Raving about Waterloo

Choosing somewhere to stay in London hasn’t been something we’ve needed to do, until recently, but with two nights in town meeting friends and family we wanted to stay somewhere that was easy to get to both the City and the West End, and which didn’t cost the earth.

After some internet research - especially on prices - we settled for a Travelodge in Waterloo, and we couldn’t have chosen a better location. We arrived at Kings Cross and got on the Northern line to Bank, changing there for the Waterloo & City line - and bam, we where in Waterloo and checked in.

We headed out for lunch at Pizza Pilgrims on Lower Marsh - I had the double pepperoni and hot honey - which was good, I could take or leave the honey though, but the stacked tin tomatoes were as impressive.

Soon we were back on the Waterloo & City line heading to the City where we met up with plenty of friends to mark our escape to the country and it was great to see so many of our friends to catch up and plan future visits over a drink or two and way too much food! A final trip on the Waterloo & City line for the day saw us back at the hotel for the night.

The next morning, after a relaxed start, we headed out for breakfast looking for a proper caff, rather than a chain. Our instincts told us to head down The Cut, which looked quite different to our previous visits with many more chains moving in. We spotted what we were looking for though, and found a cafe serving the largest plate of full English (for MOH) and a bacon and egg sandwich for me. We weren’t disappointed, the place was buzzing with builders, taxi drivers and a few bemused tourists from overseas.

Our plan for the day was to check out some furniture I’d seen online over at Marble Arch and then head over to Brick Lane to get some bagels. From Waterloo we arrived at Bond Street on the Bakerloo line and headed straight to Fortnums to buy our mince pie treat - they’re pricey, but they’re oh so nice, and for the last few years or so, a box has been ours. Moving out of London wasn’t going to change this, and it made sense for us to get them on our visit, once we’d checked out the Christmas windows and their decorations.

Armed with mince pies, our next stop was Marble Arch and our plan was to get there through the back streets avoiding the busier streets, as you never quite know what you’ll find. And we weren’t disappointed as we came across the Ever After Garden in Grosvenor Square, which was quite a moving sight.

And then we looked up at the most fantastic yellow leaved tree, which no doubt looked even better against the sunlit white building and the blue sky. A joyous sight that’s for sure.

We carried on walking to Marble Arch only to find that the store didn’t have any of the range I wanted to look at anyway, typically. However the sales assistant was familiar with the range, and could answer the questions I had, so that was something.

After a quick coffee and a pastry, we headed off to Liverpool Street on the Central line. Above ground again and we walked through Spitalfields to Brick Lane and to our favourite bagel shop. Bagels secured, we headed back to Spitalfields Market to share lunch, stopping briefly to admire the the graffiti, which if you look more closely at you’ll see it’s sprayed onto electrical sockets.

Back to the hotel, on the Waterloo & City line again, after walking to and past Bank for a final time on this visit. That evening we met up with family in the West End so we were back on the Bakerloo line, this time to Piccadilly Circus. A pre-dinner drink (or two) in a pub before heading over to our favourite Hawksmoor restaurant on Air Street.

Still full from the night before, we skipped breakfast the next morning opting for a coffee and pastry in Tottenham Court Road - a quick hop over from Waterloo on the Northern line. Then we were off to check out what Heals and West Elm had to offer furniture-wise - in short, nothing grabbed us this time round, so we headed up towards Market Halls, but first stopping in John Lewis. There we had more success, looking at several items which we added to our Black Friday shopping list.

We had just one more tube journey ahead of us - from Oxford Circus back to Kings Cross and our train home.

In those three days we clocked up just over 39,200 steps (with half of those on the middle day) and twelve and a half miles, let alone the numerous tube rides - so quite a trip. It was good to be back in London, but it was oh so much better to be home.

And Waterloo, definitely a location we’ll check out again for future stays.

Market Halls Loos

We’ve been watching MasterChef: The Professionals and luckily were up to date ahead of our trip to London last week, which at least meant we would only have a few episodes to catch up with on our return. But what we didn’t realise was that the episode where the finalists cooked in a pop up kitchen would shape our trip. When the camera showed outside the venue - Market Halls - MOH and I looked at each other and said Oxford Street.

And we weren’t wrong, and while the MasterChef finalists weren’t cooking we guessed there’d be some pretty good food on offer. We weren’t wrong again!

We popped in for lunch last Friday ahead of our train home. The venue is a mix of industrial and glamour, as you’ll see from the pictures below. It had a buzz, which came from the hubbub of small kitchens grouped together, and their customers milling around to choose their food - and from the pager which buzzes when you’re food is ready to collect.

We chose Hotbox, but then struggled to choose from their menu so instead opted for a selection of their smoked meat with some fries. This worked out well for us as we got to try more than we would have done otherwise, and we didn’t have to make that choice!

But you’re right, this is the first loo series post in a while - and so far, there’s no loos.

Thankfully for a large-ish venue, the loos were a decent size. There’s nothing worse than being in a large venue, then discovering there’s four (or less) loos in the Ladies is there?

A row of sinks, mirrors above, tiled walls and flooring - nothing too extravagant, or ground breaking, but looking again and noticing the graduating wall paint colour within each cubicle, now that was smart, subtle but yet impactful.

And that wasn’t all, the vinyls on the mirror were also true to the venue - and definitely made me smile, as did the food we ate - we’ll definitely be going back at some point!

HEY GOOD LOOKING, HAVE YOU CHECKED OUT OUR COOKING?

Adding functionality with an Urbansize floating dressing table

One of the spaces that we needed to make work for us is in our dressing area, which is a rather grand name for the space between our bedroom and en-suite which also contains a built in wardrobe. The wardrobe is big, though the dressing area is small but with potential.

So I started to scour the internet for a small piece of functional furniture. I wanted something with a drawer, so that our clutter could be out of sight, and after much internet searching I found a unit that worked with the dimensions I had. It arrived in the summer, flat packed, and the afternoon we had the Red Arrows fly over MOH spent some time putting it together, with just a few swears here and there. We had doubts about it then, and well let’s just say it was in the ‘too good to be true’ category and while it technically should have worked, functionally it didn’t.

Just for clarity the Urbansize floating oak dressing table pictured is our replacement option, and one I wish we’d gone for in the first place. Sigh.

Anyway, after a month or two of not actually using the original piece of furniture for anything like we planned, we agreed enough was enough and we should try again. I’m not naming the company we bought the original piece from here and they have since closed their order book, which speaks volumes.

I remembered that I’d pinned the Urbansize floating oak dressing table when our new house was just a possibility - I’ve no idea why I hadn’t remembered before, and it would have been a lot easier, and less expensive, if I had. What’s more the dimensions worked too. Even better MOH was on board with the replacement.

Urbansize aren’t a company I was familiar with and so after my previous experience I thought I’d do some research and digging. The company was formed in Greenwich, just down the road from our previous house - who would have thought, and their registered office was just off our local parade of shops when we lived in London. The founder Sallie King designed her first piece, the floating bedside table frustrated at not being able to find furniture to fit her urban sized flat.

I’m very glad she did.

We ordered our floating dressing table, and it was despatched quickly and with us within a week - and in fact, much quicker than we expected. It looks great too. It comes with instructions on how to fit, which in fairness could have been more detailed, and optional brackets. We have plasterboard walls, and as I’m keen it stays on the wall, we opted to use these.

The drawers are small, but that’s kind of the point of it. It’s furniture for a smaller space so the drawers were never going to be huge. They’re big enough to hold some toiletries, and deep enough to have a mirror on the top. The mirror is from Ikea and a steal at £19 - it’s one that I saw and liked when we visited the Cotswolds in September.

Before we started using the drawers though I added some paper as a liner to help protect it - my thinking is that it will be much easier to replace the paper, than to try and clean the base of the drawer!

It’s a small addition to a small space that has really added value and made the space functional, rather than just a walkway to the bathroom - and I’m really pleased with how our version 2 worked out. So much so, that I’ve been back on their site to see what else they have. I’ve not made another purchase yet, but I’d definitely use them again.

I’m sure over time we’ll add more to this space, and we definitely need to revamp the inside of our wardrobe so it works makes full use of what is a relatively large space. It currently has a single shelf above the hanging space which is across the full width, which doesn’t work for us, so if you’ve used a company to fit out the interior of your wardrobe that you’ve been impressed by, I’m all ears.