Each September, a number of doors are swung open to the public for a snoop inside buildings that you wouldn’t normally be able to gain access too thanks to the Open House London Weekend. Last year I managed to visit the Bank of England (and I queued for 3 hours!) and decided that this year I was going to stay in London for a night hence the reason for my little weekend break to London.
As the super organised person that I’m not, I did managed to book our accommodation about 3 weeks prior our arrival at the super cool W Hotel in Leicester Square. And lets just say oh my blooming goodness; our suite was incredible. I will do a full review later alligator but here are some snaps!
Armed with a pdf copy of the properties that were open I tried to find a couple close to the hotel hence a visit St Anne’s Tower on Wardour Street. Such incredible history however a lot of the property was destroyed during the blitz.
Close to Piccadilly we managed to sneak inside Burlington House: The Geological Society of London a few minutes before closing time. The library was just breathtaking
A visit to London wouldn’t be complete without afternoon tea and I decided to try Browns Hotel again however I was a week too early to try their new gluten free afternoon tea which Joanne has waved her magic wand over! If you love the gluten free afternoon tea at the Royal Horseguards then you need to pop into Brown’s Hotel as Joanne has moved but she was lovely enough to send me a teaser of what the gluten free pastries look like (middle photo and hence I will be returning as the photo is making my tummy rumble!). G loved his pastries and wants to return again!
Back in our hotel room it was bed time but not before we had numerous giggles of sleeping in a bed that had mirrors on the ceiling; I realised that I really need to exercise more or sew my mouth shut!
We were thinking about heading to the Breakfast Club however we’re not the fastest movers and shakers in the morning and there was a queue and I don’t have patience first thing in the morning. G’s next question was – any other suggestions for breakfast? – my jolly reply was let’s go to Claridge’s (jokingly) however that’s where we ended up. The manager remembered us, possibly due to our last visit G had two black eyes, a broken nose and arm but he also remembered that I required a gluten free breakfast and was on hand to let me know what was available. One of the tastiest gluten free sausages I’ve eaten. Top notch service again Claridge’s!
After having a full English breakfast we walked back to the hotel and I carried on my merry way to The Foreign and Commonwealth Office which was the one building that I really really wanted to visit and I wasn’t disappointed! And no queues, it was my lucky day!
If The Foreign and Commonwealth Office have another open day please make an effort to visit as it’s just super beautiful; the detailing will leave you breathless.
Even the floor was pretty; pity my converse needed a clean!
With a spring in my step and extremely happy to have visited the FCO I headed back to the hotel but took some photos of London on the way. London looks gorgeous under pretty blue skies don’t you think!
Unfortunately we had to check out of the W Hotel (I wanted to stay forever!) and made our way to Moorgate station as I was a lucky girl and ended up managing to snag two tickets to the Open House Crossrail event – these tickets were like rocking horse poo (this is G’s English expression that I have picked up; along with as useless as a chocolate teapot but I digress!).
It was interesting to see how the Cross Rail project is progressing and I’m a bit of a transport nerd (and no I don’t spend my weekends taking photos of trains, castles on the other hand…) but I do work in the transport industry hence the transport nerdness. I did wonder if I could push G down the rabbit hole that was Cross Rail but I behaved!
After all that snooping I had worked up an appetite and had Muriel’s Kitchen on my radar as a place to visit for gluten free food and there was a branch right on Leicester Square. Cheap but not cheerful, I was extremely disappointed with the food and wouldn’t recommend a visit – or maybe just avoid the Leicester Square branch. G had the plate of carb overload!
So it was another weekend over and G had a number of photos that he needed to download to show off to the folks at his work. Sometimes it’s just so much fun to play tourist in London.
xx
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