OVERGROUND RIVERS : 2 – The Lea
The Lea is a complicated river. For a start, it has two names, Lea & Lee. The river is no longer a dividing line, but historically it defined the eastern edge of London. After the Romans left, The Lea was t[…]

Thanks Dizzee!!: I’ve not actually HEARD “Showtime” yet (I’ve given up on advance album downloading, life’s too long to deny yourself anticipation; singles are another matter though, more sweeties please, that email is a[…]

Expensive, French and in a mall — there’s this place called Troquet located on the fourth floor of South Coast Plaza (and yeah, we all look like the model guy pictured there, of course), which I’d been wanting to try for some time. […]

Finally, we got to visit what had come to be something of a holy grail for us in culinary terms…….
Vicky’s birthday seemed the ideal time to visit …..St John, Fergus Henderson’s house of great repute. There’s nothi[…]

UNREST
“Isabel”
aka our belov’d site editor’s least favorite Isabel song ever, I seem to recall, and he has reason to take the matter with due seriousness. But for some reason I had only known the version that ended up rereco[…]

The Brick Lane gauntlet — I really didn’t know about it at all, maybe a mention or two here and there, before my last visit to London. But then friend Vinita talked excitedly about Brick Lane and the restaurants that were there in plenty,[…]

COIL – “Lost Rivers Of London”: sheer coincidence that this track should turn up just after Pete’s post. The ‘lost rivers’, like the lost tube stations, are a terribly romantic concept – though perhaps an ove[…]

Olympic Avoidance Log
I hate the Olympics, and much like the Soviet Bloc in 1984 am boycotting them. However this boycott is jolly hard to effect; it is difficult with the mass media coverage. So I shall blog here when I actually accidentally catch t[…]

I missed the Great British Beer Festival this year. I was not the only one. During my stay in Dumfries and Galloway we stumbled across the Sulwath Brewery in Castle Douglas. They had not been invited. Obviously Olympia is limited in space, neverthele[…]

OVERGROUND RIVERS : 1 – The Thames
There has been a resurgence of interest in the underground rivers of London of late. Great romantic tomes have been concocted about the Fleet and the Wandle, almost to the detriment of the overground rivers. I[…]