 londonerama
the capital fanzine
online edition 2 - December 2007
Welcome to London's essential new online newsletter! londonerama is the number 1 online mag for Europe's number 1 city. We have all the news, all the goss and all the up-front info. Well, some of it anyway. Read on...
NEW LONDON WALKING MAP!
Do you need a decent walking map to find your way around the West End? A map you can slip into your pocket rather than read on a big plinth? Well, now you can pick up a folded full colour West End map as part of the Legible London initiative. Apparently it's available from Bond Street tube station (although I didn't see one there myself). Or you can download a copy off the website and, er, print it out onto A3 paper or something. Whatever, it looks rather useful should you ever want to walk from the Angolan Embassy to the Café Royal, or just potter around some posh shopping streets inbetween. Me, I'm waiting with anticipation for further maps covering other bits of town. Please.
Download your map here.
OH WHAT A CIRCUS
 Have you ever wanted to see your name up in lights at Piccadilly Circus? It's easy if you're called Mr Coca Cola, or maybe even TDK Sanyo, but otherwise you're going to have to pay for the privilege. The iconic advertising boards above Eros now have their own website (don't get excited, it's marketing guff) and can be hired by anybody with sufficient money to spend. One minute of scrolling message will cost you £1000 (inclusive of "creative and digitisation" and "one set of ammendments"), while 10 minutes will set you back £4000. I hate to think how many bright young City boys will use the service to propose to their wives-to-be.
Read Piccadilly Lights trivia here. | THE BIG SMOKE
 Is your Smoke collection up to date? The latest edition of the thrice-yearly London fanzine has just hit bookshops, and and no doubt you'll be wanting a copy. Within its covers (bedecked this issue by the gorgeous North Greenwich gasometer) you can read all about Fortress Wapping, Bunhill Fields, the Brentford Musketeer, Jonas Hanway the umbrella man and the 108 bus. And all in a very descriptive essayish style, along with moody photographs, camp statues and the usual Routemaster cartoon. You'll know the score by now. And just £2.90 a copy.
Website here, list of stockists here.
BUS ROUTES TWEAKED
If you live, work or shop around Shepherd's Bush, you might be interested in proposed adjustments to several local bus services. These changes are related to the new White City shopping centre, and TfL are seeking your feedback before the end of January. Me, I'm much more interested in their proposals for the Bow area. Ooh, we EastEnders can expect a brand new 425 bus service from Stratford to Hackney via Mile End. And they're going to renumber the S2 and call it the 488 (because lettered routes aren't politically correct any more) and terminate it at my local Tesco. If any of this affects you, do click through and have your say, before you end up with a bus network you don't want.
White City consultation here, Bow consultation here.
PAPERBACK LONDON
If you're looking for an under-a-tenner Christmas present for the Londoner in your life, I can heartily recommend Chambers London Gazeteer. This addictively browseable volume is now available in paperback, and Amazon can sell you a copy for just £8.99. They can also give you a glimpse inside, from Abbey Mills to Aldersgate, giving you an inkling into just how finely detailed each of the thousand other descriptions is. Less than a penny each too, what a bargain. London's bigger than you thought.
Visit Hidden London - the website of the book. |
