London Random Stuff
Switched on London
Office blocks left with all their lights on over night has become a hot issue with environmentalists, especially in London where the financial distrcits in the City of London and Canary Wharf continually adding new offices.
This week the second Switched on London event will be lighting up famous landmarks and buildings in the area roughly between London Bridge and Tower Bridge to show how environmentally friendly and sustainable lighting can be used to light up major buildings and why its important to for cities to be lit even if people are worried about CO2 emissions.
The project runs from 7-14 February and brings teams of leading lighting designers
Date: February 4th, 2008 |
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Home Secretary admits London's streets not safe after dark
There was an interesting admission today in an interview with The Sunday Times by Jacqui Smith, Britain’s Home Secretary, that she wouldn’t feel safe walking the streets of London late at night, even if it was through some of the wealthiest areas like Kensington and Chelsea.
The Home Secretary is the member of the government in charge of policing and crime in the UK among other things,
Date: January 20th, 2008 |
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Leicester Square renovation
Westminster Council have announced plans for an £18.5million regeneration of Leicester Square with the central part of the redesign a 200-metre white granite “ribbon” seat to allow people to sit and relax. The aim is to make the square less tacky than it is at the moment and a place that will draw visitors rather than being somewhere where people pass through to get from Soho to Covent Garden.
Tom Hanks was in the square last night at the premiere of Charlie Wilson’s War and seemed pretty happy. Not sure if it was for the movie or the council’s plans but for some bizarre reason he was waving an Aston Villa scarf
Date: January 10th, 2008 |
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New visas rules for the UK
The British government is bringing in new proposals to cut the time visitors are allowed to stay in the UK on single visits from 6 to 3 months. The changes are directed at visitors from outside the European Union and are part of the Labour government’s belated attempt to get a grip on the tsunami of asylum seekers and illegal immigrants who’ve arrived in the country since Tony Blair took power ten years ago.
They are also talking about having families with a relative visiting put up a £1,000 bond and introducing new business visas.
Date: December 18th, 2007 |
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London's lottery winners not claiming prizes
Its easy to do, buy a lottery ticket, shove it in your pocket and forget about it, never remembering to see if your numbers came up. Some people who bought tickets in London this year could have an extra special Christmas if they fish out their old tickets and check their numbers as lottery operator Camelot says some big prizes have still gone unclaimed and there’s a 180 day limit from the date of the draw or the prize is lost.
A ticket bought in Ealing in August is worth £2,214,747 and the ticket holder has until 25 February 2008 to claim it, the numbers are 4, 6, 11, 17, 31, 41. Somebody else bought a Thunderball ticket in Kensington in November and its now worth £250,000,
Date: December 11th, 2007 |
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Annual London Survey
The Mayor of London and the Greater London Authority have released the latest London Survey, a survey carried out by MORI into the attitudes of Londoners to living in the city in regard to quality of life issues such as housing, transport, crime and jobs.
Predictably with a survey they’ve commissioned the Mayor’s office is talking up the areas that reflect positively on him, 44% expressed satisfaction with the job the Mayor was doing while 22% were dissatisfied and the GLA trumpets that as a +22 rating. Here are a selection of the other questions asked on the survey.
Q. And how satisfied or dissatisfied are you with London as a city to live in?
Date: January 23rd, 2008 |
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Gordon Brown ringer wanted
This ‘handsome’ chap on the right is Gordon Brown, the current British Prime Minister and dour Scot who spent 10 years in the wings as Chancellor of the Exchequer waiting for Tony Blair to get fed up with being PM.
Being a public figure for that long you’d think anyone with a passing resemblance would have been lining themselves up for a lucrative lookalike career once he took power. Strangely it seems there’s no one out there that looks like Gordon and that’s causing a problem for photographer and film-maker Alison Jackson who uses celebrity lookalikes in her picture and tv work.
Date: January 15th, 2008 |
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Take a walk in London
With Christmas and the New Year over many people are making resolutions to take more exercise and get fitter. If you over did it with the food and booze during the holiday a useful website to help give you some motivation to shed a few pounds by walking more around London this year is walkit.com.
The site’s aim is to encourage more people to walk by helping them to make informed decisions on when is a good time to walk rather than use a car, bus, tube, train or taxi. They do this by having a search engine that just requires you to enter where you are and where you want to get to, and then a map will come up with the suggested route as well as the distance, estimated time for fast, medium or slow walking, the calories burned at each pace
Date: January 2nd, 2008 |
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London wins World Travel Award
The Evening Standard reports that London has just been voted the world’s greatest holiday destination at the 2007 World Travel Awards based on the votes of over 160,000 travel agents. London definitely has a lot of attractions for visitors, you could have two weeks in the capital and not run out of things to do and see or places to go. The down side is the expense of everything, for Londoners and tourists alike, and of course the weather is so unpredictable that its not something you’d come here for.
Date: December 12th, 2007 |
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Cocktail Time
If you’re in London and find yourself in the celebrity nightclub Movida think twice before saying ‘it’s my round’ for the drinks. The Guardian reports the Argyll Strret club has just launched its new Christmas cocktail under the name Flawless.
Made with a large measure of Louis XII cognac, half a bottle of Cristal Rose champagne, some brown sugar, angostura bitters and a few flakes of 24-carat edible gold leaf, Flawless comes with an impressive price tag of £35,000. To justify the cost drinkers will also find an 11-carat white diamond ring in the bottom of the crystal glass.
Date: December 9th, 2007 |
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