LONDON
London - Luxury Travel Magazine
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In London for the Social Season | |||||
| By: Ben Crawford, Issue 41 – Summer 2010 | |||||
| (London, England) | |||||
| THE LONDON SOCIAL SEASON PROVIDES AN OPPORTUNITY NOT ONLY TO WITNESS GRAND BRITISH TRADITIONS, BUT TO PARTICIPATE AND ENJOY. BEN CRAWFORD HAS THE LOWDOWN ON WHICH EVENTS TO ATTEND, HOW TO GET IN AND WHAT TO WEAR. | |||||
| Originally the privileged playground of the British ruling class, the London Social Season is today enjoyed by traditionalists, socialites, and high net worth individuals from Russia, America, Western Europe – in fact, from all over the world. For those interested in experiencing the origins of many of the trappings of Society and willing to pay for the privilege, the London Season offers great fun, indulgence and networking opportunities while maintaining the standards used as a global benchmark for taste and decorum. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the London Social Season coincided with the sitting of Parliament, when the landed gentry occupied their London mansions, and introduced their daughters who were “of age” at Court and then to the eligible bachelors of their class in a season of sporting and cultural events and balls – starting at Easter and ending on the Glorious Twelfth (of August) when the city was evacuated for the start of grouse hunting season. The last fifty years have seen the erosion of these rituals. Our ever-practical Queen put an end to presenting debs at court in the mid-fifties, and with the demise of the authoritative social columns of Tatler and Harpers and Queens magazines (to say nothing of feminism and the social acceptance of sex before marriage), the idea of virginal teenage girls attending a horse race to find a suitable husband are well and truly over. That said, those who include romance in their travel plans may definitely encounter like-minded singles at many London Society events, including renowned beauties, polo players and rowers. It is with a rowing event that the Season kicks off - The Boat Race, which is the traditional four mile contest between Oxford and Cambridge, first run in 1829, and this year held on April 3rd. This year’s Oxford squad notably includes the Winklevoss twins from the USA – an identical pair also known for having settled out of court with the founder of Facebook, after alleging that he stole their idea for a social networking site. Meanwhile, the Cambridge University Boat Club President is also an American, Deaglan McEachern, who won that position after working on another successful Presidential campaign – for Barak Obama. He has put the Cambridge squad through the Royal Marine Commando training camp to help give them an edge in the 2010 race. The race is free to watch from any number of vantage points in the South West of London, from Putney Bridge to Chiswick Bridge. A full hospitality package is available from the Fulham Football Club, which includes viewing the varsity football match as well as the Boat Race. The best experience is to stop for lunch in one of the pubs by the finish line, head to the marquees for the end of the race, then kick on to the official party of your alma mater (or of the winning team if you have divided loyalties). Oxbridge collegiate wear is worn, which these days means shopping at Hackett rather than revisiting Brideshead Revisited. The next major Social event takes place two months later – the Charity Gala Preview of the Chelsea Flower Show, the pinnacle of the garden designer’s art, held this year on the evening of Monday 24 May, 2010. Tickets to the opening are so hotly contested that they are allocated by lottery, and they are already sold out for 2010, so you will need to lobby your connected friends to take you with them. If you do get in, the dress code is cocktail attire with a tie for gents, and dresses with a nod towards the pastoral for ladies. Lovers of beautiful gardens can attend the members’ days on the Tuesday and Wednesday. The Opera Festival in Glyndebourne, an hour South of London, goes from May 20 to the end of August, with highlights this year including a new production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and revivals of Cosí fan tutte, Macbeth, Hänsel und Gretel and The Rake’s Progress, plus a production of Britten’s Billy Budd for those so inclined. The dress code is black tie, with dresses worn short or long, though protective clothing for cold and rain may also be needed. After the performance, you can spend the night at a local hotel or B&B, or join the crowd on the coach journey back to London. The biggest party of the London Social Season is the Preview for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, held on June 13th. As well as presenting the finest art works selected from over 10,000 entries – in a tradition that dates back without interruption to 1769 – the Preview is often enjoyed as a wild dress-up occasion. While London socialites brave every kind of weather in flesh-revealing cocktail dresses, the RA gala allows them to make the most of the warm Summer evening, providing a spectacle of décolletages and bare legs to rival the Miss Venezuela pageant. There is affordable General Public Access and excellent VIP hospitality available at most of the London Social Season events. But as always the most prized tickets are “Members Only” and “By invitation only.” These notably include the Royal Garden Parties hosted by the Queen on the lawns of Buckingham Palace in July, the Royal Enclosure at Royal Ascot (15-19 June), and the Trooping the Colour ceremonies – the Colonel’s Review (5 June), which is the final dress rehearsal, and the Queen’s Birthday Parade (12 June). One way to access these events is to obtain one of the limited number of invitations held by the Australian High Commission in London. You need a character reference or two to enhance your application, and naturally a life of selfless devotion to charity work carries a little more weight than a hefty bank balance or Big Brother appearances. Members of the Victoria Racing Club also enjoy the facility to purchase Royal Enclosure badges direct from Royal Ascot. Whichever avenue you choose for acquiring your tickets, they cost £88 per day or £330 for five days (with discounts for under-25s). For that, as well as watching the races, you get what one Member described as “an almost obscene standard of luxury, offering an oasis of air-conditioned calm during the heat and hustle and bustle of the Royal Meeting.” The dress code for the Royal Enclosure includes formal day dress for ladies, with shoulder and thigh coverage required, and a hat or “substantial fascinator”. Men wear a three-piece morning suit in black or grey, with a top hat – which of course they cannot actually wear inside the Enclosure. The Society event with the greatest global following is Wimbledon – held this year between June 21 and July 4. As well as the pleasures of seeing the Williams sisters battling it out up close and absorbing the unique atmosphere of Centre Court while you discover that no amount of strawberries and cream can counter-act the buzz of bottomless glasses of Pimms and French champagne, visitors get to enjoy the added benefit of witnessing the British nation’s hopes rise and fall with yet another promising local player who fails to deliver the trophy. The majority of Centre, No.1 and No.2 Court tickets are sold in advance via a public ballot, for which applications must be mailed by December 15 the year prior. Tickets are also available through some tennis clubs, as part of packages from Newmarket Travel and for The Gatsby Club, Skyview Suites and the Centre Court Debenture Lounge and Restaurant, via corporate hospitality vendors Keith Prowse and Sportsworld. Prices range from under a hundred pounds to around three thousand per head for the finals. The Henley Royal Regatta offers five days of rowing from 30 June to 4 July, drawing on the best athletes from all over the world. The Finals are held over the weekend, and on a fine afternoon, 100,000 spectators may attend. Most watch the races and picnic on the river banks flanking the two kilometre course. But various hospitality options are also available, ranging from the Regatta Enclosure, which costs £15-20 a head and seats 2,000 in grandstand, bar and restaurant facilities, to a range of corporate hospitality offerings including catered boats on the course. The elite watch the races from the Stewards’ Enclosure, which is the closest vantage point to the finish line and serves up 25,000 pints of Pimm’s and 4,500 bottles of champagne over the five days of the Regatta. Access is reserved for Members and their guests only, and every effort is taken to replicate the atmosphere of an Edwardian garden party. Men wear lounge suits, jackets or blazers with flannels and a tie or cravat. Ladies wear dresses or suits and will not be admitted if their skirts have a hemline above the knee or if wearing trousers of any kind. Narrow heels are also not advised as they can sink into the turf. Sunday July 25 is the date of Cartier International Day at Guards Polo Club, the world’s largest spectator polo day. The action on the field is without parallel, with leading players from across the globe competing. The most prized tickets are invitations from Cartier, which are sent to leading lights from the worlds of literature, stage, screen and sport. Previous guests have included HRH Prince William, Elton John, Pierce Brosnan, Cate Blanchett, Angelica Houston and Orlando Bloom. After the matches, guests linger at the Club to enjoy the evening in the marquee hosted by notorious London nightspot Chinawhite or the HPA’s Official Players and Grooms Enclosure. VIP catered tickets for a full day’s wining and dining are available from Keith Prowse for £399 per head. Dress code is cocktail, to transition day to evening, and ties are rarely worn. Though they retain the elegant trappings of history, most of the Social Season events live on today thanks to corporate hospitality and the patronage of spectators willing to pay for VIP access. Needless to say there are still attendees who deplore this “commercialism” and “the decline of exclusivity.” And Australians and Americans are more likely than most to be on the receiving end of their snobbism. To avoid or cope with this resentment, simply follow the local rules of dress and behavior, be courteous and friendly to everybody, and enjoy yourself conspicuously – as nothing galls snobs more than seeing the “newcomers” having a good time. | |||||
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