Secret London: inside a cabmen’s shelter
This piece was published in Time Out in March 2006. You must have noticed them: jolly green garden sheds that squad in odd spots of London like displaced emerald Tardises, steam coming out the windows...
View ArticleThe Special London Bridge Special
This sensational slice of ham and song was made in 1972 to celebrate the purchase of London Bridge by an American theme park. It features a bizarre cast that includes Tom Jones, Rudolf Nureyev, The...
View ArticleExploring the lost Lea Valley with Saint Etienne
The BFI have just released a fantastic DVD for London fans. A London Trilogy: The Films Of Saint Etienne collects the three documentaries Saint Etienne and director Paul Kelly made between 2003 and...
View ArticlePathe newsreel: London time machine
These are all taken from the recent cache of thousands of Pathe newsreels loaded on to You Tube. 1. A trip to Swinging London in 67. Is that Yoko reading International Times at Trafalgar Square?...
View ArticleSportscapes of London
The Oasis swimming pool in Covent Garden in 1946 I’ve spent the past week immersed in Played In London, a book that is about as ambitious as any you are likely to see published about London this year....
View ArticleTightrope walking: pub life in East London
One of my favourite recent commissions was for Norwegian Air’s magazine, N, who asked me to write text accompanying Jan Klos’s terrific photographs of East London pubs that, as he says, “capture a...
View ArticleThe Blitz: missing buildings and false memories
While researching my recent feature on the Blitz and former bombsites in London, I was keen to find a site that had been destroyed and not yet redeveloped. There were some tantalising leads. Peter...
View ArticleUncovering a London ghost: the half-life of David Litvinoff
In the current issue of Uncut, I spoke to write Keiron Pim about his excellent book on David Litvinoff, Jumpin’ Jack Flash. Litvinoff is one of those characters that crops up in all sorts of strange...
View ArticleMy Favourite Londoner: Tony Hancock
In 2005, I interviewed the author Tim Lott for Time Out‘s My Favourite Londoner feature, in which we invited writers, actors, musicians and other personalities to tell us about their favourite London...
View ArticleThe end of John Terry
Earlier this week, I went to Stamford Bridge for the last time this season. It was also the last time I will ever see John Terry play there for Chelsea. As I watched him play and score, I realised I...
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