Unusual I know but I have never been a great fan of summer. Chap Olympics and wedding season aside it seems to involve life stopping. All my favourite clubs close down, if there is a festival I fancy the weather and the holiday season means a lack of chalets in favour of (shudders) tents. It doesn’t stop raining and summer dresses look stupid on me. Even the good things don’t bear scrutiny. For example the school break makes my commute so much more pleasant but at the same time the transport companies take the opportunity to ‘upgrade’ and close entire routes down. That and the fact that everything you want to visit is full of screaming brats and foreign language students chewing gum, looking bored and wondering when they get to go to the Hard Rock Café.
It is with some relief and anticipation that I greet September and early Autumn in London. Once the Thames Festival passes it is, for me, truly the season of mellow fruitcakiness and leaves on the track. The whole city cranks into life, a friend once suggests to me the frenetic activity is a way to forget about the impending wintry months but I always feel as if it is an affirmation. September in London is full of walks, talks, events, festivals, fashion weeks and whilst it is hard work; back to work, back to school and back to study it is also to quote the great Soul to Soul ‘back to life’. This is what I hope to be or have already arranged to be doing over the next few weeks. For those of you who don’t live here I always suggest mid-late September as one of the best times to visit. If there is anything you would like to add to this list I would be really interested to hear it.
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| Cavendish Hotel afternoon tea which I am enjoying this Saturday. |
Food: Afternoon tea. I don’t think a formal afternoon tea suits the summer and only comes into its own during the spring or preferably the Autumn. Tea is hot on a slightly chilled day and jams and preserves are still recently made at this time of year. Personally I do not like eating sweet sugary cakes in the heat (wasps, sticky icing, ugh!) and find that heavier essential treats like scones and teacakes make you soporific in the sun. However there is nothing better mid-afternoon on a dry or damp Autumn day.
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| Dehesa food pic@time out magazine |
I’ll be going to Dehesa for lunch. Spanish hams carved from the joint, salami with pistachios, cheese and quince and a range of food inspired by an inland woodland Spanish cuisine. Like Autumn itself a hint of summer remains, especially if you wash your cured pork down with a good tannic Spanish red.
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| Crow on the Hill bookshop |
Food for the mind: Book shops. It is the season for literary prizes, sweepstakes and pundits. People are inclined towards reading relaxing crap during the summer, now the urge for something meatier grabs you. I’ll swing by the excellent Crow on the Hill booksellers in Crystal Palace or pop into Treadwells for a bit of occult nosing. I may also pop into the new Society Club run by those wonderful people who run the Society Film Club in Soho for a game of Scrabble.
Walks: I may join one of the walks organised by London Walks or the new ones organised by Lost London Tours of London clubland. Alternatively this is a particularly good time of year to wander along the river at Richmond or along bankside, finishing at Borough market for a pint and a pie.
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| Richmond @fresh radio |
Nights out: during the summer London night owls are deprived of all their favourite evenings as the best performers and organisers disappear off to Edinburgh, fields in Somerset and deserts all over the place to entertain the world’s monied classes and make some lucre. Thankfully they come back. I’m keenly anticipating the return of the Double R club doing what the (reputedly crass and crap) Box wishes it could, providing twisted fun to the masses. There are a whole phalanx of great dance clubs: Diamond Jive and the Cat’s Miaow, nights and the various things put on by the Last Tuesday Society (I recommend the smaller events).
London things: Well I have to mention the superficially glitzy, daft, silliness of London Fashion Week, I am slightly shocked to have received a few interesting invitations myself and for fashionistas I know it is the event of the season. However behind all the daft bints scowling in high heels and the ridiculous statements in the fashion press are a lot of very talented people propelling an industry that makes a small fortune for this country, and particularly London. So next week if some gobby giraffe with stringy hair and a look of panic on her face pushes in front of you at pret to grab some zero calorie wheatjuice cut them some slack: LFW is a good thing.
I quite like the tourist trail at this time of year, those topless buses are pricey but more fun than you would imagine, I’m thinking about a trip to various museums. You don’t end up with that ‘what a shame to be indoors on a nice day’ guilty feeling (or more what a shame to be indoors with a hangover in my case).I suddenly tend to also be more interested in science at this time of the year so a trip to the Wellcome Trust or the National History Museum is also tempting. The National Gallery has a lot of music coming up as it is celebrating Myra Hess’s famous wartime concerts.
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| National Gallery. |
Shopping: Hooray! Time to start wearing layers, gloves, hats and things in appealing colours. Out with the linen and cotton in childish pastel shades and out with the sight of burnt flesh, shiny sweaty faces and toes. As a redhead all those greys, and blacks and autumnal rich shades suit me. I can get away with wearing a good slapping of make up. I love accessories. But the summery ones such as ankley things, glitzy sandles, things woven out of hemp, ethnic beads and (gulp) head bands do nothing for me. I’m really looking forward to berets (even if my significant other will insist on exclaiming “oh Betty!” everytime he sees me), a new long swishy wool coat and leather knee length boots. No matter how you look at things, for men and women things become a lot more stylish. Shopping itself becomes less onerous, fit it in now before the hell of Christmas retail sets in (in about two weeks probably).
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| Perfect season for hats (these are from Borsalino). |
The seaside: I’m not joking. It may be wet. It may be cold. It may be half-closed but September and early October are still good times to go. Certain resorts such as Lyme Regis have a sharp, romantic feel to them. You’ll have the place more to yourself, people will be friendlier and there is great satisfaction in looking out from the window of a café, cradling your cup of tea, looking at grey waves and blustery skies.
These are my suggestions, is there anything where you are that you particularly enjoy at this time of year?
