Shakespeare is in the news today due to the fight of three male Shakespearean leads for the Best Male Actor prize at the Olivier awards last night. But another bard-based story has caught our eye in the swirl of iambic pentameters and though it’s been …
Boris Johnson is backing a plan to bring Routemasters back into action, with electric motors and no emissions, and the reintroduction of drivers and conductors on each bus. With characteristic swiftness, Ken Livingstone has taken opposition to the plan and Londoners are once again torn …
While pigeons are getting a bit of stick today, heartwarming news of sparrows getting new homes at London Zoo courtesy of prisoners in Spring Hill prison balances the scale somewhat. After a long absence, sparrows have come back to London and are being housed in …
Alexis Lemaire saw to it that ‘mathlete’ irrevocably entered our vernacular when he broke the record he set for mental calculation at London’s Science Museum. He correctly determined the 13th root of a randomly generated two hundred-digit number to the 13th root (now consider that …
Hackney Council are at it again. Taking half arsed decisions on Banksys. Last time they completely removed a stencil of a girl in a frilly dress and gas mask from Gillett Square. This time they’ve tried to wipe out the crude phallus being painted by …
This Week In London’s History Monday – 26th November 1983: An armed robbery at the Brinks Mat warehouse near Heathrow Airport becomes the largest heist in British history, as £25 million worth of gold bullion is pinched. Tuesday – 27th November 2000: 10-year-old schoolboy Damilola …
It’s probably fair to say that the couple of hundred people who wandered up to the Union Chapel in Islington last Friday were expecting a fairly low-key affair. Arguably the biggest name at the Little Noise Sessions gig in aid of Mencap was to be …
28. Urban Legends Of The Underbelly! Urban legends are often vague, friend-of-a-friend tales (FOAFtales) similar to ‘Chinese whispers’, in that they are distorted, exaggerated and through generations of storytelling, they become myth, embedded in our society. For the last fifty or more years there has …
Due to earlier technical vexations of a non-Stratford-related variety, Monday Miscellanea is a bit later than usual today… This Week In London’s History Monday – 12th November 1974: A 9lb salmon is caught in the Thames – the first time that such a fish has …
The United States remains tops in London’s tourism market, according to stats released by Visit London, as leaders of the tourism industry convene this week at London’s annual World Travel Market. This, despite the dollar’s worst performance against the pound in 26 years. That whimper …
26. Going Underground Urban legends of the more sinister variety have always intrigued me, so continuous whispers and friend-of-a-friend tales concerning a mutant race of beings inhabiting the dark tunnel systems, sewers and subterranean passages beneath the capital are always welcome, even if unfounded (despite …
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