Queen of Hoxton Summer Rooftop - Dead Man's Hand

Sunday 26th May - Day 2 of entertaining Anglo-American Parisians in London started a little later than Day 1, with late nights at O'Neils and masked balls starting to take their toll.  The plan was to meet them at 2pm on the new summer rooftop at the Queen of Hoxton (where Wigwambam was during winter), along with a totally different bunch of American students who are over for a couple of months.  I was 10 minutes late and found my two groups (who had no knowledge of the other) already sitting at opposite ends of the rooftop like kids at some awkward school disco.  Eventually we managed to squeeze on to one table and enjoy the chillout atmosphere altogether on the rooftop.  The sun came out, BBQ food was devoured, and Pimms and pints were consumed.  I don't know if they are planning any frozen drinks that are mentioned on the website, but it had only been open for two days.  It got very busy as the afternoon wore on, so get there early if you don't want to sit on the "grass" floor.

Aside from just the regular bar and BBQ, the QoH rooftop has other tricks up its sleeve.  Rooftop Film Club is running fun evening film screenings (scrape up any remaining tickets here) with headphones and drinks on various nights throughout the summer.  If those are sold out, there are other showings in Peckham, Kensington and London Fields coming up too.  

The Queen of Hoxton also has one off events on the rooftop - I am very excited about their alternative Sports Day taking place on July 6th that I have bought a team ticket for.  The games will include Beer Pong, Rock Paper Scissors, Limbo and Frying Pan Ping-Pong, with retro sports clothing encouraged.  What's not to love?

I had to leave Tim and the gang for a few hours as I had booked something else that afternoon a couple of months ago.  Tim is a natural List adventurer anyway and took them up the Oxo Tower (it was Miranda's birthday after all) and then for a Brick Lane curry so they did well in my absence.  I sped off to Farringdon to meet Natalie, Mary and Joe for a mad, interactive murder mystery poker-themed adventure called Dead Man's Hand run by A Door in a Wall.

We were told to meet from 17.00 at Grand Union in Farringdon which had been transformed into the Underhand Poker Club.  We were greeted by the shady club owner who showed us to a table where chips and playing cards were laid out.  Here we had time to come up with a team name - we went for Bowling Mums in reference to a TV show called The Amazing Race which involves teams running around the world solving clues.  We also read about the murder and character back stories, checked out the final hand of the deadly poker game and researched the locations for clues given in a handout before the start time at 18.00.  Just before the kickoff, there was a staged scene as an inspector barged in to the club and threatened to close down the club if we didn't find the killer for him.  It was all pretty silly, but set the tone well.  We rushed out on to the empty streets of Farringdon and methodically worked our way through all the clues.

There were all sorts of comedy set pieces that we had to get involved in, including some makeshift surgery, some amateur surveillance work and a spot of minigolf (or Mini G as we were told to refer to it as).  Otherwise we were solving little puzzles, spotting hidden clues or waiting for phone boxes to ring.  We were constantly bumping in to other teams working their way around, but it was never too congested as there were so many routes to take.  Thankfully it was a nice evening - it would be a fairly unpleasant experience in the rain as we were outdoors for the majority of our 2.5 hours of sleuthing.  Here are some of their photos from the event as I was too wrapped up in it all to take any good ones!

We made our way back to Grand Union to piece it all together and write up our report on all of the suspects.  We had missed one clue but luckily had enough to come up with a reasonably good explanation for it all.  The majority of the clues were fairly straightforward which could perhaps be improved, and I would happily have spent more time wandering around working stuff out.  Previous games from A Door in a Wall have lasted the whole day, hopefully another will come along soon.  We assumed that everyone had come to the same conclusion as us, and probably in more detail.  We were therefore pleasantly surprised when we were announced as the winners!  We were given a trophy, some chocolates and a free tour of London voucher to redeem at some point.  A great victory for Team List / Bowling Mums.  Keep your eyes peeled for future games.

Pleasure Rooms?

Team List Leader with the Dead Man's Hand trophy

I made my way back over to Old Street to reunite with the Parisians (plus some London extras) who had been currying on Brick Lane.  My initial plan was to try out the new Nola Bar but it was sadly shut for a couple of days so we went back to Underdog - the hidden beer-cocktail bar underneath Brewdog.  This was the second place (after to Meat Liquor) to make The List in my first proper post a few months ago.  They have extended the excellent beer cocktail menu - I'm always a big fan of puns and "Agave Maria" (with hickory smoked pineapple) is a good'un.

I also couldn't resist popping in to Beigel Bake again on the way to the bus stop, only to discover that they were out of salt beef with no more arriving for at least 90 minutes.  Miranda's request for a birthday cake didn't go down too well with the slightly terrifying lady behind the counter, and she was given a pretty substandard brownie instead.  However my 30p apple strudel was worth every penny!  We made our way our way back to Liverpool Street and prepared for the London night bus experience.  Mine ended up nearly empty with one man DJing for the whole bus using his phone, whereas the others had the opposite, totally packed, standing in the aisle version.  I didn't see Tim again as he was off to a Stag do the next day but I agreed to meet the girls at midday under the clock at Waterloo for the Real Street Food Festival.

Monday 27th May - Day 3 - I didn't really think through that Shannon and Miranda wouldn't know which clock I meant, so we spent 15 minutes or so waiting in different places before finally heading over to Southbank together to fill up on tasters from Real Street Food Festival - the next one is 23-26 August.  I went to the same festival a couple of months ago (read more here) so I'll be brief.  We worked our way around a lot of the stalls, including some old favourites and some new faces - 

Anna Mae's Mac'n'Cheese - pesto, bacon and pasta is all I need to survive

Pizza Pilgrims - cutting pizza into 6 of 4 proved tricky!

Bell and Brisket - cheese blowtorched to perfection - they were worried that they wouldn't meet Shannon's high expectations after she did a victory dance upon receiving her salt beef sandwich, but unsurprisingly it was superb

Bleecker St. Burger - very moreish NY cheeseburgers,  next time I will have to order Angry Fries

The Ice Kitchen - delicious ice lollies in a variety of inventive flavours - Chocomel Almond was fantastic

We also squeezed in some octopus dumplings, fresh watermelon, some craft beer and a slice of banoffee pie - not a bad haul for three people.  We let it all settle on the swings in the cosy Udderbelly Magners forest, which is well worth checking out for a quiet drink, before heading our separate ways one last time.

Thanks to Tim, Shannon and Miranda for an entertaining weekend, even if they didn't pick up as many new List points as they would have hoped.  Tim keeps himself in touch of the lead for when he returns to London in October - List Leader Natalie, be warned.

Alchemy - Hurricane Room - Holborn Whippet

Monday 15th April - This is a short post but with lots of pictures!  I haven't been using my fancy camera enough so I decided to take it with me to the Alchemy Indian Festival that is running at the Southbank Centre until 21st April.  Sam came out to meet me for lunch outside Royal Festival Hall where a large number of Indian street food stalls were set up. He was running late as his flatmate Henry (of Katzenjammers fame) had forgotten his keys, so I wandered around to take some pictures of the Iconic Rickshaws that have been making their way around the world.

Sam eventually turned up and we had a wander around the food stalls to make some decisions.  We liked the look of Bhangra Burger and Brindian (Indian food served in Yorkshire puddings!), but before we could make it over to them we got distracted by the Carrom boards.  Carrom is an addictive 'strike and pocket' game popular in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and surrounding areas.  There was a very helpful Carrom guru on site who kept coming back to us to clarify rules, explain different versions and laugh at our low ability Carrom playing.  We ended up staying at the market for about 3 and a half hours playing Carrom, getting up only once to get some much needed sustenance.  If you don't catch the festival before the end of the week, you can find Carrom man and his boards on Brick Lane.  I fear I am going to cave in and buy one of his boards before the week is out.

Tim (my Paris contact) came back to take an exam in London this week, and needed some points to keep up with Natalie.  On Monday evening we met for a quick game of pool in The Hurricane Room in Tooting - a pool/snooker bar that is open 24/7.  Apparently the bar shuts at 2am but the staff seem like they could be convinced to extend that.  There is another one in King's Cross.  An all-nighter is called for when Tim returns to London properly in a few months.

Tuesday 16th April - Tim organised a curry the next day to celebrate finishing his exams and to catch up with London friends.  We tried to get in to Radio Rooftop bar beforehand but it was already full by 6pm! We moved up the road to the reliable Guanabara (where you will find the most polite and thorough bouncer in London) for a couple of cheap happy hour drinks before having a tasty curry in Tankari on Drury Lane. Are these places List-worthy?  Well I've mentioned Guanabara before, and the curry was just curry, so no.

Afterwards, however, we squeezed in a quick trip to the Holborn Whippet pub. It's situatated on Sicilian Avenue, a pleasant pedestrianised street near Holborn tube that I have never noticed before.  The pub doesn't look anything special from outside which hopefully keeps some of the Holborn workers in search of a non descript lager at bay.  Inside is a beer lovers paradise similar to the Euston Tap.  There is a small bar with unmarked taps coming out of the brickwork and beer info written in chalk above.   Feeling indecisive, we got the barman to pick 8 half pints for us to take back to our table, which he jumped at the chance to do (reminding me of the ecstatic barman from Beef Club in Paris).  I could easily spend all day in here but luckily it was nearly closing time so my wallet escaped this time around.  Below are our attempts to conceal the frowned-upon half pint size with some 'clever' perspective shots.

Pint?

Quarter pint?

Shot?

Thanks to Sam (Alchemy), Tim, Mark, Plotters (Hurricane Room), Will, Rosie, James and Matt (Holborn Whippet) for exploring London with me.  Tim's two points are not enough for him to sneak ahead of Natalie, but he has an outing in King's Cross up his sleeve - swings and roundabouts!

I really do recommend heading to Alchemy, even if you aren't interested in playing Carrom! The food that we eventually had from Brindian and Bhangra Burger was excellent, and there is lots more going on inside the Southbank Centre. Most of it ends this Sunday (21st April). Roti Chai have set up a 'Chaat Shack and Chai Bar' in Festival Village underneath the Queen Elizabeth Hall which will be there until 26th April.