London
Why the Met Police keeps failing
Much has been made of the decision to place the Metropolitan Police in what is often referred to as special…
Gorgeous George
The George, Fitzrovia, was Saki’s local, and a pub for men talking about cars when Great Portland Street was called…
The day I got heckled at Speakers’ Corner
Monday was the 150th anniversary of Speakers’ Corner and, in the hope of drumming up some publicity for the Free…
Et in Arcade ego
I should know better than to visit restaurants assembled as if from disparate bricks, like thrift-shop Duplo: but the ever-credulous…
Into the labyrinth
I am never bored with Harrods, only disgusted, and it is disgust of the most animated and exciting kind. It…
Maine offender
Last week Chris Corbin and Jeremy King lost controlof the restaurant group they founded: Corbin & King, which made theWolseley,…
Social capital
Covid has changed London for the better
For the chop
Blacklock is the fourth restaurant of that name – there are others in Soho, Shoreditch and the City of London.…
A crooks’ paradise
The war in Ukraine has turned a lot of people’s attention to oligarchs in the UK. How did these guys…
The waste land
I was going to be jolly this week, for variety and denial, but I changed my mind. Instead, I wonder…
A little Eden
I’m not one of life’s early risers but an exception had to be made on Wednesday last week. In an…
A victim of its own mythology
Langan’s, a brasserie off Piccadilly with curling orange neon signage calling its name, is under new management after it fell…
The hunt for breakfast
The centre could not hold, at least for Piggy’s. The drama of being the only greasy spoon in the West…
Mirror of distortion
Vesna Goldsworthy’s finely wrought third novel explodes into life early on with a shocking scene in which Misha — the…
A slice above
It is a truism that there is never enough schnitzel (‘slice’, German); or, rather, schnitzel does not get the attention…
Who is – and isn’t – welcome in Sadiq Khan’s London?
Right-wing Frenchman Eric Zemmour, who is expected to run for the presidency of his country next year, has been designated persona…
High life
There’s a narrow stretch of Chelsea, south of the King’s Road from Oakley Street to Ormonde Gate, that reminds me…
Faking it
Whitcomb’s is in The Londoner hotel on the south-west corner of Leicester Square. The Londoner calls itself ‘the world’s first…
The real Greek
Lemonia lives in the old Chalk Farm Tavern in Primrose Hill, which is better known as the set of Paddington.…
Harriet Harman calls for Cressida Dick to resign
Labour’s Harriet Harman has called for Cressida Dick to resign as chief of the Metropolitan Police after Wayne Couzens was…
High life
It’s nice to be back in London, and Glebe Place is a delight. Mind you, it’s not the mansion I…
Fit for a king
A French creole restaurant rises in the sullen ruins of London. It is called Louie, for French king or trumpeter,…
London notebook
In London for the first time in 18 months, I was as excited as a child on a birthday outing.…
It all streams past
To write about London and its rivers is to enter a crowded literary field. Many aspects of watery life in…
France’s provocateur is coming to London
Five years ago, London’s affluent French poured their dosh into the campaign of Emmanuel Macron. This time around, supporters of…
