AdrenaLINE Magazine by am88

ISSUE NO. 8

MARCH 2014

POSTCARDS FROM THE PAST a walk with Dickens and Shakespeare

BAFTAs 2014 OFF THE RED CARPET GOING BEYOND LONDON’S ART TRAVELLERS EXPOSED Victoria Line portraiture

£ 3.00

Editor’s letter

And, coincidently, this idea came to our minds while we were on the tube! We aim to showcase London every month through the tube lines, which apparently are the face and lifeline of this magnificent city. As the editor, with this issue I want to take you on a journey with Adrenaline. You can dress up according to the latest style trends, know ancient secrets about London, eat some palate- tickling International food, shop around in the cheapest markets, and enjoy the arts and entertainment of London. Being the first issue of Adrenaline, this one is destiny’s child in the real sense. Our Art Director Virginia and Picture Co-ordinator Leila toiled themselves for about fifteen hours at the BAFTAs Red Carpet right from five in the morning till the late hours of night. We present to you exclusive pictures of Brangelina, Bradley Cooper, Tom Hanks and many more who walked the red carpet.

eam Adrenaline was in week nine. I was leaving for India for my sister’s wedding in the following week. As per our schedule, we were supposed to finish up most of the work, nearly 70 percent of it. Although I’m the youngest in the team, and all the while I was absent from class, I actually felt as if I had left my babies back in London. We were completely alien to InDesign, and hardly any of us were adept behind the lens. Terribly anxious as to how our brainchild would turn out to be, I’m incredibly grateful to my Associate Editor Konstantina Pyrnokoki, who managed Adrenaline adequately with her calm persona and brought the required rush to Adrenaline.

Our featutes editor Sonali Kamboj took a special tour around London to bring you our wonderful story of Literary Walks. Adrenaline will give you rushes, as you will read through the tube lines across London from Booze Info to After Hours and from the latest style trends to the magnanimous London Fashion Weekend. As you will flip through the pages of this magazine, it will give you an essence of modern London, where traditions are still celebrated. It juxtaposes the past and the present, similar to a flashback in a feature film. It’s partly vintage even while it’s contemporary. Last but not the least, discover the face of London in systematic fashion as we guide you through the tube lines. It’s a journey; savour it, capture it and cherish it with Adrenaline forever. After all, you don’t always come to London. Do you?

Our mission is to show a different face of London, dishing out more than just ‘things to do’. Astonishingly, Konstantina and I both pitched the same idea of using the tube lines as our main foundation. 3

CONTENTS

24 Street

46 Screen BAFTAs 2014 - exclusive photos of the red carpet

Going beyond London and art galleries

56 Beats

30 Street

Flamenco’s love arrives in London

The food is your Oyster card

58-59 Beats

33 Photo story Commuters uncovered!

37 Street

A walk with Dickens and Shakespeare

UK Musicians: Adam White and James Walsh

64 Out and about

Best places for boozing in London

43 Now and then 66 Things to do

A glimpse into the mind of London’s most notorious serial killer

What you shouldn’t miss in the month of April

3 Editor’s letter 7 Opinion piece The chills and the thrills of UK’s metropole

8 Out and about March was a fun month!

12 Style The upcoming trends: what to wear in April?

19 Life Profile of a designer - Jessie Shorley

22 Street Astrology shop reading into the future 4

Editor in Chief Shefali Saxena @dreamsalchemist Associate Editor Konstantina Pyrnokoki @KwsPyr Sub-editor Vidwath Shetty @vs2014 Art Director Virginia Cerezo @corleoneslannis Associate Art Director and Picture Editor Leila Murseljevic @paralelopipak Culture Editor Krista Culbertson @KristaCulbert7 News and Style Editor Maria Kriva @Maria_Kriva Features Editor Sonali Kamboj @SonaliKamboj Life and After Hours Editor JoshuaRabinowitz @jar2412

ISSU

E NO .

MAR

POST C FROM ARDS a walk THE PAST and S with Dick e hake spear ns e

CH 2 014

BAFT A OFF s 2014 THE RED CARP ET GOIN G LOND BEYOND ON’S ART TRAV E EXPO LLERS S Victo ED ria Lin e por tr

aiture £ 3.0

Logo designed by Maria Kriva Cover designed by Leila Murseljevic

New to London? The chills and the thrills of adjusting to the busy metropolis

nce upon a time, a group of nine people from nine different countries arrived in London and endeavoured to work together for a mutual cause. The outcome of their efforts is not as special as the journey they embarked on, as they didn’t only have to adapt in one of the world’s busiest capitals, but also, they had to adapt to each other. Now these nine, working as a team, was no easy feat. Their countries of origin amongst others included India, Montenegro, Greece, America and Spain. Moving to a different country is a grand transition itself. Adding to that the cultural gap and lurking communication misunderstandings, this move can be a real challenge. On a wider level, this is the life of an International Student in London; challenging. At first, the transition from one’s comfort zone to the competitive, fast-paced and full of surprises setting of London comes as an intriguing shock. But then you realise that you are not the only one, whose bubble has burst and is thrown into the aggressive and fascinating world of London. The second phase of this transition is the start of relationships. Whatever one had come to know and understand becomes vague and questionable, once they begin to communicate with people from different cultures. Intercultural communication is tricky yet compelling. There are a lot of clichés that describe the benefits of getting to know people from different backgrounds. The most common must

be the “broaden your horizons” one. It sounds banal and ambiguous, but it is true. Familiarising yourself with different cultures is not only important to gain new perspectives of the world but it is also a key to understand your own culture. Imagine you never leave your convenient and familiar world, will you ever realise how different or similar you are to the rest of the world? And if you don’t take the leap to leave your cosy environment that you call “home”, will you ever know what you are really capable of? There are only two options for a foreigner, when trying to adapt to a new environment; it’s pretty much a case of sink or swim. The change can either be perceived as a threat or an opportunity. Regarding the imminent thought of “How to be a foreigner in London”, the answer should be quite clear. Consider it a great opportunity; an opportunity to challenge yourself, test your capabilities, figure out who you are and explore these once in a lifetime experiences. Regarding the communication problems that may rise, the solution should be straightforward. Listen, observe, and learn. All these steps will eventually lead to the final phase of the initial transition. All the efforts and struggles of fitting in the new environment will finally culminate in a smooth and pleasant life adjustment. gMK

OUT AND ABOUT

o Get ready t g by n i r p s y o j n e he t n w o d g n i stroll on d n o L f o s t stree

Beware of the Vikings!

ikings: Life And Legend is the first major exhibition on Vikings for over 30 years, taking place at the British Museum until June. The archaeological objects featured, focus on the core period of the Viking Age, from the late 8th century to the early 11th century. The exhibition aims to portray the Viking identity, in terms of culture, society and trade. It offers insight into a significant era of history, which is now put into context as it unravels through the fascinating discoveries that frame its developments. The Vikings’ shipbuilding skills were their strongest asset for survival and the timbers used in a 37-metre-long warship are an amazing part

of the exhibition. Weapons and looted treasures also demonstrate the Vikings’ engagement in combats, while the gold and silver jewellery unveil their more civilised side. For those wishing to get a one-on-one encounter with a Viking, recently excavated skeletons of executed Vikings are also on display!g KP The exhibition will run until June 22nd in The Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery, which is open for the first time at the British Museum. Opening hours: 10.00-17.30 Saturday to Thursday and 10.00-20.30 Fridays. There is also a morning exhibition dedicated to young families on Tuesday 20 May, 10.00-12.00.

International fashion showcase at the Strand

or the third time now, London was the centre of a global fashion journey under the International Fashion Showcase 2014. Organised by the British Council and British Fashion Council, from 13th – 23rd February, almost 30 foreign embassies and cultural institutes based in London became exhibition venues for more than 120 designers from all around the world, making it the biggest exhibition to date. The central venue was located at The Strand in London, housing 16 countries from four continents. The exhibitions were a great opportunity for the audience not only to see the works of emerging talents and design graduates, but also experience the traditional craftsmanship and visual culture of each designer’s country. With special attention to form

and details on designs, the International Fashion Showcase is an intelligent mix of diplomacy and fashion; getting to know the individuality of each country through its culture and design. It’s a platform for designers across the world to present their work during London Fashion Week. To date, it has exhibited the work of more than 200 designers from over 40 countries. g LM

Greek poems on the Tube

n honour of the current Greek six-month presidency (January-June) of the Council of the European Union, the ‘Poems on the Underground’ programme is presenting the work of Greek poets on the Tube. Poems that revolve around love, myth, history and the natural world by Cavafy, Sappho and Gkatsos, combined with the work of British and Irish poets, such as Romantic Philhellene Byron and Irish poet and translator Theo Dorgan, will be posted on trains all around London

until June. The launch event took place at Hampstead’s Keats House on February 20th, where Theo Dorgan was invited and honoured. The ‘Poems on the Underground’ scheme works towards bringing poetry closer to a wider audience as well as making journeys more interesting and informative. In this case, it also aims to attract the large Greek community in London, while inviting Londoners to get to know a little bit more about Greek culture. g KP

OUT AND ABOUT

Trafalgar Square celebrates St. Patricks Day

ondon may not be the capital of Ireland, but none of that mattered on this year’s St. Patrick’s Day. The Irish patron saint’s holiday is typically observed on the 17th, but London joined in a day earlier with celebrations throughout the city. Trafalgar Square continued to host the main festival this year with an even bigger selection of stars than was seen in the previous year. The Riverdance Irish step dance troupe returned as headliners for the show in the square in order to commemorate St. Patricks Day and celebrate their 20th anniversary. There was also a selection

of Ireland’s most talented comedians. The parade this year was titled ‘World of Dance’ and included different dance groups from throughout London to help celebrate. Representatives from all 32 counties in Ireland also participated in the extravaganza, wearing their traditional country colours on parade floats and in joyful marching bands. Street food vendors in the square served up delectable, traditional Irish fare like black pudding. But as always, there was plenty of Guinness that kept London’s Irish and nonIrish happy all day. g KC

London’s comedy at its best

Kew Gardens comes to life

ost of us will be glad that spring has arrived, not least after such a rainy winter. And with five million bulbs planted in time for April, Kew Gardens will be the perfect place to experience the best that nature has to offer. Particular highlights include the 250 different types of magnolia, a sea of crocuses and the opportunity to walk through the Cherry Orchards. For those looking for something a little off the beaten track, the Davies Alpine House is home to

ondon’s improvised comedy group Chuckle Duster performed this month at the Kick Bar in Shoreditch. Formed in 2011 by James Hamer Morton, Jack Donnelly, Joel Mellinger and Lauren Shotton, the group performs monthly at the bar’s basement. With his own unique style in which he invites the audience members to participate in the sketches, Chuckle Duster delivered yet another spectacle of laughs and jokes. Most of the audience present at the gig attended to get a glimpse of TV star Donnelly,

although as Hamer Morton says, “They come for Jack, but eventually they end up sticking to us because they really love the show.” For anyone who wants to go to their next show, follow @ChuckleDuster1 for more information. g VC Bar Kick, address: 127 Shoreditch High St, London E1 6JE Opening hours: Tuesday to Wednesday, 12pm-11pm, Thursday 12pm-12am, Friday to Saturday 12pm-1am and Sunday 12pm-10.30pm Nearest tube station: Hoxton, Overground

displays of exotic bulbs from the world’s mountain ranges as far flung as the Andes and the Himalayas. g JR

Did you know

Jack Donnelly (pictured in yellow) is the star of the BBC fantasy-drama series Atlantis ''

''CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9

OUT AND ABOUT

Celebrating women in London

his year marked the 103rd celebration of International Women’s Day. So who can ignore March 8th, a day dedicated to women, in honour of their achievements and global acts of inspiration. This year’s celebrations featured numerous events. From motivational talks and artistic festivals at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama to women graffiti artists, London girls had the opportunity to appreciate their own girl power in various ways, satisfying every interest. Waterloo’s 300 meter long Leak Street tunnel was crowded with talented women artists in an ‘All Girl Takeover’ graffiti event. In addition to

Secrets & lines T

he city’s secret tube line is all set to open for public viewing and a lucky few might even get a ride on it! If media reports are to be believed, the museum is set to open by 2016 to the public The Londonist reports that the British Postal Museum & Archive have sought permission from Islington Council to convert the mothballed ‘Mail Rail’ line into

something we can all use. Mail Rail is an abandoned underground rail line with tunnels from Paddington to Whitechapel. From 1927 to 2003, it was a private tube line for the Royal Mail. The line carried millions of letters and packages across the capital. It will run around the Aldwych ghost station and the Kingsway tram tunnel, which are very popular. g SS

that, themed poetry readings focused on women’s rights and were supported with relevant workshops organised by well-known universities in the country. While pleasing their inner playfulness, women took a glimpse at the Wonder World of the female superheroes with the unique screening of Wonder Women as part of the Birds Eye View Film Festival. With a number of creative and motivational events, screenings and workshops, 2014 was yet another year for praising the female spirit and the capital proved well that it is a metropolis of gifted, successful and charismatic modern women. g MK

Tech it out

ondon is about to witness its first ever Technology Week, which is being considered stiff competition for London Fashion Week. Slated to take place in the month of June this year, London Technology Week will boast more than 25 events, followed by a grand conference by Bloomberg. This event shall bring together thousands of tech experts and giants on one platform. It’s one of the initiatives to gather exceptionally talented people from all over the world. Discussions are already taking place in parliament to ease out immigration policies for migrants who would like to participate in the event. Mayor of London Boris Johnson has stated that

such an event will bring in more opportunities for employment. While talking to a news organization, Mr Johnson said: “There is nowhere to rival London for tech firms to thrive and grow – we have the talent, the investors, and the entrepreneurial spirit. Our tech offer now spans the capital in its entirety, from Tottenham to Croydon and from Wembley to Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park”.g SS

OUT AND ABOUT

The Festival of Colours adds hues to London

ondoners experienced the spirit of India when over 2000 people joined in the celebration of the Festival of Colours, known as Holi. Holi Land, an event that took place at the Great Suffolk Street Warehouse on 16th March, had Asians painting the town every colour of the spectrum. The jamboree commenced in the afternoon and went on until the early hours of the morning, with different communities later coming together and putting dry herbal colours on each other. Even though it was touted as ‘dry’ Holi, there was one striking feature, which distinguished it from any other Holi party – the champagne showers! Bottles

of Dom Perignon were brought in and sprayed all over the guests. Bollywood music, sumptuous food and an endless supply of alcohol added excitement and exuberance to the event. Everyone who attended the festivity was presented with one complimentary packet of

Control your hayfever this spring

pring can be a nightmare for allergies: as flowers begin to bloom the pollen count can soar, making life very difficult for those unlucky enough to suffer from hay fever. Whilst antihistamine medication is always a first choice to stop allergic reactions, it’s all too easy to forget your little packet of benadryl tablets and a romantic walk in the park with your significant other could be brought to a nose running, eye itching end. Don’t give in though, because making your way to the nearest teashop could be the answer. Apart from getting indoors

and away from the pollen, a number of ingredients in tea leaves can reduce allergic reactions and a steaming tea pot can loosen some of the stuffiness in your nose. A dash of honey in ginger tea can ease congestion and also contains ingredients that are proven to act against the reaction. Peppermint tea will have less of an effect on the congestion but is cooling, so will soothe a throat that’s sore from all the coughing. For something a little stronger, green tea or chamomile tea contain anti-inflammatory agents and should ease the symptoms. g JR

powdered colour. “It was like being at a concert. It was a lot of fun, so many colours and very well organised. The blend of music and ambience was perfect. It was exactly what you need ; a Holi party with music and a concert - like feel,” said Sahana Nair, 26, who attended

the event. Holi, which marks the end of winter and the onset of spring, is an ancient religious Hindu festival. But these days it is celebrated as a carnival of colours, where loved ones and strangers unite and play with water balloons and powdered colours. g SK

Soho’s vintage flair

ave you ever wondered about the hottest gossip of the ‘40s or what Vogue’s cover girl looked like 50 years ago? All you need to do is visit VinMag, London’s sole vintage magazine shop and browse through its wide selection of old magazines and front pages. It’s heaven for film, music and fashion lovers and as the

associate director, Paul Dempsey says “Vintage magazines are a true and better representation of how people digested popular culture.” The numerous boxes labelled with each decade from the ‘40s onwards contain a very interesting variety of magazines from ABC Film Review to ‘70s Vogues and from 19 (a ‘60s teen fashion magazine) to The New Yorker. With prices that start from £5 and go up to £50, vintage enthusiasts can get an insightful glimpse into the world of forgotten magazines. g MK Address 39-43 Brewer Street, Soho, London W1F 9UD

STYLE

A shift between seasons: the power of four Minimalistic pieces, flower garments, signature sweatshirts and sport mix are a must-have

here’s just something incredibly vibrant and optimistic about this time of the year: your plants in the house finally showed some life, you have some fresh ideas about colouring the bedroom wall and those birds outside stopped annoying you with their constant tweeting. It’s spring time!

Photos: Leila Murseljevic

Function and form defined the collections at New York and London and sexy glamour defined Milan. An international capital of style, Paris closes the fashion doors of the big fashion four venues in the beginning of March 2014. It’s not a novelty really that fashion catwalks dictate our daily style. Hence the question: what can we borrow from the catwalks and easily apply into

our dailywear, without the high catwalk price tags? Alexander McQueen once said that “fashion should be a form of escapism, and not a form of imprisonment.” There is no better time of the year than spring to open the doors and escape to the new, fresh and statement style . As the wind still dances around London smoothly, we need to cover ourselves stylishly. However, instead of choosing a straightforward leather-block coat, let’s pick something a bit more flashy and noticeable. At Milan fashion week Jil Sander coats were minimalistic, masculine, commercial and soft. Another way to layer up, use silk flowery scarves as covers for your pastelcoloured coats as seen in Burberry show in February. Textured knits and simple jewellery forms a contemporary look for this spring. Alexander Wang’s collection at the NY Fashion Week included a vast range of 60’s colourful long shirts/

tunics. London is all about the signature and textured sweatshirts like Peter Pilotto’s blue printed cottonblend sweatshirt for Target. Twin it with a beautiful brown-yellow pair of high McQueen open-toe heels and a pastel - transparent raincoat. Thick silk Paper London top will refresh our wardrobe in a way that chunky knitwear as seen in Derek Lam’s collection made a significant statement in NY Fashion Week. For an additional fancy statement pair it with blue and white Hugo Boss flowery jeans and you’re done and fabulous. For a confident Londoner, fierce, strong and military-like shoes are mandatory, such as Diesel leather green open-toe heels. On the other hand, London Fashion Week was all about the flats so if you’d prefer to go in the line with trendy flats, don’t go any further than floral slip-ons that Peter Pilotto designed for Target. One of the biggest looks for spring is definitely sport luxury, a fashion favourite among designers. London Fashion Weekend 2014 was a great opportunity to see some of the designers’ finest luxurious pleats and garments combined perfectly with powerful sport looks, as seen in the collections of Peter

Pilotto, Stella McCartney and Balenciaga. A style won’t be complete without a good signature bag. Fashion weeks and London Fashion Weekend both were showered with vast range of handcrafted pieces. So for this spring all you have to do, ladies, is think in terms of bucket bags , chic totes and clutches with a glimpse of summer colours. Don’t be afraid to mix any style this spring. In 2014 everything is allowed so let your wonderful imagination do the business. g LM

“F

ashion should be a form of escapism, and not a form of imprisonment.” Alexander McQueen

STYLE

A walk on the style side A funny thing happened on the way to Fashion Weekend – the guests lining up turned out to be the star attraction The next time there’s a big fashion show in town, you don’t necessarily need to make it to the catwalk to find out the latest style buzz. At this year’s London Fashion Weekend, the visitors were giving the runway models a run for their money. They were decked out in this season and next’s upcoming trends. And you can expect some key items from 2013 continuing their appeal for the rest of this year. Namely the denim jacket as well as plaid power suits , patterned shirts and an updated version of seersucker. The hotshots in line for the fashion weekend were a good example of the yesteryear looks. But we also had a teaser of 2014 trends set to make a big splash. There was the gentleman traveller, all black, space age, animal prints and plenty of checks. Here, we are introducing the future style icons of London. gVS

STREET

On London’s waterfront The Boat Race Facts & Figures

81-77

The number of races Cambridge lead Oxford by going into this years race.

The number of rowers in each boat, plus one ‘cox’ who steers and keeps the rowers in time.

16:19

wo internationally famous British Institutions, racing on Britain’s most famous river in one of the oldest sporting events worldwide. And you can be there with 300, 000 other spectators…for free! The Oxford vs Cambridge Annual Boat Race originated as a friendly competition between Charles Merivale, a student at St John’s College, Cambridge, and an old school friend Charles Wordsworth who was studying at Christ Church, Oxford. But it has since developed into a nationally broadcast

The Course

CHISWICK

sporting event that features some of the brightest young rowers in British Sport including commonwealth gold medallist Tom Watson, 2008 Olympic gold medallist Malcolm Howard, as well as Constatine Louloudis and Uru Storm who both won medals for London 2012. Oxford and Cambridge’s academic rivalry is infamous and this competitive spirit extends onto the water. Competing athletes train six times a week for six months leading up to the race and some, such as Alex Woods in 2008, collapsed with

Chiswick Pier

St Paul’s School London Wetland Centre Nature Reserve

Barnes Railway Bridge

The number of previous races. The race has run annually every year (excluding World Wars) since 1856.

The number of sinkages in 1912, 1925, 1951 and 1978.

17.2 million

The number of TV viewers who watched the race in 2011, the race’s highest ever viewing figures .

Hammersmith Bridge

Chiswick Eyot

Chiswick Bridge

Finish

exhaustion in the middle of the race. The event has produced many other memorable moments over the years including boats sinking (most notably Cambridge’s boat in 1978), crashes and even a swimming protestor in 2012! For many, the race remains one of the most intense and exciting events of the year. For others it is just a chance to sit on one of the many beer gardens that line the course and soak up the very British atmosphere of a century-old race along the course of the River Thames. gJR

159

BARNES

FULHAM

Fulham Football Club

Putney Bridge

Start 15

DISTRICT

Watched by millions on TV and thousands on the Thames, the Colours Boat Race is always full of blood, sweat and tears as well as plenty of drama

The record time, in minutes and seconds, set by Cambridge in 1998.

LIFE

The queen of biographies Lady Antonia Fraser In the process of charting the lives of infamous monarchs and consorts, Lady Antonia Fraser has become a powerful figure herself in the literary world

Photo by Sue Greenhill

his year marks the

45th anniversary of Lady Antonia Fraser’s groundbreaking historical biography of Mary Queen of Scots. So what better a time to profile a woman who almost single-handedly made the genre of royal historical biographies popular? As the daughter of the Earl and Countess of Longford, Antonia was born with the prefix title ‘Lady’, an entitlement to all daughters of Earls, Marquesses and Dukes. Her father Lord Longford was famous for his controversial views as well as his long-time support of moors murderer Myra Hindley. As a member of the aristocracy, Lady Antonia was certainly not expected to excel in an academic profession. But bear in mind she has writing in her blood. Her mother Lady Longford is a successful biographer and penned a well-received work on Queen Victoria. And Fraser’s daughter Flora has written many books, among them a biography of the daughters of King George III. But before stepping out of the shadow of her famous family, Lady Antonia got herself into marriage and motherhood. She wed the politician Hugh Fraser, with whom she had six children. But in spite of a large family to keep her over-occupied, Fraser set about preparing a biography of Mary Queen

of Scots in her thirties and the results were more than flattering. The book went onto become the biggest-selling historical biography of all time on a female subject. It also popularised the field of historical biographies, which at this period and although it’s hard to believe now, was completely out of fashion. The popularity of the book, which won Lady Antonia the James Tait Black Memorial prize, could be attributed to the many myths of Mary that the authoress managed to solve, amongst them the death of Mary’s husband. While biographers, and that too historical biographers, are not always accustomed to celebrity, Lady Antonia Fraser soon became a well-known name inside and outside the literary community.

“...she has writing in her blood” One of the things that many people picked up on was that Lady Antonia managed to put together a successful and extensively researched book in spite of her duties as a politician’s wife and mother of six. The now celebrated writer put it down to discipline. But while discipline may have helped her to write a recordselling and award winning

book, it did not play a part in saving her marriage from falling apart. Fraser began a highly- publicised affair with Britain’s most famous playwright Harold Pinter. They went on to marry and it was by all accounts a happy union, until his death in 2008. In spite of a briefly turbulent personal life, Fraser’s career was certainly never overshadowed by her public tribulations. She went on to write countless successful books after Mary Queen of Scots in the field of both fiction and non-fiction. Her most well-known include biographies on Oliver Cromwell, King Charles II and the wives of Henry VIII.

ut one book that has brought her back into the limelight in recent times is her enchanting and captivating biography of Marie Antoinette, titled Marie Antoinette: The Journey. It must have been a daunting task for Fraser to produce a sympathetic account of the biggest diva in history and it wasn’t the first time she reflected kindly on the life of a controversial Queen. She nevertheless succeeded in painting a positive portrayal of the much-loathed and ill-fated Queen of France. She even

dispelled the notion that Marie Antoinette ever uttered the famous phrase ‘Let them eat cake’, instead attributing it to a previous French royal consort. In fact the book was so triumphant in depicting Marie Antoinette as misunderstood that many readers confessed they almost forgot about her well-known beheading and spent parts of the book hoping for a happy ending for the subject. Critics praised the book for being balanced and in some cases even definitive. And more importantly, the book would go on to form the basis for the hit Sofia Coppola film ‘Marie Antoinette’. The movie, starring Kirsten Dunst as the lead, has gone on to win cult status and has brought Fraser a new generation of dedicated followers. It’s safe to say that Lady Antonia Fraser can go the rest of her life without writing another book and still go down in history as one of the most successful historical biographers of recent times. But you get the feeling she’s in no rush to go in to retirement. Which is good news for historical biography fans. And not to mention the discreditable reputation of history’s most famous Queens (some of whom still need rescuing!). g VS

LIFE

Five writers to watch out for in spring Bookworms will be delighted to know that March is filled with a number of literary treats. Whether it’s fantasy, suspense or even the queen of the literary world herself in disguise, there’s something for everyone

Terry Pratchett

Photo: Daniel Ogren

Terry Pratchett has a devoted global following for his Discworld novels. Some considered them the Harry Potter of the early nineties. So his fans will surely be excited to get their hands on his 40th Discworld novel Raising Steam. Expect your bookworm pals to be off the partying scene for a weekend or two for this one.

Jeffrey Archer

If there’s one writer who can keep you on your toes, it’s Jeffrey Archer. So Be Careful What You Wish For, the fourth installment in his Clifton Chronicles should be something to write home about. And the saga continues for the Barrington-Clifton

family as Emma tries her best to take her place as the head of the family business. Throw in an exotic Don and a Yorkshire banker and you have the makings of an espionage gem.

Danielle Steel

You’d think that with

almost a billion copies of her works sold since the 1970s, Danielle Steel might be ready to call it a day. On the contrary, she’s still churning out books aplenty and her latest will have fans of her work rushing to the bookstore. In her latest novel, Power Play, the plotline goes by the same formula of some of her other previous works – a wealthy and glamorous family in despair. But as the old saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Nora Roberts

Say what you will about romance novels; call it fluff or trash reading. But for diehard ‘rom-lit’ fans, it’s better than heroin. And in this particular category, you don’t get much bigger than Nora Roberts. Shadow Spell will be a pleasurable read for those who find Jeffrey Archer too fast-paced and Terry Pratchett too out of this world.

Robert Galbraith

For those of you who aren’t in the loop, Robert Galbraith is none other than national treasure JK Rowling. The melodrama that surrounded her code name could have been the plotline for one of her best-selling books, complete with mystery

and suspense. Whatever said and done, The Silkworm - her second crime fiction novel - is a massive departure from the magical world of Harry Potter, there’s a reason she’s writing under a pseudonym. The Silkworm is about a novelist who goes missing after completing a book that paints a dark portrait of a number of his friends and acquaintances and then some. We’re not sure if this is some kind of vicarious fantasy on Rowling’s part, but it definitely sounds like an exciting read that her loyal readers will enjoy. So bring in detective Strike Cormoran to the rescue when the novelist Owen Quine goes missing. Authors love penning books centring on fictional writers, and now it appears as though JK Rowling has joined that club.gVS

LIFE

Vintage memories: reminiscing the past Adrenaline takes a walk down memory lane and discovers that time travel is indeed possible

Photo by Radio Days

BAKERLOO

or the skeptics who thought time travel was an imaginary concept cooked up by aficionados of science fiction, here’s a place that will knock you off your feet. From retro style clothes and accessories to antique desktop telephones and record players, Radio Days is a portal to the good ol’ days! Situated in the Lower Marsh Market, the shop is a vintage store selling collectible items from the 1920s to 1980s. As soon as you enter the shop, music from a bygone era takes you by the hand and transports you to an age which one didn’t know still existed. There’s something to be said about the great number of posters adorning the pink and green walls of the shop, enticing ‘belles of the ball’ to ‘beautifully clean’ their ball gowns at Chiltern dry cleaners. Or perhaps, inviting you to journey along a fun-filled adventure with ‘Dick und Doof ’ (Laurel and Hardy) and dance to the tunes of ‘Time

Alone will Tell’, composed by the great Archie Gottler and Horatio Nicholls. The vintage mecca was set up by Chrissie in 1993, which saw humble beginnings. “My partner Chrissie and another partner started this business in 1993. They had a stall outside Lower Marsh at the time,” says Lee, who joined Chrissie in her endeavor 13 years ago. Today, it is one of the finest vintage stores that London has to offer and they wouldn’t have earned this reputation without their efforts. Procuring antiquated items from a wide network of contacts that they have built over the years, the shop does its best to meet the demands of their customers. “The most rewarding experience for us has been making customers happy and providing them with the stock and also just listening to them to find out what they want, what they like and what they don’t want and just generally

getting the item for the customer. As long as people want to sell, we will be here for the customers,” says Lee. The store is a treasure trove of vintage products, where both young and old can find something thay takes their fancy. Whether you want to gift a loved one on their birthday or shop for your best friend who is about to get married, there is no dearth of memorabilia to purchase. Some of the items on display are old issues of magazines and comic books such as MAD and the Marvel collection, household items, microphone, glassware, party and cocktail dresses and perfume atomisers. Hiring out props to theatre companies and for photo shoots, Radio Days is also renowned for its seasonal window displays. “My partner comes up with ideas and we put it in motion. We change it three or four times a year, depending on how we feel and what the vibe

is really,” says Lee with a proud grin showing on his face. Lower Marsh market could be considered as one of the few neighbourhoods still untouched by London’s ongoing commercialisation. It’s the kind of place where people greet you like old friends, where cafe owners memorise your order if you visit them a few times, where complete strangers compliment your smile and where neighbours keep themselves apprised of each other’s well being. Sounds like a chapter from the times of ‘simple pleasures’. Pay a visit to Radio Days, if only to bear testimony to the fact that travelling back in time is just a matter of finding the right people.g SK Radio Days Open: Mon – Sat (10AM-6PM), Fridays closes at 7PM 87, Lower Marsh, Waterloo, London SE1 7AB Nearest Tube Station: Lambeth North http://www.radiodaysvintage.co.uk

LIFE

A design for life Jessie Chorley

Photos by Jessie Chorley

ackson Pollock once said, “When I say artist, I mean the one who is building things - some with a brush, some with a shovel, some choose a pen.” However, Jessie Chorley took up traditional techniques of tatting, hand embroidery, weaving and applique to bring her art to life. Allegedly practicing her craft from the age of two, creating new things is in her blood. Born to textile artists, in Maidstone, Kent in 1980, collecting discarded objects has been a life-long passion.

giving life and a new beginning back to a forgotten object,” says Ms Chorley. After completing an art foundation course in Wales, Jessie went on to earn a degree in Textiles at Goldsmiths College, University of London. The business in its current state has been a product of years of hard work. Founded in 2005 as a small stall on Broadway Market, they moved to an attic in a shop on Columbia Road in 2008, before finally setting up the store at its present address.

“When I was about two, my parents moved the whole family to Snowdonia, North Wales. So we had a rural kind of lifestyle. My mum home-schooled my brother and myself through a creative kind of process. I come from a very creative family and making things is kind of embedded in me. I am passionate about

It has been a fruitful collaboration with Buddug Humphreys, who met Jessie

“We work at the shop together but financially we are separate. We do our own work and have our own style but our styles complements each other quite well.” A typical day in Jessie’s life is quite busy. “I manage the store, the online shop and the workshops as well. Three times a month, I am out running workshops, either in London or privately. At other times, I’m in my studio or here in the shop, just creating something. It’s really important for me to keep on making. I never want to stop making,” shares Jessie. However, when not buried under work, she can be found frequenting places such as the Victoria and Albert Museum for inspiration, cooking or enjoying the guilty pleasure of sleep! Drawing inspiration from her surroundings, she is currently working on creating a range of clothing. However, working on

“To see someone using something that I have re-created is like a completion to the story” in North Wales, at the time when she was pursuing her foundation course.

commissions and designing journals for weddings is what Jessie enjoys the most. “I get inspired by my surroundings and like to collect lots of clothes and fabric. I even collect lots of paper, books and little quotes.” Jessie sees a bright future in developing her online shop and finding a suitable place to conduct her workshops. “I want to stay in this shop for another two to four years and then really want to develop the online shop as I have a lot of customers in America and Japan who want to buy my stuff at the moment. I also really want to get a space where I can run my workshops in London.” Seen as she’s made all her other goals a reality, it shouldn’t be long before these projects eventually materialise. g SK J & B The Shop 158 A, Columbia Road, London, E2 7RG Nearest Tube Station: Bethnal Green http://www.jessiechorley.com

CENTRAL

You name it and she’s done it. The world of Jessie Chorley is consumed with her art and she’s rarely ever not on the move

A definitive guide to London’s best pie and chip shops

In next month’s

Enjoy the wonders of British cuisine

STREET

The five best bits of Brixton Market

The “it’s still dying” crab

Photos by Leila Murseljevic

Finding fresh seafood is getting increasingly difficult. London markets were known for their access to the best that the local waters had to offer. Thankfully, there are still places where this tradition continues – Brixton being one of them. Here you can find crab so fresh it’s still alive (if only barely).

Honest Burger

There are plenty of places in London to buy amazing burgers, but it’s worth making the trip to Brixton to try the trendy Honest Burger. There are now five locations to this popular burger joint, but the original location in Brixton is still the most vibrant. The space is small and always buzzing, but it’s inviting and

plenty comfortable. Actually, this may be one of the more laid-back burger places that know how to keep things simple and balanced with a minimal menu. The beef for the burgers is brought from The Ginger Pig, which creates the most luscious meat this side of the Thames.

KaoSarn Thai

Brixton Village Market is filled with plenty of new and trendy restaurants, but this family-owned Thai restaurant has an amazing atmosphere that’s worth picking above the rest. Although the Caribbean food is usually the star at the market, many new foreign food options have emerged as strong competitors, and this restaurant is a worthy adversary. Try the authentic firey soups to enjoy a dip into Thai cuisine.

The tropical fruits

This is the biggest category where Brixton edges out that other south London market. The fruit in Brixton is unbelievable, especially the selection. There is pineapple freshly cut and juicier than anything available in a tin from the shop. The best part is that the fruit and vegetables are all cheap as chips.

and thyme. Bickles stands out in the crowd of plenty of other jerk restaurants.The food is reasonably priced and they have a nice selection of traditional chicken, pork or fish jerk. You can take out, but stay in for a charming visit. There’s a list of Jamaican lingo on the walls that you can read – nothing feels more Caribbean in Brixton. g KC

Bickles Jamaican

Self-proclaimed ‘Jamaican jerk specialists’ are the best little place for a proper piece of Caribbean cooking. Jerk is a style of cooking that is native to Jamaica. A piece of dried of meat is rubbed in a mixture of jerk spices that include nutmeg, garlic, salt

VICTORIA

This South London market is filled with vibrant Caribbean specialities and sweet cafes that are always worth a visit any day of the week.

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Sprinkles of stardust in Covent Garden

PICCADILLY

Imagine a place where your past and future could be laid out before your very eyes –we went to Neal Street to find out By Konstantina Pyrnokoki / Photography by Maria Kriva

fter a delightful walk and some unnecessary shopping down Neal Street, I notice a shop that differs from the rest. I had never in my life seen a store utterly dedicated to astrology. Sucker as I am for all things mystical and strange, I decide to enter the Astrology Shop. I find a whole world of astrological items to explore and I start to feel like a child discovering Willy Wonka’s

chocolate factory. From chart-wheels, zodiac bracelets and Feng-Shui accessories to dream catchers, crystal balls and countless astrological books, the list is endless. Barry Street, the owner of The Astrology Shop, takes pride in the store’s collection, especially in the vast range of books. “Before Amazon and the web, people would travel from all parts of the world just to buy their astrology books

from us. We stocked over 1,000 astrological titles. With the loss of trade that came with the web, we had to diversify into other areas such as crystals and tarot,” he says. The Astrology Shop opened in 1989, but some of the staff have been preparing Astrological Reports by mail order or at new age festivals since 1981. The shop has expanded its products and space since the ‘80s, although chart readings alone are still enough to keep the customers flowing in. As I browse through the captivating books, a couple is having their son’s chart read by Barry. “He is a bit stubborn and this year he will be even harder to get along with,” he says, as the parents

start laughing, suspecting what lies ahead. Barry explains to me that people are opting for a more personalised approach rather than relying on some online application to get their results. “Like a lot of businesses, we’ve had a harder time since online shopping began, however we are now busier than ever. We still sell a range of charts, and a lot of our customers have been regulars for many years. It is strange to have really loyal, long-term customers that we see just once a year when they have their charts done. I think they like the fact that we are here to talk to them and they prefer it to the web,” he says. But are the charts always accurate and is a character

STREET publication, in a way that’s opinionated and provokes people. Some will hate you for it, but most of them will appreciate it.” s Barry goes on and on about my past - even details on my mother’s pregnancy which I knew nothing about - while taking a glance at my future, I start to feel uncomfortable. How could he know such personal details? The more he tells me, the more I realise he knows more about me than I would wish him or anyone else to know. Should I leave before I make a complete fool out of myself? In the end, I realise I’m just human. Like Barry says, “You have many contradictory aspects in your birth chart, but this makes sense; all human beings are contradictory.” Stepping back from my natal report for a while, I continue looking around in awe. There’s much more to the Astrology Shop than birth charts. The commitment and the effort put into the accumulation of these diverse astrological items is evident. Peculiar tarot or angel cards as well as intricate crystals and lunar calendars, which are not available online, are some of the most popular items amongst the clients. “Our horoscopes are still our best selling product. However, we sell over a

thousand lunar calendars and a thousand kilos of rose quartz every year. We also stock over a hundred different types of pendulums and over a hundred different decks of Tarot Cards,” says Barry. What strikes me as the most fascinating part of the shop, though, is the book corner. Not so much of a corner, to be honest, since it could serve as an astrology bookstore (if that ever existed) on its own. From pocket spells and palm reading guides, to Chinese astrology and tarot psychology, these book shelves must be the astro-enthusiast’s playground. As I flick through a book of

birth dates and interpretations, searching to find mine, another one catches my eye and I grab it instantly. The title reads “How to spot a b*stard by his star sign” and I’m already intrigued! This one, along with “Raphael’s Ephemeris for 2014” (a book which tells the position of the planets), are the two best-selling books in the shop. I am about to leave the Astrology Shop, when I realise there’s one more thing I have always wondered. Is it true that cities have signs? And if so, which is London’s? “Most people think London ‘feels’ like a Gemini city, but you can calculate an actual chart for the GLC (Greater London Council) and this makes London Aries. Astrologers think London will prosper during 2014, although it’s a very challenging year for the world,” says Barry. And with that last positive prediction, I promise myself to return for a full year forecast report; or at the very least, to find out how to spot a b*stard by his star sign. g The London Astrology Shop, 78 Neal Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9PA Tel: 020 7813 3051 www.londonastrology.com

PICCADILLY

portrait actually worth the £24 you pay for it? Although not a skeptic myself, I sometimes get dragged into the ‘non-believers zone.’ But according to Barry, the interpretation can never go wrong. “Astrology is always accurate,” he tells me with an emphasis on ‘always’, somehow implying I may have offended him by questioning his trade. “If customers have any questions, there is always a member of staff who can answer. If the chart doesn’t seem accurate, then we encourage customers to come back and talk to us. There have been many times over the years when we would match the chart to the customer by changing the time of birth, meaning that the customer was not born at the time they believed they were. In many countries, the time is not even recorded,” he explains. Wondering if what he says is true, I decide to try the natal chart interpretation myself. “You are provocative,” he tells me, “in a sense that sometimes others are shocked with what you say.” While I’m trying to figure out if I should be ashamed, or just be proud of speaking my mind, he continues: “When it comes to your career, you won’t end up writing for a women’s magazine; you would rather write for a more revolutionary

STREET

London galleries share art through their communities These three galleries are more than just great works of art - they are an integral part of their city

Text and Photography by Krista Culbertson HAMMERSMITH

T “We’re at a point now where we want to give back to east London”

he Swing is perhaps one the most recognisable paintings from the Rococo period. The main subject is flying on a swing while one suitor pushes her and another lounges slyly on the wooded ground. For years the painting has hung on the pink, velvety walls of the Wallace Collection in London’s posh Marylebone, accenting the pale pastel colours of the main subject’s dress, shoes and hat. London is home to many of the world’s greatest paintings like the Swing, and those works of art are housed in great galleries and collections. All are different, but each gives back and interacts with the city they reside in. The Wallace Collection, the Whitechapel Gallery and the South London Gallery are art collections from very different parts of London. Each gives back in its own style. It makes London great.

Wallace in the West

he Wallace Collection, in all its stately glory, was opened to the public as a national collection in 1900.

The collection holds many iconic works like Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s subtly saucy The Swing and Fans Hals’ The Laughing Cavalier. There is also an endless armory filled with German gothic and Oriental pieces. Despite the classical and sophisticated objects, the collection has its quirks. When Sir Richard Wallace’s widow bequeathed the collection to the nation, it was requested that no pieces ever be taken out or loaned. The collection is housed in Manchester House, the once London residence of Sir Wallace, the illegitimate son of Richard Seymour-Conway. Manchester House is still of its own time. The grand staircase leads until the upper rooms and the Great Gallery. But despite the grandeur, there is still an always-present feeling of calm. Lush décor is in every room, highlighting the fact that the collection calls one of the most posh areas in London home. In January, the museum hosted the By Young People, For Young People: Royal Wonders. The day was targeted at bringing more students into the galleries and generating interest in art. Marie Stirling is the Marketing and Development

STREET

Whitechapel East

hitechapel Gallery was founded at the turn of the 20th century. The selfproclaimed artists’ gallery was one of the first publicly funded of its kind in London. Whitechapel is in London’s thriving East End. There’s currently more cultural change there than any other part of the city. But that brings more diversity and depth to the area. The gallery is instantly recognisable by its arched entrance. The atmosphere is as cool as the trendy area it resides in. The gallery rooms are some of the most impressive spaces in east London, displaying works of art under great skylights and under arched columns.

Daisy Mallabar works with the Whitechapel Gallery. She helps run the Local Knowledge project. The exchanges are with individuals and businesses to work on issues specific to east London, especially those that affect those living in the local area. “We’re at a point now where we want to give back to east London,” says Mallabar. “The Gallery specially focuses on outreach programmes like education and helping those in deprived areas.” German Dada artist Hannah Höch’s collages are now hanging in the same spaces that Pablo Piccaso’s Guernica was once displayed in protest of the Spanish Civil War. The space was expanded in 2009, allowing the gallery to take on more outreach programmes.

South London’s Gem

outh of the Thames, the South London Gallery (SLG) sits parked on Peckham Road. South London remains one of the areas of the city that is slightly rough, yet vibrant. The gallery focuses on all contemporary artists and live art events, creating an electric art scene in Camberwell. The main gallery room is large and bright, all highlighted by a giant skylight. Katie Haines works at the SLG as their Marketing & Communications Manager. “We are a much smaller gallery than most,” says Haines. “Even our curators take the time to take our guests on tours.” The art that is collected for the gallery often includes contemporary works by south London artists and some by modern British artists. Many of these artists take the time to visit the gallery and to interact with the community. One of the most successful, says Haines, was the Play Local Symposium. Artists Laura Carle, Liza Fior

of the art practice Muf, and Ben Washington all participated in SLG’s symposium. Spaces around South London are transformed to encourage children to play in their local area. The Shop of Possibilities, a project in conjunction with Play Local, helped to create play space for children in five different estates. The gallery also hosts the Art Assassins, a group of 1319 year olds who meet every week to engage with art and to collaborate with artists and performers. The group is currently working on a video game that will be based in south London. “All those involved just want to help the area we’re in. It’s for London,” says Haines. “We want to know how to change the spaces these children and young people are in.” g

“All those

involved just want to help the area we’re in”

Clockwise from top left: The Whitechapel Gallery entrance, entering the main gallery room of the South London Gallery, a bust of King Louis XVI at the Wallace

HAMMERSMITH

Assistant at the Wallace. Despite being one of the city’s great art icons, there is always time for outreach programmes for the surrounding community. “This event was very much a ‘first’ – the Wallace Collection has never before put on an evening event for young people aged 16-24, which was not exclusively for University students,” said Stirling. “We knew that we were going to need lots of help.” The collection invited members of the Geffrye Museum’s Youth Advisory Panel to bring new ideas to the table. The group of youths came up with the royalty theme based of the Wallace’s lavish rooms and furnishings. Events included a photobooth, a ceramics workshop and a masquerade. The Wallace also hosts Sensation, an art event that is for visitors that are blind or for the partially sighted. Lecturers are brought in to talk about the pieces, usually surrounding a certain theme, and there are often musicians brought in to help set the mood for the day.

NEXT ISSUE

Join the 7 a day revolution

AdrenaLINE talks to the scientists telling us that five portions of fruit and veg still isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t enough

STREET

A doctor’s paradise Harley Street is just a stone’s throw from Oxford Circus Station and has the highest concentration of private medical practices in Europe proximity of three major railway stations, Kings Cross, Paddington and Marylebone, gave their rich, train-traveling patients good access to their homes where they would be treated. As more doctors moved into the area, it became a popular destination for patients. In turn, this attracted more doctors, and so London’s private medical district was born. By 1900, Harley Street was home to a number of distinguished physicians, driving a medical revolution. Their houses doubled up as medical surgeries that were more akin to luxurious lounges, complete with expensive paintings, thick carpets and marble staircases. But the doctors here earned their lavish lifestyle, becoming forerunners in what were then groundbreaking techniques such as inflectionless surgery and the treatment of fractures. Harley Street was also the site of the first successful removal of a brain tumour as well as the creation of surgical instruments still used today. This prestige has filtered through to today with patients coming to Harley Street from far and wide to receive treatment. The doctors that work here remain leaders in their field and use state of the art technology and equipment. Harley Street gives us a chance to wander and marvel at London’s elite.

Pioneers on Harley Street Sir John Lister: First ever infectionless surgery Florence Nightingale: Revolutionised nursing worldwide Sir Howard Ridley: Invented the contact lens Masud Khan: Leading 20th century psychoanalyst Lionel Logue: Treated George V’s stammer Sir Stuart Duke Elder: Eye surgeon to the royal family Sir Henry Thompson: Surgeon extraordinaire to the King of Brussels Sir Frederick Treves: Performed the first appendix removal ever Dr Edward Bach: Invented the ‘Bach’s Flowers’ homeopathic remedy Ethel Gordon Fenwick Founder of the International Council of Nurses gJR

BAKERLOO

The film stars have Hollywood, the football players have Wembley, and the doctors have Harley Street. Since Victorian times, the area has been internationally renowned for attracting the most skilled doctors of the day. Their record book reads a bit like a celebrity magazine. From the King of Brussels to David Beckham, Tom Cruise to Justin Timberlake, Harley Street attracts only the rich and famous. And it’s not just an opportunity to treat the rich and famous that attracts doctors here- salaries will often exceed the one million pounds mark. With the land still owned by the De Walden Family Estate, who acquired it in the 17th century, Harley Street and the surrounding mile has been kept exclusive and elite. Those who wish to rent here are carefully vetted by the family, ensuring that Harley Street’s air of exclusivity permeates into its surroundings. This combined with the Georgian listed buildings adorned with elaborate statues and columns, gives off an air of privilege, wealth and history. Doctors started coming here in the mid 19th century, attracted by its position between the tranquil Regents Park and the hustle and bustle of London Town, in particular the prestigious shopping district on Oxford Street. The close

STREET

Paying tribute to an accidental discovery that saved millions On the anniversary of his death, visit the laboratory-comemuseum where Sir Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin

BAKERLOO

Just off Paddington High Street, tucked away in a small, inconspicuous corner of the vast St Mary’s Hospital is a little room where the history of medicine was changed forever. Alexander Fleming, a man with equal reputation as a brilliant scientist and untidy worker, returned from a summer break with his family to continue his research into the staphylococcus bacteria that he kept in petri dishes. Upon returning, he noticed that one of the petri dishes he hadn’t bothered to clean out had become contaminated with a fungus. What was significant was that the fungus in the contaminated petri dish seemed to have destroyed the bacteria that the dish had previously contained. In Fleming’s own words, “When I woke up on September 28 1928, I certainly didn’t plan to revolutionise all medicine by discovering the world’s first

“When I woke up on September 28, I didn’t plan to revolutionise all medicine, but I suppose that was exactly what I did” antibiotic, but I suppose that was exactly what I did.” Born to a farmer in a small village in Southwest Scotland, it is perhaps unsurprising to read Fleming’s frank and down to earth account of his accidental discovery. And the museum is a fitting testament to the man himself: a single, small room; modest and unassuming. Nothing in the room has been changed, giving a real insight into how medical testing and research was conducted in the 1920s. The glass and cork test tubes, wooden benches, and antique microscopes are all fascinating sights for your average science geek!

But if that doesn’t float your boat, then like the majority of us, the draw of the Fleming Museum would lie in its significance.As one visitor wrote: It is not so much the place, but the consequences. Nowadays, we only get a snapshot of what living without antibiotics must have

been like in the form of MRSA pandemics in hospitals- a bacteria that can overcome antibiotics, leaving doctors powerless to stem the spread of infectious disease. But in a world before antibiotics, infections caused nearly half of all deaths and so Fleming’s discovery was nothing short of revolutionary. For his work in this basic and astonishingly small laboratory, Fleming received a Nobel Prize, knighthood, his face on the British £5 note and a spot in Time Magazine’s 100 most important people of the 20th century. Standing in the very place where medicine made a quantum leap forwards is certainly a privilege. But what makes this place so fascinating is its size and simplicity. And that is where the real charm lies- the triumph of a humble scientist from a small farm in Scotland, whose accidental discovery became one of the most significant of modern science. But there is something truly British about supporting the underdog: the little scientist who accidentally made history from a small, dingy room is enough to capture anyone’s imagination- whether you’re a science geek or not! gJR

In the next issue of AdrenaLINE...

The magic of Edinburgh

STREET

Hunger

BY SHEFALI SAXENA/ PHOTOGRAPHY BY SHEFALI SAXENA AND FLICKR CREATIVE COMMONS

es, London. You know, fish, chips, cup of tea, bad food, worse weather, Mary-fucking-Poppins. London!-Dennis Farina Whichever part of the world you may belong to, there is a high possibility of you switching over to salads, soups and so-called curries at various eating joints across this magnificent city that is London. They are bad here. There is no dearth of international immigrants moving about aimlessly in London with just one aim - to find their country’s food. There are surely times when you deviate from your take-away food towards readyto-eat world food items. And then one fine day, a moment arrives, which takes you to ASDA, Sainsbury’s and Tesco. eople go to world food sections where they can find their spices, flour, bread, lentils, and spaghetti. Some brave souls or newly crowned

chefs manage to buy frozen meat and chicken to give themselves a break from what they psychologically told themselves was ‘food’. In the hustle and bustle, aura and dreamlike atmosphere of London, one thing everyone craves and prioritises after booze is food! ushu Chen, a Chinese student who has been living in London for the past six months, complains that she misses her favourite dish Siu Mei (roasted meat). Promptly searching an image in her phone, she passes on the phone to me. It’s a simple roasted pork served in a bone china dish tray. It requires quite skillful preparation, including the barbeque sauce which should be a perfect mix of sweet and salty taste, which most chefs fail to achieve. “Siu Mei can be made out of chicken, lamb, or pork. So even people who have religious reasons for not

Indian Yellow Chilli 381 Station Road, Harrow, Middlesex, HA1 2AW Tel: 020 8863 5616 30

eating pork, can try the dish,” she adds. Yushu recommends trying Siu Mei at Four Seasons, which might cost somewhere around £8-£9 with steamed rice. here’s no better feeling in the world than a warm pizza box on your lap. But there’s more.While there’s no doubt that London has some best pizza outlets, especially the one diagonally opposite to John Lewis store in Oxford Street which sells a large pizza slice for £2.50. But Franchesco Abatangelo, an Italian IT professional living in London says very obviously, “I miss my mom’s home cooked food.” ith a delightful face, he talks about a small family-ran Italian restaurant Ciao Bella. Approximately five minutes away from Holborn tube station, this restaurant, according to Franchesco, is like the one which has his mom’s recipe. “The price is reasonable.

If you eat too much before your pasta comes, you will regret it. I ordered lasagna della mama once. It has layers of pasta, meat sauce, cheese and béchamel, like mamma’s recipe,” he elaborates. o one wants to say no to some hot simmering curry with steamed rice. Curries are Indian food,

Italian

Greek

Ciao Bella 86-90 Lamb’s Conduit St, Bloomsbury, WC1N 3LZ Tel:020 7242 4119

Ekin Restaurant 240 Belsize Rd, NW6 4BT Tel:020 7624 7570

STREET

Line

The food is your Oyster Card restaurant about five minutes away from Bond Street Tube station, called Roti – Chai (Bread and Tea). This restaurant offers almost every Indian delicacy at reasonable costs, freshly prepared with the most authentic taste, beginning with chats (savouries) to dosas and pulao (vegetable fried rice). ellow Chilli, another newly- opened Indian restaurant in Harrowon-the-Hill is a gem. Their Mixed Grill sizzler, huge platter, enough for three people, is a glutton’s delight. You can also choose to sit by the South Bank at London Eye, and have one of the best chicken/lamb biryanis with achari chicken (pickled chicken curry) which you can get for only £5 each from the Cost-cutter right outside the Bakerloo exit of the Waterloo tube station. They are heavenly and they come with a small box of free raita (yoghurt with

Y DOSA without a doubt. The debates about what constitutes a good curry - is it the sauce similar to Chinese sauces, or is it a mixture of spices and water? The fact is that most of the food served in London which they tell you is Indian is one big fib! ne of the best places to have Indian food is a

Chinese Four Seasons 46 Westferry Circus, E14 8RS Tel:020 7510 1998

mint) as well. rème Brulee is one sweet dish which Leticia Friole, a French migrant living in London yearns for. Her inevitable quest to find it in London ended at Cote Brasserie in Covent Garden. Leticia says, “This isn’t a difficult dessert to make but it’s amazing how often restaurants get it wrong. However, at Cote Brasserie, the caramalised sugar topping was crunchy and not too burnt. The custard had the perfect smooth consistency without it being overly rich. I can still taste it seven months later!” panish food can’t be left out when we talk about international food in London. Inigo Murias, a Spanish student in London says, “I’d say Paella is difficult to make, and English people are really bad at making it, because there are some ingredients that just don’t taste the same here. There is a nice Spanish

bar in Chelsea, right next to Stamford Bridge, though, called El Metro, and it is run by Spaniards. They have all types of paella there.” imitra Koi, a student from Greece, who now lives in London, thinks mousakka is the dish she misses eating in here. “I am a bit of a Moussaka nut”, she says. Having had it in Turkey, Greece, Germany, Belgium, she believes that the lamb moussaka at Ekin Restaurant in Belsize road is the best she has had. “Less than £10 for the set lunch menu, I had gyros with fresh pita, Lamb moussaka with 2 salads and tatziki sauce and baklava. Bag the hotel overpriced restaurant and go to Ekin,” she insists. If you find your kind of food in London, then each day is Christmas, and each weekend is an international dinner! Till then, stay hungry and stay foolish! Hungerline is there to help you find food.g

Spanish

French

El Metro 10-12, Fulham Broadway, Effie Rd, SW6 1TB Tel:020 7384 1264

Court Brasserie 17-21 Tavistock St, WC2E 7PA Tel:020 7240 2939 31

FOCUS

The trails of life Whether you travel to or live in London, there is certainly one thing you cannot avoid: the iconic London Tube

Text and photography by Leila Murseljevic

veryday, we play a certain role depending on the script: drama, comedy or melancholy romance. Nevertheless, whatever role it is, every single piece of it contains a facet of ourselves. The roles commuters play inside the carriage are quite different, depending on the day and the atmosphere we belong to at that very moment. When you’re a faithful commuter on the tube and you slip into a daily routine, it’s immediately an advantage. Those who like to daydream, may end up in a Sicilian garden with an avocado cocktail, or perhaps listen to the Stone Roses at some of the Manchester gigs, or redirect themselves to Asian continent and assist the UN in delivering humanitarian aid to Syria. Whatever we chose to do or wherever we end up on the tube, we form a brand new world and we let ourselves feel young again. In some cultures, you will never hear hard-core music or a brand new R&B song blaring out of the headphones of an old age pensioner. In London, apparently, it is mandatory. And the way they enjoy it makes you wonder what you will look and feel like at their age. I am sure it will not be any different. In the morning, when leaving Walthamstow Central station, it’s almost impossible not to see teenagers and women who try to fix their make-up as the train moves rapidly. Within the space of a few seconds, countless women transfer the contents of their dressing tables to the tube to make themselves look more attractive, while swiftly erasing the age, tiredness, sadness, anger or emotiveness from their faces in the morning. One of the most common situations that you might experience in the carriage of the London Underground is eye-to-eye contact. Whether in a relationship or not, that sudden spark you might feel is inevitable. The second most common situation is judging (the book by its cover). It is quite common to occasionally roll your eyes after seeing some major fashion faux pas (or is it just me and my unstoppable exploring eye?!). Once in a while we all need a safety net to assist us, and a friend on whom we can always count on. For us and for London, that safety net is the Underground. One of my top role models Annie Leibovitz (who in my opinion happens to be one of the best photographers in the world) once said, “In a portrait, you have room to have a point of view, the image may not be literally what’s going on, but it’s representative.” So let’s use this as a guide and see what can we conclude by just observing London commuters. '' So enjoy the thrill and let your imagination rock and roll! g

VICTORIA

hen was the last time you thought about the life of the person opposite you on the tube? And if so, what were you thinking about? Why is she sad, or why is he so worried? Whether you are a tourist or a passionate photographer, having a camera around is mandatory. As one of the most populous municipalities in the EU, London is thought to be a crossroad for numerous different characters, personalities and visages. So for this March’s issue, I decided to talk about the commuters on the London Underground – the people we see every day, without actually noticing them. However, without trying to further explain their expressions, smiles and reactions, I will let you review and perhaps judge for yourselves by looking at their portraits. While reading some descriptions of the atmosphere that surrounds them, let your imagination dance to its own steps, or dance to a famous line said by Eudora Welty: “A good snapshot keeps a moment from running away”. Commuting has a pivotal role for people in London. Businessmen, children, young people, men, women, even dogs and cats. And they frequently have one thing in common - they commute. Entering the London Underground is like entering a new world, as colourful as the contents of the wardrobe in the Chronicles of Narnia. And if you really look closer, you might find the beauty of simple people doing even simpler things in their own way. Inside the train people seem to occupy a certain amount of space available and they easily convert it into something of their own, well defined and designed for them. It’s like a tailor-made cubicle in which they sleep, listen to music, sing, play video games, chat and kiss. It happens so often that London travellers bump into familiar people inside the carriage or people they want to get to know. Flirting, eavesdropping and giving compliments are all parts of a quite accustomed daily sociological conception in the London Underground. After careful consideration, I decided to admit: I consider myself the Mother Theresa of (in)appropriate eavesdropping. However, what’s certain is that I am not one of a kind in this matter. I am sure that a lot you out there sometimes eavesdrop on some bizarre, romantic and rather odd conversations while waiting for your tube stop. And those conversations are a significant asset on the Victoria line. For example, a few days ago, while approaching the station of Highbury and Islington, a very young couple surprised me with a rather serious debate on the current situation in Ukraine: “If Obama doesn’t attack Russia this time, the new Cold War will be the ghost of Christmas past.” Two days later, while going to Green Park station, two visitors from Spain were discussing the current situation in the music industry: “There is a big shift from being a freak (while impersonating Lady Gaga) to humble mum shaking her hips” (I am guessing he meant Beyoncé).

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VICTORIA

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ADRENALINE goes vintage

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Postcards from the past: the London of Dickens and Shakespeare

Adrenaline walks through the streets to discover the City that has been immortalised in the works of England’s celebrated writers hurch of The Priory C ew T he Lad St.Bartholom yo

f Justi ce: Old Bailey

St Bartholomew

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d r a B The

Charles Dickens Paul’s Cr

oss

By Sonali Kamboj Photos by sonali kamboj/wikimedia commons

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very city is a bundle of contradictions. At times, it reflects the souls of people who inhabit it, warmly accepting those who were once strangers to its ways. However, there are moments when the city closely guards itself, enticing outsiders to come unravel the secrets it beholds, without assuring even a shred of certainty of a silver lining to be found. London, for me, has always represented the latter. A city, which wasn’t ready to reveal its mysteries to me just yet! It was the place which refused to speak to me until one day, when I decided to mirror the journey that was once taken by Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare. It was a cold afternoon and as soon as I stepped out of St. Paul’s tube station, I knew I had a long wait ahead of me. In my excitement to be on schedule, I had arrived an hour early or perhaps it was my miscalculated sense of time, I couldn’t be sure. In order to honour the tourist in me, I had called upon London Walks to come to my rescue. As the minutes passed, I witnessed groups of people – large and otherwise – gather around Café Nero, which was the meeting point for our tour. I sat silently in a corner, too frozen to even inquire if they were waiting for the same man as I. Just a little before 2 pm, our guide appeared. Holding out the brochures of London Walks, he stood quietly until he was satisfied that the people congregated at the spot were indeed availing the tour. Our guide introduced himself as Richard the III and before I could ask him the reason for the peculiar name, he clarified. Since there were four people in their office who went by the same name, he was designated as ‘the third!’ The pun definitely had many in splits and was the perfect start to our walk through the London of Dickens and the Bard!

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The courtyard of St. Paul’s Cathedral

We began our journey inside the courtyard of St. Paul’s Cathedral, envisioning a twenty-something Shakespeare arriving in the city from Stratfordupon-Avon. Since very little was documented during Elizabethan times, the life of Shakespeare has always been a point of conjecture. Among a plethora of theories that made the cut, the most popular one was of a certain Christopher Marlowe, giving rise to the idea that he was responsible for Shakespeare’s works. Before the conspiracy theorists of our group could nod in agreement and validate, we discovered that there was a slight problem with the above notion. “The thing about Christopher Marlowe is that he was dead when most of Shakespeare’s plays were written. But that doesn’t get in the way of a good theory,” explained Richard, our guide. As we walked towards ‘Paul’s Cross’, I heard the chiming of the bells reverberating from St. Paul’s Cathedral. In that moment, it truly felt like I had gone back

in time to the London that once was. We stopped and circled around an inscription carved in the ground of the courtyard. The plaque read, ‘Here lies Paul’s Cross’, marking its original site. Our guide pointed out that in antiquated times, the only source of news was through the word of mouth. “Perhaps Shakespeare came here to this site in 1588 to learn of the approach of the Spanish Armada to the shores of this country. They never got here, defeated by a storm at the sea and the English fleet but maybe we would all be speaking Spanish now and he would have written these plays in Spanish if they had come and conquered,” quipped our guide. Moreover, it further directed our attention to another hypothesis. Since we hardly know anything about Shakespeare, it isn’t a far-fetched thought to assume that he was a spy! While there is very little known about the Bard, the life and times of Charles Dickens were a stark contrast. “Charles Dickens was one of the most famous men

and authors of his age - an age in which mass media was beginning to take hold,” informed our guide. This certainly contributed a great deal to the popularity of Dickens, as even the working class was able to procure chapters of his novels, which were written down in the pages of the magazines. Ordinary people could afford these magazines and could afford to read Dickens. So he was one of the first novelists who had a mass audience amongst ordinary people who could afford to read his stories.” Reminding us of Dickens’ legacy to the world, our guide said, “Today we have a word spawned from his name, which can mean the opposite of itself, depending on how we use it. If we say Dickensian conditions, we mean poverty, squalour, deprivation and want. But, if we say Dickensian Christmas, we all mean lots to eat and drink and lots of presents.” We learned that the ‘man who gave us a word that can mean the opposite of itself ’ was no stranger to St. Paul’s Cathedral, mentioning it in two of his most famous novels – Oliver Twist and David Copperfield. “In Oliver Twist, when Oliver is recaptured by Fagin, he writes that Oliver feels as if he is trapped inside the ball on top of the dome

of St. Paul’s Cathedral. In David Copperfield, the most autobiographical novel of Dickens, he writes that Betsey Trotwood meets her husband here in the churchyard of St. Paul’s,” remarks our guide. Our entourage walked further and came to a halt in front of a stoned archway, situated right opposite the cathedral. “The archway was originally at the top of Fleet Street. In medieval times, this was the place where they put heads on spikes. The heads boiled in the high concentration of salt to stop the birds pecking the flesh off. Christopher Wren, the same guy who designed the cathedral also designed this stoned archway and it was there at the top of Fleet Street for all of Dickens’ lifetime.”

Bankside – the Winchester Geese

The Bankside in the age of Shakespeare was a far cry from what it is today. It was the nerve centre of things that were deemed ‘disreputable’ – from brothels, taverns and theatres to bear baiting, cockfighting and bull baiting. One of the most striking features of the place were the brothels or ‘houses of ill repute’ which were run by none other than the Bishops of Winchester. And our playwright captures the ‘undesirables’ by writing about them. “Shakespeare writes about the Winchester Geese. Prostitutes had to wear a white smock as a sign of their profession so you did not mistake them for respectable ladies. You would see them far off in the distance of the south bank by the side of the river. And in the distance, the white smocks looked like geese,” informed our guide.

The King’s Wardrobe– smelly business Our tour moved forward and entered a building compound, which read

‘Wardrobe Place’. During Elizabethan times, this was the site of the King’s Wardrobe. However, at present, the location has been transformed into service apartments. When King James VI of Scotland and I of England ascended the throne and became the patron of the theatre company that Shakespeare was a part of, the company changed its name to the King’s Men from Lord Chamberlain’s Men. “It must have been rather overwhelming and rather smelly because urine and faeces were used to treat leathers and such things and I think to our 21st century noses, the smell would have been rather overpowering,” humoured our guide.

Playhouse Yard – the winter theatre

The City was home to four theatres during Shakespeare’s life – the Rose, the Hope, the Swan and the Globe. However, not many know that the Bard had a private theatre to his credit. Famously known as the Blackfriar’s theatre, today only a name plaque called ‘Playhouse Yard’ stands as a remnant to the past. Unlike the Globe, the Blackfriar’s theatre had a roof upon its head. During winters, Shakespeare’s plays came to life here, earning it the moniker the ‘Winter theatre’. However, it ceased to exist on a rather unusual complaint. “It got closed down on complaints that gentlemen are excited to see boys in women’s clothing. Referring of course to the fact that women were not allowed on stage and so boys had to play the roles that women would play,” explained our guide.

Newgate Prisonpublic hangings

Our next stop was the Old Bailey. It was at this site that London’s main prison, the Newgate Prison, was situated until 1902. Charles Dickens

had a long history with prisons; not that he had ever been in one. But his life was altered and affected by many. Public hangings were a norm at Newgate prison and Dickens stood firmly against them. Dickens witnessed two public hangings here and he campaigned endlessly to abolish them. He mentioned executions and the Newgate prison in two of his novels – A Tale of Two Cities and Barnaby Rudge: a Tale of the Riots of Eighty. “Dickens wanted to write about the guillotine and he knew that he could see this in his own country just by going to a public hanging,” informed our guide.

The Priory Church of St. Bartholomew the great

While most of the city Shakespeare lived in was destroyed in the great fire of 1666, parts of this church survived and still look the way it did in Shakespeare’s time. Many movies such as Shakespeare in Love and Four Weddings and a Funeral were filmed here. Speaking of stories, our guide narrated an interesting anecdote that had us rolling in the aisles. Unlike many of the instances in Shakespeare’s life for which reliable sources couldn’t be found, this story actually had a contemporary source. “Once Richard Burbage was playing Richard III and while he was on stage, a lady known to be very liberal with her affections sent a message to Burbage’s attiring chamber requesting the presence of Richard III in her bedchambers after the

performance. Shakespeare found the note and said ‘I’ll get around there as Burbage won’t come for a while.’ So Shakespeare banged on the door of this lady and her maid came out. Shakespeare said ‘Tell your lady that Richard III has come’. And while this was going on, Burbage found the note and went to the lady. The maid came out and he said ‘Tell your mistress that Richard III has come’. The maid came back with the following reply ‘My mistress said William the Conqueror came before Richard III’. As we ended our walk at Christ Church, I couldn’t help but draw parallels between Dickens and Shakespeare. Both were outsiders and had fathers buried in debt in the early years of their lives. Both went to grammar schools and married early. And both acted in plays and became extraordinary writers, who then went on to achieve phenomenal success. London has a myriad of shades, but at its best it will always be the city where destinies of the most celebrated literary geniuses took shape and their most coveted works came to be realised. g Shakespeare’s & Dickens’ London Sundays 2pm /Wednesdays 11am Meeting Point: Exit 2 of St. Paul’s Tube Station

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NOW AND THEN

London’s abandoned tube stations

Photo: Maria Kriva

he world’s first underground railway system is unique, hiding mysteries and significant historical facts. Carrying more than a billion passengers each year, the London Underground is a hub of people marching towards different routes and destinations. Including 11 lines and 270 stations, London’s underground network is not just for transportation, but it’s a symbol of multiculturalism, diversity and an important piece of the capital’s history. The metro system, widely referred to as The Tube, is London’s trademark. However, being the city’s integral gauge is not its only role, considering it is the world’s first railway system making its appearance in 1863. What Londoners have come to know and understand has not always been this way. It is interesting to take a glimpse into the Tube’s development over its 151-year life and its disused stations. The map of ghost platforms and abandoned tube stations

adds a bit more mystery and interest into the system’s history and hopefully, excitement to those who have passed by an old abandoned building that formerly hosted billions of passengers. Aldwych is an example of such a station, which initially opened in 1907 and came to a complete closure only a decade ago. Under the name Strand, the station was on the Piccadilly line connecting Aldwych to Holborn. At first, there were two platforms that served the passengers but in 1917 only one remained. During the Second World War, the station was shut for six years and its closed platforms were used as a

shelter for both the people and the artworks from museums and galleries. It was 1946 when the station reopened and only one of its platforms regained its use until its final closure in 1994. Still on the Piccadilly Line, Down Street station was of great historical importance. Located between Hyde Park Corner and Green Park, the station opened in 1907, but only ran about 30 years. Its unique significance lies in the fact that the abandoned platform of the station was the shelter of Winston Churchill and his War Cabinet during the Second World War and served the purposes of a refuge during the war turbulences.

Following the trail of the Piccadilly line, we move on to Brompton Road station, between Knightsbridge and South Kensington. The station opened in 1906 and came into closure 28 years later. What’s interesting about this station is its history and macabre background. During the Second World War it was used as a secret military command centre and in 2013 the Ministry of Defence sold the property to an investor in order to raise residential flats. Brompton Road comes also with an eerie story, as in 1994 a 20-year-old student, Sean Harper, was found dead after falling from the 80-feet deep ventilation shaft. More than 70 stations were withdrawn from service during the Tube’s yearlong history. In December 2007 the latest closures marked the end of the East London line, which was later reopened as part of the Overground network. The preserved buildings stand tall amongst the city’s contemporary constructions and are a reminder of the tube’s magnitude. gMK

PICCADILLY VICTORIA

We look at the forgotten ghost platforms of the Underground

NOW AND THEN

Jack the Ripper A glimpse into the mind of London’s most notorious serial killer in the chilling backstreets of Whitechapel By Maria Kriva / Photography by Maria Kriva

T DISTRICT

he murders of Jack the Ripper, one of London’s most sinister and gruesome stories, unfold before the eyes of the curious and adventurous tourists, as the numerous daily guided tours provide a realistic and exciting experience. Victorian London in 1888 has two sides. On the one hand, there are the posh gentlemen with their top hats making their way through the streets of elegant London along with ladies in puffed dresses. However, this image is not seen in the East side of London, where the narrow streets and hidden alleys of Whitechapel become a macabre and bloody setting. The figure of Jack the Ripper, lurking in the dark corners of Mitre Square and the secluded yard of Hanbury Street has marked the history of Whitechapel. “Is this not when Sherlock Holmes was around?” asks an attendant in the tour. But, the tour guide’s answer is both sarcastic and disarming. “In case anybody is unaware, Sherlock Holmes

and Sweeney Todd didn’t really exist. Jack the Ripper really did. There really was someone out there killing people in these streets; and it was not that long ago”. Could this be a common misunderstanding regarding the murderer of Whitechapel? His ghastly story has most certainly inspired a large number of films that tried to capture the terror spread by Jack the Ripper. From Klaus Kinski’s performance as the notorious serial killer in the 1976’s ‘Jack the Ripper’, to Johnny Depp’s endeavour as inspector Frederick Abberline in ‘From Hell’, the film industry has depicted his story in many different forms and patterns. owever, the true impact of Jack the Ripper knows no visual special effects and glamorous performances, as his original acts speak louder than any of Hollywood’s exaggerated scenes. In the early hours of August 31st 1888, the first victim became known. Mary Ann Nichols, a poor, starving prostitute, was found brutally murdered

in Bucks Row, marking the beginning of a series of gory murders. Just eight days later, Jack the Ripper struck again and this time another prostitute named Annie Chapman was his target. Her throat was horrifically severed by two deep cuts, whereas her abdomen was slit open allowing the attacker to remove her inner organs. Both victims suffered the same grisly death, raising terror and panic in the streets of London. People started demanding drastic measures from

the police, as they feared the number of victims could rise. The easiest and most obvious solution was to accuse John Pizer, a dangerous and felonious character bearing the nickname ‘Leather Apron’. Police investigations emerged and the newspapers started badgering John Pizer, accusing him of committing the Whitechapel murders. It was not until September 27th 1888, when the true identity of the killer was revealed. A letter arrived to the Central News Agency signed by a man named Jack the Ripper, taking full respon-

sibility for the murders. Furthermore, the unknown sender cynically stated that he would proceed with the murders until caught. At that point, the East End of London knew what they were dealing with. It took wonly three days until their fears were confirmed with what remained in history as the ‘double event’, leaving the public shocked by the killer’s extreme atrocities. n September 30th, prostitute Elizabeth Stride was found dead in Dutfield’s Yard in Berner Street of Whitechapel. The main artery on the left side of her neck was severed but the absence of other wounds indicated that the murderer didn’t act in his usual killing manner. Apparently Jack the Ripper was almost caught in the act, forcing him to leave his victim behind and disappear into the night. However, his appalling desires had yet to be satisfied. It took him less than half an hour to commit his next grim murder. This time it was Catherine Eddowes, another prostitute, who experienced

the rage of the Ripper. The mutilation of her entire body still causes shock and disgust, as the killer took out all his inner brutality on her. Similarly to the other victims, Eddowes’s throat was severed and her chest was slashed wide open, while Jack the Ripper removed parts of her organs. But this case is slightly different, as her face also suffered brutal cuts, including her eyelids and cheeks. A few moments later, a piece of Eddowes’s clothing was found in a doorway of Goulston Street along with a puzzling message written entirely in chalk. The investigations continued until George Lusk, the chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee received a parcel, including the Ripper’s second letter. With the words “From Hell” opening the letter, Jack the Ripper made his presence known yet again. Along with his letter, he sent half a kidney from one of his victims, cynically stating that he fried and ate the other half. But his true evil colours

appeared when the last Whitechapel murder occurred on November 9th 1888. Mary Jane Kelly was his last victim and the level of violence and cruelty surpasses all imagination. Her mutilated body was found lying on her bed and existing photographs depict her dismembered figure beyond recognition. Going back to the tour guide’s words, the murders of Jack the Ripper were not that long ago. Victorian London is certainly history and it has been 126 years since Londoners feared the fury of the Ripper. Even though thinking of him as a distant memory is justifiable, it makes one wonder: how old is the story of Jack the Ripper? The Tube was introduced to Londoners in 1863; that is 25 years before his appearance. In a strange way, Circle line and the Whitechapel tube station were wholly in service during his killing spree. So is he that far in the past? In any case, the innumerable times that he has been revived through films

DISTRICT

NOW AND THEN

and modern versions of fairy tales make him immortal throughout history. However, one must not mistake him for the false character introduced by cinema. The dark figure wearing a long cloak and a top hat isn’t who Jack the Ripper really was. And one thing remains certain: it was definitely not up to Sherlock Holmes to catch him. g Daily tours are available for enthusiasts and passionate investigators. Starting from Aldgate East station, the tours offer a thrilling insight into the infamous murders of Jack the Ripper.

LONDON NOW & THEN

The infinite Thames - as seen through the eyes of a whale

OVERGROUND

he Moby Dick, named Endless water, beautifully after the fictional whale of painting the Docklands’ the American writer Herman scenery! And right in the Melville’s book, captures the middle of the two contrasting essence of the ever-developing worlds, situated at the Surrey Southeast London. Formerly Docks, the impressive Moby part of the Port of London, at Dick pub connects tradition one time the world’s largest with innovation. port, London’s docks did not This large cosy waterside pub always look this attractive. It is considered the treasure of wasn’t until the 20th century the locality, gathering people that the “home of from all the nearby docks ships” was actually to taste its famous “People turned into a Sunday roast. Next came in from to the round commercial and residential area. outside... This tables that face The London was one of the the water and Docklands, as main places to the comfortable the region’s been leather couches gather.” called since 1971, that call for forms part of the endless conversations boroughs of Southwark, sipping home-made soup, Tower Hamlets, Lewisham, Docklands historian Andie Newham and Greenwich. Byrnes is enjoying her drink A peaceful area of little at the bar. houses, some of which literally “You can see the lovely float on the river, is just a views… This massive area of breath away from the suits and open water is very calming ties of the busy Canary Wharf. and peaceful,” she says as she’s Their common ground? staring out of the window

looking mesmerised. Apart from the breath-taking window view that serves just fine as a positive-energy shot, the pub’s wooden tables at its porch make this dock the place to be on a sunny day. But Moby Dick wasn’t always like that. “The pub was built in the early ‘90s as part of this building complex. When I first moved in the area, it wasn’t a nice place. It was very desolate, very derelict and there were all kinds of personalities,” Byrnes recalls. However, when the current owners, Joe and Terry, took

The Moby Dick, 6 Russell Place, Greenland Dock, SE16 1PL Tel: 020 7231 6719 mobydickgreenlanddock.co.uk

Photos: Shefali Saxena

There is no better way to admire the view of London’s famous river than from the inside of a picturesque pub

over about ten years ago, everything changed. “People came in from outside to live here and this was one of the main places to gather. Now it’s a really lovely, well-thought out place,” says Byrnes. And it makes sense; the floral carpet underneath the vintage couches as well as the ‘80s and ‘90s music selection, from Madonna’s ‘Like A Virgin’ to Robbie Williams’s ‘Angels’, make me feel at home. The playful whale figures on the menu introduce the traditional, home-cooked dishes -not what one would expect in a newly developed area next to the posh and uptight Canary Wharf. The delicious burger buns, the juicy Sunday Roast and Byrne’s favourite, the Scampi, can definitely set Moby Dick as a neighbourhood pub that’s not yet been struck by excessive modernisation. Leaving the Moby Dick with a sense of fulfillment and just the right dose of nostalgia, I’m left wondering what’s in store for the area. Will it become the next Canary Wharf with even more skyscrapers and faceless buildings or will it manage to retain its compelling simplicity? But then I’m distracted by the view and I no longer have to think. g KP

Experience Spring through the pages of AdrenaLINE!

We visited five London parks for our NEXT ISSUE - you will be surprised with what we found 45

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BAFTAs 2014

– or my failed attempt to meet Daniel Brühl The Baftas are the most glamorous awards in the British Film industry, so I decided to spend the day in endless queues to live this event from the inside, and to get a glimpse and possibly, a photo of Daniel Brühl. Would I succeed? By Virginia Cerezo / Photography by Leila Murseljevic

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or the average person, attending the Baftas means hours of queuing in the cold London weather. It is a tough and dedicated process that makes people question their existence over the course of the day. But in the end, it is worth it.

4:00 I am so tired. 5:15 It’s still nightime. I

am still tired, and I haven’t had breakfast. I’m starting to regret that for the next 14 hours I will be standing out in the cold, open air. I need hot chocolate. And a nap.

6:05 We are queuing at the 46

Theatre Royal in Covent Garden, and I would say we have about 500 people in front of us. Some of them seem to have spent the night here, and there is a weird lady wearing a tiger onesie. I am starting to think she had a good idea because we are wearing normal jeans and in 20 minutes we are not able to feel our feet anymore. It won’t be long, though: the doors to get the wristbands open at 7 am.

7:00 BAFTA lied to

my face. To our faces, to 1,000 people’s faces. Someone just said that they are not giving away

the wristbands until 8 am, and we also found out that we have to go to a different door first to have a number written on our hand. Terrible organisation, really.

8:00 The doors are still

closed, but at least we got our numbers, which are for nothing more than to have an idea of how many people are queuing. The wait is becoming a bit of a pain. Is it worth it? We might not even get front row at the red carpet, and we are cold and tired.

8:05 Leila and I are

developing killer instincts thanks to the group in front of us. These hours of waiting have allowed us to unwillingly hear about everybody’s lives, but I am sure I have learned about everything that has happened to these people since they were born until last night (they saw King Lear).

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8:15 The doors are open! This should go quickly, it is only giving away wristbands.

9:00 We are still here.

Why are we still here? The numbness has spread to my thighs. I would say that I am this close to having Leila carrying me, but I have the feeling she is going through exactly the same.

9:50 We finally made it to

the door, and we got our wristbands: we are numbers 554 and 555. Apparently, they only had one person delivering them, and it wasn’t until we were three minutes away from the door that they decided to bring in another person to deliver them . Not cool, Bafta, not cool.

10:00 Finally, it’s time for

breakfast. Of the three nearest Starbucks, we decide to go to the one next to LSE, since the rest of the group is going to the other two. I have never been so happy in my life to be drinking hot chocolate, and that is something that already makes me very happy on a daily basis. Then, I come to realise this is probably the worst Starbucks we have been to (and we have been to quite a lot of them).

waiting. A man arrives and starts dividing us into sections according to our numbers. If the first queue was like high school, this one is beginning to look a lot like kindergarten. I don’t know what time it is anymore. I think I have lost track of time.

13:00 Here we are at the red

carpet. Finally! And we have been lucky enough to get front row. We are not going anywhere, whatever happens. A crazy woman whose main goal today is meeting Bradley Cooper is right behind us with her daughter. There will be blood because we are not moving. Ever. The cold wait begins. Meanwhile, the people from E! start rehearsing, acting like big shots. I honestly could not care less about them.

Left to right, top to bottom: Emma Thompson, Christoph Waltz, supporting actor nominee Michael Fassbender, Barkhad Abdi, producer Harvey Weinstein and 12 Years a Slave director Steve McQueen

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It feels like, for some reason, we are back in high school.

18:15 After hours of waiting,

and what seemed like days, someone finally has arrived, and it is no other than Christoph Waltz! As expected,

10:25 At last, I proceed to have a nap.

11:30 And we are back

to queuing! Even with our numbers, we have to stay here

PICCADILLY Left to right, top to bottom: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Eddie Redmayne, Best Actor nominee Tom Hanks, Sherlockâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Lara Pulver and Dame Helen Mirren, recipient of the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award

SOME THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT THE BAFTAS The Academy was founded

1947 by David Lean, Alexander Korda, Carol Reed, Charles Laughton and Roger Manvell.

The first and second editions took place at the same time, on 29 May 1949. The Best Years of Our Lives was honoured as the best film of 1947 and Hamlet as the best of 1948. The gala was held at the Odeon cinema on Leicester Square until 2008, when it moved to the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. In 1955, American sculptor Mitzi Cunliffe designed the statuette, which is shaped like a mask. Dames Judi Dench and Maggie Smith are the actresses with most awards. They have five each.

everybody starts screaming like this is the end of the world or worse.

18:30 Juliet Stevenson, Ray

Winstone and Steve McQueen arrive at the same time.

18:40 Barkhad Abdi

arrives, and begins getting interviewed right in front of us, but I can’t pay any attention to him because Daniel Brühl has arrived at the same time, so that is all I care about right now. Within two minutes, all my screams prove worthless, and my chances of getting an autograph and a photo of Brühl fade away. I stop caring about everything, even though Eddie Redmayne is standing in front of us.

18:45 I start recovering

my happiness when I get Gwendoline Christie’s signature. Lupita Nyong’o, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Alfonso Cuarón pass by, and it’s impossible to reach them. Leonardio DiCaprio is next, and if I had thought that the crowd couldn’t be crazier, I

was wrong. The yelling and the chants when Leo arrives are insane, and I start going deaf. We can’t get to him, but I see Lara Pulver from Sherlock, and I decide to call her, since everyone is so focused on DiCaprio. And of course, she comes to us to take photos.

19:00 I am beginning

to forget the Brühl fiasco because Tom Hanks has approached us and signed an autograph! He even thanked me for it. Tom Hanks: loved by everyone since 1984.

19:15 Stars are arriving more often, and within ten minutes we see Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein (who willingly poses for us), Emma Thompson and a red beard with Michael Fassbender attached to it. After them, Bradley Cooper shows up, and Crazy Woman behind us loses it. Luckily for us and not for her, Cooper comes to us and he takes a photo with me. Crazy Woman hates us now, but I am way too happy to care. I have a photo, she doesn’t. Better luck next time.

SCREEN 19:20 New batch of

celebrities: Naomi Harris (who also takes a photo with me), Oprah Winfrey and the two most stunning actresses in this country - Dame Helen Mirren and Dame Judi Dench.

19:30 The official list of

attendees had Benedict Cumberbatch in it, but he hasn’t arrived yet. Our guess is that he will be the last one to show up. For now, the biggest stars get to the red carpet: Brad Pitt and Angelina

“Cooper comes to us and he takes a photo with me. Crazy Woman hates us now, but I am way too happy to care” Jolie, who were unexpected, as we had been told that they were already inside the Royal Opera House. Everybody is trying to get them, and in the midst of the craziness, I miss Christian Bale, and I will never forgive myself for that. At least Pitt and Jolie come to us, and I get their autographs as well. The Brühl failure is almost forgotten - almost.

19:35 Where in the world is

Cumberbatch? Prince William just walked past us, and the red carpet looks like it’s over.

19:40 That’s it. It is over.

Cumberbatch didn’t show up, I didn’t meet Daniel Brühl, but I have a photo of me with Cooper, so all’s well that ends well. Also, I can’t feel my legs anymore and we have been up for 15 hours, so it’s time to go home and sleep. I will learn the winners in the newspaper when I wake up. g The Baftas are hosted by British Academy of Film and Television Arts and sponsored by EE.

PICCADILLY

''CONTINUED FROM PAGE 47

SCREEN

From Left to Right: Angelina Jolie, Oprah Winfrey and Deepika Padukone

They made a difference These women have made a difference to society by supporting important real life causes

he is one of the richest mothers on the planet. The highest paid actress according to Forbes Magazine, she is the mother of six children; three biological and three adopted, from Cambodia, Vietnam and Ethiopia respectively. This woman of substance took a valiant step in recent times when she underwent a preventive double mastectomy after discovering that she had an 87% risk of breast cancer and 50% risk of ovarian cancer, due to defective BRCA1 gene which runs in her maternal family. She promoted the awareness and information about this kind of precaution and prevention, which women surely need to be acquainted to in today’s times. Time magazine called this ‘The Angelina Effect’ and carried out a piece on how she had the ability to influence people on a large scale. It is really commendable on the part of an actress of such stature that she came out in public with her decision, accept and elaborate her medical condition so that she could help in enlightening so many other women in society.

Oprah Winfrey

aped at the age of nine, pregnant at 14, she wore potato rags as an underprivileged child. She’s ‘The Queen of All Media’, and the richest AfricanAmerican of the 20th century Not encouraged to study as a child, she has an honourary doctorate degree by Harvard. With 33 million followers on social media, she is one of the most influential ladies in the world. Her latest gift to society is for the upcoming Mother’s Day. Naming it Oprah Chai (Tea) she said, “This is my mission of inspiring and nurturing the human spirit charities that help youth education.” Oprah has personally blended the ingredients of the tea with Teavana organisation. The money from the sales of this tea, shall help in funding the value rich National afterschool elementary programme. Funds from Oprah Chai shall also be used in a programme that inspires girls to be smart and bold. Underprivileged and physically challenged children shall also benefit. Oprah says, “Anybody can do perfume, not everybody can do chai.”

Deepika Padukone

he’s the only Indian actress to have had five hits in a row in a year, with all of them raking more than 100 INR Crores at the box office. Deepika has achieved what no other actress in Indian cinema could do in its 100 years. Not hailing from a show business family, this young actress is the first to have her name displayed in a film’s casting credits before the name of the male actor. Considering she hails from a patriarchal country like India, where even the film industry is male dominated, the name of this actress shall always be revered as long as Indian cinema breathes its last breath. It was in 2013 where actor Shahrukh Khan proposed that he would highly promote and appreciate the fact that the name of his heroine appear in the credits of the film before his own. This step is likely to bring about positive changes in conventional Indian society. These three ladies have made a remarkable difference to society through their ‘reel life’ achievements into the real lives of the many people they have touched. g SS

Photos via Flickr

Angelina Jolie

SCREEN

SPIT IT OUT!

It’s 30 years since Spitting Image first hit our screens. And we take a humorous look back at the popular show and ask if there’s a place for its outrageous blend of satire in this day and age By Vidwath Shetty Photography by Spitting Image

CENTRAL

pitting Image, the iconic ‘80s and ‘90s puppet sketch show, celebrates the 30th anniversary of its launch. To mark the occasion, the puppets from the show are on exhibition at London’s Cartoon Museum. And it’s a great chance for people to relive comedy moments that made puppets of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Regan more memorable than the public figures themselves. The show was launched in 1984 to critical acclaim and immense popularity that saw its ratings figures soar to over 15 million. In addition to this, Spitting Image also won a handful of Baftas and Emmys and made a name for itself in mainstream popular culture. As it happens, the creators of the show Roger Law and Peter Fluck (Luck and Flaw) made the show more for reasons of social commentary than the many accolades they received. But the fact that the show went on to be such a phenomenal hit, abroad as well as in this country, was just a plus point. UK politicians and royals had never before been lampooned in this manner and viewers couldn’t get enough of it. The show was taken off air in 1996, in spite of on-going major popularity. A planned relaunch that was discussed a few years ago never materialised. The buzz surrounding the exhibition seems to be a reminder of Spitting Image’s enduring popularity. And would Spitting Image ever ever work in the 2010s? Not according to the creators. But many of the show’s fans no doubt feel differently.

Margaret Thatcher

SPITTING IMAGE – THE GREATEST MOMENTS • John major having a spoof affair with Health Minister Virginia Bottomley. The scriptwriters considered using Edwina Currie, but changed their minds, deciding it seemed too unbelievable. Ironically it was revealed years after John Major left cabinet that he had in fact had an affair with Edwina Currie!

at his bedside. After accidently switching the ‘nuke’ button, leading to the whole world exploding, Regan comments “That’s one heck of a nurse.” • The Queen Mother and Princess Margaret arm-wrestling over a glass of vodka (Some might call it a conceivable scenario).

• Ronald Reagan having ‘nurse’ and ‘nuke’ buttons

• In a scene parodying the TV show Dallas,

Margaret Thatcher stabs her husband Dennis to death in the shower. • In a send-up of a real-life incident in which Princess Diana alerted the emergency services after seeing a tramp drowning, Spitting Image did their own take on it. Diana is so obsessed with what she wears when the police and photographers arrive, that there’s no chance to call 999 and the tramp dies!

SCREEN

Q & A WITH THE SPITTING IMAGE CO-CREATOR, ROGER LAW What were your favourite Spitting Image sketches? The political ones. They didn’t even have to be funny; they had a purpose. Who were Spitting Image’s top celebrity fans? Most of them actually enjoyed seeing themselves in puppet form. In fact, when the puppets were auctioned off, a number of celebrities and public figures tried to buy their puppets. Can you tell us your favourite Spitting Image character/ creation? I don’t have a favourite; the only thing I hate more than politicians is puppets!

What was the purpose of Spitting Image? The purpose of spitting image was to give people a good kicking. There was a lot of bad in the country. We didn’t

make the show to be rich and famous. Have there been any television shows in the last 15 years that have replicated the spirit of what Spitting Image was about? In The Thick of It. Do you consider Spitting Image culturally relevant? In 5000 years from now, will people be able to dissect and understand the 80s and 90s from watching the show? If you look at spitting image, it’s a good record of the eighties. Who celebrities were; what they were wearing. Academics may sift through it someday.

With regards to Harry Enfield, Rory Bremner and Chris Barrie, would it be fair to say Spitting Image was a springboard for top 90s British Comedy talent? Older people with young families didn’t want to work for us, so we hired young people like Harry Enfield. And yes, he like others went onto successful solo careers. What did you think of the foreign versions of the show? I worked on most of them. Some of them were very good, like the Czech one. And your favourite Spitting Image song is... Not The Chicken Song!

•BORIS JOHNSON

•MILEY CYRUS

•DAVID CAMERON

•WILL & KATE

•GEORGE OSBORNE

•PRINCE HARRY

•ED MILLIBAND

•PIPPA’S ARSE

•ALEX SALMOND

•WAYNE ROONEY

•POSH & BECKS

•KIM & KANYE

•TOWIE

•ANNE WIDDECOMBE

•BRANGELINA

•NIGELLA LAWSON

•JUSTIN BIEBER

•GORDON RAMSAY

•GEORGE CLOONEY

•SIMON COWELL

•BARACK OBAMA

•LADY GAGA

•MADONNA

•RUSSELL BRAND

Thatcher Cutting Up Britain’ by Spitting Image Workshop. Photograph by Spitting Image Workshop. © Spitting Image Productions Ltd, Spitting Image Archive. ‘Her Majesty The Queen’ by Spitting Image Workshop.

Photograph by John Lawrence Jones. © Spitting Image Productions Ltd, Spitting Image Archive. / All material in the exhibition: © Spitting Image Productions Ltd, Spitting Image Archive.

CENTRAL

WHO WOULD WORK FOR 2014?

Queen Elizabeth

The Spitting Image exhibition runs until June 8th at The Cartoon Museum. www.cartoonmuseum.org 53

SCREEN

Nymphomaniac: friend or foe?

PhotoS by Leila Murseljevic

abelled as the most controversial film, not only in 2013 but also of the last decade, Nymphomaniac, and its director, surely stopped the clocks around the world.

After tackling the most unusual themes seen through film theory and history, provocative and eccentric Danish writer and director Lars von Trier, after Antichrist in 2009, decided to focus on sexually explicit theme again. This time it is more shocking than imaginable. Brilliant yet frustrating, Nymphomaniac follows Joe (played by Stacy Martin and Charlotte Gainsbourg, depending what age Joe is in the film) and her sexual will and activeness since the age of two. After being found bruised and bloody in an alley by an academic named Seligman (wonderfully portrayed by one of Sweden’s finest, Stellan Skarsgård) she ends up telling her life story to her hero. Filled with tales that you might flag as A-list pornography, her story focuses on early sexual experiences and first orgasm when she was 12, pure feminine competitiveness – who will get who and how many of them, and her life with a sadist. “I’m just a bad human being,” says Charlotte Gainsbourg as Joe at the beginning of the film. True, Lars von Trier’s two-part drama is four hours long, but it is also a four-hour search for deep meaning of personal boundaries, emotional breakdowns, and effects of personal experiences on life’s journey. After working on the end of the world

in Melancholia (2011) and pure evil in Antichrist (2009), Trier is not an amateur when it comes to peculiar movie themes that almost always embrace intellectual mind exploration. Nymphomaniac is raw, explicit, but most of all an honest vision of a cinematic genius and brilliant provocateur. Oscar nominated and a Palme d’Or winner (for Dancer in the Dark, 2001) von Trier dared to question film theories and theorists in the industry with this movie. Peculiar or not, this four-hour sex-fest isn’t only about sex. Nymphomaniac deals more with issues such as female ego, self-destructive patterns, different stages of the state of mind and conventionalism. The movie might possibly be a deep insight into individuals and their characters - male or female. To put it plain and simple, it offers a possible response to these questions: How conventional are we when it comes to sex and emotions? And if we are conventional as society wants us , who’s to blame: society, or ourselves? By default, the controversies must follow a controversial movie and, in this case, an even a more controversial film director. Suprisingly or not, after the Cannes Film Festival’s board of directors declared von Trier “persona non-grata” in 2011 (an unprecedented move for the film festival), parts of Nymphomaniac were banned in some parts of the world. After it was released in November 2013, the teaser trailer for Nymphomaniac was removed from YouTube. The film board in Turkey has banned the screening of the first part of the movie due to film’s sex scenes, claiming that this film is “pushing the boundaries of porn” and is unfit for public viewing. The second part of Nymphomaniac has been banned in Romania, given a so-called IM 18 XXX certification by their cinema board, which means that the film can not and will not be shown to the general public there. If you wish to question your own boundaries and the persona of individuals in general, and deeply desire a subject of relevance to discuss with your friends, this movie is a mandatory watch. If you are a very secure person and not question yourself in general, if you’re self-confident and you are not a fan of controversy, delusions, emotional breakdowns and explicit scenery, Nymphomaniac is the one to miss. g LM

Psychological Pandora’s box ‘Narration into narration, story into a story’ would be the best description of this years British-German movie product, The Grand Budapest Hotel. The Grand Budapest Hotel, directed by straight-talking Oscar nominated Wes Anderson (The Royal Tenenbaums, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom) follows Gustave H. (played brilliantly by Ralph Fiennes), a concierge of a high-class European hotel between the two World Wars, his managerial success, sexual endeavours and emotional failures. Renaissance painting, determined lobby-boy (played by Tony Revolori) and mystical women are just bits that make this drama complete. Based on the works of Stefan Zweig, late Austrian novelist, journalist and biographer, The Grand Budapest Hotel is an imaginative storytelling of mishmash of history, love, mystery and dubious characters, personalities and personas. Besides Ralph Fiennes, Anderson’s movie gathered some of the biggest names in the world of cinema, such as Adrien Brody, Willem Defoe, Jude Law, Harvey Keitel, Bill Murray and magnificent Tilda Swinton, among other well-known thespians. It’s a big shame that Anderson’s movie wasn’t released earlier and was, therefore, excluded from the Oscars. Biggest shame lies in avoiding a nomination for amazing music score by the even more amazing six-time Oscar nominated Alexandre Desplat (Philomena, Argo, The Queen), whose score will, I am sure, remain memorable in the years ahead. It is safe to say that Anderson made yet another trademark movie with all the essential parts of what he represents in the cinema world today. There is a big possibility that The Grand Budapest Hotel will remain his most memorable achievement. Want to know why? Go to the cinema and enjoy this wonderful mixture of laughter, psychological games and alluring enrooting music. g LM

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Flamenco: the Spanish invasion The flamenco world, led by Sara Baras, arrives in London once again for its annual celebration of dancing and singing By Virginia Cerezo

Photo by Santana de Yepes

“Ángel Múñoz exudes passion when he is dancing”

Photo by Foteini Christofilopoulou

Miguel Poveda: from Barcelona to London

he world of flamenco in Spain has always been associated with the south of the country, until Miguel Poveda (Barcelona, 1973) arrived and broke that tradition. Now he is one of the most influential flamenco singers of the current scene and he has come to London to participate in the city’s flamenco festival. With a father from Murcia and a mother of La Mancha, Miguel always knew this was the profession he was destined for: “First, I wanted to be a singer, and then I saw some flamenco singing concerts until I started getting into this world thanks to the Tertulia Flamenca in Badalona”. Young Miguel’s ambition kept him going, and he got the chance to prove his talent in the “33º Festival Nacional del Cante de las Minas” in La Unión (Murcia), where he won the prestigious Lámpara Minera. He was only 20 years old. From that moment on, Poveda’s career took flight and turned him into an example in the flamenco-singing panorama. “I try, along with other artists of my generation and the older ones, to give prestige to this music, a prestige it already has”. Now Poveda has come to London to share his voice with Anglo-Saxon audiences, who are getting increasingly aware of the importance of flamenco and what this art means. And Poveda himself notices this change. “More people are coming to flamenco shows nowadays, especially young people. That means the world to anyone who really loves this”.

and the audience loves her in return. She looks at the public, smiles, shows how grateful she is. People shout her name in the middle of her performance. By the end of the show, everyone has joined the party that is flamenco. Baras knows flamenco has to think ahead to the future, so a great amount of performance time goes to the other dancers, the singers and the musicians.

When she is dancing with them, Sara blends in like one more, but when it is just her, the clocks stop working. She is so seductive on stage that she makes you forget that you have been staring at her open-mouthed for the past 30 minutes. That is the reaction Baras causes. She is pure energy, love, freedom - a powerful representation of Spain. She is La Pepa. g

NORTHERN

show, the rest of the company keeps high standards all the time, with impeccable dancing and an even greater synchronisation, both of which make their flamenco as beautiful as it can be. Also surrounded by a captivating set and lighting, the dancers seem to be having a fiesta, dancing around and making it seem so natural, and that is what leads you to think, “for them, it is”, which explains why you have been smiling the whole time. They are representing Spain, but not its stereotypes. They are representing its spirit, and you can breathe it through their spectacular dance. And when you are completely immerse in the story, Sara shows up and there is nothing else but her. She owns the stage and her moves show she is from another world, one we cannot reach. You can tell that she has missed dancing, after taking a four-year break so that she and her husband, José Serrano (co-star in La Pepa), could have a son. But it feels as if she had never left. Of course, there are other big Spanish names taking part of the festival such as Miguel Poveda, Farruquito or Ángel Múñoz, a relative newcomer who is now a flamenco star thanks to his talent and the passion he exudes when he is dancing. But still, the whole season would be nothing without Sara Baras. She loves her audience,

Photo by Maxi del Campo

or Spanish people, Flamenco is a symbol of their country and their culture. It is the art that expresses their thoughts and their wishes, something that shows who they truly are. And that sentiment is now shared with other countries. Although it is not for British eyes only: flamenco performances are quite successful on every continent with highly regarded festivals taking place in cities such as New York and Chicago. Some of the best singers and dancers from Spain come to London to share that piece of their country. The first one to perform in the show is one of the key figures of this Spanish art: Sara Baras, a woman whose name is already synonymous with flamenco. With the show La Pepa, the Spanish dancer and her company bring the magic from Southern Spain to London, along with a bit of history from their country—La Pepa was the nickname of the first constitution created in Spain, in 1812. That piece of history is the motivation behind the show: it represented freedom, and for Baras that represented pure art itself. With Sadler’s Wells Theatre in Angel putting the “sold out” sign for her performance only days after the tickets were on sale, the expectations for Sara’s act are higher than for everyone else. Even though Baras’ part doesn’t begin until later in the

BEATS

Yorkshire singer brings Northern charm and authenticity to London Singer-songwriter Adam White is currently working on an upcoming EP and will be touring throughout the Spring with concert dates in Hoxton and Hackney

t is Friday night at the Cavendish Arms in Stockwell. A venue that doubles as a bohemian, relaxed and trendy pub in one room and a platform for emerging musicians in another. The front room is buzzing with post-work conversation. Pints are being poured at the bar. The squishy leather sofas and small fireplace create a cosy atmosphere. There’s a small organ off to the side, but it’s not being played tonight.

In the next room there is no patterned carpet or wallpaper, just a completely black room with a small stage. On stage, Adam White is propped up on a stool. Even sitting he towers over everyone else in the room. He looks completely comfortable on stage as he takes a drink from his pint of Guinness. White is an acoustic musician now based in London. He’s is a long way from home, a distinctive accent betrays his roots in

Barnsley, South Yorkshire. His early days were spent with a family that always had music around. His parents played a mix of folk music, The Police and Queen. He began writing music when he was 16. After high school he played gigs with a post-grunge band called One Weak Lifetime. Barnsley lacked the places to play. So White moved down to London at 22, young enough to move to a new city without any strings attached.

OVERGROUND

“But there is no

money in music. The musicians always get shafted”

“I used to suffer from stage fright,” says White. “It was an obstacle I overcame. Before, I was always on edge.” The stage fright wasn’t present at the Cavendish Arms. Instead, there is a singer with a dynamic voice and plucky guitar. The postgrunge days have been left behind and the music has become mellowed Americana in style. While his music sounds like British folk, he says there’s that signature ‘story telling’ aspect missing. Instead, White’s lyrics focus on emotions that are accessible to his audience. White says, “I don’t really care about the money. I want people who want to listen.” e’s working on an EP now after scrapping the idea of making a full-length album. While he admits it takes lots of time that he doesn’t always have outside of work, he still makes the time to record and has even begun work with a producer. The work of making an EP is always a challenge when life does not allow for full-time recording in the studio. White says, “I would love to do music full-time, but there is no money in music. The musicians always get shafted.” Along with his new EP, White has been working with an ever-expanding group of venues and fellow musicians to help, and playing a series of gigs in a tour of London. White closes his set with the bouncing and swaying “You’re on my Mind.” When he leaves the stage, a band with a keytarist take his place. Style and melody has clearly left the pub for the night, but White has left his mark.g KC The Age of To and Fro is now available on iTunes.

BEATS

A turning point for James Walsh?

Photos by Pledge Music Ticket; Anthony Abbott/Flickr

ames Walsh invited his fans to the launch party of his album, Turning Point. Twenty-somethings like me who are still in love with Starsailor songs, as well as others in their forties who simply cannot resist a beautiful voice, were gathered to watch Walsh perform his brand new solo tracks along with some Starsailor classics. The intimate gig was held at The Hospital Club in Covent Garden. Only the few who had pledged online received all kinds of goodies, from tickets for this concert to a day at the studio with James! Arriving at The Hospital Club, it was hard to believe that an acoustic rock gig could ever be held in such a posh place. The ground floor foyer and the lift that emitted music through its speakers had me thinking I was at a five-star hotel. The velvet curtains in the room and a formally dressed waiter constantly passing by to hand out menus added to my surprise. As I was starting to get comfortable in my lounge chair, I realised that this was not going to be an ordinary show - where I would normally get pushed closer to the stage

until I passed out. Nevertheless, Walsh’s simplicity evened out the formality of my surroundings. The singer appeared on stage and thanked his fans who contributed into making this album, praying that “hopefully no one will want their money back”! With his wife standing at the front row and people yelling at him “Why is your wife not drinking?” he picked up his guitar and started playing, after asking the waiter to get her some gin. The musician described Turning Point as a “Sunday afternoon, soulful” kind of album, which made perfect sense; Walsh’s mellow but always confident voice was reinforced by the soothing melodies of his acoustic guitar, making this the ultimate chill-out record. He introduced Turning Point with the inspiring ballad “Better Part of Me”, which has already aired on BBC Radio 2. The setlist also included songs like “Fading Grace” and “If I Had The Words”, where the music complimented by Walsh’s incredible vocals was able to intensely touch the utmost depth of my soul.

Of course, some Starsailor songs could not be excluded from the repertoire; the popular “Silence Is Easy” as well as my own favourite, Fever -which he had not played in a while- were enough to make me reminisce the good old times.

“It’s a Sunday afternoon, soulful kind of album”

Walsh closed the set with “We Could Try”, which he described as the only song with “Thursday-FridaySaturday kind of vibes”, since it’s the most upbeat of the album. He had already played it in concerts in the past, so it was only fair that it’s finally included in Turning Point. His debut solo album

aside, the musician hasn’t quit Starsailor altogether. He recently announced a concert as part of the Isle of Wight festival in June, where the band will be reunited on stage. Recording new music in the future is also a possibility for Starsailor. During another London gig back in December Walsh said: “There will be something eventually. It’s just getting the timing right. We’ve built up a good legacy and a good reputation. But if we went out at the wrong time and didn’t sell anything, I think that would ruin it. We would have to make sure that it’s a big celebration of the band.” For now, however, we can celebrate the artist’s exciting new solo path. g KP Turning Point by James Walsh is due for release on April 7th.

PICCADILLY

Five years after Starsailor took a break, their frontman is releasing his much anticipated solo album

PHOTO OF THE MONTH

VICTORIA

Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fair in the London Borough of Waltham Forest Photo credits: Leila Murseljevic Camera: Olympus OM 10, SLR, 35 mm, 1979 Lens: Olympus OM Skylight Zuiko 1:5 100-200mm 60

STREET

Need to get out of London this summer? The top 10 summer destinations in Britain in next monthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s AdrenaLINE!

LIFE

What’s your

As excessive drinking exacerbates, it’s time to

By Joshua Rabinowitz/Images by Leila Murseljevic and Joshua Rabinowitz Alcohol is broken down into a chemical called acetaldehyde in the liver. High levels of acetaldehyde, as well as other toxins present in alcohol, can damage the DNA in our cells, increasing the risk of throat and mouth cancer. Binge drinking on the weekend can lead to ‘Holiday Heart Syndrome’ in which the sudden shock of excessive alcohol consumption can knock your heart out of its normal rhythm.

A pint of beer contains as many calories as a packet of crisps, so more than a few a week and you’ll be piling on the pounds. A high calorie diet also increases the risk of heart disease, arthritis, diabetes and strokes, especially if you are already carrying a bit of extra weight. Alcohol has been linked in studies to multiple sexual problems including erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation and loss of sexual desire due to its effect on the brain and nervous system.

ccording to George Bernard Shaw, “Alcohol is the anaesthesia by which we endure the operation of life.” And the Irish playwright/ LSE cofounder would not be alone in enjoying a tipple from time to time. In Britain certainly, alcohol is part of the fabric of our culture- drinking has featured in our literature and poetry from the inns and taverns in Chaucer’s Cantebury Tales all the way through to the Three Broomsticks pub in JK Rowling’s Harry Potter. Yet, whether it was prohibition in the 1920s America or the minimum unit pricing that successive UK governments have looked at implementing more recently, it is an undeniable fact that alcohol in excess is bad for both our health and society in general. Every year, medical experts publish reports recommending an increase in alcohol tax and a decrease in excessive drinking levels, highlighting the huge cost incurred by the NHS due to alcohol-related disease. But at the same time, historical evidence shows that agricultural development in ancient times was driven by as much by cultivation of grain for beer, as it was the production of bread and animal feed. “The hard truth is that even when alcohol is drunk in small amounts, it has a negative effect on the body in both the short and long term” argues Professor David Nutt, Chair of the International Science Committee on Drugs. Whilst this may be true, the positive

LIFE

poison then? start analysing the risks of this dangerous habit

Long-term alcoholics often suffer from a disease of the brain called Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome. Symptoms include changes in vision, memory problems and difficulty moving.

High levels of alcohol consumption can cause high levels of oestrogen, one of the main risk factors of breast cancer. Alcohol is broken down in the liver in a process that damages liver cells. As the liver tries to repair itself, this results in scarring or cirrhosis of the liver. Alcohol also weakens the lining of the gut, allowing bacteria to get into the liver via blood vessels of the intestine.

VICTORIA

social aspects of drink cannot be ignored- pub lunches and a quiet drink with friends are a mainstay of British tradition. Alcohol remains present in many religious ceremonies and is with us when we celebrate the most important days of our livesweddings, funerals, anniversaries and birthdays; the list goes on. It holds a unique place in our lives: productive and destructive in equal measure, but excessive drinking often tips that balance. Annual alcohol-related hospital admissions are now topping the one million mark and the effects of dangerous drinking are placing a huge strain on our healthcare system This year saw alcohol feature heavily in social media, with events such as Dry January, in which individuals pledge not to drink for the first month of the year and post their progress on blogs and websites. However, this year has also seen the emergence of NeckNomiations in which Facebook users would post videos of themselves â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;downingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; pints of cocktails, often containing 10 or 15 units of alcohol. The craze not only resulted in five deaths and countless hospital admissions but also highlighted a worrying attitude towards drinking that is becoming more prevelant in the under 30s. Perhaps itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time we looked at the dangers of excessive drinkingg

Long-term excessive alcohol intake can damage the lining of the stomach, opening the door for bacterial infection and inflammation. Drinking during pregnancy is extremely dangerous for an unborn child and is linked to miscarriages, low birth weight, heart defects, learning disorders and foetal alcohol syndrome.

AFTER HOURS

An alternative night out in Soho There’s a lot of pressure to have a great night out when you’re spending as much money as you do on a drink in London. There’s still a perfect way to have a night out that skips the high prices and high heels but still gives you plenty of places with good music and cheap drinks

CENTRAL

Bradley’s Spanish Bar

The Bar

Troy 22

The Borderline

18:00 It may be Spanish by

20:30 After a few pints at

22:00 It’s easy to miss if you

23:30 This legendary venue

42-44 Hanway St, W1T 1UT

36-38 Hanway St, W1T 1UT

22, Hanway Street,W1T 1UQ

Orange Yard, Manette St, W1D 4JB

name, but this two-story pub is a British classic. The star of the show is the jukebox. The records include a rotation from 50s classics, to novelty songs to indie classics. But there are plenty of reasons it’s called Spanish Bar. There are pitchers of sangria to start your night and countless España memorabilia hanging on the walls. We arrive and there are already people pouring out of the pub and into the narrow alley. There’s a man smoking a cigarette outside who tells us that he comes every other week to Bradley’s, and doesn’t know why, but the bartender will play whatever he requests. Apparently that includes Ukrainian rap and a good dose of Prefab Sprout.

Bradley’s, you can shuffle down Hanway Street to The Bar. As long as the red glow of the sign is on, you are invited to experience one of the strangest bars in Soho. It’s absolutely empty when we arrive, which means we have all the room in the world to drunkenly sway. If you’re here before 10, chances are you’ll be one of three people (the others being the bartender and the DJ), but soon after 23:00, the small basement dive bar will be packed with intoxicated people shaking and twisting to blues and soul music. The drinks are cheap. Really cheap. It’s worth a quick pit stop to grab a gin and tonic. We wash ours down with some j-bombs and feel very happy indeed.

aren’t looking for it. As many of the best places in London. Troy 22 is located above the old On the Beat Records and a Latin nightclub. Now that colourful On the Beat has closed, the building looks like a sad ghost town from the outside, but don’t be disheartened. We climb up the narrow, rickety stairs and enter into what looks like someone’s living room. There are framed pictures of Buddy Holly and the Clash on the walls and the place is almost totally lined with comfy booths. It’s like an intimate house party. We arrive a little before 22:00 and the place is completely packed. We’re given the choice of going home or going to the club. We choose club.

is better known for its small and intimate gigs, but the club nights are definitely worth the visit for a boozy, sweaty night dancing in Central. The Borderline boasts the longest-running indie club night – the Christmas Club every single Saturday. Whatever the DJs are playing, chances are there is a large crowd of extremely intoxicated club-goers singing along. It stinks, the décor is barren, but it’s more fun than I’d like to admit. You need a few drinks to be blind of the inadequacies, but there’s no better club for fantastic music. At this point, we stop counting pints and let the music carry us into the wee hours of the morning. gKC

AFTER HOURS

Located in the heart of Camden, this cosy bar offers a drinks menu that would be the envy of any cocktail bar in London. No matter what kind of alcohol you drink, the variety is huge. If you go for Saturday night happy hour make sure you book a table because this place will be packed to the roof.

Top 5 cocktail bars in London

There are four branches of Adventure Bar in London, but the one in Covent Garden is certainly the best choice to spend a Saturday night (or any night for that matter). Go for the 90s music, stay for its original cocktails. Don’t miss specialities such as the Cricket Soup (yes, it has a cricket in it). 20 Bedford Street, WC2E 9HP. Station: Covent Garden

London has an endless amount of bars, so we went to most of them for you and selected the best ones

The Shoreditch

If you can handle the crowds, it is a great place to have some fun while trying all the drinks of the menu. The music is great, too.

You don’t have to be a hipster to hang around London’s trendiest borough. And where better to get a feel for Shoreditch than a bar named after the place itself. The Shoreditch is home to all kinds of people, so you can turn up wearing either jeans or a wedding dress and no one will judge you. You can make the night even better by ordering a Cosmopolitan. gVC

31 Jamestown Road, NW1 7DB. Station: Camden Town.

Cafe & Bar Kick If you enjoy your football as much as your cocktails then this is your place. Enjoy the games with a fancy Mojito or a Raspberry Caipiroska in your hand; all while you are trying to spot your country’s flag on the ceiling or playing table football. 127 Shoreditch High St, E1 6JE. Station: Old Street or Hoxton Overground.

Adventure Bar

145 Shoreditch High Street, London, E1 6JE. Station: Shoreditch High Street Overground.

London Cocktail Club Placed in one of the most central areas of London, the name says it all. With plenty of universities located minutes away, this basement is the perfect getaway for students after a long day with a happy hour that ends at 7pm. If you want to try a big and refreshing drink, order the Long Island Iced Tea. Unsuitable for mocktail drinkers. There are four different LCC venues in Central London, but this one in Shaftesbury is the biggest and most popular. They offer an endless variety of drinks, from classics like Cosmopolitan to extravagant options like the Bacon & Eggs (yes, it has bacon in it). To top it all off, the bar is decorated with colourful drawings.

224 Shaftesbury Avenue, WC2H 8EB. Station: Tottenham Court Road.

Photography by Leila Murseljevic

Fifty-Five Bar

THINGS TO DO

What not to miss in April The unmmisable exhibition for this month is without a doubt the look of glamourous Italian fashion from 1945 to 2014. This exhibition will include around 100 ensembles and accessories by some of the most important figures of Italian fashion, such as Simonetta, Pucci, Sorelle Fontana, Valentino, Gucci, Missoni, Giorgio Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Fendi, Prada,Versace and etc. Saturday April 5 – SundayJuly 27 Victoria and Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, SW7 Tube: South Kensington Tickets: £12 Full (+£1.40 booking fee) £8 Full-time students

After New York and Stokholm, the first exhibition of outfits of one of the most famous French fashion eccentrics, Jean Paul Gaultier will be presented in London for the first time. The exhibition brings over 140 outfits including one of his best couture and ready-to-wear pieces. Londoners will also have an oportunity to see some of his famous works, which were created for motion pictures, such as Luc Besson’s the Fifth Element. Wednesday April 9 - Sunday August 17 Barbican Centre, Silk St, EC2Y 8DS; Tube: Barbican Exhibitions £12, concs £8-£10

For the fifth time, UK’s contemporary graphic arts festival Pick Me Up will present graphic pieces as the antithesis of a traditional art fair. Pick Me Up 2014 will offer possibility for viewers to shop for affordable artwork from international rising stars, specially selected by an industry panel. Festival brings a wide range of illustration and design, from fashion and architecture to comic books and album covers. Thursday April 24 - Monday 5 April Somerset House, Strand, WC2R 1LA;Tube: Temple Day tickets £10, concessions £8

Bruce Barth, Jean Toussaint, Jim Mullen, Duncan Hopkins, Stephen Keogh, Barry Green, Alex Davis will Ric Yarborough jazz it up this April at Kings Place in the north of London. If you are fond of contemporary jazz shrewdly combined with piano, come to this wonderful venue and enjoy some jam sessions afterwards. Thursday, April 17 Kings Place, 90 York Way, London, N1 9AG Tube: King’s Cross St. Pancras Tickets: from £12.50

If you’re secretly hoping to become an interior designer one day or would like to redesign your home, Geffrye Museum is the place to be. Everything from furniture to textiles, lightning and wallpapers will be displayed in April, so don’t miss this fabulous oportunity. You never know, maybe you will get inspired to finally change that living room that has been annoying you for quite some time. Tuesday April 29 - Monday August 25 Geffrye Museum, E2 8EA; Tube: Old Street Tickets: £5, concessions £3

International pillow fight day will be held at Trafalgar Square this year. Londoners will have the opportunity to enjoy some feather fight from 3 pm on April 5. The event is organised by the Urban Playground Movement. There are some ground rules, so please read and obey them as much as you can: don’t hit anyone holding a camera; don’t hit anyone without a pillow; swing lightly as lots of folks will be swinging at once; remove your glasses and deploy soft pillows only. Saturday April 5, 3pm Trafalgar Square, Tube: Charing Cross Free entrance

When illness took its toll and that giant of twentieth century French art Henri Matisse could no longer paint, he turned to to scissors and paper. The works he created in this very late period become some of his most iconic. Though he may have lost his ability to handle a paintbrush, he lost none of his brilliant vision and compositional know-how. The 120 works on display here will be amongst the best you will see in this country this year. Thursday April 17 - Sunday September 7 Tate Modern. Bankside, SE1 9TG; Tube: Southwark Tickets £18, concessions £16

London’s most popular Easter extravaganza returns bigger than ever at Kew Gardens (now in full bloom). Over two weeks, families can participate in many holiday events including the popular Easter Egg hunt. This year’s festivities are themed after Roald Dahl’s Charlie & the Chocolate Factory. Take the children to see the glass elevator or help invent an everlasting gobstopper! Saturday April 5 – Tuesday April 22 Kew Gardens, TW9 3AB Tube: Kew Gardens Tickets: £16 Full £14 concessions

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