Latest Time Out worldwide features

Shattered windows, graffiti-splashed walls, overgrown rooms: there’s something truly unsettling about buildings and landmarks that have been abandoned to the whims of nature and human vandalism. For urban explorers and fans of obscure history alike, there’s immense joy to be had in tracking them down and learning all about their past. From New York to Hong Kong via Croatia’s Adriatic Coast, here are 11 of our favourite abandoned buildings around the world – plus the unusual stories behind them. Perhaps they were deserted because of natural disaster, or war, or political change. Perhaps it was something as banal as legal trouble or financial mismanagement. Either way, these structures around the world that, for whatever reason, someone at one point decided were no longer needed. Some such buildings have bleak backstories to match their chilling image. But in actual fact, it’s often more prosaic buildings such as churches, hospitals and schools that assume the spookiest atmosphere when all the humans up sticks and nature begins to take over. No doubt it’s because they were once so brilliantly full of life. 

Thankfully for weary, housebound globetrotters, countries around the world are now in the ‘de-escalation’ phase of lockdown. That means shops and restaurants are reopening, internal travel is getting up and running again, and politicians are reopening borders – and in doing so, rebooting their struggling tourism industries. But when exactly will we be able to travel again? Well – for quite a lot of us – right now in fact. Governments across the world may still be advising their citizens to stay put, but many countries are still opening up in an effort draw visitors through to the end of the year. Nations across the Mediterranean were among the first to welcome tourists again in May and early June, while destinations across the Caribbean and Asia have also confirmed they will reopen borders, lift travel restrictions and allow commercial flights to resume at fuller service throughout October and November. In other words: we’re thrilled to say that sun-splashed getaway may well be on the cards in 2020. Want to know where you can travel and go on holiday right now? Here’s the lowdown on all the countries that have already reopened – and all those are that are planning to soon. Remember, many countries are still warning against all non-essential travel and some are quarantining all overseas arrivals, including their own returning citizens. Check all the relevant restrictions before you think about travelling.

When a country is cut off from the outside world for nearly 70 years, the architecture gets pretty weird, fast. Take North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang. The libraries look like palaces. The metro stations have chandeliers and marble columns. Landmark buildings, the grand plans of dictators past, sit empty. Chances are you’ll never be able to take in this eerily beautiful city yourself: like pretty much everything else in North Korea, tourism is tightly controlled by the communist government. But a new publication, the ‘Pyongyang Architecture Map’, can help out. In this whistlestop guide to the city’s most bewildering modern buildings, architecture critic and photographer Oliver Wainwright aims to show how the country’s increasingly isolationist trajectory – under three different leaders since the end of the Korean War – has shaped its architecture. From Kim Il-sung, you get socialist realism. From Kim Jong-il, expressive modernism. And current ruler Kim Jong-un? His stuff, writes the author, is straight out of a ‘socialist fairyland’. In this ‘highly theatrical, stage-like city’, you’ll find anything from a retro swimming pool complete with a glass elevator to a set of towering, hammer-and-sickle-clenching fists. Here are ten of the most striking landmarks and buildings featured in the publication. Photographs and descriptions by Oliver Wainwright, from ‘Pyongyang Architecture Map’, published by Blue Crow Media.

Radha Blank’s face is about to adorn a lot of Netflix accounts. Like, 193 million of them. ‘The term “double-edged sword” comes to mind,’ says the New York playwright-turned-filmmaker. ‘I’m wondering: When the world opens up again, am I going to be able to ride the train again? And I love taking the subway. I’m thinking: I wanted this and yet it feels crazy.’ On Friday at exactly midnight LA time, her debut film ‘The Forty-Year-Old Version’ will land on the streaming site globally and her mentions will probably catch fire. ‘It also means hearing from people whose opinion maybe I don’t value and who have very negative things to say about the film,’ she says. There shouldn’t be too many. The Harlem native’s comedy is super-sassy, sharply funny and very pointed – about race, gentrification, cultural gatekeepers, grief, and that weird sound your knees make when you hit 40. She wrote it, directs, produces and stars in a very nearly autobiographical role as a playwright who reinvents herself as a rapper called Radhamus Prime (sample track: ‘White Man with a Black Woman’s Butt’) as she deals with attempts to water down her latest play. On the set of ‘The Forty-Year-Old Version’ Blank is an overnight success story years in the making – except she isn’t. Not exactly. She has already had a taste of the limelight. She’s debuted well-received plays off-Broadway (well, mostly: ‘My first review in Time Out New York was a little lukewarm,’ she laughs) and more recently wrote for the telly s

Every year, we survey thousands of people around the globe to discover the world’s coolest neighbourhoods: the places that represent the spirit of the greatest cities on earth. These are the places to be for food and fun, art and culture, atmosphere and personality. Every year, there’s plenty of debate and lots of love. But in 2020, our neighbourhoods have taken on a whole new importance. Over the past months, billions of people have found themselves spending way more time close to home. Lockdowns and safety measures have hollowed out business and shopping districts but local neighbourhoods have thrived. Places that used to be dormitory districts are buzzing all day long. The shop on the corner and the local takeaway restaurant have become vital lifelines. Neighbours have stepped up to help each other through hard times and banded together to protest around Black Lives Matter. A strong sense of community and unique independent businesses have always made a neighbourhood great, but now they’ve become indispensable. So, in a year like no other, we’re doing things a little differently. As ever, our shortlist of the coolest neighbourhoods in the world is based on the opinions of locals: the 38,000-plus city-dwellers who answered our annual Time Out Index survey, telling us which bits of their city they loved. And once again, we’ve consulted our global network of Time Out editors and experts to weigh up the candidates and make the call on their city’s number one hotspot. But righ

Hi everyone, Back in March, Time Out changed its name to Time In. All over the world, people were suddenly asked to stay indoors to protect themselves and others. Now lockdowns are being relaxed in many countries – but it’s becoming clear that social distancing in some form will be with us for the long run, and that spells danger for the places that make city life worth living. Our editors have been seeking out the best of city life since 1968. We know that our cities are nothing without their restaurants, cafés, bars, pubs, theatres, music venues, nightclubs, cinemas, art galleries – and all the other local, independently run places where people come together to eat, drink, laugh, think, create, cut loose and fall in love. If we don’t take action right now, countless places like this will have to close their doors for ever. Many venues, already struggling to pay their bills, face a total collapse in footfall or a huge bill to adapt to social distancing. And millions of bartenders, waiters, cooks, artists, musicians, actors, filmmakers, designers and other creatives and makers have been left unable to earn a living. We’re determined to help. That’s why we’ve launched our Love Local campaign to support the small food, drink, arts and culture businesses that represent the soul of the city. We started by officially lending our voice to 16 crucial campaigns that are fighting to support local food, drink, culture and entertainment in cities worldwide, from New York’s Roar (Relief

We know what’s going on on the ground in our cities, but do we know what’s happening in the sky above us? From full moons that light up a dark night’s sky to meteor showers and lunar eclipses, celestial activity is something the world seems increasingly interested in right now. To help you spot spooting stars, see a ‘blue moon’ or tell your penumbral from your annular eclipses, we’ve pulled together a list of the upcoming astronomical events we’re excited about. In 2020, stargazing is the new going out. 

Lockdown hasn’t been all bad. Sure it’s a little scary and a lot claustrophic, but there have been some positives to come out of this current world situation, like Zoom quizzes, Instagram bake-a-longs, communal claps for our healthcare workers and heartwarming stories of communities coming together to support each other. Oh, and all the tales about animals taking advantage of the drop in human activity to have a jolly time. Here are a few of the animals thoroughly enjoying lockdown, from Llandudno’s goats to Yosemite’s bear population.

A group of teenage east Londoners are doing pirouettes together across the roof of Sulkin House, a block of flats in Bethnal Green. Their euphoria quickly mutates into improvised ballroom poses, then hip-swinging moves all across the rooftop. Every single one of them is completely unbridled, with energy levels that it’s tiring even to envy.  It’s the final day of shooting on Rocks, a unique movie collaboration overseen by director Sarah Gavron (Suffragette). For the next set-up, she’s soon shepherding her young cast from one side of the rooftop to the other to get the best shot. The girls are calling out each character’s name in turn, shrieking with laughter. Shouts of ‘Oh, whatever!’ and ‘live in the moment!’ echo out across the rooftops, drowning out passing sirens, the hum of traffic, even the rumble of the Overground through Bethnal Green. (From left to right) Ruby Stokes, Anastasia Dymitrow, Bukky Bakray, Kosar AliRocks tells the story of a teenage British-Nigerian girl (played by Hackney local Bukky Bakray, aged 15 at time of filming), who wakes up one morning to find that her mother has left her and her younger brother Emmanuel (D’angelou Osei Kissiedu) to live alone. She attempts to hide this fact from social services and her friends alike, and ends up carrying a burden beyond her years.  With the City’s financial district in the distance and the late summer sun beating down, Gavron’s talented young cast (Bakray, who plays Rocks, is joined by fellow east Londoners Kos

Considering that they’re basically functional buildings whose whole purpose is to get you from wherever you are now to somewhere else, it’s pretty impressive that train stations look so damn fine. In fact, the railway has inspired some of the most iconic civic design of the past two centuries: majestic monuments, palaces and cathedrals dedicated to the power of stream and the technologies that replaced it. Creating country and continent-straddling travel networks, they’re proof that there’s no reason for practical infrastructure to look hackneyed or everyday. Don’t believe us? Spanning a host of styles, eras and continents, here are 15 train stations from around the world that are so spectacular you won’t even mind if your train is delayed. And if you’re planning a railway adventure of your own, don’t miss our guides to the best train journeys in the USA, Asia and Europe. Can I get a ‘choo-choo’?