La Brasserie

272 Brompton Road, SW3


The Brasserie is the perfect place for slow brunches, or meeting the ex-husband for lunch to have a civilized ‘state of the children’ chat.  Its not so much about the food or the ambience - (its just a typical French brasserie) - its all about the charming French staff and the perfect consistency, there are never any surprises. The stars love it for its anonymity - posh people never stare! Joan Collins is a regular.

I love the fresh tuna salad nicoise, Jess loves the omelet with frites - naughty girl!

The Electric Brasserie

191 Portobello Road,W11


This fun Brasserie has  delicious food and is amazing for people watching. The pic was taken in September - Jess with her cousin James, I always have to feed the starving children a tasty meal when I’m in town. We love sitting on the pavement (sidewalk) in nice weather, watching the models totter in on their ridiculous shoes. The brasserie is next door to the famous Electric movie theatre which played a huge part in the counter culture 60’s London.

Just around the corner from Jessie’s flat is Arancina’s Pizza. 19 Pembridge Road, Notting Hill, W11


Its not possible to walk by without drooling, such smells! - I just love the styling with the old Fiat in the store window.




I took these pics of this amazing little cake shop just of Kensington Church Street, I have lost their card, have searched high and low if you’re desperate for the address, let me know and I can send Jess round to get me the info.

The Botanist is our new favourite place for lunch on Sloane Square.


7 Sloane Square. SW1


Great location, very chic, full of quietly elegant ladies who lunch. See my delicious food below

(It was butternut, spinach, roquefort and pine nuts wrapped in a pasta thingy.) Yummy!

Our favourite pub for dining is the Cow Pub in Notting Hill.


The Cow Pub, 89 Westbourne Park Road, London W11


Oddly enough, The Cow is famous for its oysters. Isn’t that just so English!

It is bustling, hot and noisy, you can’t book so bring your patience. There are plenty of Notting Hill posers to stare at while you’re waiting for a table. They have the bed head, utterly disheveled look down to an art form, probably earn a million pounds a year working for an investment bank in the city!

Finally,the ultimate girls’ restaurant, the B B B - Beach Blanket Babylon - sooo divine! Its a completely sensual experience.


Beach Blanket Babylon,

45 Ledbury Road, London W11


David took these pics of us when we had lunch there one day, we were in transit to South Africa and stopped off to see Jess. You can see from the photo’s how cool the interiors are, but you don’t really get the atmosphere at lunchtime.

Shopping and looking -


Walton Street is the most perfect little London shopping street. It has a good mix or decorator shops, galleries, and clothing shops. Here is a smattering:


Andrew Martin


Interesting interior design store, lots of global stuff.

Wonderful contemporary art galleries

Chelsea Textiles is a company I use a lot. Their Swedish style furniture is the perfect un-cheesy bedroom furniture. They are also renowned for beautiful embroidered fabrics and pillows. There were some serious credit crunch sales going on this January.

In the old days Nina Campbell used to be the mother ship. Her window was still quite trendy, though I’m not so sure about her new fabrics......oh well. Nobody can be fabulous forever!

The Monogrammed Linen Shop has been on Walton Street for ever. They have never altered their style or excellent quality. Beautiful linens,  tasteful hostess pressies and charming baby clothes.

Don’t miss Joseph, amazing clothing store at the end of the street - look at the crazy windows.

The Bibendum building is just the next block down, on Brompton Road, they sell beautiful flowers and fresh shell fish on the street level. Upstairs is the famous Bibendum Restaurant, pricy but amazing, and round the corner, the Conran store, a must! Sir Terence Conran has dictated contemporary, good design for decades. I love the kitchen section, always come away with something you have no idea how you lived without!!

After lunch at the Botanist you have to wander across the road to check out Emma Hope’s Shoes. More huge sales, what a sign of the times! This is where the aristocratic English ladies buy their shoes; the embroidered evening shoes are works of art. Be warned if you have clumpy South African feet like mine, they only look really good on elegant, Duchess’s feet!

Emma Hope Shoes

53 Sloane Square, London, SW1

On entirely the other side of the culture spectrum , just a short walk down the Kings road, is one of the Scribbler stationery stores that you will find around London. They have the funniest, and rudest cards in the world. The cards are totally irreverent, full of expletives - my girlfriends absolutely love getting them.

Last stop on our Sloane Square tour is the perennial Sloane Ranger’s favourite home goods  store  and place for lunch, the GTC - General Trading Company. It too has been going for decades,(I think the royals shop there). Everything is so English, and is both fun, well bred, green- wellie taste, with a sprinkling of global. Perfect spot for London girls to have their wedding list.

Heading down the Kings Road towards the Chelsea Harbor Design Center, we dropped in to Jessie’s favourite new store in Worlds End, Opium. It is run by a couple who have been traveling  regularly to India to buy furniture and objects for years, way before India mania hit the rest of us! They also stock lovely simple semi-precious Indian jewelry, we bought earings for the whole family. In the back was the best find of the day - the sweetest puppy being so good, sitting in his basket. We fell totally in love!  The Opium Shop, 414 Kings Road, Chelsea SW10

I always like to spend a chunk of time in the Chelsea Harbor Design Center. Having lived and trained in England, it is definitely from where my design sensibility evolves. The English design houses seem to take the pulse of the world, and interpret it directly into their new design statements. It makes me so happy to be ahead of the curve - drives my vendors in Boston mad though, I’m always nagging them for things I saw in London that aren’t yet launched in the States. Oh well, it keeps them on their toes!!


At Decorex (the annual U.K. Design Show) I took this pic of the sofa from newly launched Mulberry range- it won tons of awards. The line was conceived by one of my heroes, Ann Grafton, the CEO of G P and J Baker. Ann is a marketing giant, she takes the mood of the country and turns it into a new design line. Note the soft comfortable, unedited  mix of fabrics - everything is going back to the comfort of home. Hard, edited interiors are loosing their grip, and comfort is back, Yippeee!

Just have to mention, I went to one of Ann’s presentations at Decorex.We schmoozed her, she ended up inviting Jess and me to her big dinner at the Bluebird Restaurant in a private room - (another lovely place for dinner)- we thought we’d died and gone to heaven!


BTW - some of the showrooms in Chelsea Harbor can be a bit snotty to the general public, especially if you don’t have accounts with them. However, you can find to all the major design houses at their retail shops in the area. Interior design is extremely accessible in the U.K.


F Y I - Here are a few of the major ones:


Colefax and Fowler,

110 Fulham Road, South Kensington

Osborn and Little,

304 Kings Road, SW3  - (Designers Guild, Just over the road )

Pierre Frey - Just across the road from Colefax






My final word on decorating (before I bore you all to tears), is I must mention the master, Robert Kime - decorator to the Prince of Wales. The man is a genius, his look is one of the evolved, settled, inherited, English home. No glitz, no gimmicks, everything looks like it was always there, like it was never actually bought! His ikats and suzani’s are superb, I cant get enough of them. Ring the bell and go in, it looks a bit scary, but they are friendly and helpful. Otherwise, ask me and I’ll go in and buy some ikat pillows for you!

Robert Kime,

121 Kensington Church Street, London W8

Finally, I am sure you know this, but just in case you don’t, if you happen to be in London on a sunny, or at least not rainy, Saturday, you HAVE to wander down Portabello Road. It is a heaving mass of tourists - (largely Italian to my surprise), locals, and fascinating  ancient vendors selling everything under the sun - and the food stands are just incredible.

I wouldn’t say there are any bargains to be had in the way of antiques (the dealers are very savvy), you can probably do a lot better price- wise in the junky antique stores on this side of the pond - but that’s another blog! But there is a mind boggling amount of choice - huge piles of everything you could every imagine might be fun to collect!

These old suzani’s caught my eye.

Want to start a collection of antique wooden writing boxes, there must have been over a hundred on this table?

Here’s my final comment before I go -and this is why I love London so much.... where else in the world would you find THREE policemen spending their precious time so earnestly giving this young tourist directions??????