First floor tour of Harringay's Art Nouveau Hotel Salisbury

The Hotel Salisbury on the Grand Parade in Harringay is a beautiful 1899 monstrosity. Above is a tour of the little-seen first floor. As for the ground floor, Snipe suggests you drop by for pint and look for yourself. The video was created by Harringay Online

Edited 2 Feb 2012: Corrected the spelling of Harringay and added credit.

Occupy LSX evicted from the Bank of Ideas

Occupy LSX had a very messy eviction from the Bank of Ideas last night. This video contains swearing – so probably NSFW – and everyone in it behaves like a total ass.

Chicken chases Boris Johnson at City Hall

Today’s video does what it says on the tin. It’s the work of Boris Johns-hen who says the Mayor ‘has chickened out of debating his opponents and defending his policies.’ This may make Johns-hen the only person out there who says the Mayor is a quiet wallflower.

Forget SOPA, it's ACTA that people in the UK need to worry about

Call it the Americanisation of fear. Last week the Internets went black, or tweeted themselves silly over two proposed laws in the US Congress that would empower the US Justice Department to remove websites from search engines and to force ISPs to create ‘black holes’ of unsites, all without a trial involved. As scary as that sounds – we don’t live in the US.

No, the last grasp of a dying business model for certain media industries that affects the UK is ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which is being worked on at the EU level. Watch this cute video to see how it works. Michael Geist is a good resources to keep up to date.

Stealing other cities' ideas: #1 the Portland toilet

London is one big sewer. Its public toilets are but sticking plasters against gushing torrents of public piss. They’re horrid, in a bad way.

The public toilets in Portland, Oregon, are horrid in a good way. They are deliberately designed to be unwelcoming, unbreakable, and unpleasant. As a result they are a roaring success. People go in, do their business, and get out.

The Atlantic Cities has a good report.

“The toilet’s durability can be chalked up to its defense-first design. “I think one thing we have ahead of other toilet designs is that we’ve learned people like to do nefarious things” to public lavatories, says [city official Anna] DiBenedetto. So the Portland Loo includes a variety of bells and whistles meant to keep in check the most degenerate of bathroom users”

They retail at $100,000 each. Or approximately one 900th of a Thames cable car.

Atlantic Cities – Why Portland’s Public Toilets Succeeded Where Others Failed

Here's what the kids are into now: coffee bars

Über-Londoner Peter Watts at The Great Wen has found an amazing collection of the old Rank Organisation film series, Look at Life, that takes the viewer into such underground scenes as highrise living, private members’ clubs, and, above, the coffee bar, circa 1959. Click here for the collection.

AM & Shawn Lee - Dark Into Light

Here’s another beautifully warm pop song from AM & Shawn Lee‘s highly accomplished collaborative album, “Celestial Electric”. Catch a rare live outing at Rough Trade East on Feb 6th.

Occupy Justice to hold a 'people's tribunal' on the Iraq War at the former Old Street Magistrates

What happens if you throw a war and you can’t get anyone in authority to prosecute? You hold your own hearings. Anti-war campaigner Chris Coverdale (above) explains what will be occurring at the four-person panel today. Click here for more information.

The one-room hotel on top of Queen Elizabeth Hall

Today’s Video LDN is the one-room hotel created by artist Fiona Banner, located on the roof of the Queen Elizabeth Hall.

Sleep Party People - A Dark God Heart

This haunting new video premiered today over at The Guardian. A spookily bemasked child searches an empty bath, set to Sleep Party People’s eerie, tinkling dream-pop, and finds something unexpected lurking in the water.