A mail cart being driven across a shoreline, bound for Holy Island in Northumberland. Known to the locals as noddies, these horse-drawn traps carried mail across the water from the mainland of Beal to Holy Island. Guided only by the poles that mark a sandy causeway, the unusually high wheels allowed the vehicle to drive in to the waves. This image appeared in the Post Office Magazine in August 1938. All of the photos in this gallery are taken from the exhibition The Post Office in Pictures, on show at The Lumen in London until August 31 2012. The free exhibition showcases a selection of inspiring images dating from the 1930s to the 1980s, all sourced from the vast collections of The British Postal Museum ... Continue reading →
A mail cart being driven across a shoreline, bound for Holy Island in Northumberland. Known to the locals as noddies, these horse-drawn traps carried mail across the water from the mainland of Beal to Holy Island. Guided only by the poles that mark a sandy causeway, the unusually high wheels allowed the vehicle to drive in to the waves. This image appeared in the Post Office Magazine in August 1938. All of the photos in this gallery are taken from the exhibition The Post Office in Pictures, on show at The Lumen in London until August 31 2012. The free exhibition showcases a selection of inspiring images dating from the 1930s to the 1980s, all sourced from the vast collections of The British Postal Museum ... Continue reading →
Flying trapeze in Regent's Park and other temporary venues citywide Take your exercise regime to new heights (pun intended) with a flying-trapeze class. This summer, circus-skills trainers Gorilla Circus is taking to the great outdoors and bringing London’s first outdoor trapeze school to Regent’s Park. It will be based there until September and will also visit other locations, such as The Roundhouse in Camden. A two-hour beginners’ class (costing £23.50) teaches basic tricks on the ground before participants are taken to the high platform to try them out in the skies. As well as offering great views of the city and a rush of adrenalin, the flying trapeze is said to provide a similar workout to gymnastics, particularly focusing on the lats, abdominals and shoulder ... Continue reading →
In order to survive the audacious stunt, he had to flare his wing suit about 200ft from his target in order to bring his gliding speed down to 50mph and his vertical falling speed to 15mph. He landed to cheers from thousands of people who watched his feat and was met on the ground by his wife Vivienne, who gave him a kiss. He celebrated his achievement with champagne on the ground. Mr Connery, whose films include Die Another Day, The Beach, Batman Begins and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, said it had been an "amazing feeling". "I feel absolutely wonderful, I am overwhelmed," he told reporters afterwards. "I am in a strange zone at the moment. It is an amazing ... Continue reading →
London’s experimental and continually evolving dining scene has nurtured plenty of home-grown talents and exceptional local restaurants but, increasingly, it’s also luring celebrated chefs and restaurants from abroad. Last year Thomas Keller transported The French Laundry restaurant from California to Harrods for ten days; some 1,400 diners booked it out immediately, each spending £250 (excluding drinks and service) to savour a nine-course tasting menu. This year, Claridge’s Hotel welcomes Copenhagen restaurant Noma from July 22 to August 13, where a five-course menu will cost £195. With Noma again named the world’s best restaurant this year, demand for tables has been intense. Still, with the original Bukhara’s appeal derived partially from its heritage and original features it was always going to be hard to concoct a ... Continue reading →
Clerkenwell Design Week The press release for the Clerkenwell Design Week claims the EC1 postcode where it’s based is “regarded as the creative core of the UK”. That bombastic claim is pushing it, but there are scores of design studios, architects’ practices and artists’ studios in the area, and this three-day festival celebrates their efforts. For its duration you can visit workshops and showrooms that are normally closed to the public, participate in a number of talks and workshops, or enjoy musical performances and other live entertainment. Plenty of restaurants around the area are offering special deals to coincide with the event (listed on the website) and you can see the full programme here. When: May 22 - 24Where: venues throughout ClerkenwellTube: Farringdon; Barbican; AngelHow ... Continue reading →
All of the images in this gallery are featured in the Out of Focus: Photography exhibition, on show at the Saatchi Gallery in London until July 22, 2012. (Admission is free.) Here William A. Ewing gives his guide to some of the exhibition's most notable images, and shares the stories of the photographers who took them. Berndnaut Smilde; Nimbus II Dutch artist Berndnaut Smilde is interested in impermanent states of being which he documents through photographs. For Nimbus II, he used a smoke machine, combined with moisture and dramatic lighting to create a hovering indoor cloud in the empty setting of a 16th-century chapel in a small town in Holland. “I imagined walking into a museum hall with just empty walls. The place even looked ... Continue reading →