Big Ben under scaffolding
Wednesday, 25 May 1955
Breakfast not bad, not good, and the dining room certainly nicer than our room. Bought a great Aquascutum raincoat in London from a pompous salesman. Notice quite a lot of disdain for us in the shops. Ruth buying out the store at Liberty’s. She had heard from Pat, the Australian nurse, that everyone has tea at Lyon’s. We did. It was pretty bad. Dinner at a Greek restaurant, Hellenique, where it was very obvious that they don’t like Yanks. Indifferent Greek food, lousy service, cheap prices, but a total waste of time.
Saw and enjoyed The Boy Friend at Wyndham’s Theater starring one of Julie Andrews' replacements as she toured the States. We have inner circle seats for about US$ 4.00. We could see everything very well and up close. Everyone rushes out as soon as the play is over (it wasn’t that bad!) and hurtles down speedy and steep escalators into the subway. These guys are in more of a rush than New Yorkers!
The men seem to do a lot of posing. Military uniforms are everywhere but most of them are on parking lot attendants and messengers, complete with chevrons and fruit salad. They don’t seem friendly to each other either and charge the air with their umbrellas as if they were wielding bayonets at an unruly crowd in Belfast.
Right, "Teddy Boys" had an Edwardian uniform of their own. They favored brocaded vests, pipe-stem trousers and swung heavy key chains in a menacing manner. They were definitely to be avoided, as they overran London and the cities of the industrial north.