Results tagged “chrisroberts”

It is, as some worldly sage once put it, 'a funny old game, Saint'. Football tends to attract more superstition, folklore and ritual than any other sport. This month's gathering of the South East London Folklore Society looks at the phantoms and fantasies of the beautiful game - from fan rituals to cursed and haunted London grounds (perhaps even a vampire or two). Chris Roberts has compiled a trophy cabinet of examples over many years of research. Find out why John Terry's brain resembles a London pigeon's and why Wembley is a televangelist success story. Much more tonight upstairs at the Old Queen's Head off Borough High Street from 8pm (although we expect it to be busy, so turn up early). Entry is £2.50. Image by R4vi in the Londonist Flickr pool. more ›

Listening to the Robert Elms podcast the other day, we were delighted to hear the enthusiastic tones of Chris Roberts. Chris is Editor-in-Grief of One Eye Grey, an occasional compendium of London-based folk tales reinterpreted for the modern age. We give him plenty of free plugs on Londonist because he's one of those people who knows London intimately and talks with great knowledge and passion to anyone who will listen. He also puts on free guided walks for Londonist from time to time, and we owe him the odd mention. more ›

Long-time readers will know the score. For a couple of years now we've been putting on infrequent guided walks that show an unfamiliar side to familiar parts of town. Well, there's another one coming up, so here are the details: more ›

This knobbly object is a Mandrake root from Surrey, bent into the shape of woman holding a child. It was acquired by Edward Lovett, an Edwardian collector of charms and magical items. The strange talisman is carved from black briony — a hedgerow plant also known as 'mandrake' root. Mandrake was a cure-all charm, which would be hung in homes. Mandrake roots that grew into recognizable shapes were especially prized. Edward Lovett obtained this figure from a Romany near Barking in 1912. He told Lovett that when he pulled it from the ground it 'screamed like a child'. Mandrakes live on in popular imagination thanks to their appearance in the Harry Potter books and films. more ›

For the London launch there was a brass band and Miners Union banners. It's unlikely if you go you'll get all that, and that's a shame, but you might get the photo exhibition and that is all you need. They are pictures from another world and a necessary lesson for anyone who thinks putting on fancy dress and acting up in front of the nation's most famous monuments is real protest or indeed that being hemmed in by the Met's finest is police oppression. The pictures show tooled up coppers on horseback hunting people down suburban streets in northern towns; they show ordinary folk really repping their endz against the state. more ›

A quick reminder that our credit-crunch-friendly FREE guided walk takes place this coming Friday. Join us outside the new Saatchi Gallery, from where we’ll probe the passages of Chelsea as only Prince Harry knows how. Full details here. Please RSVP to londonist - at -gmail.com to reserve a space.
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Not content with celebrating our fourth birthday, October also sees the sixth in our popular series of guided walks. more ›

Tuesday: You might have inferred that we love London. We do, we really do. Which places us in the company of many a great poet: Wordsworth, Blake, Lawrence. Poems by these and plenty of other London-lovers are collected together in the just published All That Mighty Heart. The Swedenborg Society hosts a launch party for the book tonight, which will include readings by, among others, Al Alvarez, Ravi Shankar, and Iain Sinclair (7pm, free). more ›

And more fool you if you didn't take him up on his ridiculously reasonably priced wares. For a mere two hundred and fifty pennies you could be reading stories from 'another London' where folklore, magic and the occult bleed disturbingly into your world. Fear the Toll Raven of Anerley, find the Black Prince in Islington, visit the Temple of Bacchus at Camberwell (you probably already have) and we'd advise you to stay away from Moorgate's tube tunnels late at night. more ›

Announcing the fifth Londonist guided walk. more ›

A Boris emulator from Chris Roberts, creator of the Evening Standard Headline Generator. more ›

The fourth in our series of spooky, kooky guided walks is almost upon us. more ›

In one sense this could be called the Death of Madonna or any other iconic blonde best remembered from the 1980s. Though, because it contains the words ‘death’ and ‘Thatcher’ a different response can be conjured up from a play dealing with the big subject of how people react to the death of a celebrity. It comes as no surprise that first out of the hat to object was Thatcher’s erstwhile colleague Norman Tebbit (a tad hypocritically if reported stories of the posthumous gag he plans for himself are true). more ›

Announcing the fourth Londonist guided walk. more ›

Even seasoned Londoners like learning more about their home city. We're proof - we put our own walks. So we were very excited to find out about the clever people at Soundmap who have created audio walks for you to buy online and download to the MP3 player of someone you love. more ›

Four weeks till Christmas! Argh. Funds are all focused on present buying and getting through the party season but we still want to go out and about because the heating isn't working properly at home. We can't afford to go and see Gandalf drop his trousers in King Lear but, thankfully, there's lots of cheap and interesting stuff about as usual. Monday: Start the week with an event truly in the spirit of London... more ›

It’s time to announce our third Londonist guided walk. more ›

The revived Penny Dreadful, known as One Eye Grey, is back for its second edition. This loose collection of shadowy tales draws on London's folklore, presenting a cavalcade of spooky oddness and strange happenstance in one handbag or manbag-friendly dose. more ›

We love London Lit Plus - it's the capital's independent festival as packed as any other London book-based love-in, such as the London Literature Festival. Sadly, all good things must come to an end and London Lit Plus is finishing its two weeks of literary doings today. If you haven't been to any events yet, tonight is your last chance... more ›

There are London Literature Festivals, and then there's London Literature Plus. This independent rival to the South Bank's extravagnza also kicked off yesterday, and involves almost 30 lit-related events. Here's a pick of the highlights. more ›

Just a quick reminder about the Londonist guided walk on Saturday. more ›

It’s the second Londonist guided walk. more ›

Chris Roberts (not pictured) is a man of many talents. He's traced the origins of nursery rhymes, surveyed London's bridges and even written a musical about Margaret Thatcher. And then there's the Evening Standard random headline generator. Most recently of all, he took us on a walk around the Pool of London. more ›

On Saturday we did something a little bit special. We held the first ever Londonist guided walk, and we're happy to report that it was something of a success. We and around thirty of the Londonist readers assembled in Hay's Galleria and fell into line under the guidance of Chris Roberts. We couldn't have been in better hands as Chris took us on a meandering two hour romp through London's history. Best of all it was completely free! See our snaps here, and check out the Londonist Flickr group for a few more. more ›

In other words, it's the first ever Londonist guided walk. We're putting on a tour of the upper Pool of London (London Bridge and the Tower precincts) on Sat 10 February, from 2pm. more ›

A new year brings a new name for The Bridge House Trust which will now be known as the City Bridge Trust *Yawn* So far so boring... in fact we often use the financial section of The Guardian as kitty litter, but this little piece hidden away among pensions and bonuses is filled with interesting little facts: The Trust built and continues to maintain all of the City of London's bridges - including Tower... more ›

Just one more plug for our first birthday party, which is happening this Thursday at the Offside Bar on City Road, Islington. more ›

As you might have seen already seen, it's our first birthday party next month and as part of the celebrations we're holding a birthday raffle. Basically it's just a way for us to say thank you to our readers by giving them the chance to walk away from the party with armloads of cool stuff. more ›

So we did, and here are the results. more ›