What did you do before becoming an Assembly Member?

Before my election to the Assembly I worked for the Searchlight Educational Trust, an anti-racist, anti-fascist charity that works with communities to fight racism and extremism. Standing up against racism and extremism is something I care deeply about and is so important in a diverse city like London. I was delighted that the BNP failed to gain a seat on the London Assembly this time around, and that across the country they lost every single council seat they were defending. The decline of the BNP is down in no small part to the work of Searchlight and the fantastic HOPE not hate campaign. We must remain vigilant, however. Other groups are forming to take the place of the BNP and it is vital that we continue to work to strengthen communities and stamp out racism, hatred and bigotry.

In the run up to the election I took temporary leave from Searchlight to work full-time on the London Labour election campaign.

Why did you stand for the London Assembly?

The thing that really matters in politics is making people’s lives better. Having the opportunity to do this is both a huge privilege and a great responsibility. In so many key areas the mayor and the Assembly can make a real difference to the lives of Londoners and I want to play my part in that. This is especially important in tough economic times with a Tory-led government that is making things worse, not better, for ordinary people.

What are your areas of (political) interest?

For me the most important issue is housing. I’m delighted to be on the Assembly’s Housing and Regeneration Committee which will be doing crucial work over the next four years, particularly around the Olympic legacy. I come to this issue from the starting point that everyone should have a decent home to live in whether they own their home, rent privately or live in social/council housing. Sadly, London is in housing crisis – the housing market here is completely dysfunctional. I’m encouraged by councils like Camden and Southwark which are building the first new council homes for decades, but the mayor needs to take far more action to deliver the affordable housing we need across London and to address the very serious problems in the private rented sector.

I also have a strong interest in transport. London’s transport system is going through a major transformation at the moment with the long-overdue construction of Crossrail. But we need to be looking to the future – to the next major upgrades we need to keep our city moving. I’ll be pushing the mayor to ensure that we get Crossrail 2 and the other major transport infrastructure projects that we need to grow London’s economy and provide capacity for our ever-growing population.

What do you hope to have achieved by the end of four years?

I’ll be pressing the mayor hard over the issue of sky high rents and rogue landlords in the private rented sector. I want to see a great deal of progress made on this over the next four years. I don’t think the mayor takes affordable housing seriously enough, and he’s dangerously complacent about the housing crisis facing our city. But I’ll be working hard with my fellow Labour Assembly members to ensure he delivers on his promise to build more affordable homes, and to ensure that the new Homes for London is not just a rebranding exercise but a dynamic new organisation that will deliver for Londoners.

What’s your favourite bit of London?

I’ve lived in north, south and east London and loved them all. The greatest thing about London is its variety and diversity. My favourite part is Camden where I’ve lived for the past four years. I love the vibrancy of the area, and particularly the music scene.

You can follow Tom on Twitter at @tomcopley

Giro the Nazi dog

Giro, a terrier or Alsatian depending who you read, was the “true companion” of the German Ambassador during the mid-1930s. His headstone, sheltered by a crappy wood and plexiglass demi-kennel, can be found beside the tree at the top of the Duke of York’s Steps, Carlton House Terrace. For the sake of a story, the hound is universally referred to as “Giro the Nazi dog”. Giro’s political views are unrecorded, but the sobriquet is probably unfair since his master Dr Leopold von Hoesch was no admirer of Hitler, and only represented the Nazi party by circumstance after the collapse of the Weimar Republic in 1933. Let’s just say Giro’s bark was not worse than his Reich.

Arty dogs: Trump and Flush
William Hogarth identified closely with his combative pug Trump. The dog features prominently in his famous 1745 self-portrait. Fellow artist Paul Sandby even depicted Hogarth as half-man, half mutt in his satirical image Pugg’s Graces. You can also eyeball a porcelain version of Trump in the V&A’s British Galleries, and a bronze likeness of the dog stands next to his master’s statue in Turnham Green. Another arty dog is Flush, the spaniel of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The pair lived on Wimpole Street in the 1840s. Browning was so taken by the dog — a gift from Mary Mitford — that it became the subject of one of her poems, and later a book by Virginia Woolf.

The Blind Beggar and his dog
Another canine immortalised in metal, and by no lesser sculptor than Elizabeth Frink, lurks on Roman Road in east London. The Grade II* listed mutt accompanies a blind man. The duo crop up throughout East End folk lore. The former Metropolitan Borough of Bethnal Green used the device on its borough seal, for example. The Blind Beggar name is also commemorated in the famous Whitechapel Road pub where Ronnie Kray killed rival gang member George Cornell. Legend has it that the original blind beggar was Henry de Montfort the incognito son of the more famous Simon. Nothing is known about his dog, however.

Nipper and His Master’s Voice

Everyone knows this famous logo of a dog listening to ‘his late master’s voice’ on a gramophone. The hound is ‘Nipper’ (1884-1895), and he was painted by Francis Barraud, brother to the late master, Mark Henry Barraud. A few years after the dog’s death, a modified version of the painting was sold to the Gramophone Company and subsequently became the logo of HMV and related brands. Nipper was buried in Kingston Upon Thames beneath what is now Lloyds Bank. The little woofster enjoys the unusual distinction (for a dog) of having a local alley named after him.

101 Dalmatians
In the same way that Sherlock Holmes would top a list of famous detectives, and Harry Potter would head a column of wizards, the most famous of London canines are purely fictional. Dodie Smith’s much-loved book, and the even-more-loved Disney adaptation of 1961 tell the tale of a posse of north London dalmatians kidnapped by the fiendish Cruella de Vil. Much of the early action plays out in and around Regent’s Park, as this guided walk will show you.

The brown dog of Battersea
Battersea Park once had a problem with anti-doggers — not a moral army crusading against sexy encounters, but a group of protesters determined to rid the park of its dog statue. The row went something like this. In 1903, UCL lecturer William Bayliss supposedly vivisected a brown dog using inhumane methods. He denied this, and successfully sued his accuses. But anti-vivisectionists erected a monument to the dog in Battersea Park. Medical students and supporters of animal experimentation disliked the statue and regularly vandalised it. The so-called “Brown-dog riots” saw clashes between the anti-doggers and anti-vivisectionists. Finally, the local council removed the provocative statue and reportedly melted it down. 70 years later a replacement was erected by anti-vivisection groups and remains there today. The whole tangled story is well covered on Wikipedia.

The Dogs of Alcibiades
Once weatherbeaten and vandalised, these recently restored (actually, replicated) fellows guard the Bonner Gate of Victoria Park. The duo are modelled on ancient Greek originals by Myron of Eleutherae (480-440 BC). They’re notable for three things. (1) They’re 100 years old this year. (2) They have freaky genitals. (3) One of them featured on the front cover of Iain Sinclair’s Lights Out For The Territory.

Pickles, the World Cup-finding dog
March 1966, four months before the World Cup, and the fabled Jules-Rimet trophy was stolen from an exhibition at Westminster Central Hall. Luckily a south London collie named Pickles was on the case. He discovered the trophy, wrapped in newspaper, beneath a hedge in South Norwood. The unlikely hero went on to star alongside Eric Sykes and June Whitfield in the film The Spy With The Cold Nose, and was voiced by Harry Enfield in a recent TV drama. Sadly, Pickles choked to death a year after his great find, prompting some to hint at a darker side to the recovery.

Fenton/Benton
Who could forget this little escapade in Richmond Park last year?

The Black Dog of Newgate
The spectral hound that supposedly hangs out round the back of the Old Bailey is one of London’s most famous ghosts. The phantom has been sighted on many occasions over many centuries, skulking along a brick wall in Amen Court. The ghastly form, which is accompanied by a vile smell, is said to be the spirit of a 13th Century sorcerer, whose body was desperately eaten by the starving prisoners of Newgate. The dog’s bollocks for tour guides, but ‘this dog is bollocks’ for anyone with a rational mind.

Bull’s Eye, Bill Sikes’ dog
OK, admittedly we’re struggling a bit now.  The long-suffering canine companion of Oliver Twist villain Bill Sykes has little to recommend him. Suffering “faults of temper in common with his owner,” the bull terrier has one redeeming feature. Despite running away from Sikes, who was intent on drowning him, Bull’s Eye remains faithful to his monstrous owner, hurling himself from a Bermondsey rooftop after Sikes accidentally hangs himself from the same.

Reader suggestions
No doubt, there are hundreds of other worthy canines to commemorate. List out suggestions in the comments and we’ll add them to this section.

See also:

• LONCats: The Top 10 London Cats
• The Mayoral Election in Dogs
• Dogs of London map

Images: Giro grave by binaryghost in the Londonist Flickr pool, other images in the public domain.

According to that great compendium of knowledge, Wikipedia, a fisheye is “an ultra wide-angle lens that produces strong visual distortion intended to create a wide panoramic or hemispherical image.”

Used subtly, the fisheye can bring a whole new perspective to familiar sights, as this selection of London landmarks demonstrates. The interiors of our great buildings — the Natural History (our favourite here!) and British museums, the Foreign Office — appear even more grand and cavernous. London underground’s concave tunnels, meanwhile, become futuristic and claustrophobic given the fisheye treatment.

Finally, looking upwards brings a new look with this bit of photographical trickery too. The London Eye looks completely different while St Paul’s becomes uncomfortably sandwiched between two brick slabs. Lots of fun all round.

With thanks to Londonist Flicker pool contributors: FJC37, James Guppy, Londonietis, becksflrt,  Romany WG and *junket*.    

For even longer than we’ve been chronicling this great city, a small, irregular fanzine, made of actual paper, has been doing likewise. Smoke: A London Peculiar was a truly special publication, providing words and pictures about the city with panache and wit.

The magazine stopped, then unexpectedly came back as a board game; one with so many arcane rules it made Mornington Crescent seem like Ludo.

A year and a half on, and Smoke is risen once more. This time, it’s a web site.

Helmed, as always, by Matt Haynes and Jude Rogers, the site again collects together stories, pictures, rants and randomness about the capital. We’re pleased to see the return of “Pigeons in Puddles”, long the industry standard for commentary on avian paddling. We also hear that “London’s Campest Statues” is likely to make a comeback, and possibly our suggested companion series “London’s Most Statuesque Camps”, if anyone can figure out what the hell that would look like.

You’ll find Smoke here, their Facebook there, and their Twitter stream here.

And here’s a Google satellite view of the area, so you can compare:

She also painted Elephant and Castle in pachydermal colours, with red elements to represent busses.

This one’s a bit harder to work out. If you look to the red shape in the bottom left, that’s E&C roundabout. Here’s a map to compare:

M’s work can be viewed on Saatchi Online and Facebook.

Brutalism’s bold, monumental, and on the whole, deadly serious style remains controversial, years after it was replaced by Post-Modernism and the Neo Vernacular style.

There is a little confusion as to who first coined the term Brutalism — Swedish architect Hans Asplund claims to have used it in a conversation in 1950, but its first written usage was by English architect Alison Smithson in 1952. The term was borrowed from pioneering French architects and refers to unfinished or roughly finished concrete (beton brut in French).

The following are a mix of familiar and somewhat less well-known Brutalist buildings in London. Please add your own personal favourites in the comments section below as there are happily (or not, depending on your standpoint) many examples of this uncompromising architectural style in our beloved capital.

Brunel University Lecture centre
Nearest tube: Uxbridge then take a U3 bus. Map

This imposing mid-60s building famously starred as the ‘Ludovico Medical Facility’ in Kubrick’s legendary film A Clockwork Orange. For this reason alone it is well worth a pilgrimage. It has also appeared in various TV series including Spooks, Silent Witness and Inspector Morse. Its jutting geometric forms mark it as a classic example of mid-period (or ‘Massive period’) Brutalism.

Brunswick Centre
Nearest tube: Russell Square. Map

Designed by Patrick Hodgkinson, this grade ll-listed residential and shopping centre has made several TV and film appearances and even had a song written about it by 90s indie ‘supergroup’ Lodger. The impact of its striking service towers and flying buttresses is softened by the sky blue and cream colour scheme, lending the whole development an almost breezy air.

Royal College of Physicians
Nearest tube: Regents Park/Great Portland Street. Map

Sir Denys Lasdun designed the graceful and discreet geometries of this building. Never a card-carrying Brutalist, he presented a softer version of its often hard-nosed style. Surrounded by the splendid neo-classical terraces of John Nash, The Royal College of Physicians holds it own and manages to be both elegant and entirely of its time.

Centre Point
Nearest tube: Tottenham Court Road. Map

How many times have you walked past this Grade ll listed London landmark and never given it a second thought?

Designed by Richard Seifert and completed in 1966 it was described by the Royal Fine Art Commision as having an ‘elegance worthy of a Wren steeple’. Note how the gentle v-shaped window mullions soften and add interest to this slender, Massive period tour de force.

The swish Paramount restaurant and bar occupies the top floors and has outstanding views of London. There is also a free viewing gallery. Phone up beforehand (0207 4202900) to let them know that you’re coming.

The Barbican
Nearest tube: Barbican/Moorgate. Map

This sprawling (and remarkably easy to get lost in) late Brutalist development houses the wonderful Barbican centre, the largest performing arts centre in Europe and home of the London Symphony Orchestra. The accompanying Barbican Estate gives you the impression of being in a Brutalist theme park. Though voted ‘the ugliest building in London’ in 2003 by some dullards, the tranquil waterside setting, complete with fountains and swaying reeds, renders it positively romantic. The soaring towers and vast concrete volumes are also nicely contrasted by the warmly-coloured tiled paving.

A highly recommended 90 minute architectural tour is available.

Trellick Tower
Nearest tube: Westbourne Park. Map

Designed by the wonderfully-named Erno Goldfinger (Ian Fleming appropriated his surname for the Bond villain, much to the architect’s chagrin), the equally loved and loathed Trellick Tower rears up majestically from west London and has featured extensively in television, music promos and film as well as appearing on mugs, bookends and t-shirts. The approach via Westbourne Park tube can take you through the charmingly named Meanwhile Gardens; apart from being pleasantly verdant, the view from the gardens gradually reveals Trellick Tower in all its splendour.

If you like what you see, check out the Brownfield Estate (nearest tube All Saints DLR, Map), where you can see three iconic Brutalist structures — Balfron Tower, Glenkerry House and Carradale House — for the price of one.

Southbank Centre complex and National Theatre
Nearest tube: Embankment/Waterloo. Map

This bold cultural behemoth has been compared to a nuclear reactor and an overgrown car park, and is often as confusing to navigate as an Escher painting. However, its complex and imposing concrete volumes have many fans and there is an enormous amount to see and do in and around it. Have a good look at the texture of the concrete and you will see a variety of finishes, including the imprints left by the wood ‘shuttering’ (moulds) when the concrete was cast in situ. The Skylon restaurant, housed on the first floor of the Royal Festival Hall has wonderful views over the Thames and is recommended.

Camden Town Hall Annexe
Nearest tube: Kings Cross. Map

Apparently this distinctly curvy (for Brutalism) and attractive building has been earmarked for redevelopment (i.e to be demolished) so go and have a look at it while it still stands.

Built during the late period of Brutalism, The eye-catching curved corner windows illustrate how architects were beginning to move away from the more block-like structures of the Massive period.

Alexandra Road Estate
Nearest tube: Swiss Cottage. Map

A high-density, low-rise housing project, this Grade ll listed building is mounted on rubber pads to minimize noise from the busy railway alongside it. Presumably the relative scarcity of windows on the side facing the tracks, greatly adding to its monumental appearance, was also designed with noise reduction in mind.

The best view of this arresting stadium-like aspect is from Abbey Road, just to the west of the estate as it crosses the railway lines.

Institute of Education, Bedford Way
Nearest tube: Russell Square. Map

Completed in 1979, Sir Denys Lasdun’s enormous structure puts the ‘massive’ into Massive period Brutalism. The huge concrete service towers are highly characteristic of Lasdun’s style but here they are elegantly married with long lines of dark tinted glass windows which hark back to the earlier, pre-Brutalist, International style. A gorgeous hunk of a building, the classic view of it is from the south west corner of Tavistock Square, just to the north.

Ministry of Justice
Nearest tube: St James’s Park. Map

Truly colossal, Basil Spence’s building was accused by Lord St John of Fawsley of ruining St James Park. However, it has a particularly impressive aspect when viewed from the southern area of the park. Unmistakably Massive period brutalist, the cantilevered projection near the top is said to have been inspired by medieval Italian fortresses according to Alexander Clement in his excellent book, Brutalism: Post-war British architecture.

St Giles Hotel
Nearest tube: Tottenham Court Road. Map

If you are an out-of-towner and are looking for somewhere to stay in London, how about the thoroughly Brutalist St Giles Hotel? It’s handily located for visiting the many Brutalist buildings in central London. The building comprises four large cantilevered towers with the windows cleverly arranged on sawtooth projections allowing lots of natural daylight and a good view from every room.

If you fancy getting up-close and personal with a few of the buildings, a short tour is easily possible. Start at King’s Cross to admire Camden Town Hall Annexe on Euston road opposite the station, then take a short walk south to the Brunswick Centre on Hunter Street. Just west of this is London University on Bedford Way. Afterwards make for Tottenham Court Road and head south along it; you will pass St Giles Hotel on your left shortly before arriving at Centre Point.

Text and photographs by Toby Bricheno; @TobyBricheno

Music Print by Lucy Stevens

Sign up to the design site LLUSTRE.com before Sunday 17 June to be in with a chance to win this limited edition Lucy Stevens ‘Music’ print.

Some of London’s finest designers have already featured on design website LLUSTRE.com, and this week they’re working with the latest talented designer, Lucy Stevens to present a limited edition of her works to their members.

London-based designer Lucy Stevens is inspired by things she loves — good food, travel, London, music and typefaces — and her beautiful prints represent these eclectic interests. She spent several years designing book covers before founding her own illustration collection under the name ‘LucyLovesThis’ and now spends her days producing screen-printed illustrations that combine London landmarks with beautiful typography and skillful illustration. 

Lucy’s London Music print – available in a light blue shade exclusive to LLUSTRE and produced in a limited run of just 10 – charts a map of London’s esteemed musical heritage: from Britpop to grunge to electro-pop and everything in between. The print celebrates the variety and musical colour that London offers.

Want to win this limited edition London music print? Go to LLUSTRE.com/thelondonist and sign up with your email address.

Already a member and want a chance to win? All you have to do is make any purchase at LLUSTRE.com before 17 June to qualify and use the code LONDONISTLUCY at the checkout — which will get you £5 off any order over £30 as well as entry into the competition.

LLUSTRE.com is a London-based website, scouring the capital –- and the rest of the world –- for the best in design for the home. Just for members, they curate a selection of the most exciting design products from both emerging designers and established brands, and present them at exclusive prices, as well as writing a daily journal about design they love. Membership is totally free.

For the first time in Olympic history, next-day stamps will be issued by Royal Mail to celebrate each Team GB Gold Medal win during London 2012.

You don’t need to be a lifelong philatelist to realise this is pretty special. After each amazing home win, picture editors, graphic designers, printers and drivers will swing into action, working around the clock to get the Gold Medallists stamps on sale in 500 selected Post Offices by lunchtime the next day. You’ll also be able to buy them online at www.royalmail.com.

The stamps will feature the athletes captured in a moment of Olympic glory, either in action or proud on the podium.

Be the first to collect all Gold Medallist stamps – register your interest now and you’ll receive a free presentation folder with every subscription to protect your London 2012 souvenirs.

The Gold Medal stamps form part of a special line-up of Royal Mail’s Olympic products. On 27th July, the day of the opening ceremony, Royal Mail’s ’Welcome to the Olympic Games’ stamps will go on sale. On 29th August, Royal Mail will also issue a set of stamps to celebrate the start of the Paralympics Games.

In January, London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games definitive stamps went on sale, marking the Olympic year. This followed the issue of 30 stamps reflecting all the sports competed at the Games in a three-part series between 2009 and 2011.

All the Olympic collection series can be purchased from www.royalmail.com/bethefirst.

Sponsored Post

What are the odds this time?

It is estimated that there are around 450,000 (non football) tickets available. You’re able to buy a maximum of four tickets (unless you want football in which case you can buy dozens) for a maximum of four sessions across all the available sports. So theoretically, 75,000 people could all buy their full allocation of 16. Hundreds of thousands applied last year, though the interest of many seems to have lapsed as far fewer took advantage of the recent presale dedicated to them. You may not be rubbing shoulders with more than a million folk this time, but even so it’s still going to be veeeery busy.

Can I get tickets for the athletics or the velodrome?

No. The little that was available was snapped up in the aforementioned presale. You’re also out of luck if you want many of the other very high demand events such as tennis, swimming (including synchronised), equestrian sports and both the ceremonies as well as some more surprising favourites like BMX, canoe slalom, rhythmic gymnastics, triathlon and modern pentathlon.

Can I at least get onto the Olympic Park?

Oh yes! You can even get into the Aquatics Centre if you’re up for some diving and there’s also more than 10,000 tickets available for both the handball (which GB are not very good at) and the hockey (which we are!), not to mention a few for Water Polo and the basketball preliminaries. Choose these in preference to the Olympic Park tickets themselves which get you through the gate, but not into actual sport.

Excellent! A bargain day out in Stratford it is, then!

Steady on there a minute. We expect there will be some cheap tickets available for those sports, but the indications are that the majority available are at the mid to high end.

Have all the cheap tickets gone, then?

By no means! They’re just mostly available at the less iconic venues. If you only want to watch people engage in various forms of combat at the ExCel centre your luck is very much in. There’s acres of space in the seats for the Table Tennis there, too.

Hang on… when you listed the sold out stuff earlier you didn’t mention artistic gymnastics or rowing. Are you telling me they have availability?

We certainly are, but you’ll have to be quick and lucky. There’s also a few going for the shooting and trampolining (NOT combined, though we think they should consider that for Rio…), the mountain biking and the sailing down at Weymouth as well as more than 10,000 each for the archery over at Lords, the Beach Volleyball at Horseguards Parade, the indoor version at Earls Court, the badminton at Wembley Arena and the canoe sprint at Eton Dorney.

That’s loads! So I should take my time, then, and maybe put things into and out of my basket while I imagine myself in the different venues?

Maybe tonight when most of the tickets have gone, but while they’re disappearing off the shelves like wildfire in the hours of daylight you should be calm and prepared, know what you’re going to go for, go straight to it and get in and out as fast as you can. If we understand the process correctly you’ll be selecting tickets that might already have gone by the time you click on them. You may need to wait up to half an hour to find out if others got in a fraction ahead of you. If you’re sure about what you want to see, go for the highest price bracket you can sensibly manage to give yourself the best chance of avoiding frustration and disappointment. If you do encounter delays and glitches, don’t be surprised, do remain calm and do be persistent. Sometimes an event looks sold out, but later cancelled tickets drop back onto the shelves unexepectedly and you may get lucky.

Is there still a chance to see medals being won?

Absolutely! It’s true that the medal sessions will have high demand and the lowest availability, but there’s still a lot of opportunities to see champions created, especially if you can go to the higher price categories.

Would you have any particular recommendations for sessions to go for?

Why yes! As we said above, we actually have medal standard hockey teams, especially with the women who’ve already beaten world champions Argentina this year. As luck would have it, the hockey draws were made yesterday and the schedules are decided. GB’s women will definitely play in sessions HO03, 08, 15, 20 and 27 while the men feature in 6, 11, 17, 24 (v Australia) and 30. We’re also partial to a “proper” Olympic sport like weighlifting and in the evening session (WL023) on Tuesday 7th August you can see the super-heavyweight men straining for gold, silver and bronze. Alternatively, you could gamble on British hope Zoe Smith making it down to the 58kg category and going for a medal in session WL006. Britain also has a genuine chance of a medal in the badminton mixed doubles (BD020).

Macca's alternative Tube map. Un-ewe-sual.

• Paul McCartney makes an alternative Tube map themed around sheep. How very odd.
• PC denies racially abusing a riot suspect.
• Teachers striking in Haringey.
• The creator of the Web will co-direct the Open Data Institute in Shoreditch.
• How Robin Gibb survived one of London’s worst train disasters.
• Stuff to do outside London in June.

Olympicks

• The Games go all FourSquare.
• Another batch of tickets goes on sale 11am Wednesday.

Image by M@

The Ragged School Museum near Mile End had to close today and cancel school visits after taking a pummeling from vandals. 26 windows were smashed in the Victorian canal-side building. It follows an earlier attack, last Thursday when windows to a storage space were put through by a group of, well, pillocks.

The museum, a small charity telling the story of Dr Barnardo and 19th Century schooling, estimates it lost £1,000 today because of the closure. Although the damage can be restored through insurance, repair work will no doubt cause further disruption.

We spent the night at the Ragged School a couple of years ago on a daft but fun ghost hunt. We didn’t see any spooks, but can confirm that this is an educational museum worthy of support and unworthy of vandalism.

You can send messages of support through @raggedschool, and make donations here.

This week, the tale of Epping Forest’s pool of despair.

“There’s a secret spot deep in the heart of Epping Forest that can drive a soul to self-destruction.”

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

Previous in Waltham Forest

• Pestilence, Plague and the Pits of Waltham Forest
• Motors and Muddy Marshes in Walthamstow

Previously in Hackney

• William Lyttle: Mole Man of Hackney
• Mrs Basil Holmes: saviour of London’s graveyards
• Horatio Bottomley: Hackney MP and scoundrel
• Deerfoot: the native American who ran in Hackney

Previously in Greenwich

• Joseph Druce: mudlark and Maori Chief
• Anne Boleyn: Marriage and May Madness
• General James Wolfe: Battles, Brothels and Broken Hearts
• Martial Bourdin, The Exploding Anarchist Of Greenwich

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

The ponds have been a haven for swimmers for over 200 years and, under the stewardship of the City of London, remain popular to this day. The typical Heath swimmer, we learn, is a hardy soul, unabashed by the threat of pike bites, the risks of ingesting coot poo, or the nipple-ossifying temperatures of the winter ice. In the 1980s, regulars at the men’s pond launched a vigorous campaign against the installation of hot showers. “Then there was the deeply religious man,” recounts the author, “who liked to dive from the top board. He would write out a prayer which he would carry down with him when ‘visibility was such that he could not see the water or anything that might be on the surface.” Evocative stuff.

Taking the Waters ties together such tales in a chronological account. Similar themes emerge (and submerge) throughout the history of the ponds: the never-ending debate about nudity, the gay and lesbian associations, the ratcheting up of health and safety, and the frequent campaigns whenever changes are suggested. The somewhat different history of the nearby lido is also told, from its 1930s heyday through its near closure in the Thatcher era, and on to its recent restoration.

The book is filled with dozens of beautiful photos by Ruth Corney, which will make even cold-water wussies want to dive in.

Whether you’re passionate about the Hampstead pools (as clearly many people are), or wouldn’t touch them with someone else’s bargepole, you’ll find plenty of fascinating history, politics and sporting endeavour in the pages of this book. We suggest you pick up a copy, put together a hamper, toddle along to the lido, and enjoy this book cover to cover by the poolside.

Taking the Waters: A Swim Around Hampstead Heath by Caitlin Davies is out now from Frances Lincoln Publishers. Buy here.

Read more London book reviews here.

Walking into the main living area of Ed Reeve’s house invites a sharp intake of breath. The clean, white space is dominated by a window that runs along the whole of one side of the room, looking out to the greenery of neighbouring gardens of De Beauvoir Town and letting in huge amounts of light. The leaves of an oak tree sway gently near the glass. It’s an impressive sight and one with which none of the surrounding Victorian houses could compete.

Reeve’s home, a wooden cube on three levels, is a completely different proposition to the average London residence. Large single-pane windows provide light, while sealable hatches open to provide fresh air and temperature control; the ground floor kitchen opens onto a compact, sun-filled backyard; and both living and storage space are plentiful. Reeve, a photogpraher, conceived and developed the structure himself (in collaboration with architect David Adjaye), making him one of a growing number of Londoners building their own bespoke-designed homes.

For a city that boasts so many adventurous public and large-scale commercial buildings, it is surprising that London’s residential architecture lags way behind other northern European cities. Architecturally conceived houses are a rare sight. It wasn’t always this way. Matt Gibberd is a director of The Modern House, an estate agency that solely deals with modern architecture. “If you go back to the early days of the modern movement in the mid-1930s, Hampstead and Highgate acted as a canvas for the best architects of the day,” he tells Londonist.

Today’s equivalent movement is smaller and patchier. There are, says Gibberd, pockets of residential architecture projects around town. For example, at the lower end of the market, “there are lots of young architects developing small residential schemes in areas of South-East London, like Forest Hill and East Dulwich, because land values are lower, and there’s a bit more space to build.” In those areas, individuals from a variety of backgrounds — builders and creative professionals as well as architects — are doing what developers don’t seem to want to: making the most of small spaces with good quality design and construction.

As this blog documents, there are more ‘modern’ houses in London than you might think, often hidden in mews or situated in quieter areas of town. But new and interesting residential architecture is still rare. It would be easy to assume that planning restrictions and NIMBY-ism are the root causes of this but that isn’t necessarily the case. “There’s no doubt that the planning system is difficult and people do come up against varying amounts of local opposition,” says Matt Gibberd. But when the design is good and the neighbours are handled sensitively, planning permission can come through quickly. “The council [Hackney] was very supportive because they need people to build new homes – we got planning permission in eight weeks,” says Ed Reeve. “All the neighbours were very supportive too. They knew something would get built here at some point and I think they were relieved to see something interesting rather than cheap flats.”

The planning environment varies from borough to borough. Sophie Goldhill runs an architectural practice with partner David Liddicoat. RIBA award-winning success with their home in King’s Cross, The Shadow House (pictured above), led to a focus on designing small homes. They currently have four projects on the go in London, and, says Goldhill: “We have to approach each project individually – we can’t just roll out the same design. Different boroughs want different things. The house we’re designing in Kensington has to be a lot more conservative than something in Camden or Islington.”

Like Ed Reeve, Goldhill didn’t have particular problems with the neighbours with The Shadow House. Her advice is to involve local people as soon as possible. “We build physical models, which people relate to well,” she says. “We often build them so our clients can take them to meetings with neighbours prior to planning. It’s for them to see that it’s not a scary thing. If they’re involved in the process, and they see what’s coming, they’re often really enthusiastic.”

The key is to build a house that operates sympathetically with its surroundings. Neither Reeve’s nor Goldhill’s home towers over the surrounding buildings. Both maximise space internally. “What we really try to do for our clients for small-scale houses is to be clever with small spaces,” says Goldhill. “We play with levels so the space feels a lot bigger than it really is.” Ultimately, she continues, “people are prepared to forgo square-foot area for a better quality of space.”

Why can’t property developers build like this?
Of the two main barriers to self-build projects – finding land to buy and the cost of building – one is more solvable than the other. The financial rewards for self-building make the investment (if it can be managed) worthwhile. “You can maximise the value with an architecturally-designed building, because they’re so unique,” says Sophie Goldhill. Ed Reeve agrees. He estimates that the total cost of building his home came to about half of what it is now worth. “I could never have afforded a house this size otherwise,” he says.

There are ways to limit risks and escalating project costs too. “I would advise prefabricating as much as possible,” says Reeve. Adjaye’s design for his house was constructed in a factory and assembled on-site in just two days (completely fitting out the house took a little longer — six to nine months). With the superstructure constructed off-site, he says, “you can have a weather-sealed house in weeks if not days,” meaning bad weather doesn’t get in the way. For self-builders working on a tight budget and with little contingency, this can make a difference.

The availability of land, or rather the lack of it, is another matter entirely. “The sad thing is, because of the way it’s all set up, the land only really become available to large developers and they’re only really looking to create a quick return,” says Reeve, which leads to poor quality design sold at a high mark-up. The mayor’s office has looked at this issue, producing a London housing design guide in 2009 and issuing minimum internal space standards that cover publicly funded construction. “Excellence in design and sustainability should not be seen as extra costs but as a shrewd investment,” the mayor has said, but none of the measures thus far helps small-scale house builders.

Whether it’s making the most of small spaces like Liddicoat & Goldhill or employing quick, innovative building methods like Ed Reeve, politicans and developers could learn a lot from London’s self-builders, a group that’s growing in number. “The public’s appreciation for this is only going one way,” says Matt Gibberd of The Modern House. “We’ve seen a massive increase in the number of people with sites and planning permission asking us for help with values. And they’re usually building for themselves.” Hopefully London’s modern houses won’t remain hidden for too much longer.

Stay in St Pancras Clock Tower with onefinestay

This is a sponsored post on behalf of onefinestay.

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• Giant twisty sculpture by Richard Wilson for Heathrow Terminal 2 (above).
• A double stab attack in Dollis Hill leaves one man dead.
• The hosepipe ban is relaxed…but only for people with gardening businesses.
• Start designing Crossrail 2 now, says report.
• Medically minded British Transport Police to speed up response for ill Tube passengers.
• A guide to Picasso’s London.
• Helicopter to fly through Tower Bridge (well, the gappy bit).
• The Cockney alphabet.

Olympicks

• The Olympic flame goes out during the relay. BUT, “mother flame” to the rescue.
• Want an Olympic torch? They’re already on sale on ebay for £150,000
• The Olympic Park: the review.
• Paralympics confirmed as the biggest ever in terms of countries and competitors. They start 100 days from now.
• Coldplay are confirmed for the Paralympic closing ceremony.

Hackney redevelopment is often in the news agenda. Witness the recent battle over modern tower blocks in Dalston,  and the ongoing encroachment of the City into the edge of the borough. It’s a singularly fascinating issue. Redevelopment can bring affluence and amenities to an area and provide much needed new homes. But the same developments can also have a negative effect on lives, pricing out existing residents and shops. It’s an emotive subject and one which Acquired For Development By… covers from many inventive and unexpected angles.

Three short stories look to a dystopian future. The Battle of Kingsland Road by Paul Case is a bloody burlesque charting the rivalry between a gang of gentrifiers from Stoke Newington and the fashionistas of the Hoxton Liberation Army — both of whom claim Kingsland Road as their own. Ashlee Christoffersen’s 2061, meanwhile, conjures a ghettoised, neo-feudal future for Clapton. Best of the three, in our opinion, is Kit Caless’ The Finest Store, in which the trend towards high street homogeneity reaches a hideous natural conclusion. This one deserves a longer treatment.

The non-fiction writing is also top-notch. Natalie Hardwick’s Alevism and Hackney hangs out with the area’s Alevi population, a cultural group rarely in the spotlight (even our spellchecker claims ignorance). Nell Frizzell’s account of a boating life on the River Lea is also enlightening.

Add in plenty of poetry, haikus, a ghost story and the tale of a man who falls in love with an electricity pylon, and you have a superb collection of original writing about London’s most fascinating borough. This is Hackney without the hackneyed, and a must-read for anyone who cares about the area.

Acquired For Development By…A Hackney Anthology is out now from Influx Press. Buy it here. Or, better yet, track it down in a local independent bookshop. Some of the authors will appear at the Stoke Newington Literary Festival on 2 June.

Read more London book reviews here.

Vas Blackwood will 'light you up like a leaking gas pipe' if you're film ain't good

A new film festival aims to uncover the next Guy Ritchie or Martin Scorsese right here in London.

The Tight Shorts Film Festival is a competition which has just four simple rules: the film must be 15 minutes long or less, provided in a digital format, the creator must give a verbal introduction to the film and must take questions and feedback after it is shown.

The competition is open to entrants from around the country and heats take place on the last Tuesday of each month in the Wenlock and Essex in Angel. Each month’s winner is then judged on a quarterly basis by an expert panel.

The judges are industry experts and include, amongst others, the actor Vas Blackwood who played Rory in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (pictured), Kathleen Hutchinson who was previously Head of New Comedy and Comedy Central UK and the actor Paul McNeill. The prizes on offer include cash and access to actors to make another film.

The viewings are open for all to watch and previous crowds seem to have liked what they saw. Film-buff Duncan Pow said: “The Tight Shorts club is what London’s thriving film community have been crying out for. Brilliant venue, a hive of creative people and a great forum for filmmakers and talent alike.”

The next heat takes place on Tuesday 29 May in Satan’s Circus in the Wenlock and Essex and tickets are £5 (free if you’re exhibiting). For more information, visit http://tightshortsclub.com/

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 chapel of Guy’s Hospital, in the shadow of The Shard.

His guest this week is Benedict O’Looney, Southwark architect, tour guide and teacher.

The pair discuss recent London news and features. Today’s topics include the history and architecture of the city in general and Southwark in particular, the best books about London, metal theft, the completion of the Orbit tower, relocation of residents by borough councils, parking charges, and the redevelopment of London Bridge. Benedict also takes on the Londonist Out Loud history quiz.

Remember, you can subscribe to Londonist Out Loud via iTunes or RSS.

This week’s show is sponsored by payasUgym

Interested in sponsoring this podcast? Contact us on hello@londonist.com for more details.

Saint Etienne

Saint Etienne’s music has often felt like a love letter to London — from referential classics like “Archway People” (famous b-side to one of their biggest singles, “You’re In A Bad Way”) and “Mario’s Cafe“ (paying homage to the well-loved Kentish Town emporium) to “Tales From Turnpike House”, 2005′s concept album set in an imaginary London estate. Even the title of their most recent greatest hits collection, “London Conversations”, serves as a reminder of the city that inspires Pete Wiggs, Bob Stanley and Sarah Cracknell so.

Formed in 1990, Saint Etienne released a couple of singles featuring the vocals of Moira Lambert and Donna Savage before settling on Cracknell as full-time head girl. Since then, they’ve built up a glorious and near-flawless discography, brimming with songs that embrace the essence of pop and give it an extra layer of  finesse.

That love of London we were talking about earlier is equally matched by the band’s love of music and, when it came to writing and recording their new album “Words And Music By Saint Etienne”, the three chose to focus on music and the central part it plays in their (and many of our) lives as its theme. It’s easy throwing poncey phrases like ‘tour de force’ around but this record really is up there as a high point in the band’s career to date and it is certainly one of the most thrilling albums we’ve heard in quite some time.

The goosebump beauty of the first track, “Over The Border”, sets the tone nicely for a journey through musical memories past and future, with cuts like “Tonight“ (the album’s introductory first single, which giddily anticipates a show by your favourite act), “I’ve Got Your Music” (this would’ve been number 1 for ages in Stock, Aitken & Waterman’s heyday) and the euphoric “DJ”, supplying thrills by the bucketload.

We got Sarah Cracknell on the blower for half an hour’s chit-chat and we’ve learned quite a bit about the golden days of Soho, falling in love whilst on the dodgems and (ahead of the band’s forthcoming gig at the Palladium) what Saint Etienne’s London fans are like.

It’s been 7 years since “Tales From Turnpike House”. Are you guys turning into Kate Bush?
We’ve actually been quite active in those seven years. We’ve not been reclusive in a rectory in Oxfordshire tending our garden [laughs]. It doesn’t seem like that long to us because we’ve done a few re-issues, going through our archives and listening to songs from 20 years ago and looking up old pictures – that took a while. I had a single out with Mark Brown. We’ve been doing film music and also gigs. So, I know it does feel like a long time to the outside world but it hasn’t been 7 years of inactivity to us. We’ve been busy. Not as busy as we are at the moment, though!

The album’s opener, “Over The Border”, is one of the best things you’ve ever done. Discuss.
Umm… I think it’s the most succinct opener we’ve ever had on an album because it sums up the whole record. It was, in fact, the last thing we recorded. We did that because we felt that the album needed some explanation. It’s one thing to talk about it in interviews but if the interviewer listens to it before talking to us then this song kind of explains what the whole album is about, really, the album being about music and what it has meant to you over the years and what it means to you now. How a song or a record can transport you back to a time or a place. Even if it is not about a massive landmark in your life, music can pull you back to an atmosphere, a place you used to hang out or a person you used to know. And the album is also about how you listen to music, how that changes over the years.

Was that concept clear to the three of you at the outset or did it evolve with the recording process?
It happened near the beginning. I think we had a couple of songs sort of under our belts, not even lyrically finished. We had the odd lyric here and there and I think the lyrics started suggesting something. But it was certainly fairly early on.

The new single, “I’ve Got Your Music”, is smashing. What is it about?
It’s about that personal moment of having your own favourite song on your headphones and that feeling of being separate to everything that’s going on around you.

And out of all the songs on the new album, which one is your personal favourite?
Oooh. Umm… It changes. Because of things like doing the songs live. A couple of them, perhaps three, we’ve been doing live for a while now but we’ve gradually started adding more onto the setlist so, as we go along, it sort of changes. At the moment, I suppose… lyrically it’s “Heading For The Fair”. The storyline is a bit David Essex. A girl goes to the fair and meets a guy who spins her round and promises many things and says ‘I’ll come back next year and we’ll run off together’ and, of course, next year he just ignores her. I remember going to the fair and getting crushes on boys on the dodgems [laughs]. I was really, really young. But it’s about that mood, fairs at night-time. You’ve got lots of music going on, all the different rides and there’s that smell of grass and candy floss. It’s a very heady mix, I think.

The Olympics are very nearly upon us. As one of the musical acts most associated with London, will you be doing anything to commemorate the extravaganza?
Yes, we are. We are doing free gigs!

Well, that’s a bit brilliant.
Yeah, I’m not yet sure where or when but we have been asked and we’ve said yes.

Are you excited about the Olympics being held in London?
Yes. It’s nice to bring focus on to a city that I love so much and that has so much to offer.

Many of the band’s songs are about or inspired by various parts of London. Is there one particular place in London which is particularly special to you?
I love Soho. I suppose I’ve loved Soho since I was about 15 when I first went there. There’s so much history to it and the history is quite flavourful, do you know what I mean? It’s a great place. My mum went to school there, actually. She used to go to the Two I’s coffee bar and do all that afternoon jiving and I remember doing a gig when I was about 15 or 16 at a place called Le Beat Route on Greek Street. I also used to go out to a club night called Alice In Wonderland at Gossip’s on Dean Street. I just love the atmosphere of Soho.

Saint Etienne has come very close to having a top 10 single on a few occasions. Does it bother you that it hasn’t happened, yet?
I think, at the moment, the top 10 is not something that our music would fit into. We’re never going to get played on Radio 1 now. Radio 1 is such a different beast. The fact that we haven’t had a top 10 is a bit of a shame but it’s not something we’re going to cry about [laughs]. Especially as we’ve had two 11s or an 11 and two 12s or something like that ["He's On The Phone" got to 11, whilst "You're In A Bad Way" and "Sylvie" both peaked at 12]. And I think even the single I did with Mark Brown was an 11 or something in that vicinity, although in the mid-weeks it was number 2 so that’s like a carrot being dangled a few times. But I do love the whole chart thing, as it was. And I also love the fact that we’ve been on Top of the Pops half a dozen times. That means a lot to me. That kind of makes up for it, really.

People have this idea of you, Bob & Pete being best friends. Is that how it is?
Yeah, that is exactly how it is. We never fight. We still love hanging out and travelling together. Like family, in a way. They’re all quite easy-going and there’s no horrendous egos or any particular egos at all so I think that’s part of the reason why we get on so well. No one ever treads on anyone else’s toes and no one is precious about anything. We write all the songs together, we all chip in. No one ever goes ‘ooh, that’s my song!’.

And how often do the three of you get together when you are not working?
Well, Pete lives in Hove, I live in Oxfordshire and Bob lives in Highgate so if we’re not working on an album or doing press, we’d probably meet up about once a month or once every two weeks. We get to see each other all the time, really.

Do you reckon Moira Lambert and Donna Savage have a little cry every time a new Saint Etienne album comes out?
Do you know, I’ve no idea. I vaguely remember someone saying that they weren’t actually interested in being in the band. Maybe that’s just Moira Lambert. I’m not sure. I might be wrong but that seems to ring a bell.

Have you ever met either of them?
No, I haven’t, actually [laughs].

Has [long-term Saint Etienne co-vocalist] Debsey Wykes ever said to you guys: “go on, make me a full time member of the band”?
Well, she pretty much already is, really. She does all the live shows. I don’t know what we’d do without her, now. She’s become my rock. If she’s not around I’m panic-stricken. She’s had a co-write on the album on a song called “Haunted Jukebox” and we did a cover-mount thing for MOJO recently, where we did a duet on a Beach Boys track, “Wouldn’t It Be Nice“. So she’s around with us all the time. She is a full time member, really.

Bob has recently told Pitchfork that you guys hope to release a double album next year. It sounds like you’ve got quite a lot more in the bag, as it were.
We have got a lot more in the bag. But I wonder whether there’s been a confusion along the way about the double-album thing because Words and Music is coming out as a double-album as well with remixes. I’m not sure. Maybe Bob thinks we’re doing a double-album next [laughs]. Hey, maybe we are .

And now to Settle An Old Rumour corner… is it true that you were originally supposed to voice Spiller’s “Groovejet”, which Sophie Ellis-Bextor ended up doing?
I’ve heard through management and that sort of thing that, erm… yes. But I’m not sure. It’s one of those things that is so brilliant, I wouldn’t want to taint it with ‘it could’ve been me’. It’s such a great record and she sang it fantastically.

You released your solo record, “Lipslide”, in 1997. Do you have any interest in releasing any more solo material in the future?
I haven’t got any thoughts about it for the near future. But it’s one of those never-say-never things.

Which of Saint Etienne’s albums would you say is your favourite?
I think I’m extremely fond of “Foxbase Alpha”, even though, funnily enough, I didn’t write anything on that. But it’s got that brilliant melting pot feeling about it, where every idea that Bob and Pete had ever stored up went into it. In that kind of way of ‘ooh we might never make another one’. And I just think it’s very of its time and it’s so exciting. So exciting. I love what Richard X did with it on “Foxbase Beta”, just kind of updating it slightly. I think it’s brilliant. I mean, he didn’t tamper with it too much, he just modernised the sound and the beats and things like that.

Does the London crowd at Saint Etienne shows differ from other audiences?
It does in a way. Partly because so many people we know come. And I suppose there is a real familiarity, having lived there for so many years, previously. You look at the people and you feel as though you know them. They tend to be quite good about getting up and dancing. Even if it’s a seated venue, they’re really quick to get out of their seats. Especially with a little bit of encouragement.

When was the last time you had a cuppa at Mario’s Cafe?
Oh goodness. Do you know, someone said to me the other day that, apparently, Mario is a bit cross with us. Apparently he still talks about the song. Somebody said that they’d been in there – they may have been joking – but they’d been in and he said ‘yeah, they don’t come in here anymore, you know’. Whether they were winding me up, I don’t know [laughs]. But I was quite sad to hear that. It has been a bloody long time!

“Words And Music By Saint Etienne” is out now on Universal. Saint Etienne play The Palladium on 28th of May. Tickets are available here.

This Week In London’s History

• Monday – 21st May 1853: The Aquatic Vivarium, the world’s first public aquarium, is opened in Regent’s Park.
• Tuesday – 22nd May 1897: The Blackwall Tunnel is officially opened by the Prince of Wales, becoming the longest underwater tunnel in the world (at the time). The original tunnel now forms the western (northbound) carriageway – the adjacent tunnel that houses the eastern (southbound) carriageway was opened in 1967.
• Wednesday – 23rd May 1701: Captain Kidd is hanged in Wapping, following his conviction for piracy and murder.
• Thursday – 24th May 1862: The current Westminster Bridge is opened, replacing an earlier stone bridge that was subsiding badly.
• Friday – 25th May 1878: The first ever performance of Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore takes place at the Opera Comique on The Strand.

Random London Quote Of The Week

If I could have found a buyer I would have sold London itself.

Richard I

Picture by Still the Oldie 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, Konstantin Binder has captured the calm before the storm in West Ham.

Lifts — or elevators if you’re from foreign parts — have received much love on these pages, but we shouldn’t forget the lift’s less glamorous and sibling: the escalator.

Most of us take escalator rides on a daily basis. The tube obviously stands head and shoulders over the rest, but there are escalators in office buildings too, not to mention quirky examples like that of the Natural History Museum.

Escalators offer photographers the chance to capture light entering a dark space, the flow of people and the symmetry of a mechanical process. Arguably the best spot in the capital is Canary Wharf, where a rank of escalators rise towards a glass ceiling, as demonstrated by the atmospheric opening image to this selection.

With thanks to Londonist Flickr pool contributors: psyxjaw, bradman334, Cris Rose, DeeMac, O.F.E, makipon, richwat2011, Cris Rose, bobaliciouslondon, curry15 and Nathan Longfield.

Cover from the elements

Historically, the average temperature in East London in August is 16.6 degrees centigrade, but it was a lot less than that when we arrived mid-afternoon in May and it plunged further once it went dark, to the point where our teeth were chattering uncontrollably on the way home. It seems incongruous for such a legendary festival, but if you’re in the stadium for the evening you may want to pack a chunky sweater or a favourite warm jacket just in case. Think early season midweek football and you should be ok. If the jacket has a hood, so much the better. In the mid to upper seating areas you’re covered by the stadium roof, but in the front block of 20 or so rows you are not (see picture above). If you’re close enough to see the athletes’ numbers you might be sharing a downpour with them, which brings us neatly to…

What you’re going to see (or not)

At BUCS we had a cracking view of the start of the 100m, but the sandpit might as well have been on the moon for all we could see of any triple or long jumpers using it. In particular, the distance measuring panels, so useful to the television viewer, completely obscured the seated landings of the competitors. We were in prime position for the pole vault, but a hundred metres away the high jump was a distant pleasure, the shot put passed off unnoticed and the discus only became relevant when your sense of self-preservation awakened occasionally as a projectile fired up chunks of turf on the edge of your peripheral vision. On the track, as has been highlighted elsewhere, once the sprinters had got into their stride we had little idea of all but the most obvious placings. Instinctively our gaze shot left to the nearby big screen… which showed nothing but an aerial view of the proceedings. It may seem odd to pay handsomely to watch the finishes on television inside the arena itself, but that may be your best option. In fairness to the organisers, we suspect these issues would face you in any athletics stadium in the world and any ticket should give you a good view of a lot of the action, but many spectators here will be first-timers and may be surprised at the variation in viewing experiences. Bring binoculars to get the most out of your visit.

Where will your seat category put you?

Obviously, you won’t need viewing aids if you’ve paid several hundred quid for top category tickets! Or will you? We’ll tell you one thing, we doubt you’ll be in line with the finish, as the popular assumption goes. The lower tier there is completely devoted to the media, the concourse level above holds boxes for heads of state and the area at the top is currently one of only two in the stadium with no seats on it, just bare rows of concrete, and that looks a bit… deliberate. Even if they eventually cover those with luxury cinema chairs, is the top tier what you had in mind when you handed over £725? The seating that’s clearly for the public seems to stop at about the 80m mark down the home straight. From our experience, the first ten rows are a smidge too close and low to be absolutely optimal. From 15 rows back to the end of that lower tier seems to offer the finest overall view. Presumably, the lower category tickets will be higher up and on the back straight, while the middle categories will be lower down or on a bend, but it may not be that straightforward. We couldn’t get over to check, but it seemed to us that seats early on the first bend give perhaps the best view – a decent, front-on look at the finish line as well as one of the better vantage points for many of the field events. Those would be blocks 16-21 in either level 1 or 2 if you get a choice once the seat allocations are known. Here’s a rough plan of where the blocks are.

How will it feel finally to be in the stadium?

If you’re early, surprisingly mundane. We’ve been fortunate enough to have a guided tour of an empty Wembley Stadium and the first thing you do as you emerge into the bowl is stop and mouth “Wow…” Here, it was fully five minutes before we remembered how amazed we were to be in the Olympic Stadium. The Guardian has it about right when it says:

The spare structure they produced for the London Olympic stadium wins admiration for its simplicity and economy. With its exposed steelwork, simple flat bowl shape and lack of decoration, it avoided any political embarrassment that would have been caused by rows about the value for money of design flourishes or cost overruns. But it is…”painfully pragmatic”.

It does feel safe, comfortable and absolutely fit for purpose, but any buzz you get will in all likelihood come from the athletes and the crowd rather than the structure itself. Unless the evening sessions happen with the floodlights off. Right at the end of the night, they were suddenly extinguished and the stadium lit from underneath by an array of blue spotlights to a collective gasp of delight. That was cool.

In the same Guardian article architect Piers Gough hits the nail fundamentally on the head when he says:

We expect stadiums to take your breath away and unfortunately this one doesn’t. But when it is full of people it will go ‘whumph!’ and the atmosphere will completely overwhelm the architecture anyway.

But will the crowds be up to that?

Crowd reaction

On this evidence that’s a resounding “yes”! Sure, the BUCS afficionados know their sport, but the thousands filing in for the entertainment portion of the evening were just as quick to join in the required handclaps for high jump or pole vault run ups, drowning out any announcers who dared think something else in the stadium more important. The 3000m runners were clapped on each and every lap as they went past and any rhythmic chart music got a good stomp going to the beat. As the celebrity section got underway we were amused at the following sequence of responses to well-known names: “The Hairy Bikers! (near silence), Dame Kelly Holmes! (thunderous applause), Alexandra Burke! (near silence)”.

Lord Coe himself nipped out to present some medals (Dennis Skinner was also in attendance for political balance) and was greeted warmly, suggesting that his personal stock is still quite high despite the ticketing frustrations. He must also be relieved that he can finally be recognised by no less an authority than Vernon Kay as “The one, the only, Lord Coe!!” now that, we assume, he’s seen off all those pretenders and impersonators that were confusing people.

The crowd was only wrong-footed once, when it clapped the crouch for a sprint as if it was a jump and accidentally generated a false start. It was also a good two lines into the national anthem, rendered in the style of a medieval carol by the Military Wives, before anyone scrambled to their feet, the choir having launched straight in without the customary ninety second drum roll. Mexican waves were part of the crowd’s repertoire, too, and it looks like anybody in the stadium come Games time will have a vibrant, if potentially chilly, time, especially if they remember to bring their binoculars with them. Maybe that’s why they’re sometimes called “field glasses”?

We’re lazy bastards, so we attempted to cheat by using Street View. We were thwarted at the first turn. “W Martyn has been a family grocer in Muswell Hill since 1897,” we learn. Here it is in Street View. This is going to be easy. “Visit the counter to find the ‘True Weight System’ and name the town you find there.” Ah, looks like we’re not going to be able to win that diamond without getting our arse to N10.

Thirty such questions are dotted around the area, with five each relating to history, food & drink, local business, environment, people and miscellaneous. It’s not all quiz questions. The occasional poll, such as whether a light railway should be built along the Parkland Walk, is also included.

The game was commissioned by Muswell Hill Traders Group, who hope it will increase the footfall in some of the independent shops of the area. The app is supported by the Mayor of London’s Outer London Fund, with puzzle know-how from the fiendish minds at Treasure Trails. The diamond competition is open until 28 May, but the app will still work after the competition closes.

Secrets and Treasures in Muswell Hill is available now for iPhone and Android phones. We’re off to win a diamond.

Olympic over-exposure is temporarily tempered while London works itself into a frenzy over the Queen’s big anniversary. The latest instantiation of monarch mania comes from Transport for London, which has dolled up a couple of its Tube trains in patriotic patterns. One went into service on the appropriately named Jubilee Line yesterday, the other next week.

It’s not a huge change to livery — Tube trains are normally red, white and blue, of course. But the royalist rolling stock will also sport faux-bunting and images of a crown and diamonds designed by kids. The latter is lifted from the commemorative Oyster cards we previously featured.

You’ll be pleased to hear that us commoners are not (directly) paying for the decoration — it’s funded by TfL suppliers.

WhipCar.com is changing the way Londoners drive.

It’s a neighbour-to-neighbour car rental service that matches up people who need a car with car owners who don’t drive every day. The owner sets a price, the driver requests a time and WhipCar takes care of the insurance.

You can rent for a few hours, days or weeks. Car owners can make over £1000 a year and drivers get to choose from all sorts of cars – all well looked after and just a short walk from home.

Need a car?
See what you could be driving at WhipCar.com/Londonist and you’ll get £10 off your first booking.

Own a car?
See what you could earn. Enter your number plate here for your free rental valuation.

Click the map of Whipcar's London locations to find your nearest car

WhipCar.com – Rent the car next door.

This video isn’t new — it was uploaded to Vimeo seven months ago — but it’s definitely worth four minutes of your time. London’s many shapes and contours are captured in a beautifully shot film that combines timelapse photography, tilt / shift (that trendy lens trick that makes buildings look like models) and slow-motion cinematography. The soundtrack is by Rael Jones, who also wrote music for the recent Sherlock TV series; in fact the film bears some resemblance to that show’s credit sequence, which is no bad thing.

According to the filmmakers, their intention was to “capture the spirit and endless energy of London”. Job done.

Many thanks to Paul Southwood for posting this to our Facebook page.

See also:

Video: London On High

Click through for medium resolution view.

Perhaps inspired by the hyper-dense mapping of Stephen Walter, Jojo Oldham has put together her own take on the centre of London. She includes “the best and worst that London has to offer. Full of crap drawings, musings and mistakes.”

Actually, there’s plenty to admire here. Jojo awards certain areas with rosettes, declaring them ‘edgy’, ‘past it?’ and ‘chaotic’. The compact annotations point out shops, bars and attractions of note (to the artist), with frequent asides sandwiched in between streets. It’s one to savour.

Section of central London at higher resolution (click through).

You can get a print of the map for £120 (33 times cheaper than a Stephen Walter) here.

We’re still looking for more hand-drawn maps (and they can be much simpler than this one). Send your work to tips@londonist.com

Previously: 101 Dalmations, Albertopolis, Angel to Bankside, Anglo-Saxon London, Bloomsbury, Borough of Southwark,Brixton as a tree, Central London, Central London with no street names, District Line (Wimbledon Branch),Docklands, Driver’s Mind Map, Family History, Fleet Valley, Hackney, Hampstead Heath, Honor Oak Park,Hoxton Square, Isle of Dogs, Kingsland Road, London as a grid, King’s Cross and Islington, Ladbroke Grove,London firsts, Markets, Mayfair, Mayfair Squares, New Cross, New Cross (the fields of), Notting Hill, Paris versus London, Patchwork London, Pigeon London, Pimlico, River Fleet, Secret Gardens, Primrose Hill, Rivers, Shoreditch, Stoke Newington,Stratford, Toilets, Tottenham to Aldwych on bike, Tube from memory, Walthamstow by mother and daughter,West Hampstead, Westminster kettling.

• The sexiest parts of London, as measured by sex-aid sales.
• A boat from Limehouse to the Olympic Park will cost £95 for an adult ticket. “We are not taking advantage,” says the operator.
• Want to take over the Olympic stadium, post games? You’ve got an extra eight weeks to put a bid together.
• The cable car is almost complete. Looking rather handsome if you ask us.
• Madame Tussauds gets a new Queen.
• Tony Robinson mentors train drivers on how to be more funny.
• Mount Pleasant sorting office gets £32 million machine.

Image of the cable car by Ian Visits in the Londonist Flickr pool.

There’s an old and apocryphal London saying that you’re never more than six feet away from a rat. This new map from Stephen Walter shows how you’re never more than a furlong from a subterranean oddity.

Walter has painstakingly charted the buried rivers, Tube lines, bunkers, sewers, government tunnels and other hypogeal secrets of London. He’s also included mysterious and underworld elements, such as unsolved murders, ley lines and pagan burial sites. Like his famed 2008 work The Island, to which this is a companion piece, London Subterranea is a mesmerising tagliatella, combining painstaking research with artistic whimsy.

We can’t reproduce the whole thing in high-res, but you can view the original art work at London Transport Museum’s new Mind the Map exhibition, which opens on Friday 18 May. Parts of the map are reproduced here courtesy of TAG Fine Arts, who represent the artist and have high-quality limited edition prints available.

See also:

• Our own (relatively pathetic) map of subterranean London
• Audio of Stephen Walter and other mappers in conversation with Londonist.
• Book review: London Under by Peter Ackroyd.

Authors Joseph Bullman, Neil Hegarty and Brian Hill investigate six London roads: Reverdy Road in Bermondsey, Deptford High Street, Arnold Circus in Shoreditch, Caledonian Road in Islington, Portland Road near Notting Hill and Camberwell Grove.

Each thoroughfare has a different story to tell. Portland Road, for much of its history, was an impoverished no-go area, gradually gentrifying but still showing a marked increase in affluence from north to south. Arnold Circus was built from the rookeries of the Old Nichol, transformed from the worst slum in London to a model housing estate. Camberwell Grove has yo-yod in and out of respectability. Even the Cally Road flirted with the well-to-do for a time, before prisons, asylums, railways and noisome industries brought the area down. In fact, the changing face of all six areas serves as an antidote to Peter Ackroyd’s regular musings about London neighbourhoods maintaining the same essence over centuries.

The primary source, in each case, is the maps of Charles Booth, who colour-coded the levels of poverty in individual buildings in the late Victorian era. Consequently, the beef of each chapter slow cooks in this period, describing the living conditions, health, spiritual makeup, hopes, dreams and fears of the denizens of each street.

The histories get more interesting as they approach our own times. We find ourselves in a city where housing issues are once again at the top of the agenda, with the affluent few increasingly squeezing financially less fortunate communities out of central areas. Who, now, can afford to buy their own home in London? The book does a splendid job of explaining how we reached this point, in the context of previous housing trends. What will these six streets look like in another 20 years? We look forward to the TV series.

The Secret History Of Our Streets – London is out now from BBC Books. Buy here.

Read more London book reviews here.

News and Views
Londonist Out Loud is presented and produced by N Quentin Woolf. This week’s show comes from the Foundling Museum in Bloomsbury, which tells the story of the first hospital for abandoned children.

His guests this week are:

• John Rees, writer, broadcaster, activist, author of The Algebra and Revolution, involved in Stop The War Coalition, and co-author of A People’s History of London.
• Lindsey German, socialist writer and activist, involved in Stop The War Coalition, co-author of A People’s History of London.
• Matt Cook, co-editor of Love London Museums, a website about London’s small and quirky museums.

The guests discuss recent London news and features, including the results of the mayoral elections, the history of the Foundling Museum, the ‘ingredients’ of a good museum, the Love London Museums website, William the Conqueror’s castles, London’s population growth, and the usual historical quiz.

Caro Howell, Director of the Foundling Museum, takes NQW for a tour of the museum’s latest exhibition on the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens (see picture).

Remember, you can subscribe to Londonist Out Loud via iTunes or RSS.

This week’s show is sponsored by payasUgym

Want to try free indoor cycling classes in Battersea?

Soul4Cycle is a new, pay-as-you-go indoor cycling studio. There’s no membership or monthly subscription to get between you and your static bike workout. Just buy class credits and use them up as you get those legs moving.

If you are looking for a healthy and efficient, fun and social workout with great music and motivational instructors, this is the place for you. Soul4Cycle offers distinct class styles incorporating hills, flats and interval training but ultimately with indoor cycling, you’re in control of your resistance and your workout.

Fitness enthusiasts, cyclists, triathletes and beginners are all welcome.

Want to try it out? Londonist readers can claim TWO free introductory class by emailing info@soul4cycle.co.uk and quoting Londonist in the subject line.

Soul4Cycle is based at Nuffield Health, Sheepcote Lane, Battersea SW11 5BT. For more information visit www.soul4cycle.co.uk or ’like’ Soul4Cycle on Facebook.

Another batch of incredible aerial shots of London by photographer Jason Hawkes, who used the (apparently brief) glimmer of warm weather this weekend to snap the capital from the skies. Jason’s work is becoming a firm favourite in the Londonist office: we’ve previously enjoyed his pictures of the Olympic Park and a video of the city at night.

See more photographs from the weekend’s shoot over at Jason’s website.

All photographs by Jason Hawkes.

This Week In London’s History

• Monday – 14th May 1842: The first fully illustrated weekly newspaper, the Illustrated London News is launched, costing sixpence. It was still being published weekly as recently as 1971, but its publication frequency has since declined.
• Tuesday – 15th May 1981: Zara Phillips, the daughter of Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips, is born in a private wing of St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington. She would become a very successful equestrian, and is currently 14th in line to the throne.
• Wednesday – 16th May 1968: A gas explosion causes the collapse of an entire corner of a newly constructed high-rise block of flats in Newham, East London, killing five residents. Unsurprisingly the flats are later deemed to be ‘structurally unsound’.
• Thursday – 17th May 1984: Prince Charles denounces an early proposed design of an extension to the National Gallery building on Trafalgar Square as “a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend”.
• Friday – 18th May 1593: A warrant is issued for the arrest of Christopher Marlowe following allegations of heresy. Less than two weeks later, he was murdered in Deptford, South East London.

Random London Quote Of The Week

London is a modern Babylon.

Benjamin Disraeli, Tancred

Picture by Tyla’75 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, Paul Steptoe Riley has captured an unlikely couple passing in the sunshine on Wardour Street.

• World record broken for the longest-ever journey by black cab…it even went south of the river.
• The Met police have spent £9 million in six years on compensation claims.
• Bidding is open for the licence to run a local TV channel for London…hmm, tempting. Wonder if they’ll accept our offer of £3.50, a crumpled wall map and a knitted Boris Johnson.
• Greenwich — sorry, the Royal Borough of Greenwich — will host the UK’s biggest street party for the Jubilee.
• Kids in Hackney wait an average 33 months for adoption, another, if less enviable, ‘biggest in the UK’.
• After the Games, there’s no getting into most of the Olympic Park till Easter 2014.
• We’re off to the pub. It’s not news. But we thought we’d share. Have a happy weekend.

The shape, size and styles of doors tell us a lot about what lies behind them. Heavy wood with some ornate metalwork probably leads into a cavernous stone church; a smart one-tone paint job no doubt guards a Georgian or Victorian townhouse, and so on.

As this selection shows, London has some grand old doors. But the best doors are the dingy ones, of which there are plenty in a city of dark corners and alleyways. Our leading image here channels that spirit.

With thanks to Londonist Flickr pool contributors: laurabot_, Gareth L Evans, tezzer57, fabiolug, makipong, Matthew Gidley, fabiolug, richwat2011, PaulitzerPix and curry15.

Rather than section the book into traditional areas such as the West End, South Bank and City, Sams instead clusters her facts and features around the stations of a Tube map. It’s a simple idea, and one that will work particularly well for newcomers to the city, who are likely to navigate by the underground.

Sensibly, the scope is limited to Zone 1 Tube stations (now we’ll never know what delights await at Dagenham Heathway). Each stop gets a page or three detailing the local highlights round each station.

The tone is pitch perfect. While all the tried-and-tested historical bases are covered, Tube London goes one step further than the average guide by mustering more recent tidbits. So, for example, we find out about Bob the ginger cat in the entry for Angel; we read about guerilla gardeners and the Strata Tower in the discussion about Elephant and Castle; and the jelly baby statues at Marble Arch get as much space as nearby Achilles.

The content, then, is more than a match for any similar book on the market, while the clever format should see Tube London become a popular favourite among Oyster-wielding visitors and inquisitive locals alike.

Tube London by Rebecca Sams is out now from Capital History. Buy here.

Not content with a book about London, the author recently set up the Love London Hate London website, where you’re encouraged to share the best and worst the capital has to offer. Give it a try.

More London book reviews.