Before I moved to Sardinia I used to live in London: just off the Old Brompton Road in the Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Whenever I'm over in England, South Kensington usually pulls me back. It's fascinating to see what's changed, moved in or out and what's still reassuringly stayed the same over the years I've been away. On the Old Brompton Road Harrods and Harvey Nichols are still there of course and at the other end there's the comforting sight of the Brompton Oratory and on Exhibition Road the Victoria and Albert Museum.
A visit to the V & A to see my favourite pieces of English fabric, furniture and pictures is on my list of things I MUST DO to treat myself whenever I'm back in England: together with meet ups with old friends, the essential meal of Fish & Chips and stocking up on Lapsang Tea and Marmite to take back to Sardinia. 
My sister's husband came with me this time and we first had some lunch at an intriguing Polish restaurant - The Gessler - on Thurloe Street, just around the corner from South Ken. tube station. The food was simple, deliciously wholesome and impressively served. The restaurant itself was shabbily good looking with an important old fashioned feel about it and in fact the Manager told us that it was the Polish Officers' Club during WW2. We ordered the four course set lunch which was a bit greedy and we couldn't manage to finish the pudding - a spiced seed cake. A shame to miss so this was carefully wrapped up in a paper bag. It came with us on our walk up to the V & A , around the exhibitions and back on the tube and then up north by train from Liverpool St. We enjoyed it with our tea, sitting in my sister's pretty Essex garden.
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Tip: Take a torch some of the exhibits are very dimly lit. |
The Victoria and Albert Musuem, Exhibition Road, London SW3
The Gessler, 20 Thurloe Street, London SW7
Tel: +44 020 75896117
