The Grand Tour

The National Gallery on Trafalgar Square has just launched a new exhibition, called "The Grand Tour", which is basically a publicity drive for the gallery. They have put exact replicas of some of their most famous works on the walls of buildings around Soho and Covent Garden. It's a brilliant idea, and there about 45 around the streets. The wall between my office and the sushi joint next door is the temporary home of The Amolfini Portrait by Van Eyck. There's Holbeins, Van Goughs and Turners stuck to the walls of pubs, cafes, sex shops and building sites right through the West End.

I went for a bit of a short stroll around Soho and took a few pix of some of the installations. The album's right here.

Here's a blog from the Guardian on the subject.

Check it out

This week's Time Out (click image for full size):

And my post from January 30:

Same corner, same grey ghost, same unquenchable thirst for that monthly "three tickets an hour" bonus!

Euroblather, right there on the spot.

My lunch of choice

Lina Stores in Brewer Street, conveniently located between my office and The Duke of Argyll is one of the last bastions of Soho's once thriving Italian community. Tony and Gabriella have run the store for years, and it's pretty well my favourite deli, worldwide.

Tony makes his own (pork and red wine) sausages, and heaps of different tortellinis (crayfish, pumpkin and ricotta, spinach and ricotta, veal, etc, etc) daily. As well as a huge range of everything Italian (except booze), you can get a fantastic sandwich with freshly cut meat, cheese, tomatoes, rocket, etc etc for what is probably the best value in central London.


Time Out sez:

"Lina Stores
With its pistachio-coloured façade and 1930s lettering, this shop is an unmistakable old-timer. It was first opened around the corner, and relocated to its current site after World War II. The Filippis, from Piacenza, near Milan, bought the shop in 1974 when the original owner (the eponymous Lina) retired and it’s now run by Tony and Gabriella Filippi as a family business. They have not altered the decor, and its layout remains as it was in the ’40s, with long counters stretching the length of the shop, behind which are shelves piled high with wonderful Italian delights. Tony makes fresh pasta on-site daily, and sells it on to restaurants in Soho. The recipe for his popular garlic and wine sausages comes from his home town in Italy and was handed down to him by a local butcher when he was ten years old. The delicatessen is well known and much loved, and used regularly by TV chefs Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson.
Lina Stores, 18 Brewer St, W1 (020 7437 6482) Piccadilly Circus tube."