|
London for Businessfolks, Bankers and Book-loversWhere to stay, where to eatBy Lucy KomisarLondon has so many moods, so many façades, it could be dozens of different cities. I had recently stayed in the West End theater district and in trendy Kensington. Now I turned to investigate places that appealed to two very different kinds of visitors: business people and intellectuals. For the first, I chose the Hilton at Green Park, a favorite for business travelers, and Threadneedles’ Bonds Restaurant in the City of London financial center. For the second, I headed for Bloomsbury, site of the British Museum and the University of London, stomping grounds of the famed Bloomsbury literary group, where the Thistle Bloomsbury and the Imperial Hotel offer very different atmospheres.
Inside, there is the charm of intimate connected rooms,
done in modern browns and beiges, with a hint of Britain’s colonial past in the
Orient and Africa: leopardskin fabrics and wood vases with sheaves of bamboo
sticks. Shelves hold bowls and flower arrangements with a Far Eastern feel.
Perhaps that’s why this hotel is a favorite for businessmen. At breakfast, there were Japanese at one table and Germans and French at the next. The continental breakfast is equally international, including croissants, fresh fruit and my favorite fresh figs.
It stands to reason that the restaurant would be named Bonds! The dining room is stunning, with long and round tables and low hanging lighting that sparkles off ruby glass vases filled with tall dried flowers. The high ceilings afford plenty of room for the cool abstract paintings. Bonds presents a delectable bill of fare for people whose palates appear to demand the best that money can buy. The tasting menu, for example, includes scallop with shell fish daube, foie gras with pureed quince and carmelized cream, truffle and artichoke salad, roast wild duck with sour cherries. ($105. Conversions are made at the current £1 = $1.91.)
From pursuit of the dollar (and pound) to pursuits of the mind. Bloomsbury is a very special part of London, connected in history to writers and scholars. It was made famous by Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group. It’s also the site of the British Museum, which holds the great London library. And it’s where the University of London sprawls.
There’s some important intellectual history here and
nearby. In the early 1700s, a former pupil and assistant of Sir Christopher Wren
(England’s greatest architect, who built Saint Paul's Cathedral) designed the
Parish Church of St. Georges Bloomsbury, which occupies the site next door.
The lobby is wonderfully British elegant but “comfy,” with overstuffed chairs, potted plants, 19th century paintings, even an old grandfather clock. Just the place to relax after a visit to see the Parthenon (Elgin) Marbles at the nearby British Museum. They are now at the center of international controversy.
Russell Square is one of those many verdant oasis that
Londoners were smart enough to place throughout the city. This one has a café
with indoor seating for rainy days and outdoor tables for good weather.
If you go: Hilton Green Park Bonds Thistle Bloomsbury Imperial at Russell Square Prices cited are “rack rates.” You can often get discounts via general hotel marketing sites. Langan’s Brasserie Recommended guide “Top 10 London,” by Roger Williams Images by Lucy Komisar Partheonon frieze by the British Museum |
|
TM
The Hilton London Green Park in Mayfair is one of those
London inventions, a hotel made up of a collection of elegant row houses, with
hallways cut through to join them together. Outside you see a row of stylish
four-story white clapboard and black brick town houses with wrought iron
balconies.
Narrow stalks are set on a square wood bowl: “I Ching,” someone explained. The
public rooms, the dining and lounge spaces, are small and intimate and provide
welcome privacy.
The Hilton Green Park couldn’t be better located. When a
friend invited me out to the trendiest restaurant in town, Langan’s Brasserie,
we could stroll to it, just three blocks away. At the end of the quiet Half Moon
Street is Green Park, and a five-minute walk takes you to the tube. It’s
absolutely central, with Soho to the east and Kensington and Chelsea south and
southwest.
For financial business people however, the place to be is
The City, and nowhere better than Threadneedles, the City’s boutique hotel on
the street of that name, which opened in 2002. This is bank territory. The Old
Lady of Threadneedle Street is the traditional name for the Bank of England.
Built of sturdy grey brick in 1856, the hotel was once the headquarters of the
Midland Bank.
The bank’s old grand hall, with its high ceilings and
marble pillars, is now a lounge. The furnishings are contemporary browns lit by
shaded bank-style lamps. They could fill the reception room of a law office or
stock brokerage. In fact, men and women in dark suits who have spent the day in
front of computers and ticker tapes wander over after work and occupy the brass
and glass bar. If you’re in the business, here’s a place to meet colleagues.
Or choose from “starters” such as crab with avocado and
caviar, pheasant boudin with garlic puree, or pumpkin and sage mouse with
buffalo mozzarella. ($20 to $31.50) Main courses include venison with black
berries and chocolate sauce, braised Charlolais beef with Hermitage and bay leaf
sauce, sea bass with caramelized cepe (mushroom) and vanilla cappuccino. ($33 to
$91). I tried venison, which was superb.
Fitting right into that history is the Thistle Hotel, an
old Victorian building with red bricks and curved windows built in 1898. Then it
was called the Kingsley, known as a Temperance Hotel, “in one of the healthiest
districts of London” said its brochure of the time. It still has a homey
atmosphere, including bedrooms designed with warm-colored print fabrics, though
you now can get a “pint” at the bar.
And
in 1902, the novelist E.M. Forester (“A Room With a View”) stayed at the
Kingsley.
Two hundred years ago, Lord Elgin, British Ambassador to
the Ottoman Empire, which then occupied Greece, took the friezes from Athens'
Parthenon. The figures were later sold to the British Museum, and the Greek
government has been lobbying for their return for more than two decades. A good
reason to see them in London soon!
The Imperial Hotel overlooking Russell Square Gardens is of
a completely different style than the Thistle, a tourist hotel with wifi in the
back lobby, a large dining room, and numerous lounge areas, one with potted
plants, columns and a marble statue providing a calm spot to gaze out at the
gardens. The Emperor Bar also overlooks the square. The tube is a block away.
Russell
Square is an unofficial campus for the University of London, just the other side
of the gardens from the hotel. It’s a popular place for all sorts of gatherings.
The day I arrived at the Imperial, I peered out the window and discovered
demonstrators lining up for the march that followed a meeting of the European
Social Forum. Naturally, I snapped a shot!
Wherever I was in London, I seemed to be right in the
middle of what was happening!