Time Out No. #73 | Tuesday 31 August 2021

The annual snoop-athon is back! Open House London is your chance to get behind the closed doors of hundreds of buildings in the capital normally kept firmly shut, including private homes, government offices and historic landmarks. This year it’s split into three themes: ‘Local London’, ‘Global London’ and ‘Architecture and Wellbeing’. Some of the buildings offer free half-hourly tours, others are open to walk-in visitors. It’s the largest event of its kind in the world and if you haven’t explored it before, you really should.

Fingers on buzzers

The world’s first what was unveiled in London in December 1868 (and exploded a month later)? 


The answer you seek is at the end of this email!

Three great day trips (even if the summer has been basically rubbish)

Huw Oliver

International Commissioning Editor

@huwoliver

With its pubs, punts and sprawling meadowland, Oxford is a solid choice at any time of year. But right now is an especially good time to go, as two huge new exhibitions promise a whole load of eye-popping colour. The Ashmolean has ‘Tokyo’, bringing together 400 years of art inspired by the city, and Modern Art Oxford has Samson Kambalu’s ‘New Liberia’, exploring his rocky upbringing in Malawi.

Smack bang in commuterville, near Tring, you’ll find the Ashridge Estate: 5,000 acres of woodland ripe for a big day out with the dog. Failing that, friends will probably do too. Around the park you may spot foxes, fallow deer and muntjacs – plus, there’s a very good juice van. Everyone loves juice.

Linked to the mainland by a causeway that floods, Essex’s Mersea Island feels properly remote at high tide. The big draw is The Company Shed, which serves seafood platters that pull in crowds from across the country. Catch-and-release crabbing is also encouraged – there are specially marked areas near the water, and shops selling the kit.

There’s an absolute ton of cool things happening this month. You can see Idles at Wide Awake Festival, you can go to Fabric and do a yoga class, there’s the London Podcast Festival, and… wait for it… there’s only ‘Frozen: The Musical’. Earworms impressive enough to be in the new version of ‘Dune’. ‘Thirty days hath September’. It’s not enough.

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‘I’m an Ashkenazi Jew – if it moves, I’ll pickle it.’

Overheard something weird and wonderful? Tweet us and you might see it next time!

London news you can use

There’s a whole upside-down house at Westfield and it looks like a lot of fun.

The US burger chain has landed in London. What do you mean you don’t care?

Let the spirit flow with the capital’s very first taproom dedicated to tequila.

Santosh Shah off the telly is doing a pop-up and you should be interested in that.

London for less

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Feelgood links to ease the pain

The Black Film Archive is a swish-looking directory of Black movies made between 1915 and 1979

What constituted bling in 1910: Harrod’s store a century and a bit ago

Someone just shot some footage around London on 16mm film and it looks like the past

A data-driven look at the creepy language used in Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’

Quick bites

We won’t keep you in suspense any longer…

Click here for the quiz answer!

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