In the Summer of Love, all beautiful people wore flowers in their long hair and everything went floral. But for the British gardening world, every season is a Summer of Love. In a land where so much conversation revolves around the weather, where a deep relationship with nature has been celebrated through the centuries by poets, painters, philosophers and kings and recited in the most familiar of nursery rhymes, this seems, well, only natural.
A seemingly insatiable appetite for all things botanical extends to TV and other media. BBC2’s hugely popular Gardeners World is in its Golden Jubilee Year, whilst Love your Garden, Garden Rescue and the Edible Garden are all massive hit shows. Gardeners’ Question Time has been pitting BBC Radio listeners against celebrity gardeners from village halls around the UK weekly since 1947. Vertical Veg, Guerilla Gardening, Real Men Sow and Potting Shed UK are amongst hundreds of dedicated magazines, websites and blogs.
The nation’s passion for plants thrives year round, but it’s a love with particular potency in the summer season. Is there anything more quintessentially British than our gardens in summer, fragrant with roses, lavender and jasmine; floribundant with hollyhocks, peonies and delphinia? The Chelsea Flower Show, Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, National Garden Competition and Shed of the Year, are ever-flourishing annual summer events. Newsstand magazines are awash with garden tips and treats, recipes for homegrown fruit and veg and ads for inventive garden paraphernalia.
If you’d like to share in the nation’s horticultural hysteria, you’ll find an infinite variety of wonderful gardens around the country open to view, from stately homes and castles to wildflower meadows, urban parks and neighbourhood allotments, all proud to
show off their rainbow wares this summer.
Amongst our favourites are Wisley Gardens, Surrey, a magical paradise of the formal and the wild, Westonbirt Arboretum, Gloucestershire, with its matchless collection of trees and breathtaking treetop walkway, and Mottisfont, Hampshire, home to the national collection of old fashioned roses. In summer, it’s a vast bouquet of colour and fragrance displaying over 500 types of scented, climbing, rambling and bush. Add a romantic medieval house, art gallery and beautiful riverside gardens and you have the recipe for a total feast of the senses. Mottisfont also warmly welcomes children, with devoted wild play areas
and plenty of space to run, play and bike.
We highly recommend a visit to remarkable Beth Chatto Gardens in Essex. In 1960, plantswoman Chatto took an overgrown wasteland of bramble, bog and dry gravel, and transformed it into inspirational gardens, using her successful mantra of “the right plant for the right place”. Lush themed areas include never-watered gravel gardens, splendid and serene water gardens and cooling canopied woodlands. There’s an imaginative programme of activities like Bee Safaris, Pond Detectives and Mini Beasts Rule days, a Wildlife Fair in August and a Great Pumpkin Hunt in October, a wonderful plant nursery and quaint tea room with homemade scones and tantalising cakes. Now aged 94, Beth Chatto still oversees her
world famous and award-winning gardens, and can often be seen zipping about the grounds on her mobility scooter.
Bloomsbury fans will want to make pilgrimage to Charleston House in Sussex and Sissinghurst Castle Gardens in Kent. At various times a Saxon pig farm, Elizabethan mansion, prison and Victorian poorhouse, Sissinghurst was transformed by Vita Sackville West in the 1930s to its current magnificence, attracting garden lovers from all over the world. Charleston House, former home of 20th century artists and creative partners Vanessa Bell (Virginia Woolf’s sister) and Duncan Grant, is celebrating its 100th year. Treat yourself to its special centenary house and garden tour to get up close and personal with Charleston’s fabulous decorated interiors and magical walled ‘artists gardens’ created by Bell and Grant: intense and colourful, filled with sculpture, mosaics, tile-edged pools and touches of Bloomsbury humour.
Poldark fan or not, you’ll find Cornwall’s abundant and varied gardens the very best of British, from the world’s largest greenhouses of the Eden Project to more intimate gardens like Trelowarren, Glendurgan, Tresco Abbey and Tregothnan Botanic. We especially love the Lost Gardens of Heligan, with its exuberant subtropical jungle, romantic pleasure grounds, pioneering wildlife conservation projects, awesome setting and exclusive handmade walnut and honey ripple ice cream.
The Summer of Love may be feasting its fiftieth, but it’s a mere babe next to the world of jazz, which this year celebrates its first 100 years. Not only is 2017 the centenary of the first ever jazz recording– Livery Stable Blues by the New Orleans’ Dixieland Jazz Band– but would have seen the 100th birthdays of three of jazz’s best-loved stars, Ella Fitzgerald (25 April), Thelonius Monk (10 October) and Dizzy Gillespie (21 October).
For all these reasons, Jazz 100 has curated a year-long programme to mark the musical milestones, kicking off with International Jazz Day at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival in spring and partying on through the year with loads of incredible gigs and events.
A summer jumping with jazz jewels opens with a rare public performance from Woody Allen and his New Orleans band, playing London’s Royal Albert Hall in July. As well as a long and illustrious filmmaking career, Woody Allen has a legendary devotion to his beloved clarinet and sax, famously missing acceptance of the 1978 Academy Award for Best Picture because he was busy playing at his weekly Dixieland jazz gig. In the jazz spirit of improvisation, Woody’s upcoming show will have no playlist and none of his musicians know in advance what he will ask them to play.
The weeklong Manchester Jazz Festival heats up at the end of July with over 100 concerts, films and other electric events. Festival highlights include the New York Brass Band and the Haggis Horns, and the Festival’s full sensory experience will be abetted and refreshed by jazz brunches and afternoon teas.
As ever, this year’s BBC Proms (14 July - 9 September) are rich with jazz sounds. Prom 27 pays a delectable double tribute to Ella and Dizzy’s 100th birthdays; the music of jazz giant Charles Mingus is honoured at Prom 53 by the rocking Metropole Orkest and its dynamic young conductor Jules Buckley, and Prom 57’s Swing No End matinée promises blues, boogie-woogie, bebop and a slice of musical action from the 1930s and 1940s. Charismatic singer and radio presenter Clare Teal will officiate at its rip- roaring battle of the bands, led by bandleaders extraordinaire Guy Barker and Winston Rollins.
BluesFest, the brilliant annual jazz, blues and roots festival, caps off October (27-29), this year headlined by exclusive classic gold appearances from Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers. Last but not least, the 25th EFG London Jazz Festival will shatter the chill of late autumn with two full weeks of gigs by a diverse range of artists in concert halls, clubs and stages across the capital. Chief amongst this year’s thrills will be renowned South Africans Abdullah Ibrahim and Hugh Masekela, the Jazz Voice opening gala, the effervescent Harlem Gospel Choir and mindblowing piano-mandolin duets from Brad Meldau and Chris Thile.
Families with school-agers will certainly want to make the most of Britain’s notably shorter summer vacations.
As well as WOMAD, there are many other UK festivals ideal for family relaxation and enjoyment; our favourites include Camp Bestival, Port Eliot and the Big Feastival.
For the best in ferociously family-friendly music, magic, circus and comedy, head to London’s Southbank riverside for the summer- long Underbelly Festival. Underbelly proudly presents affordable live entertainment for all ages, with many shows priced at £10 or less, along with plenty of street food and refreshment bars. Look out for Monski Mouse’s Baby Disco Dance Hall, the Amazing Bubble Man, Comedy Club 4 Kids and “acts that don’t seem humanly possible” from Quebec’s Flip FabriQue. There’s also Children are Stinky, the award-winning Australian circus sensation featuring incredible acrobatics, lightning fast hula hoops and loads of laughs, Metta Theatre’s spectacular hip-hop Jungle Book, high energy comedy and song from Four Femmes on the Thames and evenings of hilarious nonsense and interactive madness with Margaret Thatcher’s Queen of Gameshows.
Not far away, in the cool and mysterious Vaults
beneath Waterloo Station, you’ll find more kicks for kids as Les Petits Theatre Company stages an extraordinary, immersive Alice in Wonderland. Set in multiple, magical rooms, this version of the beloved classic tale is an award-winning, push-the-boundaries theatre experience for 5-10 year olds, who will follow the White Rabbit down the rabbit hole, choose between ‘eat me’ and ‘drink me’, tumble with the Tweedle Twins and take tea at the biggest unbirthday party with the maddest of Hatters. But do heed the Company’s warning: Don’t be late! Logic will fail you! Nonsense will overwhelm you!
Toddlers in tutus as well as seasoned dance lovers will be equally enchanted by My FirstBallet: Cinderella. This beautifully- staged joint production by the English National Ballet and English National Ballet School, turns everyone’s favourite rags-to-riches story into a charming show for children aged 3 and up. Based on our recent visit in the company of a transfixed two year old, this Cinderella is guaranteed to have young audiences crawling, skipping and twirling in the aisles by intermission.
For a wonderful way to introduce your youngsters to classical and other great music, take your pick from several family focussed BBC Proms this summer. Ten Pieces: Sir Henry’s Magnificent Musical Inspirations Prom will lead audiences on a splendid musical adventure, whilst the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Prom offers an exciting intergalactic journey featuring the lively sounds of Holst’s The Planets. There’s a Relaxed Prom filled with colour, laughter and audience participation, suitable for everyone, but especially children and adults with mental, physical or sensory disabilities. Always utterly fabulous is the John Wilson Orchestra, with a joyful semi-staging of Oklahoma! bursting with timeless tunes like Oh, what a Beautiful Morning! and Surrey with the Fringe on Top. The Proms also hosts lots of free family workshops and Prom Extras, where you are encouraged to bring your instrument or your voices, whatever your ability.
Judith Schrut goes behind the red canopy on a Covent Garden back street to meet the folks be ind Joe Allen, as the iconic restaurant marks 40 memorable years as an American on the London scene.
What brought Joe Allen to
Britain?
It was the mid-1970s.The real Joe Allen, who ran his eponymous restaurant in NewYork, recognised the keen British taste for Americana. He wanted to offer something beyond burgers, a more sophisticated feel. That came together with a chance to buy property cheap in Covent Garden, which at that time was run down and off the beaten track. He saw the opportunity for something unique.
How has Joe’s made its mark?
From the beginning Joe’s has gone out of its way not to be an American food or theme restaurant, but American-style dining, meaning a relaxed place for a great pre-or post-theatre experience and atmosphere, a solid menu, fabulous cocktails, and real cheesecake. And Joe’s rejected the class system and instead embraced London’s diversity way before it was openly acceptable to do so. When Joe’s opened it was the only place in London where you could be sitting next to a punk on one side and a suited City boy on the other. We’ve also been the starting point for loads of amazing young chefs and people who
became key players on the UK restaurant scene, who helped re-define eating out in London. Rowley Leigh, Russell Norman and Jeremy King are all famous alumni. But it’s a myth that Graham Norton once worked here as a waiter!
What keeps Joe’s going after
40 years? What’s changed and
what’s stayed the same?
Loyalty plays a key part of Joe’s longevity on the ever-changing London restaurant scene. Current
owners Lawrence Hartley and Tim Healy, who took over 5 years ago, are both experienced and successful restaurateurs. But, more importantly, both cherish fond memories of visits to Joe Allen in their youth, and care deeply about its heritage. Joe’s has always relied on truly loyal staff, some of whom have been with us a very long time. Like Cathy, our general manager, who has worked here for over 25 years.
The London food scene has changed enormously since 1977- the sheer number of restaurants and the boom in quality and choice,
for example- but Joe Allen just keeps going like it’s always been. We still have live piano every night, brunch on Sunday, and a traditional turkey dinner at Thanksgiving.
Tell us about a memorable
moment at Joe’s.
On Joe’s opening day, 14 January 1977, a smash hit new musical called Chorus Line had recently opened at nearby Drury Lane Theatre. The show’s stars came and high-kicked their way down the stairs and across the bar to the show’s hit tune, Singular Sensation. Since then we’ve had many stars dancing on the bar or playing the piano. Peter Cook and Richard Harris singing, drunkenly, round the piano, was a pretty memorable moment for us.
You’ve had quite a few notable
diners over the years. Why did
they come?
Indeed, anybody who is anybody has been here. You can see their pictures on the walls. Rock Hudson, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Elizabeth Taylor, Robert Wagner, and Stephen Sondheim, to name a few. They’d expect to sit at one of the tables along the far wall, known as “the Fifties”. Chita Rivera practically lived here when she visited London. Elaine Stritch had her own table. Kenneth Williams would always sit in the corner table and snipe at people. People came to be seen— not particularly for the food— which could be a bit wounding for the chefs! Joe’s has always been a place to relax and feel comfortable. Theatre people, especially Americans playing the West End, would come here after a show, dressed in jeans or no makeup, for down time, to feel home from home. They could bring their lovers, boyfriends, mistresses, knowing Joe’s firm policy: “we don’t kiss and we don’t tell”.
Your pianist Jimmy was a
legend, wasn’t he?
The great Jimmy Hardwick was our pianist for 37 years, the longest serving house pianist anywhere. He played 6 nights a week from our opening night till the day he died, aged 88. He was a real character, genuinely a legend in his own lunchtime. With Jimmy, our regular
customers each had their own tune which he’d play as soon as they walked in. This was known as a Jimmy Jam. He was such a talent, he knew every single show tune by heart. And if you were famous— or he fancied you— he might just let you sing with him at the piano.
Tell us three things about Joe’s
that might surprise us.
Well, Joe Allen’s was the first restaurant in the UK to have an American-style‘hatch’and a beer slider on our long bar. We have a secret underground passage from Joe Allen to our sister restaurant, Orso. Also, we have an incredible collection of first edition theatre posters and photos of American stage and screen greats lining our walls, but notably no Brits in any of our photos.
Tell us about your menu and
the famous secret burger.
Well, from the beginning Joe refused to have burgers on our menu. But diners wanted burgers, so they became our ‘secret’ menu item. They’ve always been our best seller, but they’re still not on the menu and never will be. From the menu we’d suggest starting with our Caesar salad, beautifully executed, followed by either sticky ribs or Mac Ragu, with a side of fries and coleslaw. Finish with pecan pie or our classic chocolate brownie smothered in ice cream. Or, if you’re a vegetarian, try the three-bean chili from our Green Menu. And a cold American beer, of course.
How is Joe’s marking its 40th
birthday and what does the
future look like?
We’re having a year-long party with lots of surprises and treats, including a £19.77 retro menu. As for what’s next, we’re super-excited about moving house very soon. But we really don’t feel we’re moving the restaurant: we’ll still be nearby, in Covent Garden, the whole team are coming with us and we intend to keep our soul!
Joe Allen’s is at 13 Exeter Street, London WC2, moving nearby soon. Our thanks to Geoffrey Davies for his photography, and to Lawrence, Cathy, Sadie, Francesco and the rest of Joe’s lovely team.
It’s the time of year when I torture myself the most as an expat. I imagine in some alternative universe, there is still a version of me who never actually left New York City all those years ago and is now enjoying a long hot stretch of predictable sticky summer. Here in the UK I check my weather app on the phone most mornings to see if it’s an umbrella or a sunglasses day, as the reports seem to change daily. Then I can’t help but scroll down to the weather in NewYork to see what that other me, in an alternative life, would have been enjoying today. No surprises there, it’s usually hotter!
I’m not going to pretend that over the years I have come to prefer the British summer, or the somewhat lack of it that it feels like at times. The weather here is rarely as reliable as those long hot summers back in the USA. However, I have learned that there are ways to get the most out of a British summer, and dare I say, even enjoy the advantages of being an expat in Britain during this time of year.
But first, the disadvantages.Yes, the weather here can be very unpredictable. I have a dear Danish friend who will often exclaim to me in exasperation “Britain is the only country in the world where you can have all four seasons in one day!” Okay, this may be a bit of an exaggeration, but if you have been here for a little while, I think you’ll know where she is coming from. But if you are new to the UK, there are a few things us longer-term expats have learned about surviving the British summer. I have been asking a few friends from my Midlands American Expat group, The North American Connection, for some of their favourite tips. Very much in line with my Danish friend’s sentiment, Kerianne, who is originally from upstate New York, advises
Jephson Gardens, Royal Leamington Spa
on how you should dress for a typical summer’s day here. “Layers, layers, layers! Also, accept that on most days you can either wear shorts or a short sleeve top but not both. ”Edwina, one of our honourary British members says “Always keep sunglasses and an umbrella in the car”. According to my friend Becky, originally from California, you should “always have a back-up plan for a barbeque and a marquee or tarp in case of showers. Pimms and lemonade help in any situation!”
For me, these are the advantages. Rain or shine, there are so many absolutely stunning parts of Britain to explore and discover and summer is one of the best times to do this when the temperatures are going to be at least slightly, although most likely, quite a bit warmer, than any other time of the year. Growing up in New York City, I spent my summers down on Rockaway Beach, Queens (remember the famous Ramones song?). I don’t mean to be unfaithful to my beloved Rockaway, but the scenery I have discovered on this side of the
The coastline near Polzeath, Cornwall
Atlantic coast knocks socks off of Rockaway’s. Although, I’m sure many of the readers from the Atlantic East coast will quite rightly tell me that there are far nicer beaches than Rockaway, I have come to love parts of the British coastline. My favourite places here include Polzeath in Cornwall. This beach was also a favourite of Britain’s former prime minister, David Cameron and his wife who would often spend summer breaks there. Fantastic for body boarding and surfing or taking the short boat ride from Rock over to Padstow where you can enjoy numerous seafood restaurants or a cold glass of wine at an outdoor table of one of the many cafés and watch the sailing boats out at sea. I also adore Morfa Nefyn in deepest North Wales with it’s rugged cliffs and coastline. According to a newspaper article in the Daily Mail in 2013, it also boasts the third best beach pub in the world! The Ty Cock Inn is reasonably priced and the waiting staff will bring your food and drink right out to you on your beach blanket while you enjoy views over unspoilt beaches and mountains in the distance.
If you are not near a coast or don’t have the time to get to one, then wherever you are in Britain, it seems that you are not too far from a stunning park which you can stroll through or picnic in whilst enjoying vastly beautiful lawns and flower displays. The park in my own adopted home town of Royal Leamington Spa, Jephson Gardens, boasts lovely fountains and a boat hire down the River Leam.
And of course there are the numerous stately homes you can visit with their wonderful gardens, including Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire (where Winston Churchill was born). Not forgetting the must see places such as stunning Kew Gardens just thirty minutes from central
London and the beautiful gardens of Hampton Court Palace in Richmond upon Thames.
When you have enough of exploring the beauty that the British countryside and coastlines have to offer, the other huge advantage of being an expat in Britain is, of course, the close proximity we are to other countries and cultures. A short plane ride, or boat, or tunnel and drive can take you to some gorgeous places in the Mediterranean where you can enjoy the typical hot summer. For example, the chic South of France, the amazing Amalfi Coast of Italy, the stunning Greek Islands where the Mama Mia movie sequel is currently being filmed. This, and more, just an hour or two’s flight from a British Airport. It’s perfect if you just want to get away even for a couple of summer days. That’s something you can’t do when you’re living in the USA!
But back to Britain and doing your best to enjoy the summertime here. The best tip I can give you is this; if the sun is shining outside your window on a summer’s day, if at all possible, just get out there. You’ll notice that Britain’s inhabitants do not take for granted the luxury of a beautiful summer’s day, or what they quaintly refer to as a heatwave (that’s anything over 80 degrees for more than a few days, folks!). When that happens, it’s pretty magical here. Whatever cares people have, they seem to vanish whilst the sun is gloriously shining. Notice how everyone appears to be smiling and upbeat, convivial to all around them. So while a part of my heart may always long for hot and sticky New York City when it’s a cool or rainy day here and I’m reaching for that weather app, I have truly come to believe that when the sun is shining here on a summer’s day in Britain, there is no other place in the world that I would rather be.
Image 1: Karen Storey enjoy a summer's evening at Polzeath, Cornwall
In the Summer of Love, all beautiful people wore flowers in their long hair and everything went floral. But for the British gardening world, every season is a Summer of Love. In a land where so much conversation revolves around the weather, where a deep relationship with nature has been celebrated through the centuries by poets, painters, philosophers and kings and recited in the most familiar of nursery rhymes, this seems, well, only natural.
The Summer of Love may be feasting its fiftieth, but it’s a mere babe next to the world of jazz, which this year celebrates its first 100 years. Not only is 2017 the centenary of the first ever jazz recording– Livery Stable Blues by the New Orleans’ Dixieland Jazz Band– but would have seen the 100th birthdays of three of jazz’s best-loved stars, Ella Fitzgerald (25 April), Thelonius Monk (10 October) and Dizzy Gillespie (21 October).
Families with school-agers will certainly want to make the most of Britain’s notably shorter summer vacations.
As well as WOMAD, there are many other UK festivals ideal for family relaxation and enjoyment; our favourites include Camp Bestival, Port Eliot and the Big Feastival.
Judith Schrut goes behind the red canopy on a Covent Garden back street to meet the folks be ind Joe Allen, as the iconic restaurant marks 40 memorable years as an American on the London scene.
It’s the time of year when I torture myself the most as an expat. I imagine in some alternative universe, there is still a version of me who never actually left New York City all those years ago and is now enjoying a long hot stretch of predictable sticky summer. Here in the UK I check my weather app on the phone most mornings to see if it’s an umbrella or a sunglasses day, as the reports seem to change daily. Then I can’t help but scroll down to the weather in NewYork to see what that other me, in an alternative life, would have been enjoying today. No surprises there, it’s usually hotter!
For me, these are the advantages. Rain or shine, there are so many absolutely stunning parts of Britain to explore and discover and summer is one of the best times to do this when the temperatures are going to be at least slightly, although most likely, quite a bit warmer, than any other time of the year. Growing up in New York City, I spent my summers down on Rockaway Beach, Queens (remember the famous Ramones song?). I don’t mean to be unfaithful to my beloved Rockaway, but the scenery I have discovered on this side of the
The coastline near Polzeath, Cornwall
Atlantic coast knocks socks off of Rockaway’s. Although, I’m sure many of the readers from the Atlantic East coast will quite rightly tell me that there are far nicer beaches than Rockaway, I have come to love parts of the British coastline. My favourite places here include Polzeath in Cornwall. This beach was also a favourite of Britain’s former prime minister, David Cameron and his wife who would often spend summer breaks there. Fantastic for body boarding and surfing or taking the short boat ride from Rock over to Padstow where you can enjoy numerous seafood restaurants or a cold glass of wine at an outdoor table of one of the many cafés and watch the sailing boats out at sea. I also adore Morfa Nefyn in deepest North Wales with it’s rugged cliffs and coastline. According to a newspaper article in the Daily Mail in 2013, it also boasts the third best beach pub in the world! The Ty Cock Inn is reasonably priced and the waiting staff will bring your food and drink right out to you on your beach blanket while you enjoy views over unspoilt beaches and mountains in the distance.
If you are not near a coast or don’t have the time to get to one, then wherever you are in Britain, it seems that you are not too far from a stunning park which you can stroll through or picnic in whilst enjoying vastly beautiful lawns and flower displays. The park in my own adopted home town of Royal Leamington Spa, Jephson Gardens, boasts lovely fountains and a boat hire down the River Leam.
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