Austen-tatious

This morning I set out to walk to the meeting point of a private Jane Austen/ Regency tour. I was to meet my guide at Kensington, so walked from Mayfair across Hyde Park. I expected to see a lot of people with dogs, but instead, the park was populated with people riding horses. I’m curious about the details - do they own the horse and stable it in the city? Do they rent the horse? I plan to do some google work later. Stopping at the rose garden to kill time (no one will be surprised I was running early), I was flagged down by an elderly Chinese lady, dressed to the nines. She had very little English but handed me her phone and pantomimed exactly how to hold it to take photos of her in a variety of poses. Then she INSISTED that I do the same while she took my photo, telling me “new pose, new pose”, and “you very good poser, very good”. Consequently I have ten or so ridiculous photos of myself in the rose garden. 

My guide Andreea was fantastic. Gentle, thoughtful and knowledgeable, we spent three hours together wandering through Hyde Park, Mayfair, St James and Covent Garden. We covered the houses, the elite gentlemen’s clubs, the regency shopping stops and the evolution from then to now. It’s interesting that practically and economically, the areas have stayed largely consistent- Bond Street in the Regency period was high end fashion, Bond Street today sports Channel, Dior and Rolex. Berkeley Square was a destination stop for carriages, today it’s the home of the Ferrari showroom. Today there was some kind of elite car event on when we walked past- twenty or thirty flashy cars parked outside with crowds checking them out. The square is also the home of Annabelle, purportedly the most difficult club in London to get in to. Photo below as the building frontage is very pretty. 

The planned afternoon of life admin was disrupted by a slight misunderstanding with the reception clerk. I asked about laundry and he directed me to a room with what looked like a washer/dryer. I happily ran a big bundle through the wash cycle, only to find that there was no dryer. Mayfair is clearly too flashy a neighbourhood to need a laundromat - the nearest one was a 45 minute walk away. Having already walked 17k today, I hailed a cab. Unfortunately, the shop had shut down, so we drove to the next option, which turned out to be a drop off/collection front only. I trudged another 10 minutes to the third option. Lugging a plastic bag of wet clothing around in this weather was not a highlight of my day. I did get to see a lot of interestingly dressed concert goers on my walk back though. There is a music festival in Hyde Park I walked past literally hundreds of young attendees dressed in what I would call goth style - it probably has a new name now. The thing is, tonight’s performer is Garth Brooks. There was not a cowboy hat in sight. I am completely intrigued. Photos of the Banksy statue that appeared overnight in Pall Mall, and fabulous choir that was singing in Covent Gardens as I walked past.