Walk: Belgravia - Elegance, Criminality and Shopping!

Today, rounding off a run of three Meetups, I was back with Laurence Summers and the 45+ Not Grumpies, whee! I couldn't manage his weekend walk last month, he had it on a weekend I was in Ireland.. great to be back with him again. This one was Belgravia: Elegance, Criminality & Shopping.

Uhh, I could've done with a lie-in.. never mind, I managed to drag myself up and out. In fact, my buses were prompt (for once) - and what a lovely, scenic route this is, through Westminster - and I arrived early! Feeling like something not substantial - and not seeing a Caffe Nero nearby - I took myself into the Pret I could see, and grabbed a couple of their extremely tasty little chocolate bars. Yum. And then carried the wrappers around in my pocket for a considerable time - they're not big on bins, here.

We started across the road, beside the statue of Marechal Foch:

Most of our walk, however, was to be in the realm of espionage rather than the military, per se - James Bond featured heavily. We had a stop where Ian Fleming used to live (now an art studio):

..and it seemed that everywhere we turned, we were in the stomping grounds of various actors who portrayed 007. Mind you, we also had great fun at the former home of the real-life Lord Lucan, missing since he took himself off after murdering the family nanny - by mistake, he was after his wife:

..who sensibly ran off to the pub down the road to get help - he was gone by the time they got back! Never seen again - not a confirmed sighting, anyway.

The area is full of curiosities, if you know where to look - such as the church that was burned down by an anti-Catholic, who didn't realise it wasn't a Catholic church!

We passed former residences of famous literary figures:

We saw the Vitruvian Man, in Belgrave Square:

..and the fetching statue of the 1st Marquess of Westminster:

And so we came to The Star Tavern..

..where they let us upstairs to see the room where the Great Train Robbery was planned:

..and where their bins provided a handy receptacle for my choccy wrappers. This had been the first place we got to go into - and apart from a cheeky saunter through Waitrose (a shortcut to where we were headed), our only other indoor stop was at a Scottish church. They're always such handy places to sightsee, churches - photogenic, and with seating:

Coats of arms of the Scottish shires line the walls:

and down the side, they have a fetching guards' chapel:

Yep, Laurence is great at fishing out the curiosities of an area! Another fascinating walk. And being my first guided walk of the year - I could do with the exercise!

And so to lunch, which was long-anticipated.. we were in Tattersalls Tavern. At a couple of tables down the back - right around the side of the tv, which was on loud enough that we couldn't ignore it, but which we couldn't see, from our angle. Most vexing. Never mind, it didn't stop Ireland winning the rugby! (Well done England, too..)

After lunch, on to L' Eto, for beverages and cake. The wine is too expensive, but - if you're having it - the coffee is reasonably priced, and they have quite exotic teas. I had the chocolate fudge cake, of course - which I give a 9/10; very chocolatey, but without that extra kick to give it perfect marks.

Terrific, as ever, to hang out with this group! Roll on the next one.. for this evening, though, I was glad to have some time to chill. For once.

Tomorrow sees our monthly meeting of ex-colleagues - well, maybe; Martin finally confirmed he can probably make it, but James' sore throat and chesty cough might impede him, and Ivan's dog is in hospital, requiring him to be there, in all likelihood. Well, you never know. Heading in the direction of Victoria again, we're going to try The Phoenix. Ivan managed an all-day booking. Unless we all end up crying off!

On Monday, back with Up in the Cheap Seats for Lynn Faces, a comedy about women of a certain age starting a punk group, and playing at the New Diorama. And that's it for socialising for me for the week - the rest is on my own.

On Tuesday, I was thinking film - and the film at the top of my list looks really good; I'm Still Here is about a Brazilian woman whose husband disappeared during the military dictatorship. Based on a true story, this is receiving a lot of attention. Also showing widely - the closest to me is in the BFI. I've booked it, because it's started to sell out - in fact, at time of writing, I see there's only one seat left for the evening showing - and booked to eat at The Archduke afterwards.

On Wednesday - whee, more storytelling! This one is Folk Horror Night, and takes place in Folklore Hoxton, tickets through Dice - run by the Crick Crack Club, performed by Laura Sampson and Daniel Morden. Already sold out. I've booked for The Blues Kitchen Shoreditch beforehand.

On Thursday, I've booked - because it was also selling out - for Intercepted, an interesting-sounding documentary, showing at Curzon Bloomsbury only, as far as I know, about phone calls home from Russian soldiers in the Ukraine, and intercepted by Ukrainian security forces. And then I'm back to Ireland for the weekend.