"If you're a guy and you want something exclusive to
London, you
might have a look at Savile Row, where now a sort of battle rages
between Old World tailors, who are marvelous, like Huntsman and
Anderson & Sheppard, and the newer tailors who claim to have
all the old skills with a modern twist. There are people like
Richard James, who I use a lot. Fantastic clothes, fantastic
tailor. I make film companies use him, and then I steal the suits
at the end. For shirts and ties, you could go to Jermyn Street and
Turnbull & Asser or Harvie &
Hudson or New & Lingwood.
The difference is the collars mainly."
SPORTS
"If I could only do one thing in London, I would go to a game at
Fulham
Football Club. Oh, god, yeah. Football is such an integral
part of the British culture. It's always slightly startling to
people from abroad, the sheer passion that arouses. The Fulham
football ground just has a special association to me, because I was
born in Fulham, and I used to work at the ground, cleaning the
seats during the summer holidays. I still go to as many games as I
can."
DINNER
"Saturday night is always tricky in big cities. The French say,
'Les Samedi soires ne sont que pour les bonnes' - you know,
'Saturday night is only for maids.' Which is a horribly snobby
thing to say, but it's not the cool night to be out. Lots of people
go away from London for the weekend. I stay. I might go to Riva.
It's more obscure, but absolutely delicious Italian. If you want to
eat in Notting Hill, the most typical place is called 192. It's
full of
Bridget Jones types."
NIGHTLIFE
"I did comedy in a number of small theaters in London, like the
King's
Head Theater in Islington. That's worth a visit. It's a
theater in the back of a pub. The pub still charges in pounds,
shillings, and pence rather than decimal currency. Your pint will
cost two pounds, nine and sixpence. You'll see fringe theater, but
high-quality fringe theater. It's just down the road from the
Almeida, which is another famous, what you would call off-Broadway
place."