Son of Ares and Aphrodite, Anteros was given to his brother Eros as a playmate. In Greek mythology, he was the God of requited love. He punishes those who don't correspond to the love of others, so it is the avenger of Cupid.
The most important statue of Anteros in the world is located on the top of the Shaftesbury Monument Memorial Fountain in Piccadilly Circus. The landmark, popularly mistaken for Eros, is known as well as The Angel of Christian Charity. The monument, erected in 1892 by Alfred Gilbert, represents the philanthropic works of Lord Shaftesbury with the poor people.
But this monument has a difficult story. The statue was made from aluminium, whilst the fountain is cast in bronze, and it was damaged several times when vandals tried to climb to the God, specially on the lead up to New Years.
Maybe Winter is coming but Christmas is already here. The light displays are on, most of the Christmas markets will be ready this week (Winter Wonderland will open on Friday) and everything is ready to welcome Santa.
But Christmas can't be perfect without the master Duncan Titmarsh. Last year we could enjoy with a huge LEGO advent calendar in Covent Garden and two years ago, the world’s tallest LEGO Christmas tree was installed in St Pancras station.
This year, Duncan, using 120,000 bricks, has built a 3 metres tall snow globe filled with 14 of the most iconic buildings in London, including The Shard, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Nelson's Column, The O2, Battersea Power Station, The London Eye, The Gherkin, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, Emirates Air Line, St Paul's Cathedral, Tate Modern, and Covent Garden Market.
The new Lord Mayor this year is called Fiona Woolf and she is only the second woman to hold the office in nearly 800 years. The newly-elected Lord Mayor started the day with a breakfast in Guildhall. The Mayor was escorted, in her coach, to the Mansion House, her future official residence. Fiona watched the show from the terrace and joined them after the flypast executed by the Royal Air Force. The parade travelled down Poultry, Cheapside, New Change, St Paul's Churchyard, Ludgate Hill, Fleet Street and The Strand, where Lord Mayor swore her loyalty to the Crown in the Royal Courts of Justice.
Remember remember the fifth of November. The rhyme tells us it’s important to make the 'gunpowder, treason and plot' stick in our memory, but how much of this grisly tale of rebellion and religion do we really know?
Newham fireworks display (3rd of November, 2013)
In 1605 a group of 14 provincial Catholics tried to kill the King James I of England, who was Protestant, and replaced him with a Catholic one. The 5th of November, Guy Fawkes, one of the conspirators, was arrested when the police found a cache of explosives placed beneath the House of Lords. To celebrate the fact that the King was alive, the people lit bonfires around the city.
Abbey Road, the 11th studio album released by The Beatles, was consider by the critics as the band's best work and one of the best albums of the History.
But Abbey Road is much more than that. Located in the borough of Camden and the City of Westminster, it is one of the most famous streets in London. The Abbey Road Studios, before known as EMI Studios, has become centre of pilgrimage for the fans of the Beatles.
Both the Football Association and London Underground are celebrating their 150th anniversary this year. The Metropolitan Railway, the oldest of the Underground, opened to the public on January 10, 1863. The FA was formed on October 26, 1863, at the Freemasons’ Tavern, near Holborn tube.
To commemorate this historic moment, they worked together to create a new Tube map.
Thanks to "Centre Stage", the report made by the London Assembly, we know that nearly half of the small Londoners' theatres have some financial problems. Because of the politics and the new ways of entertainment, these theatres have an insecure future.
To show this situation, Transport For London has designed a new alternative map in which they have plotted London’s many small theatres and their closest tube stations.
The map is a great way to know where many interesting places in the city are but, at the same time, it shows two theatrically impoverished areas: the north-west and south.
Are you single or married? Do you have a fiancé? It doesn't matter your status because everyone has "love" problems, either if you are not looking for the real love or you are arguing everyday with your half-orange. But now, there is a man who wants to help us.
Two hours of learning and a lot of laughing, thanks to Goyo Jiménez and his show "Al fin solo". The comedian, using the same style as "Cavernícola's" play, tries to explain why the heterosexual Human Being fails when trying to have a relationship. Men don't understand women and vice versa but, now, everybody who enjoyed last Thursday with Goyo's show can survive easily in this complicated world.
In the Blitz, during the Second World War, thousands of civilians were killed and more than a million homes in London were destroyed. They seem only numbers but... what happens if we represent this situation on a map?
Bombsight.org mapped every single known bomb of the Blitz, dropped between October 1940 and June 1941. The originals maps are available in the reading rooms at The National Archives. On the website you can also see some testimonials from the BBC's WW2 People's War and photographs of war damage, on loan from the Imperial War Museum.
We can find this relief in the main entrance of St Mary's Hospital. The centre, situated in Paddington, was founded in 1845 but opened its doors to patients in 1851. It's famous because of two important discoveries:
C. R. Alder Wright, while he was working at St. Mary's Hospital Medical School, was the first person to synthesize diacetylmorphine in 1874. Wright's invention became popular only after it was independently re-synthesized by Felix Hoffmann twenty four years later. That year, Bayer marketed this new medicine under the name "heroin", few days after launching the aspirin. The drug was used as a sedative for coughs and as a substitute for morphine.
That is because these stops don't exist anymore. They are ghost stations, maybe because they were old installations, moved to another location or because of the number of passengers was very low.
Nowadays, Ajit Chambers wants to re-open some of them and use them as event spaces or museums.
In the junction between Snow Hill and Cock Lane, a road where the brothels were legal, we can find a terracota’s shopfront dedicated to John J. Royle.
Born in Manchester in 1850, in the late Victorian epoch, this engineer became famous because of his many inventions: the egg beater, the timed egg boiler, the smokeless fuel irons... but it was the self-pouring teapot (patent no. 6327 of 1886) for which “J.J” became most well known.
This palm is situated in the floor of Saint Bartholomew-the-Less. It's in the heart of London, between St Paul, Barbican and Farringdon. St Bartholomew-the-Less, which have this suffix to distinguish it from St Bartholomew the Great, is located in the Henry VIII Gate entrance to St Bartholomew Hospital.
Nowadays it’s difficult to walk around the city without listening Spanish speaking, but where was the Spanish community in London yesterday?
The great comedian Berto Romero was performing, at 8 o’clock, in The Clapham Grand and no one wanted to miss it. One hour and a half of dancing, singing, music and laughs. Lot of laughs.
The show started with an hilarious video about Berto’s previous life. Risto Mejide and Andreu Buenafuente, of course, are some of the famous people who collaborate in it.
In the junction of Cock Lane and Giltspur Street is the figure of the “Golden Boy of Pye Corner”.
This small statue was originally established into the wall of the Fortune of War, a public house in Smithfield. This tavern was famous because of its tenant, Thomas Andrews, who, in 1761, was condemned of sodomy and sentenced to death. The King George III exculpated him. This decision stimulated the first debate about homosexuality in England. In the 19th century, the tavern was the main centre for the resurrectionists. The doctors at St Bartholomew´s Hospital used to go to The Fortune of War to find death bodies to practice their surgeries. The bar was torn down in 1910.
Meanwhile, Monument, which was enclosed by Monument Street and Fish Street Hill, was built between 1671 and 1677 to commemorate the start of the Great Fire of London, The Boy remembers where the Fire was extinguished. In the sculpture we can read:
The Fire started in a bakery at Pudding Lane and finished in Pye Corner. The child is fat to enforce the moral suggesting that another great fire would happen any day soon.
Another curious underground map was created by James Eaglesfield one year ago to connect York and London. James was inspired to design this sketch when he was a volunteer on York Mystery Plays 2012.
In this sacred map, you can discover biblical places, spiritual connections, holy stations and religious references.
Can you find Ascension Central, Old Testament Gate, Angel Gabriel, Barabbas-ican, Crucifix-ton, Canada Holy Water, Covent Garden of Eden, Herod Park Corner, Lamb of God North, Cain & Abel, Gad’s Hill, Jonah & The Whale, Lucifer Road or Seven Thunder?
Tourists maybe don’t know what or where Whitechapel is, but Londoners haveknowledge ofthis district, for sure. Situated in East London, in the LondonBorough of Tower Hamlets, it is a poor–working class neighbourhood. Inits streets you can find a great diversity.Bangladeshis define the 52% of thecommunity total inhabitants. A really particularneighbourhood full of colours,fruit stands, people and life.
But this zone, years ago, it was really famous because of some horrible crimes.Within its boundaries, from 3rd April of 1888 to 13th February of 1891, theWhitechapel murders happened. Eleven unsolved homicides, five of themprostitutes, were attributed to a serial killer known as Jack the Ripper.
It happened more than one century ago, but the mystery is still present.
The festival will take place from Tuesday 30th of April to Monday 6th of May in three main venues: BFI Southbank, Stratford Picture House and Stratford Circus.
The programme includes night films and premieres like Vessel, The Search for Simon, Stress Position, The Man from the Future, Dead Meat Walking, Birdemic II: The Resurrection and sixteen more titles.
But this independent film festival, created by Louis Savy "because there wasn't one", organizes the annual in-cinema pub quiz and more events like the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who. Important novelists and comic book writers will talk about the Doctor’s trips and his adventures.
The Sci-fi festival will plan free attractions like Write the Science Fiction Film with Robert Grant. On Sunday 28th of April the Costume Parade will take place. Zombies, Superheroes, Darth Vader, Mario Bros, Freddy Krueger, Dr Who, The Blob… Choose your favourite character, dress up and join the march.
A great week is waiting for you. So, don’t miss it.
Yes. It’s true. London is a huge city. You can take the underground and the overground to arrive quickly to your destiny, if the lines are not closed. But if you really want to know the city, you have to walk through streets, parks, squares... It’s the best way to discover the secrets of London.
Because of the 150th tube anniversary, PruHealth has created a singular map. It’s an underground plan showing the steps between stations. This could be a good way to have a healthy body this summer.
With The Lion King, performed for the first time in October 1999 in the Lyceum Theatre, magic and fantasy came to London. Not just with old songs, a touching story or the moral, but with masks, puppets, lights and African sounds.
A beautiful theatre, opened in 1834, and a great red curtain with savannah’s motifs help us to the wake up our curiosity. The lights turn off and, in that second, we can live the most powerful moment in the play. The curtain rises and we hear the amazing Rafiki’s voice, performed by Brown Lindiwe Mkhize. There are giraffes, antelopes, zebras, colours and even a big elephant moved by five actors. That is theatre. That is a musical. That is The Circle of Life.
Sitting inside the theatre, a wonderful play lights invite you to travel around the African savannah. Orange tones show us the passage of time in just a couple of second.
More than 200 clothes are required to perform this function. But the masks and puppets deserve a special distinction, inspired in the African culture, and some actor’s elasticity. They are capable of camouflage themselves with their own character. Without any doubt, you will amaze to see a Jaguar, a real master piece.
The 46 actors do a notable work but I like to stress the remarkable Rafiki’s voice, a great interpretation of Scar, thanks to George Asprey, and the Stephen Matthews and Damian Baldet’s ability to move Zazu and Timon.
With some jokes, at pure English humour style, the musical follows faithfully the Disney’s film. For that reason, it is a spectacle for all the family. Through the play, you will laugh, will cry and will sing. 15 musicals numbers, thanks to Lebo M, Tim Rice and Sir Elton John, will be mixed with the sound and rhythm’s Continent. The Circle of Life, I Just Can’t Wait to Be the King or Hakuna Matata, one of the funniest parts in the function, are not to be missed. And you will have a lump in your throat with He lives in You, a very emotional moment.
And it’s true that the most intense scene in the film, Mufasa’s death, is not too dramatic in the play but I appreciated that. I didn’t cry so much and I think was an original way to represent a delicate scene.
I don’t have anything else to say. The Lion King is waiting for you with 2 hours and 45 minutes of fun, fantasy, dance, love and music. Enjoy it!
Last Saturday, April 6th, was the International Pillow Fight Day. More than 100 cities sheltered this amusement. In London thousands of people went to Trafalgar Square, armed with their pillows, to battle. It was a good way to have fun and get rid of stress.
Hungerford Bridge connects Charing Cross Station with the south of the River Thames It’s situated between Waterloo Bridge and Westminster Bridge, in the heart of London.
In a first place, it seems like a normal bridge, except for the great views. But this platform hides a valuable secret in the London subculture: a skateboard cemetery call "Skateboard Graveyard”.
When young skaters break their boards, they throw them into the platform. In that point, the skate will rest after a long and busy life. Even, they have created a website“to commemorate the «lives» and «deaths» of the skateboards”. The applicant can upload a description and the key dates of their skate. As well, they can have an obituary and know, in just a second, what is the physical situation of their board.
This cemetery is located at this point not by accident. In the River’s edge, between Hungerford Bridge and Waterloo Bridge, the Queen Elizabeth Hall is placed. Under these pillars, for more than 40 years, appears the Southbank Skatepark. It’s a circuit with ramps, benches, columns and stairs that allows young skaters to perfect their technique with the roller skate, the bike or the skateboard
