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110
JULY 2012
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HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
BRYAN BEDDER/GETTY IMAGES (MCKELLEN); ADRIAN MUTTITT/ALAMY (THE GRAPES)
time. You’re doing
Sweeney Todd
at the
Adelphi Theatre
, but first you’ll have a jar at
The Ship
, another old rock ’n’ roll haunt,
which, according to lore, banned The
Who’s Keith Moon for se ing off a smoke
bomb. While the clientele has since shi ed
from mad-drummer to creative-director, it
remains a great li le pub.
Sweeney Todd
is a blast: catchymusic, dark
comedy, fake gore. Naturally, you follow this
with a plate of duck hearts and snails at the
hip
St. JohnHotel Restaurant
, alongwithwood
pigeon and rhubarb-sherry trifle.
It’s drizzly, and late, but the streets of
London are filledwith smart-dressed people
having fun, as if an enormous partyhas been
moved outside due to a fire drill. You start
to hail a cab, and then stop yourself. There’s
something about the way the Soho lights
play on the pavement at your feet. It might
be nice to walk for a while.
JOE KEOHANE
maintains that “Waterloo Sunset,”
by The Kinks, is one of the best songs ever written.
BOARDING PASS
Want to explore London’s historic streets and architecture, meander the majestic public gardens or lift a pint at a
rock ’n’ roll landmark? United can launch your getaway with daily departures from its U.S. hubs in Chicago, Houston, New York/Newark,
Washington Dulles, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Go to united.com to book your flight and get detailed schedule information.
GANDALF THE GRAPES
A legendary actor gets into
the London bar game
Last year Sir Ian McKellen, Shake-
spearean thespian and
The Lord of
the Rings
star, got some distressing
news. The proprietor of his beloved
local watering hole, The Grapes, was
retiring, and the pub, built in 1720
and featured in Dickens’
Our Mutual
Friend,
was in danger of shutting
down. So McKellen teamed up
with director Sean Mathias, bought
out the lease, restored the bar and
reopened it earlier this year.
Then, fresh off of filming the
forthcoming adaptation of
The
Hobbit
, McKellen got word that the
company that owns the rights to
J.R.R. Tolkien’s books was suing a
long-standing
Hobbit
-themed pub in
Southampton for copyright infringe-
ment. After an outcry, McKellen and
Hobbit
co-star Stephen Fry offered
to pay the licensing fees for the pub.
“It’s clearly not a place to ill-treat
hobbits, elves, dwarves and wizards
in any way,” McKellen
said. “So what’s the
problem?”
CUSHY JOB
Above, a pillow-packed room at the
South Kensington hotel Blakes; left, Rough Trade
East, a music shop off Brick Lane