Green Park Station Outdoor Decoration

 The architecture of the building above Green Park station and the adjoining Marks & Spencer store is amazing. All along Piccadilly see the historic buildings.

Green Park underground railway station showing sculpture on the building above. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

A Guided Walk From Green Park Station and The Ritz to Berry Brothers Wine Merchants Shop

Problem
What's the best route? What can I see and photograph on the way?

Answers
I am not an official London tour guide, although I have been on a day's training, observing. Just follow me, your friendly writer on the internet, and see what I saw. Starting from Green Park station you have lots of choices of walking routes. Coming out of Green Park station, I saw the Ritz hotel ahead. Since it was sunny, we saved that route for the return journey and headed into Green Park.

Every time I walk anywhere in London I see something new. As writer and dictionary compiler Johnson said, He who is tired of London is tired of life.

Walk through Green Park in the Queen's footsteps, or sit and read. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

An information panel told me the story of Queen Anne and how she used to walk along what is now Green Park, making houses overlooking the park more popular and expensive.

Walk south, as I did, to Berry Brothers & Rudd's new shop, I followed a friend, who knows the back routes. A few yards beyond the information panel a small alley leads between the houses.

Compare London and Bucharest
The Narrowest Street
When I was in Brasov, a regional capital of Romania, one of the city's main attractions was an alley called the narrowest street, or String Street.

String Street, Brasov, regional capital of Romania. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Narrow Alley off Green Park, London. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

This alley off Green Park seems equally small to me. I must go back and take a photo of somebody with their arms outstretched. You must do it before 10 pm when the passage is closed. If you visit, that would be an amusing photo. But this passage is technically private property, not a public street.

When you emerge at the other end, you can walk across to an old English hotel

Photo of exterior of hotel with British and American flags. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

As I walked towards the hotel, I saw a lady walking towards me carrying a bunch of flowers. How very English, I thought. I had not known that carrying bunches of flowers upwards was English, until I went to Romania. In Bucharest, the capital of Romania, people carry bunches of flowers with the heads downwards.

A women carrying bunches of flowers upwards in a street in London, England. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

A woman carrying a bunch of flowers with the heads down in Bucharest, capital of Romania. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

People carrying bunches of flowers, head down, in Bucharest, capital of Romania. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Elegant flowers in window boxes and a blue door. Georgian sash windows. London, England. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

A London blue heritage plaque saying that Frederic Chopin was here in London, England. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

I was passed by an Amphibian vehicle on a tour of London. I took these in Philadelphia, USA, and New York city, New York state, in the USA. Great fun when you tip into the water.  Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Whether you want to walk through Green Park, sit in the sun, or walk through the back streets of London, or take an amphibious tour, always plenty to see and do in London, England.

The second part of my walk and Berry Brothers is in the next post.


USEFUL WEBSITES
UK
https://tfl.gov.uk
https://art.tfl.gov.uk/projects/permanent-commission-by-daniel-buren/
www.visitlondon.com
www.londonpass.com
www.visitbritain.org
ROMANIA
www.tarom.ro Romanian budget airline.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

A Green Park picnic, then a happy hour wine tasting at Hedonism Wine retailer in London's upmarket Mayfair

Go to Green Park station, which is opposite the Ritz hotel. If you come out of Green park station on the side by the park you emerge through a wall of green plants trained up the walls.

Drinking on an empty stomach is not good any time, especially if you are planning to drive home. We planned a picnic in the park. If you have brought your own picnic, you can sit on a park bench.

We sat down beside two strange strangers, decidedly odd characters. But when we took out our picnic, one of them limped away. The other one who was sleeping, woke up, and walked off. (Was it something we said? Was it something we ate?)

I murmured, "My mother taught me: Don't stare; and Don't eat in public."

My companion retorted, 'You worry too much. Get on with your life."

"What is life if full of care you have no time to sit and stare." That's a misquotation from the poet Davis, who was a tramp. He said stand. We chose to sit. And stare. 'People watch' is the polite word for it. In front of us were deck chairs you could hire. Joggers raced passed, followed by little dogs trundling along attached to leads trying gamely to keep up with their brisk owners.

A group who could have been dancers or gymnasts, wearing black tights and tight tops stood in a circle following routines directed by a man with ropes and equipment.

A stand sold coffee. We went  back to Piccadilly to a Pret Manger so we could avail ourselves of coffee, ample seats and ground floor toilets.

If you are more interested in Happy Hours than Happy Meals, maybe Hedonism wines is more your thing.

I suggest you look around the wines which are on sale and all the wineglasses and decanters and so on before you try a drink or two or more.

We walked to Hedonism from Green Park via Berkeley Square, which holds an antiques fair in a marquee every year for a week late in September.

Hedonism Wine shop has a huge display of wines for sale in grand surroundings, chandeliers and a grand staircase with motifs. See the Enoteca machines downstairs. You can pop in and buy a glass of wine from one of the Enoteca dispensers on the wall.

Get on their mailing list to be invited to a wine tasting - mostly priced about £25. You get to meet somebody from the vineyard or area or country or importers promoting a style of wine.

This tasting and talk can take about an hour, early evening, just drinks, no food guaranteed unless specified, not usually any food, so usually we plan to go off for dinner. We will spit out the wines, as is usual at a wine tasting when you get to try half a dozen wines, and then take the train and car home.

The human body is a pipe when when you put water or wine in at the top, the mouth, the liquid travel around until gravity leads it out again. That's why establishments serving drink need toilets.

Hedonism has the most amazing ladies toilet. (The only other one I've seen equally astonishing is at a restaurant in Beaconsfield.) If you don't like the food, drink and toilets in burger bars and coffee bars, or want a change, something upmarket in the evening or for a special occasion, London has wine bars and hotels offering luxury bars, restaurants and toilets, especially in Mayfair.

Hedonism ladies toilet
Firstly you  need to be directed to get to Hedonism's toilets.  Unmarked door. Inside the TV screen is dancing and blaring, like hotel bathrooms in top hotels in the USA. In addition to the toilet and washbasin there's a bidet. Out of the wall comes a white china hand - and a few inches vertically from that is the gel dispenser.