The capital comes alive in the summer. From the Serpentine’s glittering June party to the Royal Academy’s must-bag-an-invite summer bash, and onto Wimbledon, Henley and Silverstone — the city’s movers, shakers and power brokers have a packed calendar of places to see and be seen. Quaintly, it all kicks off with a gardening show. Yes, RHS Chelsea Flower Show is back.
The usual set strutted through the Royal Chelsea Hospital gates for the VIP gala preview this week. Among them the pukka aristos (Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi), the horti-hotties (Monty Don) and the Queen. She arrived resplendent in a pink Stewart Parvin coat and rose print dress, gliding through the crowds on a nobility scooter (a Danish-made luxury golf cart to you and I) with Keith Weed, the appropriately-named president of the Royal Horticultural Society, at her side.
