Miscellaneous: July 2009 Archives

Do you have a caption for today's Photo of the Day? Leave it in the comments below.

So we all know that Notting Hill is all market stalls and chi-chi doo dahs. And we know that Westbourne Grove is gentrified chic at it's most delicious. But what you may not know is that if you walk up Portobello Rd, past the decorative pipes and overpriced pashminas - then further up a little more - you'll stumble across the relatively untouched shopping gem of Golborne Road.

This revised and reissued book by Warren Grynberg presents old photos of the City, each complemented with a short caption. Hardly an original formula. Head into the Museum of London bookshop and you'll find any number of similar volumes. Grynberg's book, however, offers something a little bit meatier than the competition.

Simon Key and Tim West used to work for Waterstones; they'd barely settled in as managers of the Wood Green branch when they were informed the chain was closing the store down, leaving the area with no bookshop at all. So they decided to do something about it and the Big Green Bookshop was born.

Bringing you the most Londony shows on TV and radio over the coming week.

The following post is from our advertiser, BT MyPlace.

Did you know the statue of Sir Winston Churchill in Parliament Square has a small electrical current running through it to stop pigeons landing on it and creating a mess, or there’s an identical replica of London Bridge in Arizona? To help Londoners make the most of their time in the Capital this summer, BTMyPlace is launching 20 free video Mobi-Guides from Ballista, developed and presented by BBC personality Dan Snow. These give you something new about areas from Westminster to Waterloo, through a combination of inspirational history and trivia. The guides will be beamed to your wireless device based on your location ; for free! BT MyPlace is the first information service to be personalised to a user’s location and interests. It is free to access using any internet-enabled mobile device, via any outdoor BT Openzone Westminster Wi-Fi hotspot and delivers targeted services including restaurant, bars and shopping recommendations, plus audio downloads, including books and walking tours. To mark the launch, BT is giving away an Acer Aspire One netbook. For your chance to win, visit the site to find the answer to this question: What did Henry VIII practise at Horseguards? To enter, check out the competitions page at www.BTMyPlace.com. Registering takes seconds. Full Ts & Cs are available on the same page.

A few bleary-eyed and saddle-sore Londoners will have more-interesting-than-usual water cooler banter about what they did on their weekend. A big night down the pub? No, a 120 mile overnight bike ride to the Suffolk coast.

Epicurienne is this week's blogger, a dedicated documenter of London's food - and the world cuisine on her travels. As well as selflessly eating on our behalf, she includes a splash of London transport and weather and general commentary to top up this lovely London blog.

Photo by Mat Ricardo via the Londonist Flickrpool.

This Week In London’s History

• Monday - 6th July 2005: London wins its bid to host the 2012 Olympics, beating Paris by 54 votes to 50 in the International Olympic Committee’s final round of voting. The announcement sparks hours of celebrations in Trafalgar Square.
• Tuesday - 7th July 2005: Four suicide bombers detonate bombs on London’s public transport system, resulting in the death of 52 commuters and injury to some 700 others.
• Wednesday - 8th July 1965: Ronnie Biggs, a member of the gang that carried out the notorious ‘Great Train Robbery’ a couple of years earlier, escapes from Wandsworth Prison. He would remain un-incarcerated until 2001.

An elite Subway restaurant just off Oxford Street is taking advantage of the wanton money-shedding ways common to the area by offering a sandwich that costs £349, according to the ad in their window.

Our most popular posts from the past seven days, and a round-up of what made the news in the city this week.

115. Blood-Stained Ghosts

Our weekly round-up of cinema reviews If it's summer (and wringing out our t-shirts, yep, it's summer) it must be time for the big, blockbuster kid's films. So make room for Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs - in 3D!

A series celebrating the talent of our friends over in the Londonist Flickr pool who make our site look great with their fabulous photographs. Here, they introduce themselves and share their favourite London shots.

On Sunday night we decided to put all queuing tips to the test and headed to Wimbledon to camp for tickets. Despite arriving by 8 PM, our hopes of reaching Centre Court were sadly dashed as soon as the honourary staff members handed us our queue cards: there were 1,704 people ahead of us.

Continuing our amble round Cecil Court's independent bookshops

Some colourful foreign species have been found lurking about London. Your thoughts? Captions in the comments please.

Continuing our amble around Cecil Court's independent bookshops

Has watching Wimbledon 2009 gotten you itching to reach into the depths of your cupboard for that dusty old tennis racquet? Or perhaps you're convinced that Andy Murray isn't British enough and that you will one day lead Britain to tennis glory again?

Today marks a whole two years since the smoking ban was introduced here. Despite the initial protestations and subversive acts of defiance it has become normal to ‘pop outside for a fag’. And there are some benefits related to smoking; smokers get more exercise than non-smokers as they have get off their backsides every now and then to go outside to the recently-discovered beer garden where they meet new friends and moan about the rain as they huddle around environmentally-unfriendly heaters. Also, smokers can use their habit to get away from awkward situations and dull conversations; if inside, they can make an excuse to go outside for a fag. Likewise, once outside, they can head back inside because it’s too cold or hot out there!

As you may recall, Kings Place and Network Rail held a Twitter haiku competition back in May. Tweets were judged by Yoko Ono and Jackie Kay and some of the best appeared on a screen at King's Cross. Simon Brake, a graphic designer, has been announced the winner with the following 'ku:

Continuing our amble around Cecil Court's independent bookshops