The Time Out London blog
Your up-to-the-minute guide to London life, news, culture, pop-ups, and openings
In this week's Time Out magazine...
Now the clocks have gone back and it's getting darker earlier, this week's Time Out is all about the best things to do this autumn at night. We round up...
16 cute pictures of the Halloween Dog Parade on Hampstead Heath
London's most fabulous dogs headed to Hampstead Heath at the weekend to show off their best costumes at the All Dogs Matter Halloween Dog Walk. The event is...
Someone's auctioned off a reserved seat on the tube on eBay
Getting a seat on the tube during rush hour is a bit of a minefield – you need stealth, determination and eyes like a hawk, all of which can feel a bit too...
Six creepy places in London to take the kids this half-term
With half-term here and Halloween around the corner, it’s time for the kids to dust down their broomsticks and get ready to knock on a few doors. It wouldn't...
Boris Johnson wants to legalise segway 'hoverboards' in London
Boris Johnson may have accidentally rugby tackled a ten-year-old recently, but don't hold that against him - he's down with the kids, really. After the...
12 frighteningly fantastic Halloween parties
Zombies, ghouls and warewolves: scary, but not half as terrifying as the thought of missing out on a whole load of fun this Halloween weekend because you...
Help fund London's first permanent Death Café
London's had a cat café, an owl café and a cereal café, now the city could be getting its first ever death café. Catchy, huh? 'Death Café' might sound like...
Street Food of the Week: Native
So, what are we eating?A venison shoulder wrap containing cauliflower rice, winter salsa (radish, brussels sprouts, charred corn and hot sauce), pickled red...
Blog posts you've been loving lately
Overheard in London: this week’s #wordonthestreet
Every week you share the weird things you’ve overheard in London. Above, a few perplexing snippets from the past seven days – don’t forget to tweet us your...
Someone's made a map of London out of passports to show diversity in the city
Click for the full-sized map Take a look at London on Google Maps and you probably won't be blown away by its visual beauty. But artist Yanko Tihov has...
Top five nightmare office types
Nathan James Page/nathanjamespage.co.uk 1. The possible axe murderer Ian is a mystery. All you know about him is that he lives in Colliers...
Watch a mass sing-along of 'Lean on Me' break out on the tube
We all know that there are certain things you should never do on the tube. Start cracking smiles or making intense eye contact and you're definitely treading...
43 fun things to do in London this weekend
The weekend's rolled round again and it's looking mighty fine! Bag some design beauties at Midcentury Modern or the East London Vintage Fair, celebrate...
Popular posts from our Blog Network
Seven things you must never do on a London bus
The London bus network: our answer to tube strikes, vitamin D deficiency and naps after a night on the town. It's also a 24-hour mass of Oyster etiquette, diversions and aisle-or-window seat dilemmas. So to reduce your bus-related stress, here are seven things you must never do on a London bus: A photo posted by ShreenGayle (@shreengayle) on May 30, 2015 at 6:53am PDT 1. Paint your nails People freak out, even if it's just a few maintenance touch ups for a special event. Bus drivers have been known to stop the bus, jump out of their little hatch and complain about the smell too; they obviously don't understand the importance of nail beauty - apart from the man above that is. via GIPHY 2. Ask the bus driver where the bus goes If you don't already know, why are you on the bus? For one thing, the bus driver will have no interest in listing places in London to you and will probably ignore you as he is chatting to his mate on the radio. Secondly, as you've stopped to loom as close as possible to that smeared plastic divider that bus drivers hide behind, your naivety is busy plugging up the bus entrance. All those Londoners who were Oyster-ready have to wait to get on the bus because of you and your ridiculous questions - and they've already waited for the bus. London is not about waiting - it's about now, now, now people. via GIPHY 3. Press the stop bell more than once As a nation, we no longer deliver capital punishment, although many Londoners ha
Five Halloween events in London for under-fives
If your terrifying toddler isn’t quite old enough to hit the streets for trick-or-treating, you can still get involved in some spooky fun that won’t give your mini monster nightmares. Check out these eerie Halloween events for the under-fives: Mothercare Edmonton's Trick or Treat Fancy Dress Party, Saturday October 24 This Mothercare store in north London is hosting a special spooky play session with all profits going to children’s hospice Haven House. Kids can expect singing, dancing, face-painting and party games as well as the usual soft play fun. Mothercare Edmonton, N18 3HA; Tickets £3 per child. Spooky Stories: Teeny-Tiny and the Witch-Woman, Thursday October 29 Professional storyteller Helen Tozer will captivate your kids with the well-loved tale of Teeny-Tiny and his brothers, who find shelter in a cosy but unusual cottage deep in the forest. The spooky storytelling is followed by some delightfully frightful outdoor activities. Recommended for 4+, wet weather wear gear is advised. The Soanes Centre, Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, E3 4PX. Tickets £4 per child, extra siblings £2 (siblings under four free). The Little Disco Company's Halloween Pop-Up Disco, Friday October 30 Put your tiny tot in the spookiest outfit and bop the hours away, Halloween style. Competitions, games, bubbles and fireworks are also included. The Ivy House pub, Nunhead. Tickets are £1 per adult, £6 per child. Extra siblings £4. Little Folk with Albo Halloween Special, Saturday October 31 Am
Learn something new at these masterclasses in London
Work: it takes up way too much time. Admittedly, it's a necessary evil. That extortionate rent isn't going to pay itself, and life would be truly miserable without at least a little beer money to blow. But in between the office, the pub and our beds, it's easy to forget the joy of trying something new. Fortunately, London is positively oozing with quirky classes and wacky workshops to shake things up, so here's a round-up of our top teachers. School of Wok Covent Garden’s magnificently named Chinese cookery school runs three-hour classes on every kind of Asian cuisine. I tried the Thai class the other day and had a blast (turns out green curry isn’t supposed to come out of a jar). Other classes designed to seriously boost your dinner party game include dim sum, Japanese and takeaway classes, all around £95 per person. If you can't be arsed to cook, have the pros do it for you at one of School of Wok's supper clubs. <img id="1151be46-ead7-e6ba-4087-e37cb908f005" data-caption="" data-credit="Karin Pringsheim Photography" data-width-class="" type="image/jpeg" total="58145" loaded="58145" image_id="102878739" src="http://media.timeout.com/images/102878739/image.jpg" class="photo lazy inline"> Karin Pringsheim Photography Tea Studio It’s quite possible you’ve been drinking tea all wrong, but fortunately Kyle Whittington of east London’s Tea Studio is on the case with a series of tea-centric workshops to get you back on track. Choose
Five things students should know when living in Zone 1
London just got half a million people busier this month thanks to the return of its student population. And with universities and colleges offering digs in locations like Southwark, South Kensington, Covent Garden and Clerkenwell, it’s these scholarly types who are lucky enough to call Zone 1 home. To welcome these autumn newcomers, here's some tips to living in the capital's exclusive turfs. Max out on travel discounts London doesn’t get smaller just because you’re in the middle of it. For those journeys that turn out not to be walkable after all, approach a TfL staff member and ask them to link any railcards you own to your Oyster account in order to get discounts. This lesser-known money saver will mean you feel the full benefit of living in Zone 1: spending peanuts on travel. Claim your territory Now – and only now – people might actually be familiar with your neighbourhood when you tell them where you live. Look proud. Make it obvious that you know local waypoints by having a brief orienteering session – or, at the least, a Google Street View cruise. The more niche your references, the more impressive. The Old School Yard, bar, Borough It gets noisy (and dusty) Bars, galleries, restaurants, museums, theatres, bars and more bars. There's no metropolitan pleasure inaccessible to you now, but ease yourself into that Zone 1 life by basing yourself near a quiet park if you can. Otherwise, prepare to get ear plugs to spare your sanity. And you’ll need a vacuum if
Read more blog gold
Walk this way: Google Maps now features shortcuts through buildings
On Oxford Street? Too busy to walk around Selfridges? Fear not. Google maps now gives you handy time-saving routes that let you turn left at Christian Louboutin, right at the Lancôme counter and speed straight past nutters whose idea of a trip to a department store involves a visit to a champagne and oyster counter. Yep, Google Maps has started giving you shortcuts through shops. Here's a handy route through Selfridges, plotting exactly which counter you need to make your turns at: This shortcut through the British Museum even handily includes instructions such as 'Take the stairway down to -1': To get from the Royal College of Nursing to Bond Street station, Google thinks you should slip into John Lewis' tradesman's entrance (that's what she said, etc, etc): Or if you can resist stopping to gawp at super-rich tourists and mawkish tributes to Diana, Google reckons that your best bet from Brompton Road to St Saviour's Court involves a trip via Harrods' 'Beauty Apothecary': Still, to be fair to them, they do come with words of warning: 'Use caution - may involve errors or sections not suited for walking.' Whatever. Out of our way, shoppers!
Top five most annoying cinemagoers
1. The snackers Once upon a time, cinema snacks meant styrofoam popcorn and a communal bag of dusty wine gums (best before end of: the Crimean War). But nowadays there's no end to the comestible crap that's on offer, and boy, don't people love to stuff it into their greedy faces, which are mere centimetres from your delicate lugholes. Listen to them: munching on a greasy 'pork' cylinder, slurping on a Brando-sized Coke. It's a Dolby-defying snackophony! The solution? Intravenous nacho cheese drips. It's the only way to guarantee any peace. 2. The under-fives They shout, they scream, they eat off the floor. And some Hackney cinemagoers bring their kids along too. However many adult-friendly jokes Pixar sticks in its scripts, a visit to the flicks with the rug rats will leave you more traumatised than Brad Pitt at the end of 'Se7en'. And now they're all hopped up on sugar, getting them home and into their jim-jams is going to take longer - and be even less fun - than a 'Police Academy' marathon. 3. The bed heads We open on a boutique picturehouse somewhere in west London, where middle-class cinèastes sprawl on beds, tonguing tiny tubs of organic ice cream like sweet-toothed Jabba the Huts. No, this isn't the latest Richard bloody Curtis: this is actual real bloody life. For some breathtakingly lazy Londoners, the whole sitting- upright-to-watch-a-film thing is just way too much effort. You have to wonder how these delicate flowers even make it to the cinema in the fir
Conquer the city as a hipster, cab driver or banker in the new Londoners board game
Sure, Monopoly is an okay way to pass the time on a rainy afternoon, but those metal player tokens are looking a bit dated these days - who really wants to be a thimble or an old boot? Combining the best of Risk and Monopoly, Stef Wilkerson and Olly Lawder have created Londoners, a new game where you play as one of nine London stereotypes, each with their own mission. You could be a bearded hipster trying to make your mark on east London (naturally), a jumped-up banker trying to buy up the whole city, or a yummy mummy whose main concern is the level of kale her kids are consuming. Other characters include police, tourists, suburbanites, football fans, students and cabbies. <img id="c372468a-4111-aeb6-e81a-073cc3a3a407" data-caption="" data-credit="" data-width-class="" type="image/jpeg" total="253608" loaded="253608" image_id="102913740" src="http://media.timeout.com/images/102913740/image.jpg" class="photo lazy inline"> They're currently crowdfunding for the board game on Kickstarter and have so far raised £5,053 of their £7,500 target with 19 days to go. And if you're really into board games, one of the rewards lets you create your own personalised version where you can choose which neighbourhoods feature on the map. Or you can take it one step further and get your face scanned to produce a 3D-printed player token of your own head, which may be slightly excessive but it definitely puts that rusty old Monopoly boot to s
Buzzing! It's your favourite flat whites in London
Who serves the velvetiest coffee in the capital? You share your top caffeine pit stops. Tap Coffee: Fitzrovia A photo posted by Blake 🇬🇧📷📱 (@blakesteven) on Aug 27, 2015 at 4:15am PDT 'A real treat. The staff know their coffee and are delightful and friendly.' Victoria via www.timeout.com Monmouth Coffee: various locations A photo posted by Monmouth Coffee (@monmouthcoffee) on Sep 24, 2015 at 6:19am PDT 'You really are experiencing the best coffee in London here, served by passionate people.' Eleanor F via www.timeout.com Cambridge Street Café: Pimlico A photo posted by Nataly (@evalia_london) on Oct 4, 2015 at 3:20am PDT 'Serves the perfect Allpress flat white. New to the neighbourhood and very welcome. Great staff and nice brunch too!' Liam Judge via Facebook Fuckoffee: Bermondsey A photo posted by jonathancheng (@jonathancheng) on Oct 14, 2015 at 7:41am PDT 'As a self-proclaimed "Flat White pro", Fuckoffee is definitely on my radar.' Lenka Istvanova via Twitter Chairs and Coffee: Fulham A photo posted by Yasunobu Arakawa (@yasunobuarakawa) on Oct 3, 2015 at 6:26am PDT 'That's an easy one - Chairs and Coffee in Fulham. Pure Italian coffee.' Carlotta Monzani via Facebook Timberyard: Seven Dials and Old Street A photo posted by Mehrdad Mirmehdi (@mehrdadmirmehdi) on Sep 5, 2015 at 5:30am PDT 'I love the foam art that comes with it.' Duygu Cook via Facebook Harris + Hoole: vari
17 stupid questions Londoners always get asked
How do you afford to live? Isn't it so expensive?It's FINE – we get paid more than you country types, remember. Couldn't spare 50p for a cup of coffee, could you? Can I come and stay?Oh sure – of course! I’ll just freshen up the linen in one of my many guest suites. Is it safe to go to Hackney?The only thing you need to worry about taking a battering in Hackney is your wallet when you're splashing out on flat whites and artisan sourdoughs. Do you ride around on a unicycle, wearing a top hat and vaping?Very good, country boy. You realise you're wearing a gilet, right? Do you see celebrities all the time?If you count seeing ex-'Big Brother' contestants in Tesco then yes, we're like fricking Heat magazine over here. Doesn’t the tube confuse the hell out of you?Don't be daft. Although I did get heart palpitations the last time CityMapper was down. What’s your favourite bar in Leicester Square?Hah – that's a good one! SHIT. You're serious. My cousin Geoff lives in Tottenham – do you know him?Oh Geofffffffff, love that guy – what a ledge. No, of course I bloody don't. Why don't you move to the suburbs – you'd get way more for your money.Yes, but then I'd live in the suburbs. Have you ever been mugged? That happens to everyone in London, right?Well I did pay £5.50 for a pint of Meantime the other day, so yeah, I suppose so. Have you met the Queen?Yes, we have tea and scones and a game of Scrabble every Thursday. She always tries to slip in swearwords, the filthy bitch. W
13 moments that make Londoners feel powerful beyond all measure
Londoners are a somewhat harried, anxious bunch by nature. City life can take it out of you. But sometimes, we get to absolutely SMASH it, even if it's only for a single moment... 1) When a tourist asks you for directions and you actually know <img id="819ee9d1-c176-a507-083b-d8c1eb31b0af" data-caption="" data-credit="" data-width-class="100" type="image/gif" total="831430" loaded="831430" src="http://media.timeout.com/images/102752082/image.jpg" alt="Lucy, Scarlett Johansson" class="photo lazy inline"> The city is a golden map that you alone perceive. You are the cartographer, the navigator, an all-seeing Jesus butterfly fluttering at 8,000ft. All locations are known to you. Optimal routes sparkle in the darkness. Your wisdom is infinite. And yet, you omniscience is only exceeded by your benevolence, for it is the simple pleasure of sharing your enormous power which satisfies you most. 2) When it's time to split the bill and you don't even need to look at the receipt <img id="a5d5c32b-cc19-be6f-65d8-07346c5dfff1" data-caption="" data-credit="" data-width-class="" type="image/gif" total="1229768" loaded="1229768" src="http://media.timeout.com/images/102752093/image.jpg" alt="Math genius thinking man GIF." class="photo lazy inline"> You recall each menu item with exquisite clarity. The service charge is applied without hesitation. You are a savant, a mathematical conjuror, a Number Fox. This is
Quit your job, become a... watchmaker
Rob Greig Seth Kennedy, 40, antiquarian horologist explains how he became a watchmaker When did you decide it was, er, time to get into watchmaking? 'My background is in mechanical engineering. I did a degree and had a couple of jobs but ended up redundant and on the dole. It was the result of a chance conversation that I was introduced to the antique watch world. It was about 12 years ago that I started.' What do you do day-to-day? 'I need to be capable of reproducing anything you find in a watch. In a lot of the old pieces, it's as simple as filing a piece out of some metal. Not only does it have to fit and work properly, but it has to look right as well. I have to make small wheels, repair cases and hinges. That kind of thing.' Is there any truth to the image of watchmakers as lonely figures cooped up in a small workshop, slaving away over tiny cogs? 'I don't think anyone would disagree with that! We're probably all a bit strange in one way or another. It's quite solitary work. You need concentration. There is that typical view of being hunched over a workbench with an eyeglass stuck in your face.' What are the best parts of your job? 'Working on a complicated watch and then putting it back together ñ when you see it ticking away again, that's always brilliant. And I love taking a very old watch to pieces, and being able to tell that it hasn't been taken apart in a long time, and finding parts inside that no one other than the maker would ever have seen.' Do yo
Top five London exercisers
Nathan James Page 1. The lunchtimer It's great that you're on a health kick, and we're really happy that you're enjoying that spirulina-and-vomit smoothie. But do you know what you're like to be around when you come back from your lunchtime weight sesh? Dis. Gus. Ting. Your sweat drips on to the lift floor. Your BO clings to the insides of your colleagues' nostrils like an acrid tar. And then, once you've showered back at the office, your pile of damp sweaty clothes lies festering by your desk. You think it smells like effort, like hard work, like perseverance - it doesn't, it smells like a mixture of mould, crotch and last night's curry. 2. The sponsor pest 'Hey I'm doing a sponsored 1k in aid of my local hairloss clinic! Please contribute, it really makes a difference to bald men in Bermondsey!' That's the kind of thing we get deluged with by people who've decided to make their cause into our cause. The hounding and the guilt-tripping is relentless. If we don't sponsor them, it means we want all the men in Bermondsey to stay bald for ever, or all the lions in Namibia to go without knitted jumpers for another year. But why should we have to fund the sponsor pest's five-metre skip or ten-hour bath? They should do something we can appreciate, like bring about world peace or take a lifetime vow of silence. Then we'll talk cash. 3. The run-discusser Runners can't physically do the running without talking about the running. If they don't talk about it, it's
Comments
- Get Livefyre
- FAQ