places to live, it’s hard to recall that Islington was not so long ago known as a neglected inner-city area. A favourite among city workers and creative folk for years and a shining example of gentrification, Islington continues to attract affluent families with its elegant Georgian and Victorian town houses, while younger first-time buyers and professionals snap up a growing swathe of new-build flats.

Islington bustles by day with shoppers exploring the chains and boutiques around upper street and cross street.

Further north on Highbury Park is highbury barn – a parade of independent shops that lends the area a village feel with cheesemonger La Fromagerie, fishmonger Meek & Wild, butchers Frank Godfrey’s and greengrocer Mrs Lovell’s.

Search out vintage treasures in cobble-stoned camden passage. Originally built as an alley in 1767, it’s lined with antique shops, market stalls, one-off boutiques and cafés.

With no fewer than four theatres, Islington’s cultural scene is another draw. The award-winning almeida theatre has an international reputation, producing a diverse range of homegrown and international drama, while sadler’s wells presents a programme of top dance productions. Facing Islington Green and easily recognised by its red neon façade, the screen on the green is one of the oldest continuously running cinemas in the UK and has super-comfy seating.

Dining options promise to keep your palate pleased with bursting burritos on offer at chilango’s, delicate sushi at tenshi and beefy burgers at byron. Oft imitated but never replicated, ottolenghi on Upper Street serves up stunningly colourful salads and giant meringues amid all-white décor.

A moment of calm can be enjoyed in highbury fields, as well as in the area’s many charming squares, such as Canonbury and Milner. And take a stroll down city road basin plaza – the site was closed off for 100 years, but a multimillion-pound project has brought it back into public use. It’s one of the largest open stretches of water in North London and has a public park facing the canal. · karen plowman & janetta willis • By Tube and train Highbury & Islington is served by London Overground and Victoria line – just under 10 minutes to Oxford Circus. Angel is on the Northern line. King’s Cross and St Pancras are half a mile from the heart of Islington.

• By bus 4, 19, 30, 38, 43, 56, 73, 153, 205, 214, 271, 274, 341, 394, 476, N19, N41

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GET IN THERE

FROM MICHELIN-STARRED DINING TO A PINT BY THE WATER, MUSICIAN AND DJ ED SONSINO TELLS US WHY HE STILL RELISHES LIVING IN ISLINGTON SOME 17 YEARS AFTER MOVING INTO THE AREA

‘ it really does have everything’

I

chose to live in Islington because I wanted to live somewhere quiet but within walking distance of Soho and Shoreditch. South Islington fits this criteria perfectly. It’s a 20-minute walk to Soho and at the weekends and in the evening it’s super quiet.

I spend a lot of time in bars and clubs as a result of what I do for a living but on the rare occasion I want to go to a bar or a club to socialise, you can’t beat Upper Street. Islington is vibrant, it’s steeped in history and, considering it’s in the middle of a very large international city, it’s perhaps more picturesque than you might expect.

Not a day goes by without bumping into people you know just from being out and about. The street I live on, everyone knows one another and we socialise together – a rare thing in London. A lot of the shops have been in the same hands for decades.

I once told a friend of mine who was off shopping for a birthday present for a friend, ‘If you can’t find a suitable birthday present for your friend on Camden Passage, you probably shouldn’t be friends.’

My favourite pubs are the Red Lion on St John’s Street and The Harlequin on Arlington Way. These are proper pubs and have not changed one bit in the past 20 years. Angel Inn on St John’s Street is the best place to get a fry-up, bar none. Best restaurant is Santore on Exmouth Market – best Italian restaurant in London in my opinion. Also, La Porchetta and Stringray Cafe by Highbury Barn are top notch. Actually for restaurants, I honestly think Islington, and Upper Street in particular, is pretty unbeatable. There are places with Michelin stars alongside budget places selling quality food from all over the world.

‘the canal is now a lovely place to spend an evening. it’s off the beaten track a bit but worth checking out. there are some decent pubs as well as little cafés run out of narrow boats’

K FH INSIDER K NOWLEDGE ANGEL OF THE NORTH ‘The Islington and Angel area has always been a well-known part of London, even earning a place on the British version of the Monopoly board. However, in recent years Islington has changed almost beyond recognition and, with its many bars, cafés and restaurants, there is something for every taste.

This has not gone unnoticed by our buyers – over 50% of whom are aged between 20 and 44.’

CONTACT James Marshall Sales manager, Islington Tel 020 7226 2487 Email jmarshall@kfh.co.uk

☞ be still my eating heart If you fancy something different every day, Islington has more restaurants than there are days in the year Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

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F or more Islington properties to spark your interest, visit kfh.co.uk

N1 LOVE

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From Angel to Barnsbury and back again, options in Islington run the gamut from modern pied-à-terre to delightful period property.

To buy 1 M orton Road, N1 A stunning two bedroom two bathroom flat arranged over two floors of this period building. The property benefits from an open plan living area and a private rear garden. £825,000 • James Marshall at KFH Islington 020 7226 2487, jmarshall@kfh.co.uk

2 C loudesley Road, N1

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Set in desirable Barnsbury, this is a beautiful two bedroom period flat, which benefits from a separate kitchen/dining room and access to loft space. £799,995 • James Marshall at KFH Islington 020 7226 2487, jmarshall@kfh.co.uk

3 M anor Gardens, N7

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A bright well presented one bedroom flat on the ground floor of a small stylish purpose built block in Upper Holloway.

Archway, Finsbury Park and Holloway Tubes are all within walking distance. £395,000 • James Marshall at KFH Islington 020 7226 2487, jmarshall@kfh.co.uk

To rent 4 C anonbury Park North, N1 This is a well presented two bedroom garden flat located in an enviable position in leafy Canonbury, close to great transport links and only a short walk to Upper Street. £1,994pcm • Dan Saunders at KFH Islington 020 7359 3636, dsaunders@kfh.co.uk

Completely London

PORTRAIT: SCOTTJAMESGUNDERSEN.COM. INTERVIEW: IMOGEN BEECROFT

or the chairman of a company whose customers have included Lord Byron and Aga Khan, Simon Berry is remarkably down to earth about fermented grape juice. ‘We have better records of how much our customers weighed than what they drank – from William Pitt the Younger to Sir Terry Wogan,’ he says with a laugh.

Berry, who heads Britain’s oldest wine merchant, explains that in the 17th century, when Berry Bros

F

WINE SELLER

We commissioned artist Scott Gundersen to make our striking portrait of Simon Berry, made entirely from used wine corks

& Rudd was still in the tea and coffee business, London experienced its ‘very first health kick’. And due to the absence of bathroom scales at the time, the scales used to weigh out tea and coffee were more frequently used to monitor customers’ waistlines. And they’re still used in the shop today.

Berry Bros & Rudd has been at 3 St James’s Street since its founding in 1698. Its list of customers reads like the Who’s Who of societal

royalty, and Berry Bros has filled the royal cellars since the reign of King George III. Of his role in choosing the Queen’s wine, Berry says, ‘It’s a very professional arrangement – more like buying wine for a hotel than for a person. Most of it is for receptions, and costs about £8 a bottle.’

And Her Majesty’s favourite tipple? Berry won’t say – part of his job as clerk of the royal cellars is to be ‘very, very discreet’.

http://vimeo. com/105458128

To see a short time-lapse film of our corking artwork taking shape, visit:

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THE BRIGHT SIDE OF DEATH All things must pass – them’s the rules. But mortality doesn’t have to call time on style, self-expression or fun. Rupert Mellor meets three Londoners taking some of the sting out of the big D

PHOTOGRAPHY: PIP. HAIR AND MAKE-UP: GRACE MCCOMISKY

THE LAST DANCE It’s 6pm on 2 November 2013 and an outlandish assembly gathers at the gates of Abney Park Cemetery on Stoke Newington High Street. Comprising assorted ghouls and skeletons, the crowd takes off in the direction of Dalston. The occasion? London’s fifth Day of the Dead Festival – the Mexican celebration of remembrance.

‘I realised how much interest there was in Mexico’s Dia de los Muertos’, says Alejandra Cuestra, director of Latin American arts agency Expressarte, ‘when I helped the British Museum plan its own Day of the Dead event.

It was crazy how popular it was. So I started my own.’

Today, as well as a boisterous party where Mexican dancers dressed as La Catrina and El Catrin, the dapper skeleton couple who symbolise the festival, lead the

Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

proceedings, the three-day programme includes art exhibits, traditional food and drink, and workshops where guests can decorate sugar skulls. ‘Because Mexican children make these beautiful skulls every year, they learn not to fear death,’ Alejandra explains. ‘ We believe that at death, each person begins a new life, so we can feel happy for the loved ones we lose.’

While Alejandra has made it her mission to share the authentic spirit of Day of the Dead, she has also relished watching her European guests shape the London version into something new. ‘There’s an altar we decorate with mementos of our loved ones. Guests have started to bring letters they have written to people they have lost.

It’s very moving.’ dayofthedeadfest.com

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‘we believe that at death, each person begins a new life, so we can feel happy for the loved ones we lose’

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‘it’s fantastic to see how happy it makes a family when they feel that one of our more unusual vehicles really expresses their loved one’s character’ Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

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SWEET CHARIOTS ‘Our bubblegum-pink hearse I call a Marmite car,’ says Matthew Green, third-generation partner in family firm Green’s Carriage Masters. ‘You love it or you don’t. Its first job was in Inverness and I got a call as I was driving it through Edinburgh to tell me the local radio station’s traffic helicopter had spotted it and joked about it on air.’

Matthew’s grandfather Norman set up the company in 1961. Five decades later, the company has 65 vehicles including Jaguars, Mercedes and rare vintage Daimlers. The non-traditional cars it also offers, says Matthew, reflect a growing trend for funerals with a lighter touch. ‘It’s fantastic to see how happy it makes a family when they feel that one of our more unusual vehicles really expresses their loved one’s character.’

The latest addition to the Catford-based cortège is a Daimler DS420 hearse finished with a Union Jack flag. ‘We also have a Harley Davidson with an unenclosed wooden bier for the coffin as a sidecar.

That wind-in-your-hair feeling is an important part of a biker’s life.’

The Green’s fleet has also earned media credits including roles in Amy Winehouse’s Back To Black video and Bond blockbuster Skyfall. The company’s proudest showbiz moment, though, was the choice of the pink hearse by actor Roger Lloyd-Pack (aka Only Fools and Horses’ Trigger) to carry him to St Paul’s in Covent Garden for his funeral this February – ‘an especially great honour as all my family grew up in Peckham’. greenscarriages.com

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THE END OF THE RODENT ‘A lot of people struggle with the first cut,’ says Margot Magpie. ‘They’ll be holding this little animal that looks like it might be sleeping. Some talk to it, apologising for what they are about to do.’

Taxidermy artist Margot is one of several across London who are reviving interest in anthropomorphic taxidermy – mounting stuffed animals in human poses.

The Victorian practice’s new popularity has seen more than a thousand customers sign up for the workshops she has run in various parts of the city.

Usually working with mice, Margot’s workshops guide novices through their first experiences of skinning, preserving, stuffing and mounting a rodent – before adding a topper and specs, perhaps, or a tricycle, or tiny

Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

guitar. An affiliate of the UK Guild of Taxidermists, she also makes dramatic fascinators from birds’ wings and has produced a DIY manual called Mouse.

‘I take a lot of care to source the animals ethically,’ says Margot. ‘They have either been killed as pests, died of natural causes or have been bred and killed as food for pet reptiles. I adore animals, but once an animal is dead, to me it’s just a pile of molecules, and to do something creative with it is beautiful.

‘The Daily Mail has painted what I do as some kind of gruesome hipster craze. But the people who take my classes are normal – from civil servants to hen dos and people on dates.’ ofcorpsetaxidermy.wordpress.com

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‘i adore animals, but once an animal is dead, to me it’s just a pile of molecules, and to do something creative with it is beautiful’

kfh.co.uk

PHOTOGRAPHY: DOUGIE WALLACE

78 · COMPLETELY · OVER INDULGED

☞ old faithful Converted from a Medieval guest house in 1538, Fleet Street’s Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese has played host to Shakespeare and Dickens Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

COMPLETELY · OVER INDULGED · 79

‘ THERE IS NOTHING WHICH HAS YET BEEN CONTRIVED BY MAN,

BY WHICH SO MUCH HAPPINESS IS PRODUCED AS BY A GOOD TAVERN’ SAMUEL JOHNSON

PUBLIC SERVICE Nothing beats the feeling of joining the convivial Friday night throng down your local.

The anticipation of the weekend ahead, the banter, that first tiddly wink that puts a full-stop to your working week. And no one does a good old-fashioned pub night better than the UK. Even the end-of-night excess is an inherent part of our pub ritual. While those closing time moments may be fuzzy in your head, chances are street photographer Dougie Wallace has been nearby, snapping the best and worst of them. In Shoreditch Wild Life (£14, hoxtonminipress.com) he’s captured the humorous, the endearing and the unexpected sides of life in this colourful neighbourhood. Alongside hipsters, the book details gentrification, street markets, new and old and rich and poor.

why don’t you?

BAG YOURSELF A BOOK You could win one of five copies of Shoreditch Wild Life by emailing your name and address to comps@hoxtonminipress.com with Shoreditch Wild Life in the subject line. Closing date is 30 November 2014. T&Cs are on p11.

☞ gin gin! When the 1736 Gin Act demanded a distilling licence was needed, bootleg versions were made called Ladies Delight and Cuckold’s Comfort kfh.co.uk

80 · COMPLETELY · YOURS

F ind a KFH service K FH RESIDENTIAL SALES AND LETTINGS BALHAM 124 Balham High Road, SW12 9AA Sales: 020 8675 1123 sba@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 8675 3639 lbc@kfh.co.uk BATTERSEA 108 Northcote Road, SW11 6QP Sales: 020 7228 2666 sbc@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 7228 8688 lbp@kfh.co.uk BATTERSEA PARK 242 Battersea Park Road, SW11 3BP Sales: 020 7924 1944 sbp@kfh.co.uk BAYSWATER 23 Leinster Terrace, W2 3ET Sales: 020 7724 1222 sbw@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 7563 5090 lbw@kfh.co.uk

BROMLEY 1 High Street, BR1 1LF Sales: 020 8460 6066 sbr@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 8464 5353 lbr@kfh.co.uk

EALING 45 The Mall, W5 3TJ Sales : 020 8799 3890 sel@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 8799 3899 lel@kfh.co.uk

HIGHGATE 58 Highgate High Street, N6 5HX Sales: 020 8341 6666 shi@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 8342 7030 lhi@kfh.co.uk

BROOK GREEN 134 Shepherd’s Bush Road, W6 7PB Sales: 020 3542 2020 sbg@kfh.co.uk

EARLSFIELD 517-519 Garratt Lane, SW18 4SW Sales: 020 8944 6464 sea@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 8875 2980 lea@kfh.co.uk

HOLLAND PARK 128 Holland Park Avenue, W11 4UE Sales: 020 3542 2111 shp@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 3542 2120 lhp@kfh.co.uk

EAST DULWICH 107-109 Lordship Lane, SE22 8HU Sales: 020 8299 8800 sed@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 8299 8980 led@kfh.co.uk

ISLINGTON 298 Upper Street, N1 2TU Sales: 020 7226 2487 sis@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 7359 3636 lis@kfh.co.uk

FINCHLEY 767-769 High Road, N12 8JY Sales: 020 8970 7856 sfi@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 8980 7858 lfi@kfh.co.uk

KENNINGTON 292-294 Kennington Road, SE11 4LD Sales: 020 7582 7773 ske@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 7582 4040 lke@kfh.co.uk

FOREST HILL 7a Dartmouth Road, SE23 3HN Sales: 020 8699 1596 sfh@kfh.co.uk

KINGSTON 55-59 Fife Road, KT1 1SF Sales: 020 8939 8191 ski@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 8939 8181 lki@kfh.co.uk

CHISLEHURST 57 High Street, BR7 5AF Sales: 020 8285 9900 sch@kfh.co.uk CHISWICK 163-165 Chiswick High Road, W4 2DT Sales: 020 8987 0090 sck@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 8987 0099 lck@kfh.co.uk CLAPHAM 44 Abbeville Road, SW4 9NF Sales: 020 8675 5436 scs@kfh.co.uk

BECKENHAM Albemarle Road, BR3 5HZ Sales: 020 8650 8268 sbe@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 8658 8443 lbe@kfh.co.uk

CLAPHAM COMMON 30 The Pavement, SW4 0JE Sales: 020 3700 8555 scc@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 3700 6300 lcc@kfh.co.uk

BELSIZE PARK 38 England’s Lane, NW3 4UE Sales: 020 7483 4302 sbz@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 7586 9006 lbz@kfh.co.uk

CROUCH END 36-37 Topsfield Parade, N8 8PT Sales: 020 8348 8181 sce@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 8341 1110 lce@kfh.co.uk

BLACKHEATH 25-27 Montpelier Vale, SE3 0TJ Sales: 020 8852 9451 sbl@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 8297 0181 lbl@kfh.co.uk

CRYSTAL PALACE 15-17 Westow Hill, SE19 1TQ Sales: 020 8766 5920 scp@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 8766 5930 lcp@kfh.co.uk

HAMMERSMITH 180 King Street, W6 0RA Sales: 020 8563 9633 shm@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 8563 9889 lhm@kfh.co.uk

LONDON BRIDGE 44-48 Borough High Street, SE1 1XW Sales: 020 3465 9230 sbo@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 3465 9240 lbo@kfh.co.uk

BROCKLEY 355 Brockley Road, SE4 2AG Sales: 020 8469 0202 sbk@kfh.co.uk

DULWICH VILLAGE 39 Dulwich Village, SE21 7BN Sales: 020 8299 4499 sdv@kfh.co.uk

HAYES 4 Station Buildings, BR2 7EN Sales: 020 8462 2246 shy@kfh.co.uk

MARYLEBONE 235-237 Baker Street, NW1 6XE Sales: 020 7486 5551 sbs@kfh.co.uk

FULHAM 29 Effie Road, SW6 1EN Sales: 020 7731 0051 sfb@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 7736 6737 lfb@kfh.co.uk

SENSATIONAL IN THE CITY

PHOTOGRAPHY:

GEM REDFORD

Our next issue will put your senses into overdrive…

Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

LEE 1 Station Approach, SE12 0AB Sales: 020 8857 9494 sle@kfh.co.uk

COMPLETELY · YOURS · 81

The team MUSWELL HILL 206 Muswell Hill Broadway, N10 3SA Sales: 020 8883 0123 smh@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 8883 2340 lmh@kfh.co.uk

SURREY QUAYS Redriff Road, SE16 7LR Sales: 020 7231 3800 ssq@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 7237 3222 lsq@kfh.co.uk

PECKHAM 48 Peckham Rye, SE15 4JR Sales: 020 7639 2029 spe@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 7635 0034 lpe@kfh.co.uk

TOOTING 58-60 Tooting High Street, SW17 0RN Sales: 020 8767 1400 sto@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 8767 2666 lto@kfh.co.uk

PUTNEY 1 Putney Hill, SW15 6BA Sales: 020 8780 0033 sph@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 8785 3433 lph@kfh.co.uk RAYNES PARK Station Buildings, Coombe Lane, SW20 0JY Sales: 020 3542 2000 srp@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 3542 2010 lrp@kfh.co.uk SOUTHFIELDS 251-251B Wimbledon Park Road, SW19 6NW Sales: 020 8871 9655 ssf@kfh.co.uk SOUTHGATE 83 Chase Side, N14 5BU Sales: 020 8882 3333 sso@kfh.co.uk ST JOHN’S WOOD 41-47 Barrow Hill Road, NW8 7AH Sales: 020 7586 8001 sjw@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 7586 8817 ljw@kfh.co.uk STREATHAM 1 Leigham Court Road, SW16 2ND Sales: 020 8769 8744 sst@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 8769 3337 lst@kfh.co.uk

WEST DULWICH 113 Rosendale Road, SE21 8EZ Sales: 020 8761 0900 swd@kfh.co.uk WEST HAMPSTEAD 199a West End Lane, NW6 2LJ Sales: 020 7328 2238 swh@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 7604 5150 lwh@kfh.co.uk WEST PUTNEY 81-83 Lower Richmond Road, SW15 1EU Sales: 020 8785 2122 slp@kfh.co.uk WEST WICKHAM 76 High Street, BR4 0NH Sales: 020 8777 2381 sww@kfh.co.uk WIMBLEDON 49 Wimbledon Hill Road, SW19 7QW Sales: 020 8944 4000 swm@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 8944 4040 lwm@kfh.co.uk

RESIDENTIAL LETTINGS AND MANAGEMENT Lettings Management KFH House, 5 Compton Road, SW19 7QA 020 8739 2100 llm@kfh.co.uk Lettings Client Accounts KFH House, 5 Compton Road, SW19 7QA 020 8739 2110 lca@kfh.co.uk Lettings Renewals KFH House, 5 Compton Road, SW19 7QA 020 8739 2190 lrd@kfh.co.uk

CHARTERED SURVEYORS Greater London KFH House, 5 Compton Road, SW19 7QA 020 8739 2040 surveyors@kfh.co.uk SURVEYORS ALSO COVERING: Bedfordshire, Birmingham, Cambridge, Essex, Gloucester, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Oxford, South Wales, Suffolk, Surrey 0800 328 8898 surveyors@kfh.co.uk

FINANCIAL SERVICES Greater London KFH House, 5 Compton Road, SW19 7QA 020 8739 2068 smoody@kfh.co.uk

editorial Creative director Jules Rogers Editorial director Sarah Bravo Group editor Kitty Finstad Editor Donna Hardie ·email· donna@completelylondon.co.uk Art director Richard Murray Chief sub editor Janetta Willis Assistant editor Miranda Thompson Picture editor Clare Limpus Production manager David Sharman Creative consultant for KFH Stuart Youngs at Purpose Contributors Keith Barker-Main, Lauren Bravo, Adrian Briscoe, Scott Gundersen, Alex Hedworth, Joanna Henderson, Jessie Hewitson, Christa Larwood, Simon Lewis, Dominic Lutyens, Harry Malt, Agata Marszalek, Rupert Mellor, Paddy Mills, Paul Mitchell, Jim Naughten, Pip, Christoffer Relander, Sally Rose, Jessica Cargill Thompson, Martin Usborne, Dougie Wallace, Peter Watts, Rob White, Mel Yates Thanks to Laura Hill, Karen Plowman

publishing Managing director Mark Lonergan Account manager Heidi Smith Ad sales 020 7749 3300, KFHads@ augustmedia.com Published by August Media Ltd, Zetland House, Scrutton Street, London EC2A 4HJ. 020 7749 3300. info@augustmedia.com

LAND AND NEW HOMES Greater London 180 King Street, W6 0RA 020 8222 7200 newhomes@kfh.co.uk South East Surrey Quays Shopping Centre, Redriff Road, Surrey Quays, SE16 7LR 020 7740 2640 newhomesse@kfh.co.uk

COMMERCIAL PROPERTY 5 Compton Road, SW19 7QA 020 8739 2090 commercial@kfh.co.uk

BLOCK MANAGEMENT Nelson House, 58 Wimbledon Hill Road, SW19 7PA 020 3542 0200 propman@kfh.co.uk

HEAD OFFICE KFH House, 5 Compton Road, SW19 7QA 020 8739 2000 ho@kfh.co.uk

August Media is a member of The Content Marketing Association (CMA) and the British Society of Magazine Editors (BSME) AWARDS Editor of the Year, Customer Magazines (consumer readership) BSME Awards 2012 BSME Awards 2011 Designer of the Year CMA Awards 2012 Grand Prix APA Awards 2010 Best Launch APA Awards 2010 Best Use of Photography APA Awards 2010 Editor of the Year APA Awards 2010 Chair: Dylan Jones, Editor, GQ Administration: Gill Branston & Associates, 137 Hale Lane, Edgware, Middx HA8 9QP Tel: 020 8906 4664. Fax: 020 8959 2137. E-mail: admin@bsme.com In association with the Periodical Publishers Association Ltd, Queens House, 28 Kingsway, London WC2B 6JR

Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward is the trading name of Kinleigh Limited, registered in England 913323.

Registered office: KFH House, 5 Compton Road London, SW19 7QA

The prices of properties featured for sale and to let in this publication are believed to be correct at the time of going to press. Before arranging to view any of the featured properties, please contact the relevant KFH office to establish whether or not they are still available, the current asking price and, in the case of properties to let, whether or not they are furnished. Any internal photographs are intended as a guide only and it should not be assumed that any of the furniture/ fittings are included in any sale or letting.

© August Media Ltd 2014.

The opinions herein are those of the authors or persons interviewed only and do not reflect the views of Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward or August Media.

Printer: The Artisan Press Ltd. Repro: Zebra.

Cover paper: 250gsm Tauro Offset.

Text paper: 90gsm UPM Fine

This magazine is printed on paper produced from sustainable managed forests accredited by the PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification schemes, pefc.org)

kfh.co.uk

PHOTOGRAPHY:

SALLY ROSE

82 · COMPLETELY · FOR LAUGHS

C OMEDY VALUE Anita O’Brien is director of The Cartoon Museum, an institution that celebrates British cartoons, comics and caricatures

F

rom an office stacked with yellowing copies of The Beano and 7,000 other comics, Anita’s job keeps her busy, but at least it’s full of laughs. She spends much of her time scrutinising the funny pages in magazines and newspapers that are hundreds of years old.

‘Humour is very important to a good cartoon,’ admits Anita, who also looks after 6,500 books and 3,800 original artworks. ‘Cartoons are also very revealing. They say a lot about society, showing us things that don’t

appear in official portraits or attitudes that would otherwise go unrecorded.’

The Cartoon Museum can trace its origins back to 1949, when cartoonist HM Bateman gave a speech promoting the need for a national museum devoted to this art. The Cartoon Art Trust was formed in 1988 and the museum eventually settled into an old dairy near the British Museum in 2006. Here, The Cartoon Museum celebrates the snook-cocking wit of British cartoonists, covering everything from William Hogarth – who will be the subject of an exhibition from 22 October – to present-day greats like Ronald Searle.

‘Any history really starts with Hogarth,’ says Anita. ‘From the

1720s, he was doing social satire. People would spend a lot of time looking at his pictures, enjoying every detail. They’d rent them for the weekend and invite friends round to discuss them.’

But the museum doesn’t just immortalise the work of the great political cartoonists, it also finds space for the masters of the silly and the surreal, such as Donald McGill, who created hundreds of saucy postcards, or Davey Law, who first drew Dennis The Menace. In its rooms you’ll find Steve Bell sharing space with Willie Rushton, Andy Capp alongside Posy Simmonds. · peter watts The Cartoon Museum, 35 Little Russell Street, WC1, cartoonmuseum.org

☞ funny that! London’s Punch magazine was influential in the 1840s and 50s and helped to coin the term ‘cartoon’, meaning humorous illustration Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward