Queue or Kew? Redefining Hidden Gems

While leading a presentation last week on London’s Hidden Gems for parents at an international school I was reminded of just how familiar and unfamiliar this extraordinary city has become and continues to be since my arrival in 1996!

One of the reasons I have decided to make London my home is that I love that nearly every day I discover or experience something new - a small independent bookstore on Ebury Street, pink flamingos high above Kensington High Street, an extraordinary family run cheese shop on Tachbrook Street or a Rugby World Cup quarter final team training at my local gym. London is always full of surprises! For this same reason I love doing the research behind the Hidden Gems presentation. I, with the FOCUS team, have strived to curate a selection of truly unique London gems and pride ourselves on avoiding the ‘obvious.’

So it did indeed take me by surprise when, in the
middle of presenting, I had a moment of realisation that I had come a long way in becoming familiar with London and that ‘obvious’ was not always so. I was, at the time of this revelation, speaking about some of the lesser-known gardens in London- Embankment Garden, Mount St Garden, Postman’s Park, Inner Temple, Southwark ‘s Red Cross Garden... I could go on for at least another page but that is another blog altogether. The point is while one participant was granting me every presenters dream of audience participation by sharing an experience of being at Kew Gardens one of the other participants diligently taking notes interrupted wanting to know whether we were talking about Kew with ‘K’ or queue with a ‘Q’.


Inside I was laughing in a most sympathetic

manner, however it was at this stage that I was abruptly reminded of just how many different interpretations of ‘hidden gems’ there might be. I had wrongly taken for granted that the much treasured ‘better known’ cultural destinations now so familiar to me were already discovered by this well educated and well travelled audience of international parents.  However, in my drive to uncover the undiscovered I failed to remember just how daunting the multitude of cultural options can be for someone new to London. After all, I should know well that the possibilities, so vast in number, can be dizzying even for us longer-term expats.


In my hours of research and commitment to 
uncover the most hidden cultural gems I had forgotten what it was like to be so fresh in this great city. What was obvious to me was indeed hidden to many in the audience that day.

In some ways I was quite envious knowing the participant with the Kew/queue question was just embarking on a journey I have now been on for 19 years.  However, I will continue my quest to unearth new treasures daily and have complete faith that London will continue to deliver in spades!

If you like the sound of learning more about FOCUS’ favourite hidden gems keep an eye out for our seminar in early 2016 where we will reveal all!

If you want to hear what some of the parents at the ACS Egham, ICS and the audience at American Women’s Club had to say about this presentation please email office@focus-info.org.

Written by Nancy Dickinson.  Nancy is Deputy Executive Director at FOCUS.

For more information please visit www.focus-info.org

 

Should you wish to share your expat experiences in the UK, please contact us: office@focus-info.org

Roof Top Tipple

I must admit I am lucky to receive invitations to many unique events as part of my role here at FOCUS. However, when faced with my third night out this week I was thinking how nice it would be to kick back at home with my two teens and husband and savour a nice family meal. This of course is a bit of an exaggeration, did I mention teens? And a husband home in time for dinner? Okay, you know what I mean.

While even the real picture seemed tempting, I was reminded of the advice from Adrian  Cassidy's Resilience seminar on Monday evening 

that everyone should have at least five networks
and, more importantly, that meeting new people is a key factor to being a resilient individual. With this in mind I put on my party shoes, some much needed cover up and I headed down the block from the FOCUS office.

Now prepped and ready for a sociable evening, I arrived at The Roof Gardens, a hidden treasure not visible from Kensington High Street, which has an amazing garden spanning 1.5 acres with majestic views of London.

The building originally housed the department store Derry and Toms until 1973, and then Biba until 1975. The Gardens were listed as a Grade II site by the English Heritage in 1978. There are in fact three roof gardens including a Spanish garden, a Tudor style garden and an English woodland garden complete with four flamingos named Bill, Ben, Splosh and Pecks! If the spectacular gardens are not enough of an attraction, the 6th floor houses a glamorous private members club and on the 7th floor inside the gardens is the elegant Babylon restaurant.

Having greeted our FOCUS members we headed up the express lift to the 7th floor and were graciously escorted to the beautiful garden terrace where the most divine warm cocktails adorned with a stem of currents awaited us. Taking in the view towards the London Eye I had to stop for a moment and reflect on just how fabulous a city London is and all the unexpected and unique experiences I continue to have even after 18 years of living here. Having paused for reflection and having been warmed by the first sip of my cocktail I was then consumed by the lively conversation amongst our 25 guests.

While there were several conversations in Greek, Spanish, Italian and French that I was not able to participate in, I am quite sure from their animated faces and volume of chatter that everyone was sharing experiences, their stories of what brought them to London, favourite discoveries and more. What was crystal clear is that bonds were being formed and friendships were in the making.

Just when we all thought things couldn’t get better out came inviting plates of baked cheese accompanied by a selection of artisan breads. Making our way to the various offerings gave us another excuse to move around and meet those we had not already. The evening continued with wine, adorable wire baskets of gourmet chips and continuous conversation!

Occasionally I stepped back to again take in the spectacular view of the skyline and listen to the happy chatter of the members around me and realised that even the serene family dinner of my dreams was no comparison to the fabulous evening at the Roof Gardens with an amazing group of talented expats all happy to be experiencing London!

Written by Nancy Dickinson.  Nancy is Deputy Executive Director at FOCUS.

For more information please visit www.focus-info.org

Should you wish to share your expat experiences in the UK, please contact us: office@focus-info.org