give three piece a chance pt.1

With the other half of the His and Hers working in the vicinity of Saville Row, and this half’s predilection for forgetting house keys/mobiles/wallets, it’s of a fairly high frequency that I find myself wandering along one of the most refined streets in London town to collect my brain possessions.

Seeing the master tailors at work and the sharp, sophisticated suits displayed in the windows of these purveyors of fine fabrics is enough to make me want to purge my wardrobe of any denim and take to tailored trousers forevermore.

Much to the delight of the hoardes of hormonal teenagers visiting from mainland Europe but to the chagrin of everyone else, on the corner of Saville Row and Burlington Gardens is A&F. If you’re not aware (count yourself lucky) they are a retailer of heavily branded garments which are churned out cut in a somewhat more relaxed fit.

If that wasn’t bad enough, it is now planning to expand and encroach on to Saville Row itself, setting up a “baby” version of their store on the old site of Apple Records (a crime akin to treason itself in some circles). Rumours abound that their next expansion plan is to replace the Queen’s Foot Guards with the washboard stomach wankersarriors that flex to attention at the doors of their stores at present.

However, us Brits aren’t going to take this seizure of our streets lying down. No! we’re going to put on our best tweeds, twiddle our ‘taches and take to the streets (with a healthy supply of rough shag for the pipe and whisky in the flask of course).

Photo: Matt Dunham / AP

Brilliantly the chaps at er.. The Chap magazine organised this fantastic protest in an attempt to stem the tide of “sweat” shirts from Saville Row, and preserve its history and expertise in tailoring… By proxy I think they also raised awareness about the dangers of what leaving the confines of the home or gym wearing ill fitting sports wear can do to ones reputation.

Also situated on Saville Row a His and Hers hidden gem.. but more on that tomorrow, as I’ve now got to rush off and starch my collars.

see your heroes

Its always with slight trepidation that I book tickets to go see a genuine music megastar rolling out their back catalogue.

Because I have such affection for their songs, and the memories that the music creates for me, the question always plays heavily on my mind that if it’s a below par experience, will that concert taint my experience of the music in the future? (I really should probably stop over analyzing these things i know… but as a nerdy muso, its this sort of thing that matters to me..).

So we were incredibly lucky last night to get tickets to see Sir Paul McCartney at the Royal Albert Hall playing for the brilliant Teenage Cancer Trust charity. Like the majority of us I was brought up listening to The Beatles (with a healthy dose of Paul Simon on the side), so to see Sir Paul play was always going to be special.

Add the atmosphere of the Albert Hall into the mix, and it suddenly gets… well at times speechless. Especially when Paul Weller, Ronnie Wood and Roger Daltrey joined Sir Paul on stage for a number or two.

So the question is what’s next? Do I dare ruin the memories of school holiday car journeys of my youth by booking tickets to this singalong? I think I might. See you there.

let’s put those clocks back and have a perfect london weekend

Of a Saturday, Portobello Road is generally heaving with tourists toting their SLRs and asking for directions to a travel bookshop and blue door which featured in a certain 1997 romantic comedy. Head a little further north to Golborne Road (which we’ll talk about properly soon) and the tone changes for the better. (That is the famous Goldfinger building in the background).

We started with breakfast at Lowry & Baker – one of our favourite local cafes.

We then wandered down Golborne Road for some Moroccan tea, sharing a bench with some old geezers with opinions on everything and who had clearly set up camp for the entire day…

The sunshine was too good to waste so we moved on to an impromptu picnic in a secret garden…where we unwittingly wiled away a good six hours.

As the sun faded I moseyed into Central London to meet a friend for a quick retail recce, and was delighted to discover that Monki has opened a stand alone shop in Carnaby Street. As well as being a ridiculously fun shop, like many of the Swedish brands, Monki make great basics at a verrry nice price.

Onward to Spuntino (which we recommended here). This is a great hidden gem – there is no sign out the front, the door is firmly closed and all you can see from the street is a streak of soft light. Nervous of its infamous queues, it was uncharacteristically quiet and we were whisked straight to a seat. We ate like queens, got given some free chips(!) and pretended we were in the West Village.

A lazy Sunday was spent flying our absolutely rubbish kite in Holland Park…

…running into a couple of oddballs trying to blend into the foliage…

…and staging a pretty fierce colouring competition with the six year olds at the next table at Byron (we lost)…

…and home in time to watch Julian Fellowes’ Titanic. I wonder what’s going to happen in the end?!

why we love cycling..

…because you just don’t see sunrises like this from the depths of the Central Line.

And because I love going past the Albert Memorial every day. Did you know that after Albert died, Queen Victoria had a bath drawn and his clothes laid out every day until her death? Que romántico.