Gustav Temple spends an afternoon sipping fizz with bon vivant, cabaret performer, dapper chanteur and host of the Candlelight Club. Photos by Soulstealer Photography. When your parents named you Champagne Charlie, was this because they were fans of the music hall performer George Leybourne?I wouldn’t have thought they had any idea who George Leybourne was.… … Keep Reading
Mass spluttering at the breakfast table of gentlemen across the land results from announcement that Patum Peperium is no longer available. Shocking news came last week when the manufacturers of Patum Peperium: the Gentleman’s Relish announced they would be ceasing production. Patum Peperium has been gracing the hot buttered breakfast toast of gentlemen from Kolkata… … Keep Reading
The Tournament of Tomfoolery returns after seven years in the wilderness. After a hiatus of seven years, during which time many chaps and chapettes have forgotten how to toss a cucumber sandwich on a plate or ride a bicycle while holding a teacup and saucer, The Chap Olympiad is back on Saturday 18th July, from… … Keep Reading
Full details of this year’s saunter sans purpose, determined by the same principles of flannerie as ever, but with a new starting point. All photos by Soulstealer Photography. The 2026 Grand Flaneur Walk takes place on Sunday 17th May. This will be the sixth incarnation of The Chap’s saunter sans purpose during the Summer (last year… … Keep Reading
Gustav Temple takes a liquid journey around the world to see whether single malt whisky can be trusted from anywhere except Scotland. To some readers (and they may be right) is is already blasphemous even to suggest that whisky can come from anywhere except Scotland. But when one discovers that whisky is also made in… … Keep Reading
Gustav Temple assesses a new Irish Whiskey with rather ghoulish credentials. The word ‘sexton’ derives from the Mediaeval Latin word sacristanus – ‘custodian of sacred objects’. A sexton is ‘a person who looks after a church and churchyard, typically acting as bell-ringer and gravedigger’. The gravedigger in Hamlet calls himself a sexton, for example. The typical… … Keep Reading
Gustav Temple nosedives into rums that don’t come from where they used to come from, because they are either made or refined right here on these craggy shores. Over the last decade or so, rum has been slowly shaking off its old reputation as something to swill in discotheques mixed with Coca-Cola. But only recently… … Keep Reading
Gustav Temple takes a saunter down memory lane to the nineties with Matthew De Abaitua. One can imagine Leadenall Market during the time of Charles Dickens, bustling with butchers, costermongers, blacksmiths and the odd lonely lawyer’s scrivener looking for love among the packing crates. Leadenhall’s Victorian cobbles stood in for Diagon Alley in the first…
Gustav Temple visits Master Hatter Jayesh Vaghela at Lock & Co to have his original Edwardian top hat restored. Where do you start when restoring an original Edwardian top hat such as mine?The first thing I do is give it a good clean, using plain old tap water. One of the main reasons for the…
Sunday 16th June is the Day of the Dad, when fathers across the land emerge from whatever wooden building they spend the rest of the year hiding in, to be showered with gifts from their offspring. We’ve all seen that look on pater’s face when he unwraps the hoe you bought him from the garden…
Over a hundred dapper chaps and chapettes sauntered sans purpose through London. On Sunday 5th May 2024, a crowd assembled at the junction of Piccadilly and Jermyn Street, London W1. Usually the only notable aspect of this corner is the life-size statue of the great dandy Beau Brummell, but on this day even the Beau…
