Simply Smashing

Mum was the word Friday in staid tea rooms and raucous pubs alike across the Westside as Los Angeles’ huge enclave of British expatriates celebrated the queen mother’s 100th birthday.

“I went to her coronation. She did a lot for the country,” said London-born Louis Lewin as he hoisted a white china teacup at the Union Jack-decorated King’s Head Restaurant in Santa Monica.

Affectionately known as the “queen mum” in Britain, Elizabeth II’s mother is beloved as a horse-race-betting, gin-drinking royal who has managed to keep a stiff upper lip through both war and scandal--and the 1937 abdication of her brother-in-law, King Edward VIII.

At the King’s Head, a special “Queen Mum Birthday Tea” on Friday afternoon featured a chicken and rice dish cooked with “the essence of gin” and a celebratory drink called the English Rose--a strawberry margarita blended with gin.

Other birthday celebrations were held at British restaurants and bars on the Westside and in Long Beach, where a British American group staged an evening party aboard the Queen Mary that featured highland dancing and “a procession of British birthday cakes.”

Today, Los Angeles-based British Consul-General Paul Dimond plans to host a garden party at his Hancock Park-area residence honoring the queen mother. About 250 members of major British organizations represented in Southern California are expected to attend..

At a time when royals are sometimes mocked, the British seem to genuinely admire their queen mum.

“Don’t we all like our gin and tonics?” laughed British-born Anne Sneddon of Santa Monica on Friday.

She said a friend asked a few days ago how to address a birthday card to the queen mother. Sneddon counseled against writing “Queen Mum” on the envelope.

“I said send it to ‘Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth, the Royal Mother, Buckingham Palace, London,’ ” Sneddon said. “She’s likely to be at the Clarence House. But if you send it to the palace, she’ll certainly get it.”

Englishwoman Judy West, also of Santa Monica, wondered whether the current monarch sent a congratulatory wire to her mother Friday. “The queen sends a telegram to everyone who reaches 100 in Britain,” West said.

Sussex-born Simon Warren, an investor who has lived in Santa Monica since 1984, said the birthday was a big event for as many as 40,000 Britons living in that city. “It’s strange how many British people are here. I guess we relate to living on the coast,” he said.

Angus Mackay, the British vice consul in Los Angeles, said there is no precise count of Britons in Santa Monica. But he said there’s no secret to why the queen mother is well-liked.

“During World War II, she stayed in London throughout the blitz and visited bomb sites. Ever since that time, she’s been regarded with great affection by the British people,” Mackay said Friday.

At the King’s Head, the tea-sipping Lewin--himself 97--said the queen mother has remained a royal whom people can relate to.

“She goes to the races and drops a few bob on the horses. I like that,” said Lewin, of Santa Monica.

Down the street at the Britannia Pub, somewhat stronger drinks--wine and light beer--were being lifted in her honor by Englishmen Alan Hardy and Dick Williams.

“The queen mother is the epitome of everyone’s grandmother. She’s a remnant of something that probably doesn’t exist anymore but we think is still there,” said Hardy, a chef who lives in Mar Vista.

From his adjoining bar stool, Williams, an airline mechanic from Santa Monica, agreed sadly. “She is the last vestige of the empire, which is a shame, actually,” he said.