Catriona Harrison

After four years of exciting performances, free music and dance festival Urban Elephant has grown into one of Elephant and Castle’s best loved cultural events, and for good reason. From classic Indian dance to Spanish flamenco, the weekend-long festival is a real showcase for the local area’s vibrant multicultural communities.  Fusion band Grupo Lokito will be bringing Congolese grooves and Cuban rhythms to the headline slot at this year’s edition, alongside Ivorian drumming and dancers from Kaagô, the IRIE! Dance Theatre Youth Company performing West African folktale ‘Anansi and the Pot of Wisdom’ through African and Caribbean dance, and a celebration of Colombia and Latin America from longstanding local dance group Yuruparí Grupo Folclórico.  Spectators can also expect whacky circus performances, cabaret and even some participatory fun in the form of a Latin American aerobics classes to kick off the festival, while local businesses will be running a variety of food and drink offers to keep you fuelled for a day of dancing.

Following the success of venues in Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Nottingham and Sheffield, sports bar chain BOX is finally opening an outpost in London – and when it opens, the company is claiming the venue will be the capital’s biggest sports bar.  BOX Piccadilly is set to open its doors on Shaftesbury Avenue on October 24. The three-floor, 7,200-foot space will boast 33 ultra-HD jumbo screens, showing everything from F1 and NFL to rugby and footie. The ‘Box Below Bar’ (pictured above) will be an entire floor purpose-designed for watching sporting events. Not just for the sports fans, the new West End bar will also fancy itself a entertainment spot with electric darts, shuffleboard and ‘bandeoke’ (AKA karaoke with a live band). It’ll also boast live music and DJs every Wednesday and Saturday, and there’ll be grub in the form of ‘stacked burgers’, Neapolitan style pizzas and sharing plates. BOX co-founder and chief executive Martin Wolstencroft said of the new venture: ‘With more screens than any other bar in the West End, we’re setting a new standard for watching live sport and partying, making you feel like you’re right there in the stadium, taking centre stage.’ Image: Rendering BOX London BOX Piccadilly, 21-23 Shaftesbury Avenue (W1D 7EF). Find out more here. The best football pubs in London.  And the best rugby bars in the capital. Get the latest and greatest from the Big Smoke – from news and reviews to events and trends. Just follow our Time Out WhatsApp channel. 

Calling all lovers of musty, dog-eared, yellow-paged books: a new independent shop for secondhand tomes opened last week in Muswell Hill, north London. In a useful repurposing of a high-street space, it occupies the site of an old funeral parlour – but you’ll be thankful to know it stocks more than just horror.  The shop, which is on Fortis Green Road, opened on September 6 and is run by husband-and-wife duo Chris and Katrina Masson. Called Muswell Hill Books & Parlour, alongside pre-loved books the shop also flogs art and records, and can host literary events and parties.  Chris, who is from Muswell Hill, is no newbie to selling used books. At various times he worked at both branches of Black Gull Books, a duo of bookshops in Camden and East Finchley known for eclectic selections of rare and used editions. Both outposts of Black Gull are now closed, with some of the East Finchley branch’s stock going to Boom Cat in Camden – which has also now shuttered. Writing on the shop's Instagram, Chris and Katrina said of their new venture: ‘We have everything from classics, to philosophy, photography and science, to occult and spiritual and antiquarian, with a good sprinkling of rare and interesting.’ Occult and spiritual? Sounds like Muswell Hill Books & Parlour is at least partly paying tribute to its previous tenants. Cooksey and Son Funeral Parlour, which the new store has taken over the space from, shut its doors last year.  Photograph: Muswell Hill Books and Parlour Intrigued