One of our festive traditions is to treat ourselves to a steak night in the run up to Christmas. I think it probably started as a reward for Christmas shopping, starting most probably, not completing it. But over the years the shopping part has been dropped and the steak is the focus. Last year we managed to fit in a visit to the Hawksmoor at Borough, walking from Fortnum & Masons in Piccadilly, mostly to avoid the tube and because it had been such a long while since we’d been into London.
This year though we were headed towards the City of London, so I thought our Fortnum & Masons luxury mince pies (another festive tradition of ours) might not be on this year. Then I learnt that they had a shop in the Royal Exchange, you don’t know how happy that made me. And so with my mince pies ordered for click and collect to coincide with our steak night, I was happy. The mince pies are divine, expensive, but divine.
What I wasn’t expecting was to be papped by Gillie & Marc’s Paparazzi Dogs at the entrance to the Royal Exchange, but I was so glad we were.
They definitely made me smile.
Mince pies, paparazzi dogs and steak - it was shaping up to be a very good night.
It’s the first time that the dogs have been in the UK, I’d like to think they knew I was coming - but that’s not true at all.
On the Royal Exchange website, they explain more about their temporary exhibit:
Designed to highlight the pack mentality of the media, the four Paparazzi Dogs have been travelling the world from New York’s Rockefeller Center to Melbourne’s Federation Square, Shanghai’s Jing’an Sculpture Park and Dublin’s Dundrum Town Centre, before arriving at The Royal Exchange to turn their lens on Londoners in a piece of public art that gives us all a taste of the glare of celebrity living
As well as the dogs, the mince pies and the nibbles to try in the store both the exterior (top) and interior (below) never fail to impress. For many years I worked opposite this building, and for many of those years had never been in until it was transformed into a posh shop mall - and even then, mostly just to look.
Our next stop was a favourite City pub - The Counting House on Cornhill - where both MOH and I have spent many evenings, with many colleagues. We were apprehensive about how busy it would be, and our tolerance levels for what we remembered being one of the busiest pubs where often it could take tens of minutes to make your way from the front of the pub to the back.
Reassuringly for us, less so for the publicans I’m sure, it was by comparison empty. There were people there, and we found a table to sit relatively easily - of course this was much to MOH’s horror, as he’s not a sitting down in pubs kind of person. But as I am, he did. It was still as beautiful as we remembered, and enhanced by the Christmas decorations.
After an aperitif or two, we along with our box of mince pies headed towards our steak restaurant - Blacklock just off Fenchurch Street. We’d been here before and in my usual style, I have no in-restaurant photos. We took the scenic route through Leadenhall Market to the restaurant, and this chandelier - in a coffee bar of all places - caught my eye.
Do you think it’s large enough?
Ah, Leadenhall Market always looks so good at Christmas, and while it’s the emptiest I think I’ve ever photographed it, it was good to see that some things don’t change. Let’s hope that the pandemic doesn’t completely silence places like this, that we know and love, but can’t always visit as much as we have in the past.