In an excerpt from CHAP Spring 24, Torquil Arbuthnot provides a chronology of the publication from 1999 to 2012. 1999 A chance meeting in the Portobello Road leads to the founding of The Chap magazine, when penniless artist Vic Darkwood chances upon boulevardier Gustav Temple’s market stall. Temple is selling “genuine” pieces of celebrity masonry,… … Keep Reading
The Chap will celebrate 25 years of publication with our grandest party ever on 12th October. There have been many ‘nights of a thousand waistcoats’ over the years, but 2024 is the year for the grandest chap party of all. This year we celebrate twenty-five years on magazine racks and doormats, and thus shall be… … Keep Reading
The Chap marks 25 years of publication with a special commemorative issue. This year – 2024 – will be the 25th year of publication for our humble organ. To mark this momentous occasion, we are publishing a special silver jubilee edition. Gracing the front cover is uber-Chap, suave gadabout and all-round-good egg David Niven, who… … Keep Reading
2024’s saunter sans purpose also marks 25 years of The Chap Magazine. This year sees two very special milestones for The Chap Magazine. We mark our Silver Jubilee, having first published in 1999, and we shall sally forth on the fourth Grand Flaneur Walk on Sunday 5th May 2024. Assembling as usual at midday beside… … Keep Reading
I still find the Eurostar really rather wonderful. You get on a train at St. Pancras and alight some two hours later at Le Gare Du Nord into a different world, where the attitudes, tastes, smells, people and culture are as different from London as sand is to salt. Undeniably, it is quite an anomalous… … Keep Reading
From the eleventh floor balcony of a hotel overlooking the Pacific Ocean, the horizon flashing with lightning, brassy wisps of Mariachi music wafting up from somewhere through the heat of the night, was the sense that we were definitely in Mexico. It had taken nearly 20 hours to reach this moment of Mexican awareness, though… … Keep Reading
On a recent trip to Rajasthan, I discovered that not only does India possess its famous wealth of history and architecture, but it is also one of the most natural habitats for the travelling Chap. My journey took me first to Delhi, only nine hours away by plane but, as soon as you land, the… … Keep Reading
Gustav Temple lunches at a reopened City dining institution and descends into the ancient network of tunnels and cellars at its core. According to folklore, whatever the weather on St Swithin’s day (15th July) will determine the same weather for the next 40 days. While we did not visit the Don, a reopened restaurant in…
Gustav Temple samples the flaming fare at Brighton’s hottest new restaurant. It was opening night at Embers, a discreet bistro tucked away in one of the Venice-like passageways of the Brighton Lanes that are so easy to get lost in. I believe, though may be mistaken, that the previous incumbent was one of those out-of-date…
Another successful saunter sans purpose through the sunny streets of Old London Town. On Sunday 14th May, just one week after the coronation of Charles III, a very different kind of event, yet one steeped in as much ritual, tradition and protocol, took place. The Grand Flaneur Walk was not placing a crown of gold…
Gustav Temple meets The Chap’s new timepiece collaborators, Jerome Robert and Anneke Short, founders of the Camden Watch Company. We first encountered the Camden Watch Company in 2017, when they had recently launched their ambitious company into a crowded market. The original aim of the brand was to use the founders’ extensive knowledge of design…