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Travel well with Chessie King and Native Bankside

Once we’d worked up an appetite, we headed straight to one of Chessie’s top local eateries (and one of our own neighbourhood heroes), Tibits, just a seven minute stroll from Native Bankside. Here we treated ourselves to a lunch of delicious veggie treats and Chessie was happy to answer lots of questions about keeping fit, well and happy in the heart of town.

“If I wake up in the morning and I really just want to get out and run,” she said, “I’ll do exactly that. You can literally just put on your running shoes and just go and explore. That’s my favourite way to exercise when I’m travelling. I think that’s how you find the real gems in London.”

To finish up, Chessie took us back to her Native Bankside apartment and showed us how to make the most of the spacious, comfy rooms with some chilled out yoga, deep stretches and mindfulness. There’s also our lovely fitness suite on the fifth floor, if you fancy a change of scenery while you work up a sweat.

“If I’ve been travelling and if I’ve had a long day,” Chessie said, “I love waking up my body with a flow. Sometimes I do [yoga] just before bed, to stretch out the day. I just take some time to give some love to my body – and then it’ll love me back.”

Watch the full video on how Chessie King stays healthy and active while travelling below.

Book your Bankside stay.

Recipe: Make some Bala Baya magic in your Native kitchen

Bala Baya’s Fish with Fennel

Serves 2

Ingredients

  • 1 whole sea bass, sea bream or red snapper (roughly 800g), preferably left whole on the bone or with the back bone removed
  • 2 red chillies (thinly sliced)
  • 4 cloves of garlic (thinly sliced)
  • Vegetable oil
  • 50ml Arak, Ouzo or Pastis
  • 50ml water
  • 50g butter
  • A bunch of chopped parsley, dill and mint
  • 12 cherry tomatoes
  • 3 sprigs of sage
  • 1 fennel bulb (thinly sliced into shavings)
  • 1 teaspoon of sumac
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 lemon

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 2200C.
  2. Fry the fish in some oil on both sides until golden brown. At the same time, burn the sage over an open flame. If you don’t have a gas hob, fry the sage with the fish.
  3. Put the sage into the belly of the fish.
  4. Transfer the fish to a roasting tray and put it in the preheated oven for 5 minutes.
  5. In the same pan you used to fry the fish, throw in the tomatoes, garlic and chilli and fry until golden brown. Add the alcohol and cook for 30 more seconds.
  6. Add the water, then the butter.
  7. Whisk everything in the pan so the tomatoes are crushed and mixed with the other ingredients, and the butter is emulsified.
  8. Take the pan off the heat and season.
  9. Add 1 tablespoon of the chopped herbs and a squeeze of lemon.
  10. In a separate bowl, mix the fennel shavings with the rest of the herbs and the lemon, then add a dash of olive oil and season.

Plate up and serve

  1. When the fish is tender, remove it from the oven. Make sure it’s cooked by checking the belly – the flesh should be white and not transparent.
  2. Put the fish on a serving plate.
  3. Pour all the sauce in the saucepan over the fish.
  4. Pile the fennel salad on the side.
  5. Sprinkle sumac all over the dish.

And dinner is served. Bon appetit!

Head to Bankside for a taste of Bala Baya.

Bear Baiting and Tea Trading: The Secret History of Native Bankside

Bear-baiting and Shakespeare

Bankside has always been a hub for entertainment. Bear Gardens gets its name from the famous ‘bear-baiting’ ring that stood here, where exotic animals were forced to fight each other as a form of violent entertainment. Luckily that all stopped in 1835! To this day theatre-goers are still attracted by the bus load thanks to the famous Shakespearean theatre The Rose and Globe theatre close by.

Bear-baiting in action

Empire Warehouse was born

Fast forward to Victorian times, and thanks to the industrial revolution, the Bankside area became crammed with the iconic brick warehouses and factories. It was then that the original Empire Warehouse was born.

Over its lifetime spanning the 20th Century, the Empire Warehouse and its surrounding buildings became home to Victorian pattern card makers and tobacconists, to name a few. Tea traders Appleton Machin & Smiles operated in the warehouse for most of its life, giving it a lot of it’s original features that you can still see today.

The transformation of Native Bankside

After the 1970s, the Empire Warehouse sat empty for decades, until we came along and breathed new life into it. We’ve restored many of it’s original features and injected charm and glamour into these unique warehouse-style apartments.

The Empire Warehouse Today, Native Bankside

Visit Bankside

Walking down quiet Bear Gardens, you won’t feel like you’re in one of London’s most visited neighbourhoods. So why not come and explore the area and find out why it’s so popular?

Book your stay at Native Bankside today.