#restaurants notting hill gate

[thetartinerestaurant]

European Food

Visit the Tartine Food House to taste the  comprehensive European menu combined with home-made bread and pastries.

visit:-https://thetartine.co.uk/

#european cuisine #european food #cafe near me #notting hill gate restaurants #restaurants notting hill gate #nottinghill gate restaurants #food notting hill gate

[centralparkcollection]

Central Park Hotel: Where to Stay for Home Comforts and Luxury

When looking for hotels in Central London, it’s easy to be tempted by a five-star hotel with all the frills. However, these properties are not feasible for the average traveller’s budget. Fortunately, properties such as the Central Park Hotel London provide all the luxury of a grand dame hotel at a reasonable cost. 

Where is the Central Park Hotel London

The Central Park Hotel nestles on a serene street in a quiet neighbourhood close to Paddington Station and Hyde Park in the London West End. Located within walking distance of Paddington, Bayswater, Queensway, and Lancaster Gate, it is wonderfully connected to everywhere in London. Yet, you are guaranteed to sleep easily in this peaceful area. 

How to get to the Central Park Hotel

International travellers arriving at Heathrow Airport may take the Heathrow Express or Elizabeth Line directly to Paddington Station. It is a 15-minute walk from the station or less than five minutes in a taxi for those with luggage.

Top-notch amenities at the Central Park Hotel London

Upon arrival, you will be checked in and greeted warmly by the front desk. Staff are available 24/7 to answer any questions during your stay. They can assist with laundry services, a wake-up call, luggage storage, restaurant reservations, and London attraction tickets. 

All guest rooms at the Central Park Hotel London feature a private bathroom, complimentary Wi-Fi, a TV, in-room coffee/tea-making facilities, an in-room safe, a wardrobe, a mini fridge, and a work desk. Daily housekeeping will ensure your room remains sparkling clean. 

Breakfast and bar at the Central Park Hotel 

As one of the best hotels in Central London, a continental and full English breakfast is available to all guests. This comprises a buffet stocked with an assortment of healthy dishes. In the evenings, this restaurant area is transformed into a bar serving a fine selection of wines, spirits, and beers. 

Many of London’s most appealing restaurants are within walking distance or require a short journey by bus, Tube, or taxi. Paddington is awash with casual independent restaurants and traditional pubs while upscale Notting Hill is abundant in trendy brunch spots and stylish wine bars. The Michelin-starred fine dining scene is a short trip on the Underground.

Things to do near the Central Park Hotel 

Start your day with a morning stroll in Hyde Park and locate the Italian Gardens. Kensington Palace Gardens is connected to the west end of the park whereas Green Park and Buckingham Palace are a short walk to the east. Little Venice is but a 20-minute walk away where you can meander along the canals. 

Choosing one of the top-rated hotels in Central London means that you can even walk to Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and the London Eye. 

How to book the Central Park Hotel 

The best rates apply when you book a stay at the Central Park Hotel London online. Booking directly finds the best available rate and applies an automatic discount. Deals and packages are also available via the property’s official website. 

[withabackpackandcamera]

August 17th, 2023

Day 2: Exploring London's Neighborhoods

Brunch at Farm Girl in Notting Hill. Our brunch: Ripe Cherry Pancakes and Korean Kimchi Eggs.

Walked along Portobello Road and caught glimpses of the unique antique shops lined up along the road.

Trained over to SoHo area so that Cynthia could meet up with a friend. Meanwhile, while waiting for Cynthia, I roamed around the area and through the cute streets and alleyways until I found myself meandering into Regents Park. A massive park and area of greenery with open fields, gardens, statues, gates, and lots of shaded and unshaded places to sit.

Met up with Cynthia for lunch at a cute Italian restaurant called Circolo Popolare. Super snazzy and cozy inside with shelves of colorful bottles used as decor and hanging lights from the ceiling. For lunch, we shared a Calabrian Flame Pizza (San Marzano tomato, mozzarella fior di latte, spicy spianata, 'nduja and ricotta cream, paprika). Yum!

Walked into SoHo and to the Seven Dials Neighborhood. Met up with Minh and checked out Neal's Yard and Seven Dials Market and some stores and shops along the way.

Strolled through Seven Dials Neighborhood and Trafalgar Square and made our way to the House of MinaLima, a storefront for the design studio best known for its artistic influence on Harry Potter. Cool store with lots of their unique graphics and prints and books.

Walked ALL the way to a church Minh wanted to see on the other side of town that ended up not being the right church. Along the way, we stopped and looked around Covent Garden and its market and shopping mall.

Trained to briefly re-check out the most tourist-y area of town, Westminster, where we finally got to see Big Ben, all renovated and new looking with the scaffolding we saw last time, and Westminster Abbey and the London Eye. Hung out on the green lawn just behind Big Ben for a little, enjoying the views right before sunset.

The final stop of the night was dinner in Fulham. Trained To Fulham to meet up with my cousin Vi for dinner at her favorite local fish and chips restaurant, Fishers. We ordered some Butterfly King Prawns and two white-fish fish and chips plates. So yummy!

5 Things I Learned/Observed Today:

In the summer, spending time outside under the cool shade of a tree in a London public park seems to be the popular thing to do.

One should stand on the right side when not walking or running up or down the escalator to the subways and trains. On the other hand, there is no rhyme or reason to which side people choose to walk on when walking down sidewalks or streets. In crowded areas, it's totally random where people walk so be careful!

MinaLima is the design and graphics studio that helped bring Harry Potter to life. They designed a lot of the popular and iconic graphics associated with the Harry Potter franchise.

Back in the day, the Seven Dials neighborhood played an important role in commercial trade and commerce. There were many markets in this area and at that time, a lot of the buildings were used to store a bunch of imported tropical fruits and vegetables. The building in which Seven Dials Market sits used to house a bunch of bananas. Other storehouses in the area held cucumbers and pineapples among other things. Until this era of imported fruits at the beginning of the 1900s, British people only knew of apples, pears, and homegrown fruits.

London has a rich history and tradition of food markets. There are many many food markets around town. The oldest food market in London is Borough Market, dating back to 1014, and the newest food market is Seven Dials Market.

#withabackpackandcamera #huyphan8990 #travelblog #travel #blog #London #England #UnitedKingdom #Summer #August #2023 #shotoniphone #neighborhoodsofLondon #foodmarkets #SoHo #NottingHill #SevenDials #Fulham #worldtravels

[pixenite]

What Is A Local Keyword And How To Illuminate Your Business With Local Keywords?

In the vast landscape of search engine optimization (SEO), one fundamental aspect often overlooked is local keyword research. This powerful strategy can significantly boost your website’s visibility and drive targeted traffic to your business. We’ll demystify local keyword research, why it is essential, and how Pixenite, being an SEO agency in Ahmedabad, can help with local keyword research.

Understanding Local Keyword Research

What Are Local Keywords?

Local keywords, also known as location-based keywords, are search terms that users employ to find products, services, or information within a specific geographical area. These keywords help search engines like Google deliver relevant results based on a user’s location, enhancing the user experience.

For instance, if you run a pizza restaurant in London City, your potential customers may use phrases like “best pizza in London,” “London pizza delivery,” or “pizza near Notting Hill” to find your business.

Why Are Local Keywords Important?

Local keywords are crucial for businesses that serve specific geographic areas. Here’s why:

Targeted Traffic: Local keywords attract users who are more likely to convert into customers. If someone is searching for a product or service in your area, they are likely in the market for it. Competitive Advantage: Focusing on local keywords can give you an edge over larger competitors who may not optimize for specific locations. Higher Conversions: Localized content increases the chances of users visiting your physical store or making contact, leading to higher conversion rates.

Steps To Conduct Local Keyword Research

Step 1: Start with Google’s Auto-suggest: Begin your research by typing general keywords related to your business into Google’s search bar. Google will automatically suggest related queries, many of which may be location-specific.

For instance, if you’re a florist in New York, typing “flower delivery” might prompt suggestions like “flower delivery New York” or “best florist in NYC.”

Step 2: Use Google’s Keyword Planner: Google’s Keyword Planner is a free tool that provides insights into keyword search volume, competition, and bid estimates. You can filter results by location to find local keywords relevant to your business.

Suppose you’re a dentist in Chicago. You can use the Keyword Planner to discover keywords like “Chicago dentist,” “dental clinic in Chicago,” or “teeth cleaning Chicago.”

Step 3: Leverage Local SEO Tools: Several tools are designed specifically for local keyword research, such as Moz’s Local SEO tool, SEMrush, or Ahrefs. These tools offer valuable insights into local search trends and competitor analysis.

Step 4: Explore Local Directories: Websites like Yelp, Yellow Pages, and TripAdvisor are treasure troves of local keywords. Search for your business or similar businesses in these directories to identify the keywords they use in their listings.

For example, if you run a coffee shop in San Francisco, examine the keywords your competitors on Yelp are using, like “San Francisco coffee shop,” “best coffee in SF,” or “cafe near Golden Gate Bridge.”

Step 5: Analyze Competitor Websites: Your competitors can be a goldmine of local keyword ideas. Visit their websites and look for keywords in their content, meta tags, and headings. You can then incorporate relevant ones into your strategy.

Step 6: Use Geo-modifiers: Adding location-specific words to your keywords is an effective strategy. For instance, if you’re an electrician in Miami, consider keywords like “Miami electrician,” “electrical services in Miami,” or “Miami electrical repair.”

How Can Pixenite Help?

Tailoring Strategies To Geographic Specifics

Pixenite understands that not all businesses operate on a global scale. Many thrive primarily by serving local communities. This is where local keywords come into play. By working closely with our clients to pinpoint their specific service areas, Pixenite can craft tailored SEO strategies centered around local keywords.

For instance, if our client is a family-owned Italian restaurant in San Francisco, we’ll delve into local keywords like “San Francisco Italian restaurant,” “best pizza in SF,” or “Italian dining near Golden Gate Park.” These hyper-local keywords help potential customers find the business when searching for nearby dining options.

Gaining A Competitive Edge

One of the most significant advantages of incorporating local keywords is the ability to gain a competitive edge. Pixenite goes beyond generic keywords to identify niche-specific, location-based keywords that competitors might overlook.

We perform in-depth competitor analysis to understand the landscape and discover untapped opportunities. For example, if our client is a boutique clothing store in Austin, we might identify keywords like “unique Austin fashion boutique” or “handmade clothing in Austin,” giving our client an edge over generic “clothing store” searches.

Targeted Traffic And Higher Conversions

Pixenite’s focus on local keywords isn’t merely about driving traffic but attracting the right traffic. Local keywords draw in users actively seeking products or services within a specific geographical area. These users are not just browsing; they are potential customers ready to make a purchase or visit a physical location.

For instance, if Pixenite is working with a plumbing service in Chicago, optimizing for keywords like “emergency plumber Chicago” or “pipe repair in Chicago” ensures that the website attracts users needing plumbing services. This translates to higher conversion rates and a boost in business for our clients.

Geographical Diversity And Expansion

Pixenite recognizes that some clients have ambitions beyond their immediate vicinity. Our SEO strategies are designed to accommodate growth and expansion. Initially focusing on local keywords, we create a strong foundation for the client’s online presence within their community. As they grow and expand into neighboring areas, we seamlessly transition into targeting broader regional keywords while retaining local visibility.

For example, if we’re initially working with a landscaping company in Seattle, we’ll start with local keywords like “Seattle landscaping services.” As the business grows, we’ll gradually include regional keywords like “Puget Sound landscaping experts” or “landscapers in King County,” ensuring a smooth transition into new markets.

Adapting To Changing Trends

In the dynamic world of SEO, staying adaptable is vital. Pixenite continuously monitors trends in local search behavior. We closely monitor how users search for local businesses, the rise of voice search, and shifts in mobile search patterns.

Our commitment to staying ahead of the curve allows us to pivot and adjust strategies to match evolving search trends. For example, as voice search becomes more prevalent, we’ll ensure that our client’s websites are optimized for voice queries, such as “find a nearby coffee shop” or “local electricians near me.”

Conclusion

Local keyword research is an indispensable aspect of SEO for businesses that rely on local customers. It helps you connect with potential clients who are actively searching for products or services in your area. Remember, effective local keyword research is an ongoing process. Trends change, competitors evolve, and user behavior shifts. Stay vigilant, regularly update your keyword strategy, and monitor your website’s performance to optimize for local search consistently. By incorporating these techniques and examples into your SEO strategy, you’ll be well on your way to improving your website’s visibility, attracting local customers, and, ultimately, growing your business.

Article Source : https://www.pixenite.com/what-is-a-local-keyword-and-how-to-illuminate-your-business-with-local-keywords/

#LocalBusiness #Business #Pixenite #LocalKeyword

[freemon4]

10 of the Best Notting Hill Coffee Shops

If you're a coffee lover, then Notting Hill coffee shops is the place to be! This vibrant and trendy neighborhood is home to some of the best coffee shops in London. Whether you're looking for a quick caffeine fix or an afternoon out with friends, these coffee shops have got you covered. Here are 10 of the best Notting Hill coffee shops:

London The Best Coffee Shops

1. The Westbourne – Known for their delicious coffee and beautiful interior design, The Westbourne is a not-to-miss spot in Notting Hill. Be sure to try their signature avocado toast or one of their tasty pastries 2. 200 Degrees – From its trendy minimalistic aesthetic to its top-notch coffee beans, 200 Degrees is the perfect place for a not-to-be-missed coffee experience. They also offer an array of breakfast and lunch options 3. Farm Girl – If you're looking for a more relaxed and laid back atmosphere, Farm Girl is the spot for you. Enjoy their delicious acai bowls and avocado on toast while lounging on their cozy couches 4. Daylesford Organic – This café not only offers delicious coffee but also promotes healthy and organic options for breakfast and lunch. Their farm-to-table ethos makes for a unique dining experience 5. The CoffeeWorks Project – With its industrial chic interior and knowledgeable baristas, The CoffeeWorks Project is not your average coffee shop. They offer a variety of unique brewing methods, such as the Chemex and V60 6. Pumpkin & Beans – This cute café offers not only delicious coffee but also amazing gluten-free cakes and pastries. Make sure to try their famous pumpkin pie 7. The Good Egg – With its bright and airy atmosphere, The Good Egg is the perfect spot for a leisurely breakfast or lunch. They have an extensive menu with options for both carnivores and vegetarians alike 8. Artisan Coffee – This cozy café not only offers great coffee but also has a wide range of tea options. Their homemade cakes and pastries are not to be missed 9. Lantana Café – With its Australian-inspired menu, Lantana Café offers not only delicious coffee but also tasty brunch options like avocado toast and eggs benedict 10. Fed by Water – As the UK's first fully vegan Italian restaurant, Fed by Water offers not only tasty coffee but also unique and delicious plant-based meals. Try their signature lasagna or eggplant parmesan for a not-to-be-missed dining experience. So why not grab a friend and try out one of these amazing Notting Hill coffee shops? You won't be disappointed.

Best Cafes To Work In Notting Hill

1. The Westbourne 2. 200 Degrees 3. Lantana Cafe 4. Artisan Coffee 5. Daylesford Organic 6. Farm Girl 7. Pumpkin & Beans 8. The Good Egg 9. The CoffeeWorks Project 10. Fed by Water These cafes not only offer tasty drinks and snacks but also provide a comfortable and inspiring atmosphere for getting work done. Whether you prefer to work alone or in a cozy spot with friends, these cafes have options for every type of worker. So grab your laptop and head to one of these Notting Hill coffee shops for a productive day of work.

Notting Hill Gate Coffee Shops

1. The Shed 2. The Ledbury Cafe 3. Maison Touareg 4. Coffee Plant 5. Artisan of London 6. Nam Long Coffee Shop 7. Grounded Notting Hill Gate 8. Coffea Café 9. E Notte Caffe 10. Brick Lane Coffee These coffee shops not only offer delicious drinks but also provide a unique and cozy atmosphere for enjoying them. Located near the bustling Notting Hill Gate station, these cafes are perfect for a quick caffeine fix or settling in for an afternoon of work or conversation with friends. Be sure to try their specialty drinks or tasty snacks while you're there. Happy sipping!

Notting Hill Coffee Shops with Outdoor Seating 1. Farm Girl 2. Pumpkin & Beans 3. Artisan Coffee 4. Lantana Cafe 5. The Good Egg 6. Starbucks (Westbourne Grove) 7. Daylesford Organic 8. Maison Touareg 9. The Westbourne 10. The Ledbury Cafe These coffee shops not only offer delicious drinks and snacks but also provide the perfect atmosphere for enjoying them outside in the sunshine. Whether you prefer to sit on a cozy patio or take your drink to go for a stroll in nearby Hyde Park, these cafes have options for every type of outdoor coffee lover. So grab a friend and head to one of these Notting Hill coffee shops for a relaxing day in the sun.

Coffee Shops Near Me If you're searching for the best Notting Hill coffee shops, look no further than Notting Hill near me. This charming neighborhood is renowned for its picturesque streets, unique storefronts, and abundance of local businesses. Home to dozens of chic cafes and specialty coffee shops, the area is a hotspot for java connoisseurs from all over the city. Whether you're in the mood for a classic cup of joe or a freshly brewed pour-over, Notting Hill has something to suit every taste. One of my personal favorites is Sumner Cafe, which serves up some of the finest lattes in town. With its friendly atmosphere and expertly roasted beans, Sumner is a must-visit for any coffee lover looking to get their fix. So if you find yourself in Notting Hill looking for your next caffeine fix, be sure to check out all of these fantastic local coffee shops!

Notting Hill Coffee Project Notting Hill is known for its vibrant nightlife, but there is also a thriving coffee scene that locals love. Established in 2013, the Notting Hill Coffee shops Project was founded with the mission of supporting local coffee growers and helping to connect communities through great coffee. The Project operates three different coffee shops around the best coffee in Notting Hill, each offering great blends sourced from small-scale farms in Central America, Asia, and Africa. Whether you are looking for a quiet place to study or a bustling atmosphere to meet friends, Notting Hill Coffee shops have something for everyone. With high-quality brews, friendly baristas, and a welcoming atmosphere, Notting Hill Coffee shops Project is the perfect way to start your day in this lively neighborhood!

Cafes On Portobello Road Notting Hill is known for its vibrant culture and diverse range of shops, restaurants, and coffee shops. There is perhaps a no better place to experience the eclectic vibe of this part of London than Portobello Road, where you will find dozens of cafes and coffeeshops bustling with diners and patrons. These establishments offer some of the best coffee in town, made from carefully selected beans from all around the world. Whether you are looking for a quick cup on the go or an opportunity to sit down and enjoy a leisurely meal with friends, you are sure to find what does you need at Notting Hill's countless cafes. So if you're looking for a truly authentic taste of London life, be sure to head down to Portobello Road – and don't forget your mug! Notting Hill Cafe Brunch Notting Hill is home to a wide variety of unique ccafés in Notting hill and coffee shops. Whether you're looking for a quick caffeine fix or a leisurely brunch with friends, there's something in this charming neighborhood to suit every taste. One of the most popular spots for weekend brunch is Notting Hill Coffee Shops. This bustling cafe has a cozy atmosphere and friendly staff, making it the perfect place to grab a cappuccino and indulge in one of their delicious breakfast dishes. From fluffy pancakes and savory omelets to hearty egg sandwiches and fruit-filled smoothies, Notting Hill Coffee Shops has something for everyone. And with its central location and convenient hours, it's the perfect way to kick off your morning! So if you're looking for some fun brunch inspiration, look no further than Notting Hill Coffee Shops. You won't regret it! Coffee shops Near Notting Hill Gate Station When looking for a great coffee shop near Notting Hill Gate station, there are plenty of excellent options to choose from. Whether you prefer something quaint and cozy, or you prefer a bustling coffeehouse with lots of atmospheres, there is sure to be something that suits your tastes. Some of the top coffee shops in the area include Jane's Cafe, Park Side Cafe, and Flat White. Each of these spots offers its own unique vibe and delicious coffee beverages, so be sure to explore them all and find your perfect match! Whether you're in the mood for a latte or an espresso shot, there's no doubt that you'll find exactly what you're looking for near Notting Hill Gate station guide. So why wait? Start exploring today, and discover some of the best coffee shops in town! Coffee Shop Ladbroke Grove Located in the heart of Ladbroke Grove, this cozy coffee shop is a popular spot among locals and tourists alike. Whether you're looking for a caffeine fix to get you through the day or simply want to take a break from your busy schedule, this Cafe always has something to offer to satisfy your cravings. From traditional coffee and tea drinks to delicious baked good diet and freshly made salads, there's something here for everyone. And with its inviting, homey atmosphere and friendly staff, the coffee shop Ladbroke Grove is sure to become your go-to spot for all your coffee needs. So why wait? Come on down today and treat yourself to a relaxing break! Things to do in Mallorca Spain: Travel Guide and Recommendations for Palma Coffee Shops In Portobello Coffee shops are a ubiquitous feature of urban life, and the streets of portobello are no exception. Whether you're in the mood for an artisanal espresso or just want to curl up with a good book and a steaming cup of hot chocolate, there are plenty of cafes to choose from in portobello. And if you're looking for something a bit more lively, the many pubs and bars lining the main street provide endless opportunities for socializing over a pint or two. Whether you're visiting London for the first time or simply want to explore this charming corner of England, portobello is definitely worth a visit. So why not grab your coffee now and head out into the hustle and bustle of this exciting city!

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[don-lichterman]

The Laslett, Notting Hill, London - hotel review - Bourgeois bohemian cool in the home of the Carnival - Scotland on Sunday Travel

The Laslett, Notting Hill, London – hotel review – Bourgeois bohemian cool in the home of the Carnival – Scotland on Sunday Travel

Spanning five Victorian townhouses on a quiet residential street, and mere seconds from Notting Hill Gate Tube station and a host of shops and restaurants, this hotel marries refined tranquillity with a highly convenient location, writes Emma Newlands. The Laslett opened in 2015, is part of the select Living Rooms group, and in a bid to honour the area’s rich cultural heritage, takes its name…

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[lena-in-a-red-dress]

Notting Hill AU Snippet #6

When they finally leave her brother's house, Lena is simultaneously exhausted and wired. Exhausted, because even a good time takes it out of her, and yet wired because the world's most famous woman is right next to her on the sidewalk, nudging shoulders as they walk down the block. It makes for a heady combination, which is the only reason at all that Lena finds herself rising to Kara's challenge of climbing over a wrought iron gate to the garden beyond.

"For the record," she huffs, struggling to find purchase with her bare hands, "I am not dressed for this-- whoopsie daisy!"

What the FUCK did she just say?

"What did you just say?" Kara echoes, her smile audible in the dark.

"Nothing," Lena brushes off as she resets. "Just, trying to get a decent foothold-- whoops!"

She slips again, and this time Kara laughs, the sound loud and musical. "You said whoopsy daisy. Like some mid-century housewife--"

"You keep distracting me!"

"From what? Another whoopsy daisy?" Kara nudges her aside, dusting off her hands. "Step aside, miss priss. Watch the professional work."

Lena obeys, turning her head aside to avoid her nose brushing a very toned, very firm ass as Kara shimmied her way up and over the fence in one try. Lena's mouth goes dry at the smoothness of the motion, and the way Kara's arms strain against the slim cut of her blouse.

Kara may be an actress, but she's clearly no waif.

The woman in question grins at her from the other side of the fence. "You know, you say you're not intimidated by a silly rule, but I think there may be some subliminal hangups..."

Lena scowls. "Oh, like hell."

Boots scrabbling against the fenceposts, Lena hauls herself up through sheer willpower alone. By the time she lands on her feet on the far side, Kara has disappeared further into the garden. With a quiet curse, Lena brushes herself off and straightens her hair before trotting after her.

"Wow..." Kara breathes when Lena catches up. "It's like it's own little world in here."

Lena watches her observe the garden, noting the way her eyes sparkle in the faint light trickling in around them. The field they stand in is lush beneath their feet, and even in the dark the scent of fragrant flowers fills the air.

Kara makes her way over to a bench, and reads the inscription on. "To June, who sat on this bench every day. From John, who always sat beside her."

Lena smiles at the sentiment, and the way Kara's voice softens as she reads it. It's beautiful, and she says so.

"I guess some love does last forever," Kara remarks, half to herself. She sits on the bench, smoothing her hands across the wood as if to ask its owners for the privilege. After a moment, she notices Lena watching. "Come sit with me."

Lena does, and they spend the night with Kara's head on Lena's shoulders, looking at the stars.

---

The next night, they go on a proper date. Or at least they try to, except Lena can't find her glasses and Querl is absolutely no help in finding them, so she watches the entire movie through the prescription lenses of her snorkel mask.

Luckily, it only makes Kara laugh, even if it earns Lena a couple handfuls of popcorn in her hair from being pelted. Afterwards, Lena takes them to her favorite sushi restaurant, and makes a show of ordering in Japanese.

"Arigato gozaimasu," she finishes, handing over her menu. When she looks across the table at Kara, she's pleased to see she's impressed.

"Now how did you learn Japanese if you've never traveled?"

Lena shrugs. "I may have dated a few travelers in my day."

"Uh huh," Kara deadpans. "What else did they show you?"

Looking up, Lena lets a lascivious grin curl her lips. "Maybe I'll get to show you."

Lena revels in the fluster that marks Kara's acceptance of the sake that comes a moment later, and marks the red blush that heats under tan skin. The conversation shifts away, but continues, and Lena lets it, content with the impact she's made.

As the meal winds down, they linger a little bit, trading information they haven't shared yet.

"What's the one place you want to go, above all others?" Kara asks.

Lena sighs. "I don't know." Kara looks at her suspiciously, and Lena lifts her hands. "I could give you the same tripe I give any customer in my shop, but the truth is, the idea of travel has never really been the destination for me."

Kara looks surprised at that. "Oh?"

With a hum, Lena nods. "For me, it's always been more about who you're traveling with. And for a while there, I thought I had someone, but she never wanted to go anywhere. In the end, it turned out she just never wanted to go anywhere with me."

It still aches. Her split with Veronica had been so sudden, it split Lena's entire entire world apart. It had been bad enough to learn that Veronica had well and truly checked out of their relationship long before she ended it. To hear that Veronica had never really been in it in the first place had--

"Then she's an idiot," Kara says, bringing Lena out of her thoughts back to the present day. She reaches across the table, and links their fingers together. "And it's her loss."

Lena forces a grin. "Funnily, that's exactly what my therapist said..."

A round of raucous table from the table behind them drowns out whatever else she might have said. Glancing over, Lena registers a group of young to middle aged men in suits-- likely stock brokers, in this part of town. They were rowdy even when they came in, but now--a round of sake later-- they're downright obnoxious.

The next one who speaks doesn't bother to mind his words or his volume.

"Give me Kara Danvers any day."

Kara meets Lena's eye across the table, rolling her eyes as his buddy chimed in.

"Didn't like her last film. Fell asleep as soon as the lights went down."

"Don't care what the films like-- if it's got Kara Danvers, it's fine by me. I mean, have you seen that ass."

Lena's jaw clenches. Kara's hand slips away, as does her gaze.

"Oh hell yeah," another one continues. "And you know she's just begging for it. Never wonder how she got that gig in Dirty Dancing, did you?"

"It sure as hell wasn't because she could dance!" They all laughed. Lena shifts in her seat, blood boiling, but Kara catches her eye, shaking her head no. Too late.

Lena rises to her feet and marches to the offending table. "Excuse me, boys, but every single person in this restaurant can hear you. And while I'm perfectly happy to watch you reveal yourselves to be the absolute cunts you are, I take exception to the fact that you're talking about a very real person in the process."

The table stares at her, shocked.

"You." Lena glares at the worst offender. "Does your mother know you debase women with the same mouth you use to kiss her on the cheek? How about your girlfriend, though I find it incredibly doubtful you've managed to shag anyone with that kind of charm."

Kara tugs on Lena's arm, trying to pull her away. Lena almost goes, but turns back at the last minute, nearly colliding with the server hurrying in with the table's paid check.

"Actually, I'm not finished. Until each and every one of you learns a woman's favorite song, color and five year goal, you sure as hell don't get to wonder what flavor condom she prefers, you got it?" Her gaze lands on the platinum credit card in the ticket tray, and smirks in triumph when she sees it's a corporate card.

"And I'm sure that Lord Holdings will be thrilled to hear all about how their employees behave while they're out eating on the company's dime."

At that, the man she'd skewered a moment ago finally recovers enough to scoff. "Hah, and what do you care? What are you, her sister?"

"Actually," Kara speaks up, coming to stand beside Lena. "She's my date."

Dead silence follows as every single one of them registers who exactly is speaking. Finally, one of them tries to sputter an apology, but Kara waves it off.

"Oh, no, don't worry about it. I'm sure it was just joking between friends, just as I'm sure your dicks are the size of peanuts. Enjoy your dinner!"

With that, Kara turns away, snagging Lena's hand as she does. Allowing herself to be towed away, Lena flips them the vee and grins, then joins Kara in trotting out of the restaurant.

As soon as they hit the street they both start to cackle, drawing stares as they laugh maniacally. Lena's heart is pounding, as is Kara's, judging from the way she holds a hand against her chest.

"Oh, my god... I-- I've never done that before!" Kara laughs. "I don't know what came over me!"

"What, standing up for yourself? You're a natural!"

"No, you were amazing! I dunno, I just heard you and I saw you facing off against them all alone, and I just-- did that! I just did that!"

Kara laughs again, and Lena tugs her closer by the hips. Pressing a kiss to her lips, Lena smiles at her. "It looks good on you," she purrs. "You should do it more often."

Kara smiles back at her, rubbing her thumbs on the ridges of Lena's hips. "Maybe I will."

Lena could kiss her again, but Kara steps back, tugging them back in the direction of the hotel. "Walk me home?"

The walk back is spent in comfortable silence, but as they near the marquee of the Ritz, Lena's heart starts to pound for a whole new reason when Kara turns to her. "Wanna come up?"

Lena nods. "Yeah. I'd like that."

Kara gives a small of relief, and smiles. "Good. Give me five minutes."

The next five minutes are the longest of Lena's life. But she waits them, hands jammed into her pockets, and counts every second before finally allowing herself to head up to the room.

When she knocks, she isn't entirely sure what to expect. A robe, maybe, left open to reveal tantalzyingly firm abs. Matching lingerie, even, to match Kara's eyes.

What she doesn't expect is Kara fully clothed with panic in her eyes.

"You've got to go," Kara whispers.

Lena freezes, but keeps her smile in place. "Why?" she whispers back.

"Because my boyfriend, who was in America, is in fact here in the next room."

previous / next

#supercorp #notting hill au

[amelianotthepilot]

BTS London Photo Spots

These are all the spots BTS took photos at in London. It is organized by location and shows the image first and then the says the location and address and a small description. If you scroll to the bottom I included just a plain list of the locations as well as a google map :)

 Light Pole near Burberry

121 Regent St, Mayfair, London W1B 4TB, UK

The closest tube station is Piccadilly Circus which is also a really cool spot.  I recommend taking the tube there and then you just walk down the curved street and the light pole is in the middle of the street at a crosswalk.  The street is called Regent Street.  There was no line to take a photo when I went. Taehyung took photos facing both directions of the street.

Flat Iron Restaurant

 17 Beak St, Soho, London W1F 9RW, UK

If you keep going down Regent Street it is a right turn onto Beak Street and the restaurant is right on end of the street.  It's extremely small inside so either get there early or be prepared to wait.  Inside there are about four picnic tables that you will be seated at with strangers.  Taehyung sat at the 2nd table closest to the door with his back to the door. However, I don't think you can request to sit here since the restaurant is so small.  The only food they sell is steak and it is only served in one cut.  You can also get a really small side salad(as seen in the photo) or side of chips(french fries).  It was not too expensive and was quite good food but I don't recommend it if you are a vegetarian/vegan cause there is literally no veg option.

Beak Street

50-54 Beak St, Soho, London W1F 9RN, UK

A little further down Beak Street where Flat Iron is on is the location Hobi took these photos.  The green tile building is called Rag and Bone which makes it easy to find.

Disney store

350-352 Oxford St, London W1C 1JH, UK

Hope took two photos here in the Cinderella carriage.  There may be a small line for the carriage.  The mickey plush he is holding is part of the Mickey Memories collection and may not be there when you go.  However, when I went I found it in the back of the store on the right. When I went, the lighting was weird so my photo came out a little weird. I don't know how he got that great lighting in his photo. The closest tube station is Oxford circus but it is only about a 15 minute walk from where Hope took the other photo on Beak Street.

The following locations are not close to anything else so I suggest going to them when you go to other tourist locations.

Tramshed Restaurant

2 Rivington St, Hackney, London EC2A 3LX, UK

This restaurant has multiple stores but the one that Namjoon went to is this one on Rivington Street with the cow sculpture.  The closest tube station is Old Street Station.  There's honestly nothing else to really do in this area but the restaurant was really neat and not too expensive. It's in a cool old renovated warehouse and has lots of art in it including the large cow sculpture seen in Namjoon's photo.  The cow sculpture is Damien Hirst and he's a really cool British artist.  Namjoon sat in the back area on the left about two tables away from the sculpture.  My friend and I were not seated there but we went for lunch and since it was not too busy after we finished our meal we quietly, quickly, and politely went and snapped a few photos at the table before we left.  You can also do this or request the table if they're not busy but please remember to be polite and kind and to not be a rabid crazy fan.  The food was good and not too expensive but yet again I don't think there were any vegetarian or vegan options and there was only chicken or cow products because that was their whole theme.  

Top of Tate Modern

Bankside, London SE1 9TG, United Kingdom

The closest tube station to the Tate is Borough Market which is a really cool market food place I recommend going to.  The food is cheap and really good and it has a great vibe.  After going to Borough Market walk over to the Thames river and walk along the river to the Tate. You will pass Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and also the Millenium Bridge(featured in the beginning of the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix film).  The Tate is a large brown building right next to the Millenium Bridge and it used to be a factory.  Entry to the museum is FREE unless you want to go into certain exhibits.  It's really big and full of modern art(which is eh if you ask me).  Namjoon took the photo on the balcony on the riverside of the building.  I didn't have time to go and recreate this photo but I'm pretty positive he took it from the gift shop balcony on the 4th floor.  If not there is a top floor you can pay to access that he might have taken it from. (please message me below if this is incorrect!)

Ye Olde Green Hut (green shed cafe)

10, Kensington Park Rd, Notting Hill, London W11

Taehyung posted this photo along with his other London photos and I stumbled upon the shed while wandering Notting Hill one day.  Notting Hill and Portobello Road market are super cute and instagrammable and I highly recommend going to them.  

However, the closest tube station to this shed is Notting Hill Gate Station and the shed is right next to Kensington Temple.   However The cafe has really weird hours so if you want to get food from it it's open weekdays from 8:30am to 3:30pm but it closes randomly.  I visited a few times and it was closed both times I went.

Right of the Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge Rd, London SE1 2UP, United Kingdom

Taehyung took sooo many photos here. This is on the ~right~ bank of the tower bridge.  Aka the side that doesn't have the Tower of London(castle).  There are two tube stations that are pretty equal distant walk to get here. You can take the tube to Tower Hill Station and walk across the bridge and then up the riverside. Or you can take the tube to London Bridge Station and walk along the river to the spot.  I recommend going to the London Bridge Station because the Tower Hill one is hard to get to.  This photo location is on the area with a ledge that you can sit on but then also a little further for the pictures with the fence.  I don't really know how to explain where it is precisely and I just recommend you walk up and down that area until you think it looks right.  This area is constantly crowded with tourists so expect to wait a little bit to get the perfect shot!

~BONUS~

Olle Korean BBQ

88 Shaftesbury Ave, London W1D 6NH

Jin, Jimin, and Jungkook were seen eating here! I did not get a chance to eat here. It's pretty expensive and I've heard mixed reviews about the food. Let me know what you thought of it if you go!

_______________________________________________________________________

MAP

Locations List:

Disney store

350-352 Oxford St, London W1C 1JH, UK

Beak Street

50-54 Beak St, Soho, London W1F 9RN, UK

Tramshed Restaurant

 2 Rivington St, Hackney, London EC2A 3LX, UK

Top of Tate Modern

Bankside, London SE1 9TG, United Kingdom

Right of the Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge Rd, London SE1 2UP, United Kingdom

Light Pole near Burberry

121 Regent St, Mayfair, London W1B 4TB, UK

Flat Iron Restaurant

17 Beak St, Soho, London W1F 9RW, UK

Ye Old Green Hut (green shed cafe)

10 Kensington Park Rd, Notting Hill, London W11

Olle KBBQ

 88 Shaftesbury Ave, London W1D 6NH

Have you been to any of the locations? Let me know down below! To check out my BTS recreated photos check out my photo gallery!

#bts #bts spots #bts photo spots #bangtan #kpop #amelianotthepilot #bts london

[leggigoesabroad]

you can’t spell awesome without me

Lyric from Taylor’s NEW SINGLE!!  It’s called ME!  It’s actually called that, with the exclamation point and everything.  It’s as dope as you’re imagining in your head right now.  And some people, like my coworker Mary who laughs at everything I say, do in fact think I’m awesome.  (She’s such a great audience.  Now I look at her immediately after any joke I make just for the reaction and validation.) 

Well, well, well.  Leggi goes abroad again.  I’m doing a site visit for work in Vienna and Prague for a few days, and then on to Paris on my own (with an alarming amount of details in between yet to be determined, I should really get on that.)

I sit here at 10:25 pm in Vienna, Austria, in a gorgeously authentic Viennese apartment with stupid high ceilings and ornate decorations, in a fluffy-ass robe after I finally showered the airport off of me.  Left Denver at 4 pm Friday, landed at Munich at 9:45 am today (Saturday) local time, long layover, then a quick 45 minute flight to Vienna where a private driver awaited me.  I feel that weird feeling of not knowing which way is up and which way is down and what year it is, in only the special way you get when you’re traveling across the ocean.  I had so many things I wanted to tell all of my people while I was flying, but obviously had no service, so I did the same thing I did with Hayley when we flew to Thailand: wrote down all my thoughts for a future blog.  Luckily for you all, HERE THEY ARE, the undiscovered gems of the Denver to Munich economy class Lufthansa flight.

- Get on board and scope the movies, immediately knew I was going to watch “Beautiful Boy” because apparently something about Timothee Chalamet and poignant flights just feels right to me.  I almost watched “Call Me By Your Name” again but I don’t think the married woman next to me wants to watch Timothee have sex with a peach.

- Girl in front of me just aggressively reclined her chair back to it’s fully back position 20 minutes into the flight and I fear this is my new normal for 9 hours.

- I now find myself actively wishing ill upon her.

- Hey, only 8 hours 57 minutes remaining!

- Why is tiny, frail, drug-addled Timothee Chalamet also just like SO HOT? I don’t understand his appeal at all and this is coming from someone who sees his appeal.

- He reminds me of Jennifer Lawrence.  Someone who is so weird and awkward and seems like they just accidentally fell into acting yet are brilliant at it.

- I think it’s his voice.  You know how I’m into voices.

- She sat her seat up to eat.  I’m just sad knowing how temporary it will be.

- The woman next to me sounds exactly like what’s-her-name from Who’s the Boss, the mom.  Judith something?? When she talks I sometimes purposefully don’t look at her so I can imagine it’s just Jonathan’s mom.  Didn’t that kid grow up to be gay? Or commit suicide?  Really hope it’s the former.

- She just turned on the Canes/Islanders game 1.  She has no idea what a personal affront this is. :(

- Okay, she switched off of it and turned on Notting Hill.  I almost suggested she pause and wait for me to catch up and we could watch in tandem while I tell her all my favorite parts, but Timothee just relapsed and I’m invested. 

- Dinner is chicken, rice, a salad, a roll, cheese and crackers, and a blueberry crumble dessert thing.  Not bad!!  Though I do miss the filet and unlimited alcohol from business class...

- Chalamet plays such a convincing drug addict wow wow wow wow wow

- Reminder: google crystal meth sobriety success rate.

- I feel as if they’re getting ready to tuck us in for bed and I’m not ready.  Sleepover anxiety.  Dad?? Dad!  You can come get me now.

- Flight attendants are walking around with open bottles of water and wine topping people off.  Da real MVPs.

- Yep.  The post-meal recline was just as jarring as I thought it would be.

- This bitch in front just literally re-did her pony tail and then threw it over her seat, spewing over my screen.  No idea what to do here.

- Well now Timothee is having heroin sex in the shower so maybe the peach scene would have been better.

- I didn’t know there was a more recent Jason Bourne movie.  Now I don’t want to take my sleeping pill.

- Took the pill.  Reminds me of when I had wine and an Ambien with Debbie on a flight to Switzerland and had to hold her hips on the way to bathroom like a toddler because I couldn’t see.  Now we wait!! Also Jason Bourne just had to watch his ex-boo Julia Stiles get murdered in front of him :( 6 hours left.

Ensue four hours of half sleep, half wake.  Land in Munich like an absolute zombie and it SHOWED.  Business lounge guy turns down my club pass and I manage not to cry.

- Fall immediately asleep on an airport bench like one of those creepy airport sleepers.  Kind airport lady wakes me up about an hour later very concerned that I’m missing my flight to Stockholm, as I guess I was near their gate.  I awoke as if from an exorcism and shouted “NO! VIENNA!” at her, before realizing she was worried about me and then I profusely apologized and fell back asleep. 

- No one in the middle seat on the way to Vienna!  And a full-sized Kit Kat given to us BEFORE take-off!  Hear that, Southwest and your fucking plane crackers?

- Can anyone explain to me how airplanes work?

- Seat mate just watched intently as I poured out my entire pharmacy looking for a caffeine pill... 

- What did we do before medicine and pills?? Then I remember Jamie on Outlander crossing the sea on a several months-long voyage and vomiting every day for months with no relief.  He was basically Princess Kate. (”Um, Matt Bomer was on White Collar.  Princess MEGHAN was on Suits.” - Champions, NBC)

- When I see customs and the two options are “declare” and “nothing to declare”, I always think of Ilana in Broad City when she goes to the seafood restaurant and the waiter asks if she has any allergies she’d like to disclose (audience knowing she’s super allergic to seafood.) “None that I...would like to disclose.”

- Driver had my name on a sign!! First time that’s ever happened to me! I really wanted to stop and take a picture but I also had to act like I been there before.

Got to the apartment and a lot more happened after I settled in, including our local host Karin immediately clearing my chakras after hearing my dry cough by explaining magnetic energy to me and tapping a voodoo doll while I meditated next to her.  It’s as weird as it sounds but I dig her.  I feel as if she gets me.  

Tomorrow we’ll sleep in a little bit, have lunch, and then go on a private 3-hour guided city tour.  Vienna, HERE I COME!  We’re not allowed to post more than one pic per city on social media per: work rules (re: not making other people jealous and looking like dicks, which I personally think is bullshit, so I’ll be sharing stories via the ‘close friends’ option on the ‘gram.  Eat your hearts out, I’m in Vienna and Prague for free.**)

**Had to purchase hundreds of dollars of supplies to soothe my anxiety about the trip, and as soon as the trip is over will do two years of free labor as the villa lead, but hey, for now, shit is free and maybe I’ll finally meet my international husband and we’ll both just ~~know.  When you know, you know.  But you can never KNOW...

Xoxo this gossip girl is a jet-lagged bitch and will be wittier and more thorough tomorrow.  Though for everyone’s sake, I hope we never get another blog like the one recounting the food poisoning/bloody amputated foot/Duncan’s one night Russian stands/quarantine room.... ever again.  

[uglypastels]

When You Say Nothing At All - Tom Holland movie AU (1/3)

(a/n) First story on the new blog!! I’m scared. 

This story is a Notting Hill AU. I have always loved this movie and when I recently rewatched it, I really realized how cheezy and pretty fanfic-y the plot it...so I decided to actually write a fanfic. The story is in a movie-turned-into-book format, so it is literally inspired by the movie. So, I do not own, nor claim any of this story as my own. Already putting it out there.

Alrighty then, here is part 1. I am not sure if I will actually post the other parts, because I’m not so sure if this is really that good. I also haven’t exactly finished the rest and it takes a loooooong time to do so. Tell me if you want to read the rest.

This is a re-post, because I am an idiot with anxiety and deleted the first one accidentally

word count: 10,281

warning: swearing, sexual themes, SPOILERS for NOTTING HILL

part 2

Tom’s POV - 1999 - London - Characters are in their late 20′s 

Of course, I have seen her films and always thought she was, well, gorgeous, but, you know, a million and million miles from the world I live in.

The world he lives in, which was here, Notting Hill. His favorite part of London.

Just as he did every day before going to work, Tom took a morning walk to enjoy the bizarre atmosphere that this region had. Like any other weekday, the market was spinning with people, where every fruit and vegetable known to man was sold and men were yelling: “Rock hard bananas, five for a pound!” To his right was the tattoo parlor, where a  man stepped through the door, looking rather confused at the new addition to his body. He looked as if he had just woken up on the couch that was inside and Tom wondered if he remembered why he had gotten “I love Ken” tattooed on his arm. He also wondered who Ken was and if he knew that his name was now permanently written on this blokes’ arm. Opposite the tattoo shop was the radical hairdressers, where everyone came out looking like the Cookie Monster, whether they wanted to or not. Just like the poor girl in the purple denim jacket.

Even though it was early in the morning, there were people everywhere. Tom was glad it wasn’t the weekend where from the break of day hundreds of stalls appear out of nowhere, filling Portobello Road, right up to Notting Hill Gate and wherever you look thousands of people are buying millions of antiques, some genuine, and some not quite so genuine.

Lots of friends have ended up in this part of London. For example Tony, who Tom could see talking to some delivery men, a bundle of fish in his hands. Tony looked rather happy with his new buy. Tom waved at him, hello, but his friend didn’t see it.  The architect turned chef had been busy for months with his new restaurant, which he invested in with all the money he ever earned.

That was pretty much all of Notting Hill, where Tom spend his days and years. In the small village in the middle of the city, in a house with a blue door that he had bought together with his wife who had left him after four years for a man who looked exactly like Harrison Ford. Which was ironic, because this was where he now lead a strange half-life with a lodger called:

“Harrison!” he yelled as he opened the blue door and almost immediately fell over a bike. Harrison ran down the stairs into the kitchen which was at the end of the corridor in which Tom stood right now. As usual, he wasn’t wearing anything but some khaki colored underwear. He didn’t want to think about if that was the original color.

“You couldn’t help me with an incredibly important decision, could you?” he said in his thick accent.  

“Is this important in comparison to, let’s say…” Tom started thinking as he walked to the kitchen to put down the loaf of bread that he had bought earlier. “Whether they should cancel Third World debt?”

“That’s right. I’m at last going out on a date with the great Janine and I just wanna be sure I’ve picked the right T-shirt.” He started explaining. Tom was turned with his back to him and couldn’t help but smile at the difference in their priorities.

“What are the choices?”

“Well, wait for it,” he said and ran back upstairs to his room. Tom waited as he put the bread in the toaster, taking his time. By the time he was done and in front of the stairs, Harrison was already running back down, pulling down the shirt. It was a slightly too big white t-shirt. It would have been fine if it wasn’t for the huge text that said: “I LOVE BLOOD” and the actual sticking out fish head in the middle of his torso in the pool of red.

“First, there’s this one,” He flicked the fish head, making it bounce back and forth, and made a little growl, “Cool, huh?” Tom stared at the shirt for a little bit, trying to figure out the right words to say to his flatmate. “Yeah, it might make it hard to strike a really romantic note,” he suggested.

“Point taken. Don’t despair.” Harrison ran back up the stairs, still talking: “if it’s romance we’re looking for, I believe I have just the thing.” Tom highly doubted it. He looked for some yogurt in the fridge while waiting for Harrison to get back.

He came back, with a now much tighter fitted shirt. The message was very simple: “GET IT HERE” together with a big black arrow pointed at his crotch.

“Yeah, well, there again, she might not think you had true love on your mind.”

“Right.” He seemed to understand but clearly didn’t have the same feeling about it as Tom did. “Just one more.” He ran away once again. Tom smiled to himself and walked back to the kitchen, grabbed something extra for his yogurt and then heard it was time again to take those three steps back to the stairs: “True love, here I come.” Harrison sang happily. Tom watched him run down those stairs for the tenth time and pulling down, another, white shirt over his upper body. Tom put a hand over his mouth at the sight of it. It was better than the last two options. Still not good, but better. The words “You’re the most beautiful woman in the WORLD” were surrounded by big red hearts. Harrison looked at him, awaiting an answer.

“Well, yeah. Yeah. that’s, that’s perfect.” he managed to say without laughing.

“Great. Thanks. Wish me luck.” Haz still looked at him waiting.

“Good luck.” He walked back upstairs with big steps of pride. When he had turned around Tom could see the message written on his back. “FANCY A FUCK?” He wanted to say something but thought better of it. He had to get to work.

It was just another hopeless Wednesday, as he walked a thousand yards through the market to work. Work, by the way, was the little travel bookshop “The Travel Book Co.”  which, well, sold travel books and to be frank, didn’t always sell many of those.

The store, just like the door of his house, was blue. The big window displayed a number of books that were for sale and two globes, in case it wasn’t clear to anyone that it was travel books that they could find here. In front of the window, outside, stood a small table on which more books were displayed.

“Morning, Martin” the small bell above the door rang as he pushed it open. The smell of old books was immediately present.

“Morning, Monseigneur,” said Martin as he was looking through some papers. He handed Tom the post and bills of the day. He knew what awaited them next. It was time to count up the sales. He walked up to the desk and pulled out the rest of the papers and a calculator. He dreaded this part of the day, that is why he had early on decided with Martin to do it in the morning. This way it would be over quickly, at least.

“Classic,” he sighed as the last numbers popped up on the small screen. “Profit from major sales push, minus £347.” He shared a look of disappointment with Martin and then wrote the sad number down in the notebook in front of him.

“Shall I go and get you a cappuccino?” Martin suggested. “You know, ease the pain a bit.”

“Yeah, yeah. Better make it a half. All I can afford.” his friend and employee laughed awkwardly. He just smiled, both of them were trying to ease the pain currently with some horrible humor.

“Get your logic. Demi-cappu coming right up.” He glanced at Tom and then walked to the door. The bell rang again as he pulled the door towards him. His green cardigan disappearing behind the corner as he walked to the small coffee house a few doors away. Tom wondered what he had done to deserve him in his life. Such a good person. Martin could easily find another job, a better job, but he didn’t want to leave his friend.

The moment he left, someone walked in. Tom barely glanced. The only thing he saw was a blur of black and white. The person carefully closed the door behind them. He looked again, feeling something familiar about them as he looked more properly. He couldn’t exactly place it, but it felt like he had seen the stranger before. Maybe she had visited the store earlier this week? Or the week before?

She was wearing a black, leather jacket over a plain white shirt. On her head, a black hat, with brown hair under it, and her eyes were covered by dark glasses. She walked over to the first bookcase and started to look around, every now and then pulling out a book and paging through it. From the position Tom was in, he could only see her shoulder properly, moving as she placed a book back in its original place.  

“Uhm, can I help you at all?” he asked. The woman peaked out her head from behind the shelves, looking a bit startled. At least he assumed so, as her eyes weren’t visible through the glasses.

“No, thanks, I’ll just look around.” Her voice was soft, almost a whisper. The American accent clear. He knew that this was a bookstore and people often tried to be quiet. But there was literally nobody else there except for them.

“Fine,” he said a bit dazed off. He still couldn’t place that face or that voice for that matter. He was sure he had at least heard her before but much louder. Not in the bookstore, then. She walked to the other side of the shelf, facing away from him. Now he could have a little more proper look at her…  or at least her back. Her shoulders were small, in a cute way. Her jacket oversized. From the way the top of her head reached a certain height of the shelves, he could assume that she wasn’t much shorter than him. He could also see a bag hanging off of her other shoulder. As she was looking through the books, she momentarily put her shopping bags on the ground.

She pulled out a book from the shelf, Tom could read the title, the Turkish Delights, from where he was standing behind the desk.  He had a great urge to say something to her, only he didn’t know what. As he looked at her go through the book, he blurted out: “That book’s really not great.”  She turned her head in his direction. “Er - just in case browsing turned to buying, you’d be wasting your money.”  he laughed nervously as he was clearly rambling on. She just smiled weakly. Letting him dig himself deeper into embarrassment. “But if it’s Turkey you’re interested in, this one,” Tom picked up a copy of a book that lay next to him on the desk, “on the other hand, is very good. Uhm...” he had no idea what to say, but she kept looking at him and he felt the need to keep talking. Her stare was getting a bit too much for him so he looked down at the book. “I think the man who wrote it has actually been to Turkey, which helps. Uhm, there’s also a very amusing incident with a kebab… which is one of many amusing incidents.”

The beautiful stranger (because she was definitely beautiful, there was no denying that) smiled and said: “Thanks, I’ll think about it.” She already looked away, putting her attention back to the book she was holding, but his tongue slipped up again and the rambling continued.

“Or, in the bigger hard-back variety, there’s…”  He looked at the bookcase behind him. While he did, his eyes slipped down to the small tv screen next to it, where he could see a man putting a book down his trousers. “I’m sorry, can you just give me a second?” He put the book down and walked to the back corner of the store, that was separated by a wall and slightly bigger shelves.

“Excuse me,” he said. The man popped up from behind the books. His eyes were wide, his hair all over the place and the shirt untucked messily.  “Yes?” he asked.

“Bad news.” Tom crossed his arms and looked at him.

“What?” The man looked very confused and startled. Tom pointed at the corner of the ceiling. “Er -We’ve got uhm, a security camera in this bit of the shop.” The man still didn’t seem to understand as he asked: “So?”

“So, I saw you put that book down your trousers.”

“What book?” He was changing his weight from one leg to the other, making it even more obvious that he was anxious. Tom sighed, pointing at his crotch and saying: “The one down your trousers.”

“I don’t have a book down my trousers.” His words were slightly slurred, making Tom worried that he could be drunk or high. He looked away from him in frustration.

“Right, I tell you what,  uhm, I’ll call the police and uhm, what can I say, if I’m wrong about the whole book-down-the-trousers scenario, I really apologize.”  Tom was not sure if it had been possible, but the stranger’ eyes widened even more.  

“Okay. What if I did have a book down my trousers?” Tom couldn’t believe this guy. Was he so drunk, or actually just that big of a moron?

“Well, ideally, when I went back to the desk you’d remove the Cadogan Guide to Bali from your trousers and either wipe it and put it back, or buy it.” He smiled at the drunk idiot. “I’ll see you in a sec.” he left him back there and walked back to the desk. The girl in the leather jacket was now standing there too. Tom had heard footsteps so he already expected it. “I’m sorry about that.” he walked behind the small piece of furniture. She was looking down at her book.

“No, it’s fine. I was gonna steal one but now I’ve changed my mind.” She smiled and Tom couldn’t help but laugh slightly. He glanced back at the tv screen to check up on the weirdo.

“Oh, signed by the author, I see.” she glanced at the front pages of the book. It made him look up from the screen.

“Uhmm, yeah, couldn’t stop him. If you can find an unsigned one, it’s worth an absolute fortune.” She puffed out a laugh. Right then the man from the back of the shop walked up. Tom was about to send him off when he approached his other customer. “Excuse me.”

“Yes?” she looked a bit uncomfortable at him.

“Can I have your autograph?” he handed her a piece of paper. The girl looked unsure at him and then around for something to write with. Tom gave her the pen he had in your hand: “Here.”

“What’s your name?” She asked. Her tone was very monotone and he knew that, really, she didn’t want to do it.  

“Rufus.” He rolled on the back of his feet like a child, scratching his patchy beard. Tom watched the girl in the leather jacket scribble down a few words on the paper. It took him some time to figure out the words as he had been looking at it from upside down, but once he had it, he let out a little snort. She handed the paper back to Rufus. He, apparently, still couldn’t read it because he asked: “What does it say?”

“That’s my signature, and above it,” she pointed at the top of the old paper, “it says, Dear Rufus, you belong in jail.” Rufus clearly didn’t seem to get it because he smiled and said: “Good one.” The girl gave him a smile that was the equivalent of an eye roll and turned to you. Rufus asked again: “Do you want my phone number?”

“Tempting, but no.” there was a silence. Rufus started walking away. Tom just stood there, trying to comprehend what had just happened. This girl was famous, he knew that. He had seen her before somewhere, but where?

“I will take this one.” she pushed the book a bit towards him and that got Tom out of his frozen state.

“Oh, right, right.” He opened the book to check the price, “So, well, on second thoughts maybe it’s not that bad after all.” He ticked in the numbers into the machine, the paper started printing. “Actually, it’s sort of a classic, really. None of those childish kebab stories you find in so many books these days.” He tried to joke. It didn’t work as she handed him a banknote without a reaction except for a polite smile. It was more than the prize, so he started to look for the correct coins to give as change.

“You know what, I’ll throw in one of these for free.” He showed her a book that just happened to lay nearby. He wished he could sink underground, or at least that she would say something back. Still, he couldn’t manage to close his own mouth: “Useful for, you know, lighting fires, wrapping fish, that sort of thing.” She finally managed to break out a smile. He packed the two books in the basic orange-brown bag and handed it back to her.

“Thanks,” she said.

“Pleasure,” he replied. Both of them smiled politely and she started to walk away. Soon that bell rang again and she was gone. Tom was alone in the store. The confusion now spread over his features. Who was she? Why did she feel so familiar? Should he have asked her for a signature too?

His legs moved him towards the table in the big space at the front of the shop. He wasn’t sure why he walked there. Maybe to get another glimpse of her? But by the time he got to the window, she was already gone. There was another movement on the street, though. The green cardigan and brown tie flopped around Martin as he walked back. Two cups of coffee balanced on top of each other in one hand as he tried to open the door with the other.

“Here we are. Cappuccino, as ordered.” he put one cup in front of Tom, who still looked out the window in a daydreaming kind of way. Only he wasn’t daydreaming. He knew that the girl was actually real. Only, who was she?

“Thanks,” Tom said as he watched the other man sip from his hot drink. Still, the thought of the girl was in his mind. Was it her? But what would she be doing in Notting Hill? Still, it couldn’t be... “I don’t think you’ll believe who was just in here.” Martin looked up from his cup, eyes full of excitement, but the excitement that could also be anxiety.

“Who?” His head shot towards the window and then back. “Was it someone famous?” Now that Martin had said it out loud, the idea seemed too crazy to be real.

“No, no, no,” Tom changed his mind.

“Would be exciting though, wouldn’t it, if someone famous came into the shop?” He was about to put the cup back up to his lips when another sentence formed: “Do you know, this is - this is pretty amazing, but I once saw Ringo Starr.”

“Where was that?” Tom asked curiously.

“Kensington High Street.” there was a scratch in his excitement. ‘At least I think it was Ringo. It might have been that man from Fiddler On The Roof. You know, Toppy.” He scratched his nose.

“Top-ol,” Tom corrected his friend. The story seemed more and more unlikely to have happened, but it was still rather enjoyable to listen.

“Yes, that’s right. Topol.” Martin drank some more of his coffee. The small amount of it was already mostly gone as he had to work for it to get into his mouth, Tom started thinking.

“Actually, Ringo Starr doesn’t look at all like Topol.”

“Yeah, but he was quite a long way away from me.”  

“So actually it could’ve been neither of them,” Tom suggested. There was a silence.

“Yes, I suppose so, yes.” Another silence between the two men.

“It’s not a classical anecdote, is it?”

“Not a classic, no. No.” They both agreed on it and once again, another silence fell as they both sipped from their incredibly small coffees. It was gone in less than two sips.

“Another one?”  Tom asked once they were both finished. Martin sighed deeply, looking down at his paper cup. Then, a spark lit up in him as he changed his mind: “No! Let’s go crazy. I’ll have an orange juice.”

As Martin was the one who had gotten the coffee the first time, it was only right if Tom bought the juice now. He stepped outside and started walking right. Behind him, there were two men trying to lift up a big painting that would be sold in the new Panton Gallery that would open soon opposite of the bookshop.

Once in the small coffee shop, which was really a sandwich shop, Tom ordered the orange juice and a something more for a second breakfast. He hadn’t gotten to eat as much as he had liked since Harrison kept on nagging about his upcoming date with Janine. While he waited for his order, he looked around at the already well-known to him purple walls and the new advertisements that were stuck to the notice board. There didn’t seem to be anything interesting.

“Okay, thanks. Bye-bye.” The clerk gave him his drink and sandwich.

“See you later,” Tom said and made his way back outside. It was crowded in the sandwich shop, with people sitting at all the tables, of which a few barely fit in the space by itself already. Outside, there were also some people sitting and enjoying their food and drinks.

The sun hit Tom in the eyes as he got out. He followed the collection of small trees that stood in front of the unused garages all the way to the corner of the street. The sun was even brighter, making Tom look away.

Suddenly he felt something solid against him, scaring him a bit and spilling the orange juice in his hand everywhere, including on himself and the girl he had just bumped into. They both exclaimed in shock. The girl, unfortunately, had caught most of the blow of the cold beverage. Her white shirt now mostly bright orange.

“Shit! Bugger!” Tom threw the cup and his forgotten sandwich on the floor.

“Oh my god!” The girl from the bookshop was still in shock from the sudden cold that hit her in the chest.

“I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.” He repeated himself. He had a tissue in his pocket and took it out to wipe off the possible. “Here let me…”

“Get your hands off!’ She shrieked. There was a little laugh hidden in there. Tom understood that the move wasn’t very appropriate. He could see a few people around them give him a few strange looks.

“I’m really sorry. I… live just over the street.” He pointed out front of himself, in the general direction of his house. The girl was trying to get any juice she could, off of herself and her bags. “I uhm, have water and soap. You can get cleaned up.” She didn’t seem to be very enthusiastic about the idea.

“No thank you. I just need to get my car back.” She shook off some last drops from her hands and started to walk away, looking around for (probably) her car. Annoyance was very clear in her tone.

“I also have a phone. I’m confident that in five minutes we can have you spick and span and back on the street again.” He realized quickly how that sounded. The girl had turned around to look at him. “In the non-prostitute sense, obviously.” She was still mad and didn’t want to laugh, but when she had turned her head away, he could see the corner of her lips go up just a little. She brushed off some hair that had stuck to her cheek.

“All right,” She gave in, but not completely yet, “Well, what do you mean “just over the street”? Give it to me in yards.” Tom wasn’t sure how many yards exactly it would be to his blue door, but he gave it a shot: “Uhm, eighteen yards. That’s my house there with the blue front door.” He pointed again to his door The girl turned around to look for herself. She looked very hesitant but agreed to it in the end. Probably because the now sticky shirt was getting uncomfortable.

They walked in silence to his house. Tom prayed that Harrison had cleaned up at least a bit before he left to go see Janine. That was not the case.

“Come on in. I’ll just, I’ll just…” he ran in front of her into the corridor to clean up as much as he could before she could see the mess that the house actually was. There were old pizza boxes everywhere, shoes lying around in the middle of the floor. On the table lay plates from yesterday's breakfast. He didn’t know where to put them as the sink had been full for over four days already.

“Uhm, right. Right.” The girl was still at the door. “Come in. It’s not quite as tidy as it normally is, I fear.” He hoped she would believe him. “But the bathroom’s on the top floor. And the telephone’s just up here.” he showed her up the stairs and behind the wall. Even with a gigantic orange stain on her shirt, she still looked very well put together. She looked down at her bags, not sure what to do with them.

“Here, let me…” he took them from her and put them next to the stairs. She slowly walked up, not sure where to go next.

“Round the corner, straight on - straight on up.” She disappeared on the second part of the staircase. The time she was gone, Tom took to tidy up a bit more. He cursed Harrison for leaving it such a mess. He had clearly left him a message to clean up this morning. He started to gather around plates and cups and threw them next to the sink. There stood an old pan of baked beans too, he tried to throw it out, but the beans had gotten cold and hard and wouldn’t budge from their container.

He was about done swiping clean the table when he heard footsteps upstairs. He looked up. The girl looked stunning. She had exchanged her simple black pants - white shirt combo with a two-piece black sparkling ensemble… was he using that word correctly, he didn’t know for sure. The crop top and knee-length skirt showed her midriff perfectly. She was still wearing her oversized leather jacket and her beret and glasses were now gone. Tom could finally see her face properly. He couldn’t believe it. It was actually her!

They shared an awkward smile and Tom felt again the need to say something: “Er -” She let out a small sigh, looking a bit annoyed. It threw him off a bit. “Would you like a cup of tea before you go?”

“No.” She shook her head.

“Coffee?”

“No.”

“Orange juice?” She gave him one of those are-you-kidding-me looks. “Probably not.” He felt like he owed her something. “Uhm, something else cold?” He went over to the fridge to look inside. She was looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

“Coke? Water?” He looked around some more. There wasn’t much else in the fridge that he could give her. “Some disgusting sugary drink pretending to have something to do with fruits of the forest?”

“No,” her voice came out as a whisper.

“Would you like something to eat? Something to nibble?” What was wrong with him? Those were not words you should say to strangers. “Apricots soaked in honey? Quite why, no one knows, because it stops them tasting of apricots and makes them taste like honey, and if you wanted honey you’d just buy honey instead of apricots.” He pulled the glass jar out of the fridge. He needed to have something in his hands or at least something else to look at except for her.

“But nevertheless, there we go, they’re yours if you want them.” He showed her the jar full of honey covered apricots.

“No.” It was the millionth time he heard her say it.

“Do you always say “no” to everything?” He was thinking out loud. She looked around, thinking about her answer and then said, with half a smile: “No.”  Tom closed the fridge. “I’d better be going. Thanks for your, uh,” She was looking for a word, “help.”

Tom leaned against the fridge. “You’re welcome. And may I also say, um, heavenly. I’ll just take my one chance to say it. After you’ve read that terrible book you’re certainly not gonna be coming back to the shop.” He looked down at the ground.

“Thank you.” She actually smiled.

“Yeah, well, my pleasure.” He smiled back. The girl now turned around and made her way through the tight corridor towards the door. Tom followed her.

“So… “ They stood next to the door now. “It was nice to meet you.” Looking at her, he had no idea what he was doing. He could feel his hand run through his hair as he said: “Surreal, but nice.” She just smiled, glancing at the door. Tom pulled at the lock and opened the door for her, saying a quick “sorry” for making her wait. She walked out without saying a word and he closed the door behind her.

“Surreal, but nice? What was I thinking?” he whispered to himself, in case she could still hear him through the heavy door. He was already walking back to the kitchen when the doorbell rang. He didn’t want the person to wait, so he jogged back to the door and opened it. There she was again. Her sunglasses back on her face. She smiled widely and said: “Hi.”

“Hi,” Tom replied, not expecting to see her again.

“I forgot my other bag,” she explained.

“Oh, right. Right.” A part of Tom was happy that he could see her again, but another was disappointed that she only rang the doorbell to get her bag. He let her back in. He walked to the chair he had put the bag on before and could hear the sound of the door closing. When he got back to her, she stood next to Harrison’s old bike. He handed her the bag and she mumbled “thanks”.  

Now they stood in silence again. She smiled and Tom could see her eyes glance down at his lips. So, he did too. Her lips were getting bigger, no closer. He wasn’t sure how that was possible. And then, he could feel them on his own. She put an arm around his neck to be even closer to him.

Tom couldn't move. His arms were on his side. It was a very simple kiss, but it lasted ages. Only when they needed to breathe, did she pull away. Very slowly. She took a step back. Tom didn’t know what to do. He had never been in a situation like this before. To be kissed by a girl he had just met? It was surreal! Surreal.

“I’m very sorry about the surreal, but nice comment. Disaster.” She kept looking back between his lips and his eyes.

“That’s okay.” She focused on his eyes. “I thought the apricot and honey thing was the real low point.” Tom laughed. They looked into each other's eyes in silence until the clattering of the doorknob broke the moment apart. She turned to look what it was, and so did he. Tom knew what was next to come.

“Oh, my god! My flatmate. I’m sorry. There is no excuse for him.” he quickly apologized for Harrison’s sake before the blond opened the door. The two watched the door open and Harrison walked in. Half a smoked cigarette still in his mouth. He was wearing a brown shirt, probably from the female section, that was two sizes too small and blue jogging pants, which were so low that half his ass was falling out. He walked past them, not even acknowledging their company.  Even though they exchanged “hi”s.

“I’m just going into the kitchen to get some food.” He shouted through the house as he walked. “Then I’m gonna tell you a story that will make your balls shrink to the size of raisins.” He heard the fridge door open.

“Probably best not to tell anyone about this.” She raised her eyebrows, implicating what they had just done.

“Right. Right, no one… I mean, I’ll tell myself sometimes, but, don’t worry, I won’t believe it.” She smiled and the two of them walked to the door. He opened it for her one more time and she walked through.

“Goodbye,” she smiled. Tom could only make out a small “Bye.” before the door was closed.  He leaned his arm against the lock and, just, stood there for a moment. Trying to comprehend what just happened. He had kissed (Y/F/N)! The (Y/F/N). The biggest up-and-coming actress Hollywood had to offer. How? What had he done to be able to say he kissed… no, she kissed him.

“There’s something wrong with this yogurt.” Harrison shook Tom out of his own thoughts. Tom looked at the small container. “It’s not yogurt. It’s mayonnaise.”

“Oh, right. There we are, then.” and he took another full spoon of the condiment into his mouth. “On for a video fest tonight?” he suggested with his mouth full. Tom was barely listening. The kiss still fresh in his memory. “I got some absolute classics.”

Tom wasn’t sure if Harrison was joking him, because the first movie he picked was one of hers. Gramercy Park, it was called. Her face was on the cover of the movie, together with some bloke named Matthew Modine. It didn’t look great, but Tom didn’t have anything else to do, so he agreed on watching it.

“Smile,” Modine’s character begged hers in an art gallery. For some artistic decisions, the movie was black and white. Tom couldn’t understand why. The two characters walked around, looking at the paintings in the room. He couldn’t remember why they were there, he wasn’t really paying attention to the movie itself, honestly. Just her. He still couldn’t believe it that he had met the beautiful girl on the screen. Of course, her hair was different, but for the rest, it was definitely her!

“No.,” she said.  

“Smile,” Modine repeated himself. He had done it already four times. Each time as annoying to watch.

“I’ve got nothing to smile about.” the two sat down on a bench that just happened to be in the otherwise, furniture free, gallery.

“Okay, in about seven seconds, I’m going to ask you to marry me.” the two characters shared a look. Then, (Y/N) started smiling.

“Imagine,” Harrison spoke up. In his hand a piece of pizza that had been hanging there since three scenes ago. “Somewhere in the world, there’s a man who’s allowed to kiss her.”

“Yeah, she is…” Tom couldn’t look away from the small tv screen, “fairly fabulous.”

____________________

Tom stood in his bookshop. As usual, it was empty, except for one man.  He had been standing around for a few minutes already. In the middle of the shop, just looking around himself. “Do you have any books by Dickens?” he finally asked. Tom looked up from his inventory.

“No. No, I’m afraid we’re a travel bookshop. We only sell travel books.” The man didn’t seem to understand. He didn’t look exactly to be well. A bit pale and dried up. His suit also looked slightly too big for him.

“Oh, right. How about the new John Grisham thriller?”

“Well, no, because that’s a novel, too, isn’t it?”

“Oh right.” His eyes looked a  bit glassy as he continued to gaze around the room, nowhere in particular. The man sighed deeply. “Have you got Winnie-the-Pooh?” Tom was officially done with this individual. The knew that Martin should be there somewhere, so he called out: “Martin, your customer.” Martin, this time wearing a big red cardigan, purple shirt, and a blue tie, popped up from behind a wall. He definitely had not heard the conversation Tom had with the man because he pleasantly asked: “Can I help you?”

A ring of the bell above the entrance made Tom turn around. It was probably just the strong wind that had been roaming around the street the whole day because there was nobody there when he looked. What he did see, was a double-decker bus driving in front of them right then. On there, the advertisement for the movie HELIX. He knew it would be coming out in cinemas soon, but that was about it. As the bus moved along, he saw her face. Of course, she would be the star of it. There almost hasn’t been a movie without her for the last two years.

It had been two days since the orange juice incident, Tom felt like he couldn’t avoid (Y/N). Her perfect face was everywhere. It was sad because he knew that in reality, he would never see her again.

The next morning Tom was making his way up the stairs, to the bathroom, when Harrison came walking downstairs. For some unknown reason, he was wearing Tom’s red scuba gear. His flatmate walked past him with a nonchalant “Hey” and left Tom confused on the stairs.

“Just, incidentally, why are you wearing that?” Tom asked at the breakfast table. He was looking at Harrison who stood by the (still very full) sink eating a bowl of cereal, a cigarette between the same fingers in which he held the spoon...

“Combination of factors really,” he said as he ate. “Uhm, no clean clothes…”

“There never will be, you know, unless you actually clean your clothes.”

“Right,” he nodded, “Vicious circle.”

“Yeah.” Tom agreed.

“And I was, like, rooting round in your things and I found this and I thought: Cool.” Tom looked at Harrison properly. Cool, was not a word he would use. The scuba-suit was definitely one of the less extravagant pieces of wardrobe Harrison has ever worn, but it was still a scuba-suit.

“Kinda spacey,” he added.

It was a Saturday, so the two men decided to do what they usually did when they didn’t have plans. They went up to the roof. It was a very pleasant spot where you could look out on the city, without the city looking back at you.

Tom sat down on a chair, under a parasol, while Harrison lounged himself on a slightly higher bit of the roof, next to the flower pots of which the residents had died many moons ago. He lay down on his side.

“There’s something wrong with the goggles, though.” Harrison tried to adjust them to his face.

“No, they were prescription,” Tom explained, not looking up from whatever article he was reading.

“Groovy.” Harrison sat up.

“So I could see all the fishes properly.”

“You should do more of this stuff.” He adjusted the goggles again. Tom doubted if his friend over there could actually see anything through them whether or not he moved them around in some way.

“So, look, any messages today?”  He put down his article on the small table next to him.

“Yeah, I wrote a couple down. Harrison got up and walked over to another piece of the roof, where his own set of table and garden chairs stood. It was fully in the sun and Harrison often, unfortunately, lay there naked. Hoping to get a tan someday.

“So, there were two, there were two messages? Right?”  He watched as Harrison walked over to the other chairs and sat down, putting his feet up on another chair in front of him. He pulled down the goggles so they would hang around his neck. “You want me to write down all your messages?” He waved with his cigarette as he talked.

Tom didn’t understand how he managed to live with this idiot for this long. He also didn’t understand how he had not yet bought an answering machine. Massaging his temple, he asked: “Okay, Who are the ones that you didn’t write down from?” Harrison took a swing from his cigarette and thought for a moment.

“No, gone completely.” But immediately after that, he remembered again: “Oh, no, there was one from your mum. She said: don’t forget lunch, and her leg’s hurting again.”

“No one else?”

“Absolutely no one else.” Tom looked at Harrison for a moment, ready for him to add something to his sentence. But he only leaned back relaxed in his chair. After six seconds, Tom gave up and went back to the article he was reading. Of course, right at that moment, Harrison started talking again. “Though if we’re going for this obsessive writing-down-all-the-message thing, some American girl called (Y/N) called a few days ago.” Tom’s head shot back up. She called? How was that even possible?  He wanted to play it a bit cool.  “What did she say?” he asked.

“Well, it was genuinely bizarre. She said: Hi, it’s (Y/N). Then she said, Call me at The Ritz. And then gave herself a completely different name.”

“Which was?” Tom dragged him on.

“Absolutely no idea.” He took another breath of his cigarette. “Remembering one name’s hard enough.” Tom groaned in frustration and got up from his slightly uncomfortable chair. He made his way downstairs, to the living room-study where the phone was located. He had to look for the telephone book to find the number for the Ritz. Of course, it was hidden underneath a pile of Harrison’s dirty clothes.

Once he had the number for the hotel, he ticked it into the machine and waited for the other line to answer. It soon did. A man asked him who he wanted to speak to. Tom knew that it probably wouldn’t be (Y/F/N). It was probably the name that she had left with Harrison… which he forgot. He tried anyway. The man said that there was nobody staying here under this name.

“No, I know that. She said that. I know she’s using another name. The problem is she left the message with my flatmate,” Tom looked at Harrison who very calmly and casually sat down on the couch in front of him and opened up the newspaper. A new cigarette in his mouth. “Which was a very serious mistake. Uhm…” he didn’t know how to explain it to the man on the other line. “Imagine, if you will, the stupidest person you’ve ever met. Are you doing that?”

“Yes, sir, I have him in my mind.” he heard.

“And now double it. And that is the, what can I say, the git that I am living with. And he can’t remember this other…”

“Try Flintstone,” Harrison said. His voice sounded very nasally because he was wearing those goggles again. Tom looked up at him in complete disbelief.

“Sorry,” he said to the man from the hotel. “What?”  

“I think she said her name was Flintstone.” Tom rolled his eyes. A cartoon character? Really? But he had no other options, so he took his shot in the dark: “I don’t suppose Flintstone rings any bells, does it?’ He was expecting the man to laugh at him, but instead, the man said: ‘Well, I’ll put you right through, sir.”  He couldn’t believe it. While the line was being switched he tried to think of what he should say. That was cut short when her voice was heard. “Hello.” He put the phone back to his ear.

“Hi. Sorry. Uhm…It’s Tom, Holland.” He wasn’t sure she would know who he was.

“Yes?”

“We… I work in a bookshop.” He sat down, not sure his legs could hold him up during this conversation. He wasn’t very hopeful that she remembered who he was. But she did. “You played it pretty cool there, waiting for three days to call.”

“Oh, no, I promise you I’ve never played anything cool in my entire life. My flatmate, who I’ll stab to death later, never gave me the message.” he tried to explain himself. She didn’t say anything. This was his chance. “I don’t know, perhaps… uhm, I could drop round for tea later or something?” She didn’t say anything for a while.

‘Things are pretty busy here. I might be free at around 4:00.”

“Right. Right. Great.” They said their bye’s and he could hear the other line hang up. He held the phone in his hand for a second or nine before putting it down. He looked at Harrison, who had put down his paper and took a long swing from his cigarette. Before blowing out the smoke that had built up in his lungs, he put the goggles back over his eyes. Tom could suddenly see smoke coming out from underneath the goggles.

At around 3:30, Tom decided to leave the house. Not only have at least ten minutes to spare in case any traffic came up but also because he was starting to get tired of Harrison blowing smoke in his goggles and then yelling that his eyes burned.

He took the bus. Getting out as quickly as possible. He crossed the street and looked at the entrance of the Ritz. He had never even been close to the building. With his lower than low income, he didn’t exactly feel worthy to be around it.

Walking in, a whiff of richness could be felt. It wasn’t very pleasant. He had walked to the front desk and asked in which room “Miss Flintstone” was staying and then headed to the elevators. The man had said to go to the fortepiano and to the right. So that is what he did.

A man in a black suit walked in with him. In one hand he was holding a briefcase and in the other a cup of coffee.

“Which floor?” Tom asked.

“Three, please.” That just so happened to be the same as his. The doors closed and they were ascending. Not much later the elevator stopped and they got out. Tom glanced at the little navigation sign on which it stated which rooms were on each side of the corridor and made his way to the right. The man took a bit more time doing so but followed him in the same direction. He walked behind him until the very end of the corridor, all the way up to room number 38, the Trafalgar Suite. Before Tom knocked he turned around to the man. “Are you… sure?”  Was he here too to see (Y/N).

“Oh, yeah. Yeah, Sure.” He smiled. Tom knocked on the door. They waited for the door to be opened. Even though the other man stood a good distance away from him, Tom still had the feeling he could feel his breath on his neck. He felt very uncomfortable. Who was he? What was he doing here?

The door suddenly opened, revealing a woman around his (and maybe also the other man’s) age. Tom had never seen her before. She was barely looking at them, too occupied by whatever it was in her hands.

“Hi. Hi. I’m Karen.” Karen handed him a booklet, on which a the same picture was that he had been seeing all over town recently. It was (Y/N), in her futuristic bob-cut, from her new movie HELIX. “I’m sorry, things are running a little bit late. Here’s the uhm, thing. Do you wanna come this way?” She went back inside.”Through here.” Not knowing what to do, Tom just followed and so did the ginger man. There were many other people in the room. All looking like they have been waiting for a while, all holding the same booklet that Karen had given to him. Tom finally understood what was going on. This was a press conference.

“So what did you think of the film?” Karen clicked her pen, ready to write down their words.

“Yeah, I thought it was fantastic. I thought it was Close Encounters meets Jean de Florette.” the ginger man said. Karen smiled satisfied. Then the two of them looked at Tom, expecting him to add to it. He did not know what he thought of the movie as he had not seen it, nor - honestly - was he actually planning on seeing it. Because he had to say something, he choked out: “I agree.” The man nodded approvingly and swung his coffee cup back to drink the last bit of his drink.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t get down what magazines you’re from.”

“Time Out.” the man said.

“Great,” she noted the name, then looked up at Tom, “and you’re from?” Tom was very much freaking out. He was definitely not from any magazine. He can’t even remember the last time he read one. He tried to look around unnoticed for some inspiration. Thankfully, on a small table nearby, there was a whole pile of magazines. Hidden behind a vase of flowers. It was the only option he got.

“Er- Horse & Hound.” The man next to him smiled impressed. Tom smirked back. Karen wrote down the name too. As (Y/N) had said that they could meet up today, he assumed that she was expecting him.

He cleared his throat: “The name’s Tom Holland. Actually, she might be expecting me.”

“Oh, okay.” She didn’t sound very impressed but went along with it. “Take a seat and I’ll go check.” Karen smiled and walked away. The ginger man still stood by him. He pointed at a small couch and asked if they should sit down. They did so. As they walked over to it, the man started a conversation: “I see you’ve… I see you’ve brought her some flowers.” he pointed at the small bouquet. Tom had completely forgotten about them. It was rather pathetic now that he thought about it. He started laughing: “No. These are.. for my… grandmother. She’s in a hospital down the road. Thought I’d kill two birds with one stone, you know.” The man nodded.

“Sure, right. Absolutely, yeah.” Tom turned around slightly, hoping the conversation was now over. Unfortunately, for him, it was not. “Which hospitals that?” Tom wanted to tell the man to mind his own business but thought it would be quite rude to do so.

“Do you mind me not saying? It’s a rather distressing thing, isn’t it?” he was impressed by himself, really. “The name of the hospital kind of gives it away.”

“Absolutely. Sure.” the man agreed. Tom thanked him with a “Cheers.” There was a very awkward silence between them. Tom did not know if this was much better than the conversation.

“Right, Mr. Holland,” Karen popped up through the crowd of journalists from a different corridor than into which one she had disappeared, “If you come this way.”

“Right.” Tom got up. He walked over to Karen who showed him towards a room a bit away from where everyone was standing and waiting. “You’ve got five minutes.” She opened a door for him and walked away. The room was oval shaped. Very roomy and very classy. The beige color of the walls was repeated in the furniture, ceiling, drapes, and carpet. Parallel to the door was a big window looking out on the city. In front of it stood (Y/N). she had her back facing him but turned around the moment he walked in. Just like the last time he saw her, she was beautiful. Even with the light making her only a silhouette. She walked away from the window with a big smile. Tom could now see her more properly. Yes, she was beautiful. Dressed in a full suit, including a tie, she showed all the power in her that the world needed to see. Her hair was tied back in a slick ponytail.

“Hi.” He said. She responded with a simple “Hello.”

“Uhm, I brought these, but clearly…” he looked around the room, where gigantic bushes of flowers stood in every spot that fit.

“No, they’re great. They’re great.” She smiled and took them from him. Tom didn’t know what to do.

“I’m sorry about not ringing back.” he apologized when she put down the flowers on the table in front of them. “The whole two-names concept was totally too much for my flatmate’s pea-sized intellect.”

“No, it’s a stupid privacy thing. I always pick a cartoon character.”  thankfully she didn’t seem to be very angry at him, technically, ignoring her for three days. “Last time I was Mrs. Bmbi.” she laughed at her own choice. The door of the room closed as a man stepped in, making them both look away from each other. The man was older, already at the point where his barely-there hair was completely white. He was wearing all black, so Tom assumed it was some type of security.

“Everything all right?”  he asked.

“Yes, thank you.” (Y/N) smiled at the man, who brought his attention to Tom.

“And you’re from Horse & Hound?” Tom just nodded. “Good.” Then he turned around and started going through some papers.

“Is that so?” (Y/N) smiled, probably holding in a bigger one underneath it, and sat down on the big couch. Not wanting to be inappropriate, Tom sat down in a chair next to it. His eyes were still on the man. He couldn’t have the conversation he wanted to have, while he was there. They would have him kicked out before he actually asked anything.

“So..uhm, I’ll just fire away, then, shall I?” he looked unsure at (Y/N), who glanced at the man in the round corner of the room and smirked. She waited for his first question.

“Right...er- The film’s great.” Always a good way to start, he thought. “And I just was wondering whether you ever thought of having more, uh, horses in it?” The man cleared his throat. It was unsure if it was towards Tom and his ridiculously idiotic question, or it was actually needed. Especially, that he didn’t even seem to be paying attention, as he was checking her mail. (Y/N) answered as she glanced over at him: “Well, we would have like to, but it was difficult, obviously, being set in space.” Tom seemed to blank out for a minute. At this moment he felt like a bigger idiot than Harrison.

“Space, right, yeah. Yeah, obviously very difficult.” The door opened again and the man left. Tom didn’t even wait to make sure he couldn’t hear them. “I’m so sorry. I arrived outside, they thrust this into my hand.” he showed her the movie booklet that he had earlier on put down.

“No, it’s my fault. I thought this would all be over by now.” she sighed. “I just wanted to sort of apologizing for the kissing thing. I seriously don’t know what came over me.” Tom could feel the smile on his face slowly lower itself. He didn’t know what he had expected from this conversation, but this somehow was not it. “I just wanted to make sure that you were fine about it.”

Tom froze for a moment. Of course, he was fine about it. The kiss was amazing. He knew that he probably should say it out loud too. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely fine.” He had to play it cool, though. Once again, the heavy door opened and closed. The bold man came in again.

“Do remember that Miss (Y/L/N) is also keen to talk about her next project which she is shooting later in the summer.” He walked over to them to pour a glass of water for (Y/N). Tom was sure she could perfectly well do it herself and that there was no particular reason for the man to be there now.

“Yes, excellent. Excellent.” He did not want to talk about her next project, but since the man was still there, he had no other choice. “Any horses in that one?” She looked at him with a sad smile. He knew very well that this attempt at an interview was not going great at all. “Or hounds for that matter?” he added quickly. “Our readers are equally intrigued by both species.”

“It takes place on a submarine,” she explained disappointedly.

“Oh, well, bad luck.” he glanced over at the man, who did not seem to be very keen on leaving. “But if there were horses in it, would you be riding them, or would you be getting a stunt-horse-double-man-thing?” he could hear the man walk away with a sigh, opening the door, and closing it behind him.

“I’m a complete moron, I apologize.” he took a deep breath. “This is very weird. It’s the sort of thing that happens in dreams, not in real life. I mean, good dreams. It’s a dream, in fact, to see you again.” He looked away, not believing what he had just said. Her next words were soft, almost a whisper: “What happens next in the dream?”

Her smile took his breath away for a moment there. Once he managed to talk, he thought for a moment. “I suppose that in the uhm, dream, dream scenario, I just change my personality,” he wished he was more confident around her, less of a bumbling idiot. “Because you can do that in dreams and uhm... “ They were looking into each other's eyes. Tom was not sure if she was actually moving closer to him or he was just imagining it. “And walk over and kiss the girl. But…” they both started to lean in. This was happening. Now he was prepared. He could do it.

The only problem was, it was not happening. The old security man came in through the door, making Tom and (Y/N) sit up and look away from each other. Breaking any tension there was between them.

“Time’s up, I’m afraid. Did you get what you wanted?” Tom wanted to punch the stupid grin off of his face. Of course, he didn’t get what he wanted. But he had to keep calm.

“Nearly. Nearly,” he said, fidgeting in his chair a bit.

“Well, maybe just one last question,” he smirked towards (Y/N). It was very unnerving to look at. She smiled and said: “sure, sure.” The man left again. It was all very annoying.

“Are you busy tonight?” Tom asked when the door clicked in the lock.

“Yes.” She simply stated.

“Right. Right.” He understood. Of course, the biggest movie star in Hollywood would be busy. She doesn’t have time for him. What was he thinking? There was a silence between them. Very awkward.

“Come in,” The man walked in, This time followed by a Clark Kent looking type. (Y/N) got up, so Tom assumed it was really time to go for him. They politely shook hands and she said: “Well, it was nice to meet you.”

“Yes, and you.”

“Surreal, but nice.” She smirked. Tom laughed at the comment. It will haunt him for the rest of his life, probably.

“Thank you,” he said, “You are Horse & Hound’s favorite actress.” the comment made her laugh out loud a little. “You and Black Beauty tied.” He wished he could kiss her, but the men next to them made it impossible. So, he walked away. Not looking back. He was not exactly pleasantly surprised to see the ginger man standing outside. When he saw Tom, he told whoever he was talking to on the phone, to hang on.

“How was she?” He asked interestedly.

“Oh, um…” the question threw him off a bit. “Fabulous.”

“Excellent.” they were about to part, but the man stopped him again. “Wait a minute, she took your grandmother’s flowers?” he looked confused. So did Tom. Grandmother’s flowers? What was he on about? Then he remembered his poor excuse.

“Yeah, yeah. That’s right. Bitch.”

“Mr. Holland.” It was Karen, coming out of a corridor. What was it now? Couldn’t he just leave? He was fine, honestly. “If you’d like to come with me, we can just rush you through the others.”

“The others?” Karen walked away, but Tom stood still in his spot. What others?  There weren’t any others for him. Just (Y/N). Karen didn’t stop or respond, so he had to follow her. The woman leads him into another room, where a gentleman was seated.

“Mr. Holland is from Horse & Hound,” she told him and walked away, but not before gesturing to Tom to sit down.

“How ’s it going?” the man asked. They shook hands.

“Very well. Thank you.” Tom was going to pass out. He couldn’t interview him! And Karen had talked about others. That was definitely plural. Was he expected to talk to the whole cast? He couldn’t.

“Have a seat.” They sat down. Tom was ready for the next hour of torture to begin.

-------

Should I write and post more of this story? Do you want to be tagged? Any other request or comment?

#uglypastels #imagine #smut #fanfic #fanfiction #fanfictions #tom holland #tom holland imagine #tom holland smut #tom holland fanfiction #tom holland fanfic #tom holland writing #tom holland AU #movie AU #AU #notting hill #peter parker #peter parker imagine #peter parker fanfiction #peter parker fanfics #peter parker smut #peter parker writing #spider-man smut #spider-man fanfic #spider-man imagine #spider-man fanfictions #spider-man fanfiction

[danieledorazi]

The Influencer Headache.

INFLUENCERSINFLUENCERSINFLUENCERS - that’s what everyone is talking about, nowadays.

But - L2 asks: “Are Influencers Over?”

‘Is the world finally fed up with influencers? Flossy clothes and flush followings aside, the latest in brand happenings seem to be pointing towards a bleaker view of internet icons. From Unilever’s beleaguered battle to wipe itself clean of fake influencers to Diesel’s daring commentary on the stark absurdity of the often overly trendy bunch, brands seem to be tweaking their perspective when it comes to influencer marketing.’

‘While Unilever struggles to create a clean slate, Diesel is taking jabs at influencer culture. The retailer rolled out a campaign called “Be a Follower” that takes aim at influencers with over-complicated outfits and phone addictions, showing the characters struggling to do everyday things like spending time with loved ones or eating normal meals.‘

Here is the video.

Moreover, it looks like even people offline are fed up with the “influencer fever”.

According to Highsnobiety, “Influencers Are Wreaking Havoc in London’s Swanky Notting Hill Neighborhood”.

‘As restaurants and galleries scramble to make themselves more “Instagram-worthy,” residents of London’s picturesque Notting Hill are bemoaning the attention. Locals are less than impressed with the scourge of Instagram “influencers” spending hours on their doorsteps, posing for the ‘gram.‘

‘One such resident told the Standard UK that “At first it was sweet but it’s just getting crazier.” Insta-tourists are a relatively new phenomenon. The same resident said that “on weekends there will be at least four groups taking pictures at the same time. It’s weird — it didn’t used to happen.”‘

Talking about the same subject, in a different city, Paris - “Their Street Is Famous on Instagram, and They Can't Take It Anymore”.

‘Instagrammers love the colorful homes on Paris’s Rue Crémieux. Frustrated residents want gates to lock them out.

It’s easy to see why Paris’s Rue Crémieux is such a hit on Instagram.

Filled with small pastel-painted houses, weathered cobblestones, and blooming window boxes, the car-free street near Bastille has become one of Europe’s most popular spots to strike a pose, with the hashtag #ruecremieux now linking to over 31,000 images.

But the popularity of this Instagrammer’s paradise is making it hell for residents. Sick of influencers, rappers, yoga aficionados, and fashion shoots blocking their doorways, Rue Crémieux’s residents have had enough. This week, the street’s residents’ association demanded that the city of Paris protect their privacy by closing the street to visitors on evenings and weekends.

Residents of the street certainly make the Instagram onslaught sound wearisome. According to Antoine, a Rue Crémieux resident interviewed by radio station France Info, the street’s ’grammability has turned daily life there into an ordeal.

“We sit down to eat and just outside we have people taking photos—rappers who take two hours to film a video right beneath the window, or bachelorette parties who scream for an hour. Frankly, it’s exhausting.”’

#instagram #influencer #influencer marketing

[architectnews]

London Architecture News: Building Designs

London Architectural News 2022, UK Capital Buildings, New Property Developments, Architects, Designs Images

London Architecture News

Key Property Developments in the British Capital City – New Buildings in England, UK

post updated 13 February 2022

London Building News

London Architecture News – key property updates for the UK capital

e-architect post London architecture news daily

London Architecture Links – chronological list

– latest additions to this page, arranged chronologically:

13 Feb 2022 Rediscovering Notting Hill Gate, North West London photo © Luke O’Donovan Rediscovering Notting Hill Gate Design Competition Notting Hill Gate is set to get a refresh as a design competition invites architects, designers and creatives from across London to reimagine public space The innovative new installation could use using seating, greening, lighting, interactive elements or pop-ups to bring vibrancy to the area.

10 Feb 2022 The Hickman, Whitechapel, City of London Design: DSDHA photograph courtesy of architects practice The Hickman London E1 Development In becoming the world’s first building to be awarded WiredScore’s SmartScore ‘Platinum’ rating, The Hickman has spearheaded a new era for workplaces, reflecting customers’ changing expectations as a result of shifting work patterns. With hybrid working now the norm for many businesses, there is increased demand for developers and employers to deliver office space that provides a better experience than the working-from-home alternative.

9 Feb 2022 Lancer Square, Kensington, West London Landscape design: Scape Design; Buildings design: Squire & Partners image courtesy of architects practice Lancer Square Kensington A garden square created by Scape Design has recently been completed in the Kensington Palace conservation area of West London, providing high-quality public realm and private landscape areas for Lancer Square, a new mixed-use development of 36 world-class apartments, retail and restaurants designed by Squire & Partners.

8 Feb 2022 PEARL: Person-Environment-Activity Research Laboratory, UCL Design: Penoyre & Prasad photograph © Timothy Soar PEARL: Person-Environment-Activity Research Laboratory, UCL London-based architecture practice Penoyre & Prasad has completed UCL’s unique research laboratory, PEARL. The research centre’s goal is to improve the built environment and the way we interact with it. Life-sized environments – a railway station, high street, town square for example – will be built under controlled conditions to examine how people of all abilities interact with their urban environment and each other.

2 February 2022 Triptych Bankside sees surge in luxury apartment sales Design Architect: Squire & Partners; interior design: Cocovara image courtesy of architects practice Triptych Bankside London Property News JTRE London, the developer of Triptych Bankside, one of the most striking mixed-use schemes on the central London skyline, has marked the start of the New Year by securing luxury apartment sales totalling £36.5m.

6 Feb 2022 Revive Bramcote Park design competition

2 Feb 2022 61-65 Holborn Viaduct Building, City of London Design: Stiff + Trevillion Architects and Jonathan Cook Landscape Architects image courtesy of architects practice 61-65 Holborn Viaduct Building

1 Feb 2022 Camden Highline Design Competition Shortlist, Camden, North London photo courtesy of LFA Somers Town Design Competition Camden The London Festival of Architecture and the London Borough of Camden have launched a new design competition, inviting architects, landscape architects, designers, and artists to develop a creative design in Somers Town that supports the events planned in the area as part of LFA 2022. Whilst King’s Cross and Euston have experienced significant growth throughout the years, Somers Town and its residents have yet to see the full benefits of surrounding regeneration.

17 Jan 2022 New London Architecture King’s Cross Design Competition image courtesy of NLA New London Architecture King’s Cross Design Competition King’s Cross, London’s 67-acre creative neighbourhood, has today launched a competition in partnership with New London Architecture (NLA). It is inviting individuals, community groups, established and emerging enterprises and organisations to put forward ideas and proposals for how they could transform an existing premises on Beaconsfield Street into a new community offer.

13 Jan 2022 Wilcox Road Competition, South Lambeth photo courtesy of LFA Wilcox Road South Lambeth Architecture Competition

13 Jan 2022 London Festival of Architecture launches call for entries and reveals Destinations photo © Gareth Gardner LFA 2022 – London Festival of Architecture News This summer, the London Festival of Architecture (LFA), the world’s largest annual architecture festival, returns for its 13th edition across June. LFA 2022 will once again transform London’s neighbourhoods with a series of installations, exhibitions, talks and special events that will bring people together as London continues to reopen.

10 Jan 2022 Alphabeta, Finsbury Square Design: Studio RHE photo : Nick Hufton, Al Crow Alphabeta Alphabeta is the melting pot for Two Tribes; the City’s financial sector and the new Creative Media and Tech industries. An energetic shared workspace that straddles the divide and creates a new home for ideas to make money.

7 Jan 2022 Treehouses at Kew Design Competition, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, south west London photo © Luke Hayes Treehouses at Kew Design Competition Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the Museum of Architecture (MoA) have launched an international design competition to find three exceptional designs to create three Treehouses across RBG Kew’s UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of a larger ‘Treehouses at Kew’ Exhibition taking place in 2023.

More London Architecture News in 2021 online soon!

London Architecture News in 2021

14 Dec 2021 V&A East Museum, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Stratford, Borough of Newham Design: O’Donnell + Tuomey, Architects, Ireland photo © Victoria and Albert Museum V&A East museum building Stratford The V&A marked the “topping out” of its new V&A East museum building – one of two V&A East sites currently under construction in Stratford’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park – with the shell of the building reaching its full height. Designed by O’Donnell + Tuomey and constructed by MACE, the 7,000 sqm V&A East Museum tops out at 42.5 metres high, following completion of the installation of its intricate steel frame.

9 Dec 2021 A House for Artists, 36 – 40 Linton Road, Barking, east London Design: APPARATA A House for Artists Barking Town Centre

8 Dec 2021 Dora House, Royal Society of Sculptors London

8 Dec 2021 15 Clerkenwell Close Apartments

5 Dec 2021 Low Line Commons, Bankside – design awards news Architects: PDP London image courtesy of architects practice Low Line Commons London Design Award A transformative architectural project, which will create a 3.5km green corridor through some of London’s oldest neighbourhoods, has won two major New London Awards. It was named winner of both Planning and Overall categories, and is the first unbuilt project to be named overall winner.

3 Dec 2021 Buildings at former London Television Centre site, 72 Upper Ground, South Bank Design: Make Architects image courtesy of Coin Street Community Builders London Television Centre Site Redevelopment

3 December 2021 Homerton High Street Development, Hackney, north east London Design: CZWG Architects visualisation : CZWG Architects Homerton High Street Hackney Regeneration The London Borough of Hackney has resolved to grant planning permission for a new mixed-use regeneration development on a dilapidated urban site adjacent to Homerton overground train station.

3 Dec 2021 Whitechapel Elizabeth Line Station, Whitechapel Market Conservation area, east London Design: BDP image © BDP Whitechapel Elizabeth Line Station Building The Whitechapel Elizabeth line station has opened after being handed over to Transport for London. Sitting within the Whitechapel Market Conservation area, the design of the new station retains the distinctive and historic buildings constructed more than 100 years ago.

3 Dec 2021 The Gilbert and One Lackington

2 Dec 2021 Pump House South Norwood, Croydon

1 Dec 2021 John Morden Centre Blackheath Building

29 Nov 2021 John Morden Centre, Morden College, Blackheath, south east London Architect: Mae photograph courtesy of Brick Awards / architects John Morden Centre Blackheath Building

26 Nov 2021 Chelsea Barracks Phase 3a Architect: PDP London photo courtesy of Brick Awards Chelsea Barracks Phase 3a At the heart of the development, set in new public realm by the historic Garrison Chapel, phase 3a includes a centrepiece restaurant, delicatessen and exclusive mews house.

24 Nov 2021 One Bishopsgate Plaza, Bishopsgate, City of London Design: PLP Architecture photo : Julian Abrams One Bishopsgate Plaza One Bishopsgate Plaza is the first high-rise residential and hospitality development built in the City and stands as a bold commitment to the continued vitality of the area. The site includes a new 43-storey tower to house the hotel and residential uses along with a refurbished and extended Victorian building lining Devonshire Row that incorporates restaurant, office and retail space.

24 Nov 2021 Lambeth Palace Library Building

24 Nov 2021 Alumno Student Residence Bermondsey

23 Nov 2021 The Courtauld Institute of Art London Renewal

23 Nov 2021 South Kensington Station Development

19 Nov 2021 Duke of York Restaurant in Chelsea

16 Nov 2021 Vinoteca, Borough Yards, London Bridge Design: SPPARC image courtesy of architects practice Vinoteca Borough Yards restaurant and wine bar Vinoteca will open a new 95 cover restaurant and wine bar at Borough Yards, a new shopping, dining and creative district in London Bridge. SPPARC, the architects behind Borough Yards, have worked carefully to celebrate the rich Victorian heritage of the arches by repurposing the cathedral like brick structures into exciting dining and retail spaces.

15 Nov 2021 York House King’s Cross Office Building – architecture award news

13 Nov 2021 Peckham Glass Box, Southwark Home

13 Nov 2021 New Hackney Primary School Building

7 Nov 2021 Mountain View House

5 Nov 2021 Mortimer House, Fitzrovia Design: MATA Architects and Fettle design photo © Peter Landers Mortimer House Rooftop Bar MATA Architects were asked to maximise the potential for a small rooftop structure housing a redundant lift overrun and some outdoor space immediately adjacent to it. The goal was to create a rooftop bar and outdoor seating area for Mortimer House with views across Fitzrovia.

5 Nov 2021 Premier Inn Westferry, Canary Wharf Premier Inn Hotel Westferry, Canary Wharf

28 October 2021 Walters Way House, Lewisham, South London Walters Way House Lewisham

27 October 2021 120 Fleet Street Redevelopment Design: Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) image courtesy of architects practice 120 Fleet Street Building by BIG The proposed redevelopment of 120 Fleet Street has (26th October) been granted planning permission by the City of London Corporations’s Planning and Transportation Committee.

27 Oct 2021 De Vere Gardens, Kensington, West London Design: Alpex Architecture photo : French & Tye De Vere Gardens The property’s total area is 250sqm. It is a four-bedroom apartment with a wide main reception room and kitchen looking towards the pedestrian Canning Passage and Family Room that can serve as a TV Room and Study.

22 October 2021 Palace of Westminster Building Restoration News photo courtesy of the Houses of Parliament Palace of Westminster Building Restoration News Over 50 highly skilled engineers, architectural surveyors, acoustics and lighting specialists, and ecologists, spent a combined 4,700 hours over Parliament’s recent recess period investigating the building and continuing to build the most detailed record of the 150-year-old Palace of Westminster ever created.

14 Oct 2021 Kingston University London, Town House design by Grafton Architects wins Stirling Prize

14 Oct 2021 McGrath Road Housing, East London – award news

14 Oct 2021 Apex Gardens, Seven Sisters, Haringey, North East London Architect: 3DReid ; Design Architect / Concept Guardians: John McAslan + Partners photo : Robert Waters Apex Gardens, Seven Sisters, Haringey Grainger has completed its latest build-to-rent scheme in Seven Sisters, North London. 3DReid were delighted to develop the design, vary the planning approval and deliver the project with the contractor; Ant Yapi. The scheme provides 163 high quality rental homes, a range of resident amenities and flexible commercial space.

14 Oct 2021 MEATliquor and Shed, Clapham, south west London Architecture: Shed photo : Shed MEATliquor X Shed, Clapham Hailed as the bad boy burger behemoth of London, MEATliquor and Shed launch their latest restaurant together in Clapham Old Town, London on 21st of October. This marks 10 years since the original standard bearer of the burger revolution partnered with the creative minds of Shed to create a permanent home for them.

12 Oct 2021 ‘Act’ revealed as London Festival of Architecture 2022 theme photo © Luke O’Donovan London Festival of Architecture 2022 The London Festival of Architecture (LFA) has announced that ‘Act’ will be its theme for the 2022 edition of the festival when its month-long public events programme returns from 1-30 June 2022. Ahead of the call for entries in January, the festival has also unveiled the curatorial panel for 2022.

30 Sep 2021 Caffetteria at Lavazza London Flagship, 23-24 Great Marlborough Street, London W1F 7HU Design: CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati, Architects photograph : Marco Joe Fazio Lavazza London Flagship Caffetteria CRA unveils Caffetteria, an innovative project in Lavazza’s brand-new Flagship Store off Regent Street. New technologies – from germicidal materials to lights with disinfecting properties – are employed to rethink the quintessential Italian coffee experience with one objective in mind: rebuilding social proximity.

29 Sep 2021 Young V&A, Bethnal Green Building Design: De Matos Ryan ; Redevelopment lead designers: AOC image : Picture Plane © Victoria and Albert Museum, London Young V&A Construction has begun on the £13m redevelopment of the V&A Museum of Childhood, the iconic Grade II* listed site in Bethnal Green, marking a critical milestone in the most ambitious transformation of the museum in its history.

28 Sep 2021 House + House North West London Property

28 Sep 2021 RCA New Battersea South Campus

27 Sep 2021 The Cosmic House Holland Park

23 Sep 2021 Tiger Way, north east London Design: Hawkins\Brown Architects photograph : Jack Hobhouse Tiger Way Hackney housing and school Buildings Tiger Way co-locates a school alongside a residential block in Hackney. With space utilisation not just efficient but more than the sum of its parts, the architects prove that this complex emerging typology can be done exceptionally well and provide real social value.

20 Sep 2021 ‘Shaping Space – Architectural Models Revealed’ image © Greta Ilieva BuildingCentre / V&A Building Centre architectural models exhibition

18 Sep 2021 Hand and Flower Building, Kings Road

18 Sep 2021 Kingston University London – Town House Design: Grafton Architects photo : Ed Reeve Kingston University London – Town House Of the two ambitious projects from the same client to make the shortlist, the Town House is the more conventional architectural project. It is very accomplished.

16 Sep 2021 15 Clerkenwell Close, Clerkenwell Design: Groupwork + Amin Taha Architects photo : Tim Soar 15 Clerkenwell Close 15 Clerkenwell Close’s non descriptive title belies the astonishing architectural triumph that dwells at the simple address, occupying a plot of land a stones throw from Clerkenwell Green. The 7 storey building is the architect’s own development comprising one or two flats per floor, a double-height architect’s studio at basement and ground and the architect’s home on the top floor.

14 Sep 2021 95 Peckham Road, Southwark, South London Design: Peter Barber Architects photograph © Morley von Sternberg 95 Peckham Road Southwark The development creates 33 low-cost apartments, with a courtyard behind. There is direct access from the street and courtyard to the lower apartments. There are two additional access cores for the flats at higher level, each core serving three apartments at each level.

14 Sep 2021 McGrath Road Housing, Stratford, East London Design: Peter Barber Architects photo © Morley von Sternberg McGrath Road Housing East London McGrath Road inventively combines a traditional European courtyard typology with a traditional London terrace, setting a new creative benchmark for the future of London’s affordable housing. Twenty-six individual three- and four-storey dual-aspect townhouses, each with its own front door, surround a tree-lined courtyard, giving the development an enhanced sense of community and openness.

9 September 2021 Reimagined Strand Aldwych Design: LDA Design photos © Westminster City Council / LDA Design Reimagined Strand Aldwych ‘Skate the Strand’, a free, temporary pop-up skate park located on the Strand outside Somerset House, marks the start of the transformation of the Strand Aldwych area. The skate park is part of the Westminster Reveals campaign and kicks off ‘September on the Strand’, inviting people to return to the city’s streets and enjoy the capital’s cultural scene, connecting celebrated talent and communities.

7 Sep 2021 The Landmark Building For The Royal College Of Art Design: Herzog & De Meuron Architects picture courtesy of architecture practice

4 Sep 2021 Southworks, Southwark Smart Offices

2 Sep 2021 West Hall Olympia, Hammersmith Road

More new London Architecture News online soon

UK Capital Architectural Updates in Summer 2021

24 Aug 2021 new teaching and learning centre for Birkbeck, University of London, 373 Euston Road Design: Penoyre & Prasad Architects photo courtesy of architecture practice Birkbeck, University of London teaching and learning centre The refurbishment and extension of 373 Euston Road accommodates a state-of-the-art 180-person lecture theatre, high-quality classrooms, as well as formal and informal co-learning spaces. Refurbishment revitalises the existing building by enhancing original design elements and embraces its historical spirit.

31 July 2021 Snowdon Aviary Restoration News photo © ZSL London Zoo Snowdon Aviary Restoration Landmark footage shared by ZSL London Zoo shows the historic moment the famous Snowdon Aviary is ‘unwrapped’ – signaling a defining moment in the iconic structure’s restoration journey.

31 Jul 2021 Goodmayes, LB Redbridge, East London Design: Stockwool images courtesy of architecture practice Goodmayes, LB Redbridge Development Working within the Crossrail Strategic Growth Corridor allowed Stockwool to push height on this high-density mixed-use scheme; this in turn enabled the significant reduction to built footprint, offering an urban solution boasting 60 percent of the site as high quality public realm and landscaping.

29 July 2021 National Holocaust Memorial London Approval image courtesy of architecture office National Holocaust Memorial News The government has given the go-ahead for a Holocaust memorial in London, to be built next to the Houses of Parliament. The plans, including 23 large bronze sculptures and an underground learning centre, were previously rejected by Westminster Council.

29 Jul 2021 22 Bishopsgate image courtesy of architects practice 22 Bishopsgate London Building The Morris Project in partnership with DesignLSM is proud to unveil 22 Bishopsgate’s Market, managed by Rhubarb Hospitality Collection. This is an inspirational market spanning the entire second floor (20,000 ft) of the UK’s first wellbeing building, 22 Bishopsgate is designed to be a vertical village focused on the modern office worker and their evolving needs. Sustainability, wellbeing and community will be at its heart.

22 July 2021 EDGE London Bridge, St Thomas St, South Bank, Southwark image : Miller Hare EDGE London Bridge, Southwark Offices Located in St Thomas Street on London’s South Bank, this state-of-the-art smart building will mark EDGE’s entry into the London market. The 260,000 sqft tower will feature 27 floors of office accommodation.

14 July 2021 National Gallery Building Renewal Winner photo © Brigitte Lacombe National Gallery Building A team led by Selldorf Architects has been selected to work on a suite of capital projects to mark its Bicentenary, with an initial phase to be completed in 2024. Selldorf Architects’ team also includes Purcell, Vogt Landscape, Arup, AEA Consulting, Pentagram, Kaizen and Kendrick Hobbs.

12 July 2021 Harrods Building, Knightsbridge Store

12 July 2021 Oriel Moorfields Eye Hospital Building

11 July 2021 Wembley Stadium – updated post with news

5 July 2021 Harrow Lodge Leisure Centre, Hornchurch

3 July 2021 Oriel Moorfields Eye Hospital Building

2 July 2021 EDGE Marylebone: Eco Design for Greener Environments

Elephant and Castle fire We post a film of an Elephant and Castle fire at the railway arches below the station:

About 100 firefighters are battling the blaze which began shortly before 13:45 BST. London Fire Brigade said three commercial units were alight along with six cars and a telephone box.

The fire is located at railway arches near Elephant and Castle station in South London. The station has been evacuated and local residential evacuations also occurred.

26 Jun 2021 Barnes Brick, Richmond

26 Jun 2021 Abbey Road Church Penthouse

21 Jun 2021 Barnes Brick, Barnes, London Borough of Richmond Design: YARD Architects photograph © Agnese Sanvito Barnes Brick Barnes Brick is a small Victorian terraced house in Barnes was stripped back, reconfigured and extended with an exposed pale handmade brickwork extension to create a new minimal contemporary home.

18 Jun 2021 The Cosmic House Holland Park

17 Jun 2021 Lansdowne Road Extension, Muswell Hill

16 Jun 2021 Serpentine Pavilion 2021 London

13 Jun 2021 London Architecture Photos

13 Jun 2021 Houses of Parliament Restoration and Renewal

10 Jun 2021 The Courtauld Modernisation Project photo © Benedict Johnson Photography The Courtauld Institute of Art London Renewal Masterpieces from the Middle Ages to the 20th Century presented in magnificently restored setting following three-year transformation project. The elegantly restored Blavatnik Fine Rooms will showcase some of the greatest and most-loved works from The Courtauld’s collection. World-famous Impressionist collection reunited in the LVMH Great Room – London’s oldest exhibition space.

9 Jun 2021 Serpentine Pavilion 2021 Design: Counterspace photograph © Counterspace Photo: Iwan Baan Serpentine Pavilion 2021 Building

8 Jun 2021 City of London post-COVID in concept design competition image courtesy of architects practice City of London post-COVID design competition The Phil Freelon Design Competition honours the eponymous late architect and Perkins&Will design director who championed design for humanity. Launched firmwide in 2004 as the Design Leadership Council (DLC) Design Competition and renamed in 2019 in Freelon’s memory, the annual contest is part of the firm’s culture of curiosity, creativity, and innovation.

More London Architecture News on e-architect soon

London Architecture News Spring 2021

22 May 2021 Houses of Parliament Restoration and Renewal  Programme photograph © UK Parliament Houses of Parliament Restoration and Renewal The Houses of Parliament Restoration and Renewal Programme has partnered with experts at Heriot-Watt University (Edinburgh, Scotland) to help protect those working on the essential and complex restoration and renewal of the Palace of Westminster.

22 May 2021 One Portsoken Street London Office Building

21 May 2021 West 5 Apartment, Notting Hill

18 May 2021 NoMad London, 4 Bow St, Covent Garden, WC2E 7AT Design: Roman and Williams photograph : Simon Upton NoMad London Hotel, Covent Garden New-York based hospitality company, Sydell Group, opens NoMad London, the first international property for The NoMad Hotel brand, in the historic former Magistrate’s Court in the heart of London’s West End.

13 May 2021 Grenfell Tower in West London

11 May 2021 V&A Raphael Court Renewal

1 May 2021 David Hockney Digital Sunrise at Piccadilly Circus image courtesy David Hockney David Hockney at Piccadilly Circus A new video work by David Hockney, one of the world’s most celebrated living artists, will be unveiled on London’s Piccadilly Lights screen on 1 May at 20:21 BST.

29 Apr 2021 2021 City Benches Competition

27 Apr 2021 Sponge Urban Living

23 Apr 2021 London Festival of Architecture 2021

21 Apr 2021 House for a Gardener, Haringey, North East London Design: Amos Goldreich Architecture photograph : Ollie Hammick House for a Gardener, Haringey

22 Apr 2021 Low Line Railway Arches, Bankside

21 Apr 2021 Vault House

20 Apr 2021 Bear Gardens Mixed-Use Development

15 Apr 2021 Perrins Court Office Renovation, Hampstead

7 Apr 2021 Imperial War Museums’ London Staff Hub

7 Apr 2021 Hertford Theatre Development Project

7 Apr 2021 2021 London Festival of Architecture: LFA

31 Mar 2021 Pinnacle House, at Royal Wharf, Newham, East London Architecture: Mæ photo courtesy of architects firm Pinnacle House, Royal Wharf Newham Mæ has completed its newest project, Pinnacle House, at Royal Wharf in Newham – the 3,385-home riverside neighbourhood by Ballymore and Oxley.

29 Mar 2021 Palace of Westminster London Building Restoration

25 Mar 2021 Candle Factory

25 Mar 2021 Mountain View House

23 Mar 2021 The Chancery Rosewood Hotel, Mayfair

23 Mar 2021 Kaleidoscope Tiktok HQ

19 Mar 2021 National Gallery London Building

17 Mar 2021 Snowflake School, West London Building

London Architecture News Winter 2021

25 Feb 2021 Sands End Arts & Community Centre, Fulham

15 Feb 2021 Camden Highline Competition News

13 Feb 2021 Tolworth Complex, Kingston upon Thames

1 Feb 2021 KOL Restaurant, Seymour Street

14 Jan 2021 Interview with the Founder of Urbanist Architecture Ufuk Bahar Urbanist Architecture In an Interview with Ufuk Bahar, the founder of Urbanist Architecture, we asked him his thoughts about running an architecture company in London.

4 Jan 2021 Winter Pavilion London Competition

More contemporary London Architecture News online soon

UK Capital Architectural Updates 2020

20 Dec 2020 Royal Docks London Bench Designs

17 Dec 2020 Royal Greenwich Trust School Building

16 Dec 2020 60 Aldgate, Minories, City of London Design: ACME, Architects image courtesy of architects practice 60 Aldgate Building News The Minories Masterplan is a mixed-use scheme with a refurbished hotel, a new office building and a residential building. The scheme also includes a landscaped park around the residential building and a number of urban squares with landscaping and seating areas.

11 Dec 2020 Colney Hatch Lane homes, Barnet, North London Assael Architecture image courtesy of architects Colney Hatch Lane Housing Assael’s design draws on the neighbouring wood and aims to marry the different land uses surrounding the site. The development will significantly boost the local ecology by providing new wildlife habitats.

10 Dec 2020 Hackney Town Hall Restoration, Hackney, North East London Architects: Hawkins\Brown Hackney Town Hall Building Restoration ASWS (Associated Steel Window Services) is one of the country’s leading specialists in the restoration of beautiful old metal windows and has recently completed a stunning refurbishment of the windows and doors for a prestigious landmark project in East London.

3 Dec 2020 Reimagining Butler’s Wharf competition winner The Tide Line – evocative landscape by Ludwig Willis Architects, Structure Workshop & Howard Miller Landscape and Design: Reimagining Butler’s Wharf London

15 Nov 2020 Chiswick House Extension

12 Nov 2020 Spot robot monitors construction

10 Nov 2020 Lee Valley Ice Centre Design: FaulknerBrowns, architects image from architect Lee Valley Ice Centre Plans submitted to Waltham Forest Council for London’s first ever Olympic-sized twin-pad ice centre, have received planning approval, pending second stage approval from the GLA.

7 Nov 2020 Winter House Renovations

3 Nov 2020 Camden Highline Competition Shortlist The Camden Highline charity has shortlisted 5 design teams to deliver the exceptional new green passage that will connect Camden Town to King’s Cross. The shortlisted entries all examined the relationships between humans and nature: Camden Highline Design Competition Shortlist

1 Nov 2020 The Stage Curtain Playhouse in Shoreditch, East London Architects: Perkins&Will image courtesy of architects The Stage Curtain Playhouse Planning consent has been given to the visitor centre at The Stage to exhibit the excavated remains of the Curtain Playhouse to the public. Visitors will be standing on a glass platform above the stage on which Shakespeare once acted and where productions of Romeo & Juliet and Henry V were staged.

27 Oct 2020 Knollys Road Apartments and Mews, Tulse Hill

26 Oct 2020 Thamesmead Waterfront Competition

17 Oct 2020 The Garrison Houses, Southend-on-Sea

13 Oct 2020 Bladerunner House

10 Oct 2020 Regent Street Landscape Plans image courtesy of BDP Regent Street Landscape Plans The Crown Estate and Westminster City Council have unveiled plans to transform London’s iconic Regent Street – helping to deliver their shared vision for a greener, cleaner, safer and more accessible West End.

7 Oct 2020 Cascade House, Hampstead Village

6 Oct 2020 Rossetti Studios Chelsea Restoration

2 Oct 2020 St Paul’s Girl’s School, Hammersmith

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1 Jan to 30 Sep 2020:

London Architecture News 2020

All of 2019:

London Architecture News 2019

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More London architectural news welcome – send content to info(at)e-architect.com

Location: London, England, UK

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The post London Architecture News: Building Designs appeared first on e-architect.

#e-architect

[riccolounge]

Enjoy London Nightlife With Good Food and Great Entertainment

London nightlife is vibrant and full of activities for young and old. London has an enormous variety of night entertainment to please everyone.

London's theatres in the West End and on the South Bank are world famous. There is a healthy, innovative fringe theatre scene too, plus world-class ballet and opera in venues such as Sadler's Wells, the Royal Opera House and the Coliseum.

London offers a wide range of theatrical entertainment including musical, drama, thriller and comedy.

In London you will be able to hear the best music, ranging from classical, jazz and rock to rhythm and blues. There are excellent indoor arenas like the O2 Arena and the Royal Albert Hall to stage top-class concerts. Concerts in London are well organised and attract top international artists.

London nightlife for the dedicated movie buffs means there are hundreds of different films, both in large, multi-screen complexes and excellent small independent cinemas.

London Pubs and Bars play an important role in London nightlife. Apart from serving good food and drinks, pubs also provide excellent entertainment. Some pubs have live music, like modern jazz at the Bull's Head in Barnes, and the Golden Eagle in Marylebone is a central London piano pub with nostalgic singalongs a few times a week.

You can also go on a London nightlife bus tour of the West End night clubs. They also cater for comedy nights at one of London's infamous comedy bars.

Renowned as the world's dining capital, London thrives on an extraordinary culinary diversity. With lots of Chinese, Indian, Italian and French restaurants, eating out in London restaurants enable you try out different cuisines from around the world.

The broadest choice of restaurants are scattered around Covent Garden, Piccadilly, Leicester Square, Soho and Mayfair. There are also plenty of great restaurants and  bar in Bayswater, Notting Hill Gate and Kensington.

Many people are taking up dancing in London, both to keep fit as well as for fun. From jazz to hip hop, ballet to ballroom, pole dancing to tap, you can do it all in London.

Live Music in Ricco:

Allow us to transport you back to the roaring 20’s where lively swing music envelopes the lounge, flapper burlesque beauties are singing, dancing, and performing jaw-dropping theatrics, and prohibition is in the air.

This is a show unlike no other. Expect belting ballads, interactive audience play, incredible choreography, and a few sneaky surprises, that make this night not to be missed!

Tickets on sale now.

For all inquiries and booking please visit our website www.riccolounge.com.

#bar with music london #bars in london with music #best live music bars london #bars with live music london

[locolondonsalsa]

Enjoy London Nightlife With Good Food and Great Entertainment

salsa classes london London nightlife is vibrant and full of sports for young and old. London has an vast type of night leisure to delight anybody.

London's theatres in the West End and on the South Bank are world famous. There is a healthful, revolutionary fringe theatre scene too, plus global-magnificence ballet and opera in venues including Sadler's Wells, the Royal Opera House and the Coliseum.

London gives a wide variety of theatrical leisure together with musical, drama, mystery and comedy.

In London you will be capable of pay attention the pleasant track, ranging from classical, jazz and rock to rhythm and blues. There are extremely good indoor arenas just like the O2 Arena and the Royal Albert Hall to stage pinnacle-magnificence live shows. Concerts in London are well organised and entice pinnacle worldwide artists.

London nightlife for the devoted film buffs manner there are masses of different films, each in massive, multi-display complexes and first rate small independent cinemas.

London Pubs and Bars play an important role in London nightlife. Apart from serving desirable food and drink, pubs also provide exquisite enjoyment. Some pubs have stay track, like contemporary jazz on the Bull's Head in Barnes, and the Golden Eagle in Marylebone is a principal London piano pub with nostalgic singalongs a few instances per week.

Sports bars are popular as nicely. The Sports Cafe at 80 Haymarket, Piccadilly, has four bars over  floors, a dance level and one hundred twenty television units showing global carrying events.

Nightclubs and cabarets are hot once more. These are scattered from Soho to Shoreditch and most of them  have eating places serving extraordinary meals. They also cater for stag nights and bird parties. Notable nightclubs consist of Egg Nightclub in Kings Cross, Cargo Nightclub in Shoreditch and Pacha positioned in Victoria.

You also can cross on a London  salsa classes london nightlife bus tour of the West End night clubs. They also cater for comedy nights at considered one of London's notorious comedy bars.

Renowned as the sector's dining capital, London prospers on an high-quality culinary range. With plenty of Chinese, Indian, Italian and French restaurants, ingesting out in London eating places allow you try out exclusive cuisines from around the world.

The broadest preference of eating places are scattered round Covent Garden, Piccadilly, Leicester Square, Soho and Mayfair. There are also lots of top notch restaurants in Bayswater, Notting Hill Gate and Kensington.

Many human beings are taking over dancing in London, both to maintain healthy in addition to for amusing. From jazz to hip hop, ballet to ballroom, pole dancing to tap, you may do it all in London.

Dance Attic Studios in Fulham host dance classes inclusive of hip hop,

[revelations1144]

LONDON AND COUNTERFEIT ALMOST CANCELLED?

22 Feb 2020

I woke up quite late and decided to just walk around London cause Angelica went to see her friends to celebrate someone’s birthday. I went to waterloo, then to trafalgar square, to oxford street, primark, notting hill gate, Stafford terrace, Logan Place, that restaurant Brian recommended, to Picadilly Circus, National Portrait Gallery, charring cross, back to Waterloo and back to New Malden, where Angelica lives.

Then Palaye Royale announced that they were cancelling the show in Birmingham so I freaked out, it was a whole drama. Counterfeit fixed it by booking a different tiny venue. We’ll get the full set, not just the “opening” version of it. And the venue is tiny! Only 300 people!

[thisdaynews]

Crystal Palace v Leicester - team news and build-up

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/crystal-palace-v-leicester-team-news-and-build-up/

Crystal Palace v Leicester - team news and build-up

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Play audio Everton v Tottenham Hotspur from BBC Radio 5 liveEverton v Tottenham Hotspur

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BBC Radio London

RTL

Got a TV Licence?

You need one to watch live TV on any channel or device, and BBC programmes on iPlayer. It’s the law.

Find out more

Live Reporting

By Gary Rose

All times stated are UK

Get involved

Send a text to81111 (charged at your standard network rate)

Twitter:Use the hashtag#bbcfootball

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Posted at 13:0513:05

comments

Get Involved – unexpected footballer/manager sightings

#bbcfootball or text 81111 (UK only)

SMS Message: My wife and I saw Claudio Ranieri chatting outside a Notting Hill restaurant last year. I then noticed he was chatting to Antonio Conte. Two ex Chelsea mangers (!), so my son being a Chelsea fan, my wife initiated a photo with them (they were both charming). It was only after she said she hadn’t recognised Conte – fortunately she didn’t ask him to stand out of the way! from Hugo

My wife and I saw Claudio Ranieri chatting outside a Notting Hill restaurant last year. I then noticed he was chatting to Antonio Conte. Two ex Chelsea mangers (!), so my son being a Chelsea fan, my wife initiated a photo with them (they were both charming). It was only after she said she hadn’t recognised Conte – fortunately she didn’t ask him to stand out of the way!

SMS Message: I once bumped into Colin Doyle, ex Birmingham keeper, in my local chippy. from Guy

I once bumped into Colin Doyle, ex Birmingham keeper, in my local chippy.

Posted at 13:0513:05

Are Rodgers’ side better than Ranieri’s title winners?

Crystal Palace v Leicester (14:00 BST)

Leicester near the top of the Premier League table. Where have we heard that one before?

Brendan Rodgers’ Foxes have had a flying start to the season – sitting third after 10 games – and it is bringing back memories of their famous title-winning season under Claudio Ranieri in 2015-16.

By most metrics, they are better now than they were at the same stage that season.

So how do the two teams compare? And could Leicester actually challenge for this year’s title?

Have a read of Emlyn Begley’s analysis here.

.Copyright: .

Posted at 13:0213:02

BreakingTeam news

Crystal Palace v Leicester (14:00 BST)

Two changes for Crystal Palace as Vicente Guaita and Jeffrey Schlupp come into the side. Leicester, meanwhile, are unchanged.

Crystal Palace:Guaita, Ward, Van Aanholt, Cahill, Tomkins, Schlupp, Milivojevic, Kouyaté, McArthur, Zaha, Ayew. Subs: Hennessey, Dann, Kelly, McCarthy, Camarasa, Meyer, Benteke.

Leicester:Schmeichel, Chilwell, Soyuncu, Evans, Pereira, Ndidi, Barnes, Maddison, Tielemans, Perez, Vardy. Subs: Ward, Justin, Morgan, Albrighton, Iheanacho, Gray, Praet.

Posted at 12:5612:56

‘Palace need to be built around Zaha’

Crystal Palace v Leicester City (Sunday, 14:00 GMT)

Kevin Kilbane

Former Republic of Ireland winger on Football Focus

You can understand why Palace are reluctant to let Wilfred Zaha go. His price will continue to rise considering his ability.

He is not scoring the goals yet but you realise why the team needs to be built around him and he’s having a great part in the goals they are scoring.

Posted at 12:5312:53

‘Brendan Rodgers understands this Leicester squad’

Crystal Palace v Leicester City (Sunday, 14:00 GMT)

Tim Cahill

Former Everton midfielder on Football Focus

Leicester have massive potential to finish in the top four.

Brendan Rodgers understand the squad, there’s so much development throughout this team, and he also knows the value of Vardy and playing around him.

And they are exciting to watch: they are punishing teams and that’s the right reward for the type of manager Brendan Rodgers is.

a hat-trick in the last league outing.

So good has Leicester’s start been that they have more points now than at this stage of the 2016 title-winning season.

The controversial VAR decision last week was a significant turning point in their defeat by Brighton, which has kept them hovering above the relegation zone.

Silva remains under scrutiny and certainly the pressure would have intensified had Everton not progressed to the last eight of the Carabao Cup in midweek.

Some have also questioned Mauricio Pochettino this season, with Spurs struggling to find any consistency as they underachieve.

Despite reaching the Champions League final, Tottenham’s overall form in 2019 has been patchy. But they have a good record against Everton as they seek to end their alarming away form by claiming three league points on the road for the first time since January.

here.

clinched a 2-1 victory four minutes into stoppage time from Trent Alexander-Arnold’s corner.

Title rivals City also fell behind early on against Southampton, but the visitors’ resistance was broken on 70 minutes by Sergio Aguero, and Kyle Walker scored with four minutes left to clinch a 2-1 victory.

In the early kick-off, Bournemouth won 1-0 to end Manchester United’s three-match winning run, with ex-United trainee Joshua King scoring on the stroke of half-time, while Arsenal drew 1-1 with Wolves later in the afternoon.

Posted at 12:0512:05

Coming up

BBCCopyright: BBC

After an eight-game extravaganza on Saturday there’s just the two games today but they are intriguing fixtures none-the-less.

Crystal Palace host in-form Leicester at 14:00 GMT where a win for Palace will see them leap above Arsenal into fifth. A win for the Foxes, meanwhile, will send them third.

Then at 16:30 GMT it is the battle of the (somewhat) under pressure managers as Marco Silva’s Everton hosts Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham.

You can listen to both games on BBC Radio 5 live.

Posted at 12:0012:00

Expect the unexpected again?

There were twists…

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

… and there were turns…

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

… and there was “armpit-gate”…

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

It was a fascinating day of Premier League action on Saturday, so what will today have in store?

Read More

#build-up #Leicester