Features

London has lost a third of its grassroots music venues since 2007. Here is what went, why it went, and what the survivors tell us about what still matters.

For decades, nightlife in London ended when the tube stopped. The Night Tube changed that in 2016 and what followed in Peckham, Brixton and Dalston was immediate.

Regeneration is the most abused word in London planning. Here is what it actually means, who it serves, and what the Heygate Estate tells us about the rest.

Grime came from Bow and Stratford and Hackney. It changed British music, fashion, slang and politics. Here is what it was and where it came from.

Twenty-five years of East London transformation. The creatives came, the rents followed, the original communities moved out. Some things survived. Most did not.

Moving to London is expensive, complicated and sometimes brilliant. Here is the honest version of what it costs and what to expect.

The comparison is endlessly debated and rarely answered honestly. Here is the actual answer on food, transport, cost, culture and everything else.

London will exhaust you. It will cost you more than you planned. You will leave, probably. You will come back, probably. There is no city quite like it, which is both the problem and the point.

Not secret exactly. Just overlooked. These ten places reward curiosity more than anything on the standard London itinerary.

Dolphins at Waterloo. WWII bombs on the riverbed. Fourteen rivers buried underground. The Thames is stranger than any Londoner gives it credit for.