#hotel in north west london

[aghotel]

Top Budget Conference Venues in North West London

In the bustling metropolis of London, finding the perfect venue for your conference or business event can be a daunting task, especially when you’re working within a budget. However, fear not, as North West London offers a plethora of budget-friendly conference venues that don’t compromise on quality or professionalism. Whether you’re hosting a small meeting or a large-scale corporate event, these venues provide the ideal setting to impress clients, colleagues, and guests without breaking the bank.

The Crown London Hotel

Located in the heart of North West London, The Crown London Hotel stands out as a prime choice for budget-conscious event planners. With its convenient location, modern facilities, and competitive pricing, this venue caters to a variety of business needs. The Crown London Hotel boasts state-of-the-art conference rooms equipped with audiovisual technology, high-speed internet access, and professional catering services. Whether you’re hosting a seminar, workshop, or networking event, The Crown London Hotel ensures a seamless experience from start to finish.

Type of venue: Hotel | 152 Bedrooms | 6 Meeting Rooms | Max Capacity: 300 Address: 142-152 Cricklewood Broadway, London NW2 3ED Website: www.thecrownlondon.co.uk

Holiday Inn London Brent Cross NW

Conveniently located near Brent Cross Shopping Centre, Holiday Inn London Brent Cross NW offers budget-friendly conference facilities with a touch of style. With its spacious meeting rooms, complimentary Wi-Fi, and on-site catering options, this venue is ideal for both small-scale meetings and large-scale events. Whether you’re planning a business conference or a team-building retreat, Holiday Inn London Brent Cross NW has everything you need to make your event a success.

Type of venue: Hotel | 154 Bedrooms | 6 Meeting Rooms | Max Capacity: 100 Address: Tilling Rd, Brent Cross, London NW2 1LP Website: www.britanniahotels.com/hotels/the-britannia-hampstead-hotel

Britannia Hampstead Hotel

Nestled in the vibrant Hampstead neighbourhood, Britannia Hampstead Hotel offers affordable conference facilities with a touch of elegance. From intimate boardrooms to spacious event spaces, this venue caters to gatherings of all sizes. With its dedicated events team and customizable packages, Britannia Hampstead Hotel ensures that every detail of your conference is meticulously planned and executed. Plus, its convenient location provides easy access to public transportation and local attractions, making it an ideal choice for out-of-town attendees.

Type of venue: Hotel | 135 Bedrooms | 2 Meeting Rooms | Max Capacity: 50 Address: Primrose Hill Road, Hampstead, London, NW3 3NA Website: www.britanniahotels.com/hotels/the-britannia-hampstead-hotel

The Wesley London Euston

Located near Euston Station, The Wesley offers budget-friendly conference facilities in a convenient location. With its versatile meeting rooms, state-of-the-art technology, and eco-friendly initiatives, this venue is perfect for businesses looking to host sustainable events. Whether you’re planning a conference, workshop, or training session, The Wesley provides the ideal setting for productive collaboration and networking.

Type of venue: Hotel | 100 Bedrooms | 15 Meeting Rooms | Max Capacity: 120 Address: 81 – 103 Euston Street, London NW1 2EZ Website: www.thewesley.co.uk/the-wesley-euston

The Growing Demand for Conference Venues in London

Recent data and reports indicate a growing demand for conference venues in London, especially for business meetings and events. As one of the world’s leading business hubs, London attracts a diverse range of industries and professionals seeking opportunities for networking, collaboration, and knowledge exchange. With its strategic location, excellent infrastructure, and vibrant business community, London continues to be a top destination for conferences, seminars, and corporate events.

In conclusion, North West London offers a wealth of budget-friendly conference venues that cater to the diverse needs of businesses and organizations. From modern facilities to convenient locations, these venues provide the perfect setting for productive meetings, memorable events, and successful collaborations. Whether you’re planning a small-scale gathering or a large-scale conference, North West London has something to offer for every budget and business requirement.

[babygirlbenji]

Prince Charming - Mason Mount

a/n i feel like i've used this gif before but i do not care! i'm off to a wedding so wanted to get this out! enjoy mwah <3

summary: just some fluff with mason and reader who is sick!

You hated being sick. 

The cough that had been racking your body for the last few days had reduced you to talking in croaky whispers, your whole body ached, you had no energy and all you could do if you weren’t sleeping was watching repeats of Friends. 

What made it even worse was that Mason wasn’t there to look after you and give you the love you so desperately needed to heal. He was in Manchester and you were stuck in London. To add insult to injury, you had planned to take the train up to the north west to see him and watch his game against Liverpool. You’d had to message him the day before, saying you weren’t going to be able to come up. He wanted nothing more than to look after his girl, but Ten Hag had been adamant that Mason would at least be on the bench for the game, if not in the starting lineup. 

It was just an all round bad situation. A long distance relationship was not necessarily what you signed up for, but you loved Mason more than anything in the world. You were both determined to make it work. 

On Friday night, you were tapping through your Instagram stories, looking at all your friends going out and celebrating the end of the working week. You sighed, which obviously turned into a coughing fit. With nothing else to do, you turned off the lights and curled up in bed, hoping that by morning, you would feel better and be able to watch Mason play. 

Or at least that was your plan. This plan was scuppered by your phone lighting up with Mason’s picture as he rang for a FaceTime. You shoved a hoodie on and ran your fingers through your hair in the hopes it would make you a little bit more presentable, before flicking the lamp by your bed on so you could speak to him. 

‘H-Hello,’ you croaked. His face was slightly pixelated through the dodgy WiFi in the hotel he was staying in, but he still managed to look like he’d walked off a Vogue shoot. Damn him, you thought to yourself. 

‘Hey sweet thing, how are you doing?’ Just the sound of his voice was enough to perk you up a bit, and you sat up. 

‘I’m… I’m okay, just tired and got this stupid bloody cold that’s had me bed bound the last two days. How are you?’ You could barely stifle the yawn that crept out of your mouth without any warning. 

‘Oh darling, I’m okay, just called because I’m worried about you, I’ve hardly heard from you the last couple of days and wanted to check in.’ Your heart swelled. You’d been together over two years, but he was still finding ways to make your dreams come true. He really was your Prince Charming. ‘I won’t keep you long as I know you’re sick, just wanted to say I love you and I miss you.’ 

The emotions you’d been feeling over the last couple of days boiled over, and your face crumpled as tears leaked from your eyes. 

‘I really, really miss you, Mase,’ you sobbed. ‘I feel awful, I can’t do any work, I haven’t seen you in like a fortnight, everyone’s going out and enjoying the sun while I’m stuck here on my own with not even Ben or Reece to keep me company as they’re in Timbuktu or something.’ Mason couldn’t help but chuckle at your melodramatics; Ben and Reece were not in Timbuktu, they were in fact in Southampton for their away game. He didn’t have the heart to mention this, though. 

‘I’m sorry, baby, I really am, I wish I could be there to help. Just focus on resting and getting better, okay? I’ll be with you as soon as I’ve finished this game, I promise.’ You sighed. You knew he couldn’t help being a professional footballer, and he loved playing with United, but you couldn’t help but feel like part of your soul went wherever he went. 

You chatted a bit more, or rather, he chatted while you listened to him, before he bade you goodnight and you were once again left with nothing but the sound of your fan blowing cool air on you to stop your fever spiking too high. It wasn’t long before your cold and cough medication kicked in, and you were out like a light. 

*

You awoke the next morning feeling like there was someone in your house. Ignoring the fact that your fever had gone and your airways felt clearer than they had in the last few days, you stepped out of bed and grabbed your phone from the bedside table. Fully prepared to call the police, you padded silently down the carpeted staircase and peeked into the kitchen. 

What you saw made another sob fall out of your mouth.

Mason was stood by the stove, wearing a United hoodie and track pants, while stirring something in a pot on the hob which you could only guess to be chicken soup. 

‘Mase?!’ He whirled around and grinned.

‘Hey babe!’ You summoned the energy to run over to him and throw your arms around his neck, relishing the contact of your bodies having been apart for nearly two weeks. 

‘What the hell are you doing here? I thought they wanted you to play?’ He kissed your temple and shrugged.

‘But I wanted to be here with you more. It wasn’t easy but I managed to negotiate it off. After our FaceTime last night I couldn’t be apart from you any longer. I couldn’t have you suffering here by yourself while Ben and Reece are in Timbuktu.’ You giggled at the reference to what you’d said the previous night, and hugged him harder, your head finding its usual spot just under his neck. He wrapped you up in his arms and rubbed your back. 

‘I can’t thank you enough, Masey, it means the world.’ You felt him press a kiss to the top of your head.

‘It’s the least I can do for my princess.’ And in that moment, with you curled up against his chest while he stirred chunks of chicken and vegetables in a thick broth, breathing in his glorious scent that could only the scent of home, you had absolutely no doubt in your mind that you really had found your Prince Charming. 

[amarriageoftrueminds]

If The Howlies were real...

I've been thinking about Steve's time during the war, and wondering if anyone has any headcanons about, eg. where he was stationed, how exactly the Howling Commando mission planning went, etc?

In the comics, Steve isn't assigned to the 107 but to the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division (aka the ‘Big Red One’.)

They were part of D-Day landings, on Omaha Beach.

In deleted scenes / clips from the Smithsonian, it’s implied that Steve was also a part of D-Day: 

(That’s General Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander.)

(These landing craft 👆 were only used at D-Day. Although it’s possible this is propaganda footage of a rehearsal.)

If the Howlies had the same set up as the 26th, then Steve and the guys would’ve been stationed in Swanage, Dorset:

(Members of ‘A’ Company 26th Infantry Regiment US Army, billeted at Craigside in the High Street opposite Purbeck House Hotel, Swanage, around 1943 – 44.)

That’s 114 miles south west of Camp Griffiss in Bushy Park, Teddington, where General Eisenhower had his SHAEF HQ, starting from January 1944

(before that his HQ was at No.20 Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, in London -- aka ‘Little America’ or ‘Eisenhower Platz’ -- a couple of miles northwest of Churchill’s War Rooms, which inspired the underground bunker HQ seen in CATFA.)

Thousands of American troops, including the 26th Infantry, started arriving in Dorset in November 1943 -- which is also when Steve arrived in England after rescuing the 107!

While in Dorset, the US troops were largely engaged in rehearsing for Operation Overlord, aka D-Day. 

One such rehearsal was the disastrous Operation Smash, on the 18th April, 1944, which was a live-ammunition practice for beach landings at Normandy. (Disastrous because six men accidentally drowned when their Valentine semi-submersible tank... sank.)

Operation Smash was staged in Studland Bay (that’s 4.5 miles north of Swanage). Present to observe were: Winston Churchill, King George VI, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, and Acting Admiral Louis Mountbatten. They did so from ‘Fort Henry,’ a 90 foot long bunker (built and named by Canadian engineers in 1943 -- so it would’ve been there by the time Steve n’ Co got there -- and it’s still there today!) overlooking the bay. 

The US troops moved on from Swanage in late April 1944, and departed England entirely (from nearby places like Weymouth, Poole Quay, Portland Harbour, etc.) on 5th June 1944. D-Day was on the 6th.

In the deleted scene from Avengers, Steve is clearly shown crossing  the Ludendorff Bridge:

...But this is impossible!

Because that bridge (at Remagen) was only captured on the 7th of March 1945:

(9th Armored Division in Remagen, Germany, recorded 9th March, 1945).

...and Steve had already crashed the Valkyrie 6 days prior!

(So unless that bridge was captured earlier, possibly because of Steve n’ Co., that footage can’t be right! 

CATFA does have a habit of putting the US Army in places they had no business being yet at that time of the war -- i.e. showing the US Army right up at the North of Italy, when in reality the Nazis still held it. 

(In fact, Mussolini’s Nazi puppet republic, the Republic of Salò, was nicknamed after a lake in Brescia... which is 200-ish miles further south than the US Army are shown in November ‘43.)

So I guess it’s possible that Steve & Co really were in Remagen, Germany, and crossing the Ludendorff Bridge before March ‘45! 

Or (perhaps more likely) we’re supposed to read it as some generic bridge in Western Europe, captured on D-Day (a la Pegasus bridge). 

.

Where exactly the Hydra factories were (and thus most Howlie missions) is not categorically stated. However, what Steve says / taking rough guesses from the map we see in Krausberg...

...it looks like the Howlies would’ve had missions in: Italy, France, (then) Czechoslovakia, Poland, and... Greece. 

(The script also mentions Belgium and Russia, which are neither shown on the map nor mentioned. However, there is a shot of them creeping through snowy forests, which looks very much like the Ardennes. That might put them in Belgium as part of the Battle of the Bulge -- which in turn gives us a date that could be the ‘difficult winter’ mentioned in the Smithsonian footage.)

If the Howlies were an active team from say 14th November 1943 -- 1st March 1945 (when Steve went down in the Valkyrie) 

That’s 473 days / or 1 year, 3 months, 15 days / or 15 months, 15 days.

If they had 9 missions total during that time...

6 Hydra factories around Europe

+ 1 winter mission to save over a 1000 men (as mentioned in Smithsonian; could be Battle of the Bulge? 🤔)

+ 1 D-Day mission (possibly including amphibious landings &/or bridge captures)

+ 1 Zola-capture mission, probably somewhere in the Alps. 

+ 1 Valkyrie mission makes 10. 

...That would give them 52.5 days (less than two months) to both plan, travel in and out, and execute each mission. That seems like a pretty tight turnaround, especially if each factory was different enough to warrant a new/fresh plan. 

(One difficulty never mentioned because their raids are relegated to a montage: the fact that Hydra factories appear to be staffed by slave labour. Means the Howlies can’t just bust in guns blazing! Or, at least, I don’t think Steve would stand for it. They’d have to free the workers first, and hopefully they’d be workers both physically capable and willing to join in the fight.)

In the film, they are never shown being back in the UK between these missions,  right up until the last Valkyrie mission in 1945, and dialogue seems to suggest there hasn’t been any personal contact between them and the HQ staff in between. 

(It does seem a bit nuts to be shipping them out and back every time, rather than just keeping them on the continent. Also nuts to be planning their most important Valkyrie mission only the day before. But anyway...) 

In order to take part in D-Day, they had to have been back to England at least once, to receive those highly classified orders and to rehearse (can’t be discussing details of D-Day over radio!) 

Also, they couldn’t have been allowed to go haring off attacking Hydra bases any old where, because it might have been inconvenient for D-Day (ie. if the Nazis increased defenses in certain places just because Captain America had been sighted there recently.)

TPTB could have used the Howlies as a diversion, sending them on dummy missions designed to make the Nazis think D-Day is going to happen somewhere else. I think Greece and Italy would be a great way to convince the Nazis that an invasion will be coming from the south, not the north! They could even have used doubles of the Howlies to throw the Nazis off the scent, as part of the Ghost Army (they did this IRL with Bernard Montgomery!) 

Maybe the SSR would be advised to keep the Howlies’ real missions as far away from Normandy as possible, earlier on, and then the reverse right before D-Day? (ie. damage Hydra’s factories that are nearest to Normandy, close to D-Day, so that they can’t supply weapons and don’t have enough time to rebuild).

Other possibilities: 

If they were not stationed in the UK between missions, and weren’t with the US Army of occupation (because it hadn’t invaded that part of Europe yet) Steve & Co. might have been living undercover in Nazi-occupied territory in the run up to missions against local Hydra bases (in, eg. France and Poland. Chance for Frenchy to get his Maquis on!) Very dangerous, very nerve-wracking, very Inglourious Basterds of them. Also potentially very dangerous for the locals, too, since there would surely be reprisals against them after any successful anti-Hydra attack by Howlies. 

IRL There was a concentration camp called Terezin in Czechoslovakia, near-ish where that one Hydra base is shown. (It’s the one that the Nazis famously filmed a propaganda movie in, after cleaning it up and deporting a bunch of people to Auschwitz to seemingly reduce overcrowded living conditions, to fool the visiting Red Cross.) So Steve and the Howlies might have gone off-mission to go and liberate that; could be that was a source of slave labour for the nearby Hydra factory.  (From a character POV, Terezin was known for having a big artistic culture among the inmates, and surely Steve would feel empathy for those used in propaganda, having been made to do that himself.)

Logically speaking, I would’ve expected that last Hydra base to be in Holland or Denmark -- not Greece -- to complete the ring of bases formed around Germany. 🤔 Maybe even more likely to be Denmark, since the Tesseract (which kicked off the whole Hydra supremacy thing) was discovered in Tønsberg, SE Norway.

[mercurygray]

So I Hear You Liked...World War Two Dramas

What's that? You said you wanted a World War Two series where women actually speak to each other? Have I got a deal for you!

When Band of Brothers first came out, I did not have cable, but what I did have was a card at a library that owned seemingly every PBS drama ever broadcast. I know and love a lot of these shows, and I hope you do, too.

As we wait for Masters of the Air to join us, maybe you can fill some time with one of these!

Classic: These shows were made in the 70s and 80s and while the production values are not the same as something made more recently, they're all fun to watch.

Danger UXB - daily life in a bomb disposal unit.

Dad's Army - comedy show about the Home Guard.

Hogan's Heroes - situational comedy about life in a POW camp.

Piece of Cake - follows British pilots stationed in France as the Phony War begins.

Homefront Perspectives:

✨Housewife, 49 - Based on the wartime diary of Nella Last, who participated in the Mass Observation project. One of my favorites.

✨Foyle’s War - procedural crime drama following DCS Foyle and hsi team as he solves murders in wartime Britain. Another favorite.

Island at War - Wartime life on the Channel Islands during the German occupation

Land Girls - Follows the lives of a group of Land Girls working on an estate farm.

Bomb Girls - Follows the lives of a group of workers in a Toronto munitions factory.

Home Fires - Life in a small British town near an air base. Based on a book.

World On Fire - Follows the disparate lives of several people in several countries as the war begins.

✨All Creatures Great and Small - The life of Yorkshire Vet James Herriot, based on the book series of the same title. A favorite, both the 1970s original and the 2020 version.

A French Village - Daily life in a French village is upended as the Germans invade. Follows the same village through the entire war.

My Mother and Other Strangers - An Irish village deals with the introduction of an American Air Force base.

Colditz - life in one of the war's most infamous POW camps. Features Damian Lewis!!

Atlantic Crossing - the life of Crown Princess Marta of Norway as she tries to advocate for her country while living in the United States.

The Halycon - Life in a posh London hotel during the 1940s

Spies and Science:

X Company - Canadian drama about life overseas for spies

Resistance - French wartime drama about a woman in the French underground movement

Restless - Postwar drama about a woman who spied for the Russians in England during the war.

✨Manhattan - If you liked Oppenheimer, have I got a show for you!! Follows the lives of several scientists and their families as they move to Los Alamos. A favorite.

✨The Heavy Water War - Norwegian/British operations Grouse and Gunnerside to destroy German heavy water plant. A favorite.

The Twelfth Man - Norwegian sabotage operation gets shot down in occupied Norway.

✨Generation War - German experience of war from variety of perspectives. This show is excellent. Everyone should watch this.

✨SAS: Rogue Heroes - Follows the foundation of a parachute regiment in North Africa that would eventually become the basis for Britain's commando units. A favorite.

Postwar:

A Place to Call Home - very soapy Australian post-war drama about an upperclass family.

Our Wonder Years - Follows three sisters in post-war Germany as they attempt to confront the past.

Tannbach - Follows a family whose German town is split in two along the new East-West border.

The Defeated - Crime drama following a policeman trying to find his brother in post-war Berlin

Small Island- a Jamaican woman moves to London after the war and tries to adjust to a country that doesn't want her there

Call the Midwife - Social drama in the 1960s addressing the health and lives of the post-war poor of London.

[zot3-flopped]

There's a piece on the Daily Mail that gives a very interesting behind-the-scenes of Liam's life (they also talk about a big childhood trauma but "whose full details the Mail has chosen not to publish"). It's behind a paywall but I've discovered that many times the reading mode in Firefox and Safari gets through anyway, so here it is:

---

Liam Payne's serious childhood trauma and why having a baby so young with Cheryl couldn't bring the stability that may have saved him: KATIE HIND

It was the autumn of 2011, and I had been summoned to Sony Music’s west London HQ to meet Britain’s hottest new boy band.

A few months earlier, five hopeful teenagers had auditioned for ITV’s X Factor talent show – and the music impresario Simon Cowell had drawn them together to form One Direction.

The fledgling stars had already attracted a global fanbase in the millions: a juggernaut that was drawing comparisons to 1960s Beatlemania, even though they had yet to release a song.

Now that was about to change. The band’s debut single, What Makes You Beautiful, was launching the following week – and I was there to interview the boys behind it.

Although they had seemed like sweet young things when we had briefly met at the Fountain Studios in Wembley, north-west London, during their X Factor live shows the previous year, I had expected these precocious adolescents to now be full of self-importance at their growing fame.

How wrong I was.

I arrived to find five handsome young men politely waiting to greet me, but one of them stood out thanks to his cute curly hair and his charming, talkative manner.

No, not Harry Styles – the only ex-1D member who has gone on to forge a successful, long-term solo career – but Liam Payne. Dressed down in a navy hoodie and jeans, Liam wrapped me in a warm hug and excitedly introduced me to his bandmates – Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Zayn Malik – in his strong Wolverhampton accent.

Looking younger than his 18 years, Liam told me how badly he was missing his beloved mum Karen’s cooking �� so much so that he had resorted to eating chicken dippers warmed up in the microwave.

Living as he was out of suitcases in hotels, he asked me for ironing tips as he had yet to learn how to use one – and said he still spent much of his free time playing Nintendo.

He admitted that he had practised putting his hands behind his back and trying to sing like his hero Liam Gallagher, the snarling Oasis frontman. ‘I probably looked a bit stupid though,’ he said.

He also spoke lovingly about West Bromwich Albion, the football team he had supported since he was a young boy – though he regretted that he no longer had time to cheer them on in person.

As for girls, Liam told me he preferred shy and quiet ones, although he revealed he’d fallen in love with X Factor’s 2006 winner Leona Lewis, while he found singer Tulisa Contostavlos ‘really, really hot’.

Overall, he struck me as an innocent abroad – a child, really – who seemed too vulnerable a soul to last long in the cut-throat music world.

As the years passed, I met Liam many times at industry events and in chance encounters – and I never shook that worrying sense that he was, in some ways, a lost little boy.

I could never have known, of course, that just 13 years after our first interview, Liam would perish in the most terrible circumstances – following a long spell of torment, scandal and drink and drug abuse.

His descent into addiction had been playing out, in public and in private, for years – worsened by his fragile emotional state.

Many had tried to help him quit the substances that were destroying his life, but to no avail: following his death in Buenos Aires’s five-star CasaSur hotel on Wednesday evening, what appeared to be cocaine and heroin paraphernalia were found in his wrecked suite, with its smashed TV and half-drunk flutes of champagne.

It was a squalid end for one of the most famous young men in the world, so adored by ‘Directioners’ that he insisted he couldn’t leave his hotel without a large security detail (although it’s worth pointing out that other former bandmates, including the global megastar Styles, often travel without huge entourages).

So where did it all go wrong for him – and how did that smiling boy I met all those years ago, rough around the edges as he was, come to such a terrible end?

There is no doubt that he struggled, even more than his bandmates, with that explosive early fame and notoriety.

In a candid moment at 2014’s Brit Awards, Liam told me how difficult he found it to be unable to blend into a crowd. The band’s relentless schedule had taken its toll on him, as had the long months away from home.

He often wished, one of his friends later told me, that he had gone to university like many of his schoolmates.

Of course, Liam came to enjoy a lifestyle unimaginable to his old contemporaries at St Peter’s Collegiate, his Church of England secondary school in Wolverhampton.

Despite his insatiable appetite for drugs, his large property portfolio, his endless jaunts on private jets, taste for high fashion and luxury hotel stays, his bank balance was still thought to be in the millions when he died.

For all his fears that he had peaked so young, he still had decades ahead of him – and ample time to grow into the contented father to Bear, his son with Girls Aloud star Cheryl Tweedy, his friends and family longed for him to become.

But I can reveal that behind that smiling, cherubic face, Liam had suffered serious trauma in his childhood: a shadow from which he felt he could never escape and whose full details the Mail has chosen not to publish.

One friend told me: ‘Before he even began his showbiz career, he had demons from his formative years. He struggled with that and never quite got over it. He was in a band with four other guys, he could get any girl he wanted and he was earning millions – but he struggled to enjoy any of it.’

I can vouch for that: of all the 1D members, Liam seemed by far the most uncomfortable with his fame and fortune.

I would see him most years at the Brits, where at first he would dash over to say hello, often reminding me that he had enjoyed me asking him ‘fun questions’ at our first interview.

Yet as time went on, his chaotic living began to catch up with him, and his manner became ever more unpredictable.

In February 2013, at a Brit Awards afterparty organised by his music label at the upmarket Arts Club in Mayfair, I saw him drunkenly dancing with his bandmates – by far the most bleary-eyed of them.

That December, I bumped into him in the Kurt Geiger shoe shop in Canary Wharf, east London, where he was buying his then girlfriend Sophia Smith – a former school sweetheart – a pair of boots for Christmas.

Gone was his carefree demeanour of just two years earlier, he now seemed strikingly shy. He told me he had bought a penthouse flat in the Docklands, and at my insistence, he posed for a picture with me before dashing off.

During 2013’s Take Me Home tour, the band performed an average of a concert every two days, completing 124 dates between February and November. That, I’m told, put unbearable pressure on Liam, who would often say that he ‘just wanted to be normal’.

Of course, the fame came with perks – women chief among them. Liam’s best-known romance was with Cheryl, who was ten years his senior, which had begun in 2016 following her split from her French husband Jean-Bernard Fernandez-Versini.

They quickly became the most talked-about couple in showbiz –and only six months after they were confirmed to be an item, Cheryl revealed she was expecting their baby.

For Liam, however, the pregnancy was a huge shock: he was, he allegedly told friends, not ready to become a dad.

With 1D having gone on ‘permanent hiatus’ in 2016, he was trying to launch his solo career, and becoming a father – especially to a woman a decade older than him –was not part of his plans.

He told friends that he felt like Cheryl, who was 33 when Bear was born, had used him so she could have a baby.

When Bear, now seven, was born in 2017, Cheryl grew increasingly fed up that she was stuck at home with the baby while Liam was away jet-setting.

‘Liam was flying around the world promoting his music,’ said a friend. ‘He was in the zone Cheryl had been in ten years before with Girls Aloud. It led to some furious rows.

‘He began using private jets so he could get home quicker, but it wasn’t enough. Cheryl wanted a proper family unit and Liam just could not give it to her. Things got really bad and tempestuous. Liam was a young lad in his early 20s and he just wasn’t ready for it all.’

Inevitably, they split up – giving Liam even more time to ‘go off the rails’, as one former associate of the star describes it.

Even when they were co-parenting, Cheryl desperately hoped that Liam and Bear would develop a strong father-son bond, despite Liam’s addiction issues.

‘Cheryl knew what a state he was in,’ says a source. ‘She wished she could make it better.’

And she wasn’t alone in that wish: as Liam turned from being a cheerful teenager into a tormented, angry young man, many of those closest to him tried unsuccessfully to rescue him.

He was dropped by more than one of his managers due to his erratic behaviour and his failure to turn up to work engagements.

In September 2017, Cheryl, Liam and Bear went on a luxury holiday to Majorca: a birthday treat for Liam. But he injured himself while drunk.

As the years went on, he only got worse.

In 2022, a gurning Liam appeared to be high on drugs at a post-Oscars party in Hollywood. In footage that went viral for all the wrong reasons, he replaced his Wolverhampton twang with a bizarre Los Angeles accent.

One friend of Liam’s called me in horror to share their fears that he ‘really wasn’t OK’. Last year, Liam moved to a sprawling mansion near the Buckinghamshire town of Chalfont St Giles to be further away from the temptations of London and closer to Bear, who lived nearby with Cheryl.

However, neighbours tell me that he brought his problems with him. They would often spot him coming home in the early hours in chauffeur-driven cars, often with women in tow.

While I’m told he tried to see Bear regularly, his unpredictable lifestyle frequently made this impossible. Instead, Cheryl was largely left to bring up the little boy alone with the help of her mother Joan.

Liam’s new home was also close to a woman who some describe as his fairy godmother – the Olympic heptathlon gold medallist Denise Lewis.

Her husband Steve Finan worked with Liam for several years and the couple were at his side through some of his most difficult times – including his fall-out with Cheryl.

He would often stay at their home as they battled to keep him sober.

‘Liam adored Denise,’ says a source. ‘She mothered him and really tried to support him.’

Yet in recent months, his life was clearly spiralling out of control. His on-off girlfriend, Maya Henry, 23, had recently hired lawyers to send a ‘cease and desist’ letter to the star, accusing him of repeatedly contacting her and her loved ones.

Liam’s friends insisted he was angry and upset at her, adding that her behaviour was due to her wanting to publicise her new book.

And only last week, I’m told Liam had a huge row with his manager over his forthcoming album, whose release – to Liam’s fury – had been delayed because it was deemed ‘too poppy’.

A source said: ‘There was a blazing row and the album was put back again. The single from it had flopped and there were concerns. Liam desperately wanted that album to come out: despite everything, he thought of himself as a musician.’

To make matters even worse, just a few days ago Liam’s record label dropped him.

Another source said: ‘People begged him to get help and suggested that he went to Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous meetings, but he wouldn’t take them up on it.’

His most recent girlfriend was Texan model Katie Cassidy, whom he thought might have been The One. She too had tried to help him, but left Argentina to return to the US two days before he died.

‘Lots of people cared for Liam,’ said a source. ‘He had so much love around him.’

Yet all the love in the world was not enough to rescue this desperately unhappy young man, who for all his fame and fortune could never escape the demons that haunted him from his lost, tormented youth.

www dailymail co uk/tvshowbiz/article-13972405/Liam-Paynes-childhood-trauma-having-baby-young-Cheryl-bring-stability-saved-KATIE-HIND html

Thank you for this. Plenty of interesting insights here.

[vaperarmand]

happy rpfriday everyone. in this life i love lusting over that old man and coming up with insane fictional scenarios with you. just over 100 mild words of the beginning of a little something under the cut

“Tell me a story,” Assad says, spread out on his stomach, in his bed, in London, and not anywhere further north than that. 

“What?” Eric’s voice is slightly muffled, distracted. There’s street noise behind him: he’s not even back to his hotel yet. 

Assad is comfortable. Relatively. The cotton of his pillowcase is soft against his cheek, and he’s wearing a thick pair of socks, and his dick is half hard, so when he shifts, it drags pleasantly against the inside of his sweats. He’s been nursing this erection for hours, now, or more accurately for the past thirty-two, since Eric had texted him: Landed. Food was shit this time.

Since then his dick has been like a homing beacon, pointing north and ever so slightly west.

[eardefenders]

Sherlock & Co Locations

Location, location, location. Are you like me and not a native Londoner? Are you also like me wondering how to visualize a place or, perhaps more importantly, how long does it take to get from 221B to the various locations and how much they're spending on tube fare?

Well then look no further! This is my masterpost with links to each location described in detail in each post made on those locations. Each post gives a bit about how far from 221B it's located (depending on travel method), how much it likely cost them to get there, photos of the location, and a bit of the location's history.

Every time we get a new locale I'll add a post and link it here. :) Lmk if I miss any and I'll add them. If you see a location and it has no link then either the link broke or I haven't made the post yet, but logged the location.

Cheers!

The Criterion Bar

221B Baker Street

Brixton

The Volunteer Pub & Restaurant

Regent's Park

Hampstead

Thor Bridge (Upney Ln)

Walthamstow (Morgue)

King George's Hospital

Barking/North Barking

Fortnum & Mason

Paddington Station

Hilton Green/Chatham

Berlin (John's Vacay Spot with The Boys)

Heathrow Airport

Hotel Cosmopolitan

Bailey's Street

Shoreditch

King's Road

Chelsey

44 Cross St., Croydon

Chiswick Flyover

The Fox (the swinger's pub)

Hanwell/Ealing/West London

Islington Tunnel

Eltham

Blackheath Common

"GAIL'S Bakery"

The Strand

'Saxe-Coburg Square'

Pinewood Studios

Embankment

Charing Cross

Opera House (?)

Barking Station

Walthamstow

Waterloo Bridge

Bank of England Museum

Camden Town

Living Room Club Cafe

'Gloria Scott' (Oil Rigs)

Ramack/Kosovo

St Dunstan

Little Venice

Satalfields

Brick Lane

Neal's Yard

South Kensington (Ice Rink)

[abybweisse]

Ch206, Any chance of outside help?

⚠️ Long post ⚠️

I'll look at three things here:

Might a reaper help Snake?

Might someone from another assignment help?

In the event of no outside assistance

Last night I had dreams about this, and when I woke up I had to recall what I'd considered and needed to research. Mainly about question two.

1. Might a reaper help Snake?

I doubt it, but it could be possible. We haven't seen any obvious reapers during this assignment with Finny and Snake, but there could be one there... trying to figure out if there is a bizarre doll at the orphanage. It would be horribly sneaky if there is a reaper there who hasn't made themselves known to the readers.

Just now, I realized why there probably isn't one already stationed there: the children are being bled out and killed off-site, then their bodies and blood are being returned to the orphanage for further processing. That means reapers are collecting souls somewhere other than the orphanage... if Undertaker isn't collecting the souls before reapers can get wherever.

And we don't even know what tipped off the reaper organization there was a bizarre doll at the sanatorium; how did they know to send Ronald there? People weren't expected to die there, except perhaps the two men that Baldo shoots. Ronald seems to be aware that Baldo will be saved by Ada and Lau. At one point Ronald says he was investigating the place for a bizarre doll, but he doesn't say why one was suspected of being on-site.

We also have to keep in mind that these assignments are largely overlapping, meaning that Ronald and William are presumably fighting Layla/Al around the same time that Finny and Snake are dealing with the staff and Doll underground. If Othello hasn't yet received Layla/Al to examine, then he won't yet know what to look for in Norfolk or elsewhere. So, if Grelle and Othello show up to collect from Snake, will they know to fight Doll?

Even if they recognize Doll as a bizarre doll, it doesn't mean they would choose to save Snake. We haven't seen a shinigami pass yet, and I'd love to see one, but I won't hold my breath for that. The only scenario I can see for them saving Snake is if they get an emergency "call" to go to the orphanage, since an unexpected death has just been reported. They realize the killer must not be human (anymore, at least), helping to explain why the death was not intended to happen -- why they just now found out, instead of having it predetermined or predicted. Given the strange circumstances, as well as Snake's uniqueness, they might argue against collecting his soul.

That's a total long shot.

2. Might someone from another assignment help?

I woke up trying to remember what I needed to look at, from my dreams. I needed to look at a map of English counties, so I could look at Yorkshire, Wiltshire, Norfolk, and East Sussex (where Brighton is located).

There are four parts of Yorkshire, and I don't know where Heathfield Manor is located. I want to say North Yorkshire, since some of the largest heather (heath) moors are located there.

Then we have Norfolk, where the orphanage is located, much farther south, along the eastern coastline. Wiltshire, where the sanatorium is situated, is farther south and way off to the west. East Sussex, home to Brighton and that resort hotel, is back east and along the southern coast.

We never saw our earl and Sebastian explain where everyone is to meet up again after they have completed their assignments, did we? I don't think so. I've been under the assumption that our earl would stay where he is, in Brighton, waiting for the others to come to him and report. But this might not be the case. It's unlikely any of the other pairs would end up passing through Norfolk, let along intending to meet there. So, I'd be a bit shocked if Mey-Rin and Ran-Mao took any route through there on their way back towards London or Brighton. Besides, they might be at a loss to help Snake. Whom Snake needs is Ada... and she's very busy.

In fact, Wiltshire left us on a cliffhanger, since Lau offers an escape to China, and the others (including Baldo) seem interested, but we have yet to actually see them escape from the sanatorium before Polaris shows up, investigating the missing blood shipment. We could still see deaths there before anyone can get out to make a report... if they even plan to make a report. Honestly, I expect Baldo, if he lives, to ultimately decline the offer to go to China, as he still feels a sense of duty to our earl and Sebastian.

Our earl and Sebastian are unlikely to head towards Norfolk, so unless Sebastian uses his powers to detect something is wrong, demon-travel his way there, save Snake, and get back to Brighton for tea time, even he is unlikely to save Snake. In fact, with Brighton so close (across the channel) to France, they are more likely to go there than they are higher north.

In the event of no outside assistance

As rough as it sounds, Snake's best chance is for Doll to be so upset over cutting him that she lets the top students and Finny attempt to save him. But how would they?

Oliver is probably the best at embroidery and sewing, so if they have anything to serve as string and needle, he'd probably be the best choice for stitching the wounds... if he can see and get to where he needs to sew. Martial arts training might also give him some clue on where to apply pressure to slow the loss of blood.

Theo would probably be the one who has read any medical books, possibly including works on human anatomy and surgical techniques. So, he would instruct Oliver what to do.

Artie might have decent knowledge about proper cleanliness for the procedure.

I'm not sure what Mabel would do, unless she also knows something about applying pressure to stop the bleeding.

As someone else (sorry, I forgot who mentioned it) pointed out earlier, at least one of his snakes might have the sort of venom that could help stop the bleeding at the wound site. That would be very risky, though, since the venom could spread to areas where it's not needed and could cause more damage.

Doll or Finny might suggest setting Snake up to receive blood transfusions, but then one or both should recall that Snake and Finny were initially turned away from the orphanage because their blood types didn't match any of the four blood types in the system. Snake cannot safely receive blood transfusions because they don't know what kind of blood he needs, and they likely don't have it anyway. This is a big clue early in the assignment that not only is Finny's blood permanently affected from the old drug tests... but that Snake probably really isn't quite human. Some hybrid, I suppose. Either that or he was born human but also got stuck in some experiment that permanently changed his body, perhaps altering his DNA, which determines the type of blood he has, as well as the antibodies in his blood that would attack foreign red blood cells. Even if they manage to patch him up, he might not make it, due to a lack of blood.

It's truly not looking good for Snake. I hope his snakes help to avenge him. I hope Emily gets to show her loyalty to Snake by finally turning on Doll....

[aghotel]

Christmas in London: Things to Do

Christmas in London is the perfect time to get into the spirit of the season. Whether you are looking for a romantic escape or want to celebrate in style with friends and family, there is something for everyone in London this holiday season. Here are just some of our favourite things to do over Christmas:

Soak in London’s Christmas lights

London’s famous Christmas lights can be seen all over town, but some of our favourite spots include Regent Street and Oxford Street. For those who don’t want crowds or long lines, Westminster Abbey is another great option as it has been decorated with festive greenery since 1897. You can also enjoy the festive sparkle on Christmas Lights London by Night Bus Tour. Tickets are available for £24 for adults and £13 for children. The bus ride is free for children aged up to four years.

Christmas at Kew Gardens

Kew Gardens is one of the most beautiful places to visit in London during Christmas. The gardens are decorated with thousands of lights and decorations, which makes it look like you are in a fairy tale world. There is also a Christmas market and food stalls where you can buy gifts from local vendors. You can also see the gardens lit up at night, which makes them even more magical. There are special events and activities throughout the festive period, so check out what’s on at Key Gardens website.

Ice skating at Somerset House

If you want to catch some winter air, Somerset House is the perfect spot. Skating at Somerset House with Moët & Chandon returns, promising a spectacular season of celebration in the heart of London. There are cafes inside Somerset House as well as outside on its grounds. You could even get out of the cold by going for a drink at one of the bars or restaurants. Needless to say, there is no better way to spend Christmas Eve than with friends who love ice skating.

The Nutcracker at London Coliseum

The Nutcracker on Ice is a spectacular show that will delight you and your family. It is a true Christmas classic, a great way to get into the holiday spirit. Over 100 dancers and musicians bring Nutcracker to life with exquisite dancing and beautiful sets. The audience loves it because they get what they came for – spectacular entertainment. Check out their 2022 programme on their official website.

Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park

Winter Wonderland is a London institution that has been attracting visitors annually since 1973. Located in Hyde Park, the attraction sees over one million people attend its festivities each year. Winter Wonderland is open from 18th December to 2nd January and features over 100 experiences including Real Ice Slide, Rides, Magical Ice Kingdom, Santa Land and much more. You can also enjoy delicious food at the new buzzing street food area, The Sleigh-By!

Christmas at The Crown London Hotel

Our 4-star luxury hotel is the best place to spend your Christmas in London. The hotel is perfectly located to explore London with great transport links to Wembley Stadium, Paddington, King’s Cross & St Pancras International. Whether you are looking for a party that’s got everything, or just looking to have some fun and get into the spirit of the holidays, we’ve got you covered. We have planned a wide variety of festive activities including Christmas parties, festive dining, festive afternoon tea and a New Year’s Eve party. Learn more here. Contact our events team at sales@thecrownlondon.co.uk!

We hope that this list has inspired you to get out and enjoy Christmas in London. If you want more information about what else is going on around town, check out Visit London’s list of 101 things to do in London.

[eppysboys]

Portmeirion

Portmeirion in Gwynedd, North-West Wales, a two-and-a-bit hours drive from Liverpool has a bit of interesting Beatles history attached to it. It was designed and built by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis between 1925 and 1975 as an Italianate style village. He drew inspiration from a range of architectural styles, from classical and Gothic to Romanesque and Egyptian, to create the unique and eclectic village that stands to this day. (Watch him talk about the village here)

He was an advocate of rural preservation, amenity planning, industrial design and colourful architecture. "I think that Beauty, The Strange Necessity - as Rebecca West once called it - is something that matters profoundly to humanity, and that unless the race of man perishes from the earth, it will increasingly value that Grace, will seek it, and will ultimately attain it." - Sir Clough Williams-Ellis

Brian and George Martin visiting Portmeirion, 1966

Brian Epstein holidayed here often with family and friends, staying frequently until his death in 1967. Portmeirion was an important place of retreat for him. At the start of August 1966, Brian went there to recuperate from a serious bout of glandular fever after his doctor prescribed a quiet vacation to rest and recover from the intense stress he was under, among other physical ailments recieved during the tour.

Brian became good friends with Williams-Ellis. Staying in the Gatehouse cottage, close to the entrance to the village, Brian suggested that the property might benefit from a dining room where he could entertain guests. Sir Clough duly obliged, building a large and ostentatious room not entirely in keeping with the original cottage. Not only that but the fashion conscious Brian once commissioned a renovation of his room at the Gatehouse having complained that there was not enough space for his clothes when he came to stay in his cottage every summer.

Brian's room in the Gatehouse with wardrobes made to his design (photo: Alli Devine)

““He went to convalesce in Portmeirion, North Wales ... There he invited George Martin as a guest. The two men spent much time devising an idea for a new television series on pop music to rival the BBC’s existing Juke Box Jury. The essence of their programme was that a jury had to guess what the chart ratings were going to be each week. The live programme was to be geared to when the charts of the week were revealed, so that only the presenter would know the record positions. Epstein and Martin took the idea to the BBC’s Bill Cotton Jr. ‘Brian was terribly enthusiastic about it,’ says George Martin, ‘But Bill Cotton didn’t think it was worthwhile. He was working on another programme at that time.’ The Epstein/Martin programme had a suggested title of Pick the Pops. 

Brian told his mother from Portmeririon by telephone that he was bored, that a break was essential before his forthcoming American trip. But his boredom and enforced rest had lasted a weekend when a phone call from Nat Weiss forced him back to reality.” The Man Who Made The Beatles, by Ray Coleman

“He went by himself to a luxury hotel in Portmeirion on the North West coast of Wales that overlooked the Sea, and wind-swept beach, as remote a place as you could get from London. Everyone’s adcice was the same: try not to worry.” He had been there only four days before uproar errupted over John’s Jesus comments. Brian left Portmeirion right away to soothe the chaos. 

“At the time, Brian was in Portmeirion, Wales, and he was ill. As the evening went on and I was getting all these calls, I called Portmeirion in the middle of the night and said, 'Something has to be done about this.’ And he said, is it serious?’ And I said, 'I think it’s so serious that you have to come over here.’The next day he flew over and I met him at the airport. The first thing he said to me was, 'How much would it take to cancel the tour?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know. Maybe a million dollars.’ He was so concerned about anything happening to any of the Beatles.” Nat Weiss, In My Life: The Brian Epstein Story by Debbie Geller

Patrick McGoohan chose the village as the setting for his TV series the Prisoner, which started shooting there in 1966 (he had filmed scenes for an earlier series there too, Danger Man, known as Secret Agent in the US). The Beatles were fans of the show, enjoying it's other-worldly setting, intriguing concept and the anti-establishment struggle of the lead character. George mentioned the Prisoner in his book, I Me Mine. Paul has reportedly stayed there, and Mike McCartney has also stayed there and loves it.

George Harrison loved Portmeirion and famously celebrated his 50th birthday in the village in February 1993. George originally wanted to stay in the Watch House, one of the village's most popular cottages which is high up on the cliff side of the upper part of the village. However the Watch House only has a low wall around it so his security men persuaded him to stay in the much safer Peacock Suite of the main hotel, where Brian had entertained dinner guests all those years ago.

It was also during this stay in Portmeirion that George was filmed for several interviews which were used in the The Beatles Anthology and had some pictures taken in the mirror room.

More footage of the place + Beatles history here.

[monsterintheballroom]

Article under the cut :-)

Penelope Wilton: ‘My street cred went up when I did Shaun of the Dead’

Sat 20 Jul 2024 15.00 CEST

I had a ghastly time at school. I was dyslexic, which was seen as backward at the time. The only person who took any notice of me was a very nice poetry teacher. I was good at learning poems, so I went in for reading competitions. I remember my mother jumping out of the car when I was about 10, after I’d won a cup, and saying to my two ghastly headmistresses: “See, she’s got a cup. She’s not a dunce!”

My sister, Rosemary, was a producer and documentary maker. She got me my first job as an extra who had varicose veins. These very serious makeup ladies put spaghetti down the backs of my legs, but nobody seemed to be happy with that. I got chatting to a cleaner during a coffee break who had marvellous varicose veins. I went up to the director – things were much more hierarchical in the 1960s – and said: “I’m sorry my legs aren’t any good, but the cleaner’s legs are wonderful.” Actresses always had a reputation for being difficult. As you get older you realise why: because they often had to deal with very difficult men. Acting is collaborative. You have to get on with people, play to your strengths – and wait until you get home to moan. I once got lost on the way to the theatre – the worst thing ever. I was driving to the West End way before satnavs, ran into a diversion, and got completely lost in north London. I parked the car, summoned a lift from this charming man and said, “If you can take me to the Almeida, I’ll get you a seat.” And he did.

My walls are covered in paintings. I like to buy one when I do a job that pays well. I bought a very nice painting when I did Doctor Who and a very nice painting when I did the Marigold Hotel films. I can tell which job has paid for which painting.

Shaun of the Dead brought me to a younger generation. My daughter was about 19 or 20 when it came out and my street cred with her friends went up astronomically. Much more than when I was doing The Cherry Orchard. I don’t really know the perks of being a Dame. But I did once want an enormous amount of rubbish collected outside in the road where I live. You know, when there’s a little pile, people add more and eventually a Hoover was dumped. So I rang the council and said, “This is Dame Penelope Wilton. Could you please get rid of the rubbish in my road?” So I thought I was doing a thing for the community, not just for myself. Life is short. I try to enjoy everything: sitting in the park, looking at the trees, seeing friends and family. I’ve got two grandchildren, my daughter and my sister. I enjoy going to concerts. We’re just waiting to book the Proms, but you have to go online and there’s usually 15,000 people ahead of you. Maybe I should pull the Dame card.

[aimeedaisies]

The Princess Royal’s Official Engagements in September 2023

02/09 The King and Queen, Princess Anne and Sir Tim attended the Braemar Gathering at the Princess Royal and Duke of Fife Memorial Park. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

03/09 (not counted) The King, Queen, Princess Anne, Sir Tim, PM Rishi Sunak and Akshata Murphy attended the Divine Service at Crathie Kirk Church. ⛪️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

06/09 (unofficial) Princess Anne, along with the Prince and Princess of Wales recorded a special episode of the Good, the Bad and the Rugby, with Mike Tindall, James Haskell and Alex Payne at Windsor Castle. 🏉

07/09 As President of the Riding for the Disabled Association, visited Digswell Place Group, Digswell Place Stables, Welwyn Garden City, to mark its 50th Anniversary. 🐎

As President of UK Fashion and Textile Association, visited MAES London Womenswear Manufacturer. 👗

Sir Tim represented Princess Anne at a Service of Thanksgiving for Sir Matthew Farrer (former Solicitor to the Late Queen) at St Magnus-The-Martyr Church in London. ⛪️

As Patron of the South Georgia Heritage Trust Princess Anne and Sir Tim, attended the Return of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Quest Crow’s Nest Service at All Hallows by the Tower, followed by a Dinner at Trinity House. 🗺️🍽️

08/09 Participated in a Meeting via video link in her role of Chairman of the International Olympic Committee Members Election Commission. 🎥💻

11/09 At Gatcombe Park;

Presented The Princess Royal Award and Royal Dairy Innovation Award. 🏆

Held a Management Team Meeting for the Chaffinch Trust. 💼

Held a Management Team Meeting for Give Them a Sporting Chance. 🏏

12/09 As Patron of the Boston Stump Restoration and Development Appeal, visited completed restoration work at St Botolph's Church in Boston, Lincolnshire. ⛪️

As Patron of Magpas Air Ambulance Capital Campaign, opened a new Air Base at Alconbury Weald. 🚁

As Patron of Maritime UK, attended the London International Shipping Week Tenth Anniversary Reception at Mansion House. 🚢

13/09 In Northern Ireland Princess Anne;

Attended the Department for Business and Trade’s Northern Ireland Business Summit at the International Conference Centre Belfast. 💼

As Patron of the International Sheep Dog Society, lattended the World Sheep Dog Trials at Gill Hall Estate, Dromore. 🐑🐶

Unveiled a Royal British Legion Community Bench in Dromore Square, Dromore. 🌹

Attended the Department for Business and Trade’s Northern Ireland Business Summit Reception at Hillsborough Castle. 👔🇮🇪

14/09 Attended the British Equine Veterinary Association 2023 Congress at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham. 🩺🐴

As Patron of the Butler Trust visited Stonnall Road Approved Premises in Walsall. 🏠

Opened the Firefly Woods at Dorothy House Hospice, Winsley House. She unveiled a firefly dedicated to her late parents. 💡

15/09 As Patron of the Restorative Justice Council, opened the Restorative Justice Council Inaugural Northern Ireland Conference in Belfast, Northern Ireland. 🇮🇪⚖️

As Chancellor of the University of the Highlands and Islands, attended the North, West and Hebrides Annual Graduation Ceremony and Celebration of Success and Achievement at St Peter’s and St Andrew’s Church, Thurso. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🎓

18/09 The Princess Royal, As Guardian of Give Them A Sporting Chance, visited the Rivertime Boat Trust at the River and Rowing Museum in Henley on Thames. 🦽🚣‍♀️

As Patron of the National Transport Trust, attended the Annual Awards Ceremony at Fawley Hill Transport Museum, Henley-on-Thames. 🚂🥇

19/09 Visited the Our Cow Molly icecream parlour and dairy farm at Cliffe House Farm, Dungworth, Sheffield. 🍦🐮

Launched the Ethel Trust Community Barge PEARL at Victoria Quays and attended a Reception at the Quays Hotel Sheffield. 🚤

As Patron of the Royal College of Midwives, visited Doncaster Royal Infirmary Women’s and Children’s Hospital. 👶🤰

20/09 As Patron of Police Treatment Centres, visited the St Andrews Centre in Harrogate. 👮‍♀️

Visited Claro Enterprises Community Workshop, Harrogate, to mark its 30th anniversary. 🎂

Visited Woods of Harrogate Limited Fine Linens Company in Harrogate. 🧖‍♀️

Visited Hollybank Trust Care Centre, in Mirfield, to mark its 70th Anniversary. 🩺

21/09 Visited Jaguar Land Rover Halewood Vehicle Plant to mark the 60th anniversary of its opening in Liverpool. 🚙

As President of the British Olympic Association, attended an Executive Board Meeting in London W1. 💼

22/09 With Sir Tim opened the Aberdeen South Harbour Expansion Project at the Port of Aberdeen. ⛴️

26/09 Held an Investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle. 🎖️

Opened the renovated Old War Office Building, Whitehall in London. 🏢

Attended the Royal Warrant Holders Association’s President’s Reception at Westminster Abbey. 📑🍾

As Patron of Mercy Ships International, attended a 45th Anniversary Dinner onboard The Elizabethan, sailing on the River Thames. 🛥️🍽️

27/09 Held two Investiture ceremonies at Windsor Castle. 🎖️

As President of World Horse Welfare, attended a Reception at Hyde Park Barracks, Knightsbridge, London. 🐎

As Patron of Opportunity International UK, attended a Dinner at Evercore in London. 🌍

28/09 As President of the UK Fashion and Textile Association, attended the Sustainability in UK Textiles Conference at Drapers’ Hall, London. 👗

As Founders’ Patron and President, of the Benenden School & Society, attended the Centenary Global Conference “Inspiring Future Female Leaders”, opened the Seniors’ Courtyard, launched “Benenden 100” Centenary Book and attended the Benenden Society Reception at Benenden School in Kent. 🏫

29/09 Attended the Rededication Service of Southport War Memorial. 🫡

Total official engagements for Anne in July: 47

2023 total so far: 353

Total official engagements accompanied by Tim in July: 5

2023 total so far: 75

[head-post]

UK riots getting worse: footage

Since the Southport stabbing attack that killed several children, violent anti-migrant and anti-local mayhem has swept the UK.

Riots have been raging in the UK in recent days, leaving the new government to contend with the worst unrest in a decade. The last time the country faced social unrest on this scale was in 2011, when the fatal police shooting of a Black British man in north London led to protests that turned into days of rioting in the capital.

Police officers were injured in Plymouth on Monday night as angry mobs descended on the coastal city in south-west England. The latest outbreak of violence came after mobs of campaigners set fire to hotels housing asylum seekers in two cities over the weekend.

On Monday morning, Prime Minister Keir Starmer held his first COBRA session, an emergency meeting of national agencies and branches of government, to discuss the response to the unrest.

This is not protest. It is organised, violent thuggery and it has no place on our streets, or online.

What happened

Throughout Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, violent protesters gathered in town and city centres across the UK. Many of them presumably intended to clash with police and cause chaos. The gatherings may have started as anti-immigration marches organised on social media platforms, but they quickly escalated into riots and violence, according to CNN.

Protesters set fire to two Holiday Inn hotels in the town of Rotherham in the north of England and Tamworth, central England, which were believed to be housing asylum seekers awaiting a decision on their claims. At the time, the hotel in Rotherham was “full of terrified tenants and staff”, according to South Yorkshire Police Assistant Chief Constable Lindsey Butterfield.

In Tamworth, rioters threw objects, smashed windows, and started fires, injuring one police officer, according to local authorities. In Rotherham, they threw wooden planks, used fire extinguishers against officers, set fire to items outside a hotel, and smashed windows to gain entry to the building, police reported.

Violence also took place in Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Stoke-on-Trent, and several other towns, mainly in the Midlands and the north of England. The Home Office stated on Sunday that mosques in the United Kingdom had been given “greater protection with new emergency security.”

Many suspects had yet to be identified, with authorities vowing to use facial recognition and other technology to track them, Starmer said.

People in this country have a right to be safe and yet, we’ve seen Muslim communities targeted, attacks on mosques, other minority communities singled out, Nazi salutes in the street, attacks on the police, wanton violence alongside racist rhetoric.

Chaos without winners

The violence was directly triggered by the stabbing of several children in Southport, in the north-west of England, earlier this week. As a result, three girls were killed and the country descended into chaos.

National-oriented forces seized on the incident and spread a wave of misinformation, including false claims that the alleged attacker was an immigrant, to mobilise anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant protests. However, police say the suspect was born in the UK.

Against the backdrop of ongoing ethnic clashes, Prime Minister Starmer announced future tough measures against White rioters. He said a separate “army” would be created from parts of the police force to deal specifically with anti-migrant sentiment.

A joint view was expressed by the head of Bolton’s Muslim community. He revealed that he felt Britain could not exist without migrants and therefore they needed to show their influence in society. He also thanked the police and the state for helping migrants to stand up for their rights.

Developments show that the new UK government has chosen a course of suppressing its population and fragmenting the country into warring communities. Starmer, whose party recently defeated former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives, faced the first consequences of an unmanaged migration policy.

Now the arrivals, under the pretext of asserting their rights, are also smashing shops and harassing the local population. In such a situation, it is almost impossible to discern who is to blame for the current turmoil. One thing is clear: the government must take measures to protect its citizens, otherwise the snowball of violence will be unstoppable.

Read more HERE

[harker-jonathan]

3 May. Bistritz. —Left Munich at 8:35 P. M, on 1st May, arriving at Vienna early next morning; should have arrived at 6:46, but train was an hour late. Buda-Pesth seems a wonderful place, from the glimpse which I got of it from the train and the little I could walk through the streets. I feared to go very far from the station, as we had arrived late and would start as near the correct time as possible.

The impression I had was that we were leaving the West and entering the East; the most western of splendid bridges over the Danube, which is here of noble width and depth, took us among the traditions of Turkish rule.

We left in pretty good time, and came after nightfall to Klausenburgh. Here I stopped for the night at the Hotel Royale. I had for dinner, or rather supper, a chicken done up some way with red pepper, which was very good but thirsty. (Mem. get recipe for Mina.) I asked the waiter, and he said it was called “paprika hendl,” and that, as it was a national dish, I should be able to get it anywhere along the Carpathians.

I found my smattering of German very useful here, indeed, I don’t know how I should be able to get on without it.

Having had some time at my disposal when in London, I had visited the British Museum, and made search among the books and maps in the library regarding Transylvania; it had struck me that some foreknowledge of the country could hardly fail to have some importance in dealing with a nobleman of that country.

I find that the district he named is in the extreme east of the country, just on the borders of three states, Transylvania, Moldavia, and Bukovina, in the midst of the Carpathian mountains; one of the wildest and least known portions of Europe.

I was not able to light on any map or work giving the exact locality of the Castle Dracula, as there are no maps of this country as yet to compare with our own Ordance Survey Maps; but I found that Bistritz, the post town named by Count Dracula, is a fairly well-known place. I shall enter here some of my notes, as they may refresh my memory when I talk over my travels with Mina.

In the population of Transylvania there are four distinct nationalities: Saxons in the South, and mixed with them the Wallachs, who are the descendants of the Dacians; Magyars in the West, and Szekelys in the East and North. I am going among the latter, who claim to be descended from Attila and the Huns. This may be so, for when the Magyars conquered the country in the eleventh century they found the Huns settled in it.

I read that every known superstition in the world is gathered into the horseshoe of the Carpathians, as if it were the centre of some sort of imaginative whirlpool; if so my stay may be very interesting. (Mem., I must ask the Count all about them.)

I did not sleep well, though my bed was comfortable enough, for I had all sorts of queer dreams. There was a dog howling all night under my window, which may have had something to do with it; or it may have been the paprika, for I had to drink up all the water in my carafe, and was still thirsty. Towards morning I slept and was wakened by the continuous knocking at my door, so I guess I must have been sleeping soundly then.

I had for breakfast more paprika, and a sort of porridge of maize flour which they said was “mamaliga”, and egg-plant stuffed with forcemeat, a very excellent dish, which they call “impletata”. (Mem.,get recipe for this also.)

I had to hurry breakfast, for the train started a little before eight, or rather it ought to have done so, for after rushing to the station at 7:30 I had to sit in the carriage for more than an hour before we began to move.

It seems to me that the further east you go the more unpunctual are the trains. What ought they to be in China?

All day long we seemed to dawdle through a country which was full of beauty of every kind. Sometimes we saw little towns or castles on the top of steep hills such as we see in old missals; sometimes we ran by rivers and streams which seemed from the wide stony margin on each side of them to be subject ot great floods. It takes a lot of water, and running strong, to sweep the outside edge of a river clear.

At every station there were groups of people, sometimes crowds, and in all sorts of attire. Some of them were just like the peasants at home or those I saw coming through France and Germany, with short jackets, and round hats, and home-made trousers; but others were very picturesque.

The women looked pretty, except when you got near them, but they were very clumsy about the waist. They had all full white sleeves of some kind or other, and most of them had big belts with a lot of strips of something fluttering from them like the dresses in a ballet, but of course there were petticoats under them.

The strangest figures we saw were the Slovaks, who were more barbarian than the rest, with their big cow-boy hats, great baggy dirty-white trousers, white linen shirts, and enormous heavy leather belts, nearly a foot wide, all studded over with brass nails. They wore high boots, with their trousers tucked into them, and had long black hair and heavy black moustaches. They are very picturesque, but do not look prepossessing. On the stage they would be set down at once as some old Oriental band of brigands. They are, however, I am told, very harmless and rather wanting in natural self-assertion.

It was on the dark side of twilight when we got to Bistritz, which is a very interesting old place. Being practically on the frontier–for the Borgo Pass leads from it into Bukovina–it has had a very stormy existence, and it certainly shows marks of it. Fifty years ago a series of great fires took place, which made terrible havoc on five separate occasions. At the very beginning of the seventeenth century it underwent a siege of three weeks and lost 13,000 people, the casualties of war proper being assisted by famine and disease.

Count Dracula had directed me to go to the Golden Krone Hotel, which I found, to my great delight, to be thoroughly old-fashioned, for of course I wanted to see all I could of the ways of the country.

I was evidently expected, for when I got near the door I faced a cheery-looking elderly woman in the usual peasant dress—white undergarment with a long double apron, front, and back, of coloured stuff fitting almost too tight for modesty. When I came close she bowed and said, “The Herr Englishman?”

“Yes,” I said, “Jonathan Harker.”

She smiled, and gave some message to an elderly man in white shirt-sleeves, who had followed her to the door.

He went, but immediately returned with a letter:

“My friend.–Welcome to the Carpathians. I am anxiously expecting you. Sleep well tonight. At three tomorrow the diligence will start for Bukovina; a place on it is kept for you. At the Borgo Pass my carriage will await you and will bring you to me. I trust that your journey from London has been a happy one, and that you will enjoy your stay in my beautiful land.–Your friend, Dracula.”

[xtruss]

Ships that stopped at Whitby Harbor (Seen here circa 1880) inspired Bram Stoker as he wrote Dracula. Photograph By Frank Meadow Sutcliffe, The Royal Photographic Society Collection/Victoria and Albert Museum, London/Getty Images

The Little-Known Shipwreck That Inspired Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’

Stoker was moved by grim details from the world around him while penning his horror masterpiece. The real fate of a ship called the Dmitry played an outsized role in his imaginings.

— By Melissa Sartore | August 18, 2023

The arrival of the Demeter in Bram Stoker's Dracula serves as a fundamental part of the titular character's story: the ship brings death himself to England.

Stoker drew inspiration for his genre-defining horror novel from his time in Whitby, and the dark 1885 fate of the real ship Dmitry on the town’s shore.

The death and tragedy around Stoker ultimately shaped the story that became one of the most famous pieces of English literature and set the stage for the next century of vampire lore.

The wreck of the Dmitry from Narva, now Estonia, aground on Tate Hill Beach in 1885, Whitby, Yorkshire, UK. Photograph By Frank Meadow Sutcliffe, Colin Waters/Alamy Stock Photo

The Dmitry Becomes the Demeter

During the summer of 1890, Irish novelist Bram Stoker vacationed at the seaside town of Whitby in northeast England. Despite spending only a month in the town, Stoker was enthralled by his surroundings: Grand Mansions and Hotels lined the West Cliff while remains of the seventh century Whitby Abbey towered over the East Cliff. Nearby, the cemetery at the Parish Church also served as inspiration as the story of Dracula came to life.

Stoker was also enchanted by the many ships making harbor here. He reportedly visited the Whitby Museum to explore the history of these vessels, as well as a local library, where he came upon William Wilkinson’s book The Accounts of Principalities of Wallachia and Moldova. Stoker marked in his notes:

DRACULA in the Wallachian language means DEVIL. The Wallachians were, at that time, as they are at present, used to give this as a surname to any person who rendered himself conspicuous either by courage, cruel actions, or cunning.

Stoker reportedly asked around the shore about shipwrecks in Whitby, notably the Dmitry, a ship that had wrecked five years earlier.

The cargo vessel Dmitry had set sail from Narva in Russia (modern-day Estonia) in 1885. On October 24, the Dmitry was one of two ships run ashore at Whitby by “a storm of great violence,” according to contemporary newspaper accounts. The other vessel, the Mary and Agnes, was stranded in the raging sea and a lifeboat was sent to rescue its crew. When the crew of the Mary and Agnes was ferried to the shore, per the Leeds Mercury, “their safe landing [was] the signal for loud huzzas by the thousands of people assembled on shore.”

Those same onlookers watched on to see what would happen with the Dmitry. As reported by the North-Eastern Daily Gazette, the crew remained on board in the hopes they would be able to dock, but “the sea beat savagely against the vessel. Her masts gave way and fell with a crash over her side, and the vessel herself began to break up.”

Though unclear exactly how they were rescued, in the end, all seven members of the Dmitry’s crew were safely brought to shore.

There were several unique aspects to the last voyage of the Dmitry that appear to have stood out to Stoker. The Demeter originated in Varna (an anagram for Narva, where the Dmitry originated), and similarly carried “ballast of silver sand, with only a small amount of cargo—a number of great wooden boxes filled with mould.”

Through conversations with fishermen in Whitby, Stoker learned of an untold number of local deaths at sea. Stoker reportedly made note of some 90 names from gravestones in Whitby for future use in his story, including the surname “Swales.” Soon after the arrival of the Demeter in Dracula, he wrote “Mr. Swales was found dead… his neck being broken.”

What Inspired Dracula’s Canine Form?

In Stoker’s novel, Dracula himself took the form of a dog to make his way from the Demeter to dry land, but there was no dog reported to have been on the Dmitry. According to Mel Ni Mhaolanfaidh and Marlon McGarry in 2021, the dog in Dracula may be an homage to the wreck of the Greyhound in 1770.

The Greyhound sailed from Whitby and sank off the coast of Ireland on December 12, 1770 (120 years prior to Stoker’s arrival in the town). Stoker’s mother, Charlotte, was from Sligo, a town in close proximity to the wreck. When the storm that sank the ship surged again, a young cabin boy was left stranded. The rescue effort failed, with only one out of the some 20 men sent to save him tragically dying in the process.

Stoker made no reference to a dog in his notes until two months after he’d departed from Whitby. On October 15, 1890, Stoker wrote, “When ship ran in to Collier's Hope, big dog jumped off bow & ran over pier - up Kiln Yard & church steps & into churchyard…Local dog found ripped open & graves torn up…” It’s not clear if Stoker learned of these details from the Dmitry wreck, another Whitby wreck, or was his own creation.

In the novel, the arrival of the Demeter was paired with a similarly remarkable incident: “The very instant the shore was touched, an immense dog sprang up on deck from below, as if shot up by the concussion, and running forward, jumped from the bow on the sand.”

The dog, a disguised Dracula, wrought bloodshed and death from that point forward. This dog resembled the barghest, a mythical monster often associated with Yorkshire. Spellings and specific forms of barghest vary but the dog-like being foretold of pain, disaster, or even death to all who saw it. The barghest also elicited howling from dogs in its vicinity, something Dracula protagonist Mina Murray reported took place soon after the arrival of the Demeter.

[surprisinglyokay]

Having recently read a fanfic in which Sherlock and John catch trains to various parts of southern England exclusively from London’s Waterloo station, even when this is not the usual/logical route, I’d like to share this for writers who might not be familiar with the whole business of trains in/to/from London.

Let’s start with the history of how and when rail services came to London. This article explains how and why we have so many terminal stations (short version: because when they were built, the railway companies were privately owned and all needed their own terminus in London).

The main terminal stations are Waterloo (south), Paddington (west), Euston (north-west), King’s Cross (north-east), St Pancras (East Midlands and Eurostar), Liverpool Street (east), Fenchurch Street (south-east) and Victoria (south). There are others (see the article linked above and my husband’s comment below).

As we know, within London and the suburbs, these termini are linked by the London Underground (aka The Tube) network. There is also the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) - a driverless system - and other overground rail services. Here is a map of it all from Transport of London (TfL). Baker Street is served by five tube lines: Bakerloo (brown), Metropolitan (maroon), Jubilee (silver), Circle (yellow), and Hammersmith & City (pink). It’s also only a five-minute walk from Marylebone (the nearest terminal) which itself is just behind the Landmark hotel, which we know as the exterior for The Restaurant Scene.

Aside: I think Sherlock is unlikely to catch a bus unless directly related to a case - they’re just too slow for him. But you can find bus maps and all kinds of other TfL mappy delights here.

If you have characters using public transport in the UK, your best bets for accurate research are:

Google Maps (in public transport mode)

National Rail (see the page footer for all the useful stuff)

Transport for London

All these also have apps available.

I’m happy to do Sherlockian Britpicking (my day job is copy-editing) if that’s helpful for you.

If you want to go the full Howard Shilcott, I still very much enjoy reading the rail enthusiasts’ forums posts about the myriad tube-related continuity errors in TEH. I’ll let you Google those for yourself. 😉

———

Ran this past my husband (who is totally the full Howard Shilcott) and he made a few corrections (and a lot of faces!) before I posted: he wishes it to be known that he ‘remains unhappy about [my summary of] Fenchurch Street’ and thinks I should add Charing Cross to the list so people know how to get to Kent. So that’s all clear then. 😂