Weekend roundup for 7 January
Featuring Beelzebub, baked cab drivers and bibingka
Welcome to the first LiB of 2023… If you’re a non-paying subscriber that is. We’ve already said ‘happy new year’ to our paying subscribers as they got a couple of ‘Things To Look Forward To’ issues over the break:
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News bits
🚑 On Tuesday ITV news reported on a leaked email sent to management at hospitals across London, which stated that ambulances would only wait 45 minutes “before leaving patients on trolleys in corridors”. The news prompted the Lib Dems to call for a ‘major incident’ to be declared across London.
💼 2023 might be the year that we get to stop reporting on whether people are going back into the office or not. According to a study of mobile phone activity from “more than 500 UK high streets from 2019 to 2022,” a typical work week now runs from Tuesday to Thursday and “we’re not going back to how things were pre-Covid.” As you might expect, the City is one of the country’s quietest spots on a Monday, with 50-60% of the activity it gets mid-week, while “Fridays were almost as quiet as weekends”.
🏠 A bit of good news: Apparently London’s rental market might ‘stabilise’ in 2023. Stats show that the number of landlords who reduced rent in November 2022 was double that of 2021 and the number of properties available to rent was up 50% on November 2021. Although, rents are forecasted “to continue to grow by up to 5% over 2023, before plateauing in 2024.”
🏰 And in case you missed it over the break, the priciest road in the country has been revealed as Phillimore Gardens in Kensington & Chelsea, “where the average house will set you back £23.8m – or 83 times the national average property price”.
🏢 Kevin ‘Grand Designs’ McCloud has added his voice to those calling for a new grade III listing for buildings. The new status would apply automatically to every building and “would come with just one rule: the property may only be demolished if it is structurally unsafe, or is given special dispensation by the local planning authority.” McCloud cited the plans for the Marks & Spencer building on Oxford Street calling them “lazy,” and suggesting they showed “a complete lack of imagination”.
🐕 New figures from the Met have shown that that 3,102 dogs have been recorded as stolen in London since records began in 2012. The most stolen breed in that time was the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, followed by Chihuahuas and French Bulldogs. Croydon and Bromley were the areas where most dogs were stolen.
🌴 According to the Spectator’s Diary Editor, James Heale, “most of” Portcullis House has been closed off during the current parliamentary recess so a decision can be made about what will “replace the infamous fig trees”. In case you missed it, the twenty-two-year battle to keep the 12 fig trees that once lined the atrium from getting diseased or just falling over, ended last summer.
🚴 Hammersmith & Fulham Council is on a bit of a Public Space Protection Order binge right now. Following up on their threat of £100 fines for dog walkers caught without poo bags, the council is now considering enforcing “the prohibition of reckless riding of pedal cycles” along the Thames Path, which would involve a £100 fixed penalty for anyone caught.
🚨 If you needed another reason not to frequent strip clubs in Soho, here’s a report that says that the Vanity Bar on Carlisle Street has had no less than ten drinks spikings (that they know of), which have led to “victims losing £250,000”.
🩲 Tomorrow will see the first No Trousers Tube Ride since the pandemic (and the first chance for people to ride the Elizabeth Line in their underwear). If you fancy getting involved, the meeting point is Newport Place in Chinatown at 3pm.
🚂 Earlier this week, it was announced that a new sleeper train service will be running from London to Berlin from May, meaning you’ll be able to get on a train at St Pancras and wake up in Berlin the next morning (breakfast included).
🐜 It’s January, which means that London Zoo is embarking on its annual census. Each year, the zoo counts all of its 14,000+ residents and, more importantly, takes the opportunity for some cute photos:
🚕 As of 1 January all new minicabs licensed in London for the first time must be zero-emission-capable, i.e. they “must emit no more than 50g/km CO2 as well as being capable of driving without emitting any exhaust emissions for a minimum range of 10 miles.”
😶🌫️ And talking of cab emissions…. In December a cab driver was pulled over by Met Police officers after he was spotted “driving whilst rolling what appeared to be a cannabis joint.”. The cabby then tested positive for cannabis during a roadside test:
Art and culture bits
🚽 The National Portrait Gallery has bought the ticket kiosk that sits on the traffic island outside its new entrance (this one). Why? Well because underneath it is a space six times larger than the kiosk itself, which used to be a Victorian public toilet. The gallery is hoping to completely refurbish the space to create “a venue for changing gallery displays and/or performance and film relating to portraiture.”
👹 If you fancy a bit of old-fashioned pagan fun this weekend, then you need to get down to Bankside on Sunday for the (free) annual Twelfth Night festivities. From around 2pm you’ll be able to witness the Holly Man and Beelzebub himself being piped over the Thames, followed by a bit of ‘freestyle folk combat play’ (featuring “the Turkey Sniper and Clever Legs” obviously!) before the King and Queen of the day are crowned, based on who in the crowd has found a bean and a pea hidden in their cake. Best of all, there’s a procession to the George Inn pub in Southwark, where there’ll be storytelling, something called “the Kissing Wishing Tree”, dancing and plenty of mulled wine.
🇬🇷 2023 might be the year that we finally give the Elgin Marbles back to Greece. Earlier this week the British Museum confirmed that it is involved in “constructive discussions” with Greece over the return of some of the Parthenon marbles. Although, a Greek official told the Guardian “This is not true. there is no such deal” (let’s not forget that the person in charge on the Museum’s side is George Osborne). You know this is a good idea, because historian David Abulafia (who seems obsessed with fighting ‘woke culture’. especially when it’s trying to ‘cancel steam trains’), says in the Telegraph that it would be “uncivilised to give Greece the Elgin Marbles” as they are “the property of humanity”.
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