Some happy, some sad, one dreadful.
Musicians Madeleine Dunbar & Guy Katsav talk about the fabulous Tigermonkey.
What is Tigermonkey?
Tigermonkey...
By Gavin Mecaniques Thursday, 16 May 2013 6:25 PM
Amusing gents Tom Scott and Matt Parker take a look at some of the Tube’s little white lies.
By Darren Atwater Wednesday, 15 May 2013 3:09 PM
SNIPE is actively looking for new contributors.
Who we want
We are particularly...
By Staff Writer Wednesday, 15 May 2013 1:06 PM
In a PR hype generating event we can all get along with, the banana stand from noughties US comedy/best TV show ever Arrested Development will be...
By Mike Pollitt Thursday, 9 May 2013 11:05 AM
It’s been a great year for reclaimed pubs in the Hackney Central/Hackney Downs metropolitan area. First movers was the real ale and cidar specialist, The Cock, on Mare Street and the faux country, yet comfy, charm of the Clapton Hart at the Lower Clapton Road roundabout.
Today sees the formerly unloved Windsor Castle reopen at 135 Lower Clapton Road, operated by the chaps behind Birthdays. An easy stagger West is the Star by Hackney Downs, run by the same folk who run the Star by Bethnal Green. Locals may remember it as the Three Sisters and, although purists may resent the name change, Snipe says it’s worth the change.
Has it really come to this?
By Mike Pollitt Wednesday, 24 April 2013 12:43 PM
This post is a way of gathering together links to the best and most useful sites and resources for data (“facts”, in old money) about London.
If the right question to be asking is “what is really going on out there?” then these sites have a lot of the answers.
This page will be updated over time. All suggestions for additions are welcome.
The London dashboard at the Greater London Authority’s datastore site was introduced in August 2012. It contains rolling updates of the latest data in nine categories:
Jobs and economy, transport, environment, policing and crime, fire and rescue, communities, housing, health and tourism.
It’s not perfect (why are cable car passenger numbers not published in the transport category, for example) but there’s a lot there, it’s updated regularly, and the information is presented clearly and with context. All in all it’s pretty good.
There’s also a release schedule which tells you when new data will be added.
The datastore has also recently (March 2013) taken over publishing some labour market indicators which where previously available on the site of the London Skills and Employment Observatory (LSEO). There’s a useful monthly PDF cribsheet with graphs and charts for things like employment rate, number of benefit claimants, number of NEETS, and so forth.
Ward by ward data visualisations
How do house prices/knife crime/GCSE results/life expentancy/etc compare between one London ward and another? How do they compare in each ward over time? This ward by ward visualisation tool lets you see for yourself. On the map above, the mean house price in Knightsbrige and Belgravia in 2012 was £3.8m. Isn’t that nice?
There’s also a make your own map function, which deserves a wider airing.
Takes us well beyond the city border, but you can’t beat the opinion poll aggregation and commentary at the UK Polling Report if you want to find out what people are thinking. Or say they are thinking, anyway.
Hours of fun here with the guys from UCL who make their own maps and share the best of the rest. It’s amazing.
One example out of many, this reworking of Charles Booth’s Victorian deprivation map.
Copyright © Crown Copyright. All rights reserved NERC 100017897 2004
The red squares on this map show recorded eel sightings in east London (sightings in the wild, not in a pot of jelly). Oh look, there was once an eel in Victoria park lake.
The map is from the National Biodiversity Network, which uses London data from Greenspace Information for Greater London.
Perhaps this site is most useful for would-be foragers. Say I want to get hold of some wild garlic but I don’t know where to find any…well I could search for alium ursinum on this map and then do a bit of…omnomnomnomnom
A searchable map of all listed buildings, world heritage sites, scheduled monuments, etc. Useful for showing cool old things under your nose.
All of London life is here, in the transcripts from the Old Bailey 1674-1913.
The online resource turned ten in spring 2013, and celebratory blogposts using the site for inspiration include the story of a 17th century coin fiddler, the 18th century theft of Swearus Sandestrom’s watch and the punishment of some 19th century will forgers.
Snipe also dipped into the archives to tell the story of Mary Rainbow and her nameless murdered child.
This site is where a thousand snippets of weather-based office small talk can be swiftly disproved. Is this an unseasonably cold spring? When did it last rain this much in a day? Bit blustery, what? You’ll find the evidence on this simple local weather site.
UCL’s one page info-fest is perhaps more impressive than it is useful but it’s still cool. Do i need to know how deep the Thames is right now? No. Do I want to know? Sure.
There’s frothing on all sides at the Margaret Thatcher death party in Brixton (and elsewhere) last night. Responses range from it’s a disgrace (Daily Mail) to it’s fine (The Guardian).
We can go deeper than this. What meaningful things do these parties Say About Us All?
Here are some theories.
1. The celebrations are performances, conjured by media command
Oh god, there’s a Thatcher is Dead street party in Brixton. Mostly attended by journalists so far, I think. I’ll avoid that then.
— Daniel Knowles (@dlknowles) April 8, 2013
There’s been something celebratory in coverage of the death parties. A sense that, whether defending or attacking them, the death parties angle was necessary to complete coverage of the death. Thatcher was divisive. No coverage which failed to recognise this could claim to be comprehensive.
If street parties celebrating Margaret Thatcher’s death did not exist, the papers would have had to invent them. In a way they did, since by publicising early gatherings they ensured they grew into newsworthy events.
2. Choreographed offensiveness is a healthy proxy for violence
Giving deliberate offence, choreographed offence, is an art and 21st century Britons are its masters. To act in a way you know will hurt people you don’t like is childish. When those people hold the keys of power, becomes childish but aubversive. Having a mildly offensive party is a sublimated riot. That’s better than a riot.
3. Death is the final vengeance
Death had done what the electorate never did: defeat Margaret Thatcher. Last night’s celebrations were originally intended for the night of the 1992 election. But the Conservative party stole the chance for the voters who despised her to depose of Thatcher themselves. These hopes have now been realised. Death was the agent required.
This leads to…
4. They celebrate death, because they fear it
Here were arrive at the deepest source of all. The celebrants yearned to defeat Thatcher, but in the end only death could do that. And so in the end it will defeat us all. Behind the flickering eyes and manic grins lies the darkest truth of all: this isn’t about politics. It isn’t about Margaret Thatcher’s death. It’s about our own deaths, which we so much fear. The parties were an offering to death itself. An unknowing, inarticulate recognition of our inexorable doom.
By Mike Pollitt Tuesday, 9 April 2013 4:59 PM
There are two types of people in this city. Those who own houses, and those who are screwed.
By Mike Pollitt Wednesday, 3 April 2013 12:06 PM
1. Watch the battle royale between KittenCamp and BuzzFeed [Le Cool]
2. Listen to Colm Tóibín on opera [Run Riot]
3. Ask why nobody seems to eat in books [Ian Visits]
4. See John Constable’s The Hay Wain [Tired of London]
5. Hear Marques Toliver at St Pancras Old Church [London in Stereo]
6. Listen to A$AP Rocky at Brixton Academy [Spoonfed]
Water cannon could be on London streets within 18 months
Lies the London Underground tells you
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