A celeb-studded party, a very famous restaurant and discovering the story of Peter the Wild Boy

Posted on 24/05/10

Most of the Chelsea Football team joined celeb stylist Jada Pollock at her new(ish) shop, Jada Styles, to celebrate its launch. We didn’t see any of the team drinking alcohol and Michael Essien was particularly generous with signing autographs for the crowds forming outside the King’s Road boutique, even bringing one of the boys inside the store.

First Wednesdays, the news arts initiative celebrating art and culture with late openings on the first Wednesday of the month, kicked off this month with a soft launch, but is rapidly growing momentum. I’m looking forward to wandering around Notting Hill in the evening of Wednesday 5 June.

In the meantime, exhibition previews have been going ahead on their usual days (Thursday seems to be the favourite day for previews). Flow gallery got into the spirit of summer with a toast to their Contemporary Art for the Garden exhibition, while Zara Simon held a private sale with her creative friends selling Chinti and Parker (who are delighted to now be stocked at net-a-porter) and Casimira. Chloe Lonsdale of MiH Jeans was spotted chatting about fashion with Zara. After buying a super-soft jersey top and gold hoops, we headed to nearby Wolf & Badger on Ledbury Road for the launch of their new collections. It was hard to get to the bar, let alone view the collections due to the crowd. Zosia, who looks after the PR for the store, remarked that only a quarter of the guest list had arrived so far – thank god!

I recently escaped London for a very leisurely and theatrical lunch at Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck in Bray (13 courses over four hours) to celebrate a friend’s birthday. The famous snail porridge was on our tasting menu along with the Sound of the Sea – a shoreline foodscape of seaweed foam and tapioca-style sand with accompanying earphones to listen to the seashore. My personal favourite courses were the Mad Hatter Tea, which included a gold leaf teabag containing our gravy, and the pretty tafferty tart dessert. Would I return? Not for the taste alone – although the strange concoctions worked. Perhaps with a friend who hasn’t been before.

In between meeting friends in Hyde Park (top tip from one friend is to settle near bushes which afford some cover from footballs and frisbees), a friend and I visited Enchanted Palace, the fairy tale-like installation at Kensington Palace, which give an insight into the lives of seven princesses who once lived there. We were particularly intrigued by the story of Peter the Wild Boy, who was found naked in the woods near Hanover, Germany in 1725 and brought to the courts of King George I and of his son and daughter-in-law, the Prince and Princess of Wales. Apparently, he understood what was said to him quite well but only ever learnt to say the words ‘Peter’ and ‘King George’. You can check out the painting of Peter the Wild Boy on the east wall of the King’s Staircase.