Image taken by idrewuk on Flickr
Halfway down a very unassuming Wadeson Street in the middle of Tower Hamlets/Hackney hides an almost secret venue for arty folks, the cream of the design crowd and food lovers alike. Bistrotheque is a brilliant place to surprise friends with – the industrial surroundings raises some eyebrows from new visitors, and the entrance is easy to miss. But this restaurant/bistro (as the name suggests) remains firm in my heart, and from experience, the best things in East London come in hidden packages!
It’s the design of …

Recently, a few friends and myself headed down to the Shoreditch Diner on Curtain Road which, as the name gives away, is in Shoreditch.
There’s a few of these diners dotted around London, which are mocked up in traditional Americana style complete with booth seats, malt shakes and chilli cheese fries.
Be warned though! Don’t head down the Angel diner hungover looking for a substantially greasy breakfast, as you will be horrifically disappointed. When I recently ventured down there with a head like a bear I ended up with a substantially lighter …

Words by JDG Chambers and images credited to Cynthia Chan
The trouble with late-night drinking in Shoreditch and the difference a few hours makes to New York’s Lower East Side.
The old lady of east London likes to be tucked up in bed by two a.m. Shoreditch, as the old lady likes to be called, leaves the late opening hours to her cousin across the pond.
To confuse matters, our politicians pass 24-hour licensing laws to abolish the binge-drinking race against last orders. We should be more continental, they tell us, take our …

Although this exhibition has been and gone I still feel it’s worthwhile reviewing in an attempt to highlight how good the Somerset House events can be. It’s definitely worthwhile keeping up to date with what’s on, as shows can easily pass you by. Somerset House is also particularly appropriate for fashion lovers as it often features exhibitions along the fashion lines including past events like ‘Skin and Bones’, which studied the relationship between fashion and architecture. It is also of course the new venue for London Fashion week.
Norma Parkinson was …

Having traipsed along Oxford Street during the human traffic rush hours for a few weeks now, I feel more than experienced to vent frustrations with the zoo known as Oxford Circus and its surroundings. Top peeves:
1. Umbrellas: Emily Post should have written a book on Umbrella Etiquette. I nearly get an umbrella in the eye about three times a day. People should have to pass tests to own and use one. If you are walking and someone is nearby, raise your umbrella up. Please.
2. Arms as weapons: People who swing their arms …

Over the years I have had a few unusual flirtations with rock climbing, which have included dangling off a massive wall of ice in Peru, scampering up a free climbing wall in Greece and more recently donning a fetching t-shirt and taking part in a rock climbing competition in Mile End.
I wasn’t even aware the Mile End Climbing Wall existed until a friend suggested some rock climbing action as a birthday day out. The facility is situated close by to Mile End tube station on the central line and can …

If you find yourself in or around Old Street and the concrete peering at you from every angle is getting a little too much or you don’t fancy eating your sandwiches at your desk again, then you could do worse than sit under the trees in a little nook of calm called Bunhill Fields on City Road.
Bunhill Fields, formally known as ‘Bone Hill’ started life literally as a pile of bones, unceremoniously dumped from St Paul Cathedral when they were having a clearout in the mid sixteenth century. …

Now if you’re anything like me, the sentence ‘South of the River’ is always followed by a shudder and feeling of foreboding. My last experience of South of the River dining was one dodgy Mr Fish bar very late one Friday night when after several cocktails quite frankly anything seemed like a good idea. Well this really wasn’t a great idea as nursing our stomach aches the general group consensus was that we’d had our insides violated and the reason for this of course was that we were …