Things To Do In London Today: Thursday 6 February 2014

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Pop-Up Painting Class. See details below

Listings

BLOOD: Today’s opportunities to donate blood are at the British School of Osteopathy in Trinity Street, St Mary Abbots Centre in Kensington and Selhurst Park Stadium in Thornton Heath. Free, see site for terms and conditions

OXFORD STREET: Mr Selfridge and his competitors is the themed walk about some of the most famous London stores and their owners. Meeting point is Oxford Street tube station, Argyle Street exit. £10/£7.50, prebook, 11am

LUNCH BREAK: Have a different lunch break at the Grant Museum, where UCL PhD students show-and-tell about the museum’s collection. Free, just turn up, 1pm

BOOK TALKS: Philosopher and writer Alain de Botton talks about his new book The News at the Olivier Theatre, part of The National Theatre (£4/£3, prebook, 5.30pm); Lorenzo Fioramonti launches his new book How Numbers Rule The World at King's College (Free, just turn up, 7pm) and at Lesbians at Lewisham Library, writer and editor Cherry Potts oversees an evening of poetry and book readings, including from poet Kate Foley (Free, prebook, 7.45pm)

WATCH & TALK: LSE Arts features two film screenings as part of the Rainbow Jews exhibition. Both of the screenings will be followed by Q&A time with the exhibition organisers at the New Theatre in Houghton Street. Free, just turn up, 6.30pm

SLAM: A session of live poetry and spoken word takes place at the Genesis Cinema in Stepney Green (Free, prebook, 7pm) while Stand Up and Slam pits stand-up comedy against performance poetry at The Comedy Cafe, with the audience deciding the night's winners (£8+bf, prebook, 7.30pm)

MUSIC: Alternative folk band Ringlefinch play at The Finsbury in Green Lanes (Free, prebook, 7pm) and Australian solo artist Fletcher performs at the Slaughtered Lamb in Clerkenwell (£5, prebook, 7.30pm)

MUSIC IN A CHURCH: St Mary’s church in Twickenham hosts the Maiastra concert organised by the Aidan Woodcock Charitable Trust, featuring music for string quartet by Webern, Mendelssohn and Ravel. Free, just turn up, 7.30pm

SHAKESPEARE: School of Night: Improvised Shakespeare takes place at Keats House School of Night, where actors improvise drama and poetry using suggestions from the audience. £5, prebook, 7.30pm

POP-UP: Ever thought about a pop-up painting class? Here you are: an evening of social painting for fun, focused on Art Deco, takes place at the Rosendale in Dulwich. £19, prebook, 7.45pm


Good Cause of the Day

Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens is a series of theatre events taking place at the White Bear Theatre in Kennington, remembering those who lost their lives to AIDS. The production will be on stage from 18 February until 2 March, supporting and promoting the work of The Terrence Higgins Trust. All profit will be donated to the trust. £14/£10, prebook, Tue to Sat 7.30pm-Sun 6pm

London Connection Puzzle

Your clues so far have been St Pancras Old Church and Mount Pleasant Sorting Office. Today's addition is The Blackfriar. What's the London connection? No need to email in, as someone already guessed it from two clues.

From the Archive

Sounds from around town, abandoned and neglected tube stations, hidden historical heritage sites in the city centre... Listen to an especially fact-packed episode of the Londonist Out Loud Podcast by N Quentin Woolf from 2012.

Londoddities

This week's theme is 'Animals'. Today's entry can be seen all over town. These old drinking troughs were installed in Victorian times by the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association, a welcome respite for the thousands of working animals in London at the time, as well as cattle being driven to market. Their utility waned with the advent of the motor car, but many still remain in place. This particularly fine example is on Streatham Common. Rumour has it that many disused troughs found their way to the Serengeti, where they now roam in herds.

trough

Previously in animal week: Get Stuffed!, London’s minotaur, Animal War Memorial Dispensary.