Here’s the news that’s got us talking here at LOTI HQ – in bite-size chunks
Heat From the Tube and Sewers Could Be Used to Warm the City
As we move to a future without fossil fuels, the government is looking at alternative ways to provide heating and hot water for buildings, one of which is heat networks (where heat is supplied to consumers from a central source). Plans are being worked up to implement the UK’s biggest heat network in Westminster by using excess low-carbon heat sourced from the Tube, the sewers and the Thames transferred by an underground pipe network to power hot water and central heating in buildings in the area, including the Houses of Parliament and the National Gallery. The scheme would save around 75,000 tonnes of CO2 each year.
Legare Is Celebrating its Fifth Anniversary
The London restaurant scene is a fickle thing so a five-year anniversary is a big milestone indeed. Bermondsey spot Legare is celebrating five years in business so now’s the perfect time get down there, especially when there’s dishes like Hereford beef carpaccio, tonnato dressing & caper berries; grilled violet artichokes & green romesco; gnocchi with sausage & saffron ragù; whole grilled red mullet, chickpeas & aïoli; and cannolo with pistachios waiting for you.
Sir Paul Smith Is Designing the Claridge’s Christmas Tree
The unveiling of the Claridge’s Christmas tree is always a big date in the city’s festive calendar and on the morning of Weds 20th November, the 2024 tree will be revealed. Sir Paul Smith is designing the tree this year, putting together a traditional 19ft Christmas tree decorated with 100 bespoke birdhouses featuring playing cards, postage stamps and dice.
The NTIA Has Warned That UK Clubs Could Vanish by 2029
The Night Time Industries Association (NTIA) has issued a stark warning about the nation’s nightlife: if clubs continue to close at the rate they have been since March 2020 (three clubs per week, 150 clubs per year), then our ‘Last Night Out’, when the UK’s clubs have vanished, could be 31st December 2029. The NTIA is calling on the government to combat the decline by providing financial support, granting cultural protection and reforming regulations, and you can help by signing the petition here.
Claridge’s Restaurant Is Celebrating its First Birthday With a New Menu
A first birthday is worthy of a big celebration and that’s exactly what Claridge’s Restaurant has done. To mark one year of being open, the restaurant has introduced a new menu and it’s packed with hits, like potted shrimp scone with horseradish, lobster spaghetti with roasted tomatoes, Claridge’s fish pie, tomahawk of Herefordshire beef with French fries, and béarnaise sauce, profiteroles with vanilla cream and hot chocolate sauce, and chocolate soufflé tart with cocoa nib ice cream.
The Night Tube Could Start Running on Thursdays
The Night Tube, through-the-night services on the Central, Jubilee, Northern, Piccadilly and Victoria lines, currently only operates on Fridays and Saturdays but proposals to extend the service to Thursdays are now ‘under review’ by Sadiq Khan. It comes following London Assembly member Emma Best’s argument at a recent Mayor’s Question Time that extending the Night Tube would help boost the city’s nighttime economy because, with the increase in working from home, “Thursday is the Friday. for many Londoners, and the push for a Night Tube on Thursdays will only increase”. Though the Mayor has stated that TfL doesn’t have the budget to implement the Thursday night service right now, he would like to see its expansion in the future.
Amy Lamé Is Stepping Down as London’s Night Czar
After eight years in the role of night czar, a position that Sadiq Khan created in 2016 following his mayoral election win, Amy Lamé is stepping down from the position at the end of October, saying that it was the right time to move on and that it had been “a real privilege to serve Londoners”. Lamé was tasked with making sure London flourished as a 24-hour city, championing nightlife and safeguarding venues but given the number of closures in London during her tenure and the size of her salary (it rose to £132,846 this year), she attracted a lot of criticism for her work. It’s unclear yet whether Lamé will be replaced with a new night czar.
Brixton Market Has Been Put Up for Sale
The current owners of Brixton Market, US investment firm TPG Angelo Gordon and Hondo Enterprises, who’ve had it on their books since 2018 are looking to sell, with reports stating that the market could fetch up to £80 million. The US owners courted controversy in 2020 when they submitted plans for a 20-storey tower block to be built next to the site but ended up withdrawing them following intense backlash from Brixton locals. It’ll be interesting to see who the new owners will be and what they envision for this iconic piece of Brixton.
You Can Help Keep The Common Press Open
The Common Press is a queer, intersectional bookshop, cafe and events space that celebrates art made by queer, BIPOC and marginalised folk – it has also recently become a CIC (Community Interest Company). That means they’ll need to raise community funds to continue functioning independently. Not only do they provide a much-needed space for LGBTQ+ Londoners – at a time when these are dwindling – but they support queer creatives and young people by running workshops and events, as well as providing a platform for their work. In order to keep things going, they are aiming to raise £100,000 which will go towards paying staff a fair wage, future projects, renovations and maintenance. You can donate here.
Rough Trade Is Launching a Shop on London’s Tin Pan Alley
Denmark Street, also known as London’s answer to New York City’s ‘Tin Pan Alley’, used to be London’s musical heart, having been home to music publishers, studios, live venues, clubs and guitar shops. Though many of those have closed over the years, it looks like the street is having a bit of a revival. Not only have new venues opened, like Outernet’s Lower Third, but music store Rough Trade is launching a new branch on the street this October – marking the first time Tin Pan Alley has housed a record shop. The two-floor space will carry a curated selection of vinyl across all genres, alongside books, clothing, merchandise and limited edition one-offs. Unlike other Rough Trade sites, the new Denmark Street outpost will sadly not host live music events, but they will have artist signings and are planning to partner with both HERE and The Lower Third for an events programme.
Face Casts of 726 Trans People Are Coming to the Fourth Plinth
Mexican artist Teresa Margolles is taking over the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square with her installation Mil Veces un Instante (A Thousand Times in an Instant). The piece, which will be in situ from 18th September, is made up of casts of the faces of 726 trans people in London and Mexico City, laid out like a tzompantli, a Mesoamerican rack used to display human skulls. The artwork is a protest against transmisogyny and transfemicide in Mexico – the country has the second-highest murder rate for trans and gender-diverse people in Latin America.
Nine New Banksy Artworks Have Appeared in London
We’ve now had nine new Banksy artworks in the space of a week (all confirmed by posts on his Instagram) after two new pieces appeared on the weekend of 10th & 11th August. The first, popping up on the side of a building in Kew Green, is a goat perched on top of a small ledge where some rocks have tumbled down, with a CCTV camera pointing towards it. The second, on the side of a house in Chelsea, is silhouettes of two elephants in windows reaching their trunks out toward each other. The third is three monkeys swinging along a bridge on Brick Lane. The fourth was a howling wolf on a satellite dish in Peckham, but two men in balaclavas stole it within an hour of it being revealed. The fifth was two pelicans eating fish above Bonners Fish Bar in Walthamstow. Then it was a stretching cat on an empty billboard in Cricklewood (which has since been taken down), and then a tank of piranhas on a City of London police box. The eighth, a rhino seeming to climb a broken-down Nissan Micra in Charlton, has already been defaced with graffiti and the car has been removed. The latest, on a London Zoo shutter, depicts a gorilla lifting it up to help seals and birds escape. Banksy has left no captions or comments about any of the animal-themed pieces, leaving people speculating about their meaning, but a spokesperson close the artist has told the Guardian that they’ve been done to cheer people up.
The British Museum’s Reading Room Has Re-Opened to the Public
The Reading Room at the British Museum, with its powder blue and gold domed ceiling, is one of the most magnificent spaces in London. Designed by Sydney Smirke who took inspiration from the Pantheon in Rome, it opened in 1857 and the likes of Karl Marx, Bram Stoker and Arthur Conan Doyle visited the room to work amongst its 25 miles of shelving. Previously operating on a ticket system, the Reading Room opened to the public in 2000 (following restoration and the transfer of books to another building) but then it closed again in 2013, only occasionally being used to host exhibitions. Following the introduction of ticketed tours by the British Museum chair George Osborne last year, the Reading Room is now open to all visitors, so you can have a look around this world-famous space on your own time.
The Museum of London’s New Logo Is a Pigeon Taking a Sh*t
The Museum of London is in the throes of a major rebrand: it has officially moved out of its iconic City site (which is potentially getting demolished) and is preparing to take over the historic Smithfield meat market. The new location won’t be ready until at least 2026, so, in the meantime, they’re making a few other changes. Firstly, the institution has announced a new name – the London Museum. Secondly, it has unveiled a new logo – a pigeon taking a sh*t.
The new ‘pigeon and splat’ design was created alongside Uncommon Creative Studio to both encapsulate London’s spirit and give the museum a distinct symbol, à la HMV’s Nipper. And though the inspo is sort of… gross, the logo itself is not (see the ‘splat’, which is rendered in glitter). Our two cents? It’s cute!
These Yellow Plaques Mark London’s Rave History
Taking inspo from the city’s blue plaques, which honour notable historical figures and the buildings connected to them, artist George Georgiou has designed and installed yellow plaques on the sites of legendary London parties, to celebrate the city’s acid house culture. You can see plaques honouring the likes of Shoom, Screamadelica, and Special Branch, and there’s also a virtual map of prominent rave locations here.
The Silvertown Tunnel Will Open in 2025
Six years after it was first announced, the Silvertown Tunnel has been given an opening date. The new tunnel is being built under the Thames, connecting Silvertown and Greenwich, with the intention of reducing the levels of traffic in the Blackwall Tunnel, as well as putting a dent in pollution. However, many have questioned whether the Silvertown Tunnel will in fact reduce pollution, as it is big enough to fit heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) – the Blackwall is not – and may see more of these high-emission lorries driving around the city. Still, the £2.2bn project is going ahead, and the tunnel is set to launch in 2025, as is a new toll at both the Silvertown and Blackwall Tunnels which could reportedly be priced at £3 to £5.
Lily Vanilli Is Providing Birthday Cakes for Those Who Otherwise Wouldn’t Get One
The East London-based baker behind the city’s most stunning cake designs, Lily Jones, is celebrating the 15th birthday of her bakery, Lily Vanilli, by giving back with the Birthday Project. This will be an ongoing initiative by which customers can donate any amount (from £1) which will go towards baking and delivering birthday cakes across all boroughs to young, disadvantaged Londoners allocated by the Mayor’s Fund. If you’re interested in supporting, you can do so here.
Print Club London is Raising Money for Choose Love
Choose Love is raising money to support the millions of people trapped in Gaza and the displaced communities in southern Israel, which Print Club London is supporting with the sale of limited-edition artworks. All profits from the Choose Love collection go directly to the charity so you’ll be supporting a great cause by buying one.