Chiappa “organ builders” at Eyre Street Hill in EC1.

17/12/2017 donbrown 0

Apparently they’ve been here since 1877, when this would have been the heart of London’s ‘Little Italy’, the area around Saffron Hill and the Clerkenwell […]

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Spring Offensive

24/10/2017 donbrown 0

This review dates from April 2017 and is the Clapham Omnibus production. It first appeared on the Essential Surrey website. April runs a guesthouse on […]

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Don Giovanni

24/10/2017 donbrown 0

This review dates from November 2016 and refers to the Glyndebourne Company’s production at the New Victoria Theatre, Woking. It first appeared on the Essential […]

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A Room With a View

24/10/2017 donbrown 0

This review dates from October 2016. The production was seen at the Richmond Theatre. A Room With a View is a visually interesting, but wordy […]

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Theatre Review: Extravanganza Macabre

24/10/2017 donbrown 0

This review first appeared on the Essential Surrey website and is from August 2016. “Extravaganza Macabre” by Little Bulb Theatre at Battersea Arts Centre, is tremendous fun […]

buckingham palace with lifeguards

Michael Fagan and Buckingham Palace

14/07/2017 donbrown 0

There might be red-coated soldiers from the elite Guards regiments standing sentry around it (not to mention large numbers of coppers with Big Guns), but […]

commit no nuisance sign on wall

What’s the meaning of “Commit no nuisance”?

25/06/2017 donbrown 0

As you wander around London you might see, either on an old sign, or painted up on a wall, the message “commit no nuisance”.  There’s […]

Brick Lane’s Beigel Bake

27/04/2017 donbrown 0

Forget your hipster bars and street art tours, single estate coffee and craft beer, upcycled furniture and bleeding edge fashions, the most compelling reason to visit […]

Bar Italia, a Soho Institution

27/04/2017 donbrown 0

I’m having a coffee in the last of the Soho coffee bars. An absurd statement on the face of it; there are probably more places […]

Billingsgate – the early morning market

08/12/2016 donbrown 0

It’s five a.m. – 5 o’clock in the morning – in a misty Canary Wharf. You can’t see the top of 1 Canada Square and […]