Café Culture

Sunday marked our annual pilgrimage to London for the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition. The amazing thing about London is free parking on Sunday’s. This attitude really encourages people to visit London. Sadly here in the Cotswold they take a totally different view and penalize the motorist seven days a week!

Having parked up we headed over to the Wolseley in Piccadilly where they serve probably the breakfast in London. The concept is grand continental café - chic understated décor - discreet efficient service & extremely good food. Each visit I have ’Eggs Benedict’ which are always superb. The venue is great for people watching especially if you are seated at the right-hand side looking out - perfect for surveying the celebrity comings & goings.

After breakfast we headed to the RA, the inner quadrangle now has a sophisticated water feature but when I visited as a child with my father this area was a car park - hard to imagine now. This year the exhibition was as fascinating as ever, you can certainly absorb the artistic vibe - it encourages & inspires you to pick up a paintbrush and see what you are capable of. Even if the result is bad at least you have tried! My favourite room is the Small Weston Room which is hung floor to ceiling in a multitude of small paintings in different mediums. Another room has a wall hung with colourful abstract paintings by Gillian Ayres, now in her 80th year but as fresh as ever. In fact I noticed the charismatic Tricia Guild founder of Designers Guild admiring her work. Other highlights were the ‘monster size Gorilla’ (Silver Streak) made of wire coat hangers, this years winner: Yinka Shonibare Crash Willy - the installation work of a now defunct battered vehicle with the registration no: ‘FTSE‘- the artists view of our battered/crashed economy - what an apt original statement.