Holly Friend

Remember being at school when the teacher put on 1940s music, forced the boys and girls to pair up and taught the class how to Jitterbug like in ‘the olden days’? No? Just me? Well, London is ripe with tons of swing dancing classes and freestyle dances for both beginners and those who know their Lindy hop from their Balboa. So grab a (preferably willing) partner, dig out those ’50s-style threads and flaunt your finest eight-count any day of the week. Monday Market House, Brixton Start the week as you mean to go on by learning to Lindy hop in Lambeth. Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned dancer, this class beats your average Monday evening spent making a big bolognese to freeze and catching up on 'Girls'. 7pm (beginners), 8pm (improvers). £10.  A post shared by Maria Sineva (@sinevamaria) on Jan 29, 2017 at 7:43am PST Tuesday The Blues Kitchen, Shoreditch This free swing session kicks off every Tuesday night at the Shoreditch Blues Kitchen. Cut to: convincing your work mates to go for a quick beginning-of-the-week tipple and, come 10pm, ordering four rum and cokes and doing the twist with your boss to live big band classics. From 9.45pm. Free. Wednesday Crows Nest, Crystal Palace Jumpin’ at the Palace is a weekly social dance hosted by the trusty folks behind Swing Patrol. Skip the midweek zumba class you hesitantly booked while feeling guilty on a Sunday night and get down to SE19 because this event is free and basically counts as a workout, meaning you can sav

Not familiar with this north-westerly spot near Kilburn? Well, there's a lot more to this multicultural hub than the Jubilee line and an easy bus journey to Notting Hill.   1. It offers some of the most authentic sushi, yakitori and saké   A post shared by Jerome de Sadeleer (@jeromeswiss) on May 10, 2015 at 1:13am PDT   Walking along Walm Lane before it merges with the vibrant High Road, you may notice Sushi Masa, a popular, tiny restaurant more suited to a Ginza back street than NW2. 2. It has inspired modern literary masterpieces   A post shared by Asia Corleone (@skinnytost) on Feb 20, 2017 at 8:47pm PST   The neighbourhood has a significant amount of literary connections, the most significant being born-and-raised-in-Willesden author Zadie Smith, who used the melting-pot of her local area as the backdrop for ‘White Teeth’, ‘NW’ and ‘Swing Time’. 3. It has a lovely little oasis behind a row of terraced houses   A post shared by Nicky Gavey (@roaminrobbie) on Jul 9, 2016 at 4:26am PDT   Sandwiched between Willesden Green and Cricklewood, the tranquil, community-run Mapesbury Dell has a pond, gardening club and annual free opera evening – which means you no longer need to jump on the 52 to Kensington for some midsummer arias. 4. It’s great for people-watching fuelled by a killer full English    A post shared by ℳartina Belley 🌏👣 (@travelindipendent) on Aug 6, 2016 at 12:54am PDT Lazy weekend? Pull up a chair, browse the newspaper selection, ma

Ah, Finsbury Park. Equipped with the supersonic Victoria Line, this neighbourhood has enough independent restaurants to keep an army of Deliveroo drivers in business. It also has a medium-sized green space hosting sporting activities for 95 percent of the year and girls in flower headbands singing Drake lyrics for the other five percent. No one really knows what constitutes this all-powerful Islington/Hackney/Haringey mash-up (does Stokey count? Holloway? Crouch End?) but you know you live in Finsbury Park when...   A photo posted by Agathe Van Der Costes (@agathevdc) on Dec 13, 2016 at 1:08am PST ...you've lifted your phone above the heads of an angry mob at 8.15am to send a photo of closed tube gates to your boss at least three times this week. The picture probably isn’t necessary, but the mob mentality routinely convinces you otherwise. ...you campaigned via Facebook against the closure of The Silver Bullet but a) didn't part with your money in the hope that everyone else did b) scoffed at heavy metal music and c) barely even noticed it was there due to escaping from Station Place as quickly as humanly possible.    A photo posted by Sara Georgina (@sara_georgina) on Sep 18, 2015 at 3:15pm PDT ...you and your friend from the Seven Sisters Road exit have a strategic, verging-on-military-standard operation when it comes to shopping at Lidl. Whether you're a 7am trooper or 10.55pm rusher, you know better than to brave the aisles during that post-work apocalypse.

You know the morning: you awake with a a mildly banging head, surrounded by your scattered, half-opened presents and pink paper crown. The famous day has come and gone, so you lie there; dazed and wondering what to do with yourself. Sale shopping? Ice skating? Let's face it, no one really knows what to do on this weird limbo-like day (I mean, does anyone box stuff?). So, instead, here are five things not to do. Go shopping No, seriously, don't. Not Westfield (east or west), not Covent Garden and especially not *shudders* Oxford Street with its inexplicable queue outside Next. I'm pretty sure it's legally considered your own fault if you die in a party dress-related pile-up in Topshop on Boxing Day.  Ice skating Other than physically going to Lapland, this is one of the most Christmas-y novelties you can do, meaning it's a favourite activity for killing the post-turkey sorrows. Don't fall into that trap: the smugness of hitting the ice at Somerset House, Tower of London or the National History Museum just 12 hours after doing Baileys shots with your mum will soon wear off when the loud music, club-esque lighting and volume of people induces a middle-of-the-rink panic attack. Do any kind of exercise It's a national holiday, which means that if you announce loudly in front of your disappointed family that you're going for a casual, frosty run up Primose Hill, around Hampstead Heath or through Victoria Park to shed that Christmas guilt, you're technically breaking the rules of ba

We've come a long way since the days of WH Smith's pre-packaged afternoon tea in a remote manor in Lincolnshire. Luckily, when it comes to experiences this this city, there's plenty of great, wrapping-paper-free gifts all over London, ready to welcome you with open arms when the festive buzz has worn off. Here are six of them.   Movie marathon or sing-a-long at the Prince Charles Cinema  We’re assuming here that you know this person well enough to judge whether they would love or despise a solid nine hours of 'Lord of the Rings' or a 'Frozen' sing-a-long. Get it right, and this is a banger of a gift (fun, affordable, quirky), get it wrong and you’ve essentially just forced your loved one to endure 'Let It Go' screamed by hundreds of baby-adults. From £16 per person. © Michal Baginski Turkish shave at Ted’s Grooming Room   This is an evil but possibly genius plan to initiate the removal of that ‘temporary’ beard you’ve been dreaming about mowing off since 2015, cleverly disguised as a luxury spa treatment. Mwahaha. From £22.50 per person  © Andy Parsons Flying the trapeze with Gorilla Circus    This is a gift for circus wannabes, show-offs or 'SATC' addicts desperate to channel Carrie in *that* episode. Give the gift of flying — in addition to an inspirational and Pinterest-esque social media post with the caption 'in life, there's no safety net'. From £28 per person.   A photo posted by QUILL (@quilllondon) on Jun 19, 2016 at 3:37am PDT  Learning calligraphy at Qu

If you’re not familiar with the term Scandi-cool, take a minute to people watch somewhere near the nucleus of British Scandinavia – i.e. & Other Stories – in the Carnaby Street vicinity. Look for the telltale signs: a crisp boxy shirt worn beneath a grey cashmere knit, thick-denim cropped jeans, a cross-body bag too small to fit anything bigger than an iPhone 6, cat-eye sunglasses worn with persistence through grey November. Listen carefully for the words minimalism and aesthetic. Let’s face it, anything Scandinavian is automatically cool: Ikea, ABBA, The Bridge, Tiger (where you can buy a bus-shaped pencil sharpener that you definitely don’t need). It’s no wonder we have so many H&Ms lined up on Oxford Street – we yearn over the effortlessness that seems to be programmed into Nordic folks since birth. Luckily, you can save yourself the £22 Ryanair flight to Copenhagen you’ve been thinking about booking since 2014, and visit these Scandi-cool spots without leaving zone 2.   Shop knick-knacks at… thethestore, Hackney   This indie lifestyle store on Hackney Road was designed by Swedish design house Nonuform and stocks an edit of fashion, beauty and homeware (otherwise known as the three pillars of millennial shopping). But seriously, the aesthetic here is on-point and every item has been handpicked by founder Meryl Fernandes.    Drink coffee at… Nordic Bakery, Marylebone © Jael Marschner   Who said Scandinavian interiors have to be overwhelmingly white? This dark blue dream