While I've been preoccupied on the south coast, London has continued unabated.
Monday 5th May
I understand the VE Day flypast was spectacular but I missed it. I was hoping to catch up further along the route but unfortunately my train passed through Bournemouth at 1pm and the Red Arrows didn't arrive until 2pm.
Tuesday 6th May
The ceramic poppies are back at the Tower of London to commemorate the 80th anniversary of VE Day. However this time there are only 30,000 of them whereas back in 2014 there were 880,000, plus the flowers aren't filling the moat, merely dribbling off the White Tower so you won't see them unless you pay to go inside. As a Tower Hamlets resident it only costs £1 to go inside, but quite frankly I was happier to be in Lyme Regis.
Wednesday 7th May
They've announced the shortlist of five designs for the Queen Elizabeth II memorial in St James's Park. I only hate four of them so it could be worse. You can rank the possibilities (and sigh at the associated word salad) here.
Thursday 8th May
I hope BBC London News put VE Day commemorations in the capital front and centre of this evening's news, but Spotlight South West alas focused instead on the parade on Plymouth Hoe, wreath-laying in Brixham, bellringing in St Austell and vintage jive in Okehampton.
Friday 9th May
The Mayor nowsays he's keen to explore building on the Green Belt. To be clear that's some of the Green Belt, not all of the Green Belt, specifically certain so-called 'low-quality' bits, not your favourite woodland and its happy squirrels so stop your frothing. The thought is that new affordable neighbourhoods with excellent transport connections would enormously improve Londoners' quality of life, especially if coupled with greening initiatives, which is what the Mayor hopes to write into the new London Plan. I might have gone out and blogged about a few possiblelocations, places you totally wouldn't miss, whereas instead I was in West Bay where they don't have Green Belt but it still looks really pretty.
Saturday 10th May
It was a toss-up between the Hot Sauce Festival in Peckham or attending my nephew's wedding, and I'm afraid paying £5 for the chance to buy spicy bottles from 42 independent traders lost out. If any of you attended, do please tell us what we missed.
Sunday 11th May
As previously mentioned, it was Tate Modern's 25th birthday today and they put on a celebratory weekend but I couldn't go. Thankfully one work of art returning for the anniversary is still present, Louise Bourgeois' enormous metal spider Maman, which is back in predatory position on the Turbine Hall mezzanine. I remember admiring her last time, also climbing one of Louise's mighty steel towers, and the eight-legged monster is just as wonderfully impactful as ever.
Monday 12th May
TfL and the Mayor have launched a new Tube Map to celebrate the contribution of grassroots music venues to the cultural life of the capital. It's so derivative you can almost imagine the planning meeting ("Hey we need to promote grassroots music venues." "Shall we do a tube map?" "Well obviously!" "Great let's take the afternoon off."). What surprised me about themediacoverage is that nobody seemed to be linking to the map, merely displaying a blurry snippet and telling you to go view it at Outernet. I went to Outernet to have a look but it wasn't on display because the Arcade was on a different part of its marketing cycle so I came home unsatisfied. I've since sourced the full-sized jpg here, so well done Jon but can we please do something other than a rejigged tube map next time, thanks.
Tuesday 13th May
The new footbridge at Canary Wharf is now open. It was lowered into place last month but has just been debarriered and you now can walk across. Bankers at Morgan Stanley heading for a booze-up at The Henry Addington may find it most useful, but it's already proving a popular cut-through avoiding having to walk all the way round the dock past the tube station. According to the brandmonkeys it's "a major milestone in our vision to make Eden Dock a thriving, accessible green space" and "completes the final phase of our award-winning waterfront oasis", but in reality it's just a really nice quite useful footbridge. The South Dock bridge, if it's ever built, will be more of a gamechanger.
Wednesday 14th May
Tower Hamlets Town Hall has been crowned the RIBA LondonBuilding of the Year 2025, which is good because it's the only one of the 38-strong shortlist that I've been taken round by the chief architect. Hurrah for London Open House, which means I can see why it won rather than wondering why the publicly accessible ground floor is so vacuously empty. The RIBA winner in the South West & Wessex region will be announced in July.
Thursday 15th May
I see Charlton Athletic will be competing against Leyton Orient in the League One playoffs for a coveted place in the Championship next season. A promoted London team is guaranteed. My commiserations to Stockport and Wycombe.
Friday 16th May
What does the High Courtdecision on planning consent for Brockwell Park mean for Mighty Hoopla and the future of the Lambeth Country Show, and indeed festivals across council-owned spaces across London, and indeed council tax bill increases, and indeed horribly churned up turf, and indeed smug Nimbys? Prepare to read all kind of discordant opinion pieces.
