Popination Paddington Station
a series of unhinged personal essays disguised as pub reviews. Today: London Popinations PART ONE!
Popinations covered in today’s entry: Paddington Station, Harry’s Bar, the cafe at the British Museum, Natural Kitchen and The Vertical hotel bars.
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Welcome to a new mini-series of Popinations, all of which took place during my recent trip to London! It was my first foray down to Ol’ Blighty, and for this trip we decided to stay in a hotel near the Tower and keep our ramblings in that basic area. Far from restrictive, it meant we got to go see many museums and otherwise historical areas, and many many pubs. Best believe I’ll be back again and will catch some more of the things I didn’t have room for this time.
As it is, it was a lovely honeymoon: the theme of the near-week of our stay seemed to be rich history and a legacy of stories. We saw both the British Museum and the Sherlock Holmes museum, the Tower of London (and its sparklies, the Crown Jewels, inside) and the Roman Wall, and a pub that was so old I felt like I was hallucinating Elizabethans as I sat with my pint. I’ll get to that one, don’t worry.
Each day of our stay, we went to at least two pubs, and therefore I’m setting up my Popination experiences in London within multiple posts. This is the first, and will cover our first couple days and our homebase of the hotel. Please to enjoy.
Paddington Station Popination
The first thing that happened as we alighted off the train from Heathrow into Paddington Station was: I was accosted by a poet. No, really.
He was an employee of the station, it seems, and his job was to bother all the people sitting in the food court area by reciting poetry for them (with consent, of course). My husband was getting our coffees at the stand and I told the poet I was on my honeymoon. Funny enough, the poet chose a song from Shakespeare to go with the love theme I’d supplied, and it happened to be one that Feste the jester sings in Twelfth Night. One of my dearly favorite roles in Shakespeare, and that I’ve ever played. I wonder how many people (especially Americans) he encounters who recite the poetry along with him.
After, we had a nice chat with a traveling Australian couple who regaled us with tales of their worldwide wanderings they’d been on since retirement. They were older, about our parents’ age, but vibrant and clearly were living their best lives. What a taste of the world I got in my first couple footsteps into an old city I’d long wanted to visit!
And so we hoisted our heavy backpacks onto our shoulders, and hopped on the Tube to explore for a while before it was time to check in to our hotel.
Harry’s Bar
By the time we’d walked our legs into stumps, me ooh-ing and ahh-ing every other stride, we ended up mercifully sitting in a comfortable chair, cold negronis and food menus in front of us. Funny, that: my first London pub experience turned out to be a nice Italian restaurant instead. I didn’t mind: I was foot-tired and starting to hallucinate from the jet lag; Harry’s Bar was a sanctuary. And they made the most excellent bruschetta I’ve ever tasted. Decor-wise, it had a cool and classy old school vibe like a fancy cocktail bar from the ‘60s, and the courteous lady in charge (general manager, probably?) had everything running like the smoothest of clockwork. My first impressions of London couldn’t have been better, I don’t think.
British Museum concessions
Obviously this Popination was just a cafe, but then I’ve done cafes before in my Monday Popinations so I feel like it still counts. Anyway, I’m making the rules here, right?
I do love a good museum, and I feel like when one experiences a new city for the first time, a museum is the best way to begin learning about the city. Besides, The British Museum is one of the biggest and most renowned museums in the entire world, so hell yes I wanted to go. Like all huge international museums, it’s important to pick just a couple areas to experience, as going through the whole thing would be impossible in one visit. So on the second day of our trip, we chose Ancient Greece and Rome, and as many Arms and Armor as we could take in.*
Of course I’m always in deep awe when visiting a big impressive museum like this: you may remember in my essay Kantharos (and also in Amphora) I describe my love of curation and of viewing traces of ancient people like these. The British Museum’s collections were gorgeous, of course, and I was glad to sit with a good strong coffee to rest my feet and appreciate the architecture itself that surrounds the impressive exhibits.
Once we filled our eyes, it was time to fill our pint glasses at our first real pubs of the trip. I’ll talk about those in the next London Popination entry next week.
*I very much want to visit the actual Royal Armouries, but that’s all the way in Leeds and so is a whole ‘nother England trip just for that.
The Hotel Bar Where We Stayed: The Vertical
The Vertical was the name of the hip, sleek downstairs hotel bar, and it was weirdly decorated with modern abstract art and strangely angled environments, as is the wont of many a hotel bar. Throughout our entire visit, we often rested our feet and brains by bringing our books to the liminal armchairs in the Vertical in the evenings as we wound down from a day of sights and pints and walking. There were two big bars at our hotel: the Vertical, and a rooftop bar, which I’ll write a whole separate piece about, because it was wild.
Natural Kitchen
The hotel restaurant specialized in healthy options, and was thoroughly delicious. Coming to Natural Kitchen (as well as trying out the many pubs in London) made me realize just how eco-friendly the city is, way more than anywhere I’ve been at home in the US. They had recycling everywhere, and recyclable implements. Their plumbing and etc. was all conservation-centered, and their ingredients carefully curated. Why are they so good at environmentalism and we’re not? Are we just assholes here in America? (Don’t answer that.)
The first dinner we had at Natural Kitchen, I had this risotto with herbs and peas and it was marvelous. They also had dynamite seafood, including a chunky-cut calamari that was tender and perfectly spicy-mayoed. Anyone making jokes about the dismal nature of British food would be shamed by Natural Kitchen.
As an honorable mention, let me express my delight at my very first Full English breakfast experience at a different restaurant in the same hotel. A fabulous way to absorb energy enough to walk all day looking at wondrous things. But if anyone can explain the Brits’ love for baked beans, I’d appreciate it. What’s up with that? (not that I necessarily mind; I like baked beans just fine, but)
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Welp, there you go: that’s the introductory kaleidoscope of foodie and other London experiences, and some of my home-base frequents from the very start of our trip (except for the hotel’s rooftop bar, which, as I mentioned, was wild enough that it needs to be described in a different post altogether because. Well. Stay tuned).
Thank you. Saved me a trip!