Lewis Rosanna - James Sherwoods discriminating guide to London : an unbashed companion to the very finest experiences in the worlds most cosmopolitan city

Sir John Soanes Museum

About the Author

James Sherwood is the archivist at Henry Poole & Co. and a consultant for Anderson & Sheppard and the Savoy hotel. He is editor-at-large for The Rake and contributes to the Daily Telegraph and World of Interiors. He was the BBC fashion critic at Royal Ascot for eight years and regularly appears as a royal style and fashion critic on British and American television. His previous books include Bespoke: The Mens Style of Savile Row, Fashion at Royal Ascot, and The Perfect Gentleman: The Pursuit of Timeless Elegance and Style in London.

What a coincidence that the new James Sherwoods Discriminating Guide to London should be written by a James Sherwood who is not me!

I am an American who came to Europe in the 1960s and established a shipping company called Sea Containers. I was based in Paris initially, and as a stranger there I relied on the excellent Gault-Millau guide to the city. When I shifted my office to London in the 1970s I found there was no truly discriminating guide comparable to Gault-Millau.

I met a talented journalist, Susan Blackburn, a fellow American. We commiserated with each other on the lack of such a guide, so I decided to commission her to write one. Susan had many friends among important journalists of the day, so she assigned them restaurants to review, their only payment being the cost of the meal. When it came to ranking the establishments by stars, both she and I sampled them. I said I got tired walking the long corridors of huge museums and wanted a shortlist of must-see things on display. When it came to shops, Susan asked her socialite lady friends to recommend the best ones.

I then approached William Heinemann, the British publishers, to publish the book, and they agreed to print 5,000 provided I bought 20 per cent. I did so and sent copies to my customers, friends and associates around the world. That was in 1975. Much to my surprise, Heinemann said the books had sold out, and asked me to produce a new edition, which both Heinemann and Grosset & Dunlap in New York published in 1977. This time 50,000 copies were printed, and they sold out as well. I had visions of Susan continuing to produce the guide, updating it every two years, but she tragically died and with her my guide until now.

In 2014 I received two handsome books published by Thames & Hudson, which seemed to be dedicated to me on the dust jackets. But a few days later my namesake James Sherwood contacted me and identified himself as the author of the books. He said that Thames & Hudson wanted to take up the reins of my original guide, with him as the author. I readily endorsed the project.

In 1976 I had bought the Hotel Cipriani in Venice, which later became the flagship of a company I founded called Orient-Express Hotels (now called Belmond). Partly because of the success of my Discriminating Guide I decided to create a group of hotels and travel experiences that would appeal to discriminating travellers. I brought back into operation the famed Orient-Express train in 1982. Eventually, the company owned fifty properties in twenty-five countries, and it continues to prosper under the name Belmond. We own the Manoir aux Quat Saisons in Oxfordshire, and that would have been included in Jamess restaurant list had it been in London.

Producing the new James Sherwoods Discriminating Guide to London must have been an enormous task for James. I recall all the galleys that had to be proofed in Susans day, and the debates about which places were to be included or excluded. Of the twenty-five starred restaurants in the edition of 1977 only eight remain, thanks to the Roux brothers and their sons (Le Gavroche), Richard Caring (Scotts) and a few hotel owners (Connaught). Le Gavroche charged 28 for dinner for two in 1977, plus wine, while Scotts was 22 plus wine. Today, the appetizer alone costs more than that.

In the years since 1977 some restaurants have drifted away from French towards Italian and from Chinese to Japanese, although there are still excellent examples of the former. Brasseries have become increasingly popular. Show-biz cuisine has emerged, with unusually shaped plates, bizarre food combinations, frothy emanations, amuse-bouches, pre-desserts, cloches (silver domes) on plates and often so much noise that it is impossible to hold a conversation. I predict that much of this will pass, and the survivors will be those establishments with consistent track records of preparing delicious cuisine and serving it unostentatiously in a pleasing environment. Jamess recommendations meet these criteria.

Whether it be for food, museums or shopping, I think you will find the new James Sherwoods Discriminating Guide of great assistance, whether you are a visitor or a Londoner. I will certainly be using it myself.

James B. Sherwood

Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Belmond Ltd
(formerly Orient-Express Hotels Ltd)

London is a city of echoes: one that does not repeat itself, but often rhymes. When my writing career in London was in its infancy, a dinner-party guest arrived at a kitchen supper in Clapham with a curious book, published in 1977 and entitled James Sherwoods Discriminating Guide to London: Fine Dining and Shopping, with a Special Section on Museums and Art Galleries. I was familiar with my coincidental namesake, the man who single-handedly saved the Orient Express, chaired the charity Venice in Peril and owned the historic Orient-Express Hotels portfolio, including the Cipriani in Venice, the Htel du Palais in Biarritz and the Copacabana Palace in Rio. I was not aware, however, that Mr Sherwoods discriminating guide was the 1970s jet-set bible for dining, drinking and dancing in London.

When Louis Vuitton first asked me to contribute to the companys City Guides in 2004, I began following in Mr Sherwoods footsteps around London. At the time of writing I still am, as we begin work on the Louis Vuitton Guide to London 2016. Occasionally, when lost for words, I turn to Mr Sherwoods book for amusement and inspiration. I now know that the authoritative, witty and occasionally caustic tone of James Sherwoods Discriminating Guide to London was largely thanks to the late editor Susan Blackburn, who could, like the Dowager Countess of Grantham, produce a withering quip with admirable brevity and accuracy.

It is nearly forty years since the last edition of James Sherwoods Discriminating Guide to London was published in the UK and the USA. I wrote to Mr Sherwood, enclosing my previous Thames & Hudson books, in early 2014. We met and he kindly allowed me to use the title and shamelessly copy the compact hardback format that fits into a deep pocket, attach case or handbag. He also agreed to write a foreword to the edition of 2015. Although all the text is new, we have kept Mr Sherwoods amusing etymology of London restaurants, such as Where to eat when youve come into an inheritance, Where to eat with your lover and Where to eat in the company of beautiful people. When Mr Sherwood wrote the original guide, the few smart addresses that allowed such informal attire as blue jeans merited their own special section. Today restaurants in which blue jeans are not acceptable are sadly few, so we have instead included a section entitled Where to eat in evening dress.

Susan Blackburns note to the