Wine Social, Walk: History of Horror, & Film: Flesh for Frankenstein
Right! As a keen drinker of wine, when I saw the London Wine Meetup, I figured this would be a thing to join - I'd never been to anything with them though until I decided to bite the bullet last Wednesday, and accompany them to Vagabond Carnaby. Booked to eat beforehand in El Pellotte, just across the road.
I arrived a bit early - had never been here before. It's another of those buildings where the entire front wall folds away - it wasn't busy yet, and I took a table just inside where the wall would've been. With a view of Vagabond:
Glasses come branded:
I had a croqueta to start.. very moreish, with a gorgeous sauce, but rather overpriced, at £9 for two smallish croquetas. For main, I had the boneless fried chicken, with a side of fries. The wine, funnily enough, I wasn't mad about - for my second glass, I switched from Sauvignon Blanc to Chardonnay, which was a bit better. The food was nice (although I wasn't mad about the sour cream on my main) - but I have to say, I wasn't mad about the way everything was smothered in sauce. Apparently it's Venezuelan-influenced.. perhaps that's it. I wasn't mad about the bill when it came, either.. might skip this place in future.
Meandered across when it was time - helpfully, the organiser had put good directions: downstairs, table past the toilets. There was really only one table it could be, and I found them without trouble. He turned out to be someone who knows me from Up in the Cheap Seats (UITCS)! And I found them to be lovely and friendly. Went to get wine - and discovered this is a new type of wine bar..
The idea is, you browse these units - several of them are scattered through the room - choose the wine you want, then press the button that corresponds to the size of glass you want, and the wine is dispensed through the nozzle! Glasses are available on the shelves. You tap to pay on the nearby card reader. I do seem to remember you could get bottles too.. I suspect that requires a staff member.
This, of course, is a dangerous system for me. :-) I drank a very great variety of wine during the evening. The standout one - for sheer novelty - actually tastes faintly of aniseed! Not only that, but I actually liked it, unusually for me (with aniseed):
Food was available, but of course I'd just eaten. We popped out when it was time for the eclipse, but with the narrow streets and high buildings, couldn't see anything.
We moved to a sofa later.. and passed a very pleasant time. I tell you though, I did drink quite a bit.. sadly, my sunglasses came a cropper, as I lost them at some point. Happily, I'd found my old ones, so have now switched to those. Got home fine, but predictably, crashed. Would be happy to join this group again at some point though!
Of course, most of the week - when I've had a chance - has been occupied with getting the Whitby posts finished! so posting about my current activities has had to wait. On Thursday, I got a discount code with TAC for a walk with London Guided Walks - this one was History of Horror. On what was the hottest day of the year so far.. oy ve. Got out my hat, and my old sunglasses.. and made it in time, walking from the office. And of course, that meant I was carrying my laptop as well..
Made it in good time - unless they were standing on the street, what with the building works ongoing at Charing Cross Station, they had to be at the adjacent hotel, and sure enough they were. Also on the tour, funnily enough, was an English teacher from Boston - hearing my accent, she asked where I was from in Ireland, and lo, it turned out her father was from Tralee (not a million miles away from where I'm from)! Not only that, but she's also doing Dracula stuff, just like London Museums A-Z (LoMAZ).. not exactly the same things, but yes, she has subscribed to Dracula Daily.
We waited a bit to start, as one person was late - and I'm sure my arm got sunburnt in the meantime; the sun was vicious. Now, this group is notorious for starting on the dot - I've fallen foul of that before. Happily, this guide turned on location tracking, so the errant attendee could find us! which he did before too long - he'd had a nightmare with the trains, which of course can't really handle the heat - the tracks are buckling.
Honestly, I didn't find that much to photograph - the purpose of the walk wasn't scenic. We did see the site of the theatre where the play was first performed - and became a massive hit:
Back on Strand, we were told about the former Tivoli cinema:
This police station used to be the Charing Cross Hospital.. now moved somewhere else entirely. Anyway, it was the site of a curious case in the 1920s, when a series of young men were brought in with twin puncture wounds to the neck:
The Coliseum is supposed to be haunted by a young soldier, who spent his last night before heading off to war at the theatre here, then was killed in battle, only to have his ghost appear in his regular seat:
I think this was the site of a performance of Dracula that competed with one down the road..
A small stop to chat about Watkin's Bookshop..
..but mostly we were headed for the plaque that commemorates this as an early centre of filmmaking:
He showed us a copy of the one and only horror story that Somerset Maugham ever wrote, The Magician (based on Aleister Crowley):
He also told us the fascinating story of The Beetle - a horror story that initially outsold Dracula. The film, however, simply didn't get the distribution deal that Dracula did, and it sadly sank without trace.
Memory fails as to why we stopped at Wyndham's:
We had a stop in Chinatown to talk about Fu Manchu:
And we stopped at Hammer House - nostalgic for me, because when I was a kid, they went through a period of showing their horror films on Irish tv on a Saturday night:
Terrific tour - obviously a passion project of his. Mind you, I was glad when it finished, and I could head for food (and the loo) and drop that blasted laptop bag. Bistro1 was the closest, and had plenty of space - inside. Fine by me, and they sat me under the aircon - which worked intermittently:
I remembered to skip the calamari this time - and the beef bourgignon was good, as ever. I tell you though, service evaporated once I'd got that.. even though she was serving the table beside me, it was impossible to get her attention. I finally had to yell across the restaurant when I saw the manager pass, to ask him for another glass of wine and a very welcome ice cream..
Finally, yesterday, the first of three Meetups in a row (and two in a row with The Hideout) - I was at Flesh for Frankenstein, at the Nickel. Interestingly, a bus strike was advertised.. so I had plans to take the Thameslink. But as I was passing the bus stop, it said a bus was due - so I waited. And there it was. And I managed to change bus without incident.
I arrived early - unfortunately, they don't open the doors till 6! So I had a hot wait in the sun:
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