If you’ve found yourself cosily enveloped by the Overground’s orange arms for as long as you can remember, maybe it’s time to venture beyond the boundaries of Bethnal Green and discover the delights of the real east end. Read the full post…
Good news for all pictures-on-walls fans, the cool kids over at VICE have trawled through their archives and picked out their fave impious illustrators from the past 10 years for a spanking new exhibition at Pure Evil Gallery. Read the full post…
1. The lost billboard
To celebrate the British Library’s upcoming ‘Propaganda: Power and Persuasion‘ exhibition we picked ten London locations that feature in the long history of often unsuccessful attempts to control our thoughts. Appropriate then that the first location has gone missing, forgotten in the mists of time. All we know is that somewhere in London this smiling workman with a ladder (see above) has just pasted up the very first poster of the Conservatives’ 1987 ‘AIDS don’t die of ignorance’ campaign created by London agency TBWA. He should look happy – the put-on-a-condom campaign saved thousands of lives.
Ever felt like you’re being manipulated? As if the powers that be are using you to further their sinister agenda? Well, on the Underground, it turns out you sometimes are – although admittedly, the agenda is usually ‘map legibility’ or’crowd flow control.’
Above, Tom Scott and Matt Parker bust some myths and discover how Evil Tube Chiefs Steal Three Minutes Of Your Life Daily.* You’ll never go the long way around again.
*if you travel via Kings’ Cross.
Head further down the rabbit hole with the radical tube map re-design based on circles or a guide to the tube journeys where it’s quicker to walk.
As Eurovision looms, you must be thinking ‘what’s Katrina Leskanich from the 1997 UK winners Katrina & The Waves up to?’ No? Oh well, let us tell you anyway. Aside from warding off an unfortunate association with Hurricane Katrina and banning the Republicans from using any of her songs, Katrina has been wandering London’s streets with her partner Sher Harper and toy poodle Peggy Lee. Now the three have collaborated to put out ‘Peggy Lee Loves London’, a selection of Katrina’s favourite food spots, pubs, parks, quirks and street art, as illustrated by amusing pictures of her pint-sized pooch. See London like you’ve never seen it before…from 10 inches above the ground. Read the full post…
Have you recently suffered bouts of terrible small talk, and the culminating despair that follows it? Yawn no more, for now there are video games in bars, so you can legitimately ignore people. Socialising just got anti-social. The new bar craze ‘eSports’ (ie: competitive video gaming in bars) is coming to London’s Caledonian Road on June 1 courtesy of Meltdown. The trend is already raging up and down Europe, where you can indulge in playing your favourite video games against opponents whilst sipping on game-themed cocktails. Bar brawls have never been quite this legal.
Find out more on Meltdown’s Facebook page.
Do you enjoy getting naked and saving tigers? If you said no, then this is all very embarrassing. But if you answered yes, you’re in luck! Either that, or you’re Tarzan. Either way, ZSL London Zoo needs your help.
Based on this fun little nugget of trivia that a group of tigers are called a ‘Streak’, on August 15, London Zoo is looking for 300 volunteers (this is the number of Sumatran tigers that are currently left in the wild) to strip off. The organisers promise the event will be ‘daring and unusual’ with all the proceedings of the sponsored stripping going towards funding more conservation work. This is all about showing your wild side, and probably an interesting way to meet people. If you’re a bit self-conscious and concerned this may tarnish your single status for the rest of time, remember: you are not doing this to get laid. You are doing this so the tigers will.
Sign up now at zsl.org/streakfortigers.
When she died in 2007, Isabella Blow, eccentric, obsessive hat wearer and former fashion director of Tatler left a vast wardrobe of spectacular clothes and accessories. Her good friend, society heiress Daphne Guinness, bought her wardrobe at auction and archived it for safe-keeping. Thanks to Guinness, from October you’ll be able to see some of the key pieces (over 100) by designers Blow patronised (and whose careers she helped launch) such as Alexander McQueen, Hussein Chalayan and Philip Treacy, the milliner who became one of her closest friends. Put the date in your diary now, it’s likely to be autumn’s sell-out, most bonkers style exhibition – there aren’t many people who could pull off wearing a lobster on their heads after all. Want to find out more about the real Isabella Blow? Read our exclusive interview with her sister Julia Delves Broughton who gives a unique insight to Blow, and our interview with Isabella Blow on Alexander McQueen here. Maggie Davis
‘Isabella Blow: Fashion Galore!‘ runs from Nov 20 to March 2 2014.
So, going to a museum reminds you of bad school trips with even worse coach journeys? Or are you a ‘museum-goer’ that actually sprints past the exhibition and straight into the gift shop? Either way, you’ll like this: Museums at Night mixes up the usual museum experience and offers Londoners a totally different course in culture. For three days this week (from Thursday May 16 to Saturday May 18), some of the capital’s biggest and best museums and attractions are hosting fantastic one-off after-hours events. Forget a visit during regular opening hours this weekend, institutions working the nightshift and throwing soirees for this year’s MaN season include the William Morris Gallery, where you can shake ya’ ass Sixties-style at a vintage beats party; Hampton Court Palace, which is inviting night owls to a supper and sleepover (watch out for the ghosts, yeah) and the Royal Observatory Greenwich, who are screening a selection of classic horror movies under the stars. Sound good? Of course it does. Trust us, this is a million miles away from your year six history excursion. Liz Darke
Check out our guide to all of this year’s Museums at Night events.
Which was the first-ever underground station? What was the thinking behind the patterns on the walls of tube stations? To find out, read our review of BBC2′s superb new documentary ‘The Tube: an Underground History’ (showing on Thu May 16, 9pm , BBC2) – and then watch the show. We promise, you’ll be the best-informed commuter around on Friday morning…
Read our review of The Tube: An Underground History now.
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