The Time Out London blog

Matilde Espírito Santo, aka mylondonfairytales, is a south-west London girl who's been ’grammin London for the best part of four years. Originally from Portugal, she moved here to do an MA and got into the Instagram game to combine two of her fave things: photos and the capital. Instagram royalty with oodles of followers, her stonkingly beautiful feed is chockablock with fabulous shots of pretty shop facades, flower shops, museums, regal-looking houses, doors, mews, vintage cars and of course, brunch. She shares her five top places to snap around the city.    A post shared by Matilde Espírito Santo (@mylondonfairytales) on Apr 22, 2017 at 1:18am PDT St Luke’s Mews ‘These Notting Hill mews are one of my favourite places to Instagram in London. Every time I go there, I can’t help myself and I have to take pictures of every single facade. Also, the cutest puppy lives in the pink house: look out for him!’ A post shared by Matilde Espírito Santo (@mylondonfairytales) on Oct 13, 2016 at 11:13am PDT Hillgate Place, Notting Hill ‘It’s amazing how beautiful, colourful, and peaceful Hillgate Place is, especially considering it’s just round the corner from noisy Notting Hill Gate underground station! The palettes are

The most highly anticipated LGBT+ event of the year is nearly upon us. The Pride in London Parade will once again wind its saucy way through the streets of our great city on Saturday July 8. It promises to be a day of love, celebration and fabulousness. To get you in the spirit, here are seven things you might not know about the parade. A post shared by Pride in London 🏳️‍🌈 (@londonlgbtpride) on Jul 3, 2016 at 8:22am PDT 1) The Pride in London Parade is twice the size of an Olympic opening ceremony Parade of Nations (the bit where all the competing athletes march in). A post shared by Pride in London 🏳️‍🌈 (@londonlgbtpride) on Jul 6, 2016 at 11:55pm PDT 2) This year’s parade will be the largest yet, with 320 groups taking part. This includes 26,500 people and 80 floats according to organisers. A post shared by Mildred the Sausage (@mildredthesausage) on Jun 12, 2017 at 3:51am PDT 3) Among the fabulous floats both past and present is Dogcilla, a humongous nodding dog created by the Dogs Trust.  A post shared by Jacinta Crane (@jacintacranephotography) on Jun 28, 2016 at 2:19pm PDT 4) It takes approximately 150 volunteers to ens

Set in 16 acres of gardens and boasting incredible panoramic views across the city, the Horniman Museum in Forest Hill is a one-of-a-kind London institution. Founded by a nineteenth-century tea trader to house his collection, today it features a wide range of exhibits and events appealing to all ages. Here are four reasons you should swing by this weekend:  It’s free! This unique south London attraction was opened in 1890 by Frederick John Horniman, a Victorian tea trader and all-round eccentric adventurer. Aiming to ‘bring the world to Forest Hill’, he went travelling and collected curiosities of natural history and art from Japan, China, Sri Lanka, Egypt and Burma, among other places. Originally in his private house, the collection and visitors soon overwhelmed him (and his long-suffering wife), and the current, purpose-built museum and gardens opened in 1901. Since day one, entry has been free. There’s an enormous (over-)stuffed walrus Arguably south London’s most famous resident, this imposing real-life specimen is over a hundred years old. It’s so fat because the bloke responsible for stuffing it didn’t know that walruses naturally have huge folds of skin, so just filled it up. It’s part of a historic collection of Victorian and Edwardian taxidermy housed in the spectacular art-nouveau setting of the Natural History Gallery. This fascinating and fearsome array of stuffed animals is not for the faint-hearted. A Bengal tiger has recently joined the crew of creatures th

Next month is the thirtieth anniversary of the Docklands Light Railway, a pioneer of urban light-metro travel, linking the regenerated Docklands area of London with the City. Here are some reasons why we love it. A post shared by Ed Elloway (@edelloway) on May 3, 2017 at 10:42am PDT  Seeing tourists clad in Beatles paraphernalia eagerly getting off at Abbey Road in West Ham never ceases to be funny Still, if you’ve made the pilgrimage, you might as well fake it on the nearest zebra crossing, since Abbey Road in St John’s Wood is ten miles away.  Getting a burst of (relatively) fresh air at every DLR station is a godsend Reportedly, if animals were to be transported on the tube, EU animal welfare laws would be breached. Some might challenge the validity of this comparison post-Brexit, yet the fact that 20 minutes spent on the Northern line has the equivalent effect of smoking a cigarette makes for sombre reading. Thank you, DLR.   The DLR network is less likely to be affected by strike action Hopefully, this will mean that your quickest route to work won’t have to involve a bus, bike, train then boat across the Thames. A post shared by Nicki Petitt (@nickipetitt) on Jun 21, 2016 at 4:17am PDT Forget about Ryanair, you can get to Cyprus for pocket change (sort of) Plus, you’ll have better leg room at this DLR station, won’t get penalised for extra baggag

What are this town's top toppings? Which pizza players whack the whackiest things onto their dough in the most brilliant ways? Take a bite out of these bad boys available by the slice or pie...  1. The Full Moon Slice at Voodoo Ray’s Photo: Andy Parsons       It sounds like something your flatmate’s friend who slept on the sofa for five months and tried to grow mushrooms in the bath would have cooked up for Glastonbury. But no: the mayonnaise pizza is real, and a slice of it can be yours. Voodoo Ray’s wildcard option (it’s only available after midnight, for obvious reasons) features bacon sprinkles, marinated tomatoes and mozzarella, all held together by splodges of cult Japanese mayo brand Kewpie. The one for… Mayonnaise-loving werewolves. £4 (slice). Get a 22" pizza and four cocktails for £35 at www.timeout.com/raysbaroffer.          2. TSB at Yard Sale Pizza   A post shared by Yard Sale Pizza (@yardsalepizza) on Aug 28, 2016 at 8:20am PDT     Not to be confused with the banking giant, Yard Sale’s TSB is all the reason you need to eat your greens. Manchego and pine nuts are the supporting acts for leggy florets of tenderstem broccoli (hence TSB), gorgeously charred. And if you finish your veg, it’s totally fine to have one of their freshly baked brownies for dessert. The one for… Chlorophyl nuts. From £9.50.     3. XO pig cheek, collard greens and crackling furikake at Homeslice   A post shared by Homeslice (@homesliceldn) on

  Nathan James Page     We asked you to share the most embarrassing things that have happened to you in the work place. Get ready to blush. 'I vommed into my handbag, and a colleague unwittingly offered to carry it. He then proceeded to ask me out while carrying a bag of puked-up curry.' I pushed my boss into a swimming pool.' 'I vomited and shat myself in front of a class full of students.' 'I was having a catch-up with my boss in the canteen when they started playing Salt-N-Pepa's 'Let's Talk About Sex'. Very loudly.' 'Working late, I walked into the boardroom to find two male, married senior executives pleasuring each other.' 'IT picked up a group email I'd sent asking who was buying the MDMA for the office Christmas party.' 'I shouted "Oh fuck!" on a conference call to thousands of my fellow employees.' 'I got caught going for the five-knuckle shuffle in the office darkroom.' 'I had a sex toy delivered to my office on the day that the admin decided to open everyone's post for them.' Now tell us: what's your most heartwarming London story?

Even before Arcade Fire spent an entire album bemoaning the 'endless suburbs stretched out thin and dead' the 'burbs have had a bad rep, but one German photographer has managed to find beauty in towering pylons, low terraced brick houses and overused sports fields.  Philipp Ebeling did a ten-day, 250km circular walk around London's outskirts to document the places 'too far from the inner city to feature in the story of London, not far enough out to be leafy suburb and commuter land'. He captures the bits of the city where you can probably still get a coffee for under £2, where the sky isn't reflected in glass-paneled skyscrapers and abandoned spaces aren't turned into street-food markets (yet).  'London Ends' is a love letter to places like Tottenham, Barking, Catford, Woolwich and other areas forgotten by the guidebooks but inescapably real to the great swathes of people who live here. Ebeling told Time Out that when he first arrived in London, at 19, from a small village in Germany he found the city overwhelming: 'You never feel like you really know the city because it is so spread out and the many centres are very disconnected. It took me years of exploring until I had a more complete picture of the city in my head. The crazy thing about London is you can always find a new and different neighbourhood or street where there is something new to discover.' 'London Ends' is available to buy from FishBar, a gallery in an old fish and chip shop. Check out some of the photos b

It's been a hot spot for sex shops, gay clubbing and posh restaurants, but Soho might owe its weird name to another, older London pastime. ‘The origin is uncertain,’ says Hazel Forsyth, senior curator at the Museum of London, ‘but according to popular mythology, “so-ho!” or “so-hoe!” was originally the cry of the huntsman.’Hundreds of years ago, the area now covered by Soho was uninhabited land, and a popular hunting spot for the capital’s great and good. In a 1563 account, historian John Stow describes how the Lord Mayor and his hunting party caught a hare, ate it for dinner at the chamberlain’s banqueting house then went back out to chase a fox just for fun. There is another Soho, of course. But New York’s SoHo is boringly named after its location in Manhattan, south of Houston Street. Would they have chosen that particular name if ours hadn’t existed already? I think not. Copycats. Check out the best restaurants in Soho.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so it's no surprise that time-pushed and communication-averse Londoners are relying on emojis to get the message across. After all, why pick up the telephone when a tiny picture of two glasses clinking will do the trick? But which emojis are Londoners using the most? Perhaps the eye roll for Underground delays, an umbrella to represent the city's standard weather, or the aubergine for... y'know. Surprisingly it's none of these – the most popular emoji in London is the 'crying with laughter' face. You know the one – usually preceded with 'lol' and named as Oxford Dictionaries 'Word of the Year' in 2015. 😂 According to Emojipedia, other popular emojis that Londoners search for on their online archive include the Union Jack flag, love heart, smirking face and party popper. Can we blame Brexit for the number of people using the Union Jack flag emoji? We'll never know. But judging by these findings, Londoners are a flirtatious and patriotic party crowd.  Did you know you can now get London emojis including Sadiq Khan and the tube roundel?

Apologies in advance to the majority of you who’d rather not think about the levels of filth floating about in the tubes you board, but we’ve got new figures to share with you, and they ain’t pretty! Responding to a Freedom of Information request, TfL has recently revealed that seats on seven of the tube lines never get washed with shampoo. Those using the District, Circle, Northern, Piccadilly, Hammersmith and City, Jubilee and Metropolitan lines, you’re in for a dirty ride. The only lines to get a little scrub are the Bakerloo, Central and Victoria lines, and even they only get shampooed every six months to a year. If that’s brought you out in a cold sweat, find solace in the knowledge that carriages get a basic clean every night, seats are hoovered regularly, and covers are replaced if soiled. The floors get a sweep and the poles a spot clean every night, and mopping takes place every two to three days along with a thorough wipe down on the poles. A TfL spokesperson said: 'We’re committed to providing the best possible service on London’s transport network. 'Although cleaning regimes vary across the Underground, each line has a rigorous cleaning schedule in place, for both the interior and exterior of the trains, to provide a pleasant environment for our customers.' Still, maybe getting a seat on the tube isn't that appealing after all.  A few years back, Time Out set out to find out how clean the tube was. Watch the dusty results below:   In other underground ne

Between all the passive-aggressive notes and the hallway grunting, a quality relationship with your neighbour can be hard to come by. But it's not totally impossible. Check out these three websites that can help rebuild neighbourhood morale, one click at a time.   A post shared by Streetbank (@streetbank_share) on Nov 20, 2014 at 8:53am PST Streetbank So you’re hosting a party next week and you could really do with your neighbour’s barbecue set (not that you’ve been peeking into their garden or anything like that). Streetbank has you covered, listing all manner of tools and whatnot available to borrow in the local area. The exchange of services is also encouraged, which may include language tuition or advice on a range of interests, so even budding competitive dog groomers can find inspiration. Users are also able to declutter their cupboards of forgotten items, such as that dust-covered film projector you haven't used since 'Finding Nemo' came out on DVD. Team London Want to make a difference but don’t have the time or money to fly halfway across the world? With Team London, you don’t even need to leave the comfort of your own borough. There’s a wide selection of roles on offer, such as child mentors, conservation workers and choppers/stirrers of nutritious surplus food for the homeless. It doubles up as a handy platform for charities to enlist local help. You’re guaranteed to meet fantastic, like-minded people and you can even collect badges to show off about your vo

London’s got Russia on the brain, and not just because of world politics or the centenary of the Russian Revolution. Grumbling about oligarchs is a major pastime these days, but Russian London isn’t all posh bars and mansions in Belgravia. There’s also a young, creative, trust-fund-free Russian community running dumpling-obsessed supperclubs, film pop-ups, art shows and start-ups. Of the 300,000-odd people of Russian descent in London, about half were born in Russia. The expat population has spiked in the last decade, leading to the jokey name Londongrad. But we’re an internationally minded bunch. When we do hang out together it’s usually to enjoy a nostalgic meal of pelmeni, or to do good. The London-based charity Gift of Life, for instance, helps cancer patients with fundraising events starring Russian classical music and theatre stars. It’s a long way from ‘Meet the Russians’. Sasha Raspopina Did you know? The Russian spring festival Maslenitsa, also known as ‘pancake week’, is widely celebrated in London in the last week of February. It’s a great time to feast on blini! Sasha’s favourite Russian places in London Home to Russian and post-Soviet art and photography, Calvert 22 Foundation in Shoreditch also has a bookshop stuffed with publications on everything New East, from brutalist architecture to Gosha Rubchinskiy. If you’re hungry and adventurous, look out for appearances by the Mince & Dough Russian Canteen, a pop-up serving some of the best Russian dumplings in