Wigmore last

The end of June saw the last Wigmore Hall concert of the season before the summer break, luckily on a day which was a bit cooler after the heat before: we had not fancied the prospect of travelling into London on a day with full-on sun. Inter alia, there was the particular stretch of tunnel in the Oxford Circus tube station, just before the escalators which carry you up to near street level, which can get unpleasantly hot. I had never come over faint there, but one did wonder.

To hear the Consone Quartet give us Haydn Op.33 No.5 and Mozart K458. Regular search of the archive using the Windows search facility not available as the archive is presently offline, but I did turn up reference 1, from the days when St. Luke's was still offering concerts which attracted me on a regular basis. It must be a few years now since I last sampled the fine bacon sandwiches of the Market Restaurant in Whitecross Street. Maybe the long serving proprietor will have retired by the time I get back to the place.

Starting from the Eclipse car park on West Hill, first up was the blackberries, not actually picked until later in the day, but noticed at reference 3.

Then this curious coach, with the windows so arranged that they were invisible from the outside. Or at least, that was how it appeared.

Google Images explains that it is a 'Volvo B8RLE MCV Evora single-deck shuttle bus, which operates as part of the Gatwick Hoppa airport transfer fleet'.

Regarding the windows he offers what is snapped above. A triumph of marketing and design over common sense?

Next the missing hoarding around the Network Rail depot on the pavement leading up to the railway station on Station Approach. A depot that might have been there for more than twenty years, possibly having been allowed there in the first place because it was described as being temporary. So are we going to get a new hoarding or is the depot finally going to go? Give the roots of the neighbouring trees a break?

Nearer the station, a trolley from Waitrose out of Wanzl. Age unknown, but it was inspected by the Wanzl service crew in February last year.

139 bus from Waterloo - BH having found the right exit from the rail station to the small bus station, Waterloo Bridge side - served us well, dropping us off in Oxford Street, not far from John Lewis. We were treated to a modest sized band from the Salvation Army, perhaps amounting to a call to prayer at their Regent Hall opposite - for which see reference 4.

Then one of those irritating buses with an all over paint job advertising something or other. I find them rather distracting, rather irritating. There is quite enough visual and aural clutter on our roads without adding to it gratuitously: give the older brains a break!

The coach noticed above was bad, but this bus was much worse. Very florid, maybe dragons and such.

No sign of life or movement at what was Ponti's.

All Bar One on good form, with our taking our usual window table. Not many joggers, although there was plenty of summer dressing. Plenty of tattoos, much to BH's disgust: she can't break the association with the sort of people who used to work the funfairs of her youth.

In the Hall, for some reason, on this occasion, to my surprise, I got on better with the Haydn than with the Mozart. Can't see why this morning when I try reference 2, Dell loudspeakers notwithstanding. But a proper summer, Sunday morning concert, also notwithstanding.

We had by chance discovered that there was a branch of Prezzemolo & Vitale in Wigmore Street, not far from the Hall. Mystery how we had missed it, given that we learned that it had been there for around a year. In any event, we decided to buy something light for lunch and take it outside, among the modest number of pavement chairs and tables provided.

BH took a hot ham and cheese toastie, on focaccia, Italian style, and was very happy with that. While I attempted to repeat the performance noticed at reference 5, failing badly on the bread front, which had probably been sliced and bagged the day before. Rather stale. Luckily the salami I had chosen was moist and plentiful. The perils of trying to repeat something that had been good!

Service very good, provided by ladies of middle years who really knew how to work a counter. A pleasure to be served by them. Or even swizzed.

Followed by another 139 bus. On which we passed something at Trafalgar Square, either something past or something to come. Either way, crowd control has clearly come on a bit since my demonstrating days.

And a stop at Raynes Park where the platform library (aka RPPL) was open, but did not have anything of interest to me.

Blackberries on the way home, already mentioned.

Followed, much later, by scrambled eggs on toast. The stale white did rather well, lightly toasted, in this new situation.

PS 1: getting better with the touchpad on my new-to-me Dell laptop, but I have to concentrate more than I do with the mouse - that I had been using for more than thirty years, and which must have become second nature. Which makes use more tiring. But I dare say that will wear off if I stick at it.

PS 2: regarding reference 6, having assassinated one of the other side's leaders, it seems rather spiteful to disrupt his funeral as well. Don't suppose this will play well in much of the rest of the world - say Pakistan and Indonesia - but then, I don't suppose what went before had either.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/01/a-near-thing.html.

Reference 2: https://youtu.be/SjIBK7A8wl4. A Kuss Quartet version of the Mozart. Never noticed this version of the YouTube handle before - which changes into something else as soon as you fire it up. Some marketing trickery?

Reference 3:  https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/06/hot-news.html.

Reference 4: https://www.salvationarmy.org.uk/regent-hall.

Reference 5: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/06/blue-maid.html.

Reference 6: US strikes Iranian railway bridges on route to city of Khamenei’s burial: Late supreme leader set to be interred in Mashhad on Thursday - Bita Ghaffari, Najmeh Bozorgmehr, Financial Times - 2026.