Yesterday evening, I turned my office upside down and inside out trying to find an old Whizzer and Chips comic. All my original copies are in storage, but I knew that in a box somewhere there was a facsimile copy that was given away with The Guardian a while ago. We're going to London for a night, just to give us a post-Easter rest and a bit of tourist-ing, and I am taking the opportunity to film a short video about King's Reach Tower. I have wanted to pay a visit to this legendary location for a long time, and as a sign of Mandi's extreme patience, we are going to visit it. 

We arrived in London at half eleven, after a surprisingly easy three hour journey along relatively clear roads. I didn't expect that the day after a bank holiday, but it was most welcome. This gave us time to kill however, as we couldn't check in to our hotel until two o'clock. I lived in London for a year in 1995, so I could navigate my way around like the sophisticated man about town that I am. At least I could have done, if they hadn't moved everything around so much. Getting out of the tube at Oxford Circus and walking down Regent Street was easy enough, as Regent Street is in the same place, but parts of Soho had been moved around so much that my sense of direction was all to cock. It might just be that I've been away too long, and my memories had let me down, but I prefer to blame it on London.

Something that had definitely changed was Hamley's, the whole thing had been restructured. I am pretty sure that the sweet shop on the fifth floor is what used to be the staff canteen. There wasn't a single member of staff there that I recognised, although I asked a demonstrator working for the same company that I was employed by when I worked there if a magician called Bruce Smith was still working there. He was part of the furniture back then, a professional magician who could sell the range of tricks sold under the Marvin's Magic range. I was told that he was still at Hamley's, but was on his lunch. The chances are that he wouldn't remember me, as the transient nature of toy demonstrators, ('dems' as we were known) dictates that you are only there until an acting job comes along. It would have been nice to see him though, just to see that not everything changes.

The iconic advertising light hoarding on the corner between Shaftesbury Avenue and Glasshouse Street is thankfully still there, although using more animated screens than it used to.

I don't understand why Barclays Bank moved into the shop next to Boots on that side of Piccadilly Circus, as they used to be situated in the pillared building that the double decker bus is passing. This was a purpose built, grand bank similar to the one George Banks worked in, it had elegant marble counters and my big shock on using the branch for the first time was that you were allowed to smoke in there, (in 1995 at least). Why they moved into the old McDonald's and created a homogenised high street bank is a mystery.

After a buffet lunch in China Town, (when in Rome, or China, or something) I wanted to find the building where once stood the Wag. The Wag is one of the most famous nightclubs in the country, and sadly closed down in the early 2000s. Aside from the historical connection with the 1980s post-punk scene, it was also home to a Wednesday event called Club Wild. If my memory serves me right, it was indie downstairs and more heavy metal emphasis upstairs. I didn't go in to see if they still had the spiral staircase, or if Boy George still worked in the cloakroom, because I couldn't be arsed. I was sad to see that the heritage brigade have yet to adorn the wall with a blue plaque.


Soho has changed a hell of a lot since my last visit, so much so that they seem to employ someone to move buildings around while you are walking around. I wanted to take Mandi for drinks in The Coach And Horses in Soho, having walked past it once. It totally disappeared while we walked around, and the employees put it back while we were sheltering from the rain. I'm all for keeping people in gainful employment and reducing the dole queue, but I do feel that Westminster Council could make better use of funds than employing these pranksters. While it is sad that The Coach And Horses now belongs to a chain, (Fullers), they have respected the place. 

The Coach And Horses has always attracted an arty, creative crowd, and it was nice to see that it is still filled with musicians, writers, and the like. A major difference is that a lot of people drank soft drinks, what Jeffrey Bernard would have made of that I dread to think. Such is their intention to period detail, (pictures of Peter O'Toole as Jeffrey Bernard on the walls is the only real 'tourist' affectation) that the ceilings are still a dirty nicotine colour. In fact, pubs with such historic connections should by rights be exempt from the smoking ban.

We rounded the evening off by walking along the river all the way back to the hotel. All the way there I managed to hide the fact that I didn't really know where I was going.