#gina-chingford

#gina-chingford

The museum, which displays Walthamstow's colourful cultural history - not to mention Britain's first ever petrol-fuelled car - closed for renovation in December 2023.

It's not a house of outstanding art, being a self-taught carver whose skills evidently advanced over the years, as you can see the evolution from fairly rough carving on the stairs to the very skilled work in the living room. He also created the paintings on the walls - talented chap - but never finished the carving in the living room, as his time finally ran out.

The Cheesecake-Off 2026 will feature some of London's best restaurant and bakery teams, including Big Mamma Group and Cakes & Bubbles by Albert Adrià, competing for the ultimate cheesecake title.

The Exchange is a community hub powered by North Paddington Foodbank who are the UK's first and only cash-first foodbank. Instead of offering food parcels, the foodbank gives out cash and vouchers instead, creating real routes out of crisis. This in turn helps foodbanks evolve into hubs of culture, care and community.

The first floor is now home to The Ballroom, a cocktail bar and events space with room for 250 people to sip cocktails and listen to vinyl. The room gives strong '70s vibes, with raspberry-pink walls, leather and PVC booth-style seating and oak details all adding to the old school aesthetic.

A new campaign is aiming to collect 50 objects that sum up Englishness in an effort to move the conversation away from reductive arguments over whether to hang a St George's flag or not. Supported by the Green party politician Caroline Lucas, the musician and campaigner Billy Bragg, and Kojo Koram, a law professor, the A Very English Chat campaign hopes to tackle England's growing social divisions and political polarisation.

We've been excited about the potential of this project for some time. Built on a foundation of unique programming, ambitious production, and obsessive attention to detail, Open-Air sits on the bank of the River Thames at Greenwich Peninsula, bringing people closer to London's iconic skyline than ever before.

The Chinese New Year has been marked with a colourful parade in central London featuring, dancing, music and dragons. It marks the start of the Year of the Horse, which began on 17 February. The first day of the Chinese New Year falls on the new moon which appears between 21 January and 20 February every year. The London parade began in Trafalgar Square before moving up Charing Cross Road to Shaftesbury Avenue and then into Chinatown.

The Castle Cinema, which opened on Chatsworth Road in 2015 after a crowdfunding campaign, has become one of the best places to catch a film in the whole of London, so there's no better team to revitalise Catford Mews. Reopening at The Castle Catford some time in 2026, the venue will boast three screens, a community space, a bar and a cafe.

This part of London sits just outside the historic City walls, so it attracted traders who wanted to avoid the strict rules binding City merchants. The land was later acquired by Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Cleveland, who developed it, hence the main road being named Wentworth Street. If you're wondering about Ann's Place, that was probably after his wife, Anne Hopton.

Fiona Twycross, the heritage minister, is to be congratulated for finally giving London's Southbank Centre Grade II listing (Campaigners welcome long overdue' listing of brutalist Southbank Centre, 10 February). I remember being shocked when I first saw it in the 1960s, but it has become a remarkable symbol of the zeitgeist. Its grey concrete and its childlike composition together express the fatalism and despair of a nation in economic and political decline.

While looking for ways to pass the time during the pandemic, cousins Lucie Gray and Ellie Bruce, 34 and 26 respectively, tried out a metal detector in their grandfather's garden. That same day, they found a button from a naval jacket, which piqued their curiosity. It made us wonder what other hidden things might be out there, Gray recalls. She had recently moved from her native New Zealand to Lincoln, England, where her relatives live.

Since 1997 Nottingham Pride has existed with one purpose: to support, uplift and represent the LGBTQ+ community in Nottinghamshire. Nottingham Pride is a small authentically LGBTQ+ volunteer run charity,

"Communicative, soulful and intentional," is how Kay, the founder of queer dating events Blind Match, described the experiences she offers. "Emotionally, mentally or physically drained," is how 78 per cent of 1,000 dating app users reported feeling when seeking romance online, according to a 2025 Forbes Health Survey. Tackling modern-day swipe culture is no easy feat, but Kay is determined to try. As the name suggests, the in-person matchmaking experience enables LGBTQ+ individuals to meet a potential partner, or future friend, completely blindfolded.

The Big Brine, co-founded by Emma and Clarice, who have backgrounds in events and event catering, will bring together the worlds of food, wellness and sustainability by showcasing the craft and culture behind brining and fermenting.

We've been exploring what nightlife looks like in London outside of the traditional nightclubs, and here comes the Barbican with a brand-new late-night party series. The 'anyone can dance' events will be a celebration of diaspora, community and joy, with the Level -1 foyer space turning into a dancefloor open until 3am. The series is kicking off on Fri 20th February with a night curated by Eastern Margins, a collective that celebrates alternative East and South East Asian creativity and culture.

A new listening bar has opened in Walthamstow, bringing Japanese-inspired interiors, a carefully curated sound system and a seriously strong drinks list to the neighbourhood. The Olfa Club offers 27 wines by the glass, with prices starting from a fiver, alongside a mineralised water menu, plus a record player for guests who want to bring their own vinyl or dip into the in-house selection.

According to recent data, over 2 million people are typically out and about across the capital between 9pm and midnight, with around 1 million remaining active later into the night, in a testament to the city's enduring after-dark draw. A "rain check" no longer has to mean disappointment, though. Across the capital, nightlife has evolved into something far more flexible than a simple pub-to-club circuit. Dining, entertainment, gaming and culture increasingly blend into evenings that feel intentional rather than improvised.

After releasing her cookbook Rambutan, celebrating the food of Sri Lanka and her Tamil roots, Cynthia Shanmugalingam opened a restaurant of the same name in Borough in 2023. Rambutan received rave reviews almost immediately and has built a rep for being one of the best Sri Lankan restaurants in town thanks to dishes like mutton rolls, saffron chicken pongal rice, and kottu roti with crab and chilli butter.

The cult-worthy French-Asian bakery already has branches on Mercer Street in Covent Garden and Duke Street in Marylebone, and will be launching on Shaftesbury Avenue this spring . The bakery combines Parisian patisserie flair with global flavours, stocking the likes of housemade shokupan (Japanese milk bread), sausage and cheese croissants with Japanese bbq sauce, tomato confit pain suisse and miso bacon escargot with spring onions and coriander.