Your Sunday morning best-of-Londonist weekly round-up.
Must-read articles
- What effect has immigration had on London? Director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, Jonathan Portes, shares his research.
- We're celebrating London's Little Gardens. This week: a pocket park in Elephant and Castle.
- In Finsbury Park and feeling peckish? We've got you covered.
- New data looks into why London's school are so good.
- An A-Z of London's wonderfully varied pub snacks. Because who needs teeth anyway?
- The Gladstone Arms is under threat, and Deserter has something to say about it.
London news
- Sadiq Khan will be Labour's candidate for the mayoral election next year (and if your memory needs a jog, here are the policies of Sadiq Khan and Tessa Jowell, compared side by side).
- Islamophobic, homphobic and anti-Semitic crimes have risen in the last year.
- New plans for Euston's High Speed station revealed (we predict it will be nicknamed the Johnny Bravo, for reasons that will become apparent when you see it).
- Plans to extend the Bakerloo line south are moving along. But where exactly do we want it to go?
- A little TARDIS library is time-warping its way around London.
Tickets and offers
Buttons are provided by YPlan.
IMPROV COMEDY: Shoot From The Hip continue to come up with funny sketches based on audience suggestions at Covent Garden's Top Secret Comedy Club. First come, first served. 15 September, 8pm, and Tuesdays until the end of January. Tickets free.
ALTERNATIVE PROM: For a different take on the Last Night of the Proms head to the Electric Ballroom's Common People Prom for a singalong concert of classic anthems. Profits go to homeless charity Crisis. Camden. 15 September, 8pm. Tickets £21.50.
GOSPEL KARAOKE: Try singing along to soulful spiritual music instead of the usual terrible pop ballads at Queen of Hoxton's Gospeloke in Shoreditch. 17 September, 7.15pm. Tickets £10.
LIFE DRAWING: Sir John Soane's Museum is a real London treat and its candlelit Lates attract long queues, so this new event is a welcome extra. Its new Life Drawing in the Museum gives art-lovers the opportunity to sketch models in the mirrored library of this treasure-filled Georgian townhouse. 18 September, 6pm. Tickets £45.
DALAI LAMA: The Nobel prize-winning Tibetan Buddhist leader speaks at the O2 about the meaning of compassion and wellbeing and how to achieve these through meditation. 19 September, 1pm. Tickets £41.25.
COLD WAR PUB CRAWL: Thinker, Drinker, Solver, Spy adds espionage-themed clue-hunting and puzzles to this pub quiz starting in Tottenham Court Road. 19 September, 4.30pm (also 26 September and 3 October). Tickets £15, excluding drinks.
Buttons are provided by YPlan.
Curiouser and curiouser
- There's a singing lift in Southbank Centre. So we filmed it in action, obviously.
- Videoed frivolities continue, as we show you how to visit four boroughs in less than a minute.
- Travelators in the Circle Line? Pah, the idea is over a century old.
- A bleary-eyed peek into the 4am world of Billingsgate fish market.
- A gang of cats has taken over a Peckham car park, and Celia Hammond is helping them.
- Which London pubs have literary connections?
Top reviews
- See a (very tasty) slice of early Arthur Miller above a pub in Islington ★★★★★
- Award-winning play examines the fallout of the 2001 Foot and Mouth epidemic ★★★★☆
- New West End Oresteia is frighteningly good ★★★★★
- The great theatre continues at King Lear. With sheep! At Courtyard Theatre ★★★★★
- Dusty Springfield comes back to life via holographic technology at new musical ★★★★☆
- New Krays film is basically EastEnders, but with more violence ★★☆☆☆
- London nightlife, told through beautiful artworks at London Transport Museum ★★★★☆
Things to do
- Celebrate the 20th edition of The Other Art Fair with 50% off tickets.
- New Conflict Cafe aims to bring people together through serving food from conflict zones.
- Only Fools and Horses comes to Museum of Comedy courtesy of the Weirdos Collective.
- Walk. It's good for you (and really rather nice). Here's a great green walk, complete with illustrations.
- Visit a Tower of Babel made from London shops at the V&A.
- Tour behind the scenes of London's brutalist architecture with National Trust.
Hey, we're on Instagram too
It's true. We are. Sharing pictures of our favourite spots, oddities and views from around London. We also like to show off our new office dog, Toby. Hey Toby! Join us @londonist_com.
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