News: July 2009 Archives

       

Over 100 firefighters were called out to a blaze in Soho's Dean Street this afternoon. Much of eastern Soho was cordoned off, including the westbound side of Oxford Street. Latest word is that the fire was caused by a faulty air conditioning duct at 76 Dean Street. No one is thought to have been injured in the fire.

This is the winner of RIBA's competition to redesign London Bridge, a crossing so bland that passing a turd on the carriageway might count as making an improvement. But how fantastic would this be? A kiss-my-glass canopy of gardens and farmers' markets, like a hippy version of Superman's Fortress of Solitude. Crystal spires that recall the days when the heads of traitors were raised above the bridge on spikes. And all kinds of imaginative shipping hazards randomly strewn along the Thames. Fantastic.

Nicholas Penny, Director of the National Gallery, has unleashed an extraordinary broadside against Anthony Gormley's Fourth Plinth experiment. Speaking to The Times, Mr Penny berates the idea as symptomatic of Britain's shift away from artistic and architectural appreciation. He blames the Square's demise on its part-pedestrianisation a few years back. People are now too noisy and enjoy themselves far too much:

Following what it euphemistically describes as "ongoing debate" over the right to take photographs of the police - a debate that saw hundreds campaign earlier in the year - the Met today issued a document offering photography advice to the concerned citizen.

• The Met received 26% more complaints up to March than the previous year - that excludes the G20 kerfuffle.
• Boris accuses the EU of stifling the City.

As we mentioned yesterday, theatre cats may be about to make a comeback. Time was, there were moggies living in theatres across London but increasingly, as they died or retired to live with little old ladies, fresh blood wasn't brought in.

As tired commuters make the switch from London's tubes and buses to shiny new bicycles they may find there is not much to choose from in the bike shops. Bike manufacturers across Europe are struggling to keep up with demand. Yet, this rise in cycling would not have been hard to foresee.

...except, it turns out, they don't. As Tuesday's report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) says, council house waiting lists aren't prioritizing immigrant families at all. In fact, less than 2% of social tenants arrived in Britain in the last ten years.

• The Mayday Hospital in Croydon had a real mayday today: a fire, triggering patient evacuation.
• A stockbroker who feared redundancy has jumped to his death from a city restaurant.
• Gilbert and George got married.

More and more Londoners are taking to scooters in an attempt to beat the congestion charge and crowded public transport, according to Motorcycle News.

Remember the story about the fire attack on publishers Gibson Square (confusingly based in Lonsdale Square)? The company were due to publish the novel Jewel of Medina, which concerns a wife of the Prophet Muhammad, when a trio of Muslims took umbrage and decided to pour diesel through the letterbox of the publisher's home and office.

Let's hope he's proud at being a champagne socialist: former Mayor Ken Livingstone's expenses for his second term at City Hall reveal that he claimed for more than £16,000 in dining bills.

• City types are more optimistic than they were.
• Usain Bolt is heading to Crystal Palace.
• Carikey! Caracas is now more expensive than London.

TfL has announced that they are offering refunds to anybody affected in last month's 48-hour tube strike, reversing their earlier decision to point the finger at the RMT.

A report for the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has found claims that immigrants 'jump the queue' for social housing are a myth. Just 1.8% of social tenants have moved to the UK within the last five years, 10% were born abroad but have lived in the UK for more than five years, and nearly 88% are UK born.

When the Rise festival was cancelled earlier this year, many fans were quick to point accusing fingers in the direction of City Hall, citing Boris Johnson's decision last year to strip the event of its intrinsic anti-racism message. A group called UpRise formed a petition calling on the mayor to revive the festival, with that anti-racist message present and correct.

• Omid Djalili is a Muslim Jewish Homer Simpson from Chingford. Gosh we enjoyed typing that.
• Beckton Gas Works are looking for former employees to come along to a reunion.
• Islington is trying to attract more swifts to the borough...by playing birdsong from the lamp posts.

Antony Gormley's fourth plinth project officially began at 9 this morning, but the launch was hi-jacked by anti-amoking protestor Stuart Holmes shimmying up the plinth to wave a banner.

As the "Stand and Deliver" report recommendations for a strategy on cycle parking is considered by the London Assembly a chic glass warehouse bike parking facility is proposed for Paddington Station.

• Captain Jack Sparrow has visited Great Ormond Street Hospital. Good looks and a heart of gold, eh?
• There's trouble at t'Lido.
• Finsbury Park police have raided a pitbull puppy farm.

This either says something about the state of the economy, or the state of certain parts of North London: the opening of a 99p store on Muswell Hill Broadway caused a stampede and other shopowners to shake their heads and tut.

Buy 1080 (and a half) Teslas. Or nearly 59 million single Zone 1 fares. Or even taxi fares for Boris Johnson for the next 23,500 years. According to Transport for London, £94.4m is the total figure racked up in unpaid congestion charge penalties.

Camden High Street may have been invaded by corporate retailers and live under constant threat of redevelopment that will wipe out its lively, grungy, markety, grubby, north London charm but we thought we could always rely on it to be covered in bars and clubs catering for pleasure seekers of all kinds, be it high end trendy or down at heel boozy. However, residents' complaints about drunks and the inevitable stinky effluent and noise from said drunks has sparked a mass council consultation on whether it's time to change Camden's licencing laws and limit the number of entertainment venues on the patch.

Vicky Richardson, editor of Blueprint magazine, must enjoy stirring up trouble. Weeks after admitting she was the one who yelled out "abolish the monarchy!" during Prince Charles' RIBA speech, the magazine she edits has responded to Boris Johnson's call for ideas on public space by, err, calling for a picnic.

Wanna see a youthful Yasser Arafat sans headscarf? Gerald Ford tumbling down some aircraft steps? Or how about Saddam Hussein touring a French nuclear facility? A 'treasure trove' of such news footage from the 1960s and '70s will soon be released to the web after laying unseen beneath Bloomsbury for decades.

• Using the words 'rise and fall' and 'brothel empire' in the same sentence doesn't seem quite right.
• Actress Mollie Sugden has died aged 86.
• Croydon is the capital's worst offender for identity theft.

Could the Crossrail toothpaste yet be squeezed back into the tube? Despite the signing of the Royal Assent, despite the work already underway at various locations, despite even the tunnelling academy, the financial concerns that have plagued Crossrail throughout have not yet gone away

When Londonist took a look, just before checkout time, all we saw was a lone backpacker sniffing his underwear to see whether it was clean enough to wear again, but if you’re lucky you might stumble across a long, boring story about leper-washing in India, or an argument about which is the best bar on the Khaosan Road. Travelling, yah?

Now let's be clear about this from the outset: setting fire to anything and then inhaling it is not a good idea. Doesn't matter what it is. But shishe smoking is more of a hobby than a habit (well, you try smoking 20 of those a day), a sociable pursuit enjoyed for centuries, and largely non-addictive. Fruit is fruit, right? Even if it is in tobacco, surely it still counts as one of your five a day?