An Eccentric Restaurateur
This is the entrance to Langan’s Brasserie; one of those London restaurants which has acquired something of a cult status:
Situated just off of Piccadilly on Stratton Street, Langan’s was opened in October 1976 by Peter Langan; a charismatic entrepreneur from Ireland.
Peter’s new venture was in partnership with none other than the actor, Sir Michael Caine (a figure who, as regular readers will know, has cropped up in a number of my recent blog posts- Sir Michael is clearly one of London’s most influential sons!)
Peter Langan was a genius businessman; flamboyant and controversial.
One of his more bizarre stunts was to crawl across the restaurant’s floor, biting the ankles of his customers. He was also famed for putting out a fire in the eatery’s kitchen- with a bottle of vintage champagne.
In a particularly notorious episode, a customer discovered a cockroach and subsequently presented his find to the restaurant’s owner. Peter Langan responded by eating the offending creepy-crawly! (This was of course, many years before the bug-munching antics of ITV’s I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!)
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Sitting in the heart of Mayfair, Peter Langan made sure that his restaurant was becoming of its plush location.
The walls of the restaurant are decked out with some fine examples of 20th century art- including works by David Hockney, Lucien Freud and Francis Bacon. Peter had acquired many of his valuable paintings at his previous establishment; Odin’s (still open, on Devonshire Street), where he maintained a policy of accepting artwork in lieu of cash.
To this day, Langan’s upholds a policy of encouraging new art; maintaining a wall by the bar upon which up and coming artists can display their work (even ‘wacky’ children’s entertainer Timmy Mallet– a surprisingly good artist- has exhibited his canvases there!)
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Peter Langan liked to play as hard as he worked, and was a shockingly heavy drinker. So bad was his alcoholism, that he could often be spotted during service… fast asleep beneath one of the brasserie’s tables.
Perhaps inevitably, it was this out of control boozing which led to Peter’s death in December 1988.
After a huge, drunken argument with his wife (in which she threatened to leave him), he set fire to his house and perished in the subsequent blaze.
He was 47 years old.
Peter Langan, 1984 (photo owned by the National Portrait Gallery)
Although Peter Langan died almost 25 years ago, and Sir Michael Caine sold his share of the business in 2003, Langan’s Brasserie is still going strong today.
Waterloo Sunset
Of all the bridges which span London’s infamous River Thames, my favourite, without a shadow of a doubt, is Waterloo Bridge.
Over the years, there have been two of these beauties.
The first was masterminded by John Rennie; a Scotsman and genius architect, famed for his work on docks and river crossings.
The original Waterloo Bridge was opened on the 18th June 1817, the ceremony being preformed by the Prince Regent; son of King George III.
King George was a monarch who suffered from serious bouts of mental illness- a tragic affliction which his son took great advantage of.
Whilst his father was ill, the Prince Regent perused his own form of madness, gambling away his dad’s cash on high-stake card games and grandiose construction schemes… crazy stuff, although his delusional building ambitions did eventually result in the creation of Regent’s Street, Regent’s Park and the Brighton Pavillion!
In 1899, the celebrated French Impressionist artist, Claude Monet came to London. Setting up camp in the luxury Savoy Hotel, Monet painted a number of London scenes including several of the nearby Waterloo Bridge:
Waterloo Bridge, Sunlight Effect. One of a series by Claude Monet, painted between 1899-1901
By 1923, the piers which supported the old bridge were beginning to sink and, in 1936, the crossing had to be demolished (albeit to much protest).
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The current Waterloo Bridge was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and, being built during the early 1940s, when World War Two was raging and most of the male workforce were conscripted into the armed forces, construction was primarily carried out by female labour gangs… hence the crossing being nicknamed “The Ladies’ Bridge” (and a truly superb job they did too).
In my humble opinion, the view from Waterloo Bridge is the best in London, and I always get a tingle when I drive across it.
Being situated over a bend in the River Thames, the panorama allows a broad, sweeping view of both the financial City and Royal Westminster.
The historical elegance of St Paul’s Cathedral and the Houses of Parliament are gorgeously presented from Waterloo Bridge, as are the more recent additions of the London Eye and soaring skyscrapers.
Whenever I drive over Waterloo Bridge (and not a working-day goes by when I don’t), I frequently think of the 1967 song, ‘Waterloo Sunset’ by ‘The Kinks’; a beautiful (although melancholy) tune, which perfectly sums up the allure of this breathtaking Thames crossing (and, of course, contains the wonderful line; “taxi lights shine so bright”….)
View from the Mirror 