Weekend roundup for 17 July
Includes hopeful bridges, arty pigs and egg buns
š®š» Cressida DickĀ (who picked up her Damehood from Prince Charles earlier this week) is expected to try and stay on as Met Commissioner when her five-year term ends next April. Earlier this week Dick was criticised for āalleged police failures that allowed people to storm Wembley stadium,ā and two police watchdogs are also āconsidering the launching of a formal investigationā into the Commissioner over the Daniel Morgan case. Yesterday The Spectator published a handy guide to the seven scandals that have occurred under Cressida Dickās watch.
šØ The investigation into the disappearance of Richard Okorogheye doesnāt make that list, but it was one of the cases that inspired the BBC to take an in-depth look at how the Met deals with missing persons reports.
š The 25-metre Esperance Bridge has opened at Kingās Cross, spanning Regentās Canal and linking Pancras Square with Coal Drops Yard. The name āwas chosen by local children from Kingās Cross Academyā and means āhopeā in French,
š TfLās review into bus service demand (which was part of the Ā£1.08 billion emergency funding deal agreed last month) has been postponed until autumn, āfollowing warnings from business and transport groups that potential cuts would risk āchoking the recoveryā from the pandemicā.
šŗ A six-part TV series called Secrets of the London UndergroundĀ starts on theĀ Yesterday channelĀ from Monday. According to IanVisits, āthe series explores areas of Londonās Tube network that ā despite being just feet away from where millions of people regularly travel ā hardly anyone knows about.ā And while youāre at IanVisits why not check out the new Piccadilly line moquette? What do you mean you donāt know what a moquette is?
š The ten winnersĀ of theĀ Resilience Fund (the Mayorās Ā£1 million challenge āto incentivise innovators to address socially impactful issues facing Londonā) have been announced. They include a journey planner app that āempowers people to travel confidently when using public transportā and floating solar panels at Royal Docks āthat will provide clean renewable energy directly to Londonās City Airportā.
š° An ex-employee of Crown London Aspinalls is suing the āexclusiveĀ LondonĀ casinoā for race and sex discrimination. Semhar Tesfagiorgis alleged that wealthy patrons were allowed āto racially abuse staff with impunityā and that black employees were āsegregated from gamblers who insisted on white dealers.ā
š A new report has revealed that Iranian hackers impersonated two academics at University of London āin an attempt to hack journalists, think tank analysts, and other academics.ā According to Vice, the academics found the whole thing stressful, but they also saw the upside, with one of them saying, āI had conversations with a lot of interesting people that I would probably not have had interaction with otherwise.ā
šŖ That torrential rain we had last week wasnāt great for a lot of reasons, but it did lead to a āonce-in-a-lifetime findā of a hoard of more than 300 coins dated to the first century B.C., over in Hillingdon.
š“ WestminsterĀ council has confirmed that you will be able to hire e-scootersĀ in theĀ West EndĀ from August 2. But you wonāt be able to hire or park them inĀ Oxford StreetĀ orĀ Regent Street.
š The Elizabeth Line could open next February, three months earlier than planned. Or it could open in June, a couple of months late. Or it could open in April. This is the almost entirely useless information from the most recent Project Status UpdateĀ which Crossrail are very satisfied with, as those dates are all within the āpreviously declared opening window of the first half of 2022.ā What do you want Crossrail, a medal?
šāāļø AĀ studyĀ from St Maryās University,Ā TwickenhamĀ has revealed the thoroughly depressing, but somehow not unsurprising, statistic that 84% of female runners have experienced street harassment in London.
š“ A report from a new data analysis tool that ranks world cities for cyclability, suggests London ācould be on the precipice of āexponential growthā in cyclingā thanks to good scores for the āquality of the cycling networkā in the city and ācommunity perceptions of cyclingā.
Art and culture bits
šļø The Royal Academyās Young Artistsā Summer Show opened this week. The exhibition features work from people aged between 5 and 19 and, yes, weāre mainly telling you about it so we can show you this amazing picture of a pig, painted by five-year-old Vincent, from Hull.
š„ The free music festival, the Cubitt Sessions returns to Coal Drops Yard next month. This year the festival features āclassical, world music, jazz, street culture, and operaā including singer songwriter (and Elton Johnās drummer) Jake Isaac and Brightonās answer to Fleetwood Mac, MarthaGunn.
š¤³ It was only a matter of time before we had to write the word āTikTokĀ pop-upā wasnāt it? And, thanks to Westfield, that time is now. Theyāve just opened āthe UKās firstĀ TikTokĀ pop-upā so fans can āinteract with influencers who have found success via the social media app and try to create their own mini-films.ā
š® Are there stamp-collecting TikTokers? If so theyāll want to get themselves down to Stanley Gibbons on the Strand as āthe Holy Grail of philatelyā is going on display there. The British Guiana 1c Magenta is worth Ā£6.2m and itās back in the UK for the first time in 143 years, after it was sold to a British rare stamp dealer. According to the BBC āOn arriving at Heathrow Airport, it will be met by an armoured truck and will go on display in a specially commissioned, zero-oxygen frame.ā
ā¹ Time Out published a really nice photo essay this week, looking at South London's basketball scene.
š§š¶ Four artists, all of Caribbean descent, have been shortlisted to design the Windrush Monument that will be installed at Waterloo station next year. You can watch each of the artists talk about their designs here then share your thoughts thoughts through an online questionnaire.
šØ After an artist was asked to move on from Carnaby Street by a security guard after setting up his easel, Apollo magazine asks Why are painters getting pushed out of public spaces?
šļø Also from Apollo: Will Wembleyās art trail make it any more welcoming? Weāre not sure, but we do know that we kind of love design studio HagenHinderdaelās Meadows of Change (above).
š Yesterday saw people getting their Covid vaccine at Tate Modern. We told you about this the other week, but we had to link to this Art Newspaper article because they used the pun āTate Modernaā and weāre just really annoyed we didnāt think of that.
Food and drink bits
š³ Egg restaurants seem to be having a moment. After Eggslutās move to Shoreditch, now itās the turn of āpro boxer and personal trainerā (and Afghan refugee) Sohail Ahmad to open Eggoland in Fitzrovia. The menu will mainly consist of āa range of different egg buns,ā including combos like āfried egg, maple beef bacon and cheddar cheese,ā and āspiced lamb, fried egg, feta, mint yoghurt & harissa butterā.
š®š³ If the art doesnāt tempt you to Wembley, then maybe an Indian restaurant from a twice Michelin-starred chefĀ will do the job. Youāve probably seen Atul Kochhar on Masterchef or Great British Menu (or you might have read about him in the papers back in 2018 after he sent a series of anti-Islamic tweets to the actress Priyanka Chopra). Kochharās Wembley restaurant will be called Masalchi (which means āThe spice masterā) and will have a menu ābased on street food that the chef has encountered on his trips across India.ā
š„§ For reasons we canāt quite work out, the Electric Ballroom in Camden is going to be offering a āpie and mash brunchā from September. As well as Robins pie and mash there will also be ā60 minutes of bottomless Sex on Southend Beach cocktailsā and a āChas ānā Dave Tribute Bandā. And all for Ā£30. Wow?
š· Weāve done the maths and we can exclusively reveal that, if things continue as they are, then East London will soon be nothing but wine bars. The latest addition to the vino tsunami opened yesterday and is called Hackney Coterie. There is (of course) plenty of ābiodynamic, low-intervention and organic wines on the listā but, more unusually, you will also be able to sample from a range of sake, as one of the owners is a ābona fide Master of Sakeā.
š½ļø Staying in Hackney: āSocial fineĀ diningā concept, The Water House Project, which began inside chef Gabriel WaterhouseāsĀ Bethnal GreenĀ flat a few years ago, has got itself a 40-cover permanent location on Corbridge Crescent, right next to the Regentās Canal. Theyāll be offering a nine-course tasting menu that changes each month, priced at Ā£99 per person.
š» Opening next week, the Bermondsey Bierkeller is exactly what it sounds like; a massive beer hall in Bermondsey. As well as plenty of pilsners and Paulaner thereās some frightening-looking purple cocktails, as well as currywurst, schnitzel and frankfurters and a āGerman Games Vault,ā which includes fussball and those other famous German pastimes: beer pong and pool.
š This weekās āBest ofā list comes from Conde Nast Traveller and features some of Londonās best pizza. There are 16 restaurants on the list so itās not exactly discerning, but they do cover a wide area (including south of the river!), so itās a handy list if you need to find a decent slice near you.
Long read of the week
It might be a little rich for a publication called Luxury London to moan about the kind of people who go to ātrendy barsā just to take photos for their Instagram, but their article Has Covid-19 snuffed out Sohoās indie spirit for good? is pretty interesting nonetheless.
