Daylight bright and sunny spells ☀️????!
wow this is fabulous weather I thought aloud after storm Dudley had just gushed away and yet a day before “Eunice the storm“ hurdles it’s way into London city.
We could not be happier with the weather that day, a perfect setting for a looong stroll and a little bargain hunting at “ Alphies Antiques Market”. This antique market on Church Street in Lisson Grove is London’s largest indoor antiques market spread over some storeys with quite a unique collection.
It was a nice place for our Milly to walk leisurely enjoying a slow pace while sniffing to her heart’s content ???? and the shop owners loved her!
About Milly- a timid and friendly puppy still in her growing years and has this wonderful strong ability to sense love, compassion and warmth from individuals approaching her and she also expresses in return her unconditional love to all! ????She remains calm and sensibly quiet and often gets too friendly with strangers which might be to her detriment a concern for us, yet to her multiple pluses she is a very loyal girl and has this unique quality of understanding our inner most feelings????
Back to sightseeing
It started to drizzle and instead of changing two modes of local transport we took an Uber this time, also a chance to get a sense of service comparison in London with black cabs.
Due to Covid restrictions in place inside the cab we felt crammed all in the back seat the 4 of us. “Doggies are not allowed in Uber taxis” and the Uber had almost turned around…. so far we had not had problems with black cabs and Milly, although we did keep Milly every time on our laps or on the cab floors. Yet this Uber cab driver soon consented with a smile allowing Milly to be sitting on our lap through the journey.
Milly occasionally snuffled the fresh crisp air through the partially opened windows, oh the extent that she adores car drives…. Her love for car drives at times might get her extremely proactive making her exuberantly hop into cars which are not even hauled by us ????????
Upon reaching our destination we sighed a relief as we poured out hurriedly through the taxi door – almost like playing hop scotch setting us into a fit of giggles.
note made- we compared later that the fares were slightly more economical with Uber in comparison to Black cabs yet the spacious black cab provided comfortable room when travelling with pets.
Inside Alphies Antique Market
As we entered Alphies onto the left was this unique shop specialising in old posters and paper adverts from the 1900’s more around 1950s, 60s, 70s. There was an original photo of Vivien Leigh with Clark Gable well preserved in a neat frame pinned on the wall. Mohammed the shop keeper was polite and very kind and allowed me to take a snap shot of it for my website.
This shop has some fantastic poster collection which evoked redolent memories of when my Gran used to listen to gramophone records by her mahogany 4 post bed, and the good old Britannia biscuit tins from colonial India lay displayed by her bedside shelves… so affectionately filled with butter biscuits! My Gran was given a special job by the then “British East India company’s” run cotton mill as a supervisor after she was widowed young, and she loved good food and music….
The attractive posters from advertising products to movies at this shop put me in a nostalgic swing ???? as I waved back to Mohammed to thank him.
“Lisson here” the magazine was suggested by a shop owner, it had an article and details about the market’s shops at Alphies.
The shop owners at Alphies are very friendly and offered their time and individual attention to all prospective buyers. Their range of collections are wide and I loved the fact that there are some gifted artisans and craftsmen (who are shop owners )that display their own unique products in there too. The lady on the first floor at one of the shops makes her own gold edged mirrors , other artists (including charcoal and oil paint) display their works on the top floors.
Baker Street
We seen some exquisite antiques that were from Italy and other parts of Europe including Italian period furniture, old Belgian traditional weaves, vintage hand made jewellery from Eastern Europe, ancient English clocks and watches, paintings, lighting and decor from 1900’s (almost reminded me of Downton Abbey???? ). There were some theatre garments and classic attire including fur although not my thing yet all looked authentic and so we browsed on…., there was so much to see in this compact building!
Business owners seemed concerned about the economy and sales and how dim their business was in the last 2 years , yet they remained positive and hopeful.
I was mesmerised by a lovely small French oval-wooden-frame with a monotone roseate print within, it evoked those old family sentiments and so I bought it for our home. I was told that it was over a 100 years old????. We had tea and snacks at the roof top restaurant, a surprisingly tucked away venue with some nice warm food to offer!
We took a bus to Baker Street, what better way to see the city during breezy gusts, and when sunny spells unfolded all the more pleasant we walked…
Arriving there at 221B Baker street to see the extremely popular Sherlock Holmes museum my son got excited to see the interiors however, Milly was not allowed in and yet we wanted us to be together…
So it was decided we would take turns to just see the gift shop ☺️after all we had seen it all only a few years back, so we did not think much about missing out on the museum …
Milly swooned her snout multiple times after getting dramatic attention from her admirers standing in the gift shop queues. Soon she displayed a gleeful social signal as she started her “Swahili Chakacha dance ’ as we call it – taking excited turns round and round while watching her own short tail wagging and swiftly swaying her torso side to side …. She cheered up the dull atmosphere on that gloomy rainy afternoon and made the children giggle and even adults laughed !!????
It was late lunching for we had taken full advantage of the good weather by venturing into the side streets. Stopping by at Pret A Manger we asked permission if Milly could be brought inside the cafe, the manager was kind allowing our Milly in and we all sat down for some tasty lunch and unwound a bit…. Milly loved feasting on the crusty bread with bacon saved just for her from my baguette. We felt relaxed that afternoon after the long walks and languidly stretched ourselves. There are very few eating venues in London that accept dogs inside, wish there were more.
Walking towards The Wonderpass which connects the Baker Street station to South Marylebone road- (this was something new for us to see), en-route we came across some Covid anti vaxxers holding out slogans and reading aloud their messages, they were seen protesting at that junction and some were also distributing pamphlets.
We paused for a moment to wonder about their message ..
Yet soon we resumed walking toward the Wonderpass and entered the brightly red lit Tunnel opened in 2016. It was some metres long and on either side had some local historical facts that were entertaining!
Joshua seemed genuinely interested to read them and so were we! To Milly the sheer advantage of being left on a long leash into the tunnel while she ventured sniffing around with great pleasure was over satisfactory!
Walking on we passed several landmarks all of which we had seen before – Madame Tussaud’s London, University of Westminster, Methodist Missionary society all standing proudly on this remarkably historical street… finally we headed towards St Marylebone Parish church.
St Marylebone Parish Church was open for visitors, it lay covered in scaffolding for it’s ongoing renovations yet such a beautiful church to discover.
The interiors of the church were cosy and pleasantly silent shielding us from all the city’s sounds affording us reflections in tranquility. After a short prayer by the sanctuary I took a few photos of the altar’s main panel of Jesus on the cross with Mary and John by His side.
Milly and my family rested themselves in the pews allowing Milly a light nap inside her pouch while I marvelled watching the intricately carved choir benches decorated onto their top ends with 4 seraphim playing instruments, all so delicately sculpted and sitting gracefully atop!
The stained glass windows and plaques, the painting of the nativity trio, the pretty pista green and gold embellished lofts and spiral stairway retained it’s captivating charm inviting visitors!
On one of the plaques there was a mention of the British East India company and the dedicated lives lost, it reminded me of my grandad who worked for the company and of his enthusiastic military enrolment during the Second World War while very young,… Those memorable years of my Gran sitting on the sunny Indian verandah narrating vividly to her oldie group of neighbour friends of how my Grandad proudly marched with his troop and commander upon returning safely back from the war, and then bestowed with medals!, all recollections were a misty memory now… We said a prayer before leaving this beautiful church.
Looking casually around the entrance to Royal Academy of Music which was closed to public under the covid guidelines we made our way to the nearby bus stop.
Despite being on the lead Milly was leading Joshua????, while he tried to awkwardly catch pace with her in the gusty drizzle.
Soon the early evening started witnessing the onset of gales and showers with storm Eunice in the horizon so a unison decision was made to head back to the hotel early via public transport.
Milly was not pleased standing in the open while we all waited for the bus getting exposed to the winds and slanting rain, even with her jumper and raincoat she seemed squeamish so I took her to an adjacent shelter under a building.
She soon felt comfortable and all of a sudden she simpered watching two youthful Pomeranians who’s owner also sought shelter…… the fluffy furry chaps gave her their undivided swooping attention, it was as if they were courting her and Milly’s dismissive reaction was only a way of saying “ I know I am cute but that’s all for now fellows ” ????
Soon the bus arrived, entering we sought seats together with Milly seated on Joshua’s lap.
As we laughed and joked about the Pomeranians’s reaction toward Milly and vice versa she turned around to give us that look as if to say “after all I need to be all top behaved” and so we cuddled her????????!
All the shops, eateries, hotels and museums of Marylebone passed us by through water splashed panes, Milly curiously engaged her glance on the large windshield wipers at first and then gradually let her eyes close in a dewy daze. The rains felt like large pebble shots on the roof of the bus and as we looked at one another we realised a sense of relief for taking the choice of turning back, so slumping into the red warmed seats we relaxed lulling ourselves in the atmospheric sounds from the dimming bus rhythms…. ????
As the bus stopped Milly awoke from her snooze and followed us in an autopilot mode paying attention to the bus steps and landing onto the pavement safely, oh she can never be too careful, our little miss.
The evening at Hilton was quiet with dinner accompanied by one of our favourites Miles Davis echoing lightly from the iPad. With a sumptuous Indian takeaway heartily finished we settled in for a little catch up of a little “Me” time, meanwhile …..our Milly tucked herself into my snug duvet snoring her way into balmy dreams ???? ????????????
