Lifestyle/Food/Travel
A guide to doing the London tourist traps differently
Scout London, July 2012
http://www.scoutlondon.com/2012/07/23/do-london-differently/
Link to the blog that I kept while travelling around Nepal, China, Mongolia and Russia, February – June 2012
www.frostislost.wordpress.com
Harry Potter walking tour feature
South London Press, January 2012
Harry Potter fans will soon be able to wander round some of the films' dazzling sets, when Leavesden Studios opens to the public this spring. But before that, DAN FROST goes in search of the real-life London locations on a guided Harry Potter walking tour
Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint at King's Cross in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
HARRY POTTER might be a global phenomenon but it is a uniquely British creation - and one in which London plays an exciting part.
Who can forget the death eaters' (evil wizards) spectacular destruction of the Millennium Bridge in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince? Or seeing Harry and his cohorts whizzing along the river Thames on their brooms in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix?
Admittedly, these are two scenes that only appeared in the films. But JK Rowling's novels are also littered with London locations: Platform Nine and Three Quarters at Kings Cross station, Diagon Alley, the Leaky Cauldron, the Ministry of Magic, Grimmauld Place, and the cafe on Tottenham Court Road where Harry, Ron and Hermione narrowly escape the clutches of two death eaters in a famous scene from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
London functions like a magical playground for this proudly British literary and cinematic milestone. So it's hardly surprising that an innumerable number of companies now hold Harry Potter walking tours around the city - and sell out to groups of up to 40 eager Potter fans almost every day of the week.
Leavesden studios - where all of the films' non-location shooting was done - will be opening up its spectacular Potter sets to the public in the spring. But in the meantime, I went in search of the key London locations, courtesy of respected walks company Celebrity Planet.
Our two-and-a-half hour expedition begins in Leicester Square, site of each Harry Potter films' world premiere. It's a gloriously sunny winter's day, and London is looking beautiful.
Less than an hour later I'm huddled in a mosaic of anorak-clad grimaces next to the river in Bankside, while our defiant guide Yuki tries his best to shout a commentary through driving wind and rain.
"THIS IS THE BRIDGE THAT THE DEATH EATERS DESTR...." He stops to grab his wizard hat before it flies off in the gale. "...DESTROYED AT THE START OF HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE."
It's a brave effort indeed. And it surely takes a brave man to wander round London every day waving a pink folder and shouting about Harry Potter in a replica of the Hogwarts sorting hat (which allocates students to different houses).
Fortunately, the inclement weather doesn't test him too greatly, and our exploration of London's Potterverse is a largely dry affair.
And what a journey it is, traversing literally the whole of Zone 1 - all the way from Leicester Square to Kings Cross, via Whitehall, Borough Market and the City, factoring in both a tube ride and a trip on the Thames Clipper.
There's hardly a tourist site that doesn't get ticked off along the way - testament to how well the films use the capital and what a strong advertisement they are for it. And we're treated to a wealth of trivia, both Potter-themed and otherwise, as well as quick quizzes about spells and other Hogwartsian teasers.
None of them prove particularly tasking for our more serious Harry-heads, who are obviously cut from Potter fandom's most devout cloth. I meet one teenage girl who has brought along her own homemade wand, and tells me she has "Hogwarts robes at home". And I overhear an Australian youth complaining that the Pottermore website sorted him into Hufflepuff (a Hogwarts house), when he had been hoping for Ravenclaw.
Not that it needs any confirming, but the walk is a fair reminder just how immersed children (and many adults) have become in the narrative.
Yuki stops at one point and humorously casts the "expelliarmus" spell against a pigeon pecking at food on the pavement. When the bird turns away and nonchalantly wanders off, a little boy of about eight, evidently affronted at its lack of role-playing ability, angrily points his finger and yells "Avada kedavra" (the killing curse).
"No," says his sister with a horrified look, "that's one of the unforgivable curses!"
A few people chuckle and we move on - though with a wary eye on the seemingly murderous eight-year-old.
Who can forget the death eaters' (evil wizards) spectacular destruction of the Millennium Bridge in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince? Or seeing Harry and his cohorts whizzing along the river Thames on their brooms in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix?
Admittedly, these are two scenes that only appeared in the films. But JK Rowling's novels are also littered with London locations: Platform Nine and Three Quarters at Kings Cross station, Diagon Alley, the Leaky Cauldron, the Ministry of Magic, Grimmauld Place, and the cafe on Tottenham Court Road where Harry, Ron and Hermione narrowly escape the clutches of two death eaters in a famous scene from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
London functions like a magical playground for this proudly British literary and cinematic milestone. So it's hardly surprising that an innumerable number of companies now hold Harry Potter walking tours around the city - and sell out to groups of up to 40 eager Potter fans almost every day of the week.
Leavesden studios - where all of the films' non-location shooting was done - will be opening up its spectacular Potter sets to the public in the spring. But in the meantime, I went in search of the key London locations, courtesy of respected walks company Celebrity Planet.
Our two-and-a-half hour expedition begins in Leicester Square, site of each Harry Potter films' world premiere. It's a gloriously sunny winter's day, and London is looking beautiful.
Less than an hour later I'm huddled in a mosaic of anorak-clad grimaces next to the river in Bankside, while our defiant guide Yuki tries his best to shout a commentary through driving wind and rain.
"THIS IS THE BRIDGE THAT THE DEATH EATERS DESTR...." He stops to grab his wizard hat before it flies off in the gale. "...DESTROYED AT THE START OF HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE."
It's a brave effort indeed. And it surely takes a brave man to wander round London every day waving a pink folder and shouting about Harry Potter in a replica of the Hogwarts sorting hat (which allocates students to different houses).
Fortunately, the inclement weather doesn't test him too greatly, and our exploration of London's Potterverse is a largely dry affair.
And what a journey it is, traversing literally the whole of Zone 1 - all the way from Leicester Square to Kings Cross, via Whitehall, Borough Market and the City, factoring in both a tube ride and a trip on the Thames Clipper.
There's hardly a tourist site that doesn't get ticked off along the way - testament to how well the films use the capital and what a strong advertisement they are for it. And we're treated to a wealth of trivia, both Potter-themed and otherwise, as well as quick quizzes about spells and other Hogwartsian teasers.
None of them prove particularly tasking for our more serious Harry-heads, who are obviously cut from Potter fandom's most devout cloth. I meet one teenage girl who has brought along her own homemade wand, and tells me she has "Hogwarts robes at home". And I overhear an Australian youth complaining that the Pottermore website sorted him into Hufflepuff (a Hogwarts house), when he had been hoping for Ravenclaw.
Not that it needs any confirming, but the walk is a fair reminder just how immersed children (and many adults) have become in the narrative.
Yuki stops at one point and humorously casts the "expelliarmus" spell against a pigeon pecking at food on the pavement. When the bird turns away and nonchalantly wanders off, a little boy of about eight, evidently affronted at its lack of role-playing ability, angrily points his finger and yells "Avada kedavra" (the killing curse).
"No," says his sister with a horrified look, "that's one of the unforgivable curses!"
A few people chuckle and we move on - though with a wary eye on the seemingly murderous eight-year-old.
As well as some of the key filming locations, we're also taken to points of Potter interest, such as the school where Daniel Radcliffe was educated during filming and Cecil Court, a well-preserved Victorian street just off Charing Cross Road that "Potterologists" believe was the inspiration for Diagon Alley - where Hogwarts pupils go for all their wizarding supplies.
As for the filming locations, we get to see the entrance to the Ministry of Magic (in Whitehall, behind the Ministry of Defence), two different entrances to magical pub The Leaky Cauldron (one in Borough Market, one near Leadenhall Market), and, of course, the infamous Platform Nine and Three Quarters, where the Hogwarts Express whisks students off to school at the start of each term.
In actual fact, we have to do our best to see this magical piece of Kings Cross wall from behind the ticket barriers. But such is the demand that the station has installed a Platform Nine and Three Quarters sign on a similar piece of wall just outside the station, where the daily hordes of Potter fans can pose for photos holding a luggage trolley that appears to be disappearing into the brickwork.
It's here that our magical journey draws to a close. And what a fitting location it is - the place where Harry's journey begins in earnest, and the station where JK Rowling's fateful train journey finished back in 1990, during which Harry and his whole story had formed in her head.
Watching the dozens of fans queuing up to have their photos taken holding the disappearing trolley, it's hard to imagine a world without Harry Potter; hard to imagine how it would be if Rowling had decided to sleep through that train journey, or if Bloomsbury had followed other publishers in rejecting the first Harry Potter novel. If nothing else, the day's walk reminds us that the world - and London especially - would be much poorer without it.
Visit www.thecelebrityplanet.com for information on Harry Potter walks.
As for the filming locations, we get to see the entrance to the Ministry of Magic (in Whitehall, behind the Ministry of Defence), two different entrances to magical pub The Leaky Cauldron (one in Borough Market, one near Leadenhall Market), and, of course, the infamous Platform Nine and Three Quarters, where the Hogwarts Express whisks students off to school at the start of each term.
In actual fact, we have to do our best to see this magical piece of Kings Cross wall from behind the ticket barriers. But such is the demand that the station has installed a Platform Nine and Three Quarters sign on a similar piece of wall just outside the station, where the daily hordes of Potter fans can pose for photos holding a luggage trolley that appears to be disappearing into the brickwork.
It's here that our magical journey draws to a close. And what a fitting location it is - the place where Harry's journey begins in earnest, and the station where JK Rowling's fateful train journey finished back in 1990, during which Harry and his whole story had formed in her head.
Watching the dozens of fans queuing up to have their photos taken holding the disappearing trolley, it's hard to imagine a world without Harry Potter; hard to imagine how it would be if Rowling had decided to sleep through that train journey, or if Bloomsbury had followed other publishers in rejecting the first Harry Potter novel. If nothing else, the day's walk reminds us that the world - and London especially - would be much poorer without it.
Visit www.thecelebrityplanet.com for information on Harry Potter walks.
Dickens in South London feature
South London Press, December 2011
Next year is the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens' birth, which will see a wide range of events and exhibitions taking place across the city. As a keen chronicler of London life, Dickens regularly visited and wrote about areas south of the river, as DAN FROST shows in this guide to Dickens's South London
Charles Dickens
London Bridge
Virtually all of London's bridges appear at one point or another in Dickens' writing. But it was onto London Bridge that he stamped the grimmest notoriety, giving it a key role in the grisly demise of Nancy in Oliver Twist. It is on a set of stairs leading up to the bridge near Southwark Cathedral where one of Fagin's minions spies Nancy meeting with Oliver's benefactors in an effort to save the young orphan from Fagin's clutches. Hearing of this treachery, Nancy's brutish lover Bill Sikes flies into a rage and beats her to death. Take a walk along Montague Close, under the existing bridge, and you'll find a plaque marking 'Nancy's Steps'.
The bridge features in several other Dickens novels, including Great Expectations, Little Dorrit, The Pickwick Papers and Barnaby Rudge, though most notably in David Copperfield - Dicken's most autobiographical novel. Just as the author himself reputedly did as a young man, Copperfield "was wont to sit in one of the [bridge's] stone recesses, watching the people go by".
Jacob's Island
This small patch of riverside Bermondsey - to the immediate east of St Saviour's Dock, west of George Row and north of Wolseley Street - is not at all as it was in Dickens' time. Where plush apartments stand today existed one of the capital's grimmest slums in the mid 19th century. The Morning Chronicle of 1849 called it "the very capital of cholera" and "the Venice of drains". And Dickens himself referred to "every repulsive lineament of poverty, every loathsome indication of filth, rot, and garbage" in Oliver Twist. It was this putrid slum that Dickens immortalised as the setting for Bill Sikes' death. Having fled to the area to hide in the wake of Nancy's murder, he is soon discovered and, in attempting to escape over the rooftops, accidentally hangs himself over the mud of Folly's Ditch.
The Marshalsea
In Victorian London, debtors could be sent to prison until they had made right with their creditors. This fate befell the Dickens family in 1824, when the entire family except for 12-year-old Charles were locked up in the notorious Marshalsea debtors' prison on Borough High Street. Forced out of education and into gruelling employment at a blacking factory near modern-day Charing Cross, it was a difficult time for the young Dickens, who would visit his family in the cramped prison every Sunday.
As he did with so many early-life experiences, Dickens returned to the Marshalsea for fictional purposes many years later, most famously in Little Dorrit. Central character Amy Dorrit is born in the Marshalsea, where her father is a prisoner.
All that now remains of this notorious lock-up is the long brick wall that marked the southern boundary. It now forms one side of a pathway leading to a local history library - near the appropriately named Marshalsea Road.
Lant Street
After initially boarding in Camden, 12-year-old Dickens managed to find lodging in Lant Street, just off Borough High Street - nearer to the Marshalsea and his job at the blacking factory. He described his landlord as "a fat, good-natured, kind old gentleman, with a quiet old wife", who, together with their son, were the inspiration for the Garland family in The Old Curiosity Shop. And the street itself crops up in The Pickwick Papers.
Virtually all of London's bridges appear at one point or another in Dickens' writing. But it was onto London Bridge that he stamped the grimmest notoriety, giving it a key role in the grisly demise of Nancy in Oliver Twist. It is on a set of stairs leading up to the bridge near Southwark Cathedral where one of Fagin's minions spies Nancy meeting with Oliver's benefactors in an effort to save the young orphan from Fagin's clutches. Hearing of this treachery, Nancy's brutish lover Bill Sikes flies into a rage and beats her to death. Take a walk along Montague Close, under the existing bridge, and you'll find a plaque marking 'Nancy's Steps'.
The bridge features in several other Dickens novels, including Great Expectations, Little Dorrit, The Pickwick Papers and Barnaby Rudge, though most notably in David Copperfield - Dicken's most autobiographical novel. Just as the author himself reputedly did as a young man, Copperfield "was wont to sit in one of the [bridge's] stone recesses, watching the people go by".
Jacob's Island
This small patch of riverside Bermondsey - to the immediate east of St Saviour's Dock, west of George Row and north of Wolseley Street - is not at all as it was in Dickens' time. Where plush apartments stand today existed one of the capital's grimmest slums in the mid 19th century. The Morning Chronicle of 1849 called it "the very capital of cholera" and "the Venice of drains". And Dickens himself referred to "every repulsive lineament of poverty, every loathsome indication of filth, rot, and garbage" in Oliver Twist. It was this putrid slum that Dickens immortalised as the setting for Bill Sikes' death. Having fled to the area to hide in the wake of Nancy's murder, he is soon discovered and, in attempting to escape over the rooftops, accidentally hangs himself over the mud of Folly's Ditch.
The Marshalsea
In Victorian London, debtors could be sent to prison until they had made right with their creditors. This fate befell the Dickens family in 1824, when the entire family except for 12-year-old Charles were locked up in the notorious Marshalsea debtors' prison on Borough High Street. Forced out of education and into gruelling employment at a blacking factory near modern-day Charing Cross, it was a difficult time for the young Dickens, who would visit his family in the cramped prison every Sunday.
As he did with so many early-life experiences, Dickens returned to the Marshalsea for fictional purposes many years later, most famously in Little Dorrit. Central character Amy Dorrit is born in the Marshalsea, where her father is a prisoner.
All that now remains of this notorious lock-up is the long brick wall that marked the southern boundary. It now forms one side of a pathway leading to a local history library - near the appropriately named Marshalsea Road.
Lant Street
After initially boarding in Camden, 12-year-old Dickens managed to find lodging in Lant Street, just off Borough High Street - nearer to the Marshalsea and his job at the blacking factory. He described his landlord as "a fat, good-natured, kind old gentleman, with a quiet old wife", who, together with their son, were the inspiration for the Garland family in The Old Curiosity Shop. And the street itself crops up in The Pickwick Papers.
St George The Martyr
Just across the road from the old Marshalsea site is Borough's iconic St George The Martyr church. Sometimes referred to as "Little Dorrit's church", St George's is where this beloved Dickens character is both baptised (owing to her birth in the nearby prison) and later married. It is also in the vestry of the church where she shelters one night after being locked out of the prison. As well as Little Dorrit Park, just off the nearby Redcross Way, a sign of the character's connection to the area can be found in the bottom right corner of a stained glass window at the east end of the church, where she is represented wearing a poke hat.
Coaching inns
Nearer the top of Borough High Street (the London Bridge end) used to stand a cluster of coaching inns that serviced the passing traffic travelling to and from southern England. One of these - The Tabbard - was immortalised by Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales, and it is thought Shakespeare probably performed in the courtyards of these inns, where plays were once a regular attraction. By Dickens' time the inns were at a key turning point. The railways were soon to rob much of their custom, and most didn't survive their arrival. But The White Hart was still alive when Dickens wrote The Pickwick Papers in 1836, and provided the location for the famous meeting between Sam Weller and Mr Pickwick. The White Hart and The Tabbard are now long gone, though the neighbouring George pub - the only remaining coaching inn in London - still matches some of Dickens' evocative description: "Great, rambling queer old places they are, with galleries, and passages, and staircases, wide enough and antiquated enough to furnish materials for a hundred ghost stories."
Just across the road from the old Marshalsea site is Borough's iconic St George The Martyr church. Sometimes referred to as "Little Dorrit's church", St George's is where this beloved Dickens character is both baptised (owing to her birth in the nearby prison) and later married. It is also in the vestry of the church where she shelters one night after being locked out of the prison. As well as Little Dorrit Park, just off the nearby Redcross Way, a sign of the character's connection to the area can be found in the bottom right corner of a stained glass window at the east end of the church, where she is represented wearing a poke hat.
Coaching inns
Nearer the top of Borough High Street (the London Bridge end) used to stand a cluster of coaching inns that serviced the passing traffic travelling to and from southern England. One of these - The Tabbard - was immortalised by Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales, and it is thought Shakespeare probably performed in the courtyards of these inns, where plays were once a regular attraction. By Dickens' time the inns were at a key turning point. The railways were soon to rob much of their custom, and most didn't survive their arrival. But The White Hart was still alive when Dickens wrote The Pickwick Papers in 1836, and provided the location for the famous meeting between Sam Weller and Mr Pickwick. The White Hart and The Tabbard are now long gone, though the neighbouring George pub - the only remaining coaching inn in London - still matches some of Dickens' evocative description: "Great, rambling queer old places they are, with galleries, and passages, and staircases, wide enough and antiquated enough to furnish materials for a hundred ghost stories."
Greenwich / Blackheath
Located on the main thoroughfare out to Dickens' beloved Kent, Greenwich and Blackheath feature prominently in the author's writing. It is to Blackheath that the young David Copperfield is sent away to school (and where, years later, he spends the night on his walk to Dover). And The Pickwick Papers is one of several pieces to reference Shooters Hill.
Greenwich's most notable appearance is in Our Mutual Friend, as the location of Bella's marriage to John Rokesmith. Their marriage dinner then takes place at the "delightful" Ship Hotel, which used to be where the Cutty Sark now sits, but was destroyed by bombing in the Second World War.
The rest
Dickens regularly visited and wrote about numerous other parts of South London. Great Expectations implies that Camberwell is one of the city's more genteel neighbourhoods. And The Pickwick Papers pays similar tribute to Dulwich, where Mr Pickwick retires to, "and may still be frequently seen, contemplating the pictures in the Dulwich Gallery, or enjoying a walk about the pleasant neighbourhood". Tooting crops up in Bleak House, Walworth in Great Expectations, and the Bethlem Hospital in Kennington, aka Bedlam (now the Imperial War Museum), is famously described in Dickens' Night Walks essay. Towards the end of his life, from 1868 to 1870, Dickens also rented a house on Linden Grove in Nunhead for himself and his mistress Ellen Ternan.
The Museum Of London has just opened a new Dickens exhibition which runs until June. It is part of an international celebration of his work, taking place through 2012. Visit www.dickens2012.org.
Located on the main thoroughfare out to Dickens' beloved Kent, Greenwich and Blackheath feature prominently in the author's writing. It is to Blackheath that the young David Copperfield is sent away to school (and where, years later, he spends the night on his walk to Dover). And The Pickwick Papers is one of several pieces to reference Shooters Hill.
Greenwich's most notable appearance is in Our Mutual Friend, as the location of Bella's marriage to John Rokesmith. Their marriage dinner then takes place at the "delightful" Ship Hotel, which used to be where the Cutty Sark now sits, but was destroyed by bombing in the Second World War.
The rest
Dickens regularly visited and wrote about numerous other parts of South London. Great Expectations implies that Camberwell is one of the city's more genteel neighbourhoods. And The Pickwick Papers pays similar tribute to Dulwich, where Mr Pickwick retires to, "and may still be frequently seen, contemplating the pictures in the Dulwich Gallery, or enjoying a walk about the pleasant neighbourhood". Tooting crops up in Bleak House, Walworth in Great Expectations, and the Bethlem Hospital in Kennington, aka Bedlam (now the Imperial War Museum), is famously described in Dickens' Night Walks essay. Towards the end of his life, from 1868 to 1870, Dickens also rented a house on Linden Grove in Nunhead for himself and his mistress Ellen Ternan.
The Museum Of London has just opened a new Dickens exhibition which runs until June. It is part of an international celebration of his work, taking place through 2012. Visit www.dickens2012.org.