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A trip in London this weekend with friends from Newcastle. We had planned this before Christmas and booked a hotel room overnight … just as well as this was Carabao Cup weekend and Newcastle United FC had made it to the final. It’s 54 years since they last lifted Cup silverware and no doubt half the City would be heading down for one big party.
The lads were keen to do another Escape Room and for this visit, Mission: Breakout Escape Rooms – The Lost Passenger got everyone’s vote.
We caught the early train into London … slight problem with trains as there was a broken rail at Maidenhead. Our through train would terminate at Reading and would need to catch another train for the last leg. It was a minimal delay arriving just 7 minutes after our scheduled time.
From Paddington, we headed straight to the hotel to drop luggage off – the Premier Inn Paddington Basin was a 10 minute walk from the station and fairly new. From here, we walked to Edgware Road to catch the tube rather than doubling back to Paddington … we were about half way between the two tube stations.
Edgware Road to Kings Cross then Northern Line to Kentish Town. We had about an hour before we needed to be at the Escape Room so once we found the building, we grabbed a coffee at Duppio Coffee Warehouse. Fab coffee and super-sized pastries!
This Escape Room was set in the disused South Kentish Town tube station and based on a true story. In 1924, soon after South Kentish Town tube station was closed down, a train stopped there by mistake, and a man absentmindedly alighted. The train departed, and Mr Brackett disappeared in the darkness. No one knows if he ever escaped.
It was really well done. Not one for anyone that suffers from claustrophobia or epilepsy. The early parts were pretty dark (or completely dark at times). At one point Pat had to double-back and got the fright of his life!!
We were a minute or so over escaping but we did escape.
We’d all worked up an appetite so we walked south towards Camden. As we were in the area, we’d decided to try out Lost Souls Pizza … inspired by the film The Lost Boys. Jon loved the film and was won over after reading the reviews about the charcoal pizza!
Twenty minutes later we’d arrived at the place, five minutes ahead of our booking. The place is only small and our table was downstairs in the crypt. There wasn’t a huge choice of meaty pizzas (chicken, pepperoni or ham) and this place added a sprinkle of charcoal into their pizza dough. They were without doubt the nicest pizzas we’d had for a very long time. Loads of meat toppings as in the majority of places, these are lacking. Interesting on the drinks menu was Liquid Death. Callum and Jon opted for this … it’s a drink inspired by the festivals for those that don’t want to be seen as not drinking. It’s sparkling water in a designer can that looks like a craft beer or cider.
Lots of Lost Boys inspired theming … complete with a coffin! The basement was lit by red light which is why the photos look strange!
Time to show the lads some of the sights of London. The Mornington Crescent Tube Station was closed by so we jumped on here to get to Cannon Street. The plan was to visit a couple of the old pubs in the city but it quickly became obvious that everywhere was really busy … combination of tourists, locals and Newcastle fans. First attempt was Ye Old Cheshire Cheese – the oldest pub in the city, rebuilt after the Great Fire of London. One of the rooms was closed and everyone wanted to have a drink here. We didn’t stay and headed further along Fleet Street and found three pubs next to each other.
We struck lucky in the first pub we went into, The Punch. Not only did we get a table, we also got view of the TV showing the Ireland v Italy Rugby match. Messages from friends from up North were coming in thick and fast all saying to head over to Covent Garden.
We had a seat, we had a bar no more than 2 metres away and we decided to make the most of it!
Eventually we headed off for a little more sight-seeing. We headed across to Leadenhall Market which took us past St Paul’s and a slight detour to take in The Monument. I had joked that if there was anyone from Newcastle we would bump into whilst wandering around London, it would be David G. He his wife and two daughters had come over to London for a weekend d to take in the atmosphere. Sure enough, we turned the corner and low and behold, there they were!!
Close by to Leadenhall Market was another really old pub we were wanting to try, The Jamaica Wine house. It is tucked away down a little alley but alas, was closed over the weekend. The Lamb and the Golden Goose at Leadenhall were all full so headed off towards the Tower of London.
The final trek took us through St Dunstan in the East. The church was rebuilt after the Great Fire but suffered bomb damage during WW2 and the bell tower and some of the walls survived.. The decision was made not to rebuild and turn the church over to mother nature and create a garden. Spring hadn’t yet spring so it was looking a little sparce and not at its best. The squirrels didn’t seem to mind.
From here it was a short walk across to the Tower of London. Work on reinstalling the poppies to mark VE and VJ Day hadn’t yet started; work was still underway to renovate the viewing area over the moat and the tower.
Decision to be made on whether to head to Covent Garden or back to the hotel. From looking at photos and cameras from Covent Garden, it looked rammed so we decided to head back to the hotel. Over to Callum to work out the quickest way back from Tower Hill to Edgware Road.
We ended up with the new boy checking us in and it seemed to take forever. All the other desks were checking in people at a great rate of knots. We are usually a little more complicated as I have a shareholders card so get free breakfast for 4 people and needed to pay for a fifth breakfast. Assistance needed to get this sorted. We got there eventually.
Our rooms were on the 13th floor and had a lovely view of the building across the road! Large windows with plenty of light. Being a new hotel, it had aircon… not that we really needed it in March.
We met up down in the bar shortly afterwards and as we had seats, bar within easy reach and food on site, we decided that’s where we would stay put. Sorry Newcastle friends!!
We were starting to get a little peckish so decided to have a bite to eat. I called it quits after the meal and headed up and Jon followed 30 mins later … earlier than I expected. Apparently, they got kicked out of the restaurant and bar area as they need to set up for breakfast and so they moved to the foyer. However with all the comings and goings and doors to outside constantly being opened, they were feeIing cold so decided to call it a night.
Alas no time to explore London in the morning. Friends were on the 10am train back up to Newcastle whilst we needed to head home to take Callum back to Cheltenham.
