© Paul Biggs
Oh London, we’ve done it again! Despite our brusque demeanour and toxic air, official tourism figures show that we have been awarded the grand title of the World’s Favourite Tourist Destination. Boom!
Travellers must have gone right off croissants and backpacker bars, because we’ve beaten our fierce rivals Paris and Bangkok to the winning spot. Damn right we did – we thrashed them with 18.7 million predicted visitors for 2014. Read the full post…
Tags: Laura Sagar, London, Ming: 50 Years that changed China, popular, Rembrandt: The Final Years, sherlock holmes, The British Museum, the museum of london, tourism, tourists
Looking for something a bit different from the current restaurant trends? Get yourself down to one of these… Read the full post…
Tags: dom's place, food, monsieur k, new places, noodle house, restaurant, rustico, trends, two doors down
Without Paul the German psychic octopus, who expired shortly after predicting 12 out of 14 games correctly in the last World Cup, how will we know where to place our bets? Sure, Microsoft has a creepy ‘Avatar’-esque digi-woman called Cortana guessing match results, while in Brazil, Big Head the turtle divined the outcome of the national team’s opening game. But things are getting serious as the tournament comes to a head this Sunday. What we need are forecasts, fast! And locally. And preferably from a furry friend. Like the clairvoyant cat, Bluebell, who lives at Streatham’s Five Bells pub and predicts World Cup results by eating biscuits placed on the team’s flags. So far he’s selected seven out of ten correctly. Shame his owners weren’t so prescient when it came to naming him.
The World Cup is nearly up, take a look at these great places to watch the final.
Tags: cat, clairvoyant, German, microsoft, Mog, mystic, octopus, results, world cup
If you like the sound of hiring a bike but don’t want to ride a massive clunky Boris, Spinlister might just be your thing.
With a distinctly Airbnb vibe, Spinlister encourages peer-to-peer sharing with members signing up and listing their spare bikes through the website or app. Users search for bikes, in the area they wish to rent. They view the bikes available in that area and make a request to rent the bike. There is an in-app chat feature allowing both parties to communicate about price, components, verifications, reviews, etc. Read the full post…
Tags: app, bikes, cycling, Jude Brosnan, spinster
[Photo: Photoshot]
‘I’m an artist, man, genres mean nothing to me. You can’t put me in a box.’ That’s the musician’s mantra. Unless those musicians are London death metal band Unfathomable Ruination. They’re climbing into a tiny airtight cube outside the Gherkin at 6pm every Wednesday to Friday until August 1 and playing songs such as ‘Futile Colossus Decapitated’ until the oxygen runs out. It’s all in the name of art, as part of Portuguese artist João Onofre’s work ‘Box Sized Die’. If it goes wrong, they’ll be the world’s first literal death metal band. Better get a cover of ‘Take My Breath Away’ ready.
Go check them out tonight or here’s some other cheap gigs where you can actually watch the band!
Tags: airtight, band, box, death metal, João Onofre, musician, Portuguese artist, unfathomable ruination
Thrashing guitars? Hip young staff? Tattooed chefs? Must be the latest Japanese restaurant. In the last 18 months thing have got a whole lot louder and cooler on the Japanese dining scene in London. The flavours are bold, the presentation simple, and the staff look more like art school dropouts than the serene serving staff you used to find in London’s Japanese restaurants. In the same ilk as rock ‘n’ roll ramen-meister Ross Shonhan’s venues Bone Daddies and Flesh & Buns, Kurobuta is more New York than downtown Tokyo. But, is the food at this upmarket isakaya (Japanese pub) good enough for a rock god, or not even fit for the hounds of hell?
Read our review of Kurobuta now. Find more new restaurants opening in London.
Tags: black pig, cooking, edgware road, fun, Japanese, kurobuta, marble arch, Scott Hallsworth
Think London’s bee population is struggling? Think again. Last week, the city was buzzing about the little critters. Read the full post…
Tags: bee, bus, cocktail, hotel, protest
London sure loves a good pop-up these days. Whether you’re after a G&T in a hardware store, a film in the park or supper with strangers, this week’s tip-top pop-ups have got it covered. Read the full post…
Tags: beer, champagne, cider, dine with kyi, Drum&Kernel, film, hackney hardware, labyrinth, Laura Sagar, Legally Blonde, Morden Hall Park, old street, pop-up, roundabout, screening, the breakfast club, things to do, week, well street kitchen
There were sad faces aplenty as the Tour de France left Britain last night, having whipped the nation into a cycling frenzy. After the phenomenal crowds throughout Yorkshire, it was debatable whether London (and Cambridge and Essex) could muster up the same enthusiasm, especially on a weekday. As it turned out, the crowds were as big and noisy as they were for the Olympics two years ago, standing four or five deep through the whole city. Rob Greig fought his way through the media scrum and tried to find a spot to spy on the circus from behind the scenes of the World’s Largest Annual Sporting Event. And yes – he missed the finish. Read the full post…
Tags: bike, cycle, photo, Rob Greig, the mall, tour de france
Shuffle started life last summer as a film festival in an abandoned psychiatric hospital in Mile End – a friendly, fun and downright lovely community project masterminded by Danny Boyle. This summer Shuffle is back, popping up at Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park in late July, screening Jim Jarmusch’s vampire flick ‘Only Lovers Left Alive’ with a twilight bat walk. Boyle will also stop by for a Q&A after ‘28 Days Later’. More than a film festival, Shuffle is a local get-together and cultural free-for-all, with music, art, a pop-up restaurant (using locally foraged foods – the mind boggles), circus acts, a village fete, swimming pool and a mile-long hopscotch. It runs from July 30 to August 3.
Find out more about Shuffle festival and other outdoor cinema in London
Tags: Danny Boyle, festival, film festival, jim jarmusch, shuffle, shuffle festival, tower hamlets cemetery park
Oh toast, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Your carb-tastic, crisp-coated, butter-melting perfection laughs in the face of bread. You are the hot smouldering highlight of my day. I want you morning, noon and late at night. You’re there for me when everything else has up and left (my cupboard). You’re The One. I wish we could just build a nice home and settle down together. Oh wait, now I can (almost), thanks to the Robin Collective’s new night House of Toast. Read the full post…
Tags: drink shop & do, house of toast, Kings Cross, The Robin Collective