Day 134 - Valentine's Day - for the love of London

Yesterday was pancakes and today is Valentine's Day. What a great week this is turning out to be.Angela and I decided to make a day of it by going into London have lunch, exploring the city and take in one of the movies nominated for best picture this year. We both had put in a long day yesterday (aside from my eating alot of pancakes) so we could spend this day together.

We had lunch by the London Eye and then decided to explore our way up to the Islington area where the cinema was located.   

His house was on the left

On our way we came across the home of Charles Dickens at 48 Doughty Street, which now is a museum. At this site, he wrote many of his great novels including Oliver Twist, The Pickwick Papers and Nicholas Nickleby.

Dickens was born in Portsmouth and came to London with his family when he was 10 years old. At the age of 20 he tried to be an actor although he failed at that and became a writer. He initially made his living publishing magazine articles, but at the age of 24 he published the Pickwick Papers that sold 40,000 copies and two years later he wrote Oliver Twist.  From that point on, he became one of the great writers of his time.

Haircut, shave AND a beer?
How civilized!

The district of Islington is within inner London and is named for the Saxon word "Giseldone" that dates back to 1005 A.D. The cinema was located near the Angel Tube Station, named after Islington's The Angel, which had been an inn and then a hotel near this site. The inn existed at the end of the 16th century and is recorded as being called The Angel as early as 1604. It was expanded into a larger hotel in the 1800s, but was converted into retail shops at the beginning of the 20th century. Today there still stands a pub on the location, aptly called The Angel. We really like this part of London as it has a number of eclectic shops and restaurants.

Ange and I knew about the cinema located in this area and were going to go a la carte with our movie choice. Phantom Thread was showing, so that was our choice. The movie has been nominated for 6 Oscars: Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor, Costume Design and Original Score. It is a love story, albeit an unusual one, that takes place during the 1950s in London and the English countryside, so appropriate for a Valentine's Day! The film gets a 3.5 out of 5 on the SmithWalsh scale as it has some wonderful acting performances but it suffers from a story line that at times is difficult to believe.

Ale of the Day: Black Cab Stout, Fuller's Brewery, Chiswick, London.