London

The first world war comes home to a Kensington bus

21 May 2016 9:00 am

From ‘The softening of street manners’, The Spectator, 20 May 1916: Generally the public opinion of the ’bus entirely upholds…

Don’t believe the Tory grumbling: HS2 is on the way

21 May 2016 9:00 am

There’s a lot of negativity around HS2, and I sniff a Brexit connection. You might think Leave campaigners whose aim…

Hillingdon Civic Centre: a dozen red bungalows clumsily buggering one another

Jonathan Meades on the postmodernist buildings that we must protect

21 May 2016 9:00 am

Best of postmodernism: is that an oxymoron? Jonathan Meades thinks not

The horrors of Soho House’s country outpost

14 May 2016 9:00 am

It is summer and the listless metropolitan thinks of grass. It cannot afford to stay at Durslade Farmhouse, Somerset, a…

The true meaning of Sadiq Khan’s claims to virtue

14 May 2016 9:00 am

The new Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said he wanted ‘the most transparent, honest and accessible administration London has ever…

Meet London’s senior mayor (no, it’s not Sadiq)

7 May 2016 9:00 am

London’s other mayor How many people could name the capital’s other mayor, the Lord Mayor of London? The office, officially…

Cycling in Lycra is bad for the soul

7 May 2016 9:00 am

Cycling in funny clothes is bad for the soul

Making friends with the axeman next door

7 May 2016 9:00 am

What happened when I tried American neighbourliness in London

Why it makes sense to buy your banker lunch

7 May 2016 9:00 am

We recently moved -offices from Canary Wharf to Blackfriars bridge. When you move after a long time in one place,…

Down and Out in Paris and London is a chav safari

30 April 2016 9:00 am

Down and Out in Paris and London is a brilliant specimen from a disreputable branch of writing: the chav safari,…

The most beautiful restaurant in London – from the outside

30 April 2016 9:00 am

Batman owned the Criterion in The Dark Knight, but could he do anything about British Telecom? Savini at Criterion, an…

The 90th birthday present that the Queen really wants

23 April 2016 9:00 am

The Queen’s 90th birthday celebrations start this week with the real thing and barely stop until her official birthday in…

The Parliament Hill Café is awful. I’m sorry they saved it

16 April 2016 9:00 am

The Parliament Hill Café is a drab glass box at the bottom of Hampstead Heath, near the farmers’ market and…

After 50 years, I’m out of the agony-aunt business

9 April 2016 9:00 am

It’s clear that Vladimir Putin has had a facelift, which might explain why Wendi Deng would take an interest in…

Zac's campaign is as good as over; Labour will retake London

9 April 2016 9:00 am

The Labour plotters who dream of ousting Jeremy Corbyn had high hopes for the local elections on 5 May. They…

Bellanger review: a posh Islington restaurant for semi-ordinary people

2 April 2016 9:00 am

Islington is a bellwether, and also a joke: the most unequal borough in London, where social housing leans against £4…

Why Britain (and Europe) depends on migrants

26 March 2016 9:00 am

It’s not about economics. It’s about our snobbish, slobbish culture

‘Lumps of speculation cast down from the computer of a time-starved architect’

The social cleansing of London — and other capital crimes

19 March 2016 9:00 am

You have to get nearly halfway through this book before it starts to show some life. Until that point, as…

The new Wheeler’s is the worst thing Marco Pierre White has ever done

19 March 2016 9:00 am

Wheeler’s is such a dreadful restaurant that I wonder if Marco Pierre White even knows his name is on it.…

The smelly, snobbish death of the English public toilet

12 March 2016 9:00 am

I blame Nancy Mitford: she made the English so frightened of saying ‘toilet’ that now they have hardly any left…

Anarchy in the EU: the Sex Pistols’ drummer on why Brexit isn’t punk

12 March 2016 9:00 am

Paul Cook, the Sex Pistols’ drummer, on fame, notoriety and why Brexit wouldn’t be punk

A bookseller’s guide to book thieves

5 March 2016 9:00 am

At my shop, it seems to be everyone from students to organised professional gangs

Pharmacy 2 makes me like Damien Hirst

5 March 2016 9:00 am

Pharmacy 2 is the reanimated child of Damien Hirst; it lives inside the Newport Street Gallery in a forsaken patch of…

Boris and Dave’s schoolboy rivalry is journalistic wishful thinking

27 February 2016 9:00 am

The Prime Minister is pretty angry with Boris. But the idea that they’ve competed with each other since school is…

Dear Mary: new neighbours want me to provide a ready-made social scene

27 February 2016 9:00 am

Q. Former colleagues, with whom I got on very well in the context of the office, are buying a house…