Thames estuary airport idea is the daftest pie in the sky
Rodney Chambers, leader of Medway council, doesn’t like the look of Lord Foster’s Isle of Grain airport plan. Mr Chambers thinks having hundreds of planes a day careering at low altitude past a series of highly combustible power plants might be a tad foolish. Boris’s response? “This idea is taking off, and rightly so.”
02 Nov 2011
Some cracking birds around here mate
Anyone who doesn’t find birds wonderful and amazing is an embittered fool who’s probably just jealous of them being able to fly. It’s the migration season, so there’s lots of movement going on. Here are some recent arrivals to our city, please make them welcome.
02 Nov 2011
Is there anything in the rumour about the Whitechapel dead body train?
“The documentary “Ghosts of the London Underground” mentions a train that once rumbled through a tunnel connecting Whitechapel Tube station to the Royal London Hospital – a train with no passengers, or no live passengers at least. It was known as the Dead Body Train, an ominous title that leaves little to the imagination”
When I heard this rumour, discussed in a nice post at Urban Ghosts, it was claimed that the train was still running! But it looks like that was just a brilliant lie.
02 Nov 2011
Diamond Geezer tracks Oxford Street Christmas lighting dates
According to the Diamond Geezer, Oxford Street Christmas lights have moved from 15 November (2005) to 1 November (Yesterday.)
02 Nov 2011
Covent Garden copyright-free bookshop in the NY Times
Mark Oddie, owner of Dover Bookshop on Earlham Street tells Hayward Cirker, owner of Dover Publications, that an entire bookshop of copyright-free images is a viable business. It has only taken 25 years to be proved wrong.
02 Nov 2011
London agenda for Wednesday 2 November 2011
1. Laugh while comics take things seriously at the Dialogue Festival [Le Cool]
2. Be shocked at Granta as it explores the meaning and metaphors of blood at its London launch [Run Riot]
3. View the first UK solo show of artist Brad Phillips at Suicide Note Writer’s Block [Don’t Panic]
4. Look at something that we’ve all been waiting for, the Great Railway Maps of the World [Ian Visits]
5. See the Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Willesden Lane [Tired of London]
London Agenda is Snipe’s daily compilation of what to do in London as suggested by everyone else. Send additions to listings@snipelondon.com
02 Nov 2011
After all there's only 54 sleeps til Christmas
Christmas lights go on tonight in Oxford St. Do you remember before Amazon how everyone used to fret about how many “shopping days” were left before the big day? Well, there’s about 53 online shopping days left. So relax. The real question is, when do Amazon put pixellated snow on their homepage? That’s when the festivities really begin.
01 Nov 2011
01 Nov 2011
The Marylebone Cafe
Marylebone is known for its selection of posh shops, carefully curated by the Howard de Walden and Portland Estates. Yet Marylebone Lane held a neighbourhood anomaly, the Marylebone Cafe, a straight-up greasy spoon that would be unremarkable almost anywhere in London but existed as a gutsy rebel in Michelin star land.
But now it’s over. The Marylebone Cafe quietly closed their doors last week and cleared out, without even a chance for a goodbye bubble and squeak.
It wasn’t merely Maryleboners jonesing for an undeconstructed full English and tea in a proper cafe mug that enjoyed the Marylebone Cafe, guests at the old Marylebone Jail (now a car park) sometimes enjoyed the cafe’s delivery service.
From Peter Negri at a good place for a cup of tea and a think
I remember seeing my auntie Brenda on the evening TV news in 1963, crossing Wigmore Street, with a tray of tea and biscuits. They were for Christine Keeler and John Profumo when they had just been arrested.
The Howard de Walden estate hasn’t returned Snipe’s call about the future of the location. But a clue maybe found in the March 2011 newsletter of the Marylebone Association:
Howard de Walden have plans to revitalise Marylebone Lane and to make this the natural walking route from the top of St Christopher Place up to Marylebone High Street.
Translation: more posh shops.
Cheers to Peter for the Keeler/Profumo info
Deadpool is Snipe’s obituary column for old London. Send candidates for inclusion to editor@snipelondon.com
01 Nov 2011
Heathrow's latest advert is really horrible
This looks like something Palmerston might have had on his desk in the middle of the 19th century.
01 Nov 2011
Snipe Highlights
Some popular articles from past years
- London has chosen its mayor, but why can’t it choose its own media?
- Nice Interactive timeline lets you follow Londoners' historic fight against racism
- Summer Camp: Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days
- The best church names in London, and where they come from
- Punk brewery just as sexist and homophobic as the industry they rail against
- Diary of the shy Londoner
- Peter Bayley has worked for 50 years as a cinema projectionist in East Finchley
- Silencing the Brick Lane curry touts could be fatal for the city's self-esteem
- An interview with Desiree Akhavan
- Could red kites be London's next big nature success story?
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