London Lamppost - The Illuminating Guide to London

Balans Soho Society

By Joss Bassett 26 April 2018

There may be seven Balans Soho Society venues, including two cafes, but the Soho location, just down from one of the cafes, is, for my money, the best. Open from 7.30am to 5 or 6am (depending on the day) on the following day, it is the perfect place to get a great meal any time…

Classic Shoe Styles

By Ollie Gane 25 April 2018

Shoes should be seen as an investment, if you look after them they will last for years (see our shoe care guide), when they wear out you can send them back to the factory and they will come back as good as new. It’s a far better deal than buying from some online retailers that…

Comptoir Café & Wine

By Joss Bassett 24 April 2018

At times a good wine and cheese bar is what you need and Mayfair’s Comptoir (there’s a sister one in Marylebone and Cabotte in The City) fills that need and then some. Comptoir offers a choice of some 2000 wines to choose from alongside a light clean menu with classic French and Italian offerings. Sharing…

It's Summer Holiday Booking Time

By Rob Farrow 20 April 2018

April showers can lead to big discounts if you book now. Although British Summer Time has officially started and the clocks have gone forward, it doesn’t feel particularly summery and ones thoughts are not naturally turning to booking a Summer Holiday. Not surprising after two heavy snow falls & the inevitable disruption they caused both…

Big Easy

By Steven Shakeshaft 19 April 2018

Big Easy’s Covent Garden location (there’s also one on Kings Road and another in Canary Wharf) is nicely located and always busy, but you can turn up on spec and put your name on a waiting list for a table later. Spread over two large floors, we were seated downstairs near the stage (did I…

The American Bar at the Savoy

By Joss Bassett 18 April 2018

Named 2017’s World’s Best Bar, among cocktail bars in London few have the mythical status of The American Bar at the Savoy. Seen as the spiritual home of London’s cocktail scene, and the bar that gave the world one of the most famous and influential cocktail books ever, it is a place of pilgrimage for…

Spicy Meatball: London's Street Photographer

By Joss Bassett 17 April 2018

Thankfully Instagram isn’t just about millennials showing off their ‘better than you’ loves or pictures of food, it has become a show room for the creative work of all sorts of artists and landscape and cityscape photographers. Among the many of high res generic images of London, you’ll find some great photographers of the city…

London Oyster Week

By Joss Bassett 16 April 2018

Of all the food weeks and days London organises, it’s amazing to think that there’s never been one for oysters, those little shellfish that have been such an important food through the cities history. Well finally this oversight has been corrected, and London’s inaugural Oyster Week is shortly to be upon us. Organised by Katy…

Street Food: Our Pick of the Best

By Joss Bassett 13 April 2018

As spring finally arrives, London’s street food scene will change up a gear. Of course the street food scene is all year long these days, with the weekday lunch markets, weekend markets and the undercover market of Street Feast, all playing host to a huge variety of cultures, cuisines and styles. With the warm weather…

Rotherhithe – The hidden gem of the Docklands

By Nicholas Bowman-Scargill 12 April 2018

If you ask most Londoners, even those rare fellows who were actually born in our great capital, they’re unlikely to have heard of Rotherhithe. Having lived in this river-fronted peninsula for a decade now I can attest to the blank stares received when you say where you live. Despite being across the river from Canary…