![]() ![]() How much? Sandwiches around £6, main courses and burgers around £14ĩ-10 Storey Gate, SW1P 3AT, .uk In-between, the ground-floor bar serves pints of Spitfire ale brewed in Kent from owner Shepherd Neame, Britain’s oldest brewer. Before rushing back to work, MPs might have tucked into fish and chips, sausages and mash, ham and eggs or a steak and ale pie, either ensconced in one of the conspiratorial booths in the flag-floored basement wine bar or at a properly set table in the first-floor dining room. The Westminster Arms is one of six local pubs containing a division bell that alerts MPs when a vote is about to be taken the view of Big Ben disappeared when the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre was built opposite, but there’s still a view of Westminster Abbey for the drinkers congregating outside. ![]() Legend has it that this pub is haunted by the ghost of a small boy who died in a fire here, though it’s the spectre of long-forgotten political careers that lends the pub its nostalgic atmosphere. The Old Westminster Library, 30-32 Great Smith Street, SW1P 3BU, How much? Starters around £13, mains around £28, desserts around £10 Even the most ardent opposer of local-government cuts would have to admit that the book-lined dining room looks far swisher than its previous incarnation, while there’s a clubby bar dispensing subtly spiced cocktails served at leather tub chairs. There’s a vegan menu, too, a vegetarian tasting menu, and a two/three course set lunch for £30/£35 to avoid the steep à la carte prices. The spicing and sauces of the subcontinent are grafted on to well-sourced ingredients from Europe, with just as much attention given to texture as flavour: chargrilled chalk stream trout with carom seed, samphire and pickled radish, say, or double-cooked pork belly with masala mash, raw mango and chilli sambal. This part of town is unusually well-served with high-end Indians - Michelin-starred Quilon and Atul Kochhar’s Mathura are well worth a look - but the template was set when The Cinnamon Club opened in the Old Westminster Library in 2001 and swiftly established itself as the curry house of choice for the House of Commons. Heaven for the hungry, hungover and anyone on a tight budget, but note that the Regency currently closes at 2.30pm. If the place feels familiar, the lino-and-formica interiors have starred in everything from Vogue shoots to Guy Ritchie movies. Orders are barked out from behind the counter when they’re ready to be collected full English breakfasts are the house special no matter the time of day, with chubby sausages and runny-yoked eggs bounded by moats of baked beans and slices of fried bread, but an honourable mention must go to school-style puddings with custard, and it’s all washed down with tea poured from a giant metal pot. Whoever you are, the rules are the same: queue up to place your order, spend the waiting time deciding what to eat and don’t panic that there won’t be a seat: somehow a table always comes free. And the Regency is a gem, pulling in everyone from builders and black-cab drivers to civil servants and members of parliament. New West End Company BRANDPOST | PAID CONTENTĪ pint in a pub or a fish-and-chip supper might feature near the top of any tourist must-do list in London but for an authentic taste of retro Britishness, a greasy-spoon café is hard to beat.The honour has been extended to a handful of foreign leaders, including French President Charles de Gaulle in 1960, South African leader Nelson Mandela in 1996 and US President Barack Obama in 2011.įollowing in his mother’s footsteps 10 years after her last speech in the historic venue, Charles III listened as the Speakers of the Commons and Lords offered their condolences on her death - and their best wishes to her successor. The Queen’s father George VI was the first royal to address both Houses in Westminster Hall, nine days after the end of the Second World War. The monarch spoke in the oldest part of the Palace of Westminster, where his namesake King Charles I was tried and convicted at the end of the Civil War. ![]() Speaking at a rare joint session of both Houses of Parliament, he pointed to memorials all around him of the late Queen - testament to her record-breaking 70 years on the throne. ![]() King Charles III admitted “feeling the weight of history” as he addressed MPs and peers in 900-year-old Westminster Hall today. ![]()
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