VANISHING LONDON: The Plaza Cinema, Lower Regents Street
I liked the Plaza, it was a cheap and cheerful, and like its equally disappeared neighbour, Tower Records, seemed proud of the fact. Actually the Plaza, much like Tower records, wasn’t re[…]

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[…]

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[…]

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[…]

Spanish Restaurants in London
I love Spanish food. I am vegetarian. Two statements that make uneasy bedfellows.
Go to Spain and the selection is limited. Tortilla, plus patatas in one form or another, gazpacho in the south, peppers, maybe something […]

Where ARE the trash cans? — it’s a sign of my swaddled and coddled existence being an American that one of the first frustrations I had in London when I started visiting again regularly in 2000 was the lack of trash cans in certain areas,[…]

It’s not the Space Needle, so what EEES it, man? — the BT Telecom Tower has always tripped me out a little whenever I’ve seen it around London. I’ll turn a corner or the taxi I’m in will change a lane or something and t[…]

The Best Pub in London
C’mon, you know I’m right. Say the Mission are playing the Astoria, you’re dressed in black, wearing pointed boots and your arms are jangling with bangles. Need a pre-gig pint of Snakebite and black? Welcome.[…]

If you overlook its swathes of parkland, London and hot weather really don’t go together at all. The city’s simply too dense, the transport system painfully ill-equipped for the heat, and I have yet to be convinced of the appeal of al fre[…]