Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 125

Big Day Out

Yesterday, Saturday 22nd October, unseasonably warm, a quiet Saturday in London. Well, not quite. We started the day in a craft fair just a short walk away. The usual unimaginative selection of scarves, jewellery and knick-knacks managed to be decorative but not useful or original. Unfortunately the stands were overshadowed by the venue, a graceful church […]

London Is A Little Less Peculiar Every Day

Chris Webb, from whom I stole the above photograph, pointed out that this minuscule Soho pub is older than America – or rather was, because it’s just gone the way of nearly all the rest and is being turned into offices / flats. It’s a common refrain on this site, but the speed with which […]

The Friday Song

Let’s go bowling! This is from the underrated ‘Across The Universe’, which offended Beatles purists but was beautifully directed by Julie Taymor, and featured Jim Sturgess as an uncanny amalgam of John and Paul.  

In Search Of A London Street Pt. 3

I leave Postman’s Park, with the remains of the old White Horse Inn behind it, but I’m still no closer to discovering my mysterious cobbled street. Clearly it’s known to thousands; I’d seen it on a warm Friday night when its corners were overflowing with wine-imbibing city workers. Instead I start stumbling upon a few […]

In Search Of A London Street Pt.2

I had now reached the back of Farringdon below Hatton Garden, an area that had changed unrecognisably. However, this part of London is surprisingly hilly, and the original road layouts have been adhered to. I’m heading to Fleet Street but not to Dr Samuel Johnson’s House, where a statue of his cat sits outside – […]

In Search Of A London Street Pt. 1

London and the Sahara Desert share a peculiar link; every few years strong winds mean that the desert sand gets lifted, transported and dropped onto our city. Yesterday it turned the sky a deep reddish-brown and brought hot winds, but no rain. Before it hit, I went for a walk to see my chatty friend […]

Censorship Is A Funny Thing

There’s been a lot in the academic press lately about the ways in which public-driven censorship is destroying free debate. Although this is currently more of a US talking point, what starts there usually ends here. Currently there are over a dozen books featuring drugs, abortion, race and LGBT issues on the US college libraries’ […]

Getting To Grips With Twitter

I’m always surprised that so many people who like Facebook don’t use Twitter, and I realise now that some of them have got the wrong idea about it. There are endless tips and hacks about using Twitter, mostly to do with keeping your post at the top of the pile and the right times of […]

The Greening Of England

I live just off the very unlovely Euston Road, one of the most polluted routes in one of Europe’s most polluted cities. It’s horrible to walk down, and quite impossible to do so during rush hour. As someone who has suffered lifelong chest problems, I find myself with permanent hay fever-like symptoms when I’m on […]

Britain Reverts To Tradition

The National Retail Sales Index makes for far more interesting reading than you might imagine. Its findings are picked over and analysed for retail trends. Prices have been steadily rising while the phenomenon known as shrinkflation has cut the size of many products for consumers, maintaining profits for producers. There are other signs of retrenchment, […]