The decline in LSE listings underscores a shift in global financial dynamics, challenging London's status as a premier financial hub.
CryptoBriefing•Editorial Team11 Sept
A blue lady strides across the fourth plinth, Beryl Cook and friends gather in Bicester, and Spain repurposes a traffic junction – all in your weekly dispatch Tschabalala Self A rollicking triumph of a statue that spreads good feelings and smiles in the heart of the capital. Saucy genius. • Fourth plinth, Trafalgar Square, London Continue reading...
The Guardian•Jonathan Jones11 Sept
The LSE has 900 fewer listings than 10 years ago but its chief executive Julia Hoggett says the doom narrative is wrong. She shares her plans to put London back on the map.
A new exhibition in London celebrates the influential hairstylist whose clients include Janelle Monáe and Zadie Smith. She explains her story – and why she’s on a mission to ensure stylists are trained to work with all hair types When Charlotte Mensah was a young child growing up in Accra, Ghana in the 1970s, she would spend hours watching her aunties having their hair intricately threaded, an ancient African technique where hair is wrapped tightly using yarn or thread. She didn’t know then that she would go on to become one of the most influential hairdressers in the UK. Renowned for championing natural black hair textures in mainstream culture, she has worked as hairstylist to singers Janelle Monáe and Erykah Badu, and the writer Zadie Smith. According to Smith, in an essay she penned about Mensah’s magic earlier this year: “Charlotte can make a great mane of braids appear where previously there were only split ends and hair loss.” Continue reading...
The Guardian•Sinéad Campbell11 Sept
The Pit, Barbican, London Renell Shaw and TD Moyo’s new opera, with libretto by April Koyejo-Audiger, tells a tragic story of two cousins. Gamba Cole shines as Adjani ‘There’s no ocean big enough to hold these black boys’ tears,” a young man sings. But what about a genre big enough? Our Eyes Looking for God – a show that aims to explore the “Black British experience” – finds a framework for the extravagant, baroque emotions, intensities and stories of its subject matter in opera. In many ways it’s a natural fit – or could be. Created in 2020 by writer, director and activist TD Moyo and award-wining composer Renell Shaw , the piece grows out of Moyo’s personal grief for a brother murdered in south London and the global race rage after George Floyd’s death. Moyo weaves both threads into the story of Liverpool cousins Adjani and Kamal. Adjani’s decision to leave for London sparks a final night of reminiscences, celebrations, farewells and violent tragedy for two boys who – spoiler alert – may already be dead before the action begins. Continue reading...
The Guardian•Alexandra Coghlan11 Sept
Pierce Brosnan has said that it is all happy families on the set of Paramount+’s MobLand. At the Season 2 premiere in London, Brosnan was asked about the behind-the-scenes drama involving Tom Hardy, who reportedly clashed with showrunner Jez Butterworth and had timekeeping issues on set. “Oh my God, it was a storm in a […]
Deadline•Jake Kanter11 Sept
Charli xcx is bringing the “Music, Fashion, Film” tour overseas. The avant-garde pop star has announced six U.K. and Europe dates in February 2027, including in Dublin, Ireland; Glasgow, Scotland; Manchester, England; London, England; Amsterdam, The Netherlands; and Paris, France. “Sue Me” and “Bowling Alley” singer Audrey Hobert will open for all dates. Charli is […]
Variety•Ellise Shafer11 Sept
The coffee and cream pudding has always been popular. But now it’s inspired a dedicated cafe and countless products, from drinks to ice-creams to buns. What’s behind this big cultural craving? When Giancarlo Fanigliulo opened Marrone, a cafe dedicated to tiramisu in London’s Soho in August, he hadn’t anticipated he would sell out within two and a half hours. “I was expecting a buzz, but I wasn’t expecting queues around the corner,” he tells me. “It was insane.” This kind of excitement about the Italian dessert is not a one-off – we are, it seems, living in an age of tiramisu-mania. Nearly all of the high street coffee chains have offered some kind of tiramisu coffee as a seasonal special (in the US, Dunkin’ currently has four different tiramisu-flavoured drinks on its menu). Meanwhile, Haagen-Dazs and Carte D’or now sell tiramisu ice-cream, London chain Buns from Home offers a tiramisu-flavoured croissant-dough bun and social media is awash with tiramisu recipes and videos of “tiramisu drawers” – trays of the dessert ready to serve out of drawers in chefs’ kitchens – as popularised by the viral one at Manchester pasta restaurant Onda. Continue reading...
The Guardian•Lucy Knight11 Sept
London has one of the lowest violent crime rates of any region in England and Wales, tops a global ranking of the best cities, and pays more in taxes than it receives back in public spending—but the public overestimates how likely Londoners are to become victims of crime, underestimates the capital's international standing, and has little idea it is the key contributor to public finances, according to a new study from the Policy Institute at King's College London.
Cassie's mostly kept to herself since testifying against Diddy during his sex trafficking trial ... but she did make a rare public appearance recently -- showing up to a classy London premiere. The singer-songwriter attended the "Mobland" showing…
TMZ•TMZ Staff10 Sept
Continuing his run of superstar guest appearances, Jay-Z brought out Justin Timberlake in Paris on Thursday for a rare performance of “Holy Grail,” their collaboration on Jay’s 2013 album “Magna Carta Holy Grail,” as well as “Until the End of Time,” which was originally a Timberlake duet with Beyonce. In London last week, Jay brought […]
Variety•Jem Aswad10 Sept
Cutting-edge conservation techniques allowed the famous tapestry to travel to England from France. The exhibition in London is shaping up to be a blockbuster.
The New York Times•Katrin Bennhold10 Sept
After plenty of behind-the-scenes drama on Paramount+ hit “MobLand,” which saw Tom Hardy almost booted off the series, the cast and creatives reunited for the premiere of Season 2 in London, Thursday night. Leading trio Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren — who play crime couple Conrad and Maeve Harrigan opposite Hardy’s fixer Harry Da Souza […]
Variety•K.J. Yossman10 Sept
Seven people arrested following ‘altercation’ on Bromley High Street on Thursday afternoon Seven people have been arrested after four men were stabbed in south-east London, the Metropolitan police said. Officers were called to reports of “an altercation” on Bromley High Street at 2.15pm and found four men with stab wounds, the force added. Continue reading...
The Guardian•Emine Sinmaz and Kevin Rawlinson10 SeptSeven people arrested following ‘altercation’ on Bromley High Street on Thursday afternoon Seven people have been arrested after four men were stabbed in south-east London, the Metropolitan police said. Officers were called to reports of “an altercation” on Bromley High Street at 2.15pm and found four men with stab wounds, the force added. Continue reading...
The Guardian•Emine Sinmaz and Kevin Rawlinson10 Sept
A live capture of Oh, Mary!, the hit, award-winning Broadway and West End stage comedy written by and starring Cole Escola will debut on HBO in 2027, the network announced today. The program is the filmed capture of the July 28, 2026, performance that took place at the Trafalgar Theatre in London’s West End, with […]
Deadline•Greg Evans10 Sept
Visitors got a first glimpse of the medieval artefact after it went on display at the British Museum in London On the day Bayeux tapestry tickets were released, Megan Stockwell was at the beach. She was so determined to lock down her spot, that she sat with her toes in the sand for an hour, waiting in the online queue. “The whole ticket buying experience felt like what other people would do to get Taylor Swift tickets. I was like, ‘oh God, am I, like, the geek version of this?’” she recalled. Continue reading...
The Guardian•Rachel Hall10 Sept
The hyper-flamboyant and hilariously filthy show is an inclusive, celebratory platform for queer culture. The broadcaster’s choice to nix it is giving stupidity The BBC is canning RuPaul’s Drag Race UK – a decision that, in my household, will bring the number of regularly watched programmes on the Beeb down from one to zero. It’s a decision that will no doubt please enemies of LGBTQ+ culture, but otherwise seems inexplicable. For a start, Drag Race UK regularly pulls in 1 million viewers a week, which hardly seems like a show in its death throes (even if this is down from a previous high of 1.5 million). RuPaul’s Drag Race is also a bona fide cultural phenomenon. Since the US version started in 2009, it has brought tons of performers to national, or even global, attention who would otherwise still be plying their trade in provincial gay bars. Jinkx Monsoon from the US is now starring in Oh Mary! in London’s West End; the UK’s La Voix made it on to Strictly; and Bimini Bon-Boulash, who “stepped their pussy up” to astonishing effect in season two, has made records, modelled and written a book. Continue reading...
The Guardian•Alex Needham10 Sept
Trafalgar Square, London The swaggering statue’s luscious collision of brown and blue could stop traffic – and serves as a reminder of the big, beautiful, multicultural world we enjoy It hit me like a thunder clap. One moment I was bored and irritated by the official speeches before the unveiling of Tschabalala Self’s sculpture on the fourth plinth, which so insisted on its sociopolitical worth it sounded like Soviet propaganda. Then the covering slid off and I was in love with the Lady in Blue. Self has created one of the most beautiful sculptures put on Trafalgar Square’s empty plinth – and I don’t mean that in a cool, formalist way. There is a serious danger of traffic accidents as drivers passing the square stare a little too long at the Lady’s generous proportions, her long stride in platform shoes, her intensely physical, confident being. Continue reading...
The Guardian•Jonathan Jones10 Sept
Hampstead theatre, London Maria Friedman plays a 15-year-old with a rare ageing condition in a heartfelt and funny show that manages to sustain its sweetness It’s a bizarre concept for a musical: a girl with a rare condition that causes her to age four times faster than her peers, in a family so dysfunctional that she’s the normal one. Meanwhile, the musical highlights are songs about cheque fraud and scurvy. And yet, somehow, through all this artifice and elaborate setup comes a show so sincerely heartfelt, one that is genuine, hilarious and utterly endearing. Kimberly Akimbo started out as a play, in 2001, by Pulitzer prize-winner David Lindsay-Abaire, adapted into a musical with composer Jeanine Tesori (Shrek, Fun Home, Caroline, or Change) in 2021. It was lauded on Broadway, where audiences fell for its feels and kooky charm and it won five Tony awards . Continue reading...
The Guardian•Lyndsey Winship10 Sept