Day 6 – The great pie and mash war

Victoria Station

Today was a day for nostalgia. It started out with a train ride into London. Luckily I was dropped off and had no major agenda. Basic plan: visit Pimlico, see my Aunt for “the best pie and mash” and then catch up with an old friend on parliament square.

Took the train into Victoria station, which used to be my station when I commuted into London. Not much as changed, except the ads and the screens are new. Rather than take a tube to Pimlico, I opted to go by bus. Its a bit slower, but you do get to see more of London that way. Pimlico is quite close to Westminster, so it was only a 10 minute ride. Luckily, I got the London 6 zone pass which allows me to go on the train, tube, tram and buses. Its 8 UKP, but the service is great and is way cheaper than driving or taking a cab.

I used to live here!

I lived in a lovely area of Pimilico in 1986. When I was there, the flat was shared with about 6 other people and was fairly dingy and dirty. However, it was an opportunity to get out from home and was a great location. It was a first floor (North America: second floor) flat and I shared a large room. At one end was a set of double doors which led out to a balcony. The road is St George’s Square and as you might expect, the balcony looked out to a modest but pleasant area with grass and trees. To the right you could see the river Thames, about 100 yards away. I was really curious to see what its like now.

When I got to Pimlico, I didn’t immediately recognize it. I really only used it for less than a year and mostly as a place to crash after a night on the town. What can I say, I was young and crazy. I do remember that I walked home from westminster a few times, and it only took about 10 minutes. It was 10 minutes walk to Victoria station and 5 minutes from Pimlico tube. A perfect location.

The White Swan in Pimlico

I finally found St George’s Square (via Google Maps ironically) and it was pretty much as I remembered it, except now there are nice Bentleys and Audis there. I have an old Ford Escort at the time. I think it might stand out a bit now. Although I cannot remember the exact house number, I know it was only a few in from the end, so I took several photos of the basic area as well as the park nearby. Lovely place and very peaceful. Probably costs 20 times what I paid when I lived there. It would have been nice to know the exact house I lived in, and really really nice to see how it looks inside today, but that is never going to happen. Finished taking photos and then I wandered around Pimlico.

I remember the “local” pub was on Vauxhall Bridge Road and at the time had sawdust on the floor.  That’s how “real” it was then. I found the pub and had a beer there. It was the White Swan. The sawdust is gone and it has been updated a bit, but is otherwise unchanged. Lovely. About 100 yards up the road is Vauxhaul Bridge, on the other side of the Thames is the large HQ for M15. If you have seen the TV series M15/Spooks you know what I’m talking about.

Part restaurant, part school kitchen. All London. Arments pie and mash

After the pub, I made my way to Bermondsey  for a journey back in time even further. Once in Bermondsey, I met my Aunt and we drove over to near the “best” pie and mash shop in London, Arments. My uncle Ted joined us and we went to the restaurant.

Very similar to the Croydon location, albeit larger. All the workers were keen for me to declare their pie and mash superior to the one I had in Croydon, although they already knew the truth. I had basically the same thing as in Croydon, namely 2 fairly large meat pies, mash and the liquor.

So was it different? A bit. The liquor was a lot greener and the pie filling was better, but otherwise it was pretty much the same as the other place. I mean, seriously, how different can mashed potatoes be? The liquor recipe at most restaurants is a closely guarded secret. Think Coca Cola recipe, but with fewer ingredients and a LOT less money to be made.

Pie and mash from Arments, note the slightly greener liquor

The owner was adamant his pie and mash has to be far superior to the one in Croydon. I mean, its barely London. No matter how big London is in reality, for many people London is a very small area.

We walked off the rather hefty meal with a stroll down the Walworth Road and a visit to the market at East Street, known as East Lane by pretty much everyone. My Dad used to take me down to this market some weekends and I have vivid memories of getting toys here as well as getting the hot Sarsprilla drink and other local specialties.

Of course, over three decades later, the overall character has changed a lot and now features many halal butcher shops, fish and all manner of total crap like cellphone covers and second hand junk.

Fresh fish, get yer fish!

After the stroll down “the lane”, we went for a ride around some old haunts in “Sarf Lundun”, eventually ending up at the south end of Tower Bridge. You know, the really famous one. I took a ton of photos of the bridge as I crossed it and then went along the northern embankment between the Thames and the Tower of London.

Although Tower Bridge is actually not all that old, maybe 150 years tops, the Tower of London has some major age to it, at least a thousand years and I think parts may even date back to Roman times. I did visit the tower when I lived here,but did not have time this day, so after walking around it and marveling at the size, I took the tube to Westminster for my liaison.

Tower Bridge

I got to Westminster a bit early so I made my way over to see the Houses of Parliament. The streets were absolutely packed with people and a surprisingly large number of police were present. I walked past the main entrances to the Houses of Parliament, where I noticed police with machine guns.

Oh, and there was a large anti Obama demonstration underway. Things certainly have changed since the wedding a few weeks ago.Across the road there is a small grassy area, popular with the TV news channels and there were about 5 TV crews there. Turns out President Obama had been to the Houses of Parliament, which explains the large amount of police and people.

Me and a well dressed friend

I met my friend, Sean, who I have not seen since I moved away. Amazingly, not much has changed, except he now works for the government in a building one block away from Westminster Abbey. He gets to travel the work with a film crew and had some great stories to tell me. We walked up Whitehall, past 10 Downing Street and the Semataph, which is a war memorial.

We ducked into Horseguards parade and I got the obligatory tourist photo with a Cavalryman. I asked him how long he has to stand there. “Two hoursh” he said probably due to the brass strap under his chin. Great fun.

After that, we continued down Whitehall, saw a nice Aston Martin with the roof down and hit a pub The Clarence, about 100 yards from Trafalgar Square, home of Nelsons Column. Had a couple of pints of Adnams Broadside at the pub and then decided to head back toward Victoria Station.

A freshly pulled pint of Adnams Broadside. Bliss!

Houses of Parliament

We looked around the area for restaurants, but they were either not interesting or full. Eventually we decided to use Yelp to find a restaurant and ended up going to the Buckingham Balti House on Buckingham Palace Road. Balti is a kind of curry only found in England, but they had other kinds of curry. I ordered Chicken Jalfrezi and Sean ordered a different chicken dish. However, when the means came, both chicken dishes looked identical. They also tasted the same. Not bad, but not great. I think I have had enough curry for a while.

(tip: click twice on an image to see a larger version)