This Is London 4 September 2020

HARD ROCK CAFE PICCADILLY
CIRCUS REOPENS
Located in the heart of the West End in
Westminster, Piccadilly Circus was built in
1819 to connect Regent Street with
Piccadilly. The circle is well known for the
enormous video display and neon signs
lighting the shops and restaurant corners
on the North Side, as well as the
Shaftesbury memorial fountain and statue.
Surrounded by historic buildings such as
the London Pavilion and Criterion Theatre,
Piccadilly Circus is one of London’s iconic
locations. Hard Rock Cafe is situated right
in the heart of Piccadilly Circus, with a
large rock shop on the top floor and the
cafe below. This is London spoke to the
General Manager, Des Addis, about the
reopening of both London cafes.
Are there any changes to the menu
at Hard Rock after the reopening?
We have temporarily reduced our menu
offering, but it features all our guest
favourites and there’s something for
everyone, including our award-winning
Steak Burgers such as The Original
Legendary® Burger and The Big
Cheeseburger, our Vegan Moving
Mountains® Burger, Grilled Chicken
Sandwich, Classic Wings and more.
Do visitors need to book a table?
It is highly recommended to book a
table, which can be done via our website.
Walk-in’s are of course welcome, but in
order to manage table allocations and
queues with social distancing, we have
opened up our reservation system to
accept more bookings than ever before!
What is your favourite dish on the
menu at the Hard Rock Cafe?
It would have to be our signature Baby
Back Ribs. Our home-made barbeque
sauce is epic and they are grilled to
perfection!
What’s your favourite piece of
memorabilia?
A stage outfit worn by David Bowie in
1973 at the Marquee Club here in this city.
It’s one of the most historic pieces of
wardrobe in the entire Hard Rock collection
and it was the last outfit Bowie wore
performing as his Ziggy Stardust alter ego.
www.hardrockcafe.com/location/
piccadillycircus
PARADISE LOST BY JAN HENDRIX
AT KEW GARDENS
Paradise Lost will be the first UK solo
exhibition by Dutch-born, Mexico-based
visual artist Jan Hendrix. The landmark
show at Kew Gardens, featuring new
works in a number of mediums, will
convey the artist’s response to the
transformation of the landscape known
as Kamay Botany Bay, in Sydney.
Kamay Botany Bay was once beautiful
and pristine, teeming with endemic flora
and fauna. It acquired its English name
from the huge number of plants that
were recorded and collected there in
1770 by European botanists sailing on
the HMS Endeavour voyage to the South
Pacific.
The botanists, Sir Joseph Banks (Kew
Gardens’ first director) and
Daniel Solander, collected hundreds of
cuttings at the bay and along the
Endeavour River in Queensland. They
pressed each specimen within the
loosely bound uncut pages of a 1719
book, Notes on Paradise Lost, by
English writer Joseph Addison.
Paradise Lost will explore the
beauty, fragility, and destruction of the
natural world in the wake of colonial
industrialisation, contemporary
urbanisation and climate change.
Historical material collected at the time
is the starting point from which Jan
Hendrix has created a collection of
beautiful and thought-provoking work.
Mirror Pavilion III, 2020, Stainless Steel by Jan Hendrix.
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