Whilst I would dearly love to bid for Lady Mary's 'Criterion' gown - seafoam green silk with gold lace overlay - I am pained to admit that Mrs Patmore's pinny looked a trifle too small for me. (I also rather coveted her grocery list, not the starriest item in Bonhams' Downton Abbey auction ... but all that tinned salmon and pineapple, who knew - was it really worth all that dressing for dinner just for tinned pineapple?) I've had a fun afternoon admiring the Granthams' family car, a 1925 Sunbeam in 'generally fine running condition', current bid £38,000 - barely above estimate - Lady Edith's Brussels lace wedding dress - and the iconic servants' hall bells (estimate £5000-£7000, current bid an eye-watering £24,000, and you have to remind yourself that they're not 'real Downton history', they're only a prop!). Just as much fun eavesdropping on the throng of chattering lady fans and their encyclopaedic knowledge of who's who and who wore what in which series. I thought I could win Mastermind Downton - but these ladies were something else! Free tickets are sold out - but given the Tube strike, I reckon you could walk in without one. (And it's only two minutes walk from the Lizzy line which is still running.)