Itâs a dispute that will never truly be settled. North versus south, east versus west â Londoners are steadfast in their opinion of what part of the city is the best to live in. Weâll unashamedly spend hours over a pint fighting about where has the best pubs, the coolest vibes, the nicest green spaces and the best value for money. Now, the Sunday Times has weighed in on the debate. In its list of the 72 best places to live across the UK for 2024, the newspaper included seven London neighbourhoods and chose an overall winner for the region. And the victor for 2024 was... Clerkenwell, home to the likes of Exmouth Market and Sadlerâs Wells theatre. The Times said of the area: âFrom a rich past of riot and ribaldry to its present status at the heart of the capitalâs culinary and creative scenes, Clerkenwell embodies all thatâs best about life in London.â To make sure that they really were picking the best of the best, judges travelled to each and every location on this year's round-up and spoke to locals themselves. Areas were ranked based on stuff like schools, transport, access to nature, the health of their high street and their community feel. Tim Palmer, one of the judges, said: âDifferent people may be looking for different things, but what all our best places have in common is that people love living in them and are proud to call them home.â Clerkenwell took the title from last yearâs winner Crouch End, which still managed to claim a spot this year for cramming âan asto
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Itâs the biggest weekend of the year. Thanks to the bumper Easter Bank Holiday we have four whole days off. If you want to make all this extra free time count, youâve come to the right place. Embrace the season by filling those free hours with Easter activities of every persuasion be it a boozy egg hunt at natural wine joint Top CuvĂ©e, family-friendly spring fairs like the Horniman Museumâs annual knees-up or big religious spectacles like the big open-air reenactment of  'The Passion of Jesus', which takes place every year on Good Friday in Trafalgar Square. Or, spend your free time checking out Londonâs best new art exhibitions, including five-star show Nick Waplingtonâs âLiving Roomâ which brings together familair images as well as unseen work from his book documenting the community of the Broxtowe house estate in Nottingham in the â90s. Or take a look at Jeff Koonsâ show of works on canvas from 2001 to 2013, which according to Time Outâs art critic is âDionysican, stupid, real and goodâ. Still got gaps in your diary? Embrace the warmer days with a look at the best places to see spring flowers in London, or have a cosy time in one of Londonâs best pubs. If youâve still got some space in your week, check out Londonâs best bars and restaurants, or take in one of these lesser-known London attractions. RECOMMENDED: Listen and, most importantly, subscribe to Time Outâs brand new, weekly podcast âLove Thy Neighbourhoodâ and hear famous Londoners show our editor Joe Mackertich
Four days after a brand new Banksy appeared on Christie Court on Hornsey Road in Finsbury Park, the immediately world-famous mural was defaced with white paint. Now locals have discovered the painting, which uses bright green paint splatters to depict the leaves of a tree, has been hidden behind plastic and wooden boards. Here is everything we know so far about this new Banksy so far. Where is the new Banksy in London? Itâs been painted on the side of Christie Court, a building on Hornsey Road in Finsbury Park, north London. The mural consists of streaks of green paint to create âleavesâ behind a bare tree which is next to the building, with a figure standing in the bottom corner, whoâs holding a pressure hose. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Banksy (@banksy) What does the mural represent? According to James Peak, creator of BBC Radio 4 series The Banksy Story: âThe message is clear. Natureâs struggling and it is up to us to help it grow back.â Given itâs now spring, the tree should be sprouting leaves, and Peak thinks the artist might have cycled past and noticed how miserable it looks. The colour of the paint actually matches the green used for the Islington Council signs in the area, which Peak thinks is another tell-tale sign this is a Banksy, due to the attention to detail. Whatâs been said about the tree mural so far? Flora Williamson, the Islington Councillor for the area, tweeted âBy far the most exciting thi
Click for the full-sized map He may be the worldâs most famous street artist, but that doesn't mean murals by Banksy stick around for that long. Heâs done plenty of spraying around London over the years (including this new one), only for most of it to be painted over and lost forever. But, dotted here and there throughout the city, there are those that have survived â some in better shape than others. Hereâs a list of what you should look out for on your urban art perambulations. Good condition Banksy Tree, Hornsey Road, N4 All the leaves are brown, and the sky is grey, that's England for ya. But not on Hornsey Road in Finsbury Park, where the Bankster has sprayed green paint behind a tree to make it look perpetually in Spring. Photograph: Alamy Rat, Tooley Street, SE1 Just where Tooley Street meets the underpass beneath London Bridge is this little rat â one of many that Banksy has left around London over the years. Theyâre kind of like his minions, wreaking havoc across the city.  Bansky đ !! I kept rubbing it and people were staring at me not knowing why the hell i was stoked about a rat in a tunnel under the London bridge. #banksy #banskylondon #londongraffiti #banksyrat #londonstreetart #streetart #londonbridge # A post shared by GunMetalFlowerPetal (@blairefcknaimee) on Dec 27, 2016 at 8:06am PST  âYou Loseâ rat, Steelyard Passage, EC4 At the eastern end of this passage running beneath Cannon Street Rail is this guy, holding a sign saying âYou Loseâ. Whoâs
Does anyone even remember what life was like in London before the train strikes? Union members have been walking out since all the way back in the summer of 2022, making it well over 18 months since the UK was blissfully rail-strike-free. And industrial action isnât going away anytime soon â more strikes have just been announced throughout April and May. Following a turbulent month in February (which saw ASLEF strikes across the country and RMT action called off at the last minute), now more tube and train strikes from ASLEF, which represents 96 percent of train drivers in Britain, have been confirmed. Train strikes will take place on three dates in April, while there will be two days of action on the tube in April and May. In slightly brighter news, weâre currently seeing respite from RMT workers striking on non-TfL services, as before Christmas the unionâs members voted to pause strikes for now. Hereâs everything you need to know about planned industrial action on Londonâs train network. RECOMMENDED:All you need to know about the train strikes across the UK. When are the next London train strikes? ASLEF drivers at 16 rail companies are going to walk out over three days, plus there will be a six-day overtime ban. These train strikes will be on April 5, 6 and 8. Tram strikes are also heading for London at the end of March. You can read all about that here. Which London train lines will be affected? Different train lines will strike on different days. Here is the breakdo
March 2024: Our Top 50 Restaurants in London is an ever-evolving thing â as is our list of the Best New Restaurants in London, to which the incredible Morchella in Exmouth Market has just been added. As the first whispers of spring (aka ÂŁ1 daffs in your local supermarket) make themselves heard across the city, we'd like to alert you to the most spring-like spots in the all-time Top 50, including the outdoor tables at St John Marylebone, the indoor window seats at Cafe Deco, and a sun-lit brunch upstairs at Akub. Failing all that, a big bowl of laksa at Sambal Shiok on Holloway Road should warm you up if the weather doesn't play ball. From much-loved local favourites through to city classics and exemplary new openings, we have eaten our way through the very best that London has to offer and after much debate and degustation have compiled this definitive list of the capitalâs current greatest spots. All of edible life is here; fine-dining in Fitzrovia, Kurdish cuisine in Camberwell, and the cream of Soho. We also have for your delectation a brand new Number 1 in Hackneyâs sublime Cafe Cecilia, as well as new entries from Thai game-changer Chetâs, the west African tasting menu at Akoko and Indian-Irish fusion joint Shankeys. Everywhere on our list serves up incredible food you wonât forget. This is your guide to eating out in the capital. Don't forget to sign up to our free newsletter for unbeatable London restaurant news and tips. Tuck in. Leonie Cooper is Time Out Londonâs
The story goes that modernism ripped everything up and started again; and nowhere did more of that mid-century aesthetic shredding than Brazil. Helio Oiticica, Lygia Pape, Lygia Clark, Ivan Serpa et al forged a brand new path towards minimalism, shrugging off the weight of figuration and gesturalism in favour of geometry, colour and simplicity. But Raven Rowâs incredible new show is challenging that oversimplified narrative, showing how figuration, traditional aesthetics and ritual symbolism were an integral part of experimental Brazilian art from 1950-1980. Itâs a nice idea, but the modernist paintings on display here are still the real draw. A deep black Lygia Clark circle, shattered squares by Judith Lauand, juddering reliefs by Lygia Pape, stacks of triangles by Ivan Serpa, tumbling blocks by Helio Oiticica; itâs so joyous, so wild despite its geometric rigidity, so full of the ecstasy of breaking with the past. Mixed in among all that is a whole heap of flat perspective, faux-naive figuration. Heitor dos Prazeres paints women in striped dresses dancing in the street, Silvia de Leon Chalreo depicts workers toiling in a field, Madalena Santos Reinbolt weaves scenes of countryside festivities. This is all as joyous as the abstraction, but more rooted in the traditions and truth of life in rural Brazil. Full of the ecstasy of breaking with the past. So your job as you walk through the show is to try to follow the tangled threads that connect the ultra-simplistic rural figu
March 2024: We made it, London! March is here at last, the official start of spring is just days away. Pretty soon weâll be spending our weekends frollicking like baby lambs in parks filled with colourful spring blooms, day drinking at a rooftop bar or getting mild heat stroke at a day festival. But donât go wishing the time away, because thereâs plenty of fun stuff going on before then. March is also great month for culture, particularly for film fanatics; no sooner has Oscar season ended then several major film festivals arrive in London, including BFI Flare, Kinoteka, the Human Rights Watch Film Festival and Cinema Made in Italy. Avid readers have plenty to look forward to as well, as the London Book Fair, Deptford Literature Festival, the Alternative Book Fair and the inaugural North London Book Fest all arrive in town. Theatre-wise there are loads of big openings in March, including âNyeâ, the Nationalâs new play about NHS founder Aneurin Bevan starring Michael Sheen, the return of âFor Black Boys...â on the West End and the transfer of Broadway smash âMJ The Musicalâ. And exhibitions openings this month include âEnzo Mariâ at the Design Museum and Soufiane Ababri at the Barbican Gallery, while the Other Art Fair and the Affordable Art Fair are both back in town too. And thatâs before you even mention the wealth of things to do around the city for Motherâs Day, St Patrickâs Day and the Easter bank holiday weekend. The fun quite simply never stops! No matter what your v
I was blown away by the emotional power of this show, about three generations of incomers in Sheffieldâs iconic â and infamous â brutalist housing estate, Park Hill. Itâs a stunning achievement, which takes the popular but very different elements of retro pop music, agitprop and soap opera, melts them in the crucible of 50 years of social trauma and forges something potent, gorgeous and unlike any big-ticket musical Iâve seen before. âStanding at the Skyâs Edgeâ has deeply local foundations. It's based on local songwriter Richard Hawley's music. And it was made in Sheffield, at the Crucible Theatre, with meticulous care and attention from that theatreâs creative team. Itâs been rightly garlanded with praise and awards already. But its West End transfer makes it clear that this singular show can speak beyond its own backyard. It is part kitchen sink musical, and part state-of-the-nation soap. It documents poverty, migration, hard graft, the painful decline of industry and working-class male pride, the double-edged hope offered by regeneration, the fragile joys of love in âfound familiesâ â not exactly âjazz handsâ themes, but vividly relatable and, more importantly, shared by communities. They deserve to be sung just as loudly as the more familiar stories of triumphant individuals expressing themselves, which tend to leave all this stuff behind. What makes this an instant classic is the Crucible's outstanding production, a true ensemble achievement. It is the right way to a
What is working-class England if not grey, sullen, broken, monochrome, damp and sad? Thatâs the classic vision of this crumbling nation presented to us by photography, film and TV. But in the early 1990s, photographer Nick Waplington rocked the metaphorical boat by showing another side of England; one filled with colour, laughter, love and happiness. âLiving Roomâ documented the community of the Broxtowe house estate in Nottingham. The book was a sensation, and this amazing little exhibition brings together previously unseen photos from the same period. Itâs the same families, houses and streets, but seen anew. There are scenes of outdoor life: dad fixing the motor in the sun, oil staining the tarmac, his kid in blue sunnies hopping on her bike; a trip to the shops to pick up a pack of cigs; everyone out grabbing an ice cream in the sun or play fighting in the streets. Itâs ultra-basic, super-mundane, but itâs overflowing with life and joy. But itâs in the titular living room that the real drama plays out. This room is the stage, the set where the community acts out its relationships; a cramped, filthy, beautiful world unto itself. Babies are fed, toddlers are cuddles, fags are smoked, teas are split, clothes are ironed. Itâs ultra-basic, super-mundane, but itâs overflowing with life and joy. Everyone is laughing, playing, wrestling. Itâs also brimming with signifiers of late-1980s English working-class life; the clothing, the hair, the brands. Some of it shocks (the mum f