London
The clock towers bigger than Big Ben
Bigger Bens Big Ben will have a £29m refurbishment. Who has the biggest clock tower? Kremlin Clock: Installed on the…
I offered Zac Goldsmith £50 to stay 20 feet away from me
I once tried to bribe Zac Goldsmith with a £50 note, but he didn’t bite even back then. He was…
At least these rioters hate the right people
I was unable to join the violent protests held by Class War at the Cereal Killer Café in London last…
High steaks
Smith & Wollensky is a restaurant from The Shining: a terrifying American steak joint by the Thames, four months old,…
Is my only choice to be a cynic or a sucker?
It’s all the rage to mistrust the powerful these days, to say politicians are scum, or all bankers are selfish.…
Coming up for air
Jenny McCartney talks to the celebrated photojournalist about war, guilt and Aylan
From A to B, differently
Afamily member is thinking of moving and asked for commuting advice. Well, first add 25 per cent to any journey…
Foodies without the faff
I cannot review the Gay Hussar every time the Labour party behaves like a self-harming teenager (‘I don’t want to…
Last orders
The fight to save the Gladstone Arms is the fight to save London
Powder to the people
Fierce competition is forcing drug dealers to adjust their sales methods
Spirits of the Blitz
If the early Martin Amis is instantly recognisable by way of its idiosyncratic slang (‘rug-rethink’, ‘going tonto’ etc) then the…
Jamie in chains
Jamie’s Italian is squeezed into the Devonshire Arms on Denman Street, Soho, borne on the duplicitous winds of TV shows…
Diary
Should we have celebrated VJ Day? Hearing the hieratic tones of the Emperor Hirohito on Radio 4 the other day,…
Man of many worlds
Cult novelist Michael Moorcock on fantasy, his father, and the London he loved and lost
The cavalier Michael
Michael Moorcock has put his name to more books, pamphlets and fanzines than, probably, even Michael Moorcock can count, but…
Something fishy
Selfridges is skilled at making things that are not hideous (women) look hideous (women dressed as Bungle from Rainbow or…
Diary
The week starts well. My debut novel, The Miniaturist, is a year old. On the anniversary of its publication, my…
Is no one having fun?
Who’d be young? Not 25-year-old Tamsin, if her behaviour is anything to go by. A classical pianist who’s never quite…
Wild things
Are adventure playgrounds set to make a comeback, asks Maisie Rowe
The London ear
It’s easy to tag the city’s terrain by writer. But what, wonders Philip Clark, might a map of its music look like?
Chelsea carnivores
The Maze Grill is on a sinister street in Chelsea, between a small Tesco — a boutique Tesco? — and…
Picnics
Strange, isn’t it, that despite having such famously terrible weather, we Brits are so fond of a picnic. It’s something…
Portrait of the week
Home Tens of thousands took part in a demonstration in London against austerity, and thousands more in other cities. Russell…
Myths and legends
The Ivy is a Playmobil-style faux-medieval restaurant in a triangular building opposite The Mousetrap; of the two, The Ivy is…
The green house effect
Buying an eco-home? Expect stifling springs and summers
