Fish stew

Cheese was calling just over a week ago, so off to Neal's Yard Dairy behind Borough Market, across the road from London Bridge.

As it happened, the London Bridge train was cancelled, so Waterloo East called for a change. On the platform there for London Bridge, I was taken back to the days when we were a good deal freer with our materials than we are now - thinking here particularly of all the steel going into the canopy, not much more than a fancy shed roof after all. Not to mention the fancy trim to the columns snapped above.

As it happened, I had been worrying about the authenticity of the seemingly wooden trim to the ceilings at London Bridge Station for a while - see, for example, reference 2 - but arriving at London Bridge in this way I got a close up of plenty of cut ends and it appeared that the trim was indeed wooden, not extruded white plastic with a brown finish after all.

No starlings at the Market on this occasion, but there was a good dose of builders to make up, causing some considerable obstruction. As well as my regular kilo of cheese, I also needed bread, it not being convenient to bake the day supply ran out, so I paid a visit to Olivier's stall, the people at reference 1 whom I use from time to time. I explained that I did not want sour dough, so I was directed to their 'rustic' which we have had before and liked, so I took a quarter loaf for £4 or so. Very good it proved to be too.

Out at Stockwell to admire the war memorial, clock tower and sculpture. You can read about the war memorial, I think once an entrance to a deep shelter underneath Stockwell Station, at reference 3. But the only label I could find for the statue told me no more than that it was a bronze woman.

However, a few seconds with Bing turns up the interesting reference 4. I clearly had not tried very hard. Heatherleys, the people at reference 5, of whom I had not previously heard, are part of the mix too.

From there, I headed down the South Lambeth Road, down towards the river that is, to be struck by the poor state of the front gardens of an otherwise handsome terrace of houses. What was the matter with the residents? Or was there so much trouble with vandalism that they just gave up?

Followed by a curious absence of front door on the other side of the road. One would have thought that for the half million or so asked for half of it at reference 6, they would have thrown in a front door.

Interesting looking menu at the Canton Arms, but very few customers inside - and the ones that I could see were drinking, not eating. Were they going to take enough to cover the cost of the kitchen staff? One might have thought that it would have been busier on a Friday lunchtime, but perhaps as a mainly residential area they don't do much lunchtime business during the week. But then, what about all the office types slacking away at home?

They took delivery of what looked like a couple of demi-john sized gas bottles, that is to say short and fat rather than tall and thin, said to be to do with fizzing up ladies' cocktails. Neither Bing nor Google turn up anything which looks what I saw arriving, so clearly something to probe when I am next there.

While I took a pint of warm beer, possibly Harvey's. And from there, on to the Estrela.

Where, for a change, I took a spot of red. Pretty good, with a surprisingly heavy bottle. From the people at reference 7: much easier to read the label on the back of the bottle, than to have to search for it afterwards!

From 2017, so quite an old bottle compared with that on offer this morning. Not much change to the label in the intervening years. On the other hand, they want 28.9€ for a bottle of the 2021 vintage, which suggests an unusually low markup at the Estrela. Perhaps they marked up what they paid for the stuff years and years ago? Or have I got it all wrong?

Taken with fish stew, with the fish being described as cod, although it did not seem much like cod to me. They have said in the past that they go to Billingsgate for the fish - now at Canary Wharf - so perhaps they started with the whole fish, so perhaps the stew included parts which I don't usually get to see.

The current location of the fish market, having moved from London Bridge. Now slated to move a bit further east to Albert Island, the move even further east to Dagenham having been canned. See reference 8. I also seem to remember that the City of London has some ancient duty - probably medieval - to hold meat and fish markets - a duty which they would quite like to get rid of. It seems that they have failed in this.

Fish stew good. And I was good for a dessert, although I was not best pleased with my passion fruit pudding, the recipe for which seemed to have changed. It might have just been the change that threw me, but I did not think the change was for the better.

[crumpet rings behind. Not used for a good while now]

In the margins, I learned about a chap who writes high brow crime thrillers called Pierre Lemaitre, previously noticed at reference 9. I can now add to that, that BH got through the first of her two books at a good rate and is now stuck into the second. While I have taken delivery of my boxed set from 'Livre de Poche' of 'Les Enfants du Désastre', second hand from the German outfit called Medimops, who pop up in Abebooks from time to time. In appearance brand new, complete with a little explanatory booklet. We shall see how I get on: I expect that today's French from a Frenchman will be tougher going than yesterday's French from a Belgian, a Belgian whom, I seem to recall, took trouble to make his books easy to read. That is to say, in my case, mostly Maigret.

Out to admire, as usual, the late afternoon Vauxhall skyline. Plus two of the Estrela's fine custard tarts for BH.

I managed the long flight of stairs up to the platforms at the station, albeit with the odd rest on the way. Just caught a crowded train to Epsom.

Across the passage from me, there was a clutch of nimbies from Langley Vale, earnestly discussing Epsom affairs. Ladies, who had a chap with them who was moderating their discussion: perhaps he was a local councillor, used to this sort of thing. I would not have the patience - but it was local democracy at work - and I did manage to interject the odd crack into the conversation.

PS: from the Estrela, to peruse the article at reference 10. Is it the people snapped above who are going to end up on top? People who might have an uncongenial view of the world, unpleasant even, but people who have been fighting for that view for a long time.And there are a lot of them, just like there are a lot of Maga people n the US.

References

Reference 1: https://www.oliviersbakery.com/.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/09/tower-bridge.html.

Reference 3: https://memoirsofametrogirl.com/2020/02/18/stockwell-war-memorial-deep-level-shelter-world-war-ii-history/.

Reference 4: https://www.southlondonclub.co.uk/blog/a-deeper-look-into-stockwells-bronze-woman-statue.

Reference 5: https://www.heatherleys.org/about-us/.

Reference 6: https://www.winkworth.co.uk/properties/sales/south-lambeth-road-london-sw8/KEN250527.

Reference 7: https://carmim.eu/.

Reference 8: https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/supporting-businesses/wholesale-markets/the-future-of-smithfield-and-billingsgate-markets.

Reference 9: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/03/second-outing.html.

Reference 10: The guards rise again: the force still shaping Iran: Should the regime survive, hardliners believe the IRGC’s influence will be ever greater - Najmeh Bozorgmehr, Andrew England, Financial Times - 2026.