Pubs with roaring fires
With the first really cold day of the year chilling us all, there is nothing more satisfying than ducking into a quiet pub and sit by the fireplace with a copy of Punch or the Westminster Gazette while chucking with satisfaction the latest expansion of Empire.
The Westminster Gazette, Punch, and the Empire may be gone but the fireside satisfaction of our ancestors remains. Try out these five London pubs to warm your socks.
Bricklayer’s Arms
31 Gresse Street, Fitzrovia, W1T 1QS
The Pride of Spitalifields
3 Heneage Street, E1 5LJ
The Princess Victoria
217 Uxbridge Road, Shepherd’s Bush, W12 9DH
The Angel
61 St Giles High Street, WC2H 8LE
The Commercial
210-212, Railton Rd, Herne Hill, SE24 0JT
Hey Readers. Help take this list from a Top 5 to a Top 20. Please add your favourite pub with a good fireplace in the comments.
24 Nov 2010
London agenda for Wednesday 24 November
1. Viddie the fresh, new artists in London at Debut [Le Cool]
2. Be thrilled by special guests Johann Hari, Andrew Doyle and Suzanne Moore at Today Tonight [Run Riot]
3. Respect witch house with Salem [Rich Thane]
24 Nov 2010
Novels crying out for a lavish TV adaptation
Snipe was very taken with the first part of Channel 4’s Any Human Heart. It has all the hallmarks of a first rate TV miniseries: period detail, modern resonance, beautiful people in tragic parabolas across the decades…cracking stuff. So come on television, don’t stop now. Here are five more novels which deserve similarly sumptuous treatment.
The Untouchable by John Banville
The tale of the Cambridge spies has been oft-told on screen: The BBC did a version in the early noughties, and Kim Philby cropped up in the much underrated US show The Company. But such adaptations have tended to focus tightly on the years surrounding the spies’ unmasking. Banville’s book is the story of a whole life, and is much richer as a result. There’s also the added advantage that most of the characters are well spoken upper class types who like nothing better than quaffing champagne at 10 in the morning while flirting sardonically with their best friend’s wife. In other words, exactly the sort of drama we Brits are best at.
The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch
This book divides opinion. Snipe is a big Murdoch fan, but even leaving aside literary merit it’s got all the requirements for a great Sunday night in: rugged coastal scenery, character-defining flashbacks, slow-burning obsession unfolding over three beautifully shot episodes…we can see it all.
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
Yes, there’s all the Catholic stuff to wade through. But that could be brought off nicely with epic shots of sunlight through church windows and dark sleepless nights. This has things that TV loves – namely adultery, sex, war and raging jealousy. Also Greene is a bit unfashionable these days and he could do with a reinvention.
The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
This is set partly in a brooding gothic mental asylum and partly on the pre-war Irish coast. It’s a cinematographer’s wet dream. Make it.
A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh
More opportunity for sumptuous inter-war period detail. A stately home, a social climber, posh people shagging in opulent surroundings. Two parts Downton Abbey, one part Midsomer Murders. Who wouldn’t watch that?
23 Nov 2010
London agenda for Tuesday 23 November
1. Be completely weirded out by David Shrigley [Le Cool]
2. Explore every orifice with “Sex Secrets, Tools & Tips’ at Coco de Mer”:http://www.run-riot.com/think/sam-roddick-‘sex-secrets-tools-tips’-coco-de-mer [Run Riot]
3. Visit the South Bank German Market [Tired of London]
23 Nov 2010
Peter Broderick
Our friends over at The Line Of Best Fit posted this session with the supernaturally talented Peter Broderick recently. And we just had to share it with you.
22 Nov 2010
Salon Des Refusés
At Home with the Ants by Jill Kennedy
Sunday 21st November, Shortwave Cinema, SE1
Characterised as thus by their very existence, film festivals are generally presented as a celebration of those cinematic delicacies which are low-budget, verging on the side of the provocative and previously unseen. Salon Des Refusés takes this to another level, adopting those shorts which are disregard by the bigger festivals and giving them space to exhibit. Co-founder Chloë Roddick laments that ‘only five percent of films submitted to festivals actually make it to the final programme’. Creator Kirsty Dootson along with Roddick realised the need for a place for these rejected short films to be shown having both worked in the submissions departments for film festivals, and on Sunday night launched their innovation in cinema.
The programme for Sunday night was eclectic to say the least, showing eight shorts from the UK, US, New Zealand and Israel. ‘At Home with the Ants’, directed by Jill Kennedy, is billed as an ‘experimental animation’ and is nine minutes and forty-five seconds of pure enthralment. It takes the form of a snowstorm collage of creatures and their classifications tied together with a soundtrack which unexpectedly makes one think of The Clangers. It’s kind of like what would happen if the Natural History Museum became suddenly two-dimensional, and then was put in a blender. Slightly less abstract was an offering from director Rachel Tracy called ‘A Grumpy Old Man’. Sid lives alone in North London. He collects clocks, a surprising pursuit for one who time has been so unfair to. World-weary yet likeable, this film is a window into a very ordinary but nonetheless poignant existence. Other films took the audience from uber post-modern and tentative ventures into Russian futurist poetry, to the disturbing portrayal of a mother’s suffocating infatuation with her son.
The organisers state their aim as being to ‘destabilise the notion that there are ‘good’ shorts (which appear at festivals) and ‘bad shorts’ (which don’t)’. Certainly a worthy cause, Salon Des Refusés is a must for the film buff and film student alike. Short films are not readily available in the public domain, but remain an important part of cinema. A short can achieve in minutes what many filmmakers struggle to produce in their whole careers: succinct and valuable insights into the world around us. If anything, this mini-festival highlights the abundance of artistically diverse and genuinely exciting shorts to be enjoyed – whilst redefining the concept of short films without prejudice or limits.
Salon des Refusés will be holding another event in January, with submissions opening in the New Year. See www.salondesrefuses.org.uk for more information.
22 Nov 2010
Blackbird Blackbird
It takes a bit of internetting to find out anything about Blackbird Blackbird. He’s a solo artist called “Mikey” (Twitter), his surname is “Sanders” (last.fm) and comes from San Francisco (Myspace). He’s prolific, rapidly releasing free EPs such as Modern Disbelief via Bandcamp. He’s been covered in some of the more lofty blogs, meaning there’s a lot of internet love out there. He’s remixed bands like Concretes and Warpaint, meaning there are probably some labels sniffing around him by now too. Odds are, he won’t be self-releasing his gorgeous, dreamy, DIY pop songs for much longer. Stay tuned.
Blackbird Blackbird – Modern Disbelief by snipelondon
Warpaint – Undertow (Blackbird Blackbird Remix) by snipelondon
22 Nov 2010
Most warmingest winter drinks
Do you, as Gabriella Cilmi does, want to be warm this winter? Of course you do, warmth is one of the fundamental human needs. Here then are five of the most snugglingly, slanketingly drinks you can snuffle up with in the months ahead.
Glühwein
Glühwein, mulled wine, glögg. Whatever you want to call it, it’s a classic. It’s farcically easy, too. You just buy a really crap bottle of red, cook it for a bit with some fruit and spices, and you’ve got a hot water bottle for your throat. Magic.
Mulled cider
As above, but with smartprice own brand cheapo cider, the sort that if you drank cold would have you throwing up in the street and causing minor criminal damage. But warm it up in a cauldron for 10 minutes and it magically becomes a civilised tipple worthy of a middle class dinner party. Don’t ask Snipe how that works.
Whiskey Mac
At the time of writing, Whiskey Mac has 13 ‘likes’ on Facebook. It should have more, really. Ginger wine is the secret ingredient, which presumably is ginger beer but just a little bit more classy.
Hot milk with vanilla
Because non-alcoholic drinks can be warming too, and Snipe doesn’t want to give the impression that we don’t cater for the abstinent. This is absolutely, unequivocably delicious. If you work in an office which provides free milk for tea, then you could do a lot worse than steal a whole mugfull for this beauty.
Cardamom coffee
A very simple spiced coffee. Think of it like a Starbucks chai tea but without the sickly sweetness, eye-watering pricetag and admittedly sexy red christmas cup. The recipe above says “As you approach the bottom of the cup, you’ll notice a pleasant increase in flavor.” So it even teaches delayed gratification. What more could you ask for from a cup of caffeine and a couple of green pods?
22 Nov 2010
London agenda for Monday 22 November
1. Examine streety sculptures with Welcome to Paradise [Le Cool]
2. Question the cast and crew of the drama Zen [Run Riot]
3. Shop for hardware at David Penton & Son [Tired of London]
22 Nov 2010
Films opening today in London - 19 November 2010
Chico & Rita
Dream Home
Fathers of Girls
Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part One
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
19 Nov 2010
Snipe Highlights
Some popular articles from past years
- Nice map of London's fruit trees shows you where to pick free food
- Punk brewery just as sexist and homophobic as the industry they rail against
- The best church names in London, and where they come from
- Hope and despair in Woolwich town centre
- 9 poems about London: one for each of your moods
- The five best places in London to have an epiphany
- London has chosen its mayor, but why can’t it choose its own media?
- The five spookiest abandoned London hospitals
- Nice Interactive timeline lets you follow Londoners' historic fight against racism
- Margaret Thatcher statue rejected by public
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