Your Sunday morning best-of-Londonist weekly round-up, sponsored by Roundhouse.
London News
- Why are people losing their shit over Jeremy Corbyn?
- How Amy Winehouse is continuing to help London's young musicians.
- One Housing Group in Tower Hamlets accused of breaking promises over redevelopment.
- *MASSIVE GIMMICK KLAXON* The Orbit to become a giant slide. We want to ride it anyway.
- Are London's community energy schemes under threat from the government?
- A museum to celebrate women in the East End has instead been dedicated to Jack the Ripper. We speak to the man behind it.
Must-read articles
- We answered two of your questions this week: Where on earth are all the baby pigeons? And how far do you think the average Londonist reader lives from a green space?
- We've smoked out London's best barbecue joints.
- The London Underground serial killer: truth or urban legend?
- How we can fix London's housing problems, according to Labour mayoral hopeful David Lammy.
- A guide to London's apostrophes. The apostrophes belonging to London... yes, we got that one right.
- London Underground vs Moscow Metro: a fight to the depot.
- Find out some watery secrets in part two of our canal towpath video series.
- Old Father Thames sure does get about a bit, doesn't he?
- This week's podcast finds out how the community saved The Ivy House pub in Nunhead.
Top reviews
- New book celebrates the completion of Crossrail tunnelling ★★★☆☆
- The expected slapstick and educational tid-bits at Horrible History ★★★★☆
- Concert? Musical? Who cares, Songs for a New World is great ★★★★☆
- An interactive look at a brutalist playground ★★★★☆
- Two great children's shows out on the water ★★★★☆
- Emerging artists show up big-name contemporaries at V&A ★★★☆☆
Things to do
- Find an overnight adventure for your little ones at one of these museum sleepovers. Plus more summer holiday activities here.
- For more overnight adventures, join a charity night walk, visiting off-limits buildings along the way.
- Londony films gracing the capital's cinemas this month.
- Or take your pick from these fringe theatre choices. Or are you more of a beer drinker?
- Street art, photography and family days arrive at St Paul's Cathedral in August.
- Floating Cinema takes on a sci-fi theme this summer.
- See our pick of the Camden Fringe.
Tickets and offers
CLASSICAL MUSIC BY CANDLELIGHT: Performers Anna Blackmur and Fenella Humphreys, both on the violin, are joined by the London Concertante in the majestic surroundings of St Martin-in-the-Fields to treat you to a world class performance of Vivaldi, Bach and Mozart on 6 August at 7.30pm. Tickets from £8.
THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK: Everyone's favourite Star Wars film? It should be. Experience it in full effect with Secret Cinema's immersive production during August and September in east London. Tickets £78 each, no booking fees.
ALICE IN WONDERLAND FEAST: Things look different down the rabbit hole but the dinner's still delicious at this special Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland Four-Course Meal + Cocktail event at private members' club Library, Leicester Square, on 6-8 August. Tickets £65.
HOLI ONE: Be one of thousands of people that come together to share music, dance, performance art and, of course, colour at Holi One festival in Wembley on 8 August. One of the event's most special moments is the first countdown, when everyone throws their colour at the same time. Tickets £32.32.
PULP FICTION: Watch the Tarantino classic while consuming a Royale with Cheese, chased down with an 'adrenaline shot' containing a slug of absinthe at Oval Space Hackney on 3 and 5 August at 8.45pm. Tickets £18-£22.
BRIEFS: We're ripping the description of this one straight off the Southbank Centre website. "Your glamorous host Shivannah guides you through a jaw-dropping, eye-popping evening of extravagant birdbath boylesque, too-close-for-comfort yo-yo tricks, valiant aerial acrobatics, irreverent interludes and show-stopping drag artistes." See Briefs from 6 August to 22 September at London Wonderground, tickets from £26.
Buttons are provided by YPlan.
One City, Many Stories: Utopia Creates a New World from London Narratives
Award-winning artist Penny Woolcock has spent months speaking to Londoners, all kinds of Londoners, and listening to their stories. These stories — personal, pertinent, political — form the narrative crux of a grand new piece of work set to transform Roundhouse’s vast Main Space this summer.
Utopia is a multi-sensory, extravagant world with designs by Block9 (the team behind Glastonbury Festival’s incredibly visual fantasy worlds — check out the gallery below). It may be imagined, it may be fantastical, but the narratives that run throughout are curiously familiar. And they matter.
Plus, enjoy a series of live late events responding to themes of the installation from artists including Akala, Russell Brand, Charlotte Church and David Hoyles.
Experience the transformation at Utopia this summer, from 4-23 August. Ticket cost £10 and there are also Pay What You Like Tuesdays. Find out more and book online here.