Christmas Trees in London

So, as it's Christmas now in the UK (I'm sorry people who went before now, but no decorations until 1st!!!) we were going to do a blog on the best Christmas bits in London. However, in researching we found absolutely thousands of things to be done in London... So welcome to part one in our Christmas series of blogs for things to do in London. We begin, traditionally with the tree. Now, London has hundreds of tree displays, from the main Trafalgar Square tree to the individual hotel displays, some of which are spectacular.

Chirton Grange has helpfully picked out the best and our favourites for you, to make the day in London seamless.

St Pancras Station Disney Display

Not strictly speaking a tree, this one, but it is in the shape of a tree. Over 2000 Disney stuffed toys have gone into making this tree, all of which will be donated to kids charities in the new year so nobly it makes an entry this year. Also handy as if you're travelling into London from Kent or Essex or Yorkshire, you'll end up here and your Chirton Grange car will pick you up here.

Norwegian Spruce - Trafalgar Square

This one gets switched on on Thursday December 3rd so still time to get down to see it! The tree is donated by the Norwegian government every year (since 1947) as a thank you to Britain for our help and support in World War 2. Often the tree is over 20m tall and is automatically associated with Christmas in the capital.

Damien Hirst Tree at the Connaught

Now, one might not normally associate Damien Hirst with a traditionalist idea of Christmas. And you'd be right. This large tree displayed by the Connaught is decorated by Damien with surgical instruments. Sound odd? Wait until you see the snowmen made from pills! However, the meaning behind the decorations is very Christmas, the surgical instruments represent hope. Hope brought about by medicine and science. So still quite Christmassy...

Nordic Pine and the Ritz

Now the Ritz is definitely more traditionally Christmassy. This old school display of Nordic pine isn't set around one large tree but many smaller ones. As with the Ritz, this one is one for those with a more old school ideology of Christmas.

Duke of York Square

As always, Chelsea bring their A Game to Christmas (perhaps someone could tell Jose and his boys about this) with what can only be described as more of a forest of trees. Two tall 28ft trees dominate this display but a further 46 seven foot trees and 6 fourteen foot trees give you the impression of being in an Alpine forest, decorated beautifully, of course.

Dickensian Christmas - Borough Market

You can rely on Borough to bring a more traditional and Victorian vibe to the whole idea of Christmas. And of course, if there's one Victorian who encapsulates Christmas, it's Dickens. His Christmas Carol isn't necessarily referenced in the market, but you certainly feel every bit in the tale with Scrooge and Tiny Tim. A 28 foot tree is joined by 22 Victorian wreaths suspended from the iron roof to bring Christmas to the market,

Coming next, we'll be discussing Christmas Markets and Fairs in London. Yet again in this cosmopolitan and multi-cultural city, there's something for everyone to get involved in. Chirton Grange cars are available in London for day and evening hires to see the trees, markets and shops. Just get in touch or visit the website

Becoming the best (small) chauffeur company in the UK

This week, Chirton Grange became the best small chauffeur company in the UK as voted by our peers and an independent panel. Small is a little misleading. By comparison we’re smaller than a lot of companies, but as we put in our pitch, Chirton Grange are the biggest small company in the World.

 

While we won’t list our clients in a blog, they’re multi-national companies based across the World, all of whom religiously book through Chirton Grange whether they’re after a single airport transfer, day hire of an MPV or a week long coach booking.

Anyway, back to our award - currently sitting in pride of place on the shelf with last year’s second place and our chauffeur of the year award – there’s a very warm feeling in the office right now. While it’s always nice to win these awards, the fact that the panel of judges included other chauffeur companies, the editor of our trade magazine and the director of the “driver’s accountants” considered the go-to guy in the industry, made the award even better.

Recognition for a good job is fantastic, but recognition from your peers for a good job well done is the best kind of praise. Chirton Grange has come a long way from humble beginnings of one car and driver working 20 hours a day to being the UK’s best small chauffeur company.

Of course, recognition isn’t the reason we do such a good job. The repeat business of our clients and the satisfaction of doing a good job is the motivation for Chirton Grange. The awards obviously help…

Transfer Deadline Day: The unsung heroes

It's not easy being a chauffeur most of the time. You spend a lot of time sitting around waiting and doing ridiculous jobs that have dropped on you at the last minute. But, it's a service industry so the client has the prerogative to do what they want when they want, and that's fine, they're paying after all.


Ibarbo looks set to join Watford today from Roma...

When events like transfer deadline day come round, it can be a nice change of pace from the norm. A last minute phone call, pick up at Heathrow, head to Emirates, don't be seen, wait for the client, head to a hotel. It's all very exciting for the chauffeur. Of course, we can't tell anyone this exciting news (the above example is entirely made up). We sit there, at the centre of the whole of deadline day, with the news the World is waiting to hear (apparently) and no one says a word.

It's not like we couldn't either. One call into the press and there'd be a handsome sum sitting in our account for the news, I'm sure. Some chauffeurs probably do. Not us though. Sometimes (in fact most of the time in this game) having a client's confidence is much more preferable to that one quick payday. I mean, these guys who sell the stories generally never work again after that, so was it all worth it?

For the drivers at Chirton Grange it isn't. Our client's confidentiality is paramount and certainly more important than making a headline or two. I mean, we could tell you stories about all sorts of things that have happened in a Chirton Grange vehicle... we're not going to though.

So this deadline day, while you're enjoying all the goings on and seeing someone being driven into a stadium for a late medical, spare a thought for the chauffeur, the unsung hero of the deadline day deal...

Bibury

"Do I pronounce this place Bib-ury or Buy-bury", asked my clients - a Brazilian TV host and her crew.

Being from Newcastle, my phonically correct accent offered that 'Bib' not 'Buy' was correct.....it wasn't, apparently, as the pompous hands-on-hip resident sternly told us it is pronounced Buy-bury, act-ual-ly

I absolutely love the Cotswolds area of the UK, truly stunning, so couldn't believe when we arrive in Bibury that this is my first time here. It is picture postcard beautiful, in fact if Disney ever wanted to open a stereotyped theme park of an English village they don't need to bother. It has been done Walt, it's called Bibury. 

 

 

The Coln River seems to bubble up from behind the Trout Farm, where you can catch, whack and cook your sport for a price. The river then ambles down under the bridge passing bending stone cottages with ducks and swans hitching a lift on its watery back.

The locals where less welcoming than the view though; we had the terse lady who corrected our pronunciation (unfortunately it was after my guests had already done two 'takes to camera'), then some guy stomping past us sarcastically blurting out, "in England it is customary to say good morning back". We hadn't heard his first greeting and after a short exchange of views and my explanation of English eccentricity (I'm sure that's what I called him) we moved on. On top of that they tend to drive very quickly towards strangers in Bibury with a determined 'bloody tourists' look on their faces.

When working around Heathrow airport I notice that many of the locals have 'NO 3rd RUNWAY' signs. This leads me to ask 'is there anyone living near Heathrow, or any of our major airports, that didn't know the airport was there when they bought the house?' Same goes for Bibury, I would view the property and then ask myself whether the constant throng of tourists would bother me....it would....so I wouldn't buy there. What I'm basically saying is you made your Laura Ashley bed, mate, so you lie in it.

On that note and to take their point, try to be in Bibury as early as we did because by 11am it goes from sleepy village to city centre rush hour mayhem. Coach loads of Japanese photographers pile in to snap the scenery. They arrive in 50 seat coaches and for 20 scurrying minutes it is a Kodak bloodbath, they don't see the actual village until they get home and have picked up from Snappy Snaps. They then follow the umbrella back to the coach only to be replaced by another diesel pumping monstrosity as soon as a space appears. The inadequate roads block quickly and the already tight bridge becomes the focal point for angry motorists and reversing mini buses. 

Bibury lacks the commercialism of better advertised Cotswolds luminaries such as Broadway and Stow on the Wild so doesn't have endless crafty gift shops, art galleries and tea rooms which is refreshing and means coffee has to be taken in either the Trout Farm (fish delicious, coffee not) or one of the two hotels which is expensive (though the Swan Hotel garden alone is worth the money just to be able to sit back and re-caffeine while watching the carnage).

 

Bibury is a truly beautiful place if you arrive early or after 4pm, don't speak to the locals and have already had a coffee. It is a must see place on any visit to the Cotswolds but....you wouldn't want to live there

 

George Clarke's Sky Den

After watching the TV programme, George Clarke's Amazing Spaces, and knowing of my wife Nicola's fascination with the stars (astrological not Hello Magazine) booking the Sky Den at the Calvert Trust site was a must.

Arriving into the Kielder Water/Forest park is stunning enough, an enhanced expanse of water lapping the beautiful and under rated kingdom of Northumberland since 1982. Add in the fact that this is a designated Dark Sky area gives further reason to want to visit. 

The Calvert Trust caters mainly, but not exclusively, for mentally and physically challenged people of all ages giving a chance to experience such pleasures as the climbing wall, zip wire or to blast Clay Pigeon from the Sky (via lasers). All the staff we meet are wonderful and the first is Jackie who checks us in by delivering our keys and a common sense set of rules as our dog Scooby becomes the centre of attention. 

The Sky Den is amazing. The concept of triangle (bedroom), square (living) and circle (outside space) are cleverly shoe-horned between trees and suspended over a river putting you as close into nature as physically possible. Crossing the bridge is the only way to the wooden construction that blends the den into the surroundings and takes no attention away from the natural beauty of the area. Entering the 'square' gives you every thing you need to survive, don't get me wrong this isn't the Hilton but neither is it roughing it in the wild.

The wooden furniture that is 'jigsawed' into the wall gives the first task as you have to pop it all out and assemble before sitting down to dinner; great fun and very clever. Although, be warned, while concentrating on a game of Scrabble (no TV or Wi-Fi) later that night it became most uncomfortable and probably cost me the game........twice.

Now the reason for our journey is upon us and with the doors to the balcony open we step out and look up to a blanket of stars brilliant and bright against a jet black sky and with no light pollution to spoil our enjoyment we see why Kielder is designated an official Dark Sky area. Even for people like us who don't really have a clue what we are looking at and spent most of the night trying to work out which way was North, it is a display not to be missed but it isn't long with the temperature dropping rapidly towards freezing. I'm reminded of why I had left the North some 35 years ago (well it was for work really) as it is now bloody cold and I'm off to bed. So up to the Triangle and the piece de resistance, for with the simple push of a button the roof splits and separates leaving nothing between you and the stars but the cold air. At least now I'm snuggled under a duvet. Stunning.

The morning is no less spectacular as the mating birds and bubbling river make for the perfect alarm call. Down to the bathroom, where you can if so desired, multi-task by shaving and showering while sitting on the toilet (I'll spare you that photograph).

Breakfast is taken by the wood burning stove in the circle which, while small, is big enough and hot enough to boil our kettle on. This sets us up perfectly for a day fishing in the lake, another first for us, starter rod and kit can be purchased at the Leaplish Centre (who then send you to Tower Knowe Centre) for £70, with an extra £3.75 for the mandatory fishing license and we are off. 

We are blessed with the weather over the two days we are in Northumberland, cold nights but summer days makes all the difference to the mood and success of our visit. 

The Calvert Trust look to do some amazing work, but what they have in endeavour is equalled by a lack of flair and marketing on the business side. Their website is amateurish and does nothing to sell their incredible products and service. It told us to bring absolutely everything with us but as it turned out, the den had everything supplied, even the Scrabble. This means I now resent the 3 hours I spent finding torches and plastic cups to bring. For those wanting a bit more luxury the Straker Lodge is the one for you as it gives a hot tub, flat screen TV and intrusive WiFi - and probably a more sophisticated telescope than the you one the Sky Den had. That said we didn't even know which easy was north never mind how to find Uranus.

Support the Calvert Trust, visit Northumberland and see the stars

Southbank...

Beauty, some say, is in the eye of the beholder and that 'Beauty comes from within' or, one more and my particular favourite when consoling ugly people 'its not important what you look like on the outside but (both hands clasped to heart) 'what is on the inside that counts'. 

These condescending ramblings are perfect for Twitter 'Bio's' and also all pertinent to the buildings that make up the Southbank area of South London. Festival Hall has the audacity to have Royal ahead of its name and the Haywood Gallery is possibly the ugliest use of concrete outside of a Bulgarian social housing estate. Their own website calls it 'brutal architecture' and 'last of few remaining' but that's because, thankfully, they managed to demolish all the others before the idiots that handed this eyesore a Grade 1 listed status could cause any more trouble.

Squeezed between the bridges of Westminster and Waterloo the Southbank, as it is now known, does however have beauty on the inside.

The area has reinvented itself as the trendy, arty part of town. With the Royal Festival Hall playing diversity from Gershwin through to Gary Nyman and the Cappella Choral Composition to Comedy in the Dark (April 2015 listings) there is something for everyone.

Being honest there isn't much I'd personally want to go and see but that says more about me than anyone else. The dozens of acts that perform here are, perhaps, away from the mainstream so it is fantastic that London has a centre to showcase such talent and give people a chance to go and see them.

Thursday 9th April sees the Opening Gala of the very popular Underbelly Festival where Violet the Upside Down Cow returns to form the main stage for a range of different acts allowing, among many others, acrobats, comedians and the Amazing Bubble Man to perform throughout the month (southbankcentre.co.uk/underbelly)

With a range of excellent restaurants and cafes dotted around the halls including Wagamama, Le Pain Quotidian and Giraffe you can now spend a whole day at the Southbank Centre. If you go, as most will, between Friday and Sunday there is the awesome (and I don't use that word lightly) Real Food Market giving up to 40 different stalls cooking food from around the world.

Festival Hall cost £2 million to build (admittedly in 1951 when £2 million meant something) and £111 million to renovate (2007). To me, it is as evident as to why it was so cheap to build as it is impossible to see where the £111 million improvements are but this doesn't really matter because this ugly set of sisters has all its real joy from within.

The Savoy, London

Visitors to London who are fortunate enough to stay at the Savoy Hotel are probably already aware that the small road leading to it is the only street in the UK where you legally drive on the right (wrong) side of the road.

There are a few reasons as to how this came about and I'll give you them now without the pompous declarations and claims of other posts as to which is correct.

When the Lords and Ladies of bygone years were being dropped off at the hotel it was (is) tradition that the Lady sat behind her chauffeur. So in approaching from the right meant that the hotel doorman could open the ladies door first and her ladyship didn't then have to climb over her portly husband in an unseeming fashion.

The London Black Cab has been the most powerful force on the capital streets, up until the surge (pricing) of the Uber app, and by entering Savoy Court American style, with clients attending the Savoy Theatre situated alongside the hotel, they did not block the hotel entrance as they dropped off (if luck was on their side they could drop one punter at the theatre and collect another from the hotel. Double bubble as the Cockneys would say. 

The Savoy can justifiably claim to be the grandest hotel in London, indeed the world, with one of its main rivals being the Ritz Hotel situated out along Piccadilly. A hotel founded by a former manager of the Savoy, Cesar Ritz, who left to 'do it better' and be his own boss. How he succeeded in such magnitude is all the more impressive as Mr Ritz was a hopeless alcoholic and, in a former employ, would run through the guest corridors at 5am ringing a bell as he chased his wife with a gun.

Businessman Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal Bin Abdul-Aziz Al-Saud, or the artist formally known as Prince (to his friends), spent countless millions renovating the Savoy a few years ago with many traditionalists never returning due to the fact that they hated the new decor or they'd died during the 2 years it was closed. 

Since King Henry gifted the land to Peter, Count of Savoy, in 1246, (why he didn't wait until 1 o'clock is a mystery and very old joke) the place has stunk of the rich, famous and privileged. Vivien Leigh met her future husband Laurence Olivier here and even our future Queen Elizabeth chose the Savoy as the venue to officially be seen 'out' with Philip Mountbatten.

Take a look, take a photo and, if you are actually staying there, as many of the toiletries as you can.