City of Tower Hamlets?
You’d think £72m of cuts would be the most pressing thing on Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman ‘s mind.
But he’s found a scheme which he can cheer the locals up with – bidding for city status.
Yesterday’s announcement sees the east London borough line up alongside Blackpool, Reading and Middlesbrough to be named a city for next year’s Queen’s diamond jubilee.
I don’t know about you, but isn’t there something odd about London boroughs wanting to become cities in their own right? Greenwich tried it once, claiming to be “to London what Versailles is to Paris”, while Croydon has tried it a number of times.
As everyone knows, there are two cities in London. The square mile, with its Lord Mayor’s Show, its own police force, and archaic elections; and Westminster, first awarded city status in 1541. Both sit right in the middle of London, and both areas hold huge importance to both the capital and the rest of the UK.
So why would Tower Hamlets want to join them? According to Rahman…
“We are unique in that we have a thriving business and shopping district in Canary Wharf, an innovative arts scene, a first-rate university on our doorstep in Queen Mary, and a vibrant community spirit, which has embraced different groups of people throughout our history.
“The royal wedding celebrations which I attended were testament to the genuine community spirit that exists in the borough and there is a real appetite to build on this pride and let everyone know what an amazing place Tower Hamlets is.”
Bow-based blogger Diamond Geezer isn’t impressed.
“Unique, huh? There are dozens of towns across Britain with good shops, buzzing galleries, a top university and lovely residents. The only thing that makes Tower Hamlets special is that our retail centre specialises in international banking deals, otherwise we might as well be Leicester.”
Tower Hamlets is, and always has been, a collection of communities rather than one unified “city” with a centre and suburbs.
Even the borough’s name alludes to this. In the 17th century, the “Tower Hamlets” were the parishes under the control of the Tower of London, stretching into Hackney and Shoreditch. When the old boroughs of Bethnal Green, Poplar and Stepney were merged in the 1960s, the name was dusted down and applied to the new council.
As Diamond Geezer says: “We’re Hamlets, Lutfur, not a City.”
The bid will be submitted by 27 May, and residents will find out by next year whether they have been elevated to the status of city slickers.
18 May 2011
Stream Planningtorock's New Album
After two gigs from Planningtorock in London this week, we are struck dumb with awe at her new body of work. Built on swathes of warm, embracing synth, processed string stabs, pounding drums and Janine Rostron’s feline, intense, pitch-shifted vocals, “W” is a landscape of immersive sound; lyrically, the record is an unrelentingly intense examination of what sound like some dark experiences and feelings. And onstage, dressed in intentionally shapeless clothes, and wearing a grotesque facial prosthetic, PTR is an entity that defies any notion of being a passive, objectified performer. This is powerful stuff. From the same creative family as The Knife, Chicks On Speed and Kevin Blechdom, this is PTR hitting her stride. And armed with this conceptually, thematically and musically complete collection and the muscle of her new label DFA, don’t be surprised to see her rise to the top of the class in 2011.
18 May 2011
London agenda for Wednesday 18 May
1. Combine vaudevillian smut, hot jazz and a masterful use of milliner at Gentlemen in Squalor EP Launch [Le Cool]
2. Test our queer-feminist music/literature/movies knowledge [Run Riot]
3. Um. Table tennis. Disco. Djs. Something. [Flavorpill]
4. We’re not going to this. We just want to point out that Time Out’s recommendation for today is the new Pirates of the Caribbean film. Really.? And they want two quid for that? [Time Out]
5. Hear how the ‘Little Matchgirls’ threatened violence upon Jack the Ripper [Ian Visits]
6. Visit Cherry Tree Wood [Tired of London]
7. Go see what Tracey Emin coughed up today [Lauren Down]
8. Have a poetic rush of blood to the head at Jawdance [Jon Davis]
18 May 2011
Serengeti - Ha-Ha
A ‘painfully normal fantasy about finding love at a Midwest hardware store’ according to Yours Truly, Ha Ha is taken from Chicago MC Serengeti‘s debut album Family & Friends, released July 19th on Anticon. Produced by Yoni Wolf of Why? and Owen Ashworth of Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, the track also features guest vocals from Hazel and Martha Brown of Australian lo-fi trio Otouto.
17 May 2011
London agenda for Tuesday 17 May
1. Fall in love with psychopaths all over again at the Javier Bardem double bill [Le Cool]
2. Listen out for echoes of Stravinsky, Berio and Reich, combined with driving syncopations and sparse beats using electric guitars, turntables, oil drums, soda bottles and a set of loudspeakers by Gabriel Prokofiev [Run Riot]
3. Take a walk into the darkness. Of paintings. With Gaynor Perry [Flavorpill]
4. Say ‘I could do that’ with arms crossed while watching the parkour escapades of 3Run [Time Out]
5. Hear some discussion on ancient medicines [Ian Visits]
6. Attend an Open Evening at the Honorable Artillery Company [Tired of London]
17 May 2011
Memory Tapes - Wait In The Dark
This gorgeous, quirky little pop nugget is taken from Memory Tapes’ new album Player Piano, out July 5th via Something In Construction. Catch him at XOYO the following night, July 6th, for what should be a triumphant, post-album release love-in, the second date of a short European tour.
16 May 2011
The week in Books: Salacious stories to Mohsin Hamid
Velvet Tongue) 7pm Monday 16th
This erotic literary saloon boasts guest readers and an open mic slot. Bring along your sexy words or salacious monologues.
Bar Kick, 127 Shoreditch High St, E1 6JE. £3
Jawdance 7.30pm Wednesday 18th
This spoken word night hosts stories, poems and poetic short films. If you have a sudden poetic rush of blood to the head there’s always the open mic slot at the end of the night.
Rich Mix, 35-47 Bethnal Green Road, E1 6LA. Free
Book Slam 7.30pm Thursday 19th
One of the big guns on the spoken word scene plays host to Mohsin Hamid, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, poet Shane Solanki and the talented 16 year-old singer-songwriter Misty Miller.
The Grand, 21-25 St John’s Hill, Clapham Junction, SW11 1TT. £8
16 May 2011
London agenda for Monday 16 May
1. Go see Mona at Rough Trade [Le Cool]
2. Talk with Goldie about starting a creative revolution [Run Riot]
3. Viewa series of paintings capturing the likes of Kings of Leon, Adam Green, Exitmusic, Broken Social Scene and many others by Todd DiCiurcio [Flavorpill]
4. Open one’s mind to new dimensions with Robin Ince, Professor Brian Cox, Dr Ben Goldacre and Simon Singh [Time Out]
5. Learn about Jews in Moldavia [Ian Visits]
6. Do some research at the London Metropolitan Archives [Tired of London]
7. See the shamanic presence, using costume, dance, and operatic, pulsing takes on electronic music to whip up a sensuous audio-visual storm with Planningtorock [John Rogers]
16 May 2011
Toby Young's free lunch
On Friday, the journalist Toby Young urged everybody ‘who cares about Britain’s future to attend the Rally Against Debt’, a political rally organised in support of the government’s deficit-cutting policies and urging them to go further.
On Saturday, around 350 people turned up. Their brave cheerleader Toby Young was not among them however, because he had instead chosen to attend the launch of the new Pirates exhibition at Museum of London Docklands in West India Quay.
Young pronounced this to be ‘toptastic’, presumably either blissfully unaware or entirely unconcerned that some of those who had helped organise it were about to made redundant under those very government cuts that he did not believe went anywhere near far enough.
Hypocrite, shameless or just an idiot? It’s very hard to tell sometimes.
Still, at least he got a free lunch out of it.
16 May 2011
Nat Baldwin - Weights
A gloriously melodramatic track from Nat Baldwin’s new album People Changes, released May 24th on Western Vinyl. Borne out of isolation – the Dirty Projectors bassist wrote most of the record in his New England cabin, surrounded by dense forest – Weights unfolds with a creeping sense of inertia and claustrophobia, with loose clarinet and cello adding to the feeling that there may be an unnamed wickedness at its heart.
15 May 2011
Snipe Highlights
Some popular articles from past years
- Only 16 commuters touch in to Emirates Air Line, figures reveal
- Nice map of London's fruit trees shows you where to pick free food
- The five spookiest abandoned London hospitals
- Number of people using Thames cable car plunges
- Hope and despair in Woolwich town centre
- Silencing the Brick Lane curry touts could be fatal for the city's self-esteem
- Punk brewery just as sexist and homophobic as the industry they rail against
- Could red kites be London's next big nature success story?
- Margaret Thatcher statue rejected by public
- The best church names in London, and where they come from
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