Recently in london Category

Long time readers (and followers of my Flickr stream) might remember that a couple of years ago I developed an obsession with taking photos of the City of London Livery Halls. The obsession waned when I stop working in the City but over the last couple of weeks I've been wandering around the city a bit and have noticed some maps pointing to halls that aren't in my collection yet. So at some point soon I'll start trying to get photos of those (I think I'm missing half dozen or so).

But then I started thinking about maybe organising a walk round the City one weekend to see as many of the halls as possible. And, of course, in order to do that you need a map showing where they all are. And the easiest way to plot random points on a map is to use the "My Maps" feature in Google Maps.

So, after a couple of hours work - here is a map showing the London Livery Halls. Actually, currently it only shows the ones I've photographed. I'll add the missing ones soon. I'll also add more information to each pin - the address, a link to their web site and perhaps a photo. But I think it's interesting and useful as it stands, so I thought it was working mentioning it even though it's still a work in progress.

It's only the second victim, but already I'm running late.

On September 8th, 1888, at about 5:50am, the body of Annie Chapman was found in Hanbury St, Spitalfields, London. This was just over a week after the murder of Polly Nichols. The next murder in the series wasn't for another three weeks.

The British press is, of course, busy getting all overexcited about one particular death that happened on this date. But there's another, to my mind far more interesting, death anniversary today.

It was 119 years today that the body of Mary Ann Nichols (usually know as Polly Nichols) was found in Buck's Row, London. Nichols is generally accepted as the first victim of Jack the Ripper. The deaths of the other four victims followed over the next ten weeks. I'll note the anniversaries as they arrive.

Years ago I was planning to organise a walking tour of all of the sites associated with the Ripper murders. Currently I'm working within walking distance of most of them. I've really got no excuse for not getting on with that.

Maybe I'll have something ready in time for the 120th anniversary next year.

The Balham Kitchen and Bar has closed down. It has been sold to Sam Harrison (who owns a place called Sam’s Brasserie & Bar in Chiswick). It will reopen in September under the new name Harrison's.

The BKB won't be missed. I've only been there a couple of times in the four years that it's been open, but that's because every time I've gone the food has been average and the staff have been very unhelpful. Not what you expect from what is probably the most expensive restaurant in Balham.

I've said it before and I'll no doubt say it again, but if you want a top-notch restaurant in Balham then you should really try Lamberts.

We'll be trying Harrison's when it opens though. I'll let you know how it goes.

I monitor an RSS feed of all photos uploaded to Flickr with the tag "balham". Which is how I came across this set of photos of a flash flood in Balham today.

I'm trying to work out how close to my house this was. And vaguely dreading what I'll find when I get home this evening.

I've just worked out where I am. By which I mean I've just had one of those moments when I join up two previously unrelated parts of my mental map of London.

I'm working in Appold St, which is just to the north of Broadgate. I get here in the morning by taking the tube to Moorgate and walking from there. For the past week, when I've been going out at lunchtime I've been going back south to Broadgate and Liverpool St. Today I decided I'd go the other way - and head north.

Just north of my office, Appold St becomes Curtain Road. And that's when I realised where I was - I'm in Shoreditch. Or Hoxton if you want to be trendy (and play a bit fast and loose with geography).

When I first moved to London, I lived in university halls of residence at the western end of Old St. Here I'm near the eastern end. The whole area was all a bit dodgy in those days (the early 80s). I remember friends of mine who were in bands using cheap nasty rehearsal studios on Gt Eastern St, but all in all it was an area best avoided unless you wanted to visit a pub where ladies danced around whilst taking their clothes off.

I moved away from the area in my second year at university and then didn't have much need to visit it until I started working for a bank in Broadgate about ten years ago. By that time the first web boom was getting underway and the area was becoming known as a popular place for web start-up companies to have their cheap shared offices. This influx of money brought with it lots of bars and restaurants and I remember spending a few evenings in bars with strange names like Cantaloupe. When we started london.pm in 1998 a lot of members were working for the start-ups that congregated in the area so I got quite used to socialising around here.

I suppose the area must have gone out of fashion when the web bubble burst. Or maybe it get going on the money of the bankers who were working just to the south. I don't think I've been in this area for five years or so. But the arrival of Web Bubble 2.0 has meant that a lot of the new start-ups are again heading for this area. My short walk at lunchtime showed me that there are still many of the same bars and restaurants going.

It was an interesting walk. I remembered many of the names of the roads I was walking along, but I never really got the hang of local geography so it was still a bit of an adventure. Still plenty more exploring to do though, so I don't think I'll get bored over the next ffew months.

Anyone else in the area? Fancy meeting for lunch?

The new London 2012 Olympics logo looks like a car-crash. Which is, I suppose, somewhat appropriate. I can only assume that this was done deliberately to make the 2012 Olympics a laughing stock.

Hopefully someone from the IOC will see the logo, realise that we're not taking this at all seriously and let some other city host the games instead of London.

Update: The BBC have published some alternative logos that have been sent in by readers. Can I just say that Sean Stayte (logo number 5) is a very naughty man. And that the editor who published that picture is either very naive or else has a keen grasp of internet memes.

Update: The dubious logo has been removed from that page. But the direct link still works.

Over the last year, Balham has gone into a frenzy of restaurant opening. I thought that some of you might be interested in hearing my opinions of some of these restaurants.

Hop & Spice
New Sri Lankan restaurant on Bedford Hill. We accidently went there on their opening night. In fact I think we were their first paying customers. On that night the food was pretty good although the staff were a bit over-attentive (due to first night nerves). We went back a few weeks later and the food wasn't anywhere near as nice. It'll be a while before we go back again.

Sadya
This isn't that new, but it's currently the restaurant that we normally pop into when we want a quick meal and can't be bothered to cook. It's southern Indian food and we love it. We eat there most weeks. Try their roasted cashew nuts and treat yourself to a passion fruit lassi.

The Indian Room
The only downside of this place is that it has taken over the premises of our favourite pizza delivery restaurant and we haven't yet found a decent replacement. It's a worthwhile sacrifice though as the Indian Room is a fabulous little Indian. It's only been open a couple of months but we're going there almost as often as we go to Sadya. They do home deliveries too.

LY Bar
We tried this for the first time last night. It was a slightly weird experience to be honest. The food was great - well cooked and very well presented. It was a little more expensive than most other restaurants in Balham but well worth it. However the experience was rather spoilt by the staff and the decor. There were a lot of staff, but they weren't very well trained and they seemed to spend most of their time standing around trying to avoid work. I'm sure they'll get better with practice. But the decor needs some serious work. The walls are all black and the lighting is rather dim. Together will the music, which was slightly too loud, it was all a bit like having a nice meal in the middle of a nightclub. Oh, and they don't have a licence yet, so you have to bring your own drinks.

Paddyfield
The Paddyfield certainly isn't new, but for some reason we didn't discover it until a few months ago. It's a great cheap Thai restaurant tucked away at the unfashionable end of Bedford Hill. In fact, thinking about it, forget that I mentioned it. It's far too small and always busy. It doesn't need any more customers taking up tables when I'm trying to get in.

This'll annoy the people who don't live in London.

Giles Coren articulates something that has been nagging at me for years.

My old mate and former Times colleague, Guy Walters [...] has a theory: "For every ten miles you drive away from London", says Guy, "you travel back one year in time." He's talking about fashion, mostly. About shops and clothes and cars and food and conversation topics. And if you look around, you will find that it's absolutely true. In Oxford, for example, 60 miles from London, they're all showing designer knicker elastic above the waistband of low-crotched jeans, gelling their hair into fins, eating overrated Japanese fusion and thinking that the biggest threat to world security is the Millennium bug.

In Portsmouth, 80 miles from London, the kids are just getting into vintage trainers, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" is a book for children, grown-ups still can't believe Diana is gone, and foodies dream of a trip to Aubergine, where Gordon something or other is said to be a frightfully good cook who, if you're very, very lucky, might come out of the kitchen and swear at you.

Some advice for passengers on London Underground.

When the tube breaks down and the announcements are telling you to use alternative routes, in the vast majority of cases you are better off staying where you are and waiting for the problem to be fixed.

It seems to be standard operating procedure in these cases that tube staff try to get as many people off the tube as possible. And they'll keep giving that advice right up to the moment before the tube moves on.

Here's an example. Last night I got to Moorgate at about 17:15. There was a tube in the station. A few people were getting off. I got on. As I got on there was an announcement that there was no service on the line due to a person being taken ill a couple of stops down. More people got off. I got a seat (another good side effect of these situations). We sat there for about five minutes with announcements every thirty seconds that strongly implied that the tube wasn't going anywhere for some time and that we'd be better off walking home. A few more people got off, but most of us (the ones who knew how this usually works) stayed put.

And then suddenly one of these announcements was followed by a different voice announcing that the train was about to leave. And off we went.

Had I followed their advice, I would have added thirty minutes to my journey home. By ignoring them I ended up getting home five minutes later than expected.

Ignore the advice. Stay on the tube.