A slightly different weekend roundup (part two)
Includes fake brains, hip hop libraries and golden burgers.
If you didn’t read Saturday’s issue and you’re wondering what’s going on, well we weren’t really in the mood to tackle the latest Salt Bae news at the end of last week, so we shifted half of the Weekend Roundup to today. We’re taking a break for a week now, so we’ll be back next Wednesday. Until then, stay safe x
Before we get into it, just a quick follow up from last week:
Sadiq Khan has has been accused of putting women at risk by keeping the Night Tube closed. Minister for London, Paul Scully has said: “The Mayor needs to give people convenient, affordable choices about how to travel home safely at night. It’s not enough to talk tough on social media – leadership in London requires action.”
Caroline Nokes MP, who chairs the women and equalities select committee, said “As the nights have got darker and as we move towards the Christmas period, you can expect more people will be out celebrating and wanting to find a safe way home.”
And journalist Mared Perry has started a petition calling on TfL to restart the night tube and late-hour London Overground services by next month.
Art and culture bits
✖️ London’s Barbican Centre has apparently been left “in freefall” after a “mass exodus” of staff. This is nothing to do with Covid though, it’s more about the aftermath of Barbican Stories, the book that was published this summer, which contained nearly 100 stories of discrimination from former and current staff.
💡 And talking of the Barbican, Jonathan Jones has reviewed their new exhibition of work by Japanese American sculptor Isamu Noguchi… and compared it to a “high-end lighting shop” (that is not a good thing).
🤯 The London Post has an article on Me, My Brain, and I one of the exhibitions that will be at The Other Art Fair at the Truman Brewery later his month. The project by Ben Moore will see artists like Tracey Emin, Gavin Turk, and Jake and Dinos Chapman create personal artworks on a “life-size 3D fabricated brain”. Limited edition signed prints will be available and proceeds will go to Parkinson’s UK. If you can’t make it to the exhibition, you’ll be able to see some of the works on display at Underground stations including Regent’s Park and Bethnal Green.
🎨 Leon Kossoff was (along with people like Hockney, Freud and Bacon) one of the ‘School of London’ artists of the ‘70s, and his paintings of the city are “complicated, sometimes bleak, but always vital and teeming with activity”. A major retrospective of Kossoff’s paintings just opened at Annely Juda Fine Art, just off Oxford Street and Artlyst has taken a look at the contents, which “reflect London’s transformation, stretching from post-war desolation to international affluence towards the end of the 20th century.”
🖼️ The Frieze art fair is back in Regent’s Park in a couple of weeks and as well as the main fair, there’s a ‘Focus’ section “devoted to today’s most exciting emerging artists,” and an ‘Unworlding’ section which will “explore ideas of apocalypse and regeneration, undoing and reconstruction”. Tickets are on sale now.
📸 Soho’s Photographer’s Gallery has just launched TPG New Talent '21, an exhibition and mentoring programme that supports “the most exciting and relevant UK-based emerging artists working within the photographic medium.” The gallery has chosen six artists for this year’s exhibition, and you can read more about each one right here.
📕 October is of course Black History Month and towards the end of October The London Library is hosting Inua Ellams’ R.A.P. (Rhythm and Poetry) Party, “a nostalgic, no-clutter, no-fuss, evening of hip-hop-inspired poems and favourite hip-hop songs.” They’re claiming it will be the “best night out you’ll ever have in a library” and at ten quid a ticket that’s not a bad deal.
👜 Fashion house Balenciaga has opened a new ‘concept store’ on Sloane Street and apparently it marks the debut of ‘Raw’, “a new architectural concept” that showcases “the building’s functional elements including electrical wiring, support beams, and air ducts” (above). We would argue that this concept (also known as “we didn’t get it finished in time”) was actually debuted by the Marble Arch Mound.
🚇 The London Transport Museum is bringing back its exclusive in-person Hidden London tours from this month. You can choose between tours of the disused areas of Piccadilly Circus and Charing Cross stations and tickets go on sale on 8 October 2021, but if you sign up to the LTM’s newsletter (halfway down this page) you can book 24 hours before everyone else.
🔬 The Science Museum is building a new, multi-million pound gallery that will be “aimed specifically at visitors aged between 11 and 16” to encourage them to take up technical careers such as “operating robots in factories to running wind turbines”. The gallery (which has been funded by philanthropist David Sainsbury) is due to open in Autumn next year.
👶 In related news: The Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green has been rebranded as the Young V&A, and it’s more than just a change of name. Director of the V&A, Tristram Hunt, told the The Art Newspaper, that the change signals “a complete transformation in its purpose from a museum about the social history of childhood to one focused on building confidence, cultural capital and design skills.”
Food and drink bits
🍇 Eater London profiles Planque, the wine bar, restaurant and “clubhouse” that’s just opened in Haggerston. If you’ve been looking for a railway arch in which to cellar your wine collection (!) then you’re in luck, but membership also gets you priority reservations at the restaurant, which has Seb Myers - formerly of P. Franco - running the kitchen.
🥟 Covent Garden dumpling darlings Din Tai Fung are opening a new location on the fourth floor of Selfridges (what used to be Selfridges Kitchen). This will be good news for everyone who has wanted to try those legendary xiao long bao (soup dumplings) but got scared off by talk of long queues.
🥪 Mamma Pastrama is a new sandwich shop on Ganton Street (just of Carnaby Street) offering “a modern take on classic pastrami”. Apparently they’re subjecting their brisket to a “100-hour process” that combines a blend of spices and a special ‘rub’ technique. If you want to test it out, there’s 25% off the entire menu until October 13.
🥩 The people behind the brilliant Berber & Q have created another “love letter to North African & Eastern Mediterranean food” with Carmel in Queen’s Park. More of an ‘all day’ proposition than their previous restaurants, owners Josh and Paul Katz are offering dishes like challah French toast for breakfast, various flatbreads and toppings for lunch and a whole host of grilled meaty, fishy goodies for dinner. Apparently it’s opening sometime this month, but no specific date yet.
🥧 What began as a “pop-up bottle shop” in Soho from the couple behind Rita’s sandwich shop, is turning into a proper and permanent Rita’s restaurant, which aims to “explore the culinary landscape of The Americas whilst championing seasonal British produce”. That means dishes like jalapeño popper gildas, Grilled sugar pit pork collar and key lime pie. You can book from October 19th.
🍔 Filthy Buns in Dalston has been voted the best Meat-Free Burger in the UK at the National Burger Awards. The other big London-based winner was King Cross’s Cut + Grind, which won the Bloggers’ Choice Award.
💸 The internet has been reacting to the Salt Bae restaurant all week. The headlines are: he’s charging £100 for a”golden burger”, £630 for a tomahawk steak, and £11 for those who choose to wash down their £630 steak with a Red Bull. He also claims that “everybody wants to be a butcher because of me… If you ask a kid, they want to be Salt Bae.” And if you believe that, then we have some ‘golden burgers’ to sell you.
