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A conference is being held in City Hall today to promote the spread of Car Clubs from Central London – where they are outstandingly popular – to the outer boroughs.
There are now 100,000 car club members in London, which makes it one of the principal cities for car clubs worldwide. 84% of all car club cars in the UK are based in London (1,904 vehicles), offering easy access to a care without the hassle and costs associated with ownership (depreciation, insurance, tax, servicing/repairs). If you drive less than 6,000 miles a year you can save up to £3,500 compared to the cost of private ownership, and consequently in London 40% of new members sell their car as a result of joining a car club.
Car clubs are also finding themselves at the forefront of the electric and hybrid revolution. Trials of electric and hybrid car club cars are already taking place in Westminster and Camden. Around 680 charging points are expected to be installed in on street and off street car club bays by March 2013.
Choose from 4 car clubs in Central London – you’ll find a car pickup point within 2 mins walk (50 yards from Pimlico Flats!). Rates are typically £4/Hr – £5/Hr or £30 – £50/Day including Congestion Charges so it’s really quite difficult to justify owning a car. Here are links to the 4 clubs running in London:
http://zipcar.co.uk/london/find-cars
http://www.citycarclub.co.uk/locations/south_england/#london
http://www.streetcar.co.uk/locationslist.aspx
http://www.connectbyhertz.com/about/locations.aspx
Tags: Car, Central London, City of Westminster, Hybrid electric vehicle, London, London Life, Rent
Posted in London on March 11th, 2010 | No Comments »
As Londonist says Google Maps are all very well for presenting information. But where’s the charm? Where’s the love? Reminded earlier this week about the special allure of hand-drawn charts, they thought it’d be fun to revive the idea of homemade cartography.
They’ve asked us to draw a map of our local area, be it home or work, indicating all the corners, bars, parks, features and characters that are important to us, then photograph your work and send it to tips@londonist.com, or upload it to Flickr and tag it Londonist. They’ll show the best ones on their site.
If your map is of Pimlico, and shows the location of Pimlico Flats, then e-mail it to me (click the envelope on the left) and I will publish it on this site.
This is what I did, but I am sure that you can do better.
Map of Pimlico
Map of Pimlico (Detailed)
Tags: Flickr, London, London Life, Londonist, Pimlico, Pimlico Flats
Posted in London on March 10th, 2010 | No Comments »
London Eye 10th Birthday
Today Tuesday 9th March the London Eye will be celebrating its tenth birthday as London’s most iconic landmark with an exciting onsite birthday party. From 7pm onwards, all visitors to the Eye will enjoy an impressive light show and anyone who books a flight during that that time will also receive a free glass of Pommery Champagne to enjoy as they take in the lit up views of London’s evening skyline.
Tomorrow and every week with Giraffe’s ‘Wake Up Wednesdays’ all you need to do is pop in, say hello to the barista and order your free coffee (cappucino, latte, americano or teapigs herbal teas), say thanks then be on your merry way sipping a cup of the finest coffee around. Note – no payment step, order and go. The place is Giraffe Restaurant:
120 Wilton Road
SW1V 1JZ
Between 08:00 and 10:30 every wednesday until weds 16th June
Free Coffee
Tags: Barista, Cappuccino, Coffee, Food, Latte, London, London Life, Pimlico, Shopping, Tea and Coffee
Posted in London on March 9th, 2010 | No Comments »
Map of Pimlico
Map of Pimlico (Detailed)
Tags: London, Pimlico, Victoria, Westminster
Posted in London, Pimlico Flats on March 7th, 2010 | No Comments »
Affordable Art Fair
Melbourne, New York, Bristol, Paris, Amsterdam, Sydney, Milan, Brussels ……… but next week and weekend Affordable Art comes to Pimlico (Battersea Park) and you can furnish your rented flat with excellent works from the Affordable Art Fair! 120 galleries offer a stunning array of contemporary art from just £50 up to £3,000, from the hottest young talent to firmly established household names – so you are bound to find something you love whether you’re an experienced collector or simply looking for a masterpiece for the mantelpiece.
Their formula is simple: a relaxed, unstuffy environment and lots of good quality contemporary art. The price ceiling of £3,000 and the compulsory labelling of all artwork ensures you know what you can and can’t afford, and the huge array of paintings, sculpture, photography and prints means there is something to suit every taste.
But AAF isn’t just about buying art, the Education Programme offers a whole host of different activities, all of which are fun, informative and, free. Based around the theme ‘Park Life’, everything from drypoint printmaking to participating in a collaborative wall art project is on offer, along with the ever-popular Kids’ Activity Packs. For those who prefer to listen there are usually talks on collecting art and printmaking, and the Contemporary Art Society are running a Resource Centre where you can pick their brains about everything from art collecting to artistic techniques, along with a series of informal talks, which include a tour of the fair. Children can be kept entertained with the Kids’ Activity Packs and under 10s can be left at the free crèche.
Affordable Art Fair
Adult weekday £10
Adult weekend £12
Concessions weekday £8
Concessions weekend £10
Children under 16 Free
Tags: Art, Battersea Park, Contemporary art, London Life
Posted in London on March 6th, 2010 | No Comments »
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If you are having goods delivered into Pimlico or other London based apartments, then make sure you have some details to hand that will be useful for your delivery company.
Pimlico is in the congestion zone so the congestion zone fee will be added to your bill unless your delivery company has exemptions. Motorbikes and LPG vehicles are exempt at present. You may want to ask the courier / delivery service at the time of booking, so that you are not caught unawares.
Some flats or apartments in Pimlico are two or three floors from the ground. Make it clear whether you want the courier to bring up the item or leave it in the hallway or reception area. As many Pimlico Apartments have ‘residents only’ parking, you can understand the drivers reluctance to deliver the door – it may mean he gets a parking ticket.
By the same token, if you are a person who is not very mobile just let them know at the time of booking so the courier/delivery driver can leave a sign on the dashboard to let parking wardens know he will be back in a few minutes.
The biggest problem your courier will face when delivering to you will be the traffic. Apartments in central London are highly sought after so the resident can avoid the queues around Victoria and other stations but that means someone else will drive through the very same traffic to reach you.
Some same day courier companies will deliver out of hours which is great for avoiding London traffic and avoiding the congestion charge / traffic wardens. If this kind of service suits you better, just let your company know at the time of booking – then your day won’t be wasted waiting in for a delivery.
Sarah Arrow
Sarah Arrow is a director of a
same day courier company based in Essex. They deliver in and out of London daily and help companies deliver in a sustainable, greener way. They can be contacted on 0844 884 3331 (local rate).
Tags: Central London, Couriers and Messengers, London, Parking violation, Pimlico, Transport, Transportation and Logistics
Posted in London, Renting on February 18th, 2010 | No Comments »
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Tomorrow, Saturday 30th January, Walk London provide a free guided walk passing two bridges, two palaces and two secret services, the walk will reveal many other fascinating facts. Discover Thomas Cubitt’s development of Pimlico; MI6 and Doultons Ceramics on the Albert Embankment; the Tate Gallery and what was Milbank Prison; the Flood of 1928; MI5; three Lambeth Bridges; the Horseferry and Lambeth Palace; St Thomas’s Hospital; the Palace of Westminster, the ‘Great Stink’ and Westminster Bridge – finishing outside Portcullis House with the view to St Paul’s.
Meet at 10:30 a.m. at Pimlico Tube Station. Note that there are 2 entrances either side of Lupus Street and the walk organisers haven’t specified at which one they are meeting. The walk finish is at Westminster Tube, it is 2.5 miles, and will take approx 2 1/2 hours
Tags: Add new tag, Entertainment, Lambeth Palace, London, Pimlico, Secret Intelligence Service, Thomas Cubitt, Westminster, Westminster Bridge
Posted in London on January 29th, 2010 | No Comments »
Old Pimlico Map
£1,151.75 – I don’t think it’d buy you enough real estate to sit down on in modern Pimlico, but in 1623 it was King James I’s asking price for the freehold of the entire Manor of Ebury – the area of London that became modern day Pimlico.
By 1666, the year of the Great Fire of London, Ebury was owned by one-year old heiress Mary Davies. Her estate was collectively known as The Five Fields, and included not only Pimlico, but most of what is now Belgravia, Knightsbridge and Mayfair. Mary was married at the age of twelve to Sir Thomas Grosvenor. At that time, the Grosvenors were a rather obscure Cheshire family, but their management of Mary’s property brought them enormous wealth. In 1874 Queen Victoria made Hugh Grosvenor, Sir Thomas’ great-great-great-grandson, a Duke, and his great-grandson, the current Duke of Westminster, is one of the richest men in Britain. All thanks to Pimlico.
The origin of the name Pimlico is a bit more obscure. Most writers are agreed that Pimlico was originally a person, most likely a publican famed for his nut-brown ale. Some cite his first name as Ben, but not much more seems to be known about him, except that he probably gave his name to the Pimlico Pleasure Gardens, which were situated in what is now Bacchus Walk. Hoxton Street itself was at one time known as Pimlico Path, and there is still a Pimlico Walk in the area.
In the late 1600s and early 1700s, Ebury was also “a district of public gardens much frequented on holidays” at that time, and it seems to have borrowed the name Pimlico from the Hoxton gardens. Perhaps the word became a general one for pleasure gardens, just as Hoover’s name has become used for any vacuum cleaner or Biro’s name for any ballpoint pen today.
There are Australian Pimlicos in Queensland and New South Wales, and American Pimlicos in South Carolina and Baltimore, Maryland. County Laois in Ireland has a Pimlico and so does South Africa.
James Davis - Upad
A guest post by James Davis, the CEO of Upad.co.uk, the UK’s leading online lettings agent. Upad lists your rental property on 100+ sites and portals – including Rightmove – for just £59: tenant guaranteed. Follow the Upad blog and on Twitter for rental industry news and tips for landlords on making the most of your properties
Tags: Ebury, Great Fire of London, History, London, Pimlico, Property, Real estate
Posted in London on January 27th, 2010 | No Comments »
I don’t know if this is another Blog that I am going to regret writing, I seem to be accident prone these days, maybe I should employ someone else to write my headlines! I have a number of automatic searches done for me automatically by minions such as Google, and today I was rather surprised to see “Pimlico Escorts” pop up. Because of the large number of Judges and MPs who have their London Pied a Terre in Pimlico, it is often said that Pimlico is the best place to keep your mistress, nevertheless our quiet residential area isn’t exactly as renown as our neighbour Soho in that department. Being a curious type I couldn’t resist following the link to see what I have been missing on our doorstep ………
A Pimlico Escort
……. well perhaps predictably the website is actually a London one, which hopes to catch local markets with specialist pages, but I felt that they astutely summarised Pimlico’s features and advantages, albeit from a limited perspective.
If London was a dartboard, and your dart found itself embedded in Pimlico, you’d not be far off bullseye. It is difficult to get much more central than Pimlico, and therefore the place has that aura of excitement exclusive to more central places.
Quite residential, many of the houses feature historic and beautiful architecture, adding to the pleasant atmosphere of the area. Although more residential than other central areas, Pimlico is not without its own entertainment. However, residents of Pimlico might take advantage of the close proximity of other areas of Central London when seeking bars or clubs, and with ample methods of transport, who can blame them?
So thank you Pimlico Escorts for explaining so succinctly why Pimlico is the best place in London to live, whatever you are going to do. Besides I would have to answer to Mrs. Pimlico Flats if I were to recommend anywhere else.
Dare I ask where you recommend?
Tags: Add new tag, Central London, London, Member of Parliament, Pimlico, Residential area
Posted in London on January 25th, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Rippon Cheese
Rippon Cheese Stores in Pimlico is a wholesale and retail specialist cheese supplier. There are over 500 cheeses available and it’s a wonderful place to visit for a cheese lover.
The company has been around for over 20 years, and the “Big Cheese” (his words) is Philip Rippon, who is in the store most days. The shop has been refurbished and reopened in October 2009 as, essentially, a walk-in cold room. There are literally hundreds of cheeses on the shelves – at least 250 at all times – ordered alphabetically. Each cheese has a label stating its name, country of origin, whether pasteurised or unpasteurised, sheep/goat/cow, if vegetarian and price per kilo. (Blue cheeses are kept on their own shelving unit or, it was explained to me, the other cheese nearby would start to turn blue!)
Happy Staff
Within minutes of me staring at the shelves looking overwhelmed, a member of staff was over asking if they could help. They are happy to give recommendations and tastings are acceptable. I was surprised how not smelly it was in there, although there is a cheesy whiff it’s not so bad you don’t want to go in. Maybe because I’m a cheese lover, I actually found it quite appealing. I had a great chat with Jon, who joined the team in late 2009 but has a West End retail background. He informed me that the old Chief Executive of Tesco had called Rippon Cheeses the “best cheese shop in London”, and as he had a few shops himself at the time this was high praise indeed.
About 80% of their sales are wholesale and they supply some of the big name restaurants in town, including the Gordon Ramsey restaurants. This is a bonus for us going in to buy from the shop as the cheese is never on the shelves for long. I did ask about how they keep it all fresh and the regulated temperature in the store of around 9 degrees C means that the cheese can stay fresh for ages. You can buy whole truckles (that’s the whole round cheese as it’s made), or any size piece can be cut. The 7 year matured Parmesan is most unusual and incredibly large and heavy but the staff are all kept fit moving and cutting the cheeses.
Maturing Rooms
I had a tour of downstairs too and this is where they have the Maturing Rooms. The temperature is different and this means they can buy cheese ahead of selling and use the space to prepare the cheese.
Rippon have another store a few doors away which is their deli. I headed there afterwards to buy crackers and chutney. (Crackers are available at the cheese store but you need to ask for them as they have to be stored out of the cold room so they don’t get damp.) There are some incredible smells, colours, and tastes and definitely something for everyone. I was intrigued by the French Morbier which has a thin layer of ash in the middle between the morning and afternoon milk but in the end I went for a Montgomery Cheddar that had some blue running through it. As it didn’t look the way a customer may expect Cheddar to be, the store had decided to discount these pieces and I benefited by gaining a large piece for around £3.
Ripon Cheese Stores are hoping to have a retail website by spring 2010 and are looking forward to mail order sales as they’ve been asked to offer this service by many customers (International sales will be available where customs rules allow). Already they offer local delivery and Nick tells me he likes to “buy posh cheeses from there as Xmas presents”.
Cheese Shelves
Address:
26 Upper Tachbrook Street
London
SW1V 1SW
Opening Hours:
Monday to Saturday: 8am – 5.30pm
Tel: 020 7931 0628
Web: www.ripponcheese.com
Laura Porter
Laura Porter from About.com London Travel visited Rippon Cheese Stores for us.
Tags: Add new tag, Cheese, London, Retail, Shopping
Posted in London on January 22nd, 2010 | 2 Comments »
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.jpg "Map of Pimlico (Detailed)")
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