Death and the maiden not

A week or so ago, I had thought that we were going to hear Schubert's D810 string quartet at one of the Wigmore Hall's Sunday morning concerts, given by the Doric String Quartet, whom we have heard occasionally in the past, for example just about two years ago, as noticed at reference 1. But not from the Simmenauer stable of reference 3.

Given that the Waterloo trains were not running, we were out of the house before 09:00, a bit strong for us these days.  But at least the weather had broken and it was no longer quite so hot.

A scruffy Sainsbury's trolley on Station Approach, which I never got back to in the days following. A ticket machine which did not understand about senior railcards - perhaps it was a few minutes before 09:30 - but on this occasion the ticket office was open and was able to do the business. Furthermore, the air conditioning on our Southern train worked well.

Spotted some very fetching beach wear at Victoria Station. Was the young lady returning from some festivity the evening before or was she just dressed to shop?

From the station a 390 bus to Selfridges, passing the decapitated horse and various other rather tiresome art works in Park Lane. And a collection of black tents at Marble Arch. We thought little of them at the time.

Then, instead of our usual All Bar One, we took breakfast in Silvio's of Duke Street. Croissant for him and coffee for her. All good, but the establishment was oddly scruffy around the edges - oddly for a place which seemed to be quite into style and décor.

Into the full Wigmore Hall to find that we were not on D810 at all, rather D887, the last of Schubert's string quartets, written in 1826 some two years before he died, but published posthumously 25 years later. Played with great verve by this relatively young quartet.

Out to the Caffe Caldesi, which it turns out we had not visited for getting on for four years. Quiet and comfortable this Sunday lunchtime, which suited us just fine. The rolling pins noticed at reference 6 were still there, not far from where we were seated.

They did a 2021 Greco di Tufo so we took that, something we were searching out a few years back. From the people at reference 7, where I think it says that this particular wine is not presently available. At least this bottle was and it did us very well.

Bread and olives to start. I thought they were being a bit mean with the bread, but then it turned out that the crisp bread was a complimentary offering and the proper bread followed on.

We both took calves liver. Good, if a little on the rare side for me. The yellow puddle went went with what was left of the bread. For the curious, a clove of garlic sat on top of the mashed potato. What was called Mediterraean vegetables upper left, a mixture of aubergines and courgettes, thinly sliced lengthwise then roasted or perhaps grilled. Courgettes good, not so sure about the aubergines - not a vegetable we make much - if any - use of at home.

Too full for a solid dessert, but BH did manage a coffee and I managed a grappa. I explained to the waitress that I did not do alcohol and caffeine at the same time, and quick as a flash she smiled beautifully and told me that Italian men did. In this case, the grappa was more liqueur, more sherry than the marc which, according to Simenon, was the sort of thing you got in working men's cafés in his day. Not the sort of thing that respectable people drank much at all.

Out to wonder whether, even in Marylebone, a shop carrying a display like that above could make a living. OK, so you are the go-to place for jam and mustard freaks but are there enough of them to pay the rent?

And this rather unusual building, quite nearby, was the next to catch our eye. Wondering about it, the increasingly intrusive Bing popped up and told me that: 'according to the UCL Survey of London, Sarsden Buildings was financed by Lady Ducie (1829–1895), whose London residence was in Portman Square, and named after her birthplace in Oxfordshire. The buildings were constructed after Lady Ducie acquired the freeholds of the houses on the site when these were put up for sale with other properties on the now fragmented Great Conduit Field estate in 1873'. He also pointed me to reference 8 - from which I learn that this now rather posh bit of London real estate was not at all posh in the middle of the 19th century. Quite unsavoury in fact.

Onto Oxford Street where we found ourselves on a 390 bus fast enough, but it ground to a halt just before we got to Marble Arch. Just behind this very serious looking recovery vehicle. It seems that the black tents we had seen earlier had morphed into a full-on manifestation, including marches in Park Lane, possibly a Shia celebration of the battle of Karbala, although the date did not seem quite right. Whatever the case, the bus was not going to move down Park Lane any time soon, so we opted to jump on the tube and go to Wimbledon. From where I thought there were trains to Epsom - their having appeared on the platform indicator boards at Epsom had confused me - while actually it was a bus replacement service. After two of these buses had been cancelled, I voted for the tram to Mitcham Junction - a new experience for us - where we just missed the connection to Epsom. And the next train here was cancelled too, so we had an hour to wait. All in all, a very long journey home. But at least there was a taxi at Epsom; a proper black cab with a light.

The wilding of Mitcham Junction.

At least at our age, sitting around on a warm afternoon is not the trial it might have been thirty years ago. In any case, varied, in my case, by taking a few turns up and down the rather long platform. 

And I did get some further consolation in the form of a genuine British Rail brick, now part of my collection back at Epsom. There was also a much larger block, or perhaps half block, but quite apart from not qualifying, it would have been a bit heavy to manage. I might have dropped it on my toes.

And there was this new-to-me train cover from Bankside. Serious people, with the suggestion at reference 10 that they once made cannon, perhaps before moving into drain covers. Once located at Gunwharf, Wapping. Lots of drawings of their cannon are to be found in the collections of the Royal Armouries - but if they have been digitised, whoever put them online was a bit careless.

However, they managed things rather better at the Army Museum of Tasmania, where they offer reference 11, from which the snap above is taken. The ship concerned, a barque, was built for the opium trade in 1854, although it never actually made it and had to settle for tea.

The last trophy of the day was this new-to-me washer, with bevelled edges. Why would one do such a thing?

PS: the next morning, Thursday: inspection of the archive reveals that we used to buy wine from the same stable at Ponti's, not far down the road in Great Castle Street, just behind Oxford Circus. But there, we used to go to for the Fiano di Avelino I Favati until it was delisted.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/11/end-of-october.html.

Reference 2: https://doricstringquartet.com/.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/08/life-in-string-quartet.html.

Reference 4: https://www.silvios.co.uk/.

Reference 5: https://www.caldesi.com/caldesi-in-marylebone/.

Reference 6: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/09/beethoven-250.html.

Reference 7: https://www.cantineifavati.it/.

Reference 8: https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/survey-of-london/2019/12/25/st-christophers-place/.

Reference 9: https://www.lanternrecovery.com/. Not very interested in providing arty shots of all their heavy recovery vehicles.

Reference 10: https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Bailey,_Pegg_and_Co.

Reference 11: http://armymuseumtasmania.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/No-23-Smooth-Bore-6Pdr-Cannon.pdf.