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[title]We launched the Time In Awards to celebrate the heroes of 2020’s lockdown in London. We wanted to pay tribute to the people, places and initiatives that have kept this city going during the months of not going out.
After compiling a list of nominees, we threw open voting to you, the readers. 9,679 of you cast your vote to tell us exactly who deserved to be crowned across 13 awards in our four categories: Food & Drink Heroes; Community Champions; Arts & Entertainment Saviours; and Homebound Stars.
Here are the nominees and those all-important WINNERS!
FOOD & DRINK HEROES
Most inspiring chef
- Ixta Belfrage – the foodie queen of Instagram
- Oli Coles – the top chef feeding NHS staff WINNER!
- Jake Finn – the young Ritz veteran now cooking for everyone
- Rosie MacKean – pasta classes for the Stephen Lawrence Trust
- Ben Tish – the Norma kingpin doing non-stop tutorials
- Steven Tozer – the restaurateur keeping hospitality staff in work
Voters also loved: Jack Monroe, Jamie Oliver and Martha de Lacey.
Special delivery award for doing whatever to keep us fed and watered
- All Good Beer – for keeping Hackney in ale
- Brockley Brewery – for supporting Lewisham’s binmen (really) WINNER!
- The Cheese Bar – for its Cheese Truck, obviously
- Little Nan’s Bar – for its lockdown party bags
- Oscar’s Café – for keeping on keeping on
- Patron – for bringing Paris round to yours
- Perky Blenders – for its coffee subscriptions
- Signature Brew Co – for its ‘pub in a box’
- Spice Box – for delivering, whatever
- Yard Sale – for great collabs and charity T-shirts
Voters also loved: London Restaurant Collective, Nourished Communities and Lina Stores.
Most comforting lockdown food or drink item
- Artusi and Marcella’s pasta and ragù
- Bao’s Rice Error boxes
- Dunn’s Bakery’s fruit pies
- Gloria’s Big Lasagna
- Hacha’s Mirror Margarita
- Pizza Pappagone’s aubergine parmesan pizza
- Three Sheets’ French 75
- Xi’an Impression’s Biang Biang noodles WINNER!
Voters also loved: Bocca di Lupo’s tagliatelle, Mama Dough’s pizza and Casa do Frango’s chicken.
COMMUNITY CHAMPIONS
Ultimate neighbourhood champions
- Rory Cleary – helping your daily coffee money make a real difference
- Dominic Cools-Lartigue – feeding the hungry and vulnerable with A Plate for London WINNER!
- Simon Garner – doorstep aerobics legend
- Maya Ilany – scrubs-sewing NHS champ
- Hannah Morgan – selling seedlings to help abuse victims
- Annemarie Plas – the Londoner who started Clap for Carers
- Emma Rodwell – helping older Londoners stay connected and supported
Voters also loved: Jonny Banger for Sportsbanger NHS merch, Steve Hellier for his lockdown sound system in Lewisham and Simona Scotto for free dance classes for the over fifties.
Top community kingpin
- Dalston Superstore – The Virtual Superstore is a total hoot. Espresso Quarantini, anyone?
- Jay’s Budgens – Brockley’s fave shop supporting food banks and local producers WINNER!
- Keep Pubs Pumping – merch and more to keep boozers in business
- Lina Stores – the iconic deli raising thousands to feed Londoners
- Nourished Communities – helping market traders across all of north London
- Stroud Green Market – a home-delivery farmers’ market to help local businesses? Done!
- Oru Space – transformed into a drop-off spot for a local food bank. Profits from virtual classes are going to Goose Green Mutual Aid
Voters also loved: Nour Brixton, Yardarm Deli and The Glory.
Best business pivot
- 58 Gin – hand ‘gin-itizer’, anyone?
- Portobello Road Distillery – also turning its collective hand to hand san
- South London Makerspace – crafting that PPE WINNER!
- Top Cuvée/Shop Cuvée – from restaurant to cocktail-delivery service
- Wild Life Drawing – from drawing animals IRL to… drawing animals online
Voters also loved: The Red Lion, Ealing (from pub to shop), Ombra (from restaurant to pasta deli) and Forest Road Brewery (from brewery to pint mobile).
ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT SAVIOURS
Academy Award-winning virtual film clubs
- Isolation Film Club
- Peccadillo Sofa Club
- Secret Sofa WINNER!
- See You Next Wednesday
- Viral Film Festival
Voters also loved: Distraction Tactics and Zodiac Film Club.
The virtual club night we wish wasn’t virtual
- Club Quarantine – the underground queer dance party that became a global sensation (thanks, Toronto!)
- Queer House Party – a Zoom space for LGBTQ+ Londoners to come together and living-room-dance their hearts out every Friday WINNER!
- Slimelight – our weekly helping of trance and techno
- Suga Rush – transferred its glorious pop night to Zoom to raise money for its IRL venue The Chateau
Voters also loved: The Phoenix Arts Club Saturday Supershow, How Does It Feel to Be Loved and Morning Gloryville.
Most original online festival
- BookBound 2020 – for quickly bringing authors and readers together to support independent bookshops WINNER!
- Boulangerie Home Delivery – for giving a platform to talented drag artists in London and New York
- Junction 2 – no actual motorway flyover this year, but an ace 3D experience
- Nest Collective: Singing with Nightingales – Sam Lee in a wood in Suffolk with music from Pet Shop Boys, Johnny Flynn, Jessie Buckley and birdsong
- Now Play This – for transporting an experimental gaming festival online (and a Q&A via Animal Crossing)
Voters also loved: Onceupona Virtual Children’s Festival, Hay Festival and Happy Place Festival.
Best digital art experience
- ‘BP Portrait Award’, NPG – an accessible online version of the entire exhibition
- ‘Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk’, V&A – the virtual version had an atmosphere all of its own WINNER!
- ‘Mushrooms’, Somerset House – the exhibition on the Google Arts and Culture App, allowed viewers to project fungal exhibits into their own homes
- Painted Hall tour, Old Royal Naval College – a tour so highly detailed you could examine Sir James Thornhill’s Baroque ceiling paintings up close at home
- ‘Among the Trees’, Hayward Gallery – amazing poetry readings, audio essays and personal responses from arboreal artists
Voters also loved: David Hockney at the Royal Academy, the National Gallery virtual tours and ‘Tom of Finland’ at House of Illustration.
The cultural initiative that made life worth living
- BFI Flare – a glimmer of hope that highly anticipated (and then cancelled) events could find a new life online
- ‘Fleabag’ on demand – this chance to see the sell-out one-woman show raised more than $1 million for charity
- The Globe’s YouTube premieres – our fortnightly slice of Shakespeare
- Hampstead Theatre at Home – proof that it wasn’t just the huge venues who could work online
- Natural History Museum lectures – improving lockdown lunchtimes with experts on everything from climate change to Mars
- Mubi opening up its library – a fantastic treasure chest of classic and world movies
- National Theatre at Home – sold-out shows, massive stars, money-can’t-buy theatre WINNER!
- The Royal Opera House’s Our House to Your House – the most spectacular (and intimidating) operas and ballets for free, every week
Voters also loved: The Show Must Go Online, Royal Albert Home and Ballet Black: #BBonFilm.
HOMEBOUND STARS
Best DIY kit
- Earl of East candlemaking kit
- Kana London pottery kit
- Geoffrey Nivard virtual cheese-tasting kit
- Patty & Bun burger kit WINNER!
- Pizza Pilgrims frying pan pizza kit
Voters also loved: Dishoom bacon naan roll kit, Doughnut Time home doughnut decorating kit and Le Swine bacon sandwich kit.
Stuck-indoors celeb hero
Voters also loved: Daisy May Cooper, Stanley Tucci and Sophie Ellis Bextor.