In spite of the snowflakes and icy white sheets that have coated the London landscape this past week, the City of London has excitedly announced that catkins and blooming hazel on Hampstead Heath herald the changing of the seasons.

As flowers and greenery slowly show themselves — and given the British obsession with even the minutest change in weather — we want to hear your seasonal map of London. What signifies the beginning of spring to you? Daffodils outside your local church hall? The birdsong while you wait for your morning train at your station? It might not be just the local flora and fauna that gives you that tingly feeling. Maybe drinking wine in the beer garden in the soft sunshine. Or perhaps it’s milling around in the mild climate, as you hang around on the peripheries of a party you’re obligated to go to in the same Hoxton hangout. Every. Single. Year.

Let us know anything, no matter how random, that’s guaranteed to make your subconscious snap into spring mode. We’re all bunny ears.

How many benches are there in London? It is impossible to say. There are benches in parks, benches by the river, benches in courtyards and benches on tube platforms. They are unremarkable but vital objects, providing Londoners with a space to lounge, sleep, eat and contemplate.

But if you take people out of the equation, benches lose their civic purpose. An empty bench is a melancholic — and occasionally eerie — sight, especially in such a busy city. This selection shows that benches can be objects of beauty in their own right too.

All photos via the Londonist Flickr pool. Many thanks to markspokes49, stephskimo, Laura Nolte, Alan-S2011, Artee62, artofthestate, curry15, IoanWilliams and psyxjaw.

A fun, fiery, flirty and free catwalk show takes place on Boxpark’s upper deck this Saturday courtesy of resident lingerie brand Playful Promises.

A fire-breathing burlesque dancer will warm your cockles whilst the new season lingerie on show should give you plenty of ideas for hot Valentine’s Day gifts/wear. Post-show, visit the Playful Promises shop on the ground floor of Boxpark and be seduced by free cocktails and goodie bags, whilst you shop.

To celebrate this special event, Boxpark are sharing the love by giving away a great Valentine’s package: a ‘Heart Noir‘ lingerie set from Playful Promises and a romantic meal to share with your loved one at cosy Vietnamese Resaturant ‘Hop Namo‘.

Just visit the Boxpark Facebook page for a chance to win.

The contest will close on Sunday 12 February at 5pm.

To find out more visit Boxpark online, like Boxpark on Facebook and follow @Boxpark on Twitter.

Director Boz Temple-Morris certainly thinks so, and in a new radio drama, Occupied!, commissioned by the BBC, he set out to explore what suddenly began to draw ordinary, middle-class people into a lively new movement that coalesced around a massive sense of unfairness and the demand, unthinkable perhaps ten years ago, that people should pay tax. As one actor says in the play,

“They’re giving all our money to the people who got us into this mess in the first place and telling us there isn’t any money left”.

Initially, the idea was that the story would be told through a central character, ‘Emma’, a young middle class woman who becomes politicised. But, committed to the idea that drama should be as authentic as possible, Temple-Morris went with veteran activist John Jordan and others on the production team to record on location at the occupation of Fortnum & Mason by UKUncut on 26 March 2011… and found themselves amongst the 145 arrested that day.

Click for the morphing version.

Watch a modern Tube map gradually morph, T1000-style, into a geographically accurate version. Then, agog, click another button and behold as the map regresses/progresses (delete according to opinion) to something like the original Harry Beck Tube map of 1933. The modern map also allows you to overlay a street pattern — not a new trick, but it’s good to have this all-in-one package.

This one’s an oldie. In fact, Sam Rich first put a version live in 2002. It then found its way onto Transport For London’s website in 2004, from which it was dropped in 2008 during a web shuffle. TfL allowed Sam to continue hosting the map on his own site, and you can now enjoy warping the Tube map here.

See our comprehensive list of  Alternative Tube Maps

The Standard, 2007 - The Times, 2012

When Simon Jenkins reached for his keyboard yesterday (we presume, perhaps he dictates?) to disparage The Times’ Cities Fit for Cycling campaign, it stirred a memory. Oh yes, that’s it — the Evening Standard once had a Cycling campaign of its own. Join us on a journey back in time…

In April 2007 the Standard launched a “major campaign…encouraging Londoners to take to two wheels”. Andrew Gilligan declared: “Cycling is a simply matchless way to travel. It has all the flexibility of the car, with none of the flaws. It will change your view of London, and renew your affection for the capital.” He wrote on: “What would do more than anything to capture would-be cyclists’ imagination, and quell their fears, would be a proper cycle network, a network with complete, continuous, flagship routes at all main points of the compass.”

If anything, the Standard was ahead of the curve — there’s a feeling among some campaigners that lingering on the casualty rate will not help their goal of mass cycling, and a fear that cycle lanes could see the freedom of the road removed. Both have shifted in the past year as high profile deaths, notably two at Bow, and the Blackfriars bridge protests have shown that the limits of mass cycling in London are imposed by the TfL road network as much as anything else.

They, like The Times, had a manifesto — bolder than that proposed by the national:

The Standard’s charter for cyclists (2007)

1. A real cycle network across London
2. Better cycle lanes with proper segregation
3. Enforcement of special advanced stop lines for cyclists
4. HGVs to be fitted with special cyclist safety mirrors
5. Compulsory cyclist awareness training for all bus drivers and new HGV drivers
6. Cycle-friendly streets: fewer one-way systems that funnel cyclists into the middle of traffic
7. More cycle parking across London
8. Police crackdown on bike theft
9. Make safe the Thames bridges: some of the most dangerous places for cyclists
10. Campaign to alert the self-employed that they can claim a 20p-a-mile cycling allowance against tax
11. Better cycle-bus-rail co-ordination: adequate parking at stations
12. Cycle training for all children and any adult who wants it

They ran stories on the Safer Cycling Campaign for most of 2007, claiming credit for, among other things, the Cycle Superhighways and a promised lifting of the DLR bike ban (which sadly never happened).

Yesterday’s article couldn’t be further from that optimistic tone. Jenkins celebrates that “In 2010 the number killed fell from 13 to 10” — perhaps, but last year, as his paper reported, 16 people died. Nor is the premise that ‘more people having accidents is acceptable, because more people are cycling’ one that we’re willing to put up with. How many cyclists died in Paris last year? Zero, or — as the French say – Zero. And that’s despite faster roads, a larger cycle hire scheme, more tourists, French driving and much, much cheaper wine.

He moves on to sing the praises of the latest passion, the shared space — best (though not necessarily well) exemplified in London by the recently completed Exhibition Road scheme. Jenkins ignores the clear difference between a road such as this and the main routes of London’s traffic. He applauds the Dutch example inspired by Monderman, but ignores the fact that Holland has more than 19,000 km of segregated cycle lanes.

The Standard does some great reporting on cycling issues, Ross Lydall notably giving it good coverage, so it’s sad that after such a bold head start the Standard should find itself so far behind. It’d be great to see some of that old vision for a better city return to its editorial pages.

Finally, it is curious that Jenkins’ article should follow this one (from the above-quoted Mr Gilligan) so closely, if we were of a more suspicious disposition it would seem that someone is briefing certain journalists to downplay cycling casualties last year…

…and then all the buses in the world come along. Amusing/frustrating images from James Bird, who snapped this omnibus centipede on Essex Road this morning. Can anywhere else in town beat Essex Road for long chains of buses?

Welcome to the latest episode of Londonist Out Loud, a podcast about London. You can listen in-browser, or subscribe via iTunes or RSS.

News and Views
Londonist Out Loud is presented and produced by N Quentin Woolf. This week’s show comes from Hyde Park Corner.

His guests this week are:

• Monday – 6th February 1875: The first ‘Cabmen’s Shelter’ is opened in St. John’s Wood – providing a place where cabbies can rest and consume refreshments, without the temptation of getting drunk in the pub.
• Tuesday – 7th February 1991: The IRA launch a mortar attack on 10 Downing Street. No one is hurt, but the attack does somewhat startle John Major during a Cabinet meeting.
• Wednesday – 8th February 1750: A small earth tremor causes minor damage to buildings in London.
• Thursday – 9th February 1996: The IRA detonates a massive bomb near South Quay DLR station, just south of Canary Wharf. The explosion kills two men working in a nearby newsagents shop and causes £85 million worth of damage to surrounding buildings and infrastructure.
• Friday – 10th February 1840: Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert at St James’s Palace.

Random London Quote Of The Week

I thought of London spread out in the sun
Its postal districts packed like squares of wheat

Philip Larkin, The Whitsun Weddings

Picture by Luke Faulkner via the Londonist Flickr Pool.

Every week we select a photo from the Londonist Flickr pool, taken in the last seven days, that illustrates this season or time of year in London.

This week, inevitably, we’re more-or-less compelled to select photos of the snow and ice in London, as captured by GanMed64, Nick Shillingford, caioelis, Tyla’75 and Cybermyth13.

Click to view larger map

Among the many reinterpretations we’ve seen of the Tube map, this has to be among the most visually pleasing: a chromatic diagram that represents “the intersections between the colours of the lines when their opacity is set at 50%”. It’s best viewed at a larger size to appreciate the intricacy of what’s going on.

The diagram is the work of Francisco Dans, who previously designed the twisted Tube map we saw last year. As Francisco himself notes, it “doesn’t really correspond to reality”, but it’s an original way of looking at the network and would make an attractive wall print. Handily, it’s available to buy on Francisco’s website.

See our comprehensive list of  Alternative Tube Maps

But never fear — Garreth Carter has made another documentary about the Tube, and like a good Londoner has concentrated on how gosh-darn pretty it is when you speed it up to some funky music. Enjoy.

This is a sponsored post on behalf of The Nudge.

Fancy a complimentary, VIP-style night out in London for you and five friends?

If so, our pals over at The Nudge have just launched a competition for exactly that, courtesy of private concierge service Innerplace.

If you win you’ll meet your five friends for cocktails and champagne at exclusive members’ club Eight, before moving on to dinner with live jazz and blues at new City steakhouse The Door, and then finish up with VIP treatment at Mahiki’s sister bar Kanaloa (including your own “Maui’s Chest Of Fire”, serving ten).

Worth a punt…

For more info and to enter the competition head to TheNudge.com, where you’ll also find the full terms and conditions.

It has been a chilly few days with temperatures averaging around 0°C, by far the coldest it has been all winter. But with clear blue skies and a bright sun, the weather has also been its crisp, bright best.

These photos show the cold weather making London shine and shiver at the same time. Happy days for purveyors of furry hats; tough times for traders working outdoors.

The cold front is due to hang around a little while longer with some snow showers forecast for the weekend.

Many thanks to jaykay72, AMSImages and kenjonbro for sharing their images in the Londonist Flickrpool.

Several years and £30m later, the conversion of Exhibition Road, Kensington into a shared-space thoroughfare, in which there are no pavements and traffic and pedestrians use the same surface, is complete. Yesterday saw the official launch ceremony.

Reaction to the project has been mixed. Guide Dogs for the Blind have repeatedly criticised the scheme, arguing that removing the kerb will put visually impaired pedestrians at risk. The Observer’s architecture critic Rowan Moore welcomed the redesign, while Simon Jenkins was also supportive in his Evening Standard column this week.

We took a walk along Exhibition Road last month, which is when the pictures above were taken. The overall effect is pleasing: the criss-cross grid pattern on the street creates the sense of a pedestrianised zone, and the absence of clutter and street furniture is welcome, as are the benches, though given the frigid air they weren’t much in use during our visit. There’s a relaxed pace, no doubt aided by the new 20mph speed limit along the road.

There were some awkward moments, particularly at the southern end, near South Kensington station, where vehicles and pedestrians got in the way of one another. At this end there’s been something of a compromise involving some raised sections in the middle of the street, which are a little out of place. A minor gripe, but overall the scheme is a promising one, at least when seen on a cold winter’s day. We’ll have to wait until the summer tourist season to really gauge how effective it is.

Presented as an “A-Z of England’s greatest novelist”, the book is really one big excuse for Sutherland to share his favourite theories and facts about Dickens. That the book opens with an A for ‘Amuthement’ and ends with a Z for ‘Zoo Horrors’ will give you a good impression of the author’s eccentric approach. This is a book built to entertain, but underpinned by a long career of scholarship. Sutherland finds his subject an ‘inexhaustible fund of entertainment,’ and bends that spirit onto his own pages.

Just a few examples… Under ‘C’, we learn of Dickens’ attitude to cannibalism. ‘H’ for Hands paints Great Expectations as a ‘masturbator’s manual’. ‘B’ for Blind Spots discusses the mysterious lack of Irish people in Dickens’ novels, and the total absence of that other iconic figure of the age, Queen Victoria. Not many authors could confidently begin a chapter by saying “I believe I was the first to point out a teasing puzzle in Great Expectations…” (a hattery matter), or get away with comparing Dickens to Michael Jackson’s doctor.

Sutherland is clearly a man who knows his subject so well that he’s able to play games with it. The result is a joyful dance of a book that even the most jaded Dickens reader will relish.

The Dickens Dictionary by John Sutherland is out now from Icon Books. Buy here.

Welcome to the latest episode of Londonist Out Loud, a podcast about London. You can listen in-browser, or subscribe via iTunes or RSS.

News and Views
Londonist Out Loud is presented and produced by N Quentin Woolf. This week’s show comes from the unusual environment of Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park near Mile End tube station.

His guests this week are:

We’ve previously highlighted Typical Kebabexpress and Peculiar Unisex Hair. Reader Conrad Roth now sends us a few additional oddments form around the capital, and we’ve also rounded up a few other suggestions from readers.

• The intriguing Eroticut on Uxbridge Road presumably offers something for the weekend among its facials and blow drys.
• Michael’s ‘Barbers’ at 38 Tottenham Lane, meanwhile, leaves us wondering about the quote marks.
• Wake and Paine undertakers in Twickenham are the ultimate example of what New Scientist used to call ‘nominative determinism’ — people whose names influence them into a particular trade.
• Ryan Hair near Victoria is nominated by ‘Parry’ in the comments to our Typical Kebabexpress post.
• The nastily evocative Chickpizz on Albion Road, Stoke Newington, gets commenter Sal’s juices flowing.
• And, finally, an old favourite from your humble editor M@, who snapped the final photo of ‘Shoot The Aged’, a pine furniture shop in Blackheath that closed sometime around the Millennium. Gone but not forgotten.

Got your own favourite? Let us know in the comments.

How far can you walk from here?

Extreme walker Victor Keegan reckons you can journey over 17 miles without setting foot on the bitumen.

Until the arrival of motorised transport London was mainly a walking city. There are now signs of a revival thanks to traffic calming measures and the increasing realisation that walking is not only an easy option to keep fit but also a great way to enjoy the delights of the most exciting city on the planet. Transport for London which, believe it or not has a statutory duty to promote walking, is now taking its role seriously.

A couple of years ago, as a test of the walkability of London, I set out from Trafalgar Square — the official centre of the town — one Sunday morning to see how far I could get without crossing a road or going over the same place twice. It was almost 17 miles before I ended up going round in a circle.

I know of no other capital city where it is possible to do this (suggestions welcome!). If you want to try all or part of it yourself start from the north end of Northumberland Avenue (or from Trafalgar Square proper if the underpass is open) and head down the Strand for 100 yards. Turn right and go through Charing Cross Station and across Hungerford Bridge until you are on the South Bank. The rest is easy as you have access to miles and miles of riverside walkways with no need to cross any road. By contrast, the south bank of the Seine in Paris has half a dozen very busy traffic lanes. As I was aiming for a long distance ramble I turned right rather than left in order to add a couple of miles by crossing Lambeth Bridge and passing through Victoria Gardens and under the road at Westminster to Blackfriars where I crossed back to the south and on to Tower Bridge.

At Tower Bridge you can either walk straight on, but will end up walking in a circle where Deptford meets Greenwich (total distance about 12 miles), or you can cross Tower Bridge and hug the river around St Katharine Docks and further on until you come to Island Gardens at the tip of the Isle of Dogs. This last stretch was the most tricky, with innumerable small side roads to the west. That often meant going into a crescent or back street to come out not much further on than when I started. But I never went over the same road or pavement twice or got into a loop.

To Greenwich and beyond...all with no roads.

I carried on and on walking, hugging the pavement until I ended up somewhere in the Lea Valley or 17 miles from Trafalgar Square as measured on my pedometer. But if, at Island Gardens, I’d gone under the tunnel and turned left at the Cutty Sark, I might have beat my record easily by looping round past the 02 complex and on to the Thames Barrier (assuming the Thames Path is open). From here, goodness knows how many extra miles can be achieved. The map below shows the route from Trafalgar Square up to a point near central Greenwich. It could be extended much further.

View Long Walk from Trafalgar Square in a larger map

The wider point about this is not to walk for the sake of walking but to integrate some of the hubs — like the South bank and London’s amazing canal routes — into you normal schedule. Anyone going from Waterloo to work in the City should surely eschew the Waterloo And City Line and instead walk down the South Bank and cross over the Millennium Bridge — a complete joy. People sometimes look at me askance when I say that I walk from Victoria to Paddington (‘haven’t you heard of the Circle Line?’) but it is less than three miles and takes you via Buckingham Palace and Green Park to a delightful stroll across Hyde Park, at whose northern extreme you are a couple of blocks from Paddington Station.

A new literature of walking is beginning to emerge, as can be observed in most London bookshops, though there is nothing yet to compare with two great classics. John Gay — author of the Beggars’ Opera, arguably the world’s first musical — also wrote “Trivia: or, the Art of Walking the Streets of London” (1716), which William Henry Irving described as “without question the greatest poem on London life in our literature”. It tells you what clothes to wear, how to cope with rough football matches in Covent Garden and footpads in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Even earlier, Richard Ames published a two-part poem in 1691 devoted entirely to a largely fruitless search for a decent glass of claret in London, rubbishing most of the pub landlords as he did. In one tavern on Snow Hill, Holborn his imbibing was interrupted by a prisoner in chains having a last pint of beer before being executed at Tyburn. This is possibly the origin of the phrase “one for the road”.

So embrace the joys of walking, be it for commuting or simple pleasure. And let us know if you can adduce a route from Trafalgar Square that improves on the notes above. How far can you get along the Thames path past Greenwich to the east? What happens if you head in the other direction, towards Vauxhall, after Lambeth Bridge. Are there any other lengthy routes one might take?

By Victor Keegan

In the final week of our second Olympic Borough, Greenwich, Ruairidh Anderson tells the story of Frenchman and anarchist Martial Bourdin, who exploded in Greenwich Park one winter’s morning.

‘It was a fresh February day in 1894 when young Frenchman Martial Bourdin left his house in Fitzroy Sreet central London for a jaunt across town. Catching a tram from outside the houses of Parliament, he must have enjoyed a relatively uncrowded journey, kept company only by his head full of ideals and the package under his arm.’

All songs are free to download from Songs From The Howling Sea. Lyrics can be found here.

Previously in Greenwich

• Joseph Druce: mudlark and Maori Chief
• Anne Boleyn: Marriage and May Madness
• General James Wolfe: Battles, Brothels and Broken Hearts

Previously in Tower Hamlets

• Charlie Brown: Uncrowned King of Limehouse 
• Angela Burdett-Coutts, Queen Of The East End Poor
• Jamrach’s Menagerie, Rhinos & the Ratcliffe Highway
• Moris ‘Two-guns’ Cohen
• Emmanuel Swedenborg, Veruca Socks and Heavenly Secrets
• John Newton, Goebbels, Star Trek & The Slave Trade
• Eliza Marchpane, Mozart, Vol Au Vents And The Wapping Streets
• Isambard Kingdon Brunel, Ships, Bones And Bad Breath

This Week In London’s History

• Monday – 30th January 1969: The Beatles perform live for the last time ever, on the roof of the Apple Records building in Mayfair.
• Tuesday – 31st January 1609: Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators are hanged at Old Palace Yard in Westminster.
• Wednesday – 1st February 1444: The steeple of St. Paul’s is damaged when it is struck by lightning.
• Thursday – 2nd February 1874: Liverpool Street Station is opened.
• Friday – 3rd February 1794: 20 people are killed at the Haymarket Theatre and many more injured in a crush to see King George III.

Random London Quote Of The Week

Nothing is certain in London but expense.

William Shenstone

Picture by sinister pictures via the Londonist Flickr Pool.

Every week we select a photo from the Londonist Flickr pool, taken in the last seven days, that illustrates this season or time of year in London.

This week, noslen20 shows us Hyde Park’s pigeons enjoying the Italian Gardens.

Autoheart striking-a-pose-there's-nothing-to-it

Autoheart (née The Gadsdens) released one of 2009′s best singles, The Sailor Song. They then took some time off to write and record their debut album with Coldplay producer, Danton Supple. The as-yet-untitled long-player will be released later on this year and will also include the critically-acclaimed current single, Control.

Kicking off what promises to be an exciting year for the London five-piece is a live show at Barfly in Camden this coming Wednesday. Here, front-man Jody Gadsden not only (patiently!) answers some of our probings but also gives us (and you, lucky folk) an exclusive listen to Edit, a new Autoheart track, never previously released.

Where was the first London venue you played live and what are your memories from that experience?
The first venue I played in London was the Bedford when it was in Baker Street — I think it’s in Balham now. I was 20 years old and it was just me and my guitar in this underground cave-like venue with odd UV lighting. My mother and best friend were in the crowd and I was petrified. The audience were very sweet and clapped politely but I sang all 3 songs about 2 feet away from the mic so they probably only heard some muffled grunting alongside some terrible guitar playing. I like to think I’ve improved since then.

Do you have a favourite London venue to see shows at?
I like the Scala in King’s Cross. It’s large enough to get lost in but somehow manages to retain that level of intimacy you get from much smaller venues. I’ve seen some wonderful acts there and have a lot of fond memories of the place. I also love the Union Chapel in Islington – I think when you mix the old age history and beauty of church interiors in general with contemporary music it can be quite a magical partnership. When we supported the Hidden Cameras at St. Leonards Church in Shoreditch a few years back it was especially surreal; looking at the audience sitting on pews and seeing all the religious iconology of centuries before adorned on the walls. Equal parts odd and equal parts lovely.

What’s your ‘local’?
I have two, The Nelsons Head off Hackney Road and The Elderfield in Clapton. Nelsons because they have a great, eclectic jukebox and lots of my friends go there – it has that home from home vibe about it and it’s very dog friendly  – I love dogs. The Elderfield is really relaxed and a little off the beaten track – I had a great New Year’s there once and the staff are always very warm and friendly.

You live in Hackney. Name the best thing and the worst thing about where you live.
The best thing about Hackney is that It attracts people not only from other countries but from around the UK and London and the constant flux and interaction of the different cultures and experiences ensure it’s a dynamic and exciting place to live. There’s always something to be inspired by in Hackney but while there are many creative people in the area, its lack of small-mindedness makes it difficult to get too self-involved or pretentious.

Worst thing – The downside of its ‘creative’ reputation is that it does attract some who are only interested in being in the place they think is ‘currently’ happening. They have no real interest in Hackney as a place or as a community. The riots last year exposed some of those attitudes, as people who moved to the area for the cultural cache started demanding the kids they live alongside be shot in the street.

If you could afford to live anywhere in London where would it be and why?
I would stay East definitely. I was born in Dagenham and grew up in Upminster so I’ve always lived in or around the eastbound District line. But if I could afford anywhere – perhaps De Beauvoir or Canonbury although that’s veering into N1 postcode territory. There are some lovely properties around there and the new overground links mean it’s easy to get around in the area.

Is there a London club you can guarantee you’d have a great night out at?
Oh My God I Miss You put on some great nights at the Bethnal Green Working Man’s Club. Grind A Go-Go plays Sixties Garage, the night is like Rosemary’s Baby meets Valley of the Dolls. And Jailhouse Jam is unabashed rock and roll and great fun. I’m more of a pub than a club person but I’ve always had a lot of fun at these nights and recommend them whole-heartedly.

Boris bikes — a sensible way to tone up the buns or “no thanks, I’ll take the tube”?
I love riding bikes but not in London — I’m too accident prone, I’d probably die within minutes if I took to the streets during rush hour, sadly. I give much kudos to those who do it daily to and from work. And their legs and bums would certainly benefit from the exercise. But I skip in my spare time, no joke, so my legs and bum are just fine without the cycling. I thought after visiting Barcelona years ago that London should adopt a similar scheme so I’m glad that the idea has finally been actualised.

Where would you take visitors from out of town to eat in London?
There a couple of nice Vietnamese restaurants on Kingsland Road which are fairly reasonable in price and very tasty as well as the infamous Indian cuisine on Brick Lane. Dim Sum at Shanghai is always good. Dalston also has some of the best Turkish restaurants in London so I’d take them there as well.  Some of the Pubs around Victoria Park like The Britannia and The Hemmingway do great traditional Sunday roasts too.

Are you looking forward to the Olympics or are you not bothered?
I am and I’m not. I live literally 400 meters away from the Stadium so come summer time it’s going to be absolutely hell getting to and from my home. But I’m sure there will be a real buzz in the air when the Olympics are in full swing. I’m just deeply concerned with how our transport infrastructure is going to cope with the massive influx of people. I don’t envy the current Secretary of State for Transport, and I hope she has some pretty hefty contingency plans up her sleeves!

What can fans and new Autoheart listeners expect from your forthcoming Barfly gig?
We’re showcasing tracks from our debut album. So, new songs and of course a couple of old ones. We’ve been rehearsing the album meticulously over the past few months in preparation for the year ahead. I’m going on shopping trip on Sunday for a gig outfit, so you’ll have that unveil to look forward to at the Barfly gig. The red shirt or the white shirt? The black boob-tube or the brown leather waistcoat – what’ll it be? You’ll have to turn up to see!

You can get tickets for Autoheart’s Barfly show on 1st of Feb here. And below is an exclusive stream of brand new Autoheart track, Edit.

Robert Kingham alerts us to this kebab joint in Hither Green. Tired of the usual fast-food superlatives — Super Kebabs, Best Kebabs, King Kebabs — the owners have plumped for the more humble and honest appellation Typical Kebabexpress. It replaces the more ambitious ‘First Choice Kebab House’, still visible in Google Maps. Good luck to them.

Notes Robert, it’s “up there with Holloway Road’s ‘Standard Tandoori’ and Streatham Hill’s ‘Chinese Dinner’”.

Inspired by Jose Farinha’s four hour wait for tickets to the Leonardo exhibition, we scoured our Flickrpool for photos of Londoners looking at art.

Many thanks to AKA Jon Spence, HoosierSands, · skëne ·, shadowjumper, bradman334, k e n c h i e , Where The Art Is, Viramati, slawekkozdras, violinconcertono3, Max Nathan and Magic Pea who shared their photographs in the Londonist Flickrpool.

Image courtesy of Shirokazan, under a creative commons licence

London’s place names have always been fluid. Old names are squeezed out by the new and, without fixed borders to work from, your views on where one place ends and another begins are as likely to be about age and class as they are about geography.

All the same, though, deliberate attempts at rebranding are, like most things to do with marketing, horrible, and whenever they start popping up in the papers, we tend to suspect someone enterprising hack is trying to sell their flat. What’s more, most of these efforts will come to naught: the only time London place names actually seem to change is when a station gets an odd name. There’s a reason why you may have never heard of Battlebridge, Newington or Hatcham*, even though you’ve very probably been to all of them. This is likely why a Tower Hamlets councilor has spent rather a lot of time trying to get Shoreditch High Street station rebranded as ‘Banglatown’.

But Londonist is nothing if not dedicated to its city. So, in the name of science, we decided to track down these painful formulations, and come up with some sort of taxonomy. After some investigation, we’ve identified more than twenty, that seem to slot into four broad categories.

1) Property developer speak

• Portman Village – an attempt by local businesses to get more people to venture north of Marble Arch
• Connaught Village – the same, only the other side of Edgware road
• Seven Dials – the posher bit of Covent Garden
• Midtown – everything between the City and the West End, in what looks like a desperate attempt to attract Americans

2) AbbReVos.

• NoHo – Fitzrovia
• SoBo – the Bricklayer’s Arms roundabout (it’s south of Borough, y’see)
• SoSho – south of Shoreditch
• NoDa and SoDa – north and south Dalston
• NoGo – our personal favourite, for a no-man’s-land somewhere north of Goldhawk Road

3) Attempts to make desolate bits of marsh and industrial estate sound more appealing than they actually are

• Barking Riverside
• Barking Reach
• Havering Riverside
• Dagenham Reach

4) Simple, shameless snobbery

• Blackheath Approach – Lewisham
• Lower Chelsea – Battersea
• Bowes and Bounds – Wood Green
• Herne Hill Borders – Brixton
• Steele’s Village – Chalk Farm (the residents association has stuck up banners and everything)
• ‘Highgate Slopes’ and ‘Archgate’ – ‘It isn’t Archway, honest’

This isn’t a comprehensive list, we’re sure, so do let us know if you’ve spotted any others. There’s a prize for the greatest monstrosity: specifically, a sense of lingering shame.

*King’s Cross, Elephant & Castle and New Cross Gate respectively, since you wondered

Quietly parked up at America Square today is a-slightly-out-of-place white van. Quite an impenetrable-looking vehicle with ‘City of London’ emblazoned across the side. No police. No camera crews. Certainly not the scene of any riot. An inquisitive climb inside reveals shelves of books. No ordinary van indeed; this is in fact a mobile library, the first of its kind ever used in the City, and it’s bustling with browsing and borrowing book-worms.

The service – which is only three months old – is a temporary stop-gap for those affected by the closure and on-going redevelopment of Camomile Street Library, which has been out of action since March 2011. Against the backdrop of so many closures, the City of London hit upon what has been hailed as ‘a perfect solution’, according to Carol Boswarthack, Head of Barbican and Community Libraries. Instead of dying a bricky, dusty death, Camomile Street Library will be replaced with a community centre to offer “east of the City communities a one-stop-shop for facilities including libraries, adult education and much more” once it emerges in the autumn, reincarnated on the grounds of the underused Middlesex Street Estate car park.

In the meantime, visitor numbers are slowly rising at the book bus. It stops Monday-Friday in a different location each day (apart from Devonshire Square, which sees in both the moody Mondays and the jubilant Fridays):

Monday 10am – 4pm Devonshire Square
Tuesday 10am – 4.30pm Little Somerset Street
Wednesday 10am – 4pm Stoney Lane
Thursday 10am – 4pm America Square
Friday 10am – 4pm Devonshire Square (again)

Words and photos by Janan Jedrzejewski

What: Women’s rugby has been played in the UK since the mid 80’s although it is still receives little coverage in mainstream media. In 2011 England won their autumn series against world cup holders New Zealand 2-0, having lost narrowly to them in the World Cup final in 2010.

Although the youth game in England is growing rapidly, many women still don’t take the game up until university or beyond, ensuring a warm welcome to newbies of any age. The Slingbacks, Rosslyn Park Ladies rugby team has been going since 1997. They play a good standard of rugby, but are also a very sociable side, having as much fun off the pitch as on it.

The Rundown: Training will teach you the skills you need so you can execute them safely and accurately, but there’s nothing like playing to learn the game. The basic principle is ‘run forwards, pass backwards’. If you can master that all the rest will slot into place.

Is it the right fit for you? If you like a challenge and opportunities to test yourself but also like being part of a team, women’s rugby is definitely for you. In rugby union, there really is a space for everyone — big or small, fast or strong. It is the combination of everyone’s strengths and talents that makes the team. Great teamwork on the pitch also leads to great camaraderie off the pitch. Be prepared to get stuck in, enthusiasm gets you a long way. You also need to be prepared to get muddy!

Where and when: The Slingbacks train every Wednesday evening 7.30-9pm at their club Rosslyn Park, in Barnes (19 mins on train from Waterloo). Everyone is welcome to come and give it a go, even if you’ve never touched a rugby ball before. They play matches most Sundays in and around London and the South East. The season runs from September – April and we have a packed calendar of league and friendly matches.

They also have a lot of fun off the field with regular socials, an annual beer festival, rugby tour and 7s competitions over the summer. It is also the Slingbacks’ 15th Anniversary year this year, and there is a spectacular party planned for March to celebrate.

Get in touch via the Slingbacks’ website.

Words and picture by Camilla Brueton

Browse the Alternative London Workout archives for more ideas.

Vrrrroooooosssshhhh!

If you hop in to your DeLorean, accelerate to 88mph and set the dial back to the early 1940s, you’d find that Heathrow, or Heath Row as it was known back then, was a small hamlet located roughly where Terminal 3 is in the modern day facility.

During wartime Britain, The Conservative MP Harold Balfour, who was Minister for Aviation, wanted to persuade parliament that a new airport was needed in London, which would replace Croydon as the capital’s number one landing strip. As Heath Row already had an existing, albeit small airfield in place, and was within spitting distance of London, the site was earmarked as Balfour’s first choice.

The major hurdle to overcome was the prevailing winds. Planes coming in to land would usually have to approach from the east, taking them directly over central London. This obviously presented both safety risks with planes flying over densely populated areas, as well as what we now call ‘noise pollution’ for the unfortunate souls living under the flight path. Luckily for Balfour, noise pollution had not been invented yet so this was one less issue for him to tackle. Other obstacles in the way were the potential for protracted planning wrangles and questions over how it would be paid for (does this sound familiar Boris?).

The only way that Balfour could get Parliament to agree to the plan was by convincing them that the airport was needed for military purposes. With the country still in the midst of war, the Air Ministry claimed it was looking for an airfield in which to handle long-range troop-carrying planes, and so it used war-time powers to requisition the land. The location of Heath Row, with its proximity to London, was ideal and so under the guise of creating a military airfield, work on creating ‘Heathrow’ began in May 1944. The terrain was not ideal, however, and over 100 million gallons of water had to be drained from the boggy land. Despite the fact that works were still not complete by the time the war ended, construction continued on what was obviously now a civilian airport and it seemed that the project had slipped under the radar of both politicians and the public (pun intended).

Commercial flight was still something of a novelty at this time. However, in May 1946, the first passengers departed from Heathrow (or London Airport as it was first known), flying direct to Buenos Aires. The facilities were far from grand — the departure hall consisted of little more than a tent. This flight marked the start of a flight schedule that would eventually see over 480,000 flights a year take off or land from the west London airport.

In his memoirs published in 1973, Harold Balfour admitted deceiving fellow Ministers and Parliamentarians about his intentions for Heathrow, saying:

“Almost the last thing I did at the Air Ministry of any importance was to hijack for Civil Aviation the land on which London [Heathrow] Airport stands under the noses of resistant Ministerial colleagues. If hijack is too strong a term, I plead guilty to the lesser crime of deceiving a Cabinet Committee.”

So next time you’re woken up at 5am by an Airbus A380 flying over your house, you’ll know who to thank…

Image by Tony Lasagne from the Londonist Flickr pool

This is a sponsored post on behalf of SerenataFlowers.com

Know someone with a touch of the winter blues? Put a smile back on their face with a bouquet from SerenataFlowers.com.

Serenata are one of the UK’s leading online florists, delivering flowers, wine, hampers and other gifts since 2003. With dozens of options to choose from, you’re sure to find the perfect gift to brighten up your loved-one’s day.

We’ve got a free bouquet to give away for one lucky winner. Simply let us know your favourite flower and the reason below to be in with a chance of winning. The most creative or interesting answer, as judged by Londonist editors, will win the prize.

Terms

• One entry per person.
• Entrants and recipient must be resident in the UK.
• We need your email address in order to contact you if you win. However, we won’t share any of your information with third parties, or store your details beyond the duration of the competition.
• Entries close at midnight at the end of 4 February. A winner will be chosen and notified on 5 February.
• The winner can choose any flowers from Serenata up to a maximum value of £40.

A London graphic designer has created a new take on cycling route signage that could change the way we find our way get lost in the capital.

If you’ve ever tried to follow any of the London Cycle Network’s routes you’ll be familiar with the mental anguish of searching the road side for the 4cm x 8cm red number that may or may not give you a new direction at each junction, side road and on occasion random patch of shared-use pavement. The modern alternative, great cycling apps like Bikehub, have a lot going for them — but with their computer-like efficiency they produce routes so complex that the human mind (ours at any rate) can’t possibly remember each of the 31 maneuvers on a typical journey. So we find ourselves, for the most part, heading for the main roads that we know, using the A road signage for broad directions and filling in the gaps with a bit of instinct — SE1 to Crystal Palace? Well that’s Elephant, Walworth Road, head for Camberwell, and, err, south and up-hill a bit.

Jun Kwon, a Graphic Design Student at Ravebsborne College, decided to tackle this problem for his submission to the International Society of Typographic Designers 2011 awards. His creation, Cycling Cities, is an attempt at a clean-slate approach for cycling signage — and we love it. Catering to our simple minds, Jun proposes to use a combination of landmarks, tube stations and compass direction to keep people on track.

Jun, who’s from Korea, said “I am… still not very good at wayfinding in London. Even worse thing was, rather many times, I fall myself into some very dangerous moments as I  was cycling, so as a graphic designer I really wanted to solve this problem in a new way that can be interpreted by international people.”

His research found that people build a mental map as they cycle, and his solution builds on this natural ‘waypoint’ technique of navigation. He combined this with the 12 direction codes from the compass to create a flexible standard.

Jun, who proposed the idea to TfL last year, told us that he “doesn’t think this is a complete and perfect solution, but I would love to develop it to make it more useful and supportive of cyclists in cities”.

London’s Harry Beck led the world on making sense of railways — no doubt because we had a rather complicated one to start with. This couldn’t be more true of our roads. Innovative ideas like this could help our somewhat subterranean-minded population negotiate street-level by bike, just as Legible London is doing for walking.

This Week In London’s History

• Monday – 23rd January 1571: The Royal Exchange in the City of London is officially opened by Elizabeth I. Over the next few hundred years it would be destroyed by fire (and rebuilt) twice.
• Tuesday – 24th January 1969: Students and staff at the London School of Economics riot in protest over the installation of steel security gates.
• Wednesday – 25th January 1731: William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath, and Lord John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol, hold a duel in Green Park over ‘libellous’ accusations of homosexuality. Neither is seriously injured.
• Thursday – 26th January 1926: In Soho, Scottish inventor John Logie Baird conducts the first public demonstration of television.
• Friday – 27th January 1772: The Pantheon, an entertainment venue on Oxford Street, is opened.

Random London Quote Of The Week

The man who can dominate a London dinner-table can dominate the world.

Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance

Picture by Homemade via the Londonist Flickr Pool.

Every week we select a photo from the Londonist Flickr pool, taken in the last seven days, that illustrates this season or time of year in London.

This week, Andy Matthews has captured the city skyline at dusk.

Those of us who have been following the NFL’s Wembley adventure since it first began in 2007 had come to expect one of the more unsettled US franchises to follow the Buffalo Bills’ Canadian lead in trying to establish a second “local” fanbase in a new country, but the smart money was on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who have already featured as the designated home team in two of the five Wembley fixtures and are famously run by the Glazer family who also own Manchester United. Other names were proposed from time to time, not least the Jacksonville Jaguars, who have also found a Florida fanbase hard to build, but the assumption with the Rams had always been that, if they were going anywhere, it would be back to Los Angeles, the city they left in 1994 and which currently has no NFL team. Had you Googled for “St Louis Rams Wembley” on Thursday you would have returned slim pickings where now there is a landslide.

Perhaps we should have seen it coming, since the Rams are the NFL club that belongs to Arsenal’s majority shareholder Stan Kroenke. He seems now to have stolen the corporate thunder of his Mancunian counterparts ahead of this weekend’s showdown at the Emirates, by successfully lobbying the NFL to allow his Rams the chance to settle in England’s pleasant pastures. Theoretically the move could encourage British NFL fans, and Londoners in particular, to adopt the Rams’ millenium blue, new century gold and white colours as their own between now and 2014, though it remains to be seen whether followers of other football clubs in the capital will baulk at going all out in favour of a team so closely linked to the Gunners.

The NFL could hardly have set a stiffer test of that theory when they chose the hugely popular New England Patriots to return to Wembley as the Rams’s first opponents on October 28th this year. The Buccaneers struggled to escape the Patriots’ shadow both on and off the field in 2009 when, as designated hosts, they were steamrollered by a rampant Patriots team led by superstar quarterback Tom Brady. The Rams, who’ve just finished the season with the league’s second worst record, must rebuild quickly to avoid similar treatment, a task made that much harder by having to entertain a “visiting” club who have played in the home stadium more often than they have. If the Buccaneers came back next year that would again be true or maybe they’ll reappear in 2014 to challenge the Rams in a winner-take-all matchup where the victor claims permanent rights to the home dressing room.

At least British fans will have the opportunity to claim some players as their own over the next few years. Poor as their campaign was, the Rams do have some stars, foremost amongst them elite, record-breaking running back Steven Jackson. On offense he will be accompanied by whichever of the club’s talented but fragile receiving corps can make it unscathed to Heathrow while James Laurinaitis and Chris Long are two standouts on defense. Inevitably, though, it will be the team’s emerging quarterback whose Wembley years will most likely define both his career and the Rams’ success in London. If he gets it right, Wembley Way might even be renamed for one week each year to Sam Bradford Park Avenue.

24 hours and 44 mins, and they haven't let go of one another? Have you checked they're not stuck...?

Twenty five days short of Valentines Day and under the watchful gaze of the ‘meeting place’ statuettes, four couples have entered the Guinness Book of Records for the longest hug – managing an arm-numbing 24 hours and 44 minutes of continuous hugging in St Pancras Station.

The target to beat was 24 hours 34 minutes, which had to be achieved whilst standing, without breaking the hug and without sleep or food breaks (although intermittently answering the call of nature, un-entwined, was permitted). The stunt coincided with National Hugging Day which falls on Saturday 21 January.

After completing the bizarre feat, comedian Sanderson Jones (pictured) who had been hugging his friend Mikey said: “It’s a tremendously delirious experience! Mikey and I  are stunned we made it. The hardest part was during the night, however some DVDs and entertainers kept us going.”

However, one does wonder what the French tourists stepping from the Eurostar made of it all.

The record attempt in one of a series organised for London in the run up to the Olympic and Paralympic games later this year and was organised on behalf of London & Partners which is funded by the Mayor of London’s office and aims to promote London.

Future record attempts also include the most participants in an easter egg hunt, with the public on the lookout for 200 two-and-a-half feet tall easter eggs (made of fibreglass, not chocolate sorry) decorated by designers such as Vivian Westwood and Diane von Furstenburg.

Yesterday’s poll on the worst stations on the network brought out all grumbles many and varied. We were heartened, therefore, to find an similar outpouring of opinion when we asked our Facebook followers for the best Tube station in London.

Southgate station.

Here are the top 10 best underground stations:

So, a clear winner in Westminster, with most voters citing the impressive architecture for their fondness (two commenters compared it to a zone from old TV show The Crystal Maze). Stations on the Jubilee extension, which opened a little over a decade ago, fared well in general. Four of the top 10 (Westminster, Canary Wharf, Canada Water and North Greenwich), including the top 2, are from this period. Older architectural styles were also rewarded. Although Southgate won’t be familiar to many readers, the station makes it into fourth place for its 1930s flying saucer-like design.

One other pattern was particularly heartening: the friendly, courteous and sometimes entertaining demeanour of London Underground station staff. Caledonian Road features so highly for this reason, and it was also a contributory factor at Angel and Oval, where the ‘quote of the day’ whiteboards are cherished by commuters. Warwick Avenue didn’t make the top 10, perhaps because it is little-used compared with the bigger stations above, but two people commented on the ‘friendliest man on the underground’ who dwells within.

Thanks to everyone who contributed comments, votes and likes to this non-scientific, light-hearted survey. In total, we received 296 votes for 63 stations.

See the worst stations on the London Underground here.

Image of Southgate station by Art of the State in the Londonist Flickr pool.

Calling all book fans! The/A Book Barge (literally, a bookshop on a barge) is moored on the Grand Union Canal, east of the Angel entrance, for the next two weeks. Edit: due to the comment below, we’re not sure whether this is the same slow-roaming biblioboat that has gathered acres of press and it’s a good sign when Lee Rourke, author of The Canal – love letter to slowing down and taking stock – is a fan, or a different one. If there are two in existence, that’s pretty mad. But also excellent.

Photo by Marie Phillips

Many thanks to Pryere, Louise Fryer, lifeonfilm73, fotogramfm, sosij, Pierre Mallien, Noirchick73, milly.pix, jaykay72 once and twice, Brad Gerrard and vermegrigio for sharing their photos in the Londonist Flickrpool.

Our sprawling underground system has much to commend it, but we all get irked by some of the shittier corners. So, we asked the simple question: ‘which is the crappiest Tube station’ on our Facebook wall. 419 votes later (via comments or ‘likes’ for comments), we have a definitive answer. Well, as definitive as any cobbled together, non-scientific, impromptu Facebook poll can ever be.

Here’s the top ten crummiest stops on the network

One station stands turd-buckets higher than the others. Bank (and its enleeched sibling Monument) got more than twice as many votes as any other stop. That said, second-placed Elephant and Castle is presumably less familiar to many, and would probably come out higher than Bank if the number of passengers per year was taken into account.

Reasons for station hatred were varied. Overcrowding was the top nuisance, particularly at Bank. Reliance on lifts accounts for most of the Covent Garden and Russell Square votes. The epic Jubilee interchange explains the high showing of Green Park. One person disliked Tottenham Court Road for the number of werewolves. Another person opted for Moor Park — seemingly one of the most civilised, affluent stations on the network…until you read it backwards.

70 stations were nominated, with a long tail of stops picking up just a handful of enemies. Of the mainline termini stations, Euston, Paddington and Liverpool Street all lacked a single vote, and Victoria only got three. Surprisingly, Stratford only received a single vote.

If all this negativity gets you down, look out for our second part tomorrow, revealing the best Tube stations in London. You can still vote up until 3pm on 19 January via our Facebook page.

Image by Owen Blacker in the Londonist Flickr pool.