Marina Rabin

London, obviously, has a great many cafés, but how to choose? We've got normal ones and really posh ones. Massive ones and tiny ones. Ones with loads of cake, and ones with loads of sandwiches. All of them, thankfully, with coffee and tea. This list is our attempt to group together the best ones. Want to know the difference between this list and our ranking of London’s best coffee shops? Well at these spots you can get eggs (fried, poached or scrambled) and a sit-down meal with your flat white.  Recommended: London's best breakfasts.

Every year, more and more people seem to choose to take their summer holidays a little earlier. Why? Well, you’ll have to ask them. Everyone is different, but the lure of fewer crowds, lower prices and slightly less-scorching weather is clear. Oh, and those enticing off-season prices.  In the northern hemisphere, June is summer but not quite ‘July and August’ summer, while the temperatures in the south are also on the more bearable side of the ledger. We’ve compiled a collection of the best places to travel in June, although there is no such thing as a bad choice. How do the islands of Portugal, the seascape of Seattle and the beaches of Fiji sound? (You don’t need to answer that).  RECOMMENDED:🏖️ The best places to travel in July🌞 The best places to travel in August 🌍 The best things to do in the world🌆 The best cities in the world This guide is by travel journalist Emma Sparks. At Time Out, all of our travel guides are written by local writers who know their cities inside out. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines. 

Truth be told, you can’t beat May. There is something seriously charming about this bridge between the seasons that makes it the ultimate time to travel. The northern hemisphere is in full post-winter mood at this point, while the wildlife spotting opportunities south of the equator can’t be beaten. May is a time of the year when the weather is improving and the crowds still haven’t quite cottoned on, meaning travellers get to enjoy the fruits of the world without having to share them with every other living, breathing being. Where are the best places to travel in May? Everywhere on the planet, to be blunt, and we’ve put together a selection of the best of the best for your perusal.  RECOMMENDED:🧳 Full guide to the best places to travel🏘️ The world's coolest neighbourhoods📸 The best cities for culture right now

It’s set to be another blockbuster year for art. There’s Kahlo in Paris and Munch in Oslo. Horror in Melbourne and hip hop in Toronto. Graphic design in Tokyo and Navajo tapestries in New York. Whatever your cup of tea, 2024 has a little bit of something for everyone. So if you’re planning a city break, why not plan it around one of these must-see art shows? These are 2024’s biggest and best exhibitions, all over the world. RECOMMENDED:🗺️ The 24 best things to do in the world in 2024🌃 Europe’s best city breaks for 2024

No genre knows love better than R&B. The Motown songbook alone contains enough lessons of the heart to fill several medical textbooks. Sure, many great soul songs are about the dark side of love – jealousy, betrayal, breakups, etc. But that’s not why you came to this list, is it?  It’s to find those songs that speak directly to the joy of being with someone else. Whether it’s innocent infatuation, all-consuming obsession or lustful intoxication, there’s an awesome jam out there to communicate exactly what you’re feeling. And not all of them are of the smooth, old-school variety either. Here, we’ve compiled the absolute best R&B love songs, and while you’ll find plenty of ‘60s classics, there are several modern, chart-busting pop bangers as well. So let’s get it on, shall we? RECOMMENDED:🏩 The best love songs of all time😭 The best heartbreak songs🍆 The sexiest songs of all time🕺 The best party songs of all time

Millions of people all over the world are gearing up to celebrate Chinese New Year later this month. Also known as the Lunar New Year, the Spring Festival, Tet and Seollal, the official start of the new lunar calendar will mean wiping clean the slate of the past 12 months and opening the door to an exciting new year.  In 2024, celebrations across the globe will be as vibrant as always, filled with many of the same traditions, customs and super-delicious food as usual. Here’s everything you need to know about the huge annual holiday this year. RECOMMENDED:🎨 The best art exhibitions in the world📍 The best things to do in the world🏘️ The coolest neighbourhoods in the world When is Chinese New Year 2024? The Chinese New Year marks the first day in the lunar calendar, which begins the day after the first new moon appears between February 9 and March 10. This year the New Year falls on Saturday, February 10. The celebrations usually start on the evening preceding the first day of the new year (February 9), and run until February 24, when the period of New Years celebrations traditionally culminates in lantern festivals. The Lantern festival is held on the fifteenth day of festivities, and celebrates families and society. While the rest of the holiday is traditionally devoted to spending time with family, during the lantern festival, people of all ages and gender will take to the streets for a time of socialising and freedom.   Where is Chinese New Year celebrated? All over China

We all know London has some pretty mega stuff to offer. This town boasts a frankly silly number of iconic landmarks, museums and feasts for the eyes and ears.  But with great attractions come great crowds. For those of us who like a slice of culture without company, it can be hard to find under-the-radar spots in London. And many lesser-known attractions are gate-kept to keep hidden gems, well, hidden. The latest to pull together a list of the world’s finest ‘hidden gems’ is none other than airline Wizz Air. And, excitingly, it crowned a London institution the best on the planet: Marylebone’s very own Wallace Collection.  Wizz Air’s methodology was extensive, so bear with. The airline first selected cities in Wikipedia’s ‘Most Visited Cities’ and TripAdvisor’s ‘Travellers Choice: Best of the Best Destinations’ lists. The study then dived into those cities’ attractions with the highest number of mentions of ‘hidden gems’, ranking them by their percentage of ‘Excellent’ or ‘Very Good’ reviews. Still with me? The Wallace Collection had a total of 6,598 user reviews with 551 of them mentioning the location as a ‘hidden gem’. The art gallery also received a TripAdvisor rating of 4.5.  And we’re also big fans of Wallace. Housed in a rather grand, not at all inconspicuous eighteenth-century mansion in Marylebone (hidden, maybe not), the Collection holds an opulent feast of eighteenth-century French paintings, furniture and other artistic spoils. Founded with the private collection o

アメリカ航空宇宙局（NASA）とロッキード・マーティン社は2024年1月12日、超音速飛行機の実験機を正式に発表した。「X-59」と名付けられたこの飛行機は、音速よりも速く移動でき、ロンドンとニューヨークの間を現在の約7時間半から大幅短縮して、わずか3時間半で結ぶことが見込まれている。念のためだが、もちろんイーロン・マスクの新しいプロジェクトではない。 この新しい飛行機は「コンコルドの息子」とも呼ばれ、NASAはこの飛行機が空の旅に革命を起こすことを期待している。しかし、この飛行機が実用化される前に、その音量を測定するための大規模なテストが必要だという。 耳をつんざくような驚くべき爆音を発生させる超音速飛行は過去50年間、アメリカや多くの国で禁止されてきた。全長約35メートル、幅約9メートルのX-59は、革新的なデザインでそうした騒音規制を回避しようとしている。 その長く先細りの機首は、通常なら爆音となる衝撃波を砕き、流線型のデザインは高度16キロメートルで時速1488キロメートル（音速の1.4倍）という高速での飛行を可能にするという。いずれにしても、乗り物酔いしやすい人には向かないかもしれない。 X-59はアメリカのいくつかの都市で試験飛行され、その音量データを収集。一般市民が十分耐え得るものであれば、より広く使用されることになる。早ければ2035年には、商業用超音速機が登場するかもしれない。 大西洋横断旅行を一変させようとしている超高速飛行機はX-59だけではない。Boom Supersonicという別の企業も、ロンドンからニューヨークまでを3時間半で結ぶ飛行機技術を開発中だ。 関連記事 『This supersonic jet will go from London to New York in just three and a half hours（原文）』 『夢の超音速旅客機、プロトタイプ公開へ』 『世界初となる4人乗り空飛ぶタクシーのプロトタイプが公開』 『2024年、飛行機からリクライニングシートが激減？』 『日本の航空会社が上位に、2023年世界最高の航空会社ランキングを発表』 『2024年のトラベルトレンドとは？ そっくり観光地やノンアル旅などに注目』 東京の最新情報をタイムアウト東京のメールマガジンでチェックしよう。登録はこちら  

Ever wondered what it’s like to live inside Kew Gardens? Or on a canal boat, for that matter – but not ready to commit to the nautical lifestyle? Look no further, as for the first time ever, you’ll be able to stay in what is essentially a kind of floating greenhouse in London on Airbnb.   The official name of the rental is The Floating Terrarium. No idea what a terrarium is? We don’t blame ya. Terrariums are essentially mini ecosystems of soil, stones and plants, usually incubated in decorative glass enclosures.  So, imagine one of those but on a human size and with fewer creepy crawlies – that’s what London now has. The Floating Terrarium, which is the first of its kind in the world, is moored on a canal in Hackney and features 180 plants. With all those CO2-guzzling leaves, just think how pure that air is.  The concept was brought to life by designer Mia Powell, who collaborated with paint company Lick and horticultural suppliers Patch to create a zen escape in the middle of busy Hackney. The inside was apparently designed using a soothing, natural colour scheme which harmonises with the plants. Sounds cool, eh? Here are some pics of the place.  Photograph: Airbnb Photograph: Airbnb Photograph: Airbnb The Floating Terrarium is also super eco-friendly, with solar panels, a compost loo and harvested and filtered canal water. The project was the result Airbnb’s $10 million OMG!Fund, which we covered way back in 2022 and essentially saw the company give out $100,000 lump

Its members included Jarvis Cocker, Peter Capaldi, and Logan Roy himself, Brian Cox. Over the past decade, it’s housed some immense talent, from Adele to Annie Mac, even collaborating with the elusive Banksy. But despite all that, The House of St Barnabas in Soho has announced that it is permanently closing the doors of its members’ club and charity.  The not-for-profit club told members that its business model had become ‘simply not sustainable’ in an unexpected email and Instagram post on January 16. The message cited irreparable financial damage caused by the pandemic, coupled with a broken roof in 2023 which completely eroded their financial reserves.  ‘It is with great sadness that we announce that the House of St Barnabas charity and members’ club has begun the process of winding up and is closed with immediate effect,’ the post read. In an economic climate obliterating countless hospitality venues every week, the club said they were having too many ‘rainy days’ to stay afloat.  The House has been doing good for Londoners since 1862, when it was first founded as a charity to help the homeless. In 2013, the members’ club was established to more directly funnel funds towards charitable causes. The club since became one of London’s coolest hangouts, weaving its idiosyncratic energy into exceptional arts events. The House was London’s first charity members’ club. Unlike other members’ clubs, the House of St Barnabas didn’t shroud itself with an attitude of exclusivity, but

Always wanted to own a London icon? And recently been looking for an excuse to quit the day job? Well, here the opportunity strikes to tick both off yer ‘to-do’ list. A red telephone box, one of the capital’s most recognisable sights, is going on the market for as little as £15,000. Better yet, it has planning permission to be converted into retail use. In Stamford Hill, the phone box is handily located near Seven Sisters tube. Its listing on Auction House London says the Grade-II listed box is also connected to mains electricity. What the phone box lacks in space, it more than makes up for in creative potential. Just think of all the possibilities! Could this be the perfect place to take your budding coffee skills to a pro level? Following the rise of mobile phones and the fall in demand for the UK’s red phone boxes, many of them have been sold off and since found innovative alternative uses. To celebrate the iconic boxes’ 100th birthday last year and encourage their reuse, BT sold off thousands of them for just a quid.   Phone boxes across the country have been injected with a new lease of life and transformed into valuable community hubs. Past regeneration projects have ranged from turning the boxes into libraries, food banks and life-saving defibrillator stations, to transforming them into built-for-pleasure mini gin portals and art galleries. One particularly innovative entrepreneur even planned to convert two Westminster phone boxes into vending machines.  The Stamford

For 40 years, Battersea Power Station was closed to the public and one of London’s largest (literally) enigmas. But these days the old power station is open for all to explore. Following a mega redevelopment completed in 2022, BPS boasts everything from designer shopping and swanky bars with incredible vistas to glitzy multi-million-pound penthouses and a shiny new tube station.  The revamped Battersea Power Station has been quite the hit – and that’s shown by the latest visitor figures. Stats released in December by the riverside landmark show that over 11.2 million people visited in 2023, proving that people are indeed willing to travel south of the Thames.  The Grade-II listed building’s figures showed a 30 percent increase in visitor numbers in December 2023 compared to December 2022, perhaps thanks to the 40-plus new bars, shops and restaurants which opened in the face-lifted hub in 2023. This included an 11,200-square-foot new Boots emporium dedicated solely to beauty and a luxurious timber-clad Apple store designed by architectural giants Foster + Partners.   These figures also see the waterside landmark muscle in as one of London’s most visited attractions. The capital’s other venues attracting similar numbers in previous years include the Natural History Museum and British Museum, which garnered 4.6 million and four million visitors respectively (at Statista’s last count in 2022). Those numbers seem a wee drop in the ocean compared to the Power Station’s 11-million-

You’ll most likely recognise Henry Rowley from your ‘For You’ page. One of 2023’s break-out comic stars, he shot to viral fame for his observational comedy and self-aware skits on TikTok, where he’s collected a cool 1.3 million followers (and counting). And despite the distinctly London-branded humour characterising Rowley’s wildly popular sketches – satirical personifications of different parts of the city and cheeky impressions of Soho House members frequently feature – he actually hails from Leicester. This summer, Rowley is moving from the screen to the IRL, taking his first solo hour-long comedy show to the Edinburgh Fringe (he’s keen to stress it will not be ‘TikTok on stage’). But it all started at the Curve Theatre in Rowley’s native city. Here, the rising star tells us about the Leicester venue which infected him with the bug to perform.   ‘The Curve was newly built when I was younger – it was a huge deal for Leicester because we didn’t have a big theatre like that. It was so new that everything felt so fresh, but not lifeless, not like when something new feels soulless. It was full of excitement.  ‘I first performed at the Curve in a non-speaking role in ‘An Inspector Calls’. I was so tiny, I must have been about 10 or 11, and it felt huge. It was a proper theatre, very grand, and I was surrounded by older professional actors. To use the cliché: I got the bug. It was my first taste of performing on stage. I had my own dressing room with lights around the mirror and

Houston, we have a new mode of air travel. NASA and Lockheed Martin officially unveiled the brand-new X-59 Supersonic last week. No, that’s not the name of Elon Musk’s newest child – it’s a new aircraft model which promises to travel faster than the speed of sound (767 miles an hour) and obliterate journey times between London and New York.  The X-59 will apparently be able to get from the Big Smoke to the Big Apple in just three and a half hours. That’s not much longer than it takes to get from London to Old York. NASA’s new plane has been dubbed ‘Son of Concorde’ and the agency hopes it’ll revolutionise air travel. Before it can enter public service, however, it needs to be extensively tested in order to gauge how loud it is. Supersonic flights have been banned by the US and a number of nations for the last 50 years because of the ear-splitting and startling sonic booms created by planes travelling faster than the speed of sound. The 100-foot long, 30-foot wide X-59 aircraft is hoping to circumvent sound restrictions with innovative design. Its long, tapered nose apparently breaks up the shock waves which would ordinarily result in a sonic boom, while its streamlined design will allow it to fly at lightning speeds of 925 mph – 1.4 times the speed of sound. So, maybe not one for the motion sickness inclined.  The X-59 will be test-flown across several US cities to collect data about how loud it is. If it’s bearable enough to the general public, the data will be used to roll

Currently saving a bit of tube fare pocket money by working from home a couple of days a week? Well, you might not be saving for much longer. TfL is considering introducing a ‘dynamic pricing’ fare system which could charge more based on post-pandemic hybrid working patterns.  Mayor Sadiq Khan confirmed in a London Assembly budget committee meeting that a new pricing system is being discussed by TfL. It could see fares rise and fall with passenger numbers and involve surge pricing on select days of the week.  Hybrid working has contributed to reduced commuter numbers on certain days (namely Mondays and Fridays, the most popular WFH home days), which in turn has reduced TfL’s ticket revenue. To make up for that lost revenue, TfL is considering raising ticket prices on midweek days that are more popular for working from the office.  This could come as part of the annual TfL fare increase, which last year saw tube fares rise by 5.9 percent (meaning most adult pay-as-you-go fares rose by between 10p and 30p). So-called ‘dynamic pricing’ might add another level of sophistication to London’s fare tiers. Tube passengers already pay higher rates during peak travel times (6:30am to 9:30am and 4pm to 7pm on weekdays), while tube travel costs more in central zones. The idea behind ‘dynamic pricing’ isn’t just to increase TfL revenue: it’s also intended to entice passengers back onto the tube on days that are currently less popular for commuters. The tube still has a while to go before

New Years’ resolution to be more body confident? Well, the opportunity might strike sooner than you expected. Exhibitionists rejoice: the 11th Annual No Trousers Tube Ride is back this Sunday, January 7.  Meeting in Newport Place (a large square in Chinatown) at 2:45pm, the group will then descend to the Underground and de-robe to their underpants at 3pm. Make sure to get this order of events right – it’ll be blustery out there this weekend.  The pantless party will then simply ride around the tube for a bit, and – this is the key part – act like everything is totally normal.  Organisers ask that participants’ sartorial choices for their underwear be kept as low-key as possible, in keeping with the idea that it will look like a mass of people have just forgotten to wear their trousers. Just remember to not go commando that day.  The No Trousers Tube Ride began in 2009, inspired by the No Pants Subway Ride started in New York in 2002. After being forced to take a two year hiatus thanks to the pandemic, this year will be the Tube Ride’s second consecutive return.  The free event is ‘just for the sake of fun’ according to organisers, and participants do so at their own risk (of chafing against the Victoria Line’s prickly seats, aside from anything else). Further details about the No Trousers Tube Ride can be found on the Facebook page here. London train and tube strikes January 2024: everything you need to know. Plus: London’s favourite Tesco has been saved from developers. St