Regency Cafe, London - and a walk through Pimlico & Chelsea

A gem in Pimlico...suggested to us a couple years ago by our young friends from Australia. Truth be told, we expected the Regency to be posh, but surprise! surprise!  It's a classic cafe unchanged by time and fashion from it's original look of 1946.

Red-checked cafe curtains provide the colour theme, and the shiny tile walls provide the backdrop for a gallery of iconic cafe art and framed moments-of-acclaim for the Regency Cafe -- ads from Vogue and LK Bennett highlighting the cafe and numerous notable personalities enjoying their cuppa in front of the red-checked curtains. 

This is definitely a favourite London spot for photo shoots.  And a favourite spot for breakfast!  The queue snakes through the cafe packed with tables for 50.  This morning it's an all-male clientèle, many donned in business attire, others sporting reflector vests.

46-year-old owner, Marco Shiavetta serves a tasty meal -- no extra grease, everything cooked just right.  The day's fresh potatos are being peeled and piled by a diligent worker behind the counter.  Another focuses on the task of smacking minced beef into sausages and patties.

 Happy Husband enjoys the Full English Breakfast, while I stick to my standard -- 2 eggs on toast.  We welcome the absence of background music and TV, but the megaphone-voice from behind the counter calling out the orders (no table service) takes a bit of getting used to.

After our leisurely meal, we meander through Pimlico -- passing picturesque strips of terrace housing and overarching trees.

To our delight, we discover a gem in St James the Less church, hidden behind other buildings.  The ornate chancel glows in the morning light.  Musical instruments create a crucified Jesus -- clarinets, piano keys, flutes -- the death of music and joy, perhaps?  Makes me want to shake educators reminding them how important music is for children!  Don't eliminate joy from the curriculum!
To one side, there's an inviting children's area, a place children surely anticipate populating on a Sunday morning.  Just how welcoming are our churches to children? to families?  Where is their space in the church to which they clamour with glee?

On we go toward Royal Chelsea Hospital, the last resting place of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and home to retired soldiers. They are gathering for a VE Day photo decked out in full regalia.

My thoughts go to my father, an American Vet about the same age as many of those assembled here today.  While the cronies in his photos are Veterans for Peace, nonetheless he would have enjoyed being here today.





We pop into their chapel and dining room for a quick peek -- magnificent, as one might expect.  Amazing to realize that the retired men and women who call this home are here out of need, not out of entitlement.

London never lets us down!  Another wonderful Breakfast in Britain!

Breakfast at the New Covent Garden Flower Market in London

The early morning light warms the upper deck of our bus -- No. 436 heading for Vauxhall.  The traffic crawls through the crowded streets of Southeast London.  We're grateful for the periodic Bus Lanes that allow public transit vehicles and cabbies to swoosh by the standing traffic.

The spectacular view from our upper front row seats reminds us, as any double decker bus ride does, how much we love living in London! We pass the Oval, home of Surrey County Cricket.  MI6 loom ahead...

visions of Daniel Craig and the building exploding in "Skyfall." 

We hop off at Vauxhall Bridge, turn toward Battersea, and stroll in the shadow of the highrise residences lining the Thames. Parliament and St Steven's Tower feature in the skyline behind us.

Our destination...the Village Cafe at the New Covent Garden Flower Market.  The cafe opens at 5:00 am, to feed those workers who start their day at the Flower Market at 4:00 am. (Flower Market hours are 4:00 - 10:00 am).

But first a sneak peek at the posies on parade in the Flower Market "where 75% of London's florist choose to buy."
Boxes, trays, cartons bursting with colour!
Easter lilies by the dozen.
Even a dinosaur skeleton for your garden or fancy-dress party!  Photo ops seem endless.

Out the side door of the main warehouse, but still within the Flower Garden walled perimeter, we find the Village Cafe.  Drab and modern on the outside, integral to the Flower Market architecture.

Sadly, this Flower Market, erected in the early 1970's, replaces the original flower market first laid out as the "Covent Garden" Piazza in 1631 by the architect Inigo Jones, further developed in 1829-30, and more recently refurbished in the late 20th century into a trendy tourist spot in the City Centre.  Such beauty housed within a framework reflecting the epitome of the 1970's--functionality without imagination.   The photo-history of the Flower Market lines the walls of the cafe.

We situate ourselves in the back corner, next to a box holding 30 dozen eggs for the day ahead.  We enjoy four of them fried "soft" (learning the lingo!) with runny yolks soaking into thick slabs of toast.
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Two crossword puzzles and a newspaper  later, we venture out, across the Vauxhall Bridge, gasping at the antics of daredevil window washers high above the River Thames.

We meander through the streets of Pimlico and Kensington. Spring flowers, these uncut and free for all to view, fill traffic islands and small park places.  The finale is the glorious spray of colour filling Hyde Park flower garden -- magnificent!