Weekend roundup for 25 February
Featuring Darth Vader, sheep drives and hot doughnuts
In the week that Catherine Zeta Jones was “hailed as the queen of public transport” for, erm… getting on the Tube, we are here to bring you the news that really counts. Like bridges that move, where to find tiny hippos, and the latest on the mission to undermine Oxford Street’s reputation as “a globally recognised shopping district”.
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News bits
🍱 The big news coming out of City Hall this week was that every primary school pupil in London will get free school meals for the next academic year. The one-off, ‘emergency’ £130m package is necessary, according to the mayor, “given the lack of Government help,” with the “spiralling cost of living”. Critics of the plan have pointed out that a more targeted approach would be better than “subsidising middle class parents”. It’s also worth noting that kids in Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Islington, Newham and Westminster already get free school meals.
🚇 Tube drivers will go on strike for 24 hours on Wednesday 15 March (which also happens to be Budget day). Members of the ASLEF union voted by 99% in favour of strike action (on a turnout out of 77%).
👨⚕️Two whistleblowers told the BBC this week that only “half the recommended number of medical staff” were on duty at the Brixton Academy on the night two people died in a crush last December.
🛣️ It’s been a while since we’ve had a horrendously overdue and overbudget construction project to moan about, but don’t worry because Old Street roundabout is here to save us. The updates to the gyratory were due to take two years and finish by (checks watch) 2020, but now TfL are saying it won’t be done until “early 2024”. The project is supposed to be making what is easily one of the deadliest junctions in London safer for pedestrians and cyclists, so the good news is that new protected cycle lanes and pedestrian crossings should be finished by this summer.
👮 The Met has a new Deputy Commissioner in Dame Lynne Owens (she was already the interim Deputy Commissioner). The good news is that she has said she is going to “focus on victim care and targeting offenders”. The less good news is that she was nearly sacked when she was Chief Constable of Surrey Police, and she was chief of public order policing during the London riots of 2011 (after which she was still defending stop and search tactics).
🐑 The Royal Charter of 1247 (not a typo) could kibosh the plans to move Smithfield and Billingsgate markets to Dagenham Dock, because it forbids a market from being set up “within a day’s sheep drive” of the existing Romford Market. In case you need reminding, a day’s sheep drive is the equivalent of the (slightly satanic) 6.66 miles, and The City of London’s proposed new site in Dagenham Dock is about four miles away from Romford market.
🫥 Congratulations are in order for Evening Standard owner and Boris Johnson’s bezzy mate, Lord Evgeny Lebedev, who has managed to go an entire year without formally contributing to proceedings in the House of Lords. The Guardian reports that Lebedev has done nothing remotely Lords-related since submitting two written questions on 21 February last year, and still hasn’t managed to take the oath to King Charles, even though other peers have managed it, including “Frank Field, the former Labour MP, who is 80 and terminally ill”.
⛽ Extinction Rebellion activists targeted Fashion Week on Monday, by pouring ‘fake oil’ from giant cola bottles on to a red carpet outside 180 The Strand. Coca Cola is a sponsor of LFW, but an XR spokesperson called them “an evil company that holds a lot of responsibility for the destruction of biodiversity and of our planet”.
🌉 “All the world loves a bridge that moves,” writes Owen Moore in The Guardian. And we hope he’s right because he’s put together a thousand words on two new London footbridges, neither of which were “must have” additions. The Cody Dock Rolling Bridge is pretty cool though.
🎰 The former Boots on Oxford Street will not become “a gambling arcade” after a planning committee at Westminster Council rejected the plans, fearing that “the business would undermine the street as a globally recognised shopping district.” The site is currently “a gift, toy and luggage shop”.
🍭 And on that note: Retail Gazette reports on new research which shows that “the American candy stores on London’s Oxford Street have returned to peak levels,” which kind of makes them sound like Coronavirus rather than, you know, tat shops.
🏠 Ian Fletcher is Director of Policy at the British Property Federation, which calls itself “the voice of the real estate industry”. Funnily enough, the real estate industry is not very keen on rent controls and would like you to know that they “do nothing for those desperate to get a first foot on the housing ladder” and will, in fact, “only make this situation worse”.
🏪 As Diamond Geezer pointed out on Twitter this week, the “luxury shopping district” that is Hackney Walk is now more of a luxury, post-apocalyptic wasteland now that Nike have vacated their unit. According to this report, the current (Guernsey-based) leaseholder has gone into liquidation, but another company is looking to “regain control of the units” and is working with Hackney council to “bring them back into productive use.” (See our Long Read of the Week for more from DG).
🥵 If you have access to the FT then this article on the diplomatic sauna “hidden deep within the Finnish embassy” in Belgravia is worth a read.
🦛 And finally… London Zoo has a new pygmy hippo. As well as being adorable news, this is also encouraging news given that Amara’s arrival is part of a conservation breeding programme (and they have been getting more difficult to make happen since Brexit).
Food and drink bits
🏨 If it wasn’t behind a paywall then we would have made this Telegraph article on the history of The Regent Palace Hotel our Long Read of the Week. It’s a really detailed look at what was one Europe’s largest hotel, with appearances by Aldous Huxley, Francis Ford Coppola, Harvey Keitel, a couple of suicide pacts and some amazing art deco interiors (some of which can still be enjoyed as part of Brasserie Zedel).
🍤 The Outernet on Charing Cross Road has opened its restaurant, Cavo on the fourth floor (and there’s a roof terrace, so the views should be pretty good). It looks like they’re aiming for an upmarket surf ‘n’ turf tapas vibe, with a raw bar and “grilled meats” making up most of the menu. There’s also ‘signature cocktails including this which may or may not be a negroni with squirty cream on top.
🥃 Cavo did have a soft launch deal on this weekend but it looks like they’re all booked up. If you’re around that way and after a deal, then Lucy Wong’s, the new 1950s Hong Kong-style cocktail bar on Rathbone Place, is offering 50% of all food until 25 March. So, you can act out all your In The Mood For Love fantasies and save cash at the same time.
🇮🇩 Camden’s Indonesian street-food stall Pino’s Warung has opened a sister restaurant in St James’s Market (just off Piccadilly Circus). Toba is offering up classic Indonesian dishes like Nasi Goreng and Beef Renang and “Indonesian-inspired cocktails” like the Tobarita (their version of a spicy margarita).
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