London Pt. 3: So This Is the New Year
On the evening before my birthday, I headed to Brixton to this striking venue called the O2 Academy. It has a pretty interesting history. It opened in 1929 as the Astoria Variety Cinema, then it was converted into a discotheque in 1972, then reborn as a concert hall in 1983.
The interior of the theater is also incredibly enchanting. Nearly 100 years ago, it was constructed to be England’s first “atmospheric” cinema. According to my new favorite website, historictheaterphotos.com:
The design followed the trend of the Atmospheric theatre design whereby auditoria were designed to afford patrons the sense of being seated in an exotic garden or courtyard, watching a performance sitting under the night sky with stars twinkling above. The design concept was originated by John Eberson in the United States in the mid-1920s.
An editorial in the London Sentinel of 20th August 1929, following the theatre’s opening, noted that “London has a real American cinema at last”. It went on to say “It is done in the subtle Italian type of architecture, that gives the effect of a garden – in fact, it was exactly like sitting in the open air. […] There are tall trees along the sides, blue and pink lights twinkle everywhere, and the ceiling of sky blue gives a background to twinkling stars”.
Naturally, this is leading me down an “atmospheric theaters” rabbit hole that I will be needing to explore at length here another time.
I loved the concert so much. It felt very special to be there. The band played two incredible encores - one of which was accompanied by several circus acrobats. Apparently Beirut’s latest album was commissioned to score a Swedish circus.
I looked up the set list afterward and turned it into a playlist that I’ve been listening to on repeat.
Alright, skipping ahead a WHOLE DAY (a very nice one that I spent mainly in Shoreditch), I had dinner in Mayfair at a restaurant called Sketch for my birthday. I have been wanting to go to this restaurant for as long as I’ve known about it. For the vibes, obviously. Designed in 1779, the building has previously served as the headquarters of the Royal Institute of British Architects and the London atelier of Christian Dior—the restaurant opened in 2002. I was smitten immediately with the luxurious mystique of this whole place and they took very good care of me. (I dined in The Gallery this time, but would love to have brunch, high tea, or cocktails in the venue’s four other rooms when I visit in the future)
My dinner (grilled Dover sole with pureed potatoes and herb butter with a side of steamed veg) was excellent. And I had a two-course dessert. The first, pictured here, was the Sketch 055: orange confit, cocoa sorbet, crumble, praline and manjari chocolate roulade, mascarpone, and almond paste. Yes, I did look this up quickly before ordering it because the description raised far more questions than it answered.
Needless to say, it was scrummy.
The second dessert was a slice of lemon poppyseed Battenberg cake (not on the menu!) with a candle and “happy birthday” message. It was very sweet (literally and figuratively) but I couldn’t resist polishing it off. I saw quite a few of these coming out of the kitchen actually - lots of May 9 babies were in the house that night.
And when they brought the check, they plucked out two pear-flavored, sugar-encrusted gummies from a jar for me. I took a bite out of one but was hopelessly overwhelmed with sugar at this point.
And then an obligatory trip to the restaurant’s bathroom to gawk at the rainbow ceiling and the egg toilets. What I was not prepared for was the LOUD bird chirping piped in to hide bathroom sounds. I’m now so annoyed that I didn’t Merlin ID it.
Self-portrait in a convex mirror (with egg toilets)
It was still light out upon leaving the restaurant, and I felt determined to continue squeezing all the birthday juice out of this friday night that I could. What I really wanted to do was ride the double-decker bus aimlessly and appreciate London architecture at eye-level well into the night. I instead took it to the Tate Modern where I had kind of a frantic time trying to take everything in before it closed. Oh well!
The next morning (my last in town), I went to Regent’s Park and spent a few perfect, peaceful hours basking in the rose garden.
Said a final goodbye to the blackbirds and wood pigeons. Until next time!