The London Minute ⏰ Friday 20 September 2024
Families fight school closures, Open House Festival weekender, TfL depot open days, popular pizza place moves south + festival fundraiser for bakery
🌞 Good morning London. Here’s Friday’s London Minute.
☔️ London is bracing for a ‘weekend washout’. The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning, with thundery showers forecast. - Rosie Shead, The Standard.
🔥 Kensington and Chelsea Council is launching ‘drop-in’ sessions to give the public a say in how it formally responds to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry. - Adrian Zorzut, MyLondon.
💰 Sadiq Khan yesterday announced a fresh £3million investment in City Hall’s Violence Against Women and Girls Grassroots Fund to deliver ‘tailored support’ via 32 groups for thousands of people affected by violence and exploitation in London. - Haringey Community Press.
🚨 The Notting Hill Carnival is a ‘poorly run event’ according to Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, who said he has ‘deep concerns’ about crowd risks. In response, organisers Notting Hill Carnival Ltd said they had ‘experts from all areas of event organisation’ and 3,300 stewards this year to help manage crowds. - Victoria Cook, BBC London News.
⚽️ Prime minister Keir Starmer has used ‘security’ reasons to defend his use of a free hospitality box at Arsenal's Emirates stadium. - Simon Harris, ITV News.
✏️ Four more primary schools in Hackney could close as finances worsen due to falling pupil numbers. - Alex Marsh, Hackney Gazette.
⮑ Meanwhile in Camberwell, a campaign by children, families and staff fighting back against Lambeth council’s decision to close the 152 year-old Saint John the Divine Church of England Primary School. - Claudia Lee, South London Press.
📚 ‘Labour and Tories blame each other for plan to close eight Enfield libraries’ - Grace Howarth, Local Democracy Reporter, Enfield Dispatch.
🚶♀️➡️ Around 200 streets across London will be shut to traffic this weekend so that families can “walk, cycle and have fun together” for World Car Free Day. - Alex Marsh, Islington Gazette.
🗞️ ‘Stop press: it’s the very last Evening Standard in London today. And that tells us a lot about Britain in 2024’ - James Hanning, former opinion editor of the Evening Standard writes in The Guardian.
“Whether you liked it or not, the Standard, like the church, the pub and the library, connoted community. The new weekly version will be a London version of the New Yorker. It has illustrious shoes to fill.” - James Hanning.
⮑ With its new name, The London Standard, editor Dylan Jones writes: “From next Thursday, September 26, we will be relaunching as a vibrant, culturally rich weekly newspaper, which will contain all your favourite Evening Standard elements — news, sport, entertainment, culture, restaurants, music, comment, investigations, campaigns and fun.”
🍕 Netil Market’s popular pizza slice shop World Famous Gordos is opening a new hatch in Peckham next month. - More info.
👗 A dozen fashion shows will take over the Wimbledon Quarter this weekend for Sustainable Fashion Week. - Zak Asgard, The Wimble.
🏗️ The Earl’s Court Development Company has submitted its ‘masterplan’ detailing its vision to deliver a new 4,000-flat neighbourhood on a disused site. - Fulham SW6 Online.
📆 Londonist’s Things To Do This Weekend In London for 21-22 September 2024.
🚇 London transport expert Tim Dunn is giving a talk titled ‘Secrets of the London Underground’ on Sunday at Acton Depot Open Day. - More details from Tim here.
⮑ This year’s final Museum Depot Open Days begin today and run all weekend.
🎨 Artist Tracey Emin returns to White Cube Bermondsey with her solo exhibition, ‘I followed you to the end’ opening this weekend. - White Cube.
⚓️ Artists’ studios are open this weekend at the Trinity Buoy Wharf lighthouse. - Longplayer has more details.
👀 This weekend Open House London gives free access to some of the capital’s architectural wonders that aren’t usually open to the public. - Time Out has the details.
🚲 You can get your bike fixed for free with Dr Bike at Camberwell’s Ruskin Park bandstand on Saturday. - Mike Urban, Brixton Buzz.
🔈 Brit & MOBO Award-winning act Rudimental and DJ Target are playing a fundraising gig on Saturday for The Dusty Knuckle Bakery’s youth training programme. It’s at Dalston Roofpark. - More details and tickets here.
🎉 The annual Bermondsey Street Festival is on Saturday with live music, DJ sets, food workshops and talks. - More details here.
📮 Something missing? Share your local news and events here.
📈 The most-viewed links from the last newsletter:
✍️ ‘Welcome to London Centric: A new approach to journalism in the capital’.
🏗️ Debate over designs for new pavilion at Coal Drops Yard in King’s Cross.
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