Secret London Lunch Breaks

The British Library is just three tube stops and a short walk from the office.  The walk took me past the wonderful Midland Grand Hotel, a Grade I listed Victorian Gothic masterpiece, designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott , and described by many as the most romantic building in London.  Originally opened as a 300 room hotel in 1873, it was pricey, with expensive fixtures which included a grand staircase, a fireplace in every room and rooms with gold leaf walls.  In 1935 it closed as a hotel. By this time it was too costly to maintain, what with all the servants that were needed to carry the spittoons, chamber pots, tubs and bowls. After falling into a state of disrepair, and being described in an article in The Observer as having "stood, like the weird house of a crazy old lady in some village, unmissable, spooky and inaccessible," it re-opened in 2011 as the St Pancras Renaissance London Hotel .  This was following a £200 million refu...

After psyching myself up and dusting off my walking boots and camera, I'd been waiting for a dry day to venture out on my first Jessless lunchtime trip. FYI Jess, I have failed miserably in coming to terms with lunchtime Jesslessness! However, m y ongoing distress aside, not wanting to let the side down, I am attempting to get back on track with lunchtime London reports, while Jess reports from the land of clotted cream, picture postcard thatched cottages and cider, where she is now living happily ever after. She's ahead of me, as the Devon adventures are well underway (check out her new most marvellous sister blog, Secret Devon Excursions). So I must press on! I examined the panorama from my birdseye view of the City at the office. A dynamic sky stretched out over the skyline, filled with dark and forboding clouds, heavy with a potential and likely imminent downpour (despite the weather forecast) but lit up with light poking through from the west - very dramatic. Bu...