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Nightlife
Who once claimed that anyone tired of London was tired of life? Actually, it was Samuel Johnson and he wasn't wrong. With its myriad theatres, opera houses and concert halls, not to mention a multitude of watering holes many of them survivors of Dr Johnson's own era London is surely one of the foremost entertainment capitals of the world.
Not that thing has not changed radically since Dr Johnson's time or, indeed, since the glorious days of Hair and Oh, Calcutta. Certainly, the
bright lights of London are not what they were in the Swinging 60s. Gone are the expresso bars, the smoke filled speakeasies and the shrines to popular music. Gone, too, are the psychedelic and the hirsute, replaced by endless waves of Yuppies and Yappies undulating from wine bar to wine bar. And yet, after the cultural and social dearth that was the 70s, London nightlife is as lively as ever it was. Despite the savage cuts which have long threatened to erode British theatre, the theatres themselves are full again and London is even exporting some of its top musicals and dramas to Broadway.
Theatre, of course, is what London does best after dark and in any given week choice ranges from Shakespeare to Alan Ayckbourn to Sam Shepard to the latest Tom Stoppard. The Royal Shakespeare Company, or RSC, predictably enough, is the principal purveyor of Shakespeare although it does throw in the occasional classic or modern drama. Based at the Barbican the RSC is a subsidized theatre company with two theatres, one of which shows the more traditional dramas while the other, The Pit, provides theatre of a more experimental nature.
The only other nationally subsidized theatre in London is run by the National Theatre Company on the South Bank, although recent cuts have endangered one of its present three theatres. Shakespeare is not a main feature of the National, which tends to produce English drama and foreign plays with additional talks, poetry recitals and play readings as well as exhibitions and chamber music.
Otherwise, most of the commercial theatres tend to cluster around the Shaftesbury Avenue, St Martin's Lane and Strand area, providing several square miles of farce, light comedy and serious drama. Further out, fringe theatre is making something of a comeback on the so called alternative scene and places like the Lyric Studio , the Gate Theatre Club, above the Prince Albert Pub , also the Donmar Warehouse and the Tricycle Theatre are all worth investigating.
Tickets, however, are not always the easiest thing in the world to come by, particularly for same night performances, and are virtually impossible for the latest Lloyd Webber extravaganza. The
ticket booth in Leicester Square sells half price (plus 50p) tickets at 2p.m. for same night performances and ticket agencies which normally charge between 10 and 15 per cent commission often get returns, so are worth trying if all else fails. Before trying either of these routes, though, would be theatre goers should check with box offices not every West End production is an instant sell out.
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As far as music goes, aficionados can more or less take their pick. London has four resident orchestras the Royal Philharmonic, the Philharmonia, the London Symphony and the London Philharmonic. The Barbican, the Festival Hall, the Albert Hall and Fairfields Hall all provide concerts of consistently high standards.
The Royal Opera House is the home of the Royal Opera Company and the Royal Ballet. Same night tickets are not easily come by but 5 5 amphitheatre seats are on sale every morning, together with seats available in other parts of the house. For opera non purists, the English National Opera at the Coliseum has fine productions in English.
And so to alcohol (which really is inordinately expensive in the capital). It would take a very brave man indeed to attempt any sort of comprehensive pub crawl in the city centre there are hundreds of them; good, bad and distinctly seedy, so it is largely a case of hit and miss. There are, however, a cluster of thoroughly decent pubs, just off the Strand, which are well worth mentioning. Courage's Lamb & Flag (33 Rose Street; tel: 836 4108) in Rose Street and Charrington's White Swan (14 New Row; tel: 836 3291) are both excellent spots for a little imbibing while not far away, in Catherine Street, the Opera Tavern is one of the most interesting Victorian pubs in London.
Further out, the Cross Keys and the Surprise, both off Cheyne Walk in Chelsea, The Scarsdale (23 Edwardes Square; tel: 937 4513) and The Dove (19 Upper Mall, Hammersmith; tel: 748 4515) are all particularly well suited to summer quaffing.
Otherwise, it is the wine bar which is receiving most attention these days. Some are quite passable but most, it must be said, are downright indifferent, serving extremely poor wine at extortionate prices. Some of the best in London are run by one Don Hewitson, a New Zealander and ardent wine
lover who prides himself on providing a wide choice of good wines at fair price levels. The Cork and Bottle (44 Cranbourn Street; tel: 405 6598) just off Charing Cross Road, Methusela's (29 Victoria Street; tel: 222 0424) and Shampers (4 Kingly Street; tel: 437 1692) are all extremely pleasant, and what's more, the staff actually know something about the wines they are serving rather a novelty in this age of house red.
Bill Bentley's Wine Bar (31 Beauchamp Place; tel: 589 5080) and Draycott's (114 Draycott Avenue; tel: 584 5389) in Kensington both serve good wine at reasonable prices although Draycott's is something of a pick up joint for Sloanes. Sloane y, too, is the Ebury Wine Bar (139 Ebury Street; tel: 730 5447) but it does provide some very interesting wines including several uncommon French and a couple of English.
But the real place for wine bars is Covent Garden, a former fruit and vegetable market between St Martins Lane and the Strand. The central Victorian market building is Dow a popular, verging on the twee, conglomerate of expensive shops and slick cafes, while the piazza, London's first square, hosts a talented array of street musicians (buskers are obliged to audition for permission to play in Covent Garden).
Here it is that London's not quite beautiful people sip sweet and sticky cocktails in places like Rumours (33 Wellington Street; tel: 580,5796), continually voted 'Cocktail Bar of London' by readers of the London Standard's Ad Lib column, and Palookaville (13a James Street; tel: 240 3661) just opposite the tube station. The Crusting Pipe (Unit 27, Covent Garden Market; tel: 836 1415), Blakes (32 Wellington Street; tel: 836 5298) and Brahms and Liszt (19 Russell Street; tel: 240 3661) are all equally popular with slightly lesser mortals and, what's more, are all just as crowded.
Stamina (and wallet) permitting, those out for a little late night entertainment could do a lot worse than take in one of London's nightclubs although Annabels (44 Berkeley Square; tel: 629 2350) and Tramps (40jermyn Street; tel: 734 3174) are virtually impossible to get into as far as non members are concerned, unless, of course, you happen to be one of this season's 'in people'.
Cheaper, though not, I suspect, by much is Stringfellows (16 Upper St Martins Lane; tel: 240 5534), a favourite with media celebrities, young executives and last season's 'in people'.Perrier water here costs around 1.75 but guests
are in with a chance of meeting Peter StringfeIlow
himself. Music is loud although nowhere near the decibels pumped out at the Hippodrome in nearby Charing Cross Road.
For those with a taste for jazz rather than the latest thing in synthesizer technology, Ronnie Scotts is a highly respected jazz club featuring some of the best acts in town.
Finally, as dawn breaks, the Sun Rise, in Covent Garden's Long Acre, serves bacon and eggs, omelet’s, scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and coffee between 2 and 6a.m. and there are some revelers, I'm told, who can actually face such fare at this time of the morning.
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