Susanna Huth

We Londoners take pride in our love of tea, but French emporium Mariage Frères puts us to shame. Originally founded as an import company in 1854, it’s become a Parisian institution, selling hundreds of varieties of thé in an old-world setting. And now you don’t even need to hop on the Eurostar for a taste, because Mariage Frères has opened its first London shop in a Georgian townhouse in Covent Garden. Step inside and choose your brew from a seemingly endless (and very Instagrammable) wall of vintage-style canisters, then pay for your purchase at a wood-panelled booth manned by white-jacketed staff. If you’re a real tea lover – and you know you are – head up to the first floor, where an all-day salon de thé infuses everything from scrambled eggs to cocktails with matcha, rooibos or lapsang souchong. And if you still aren’t chai-ed out, check out the shop’s museum and familiarise yourself with the historic tea trade. Cup of builder’s, anyone?

The O2? Wembley Arena? Sure, they’re world-renowned music venues. But a new major concert venue might be arriving in town. Taking over the Museum of London’s current site, the London Centre for Music is a joint venture by the Barbican, London Symphony Orchestra and the Guildhall School of Music as well as the City of London Corporation. Now the winning plan from the site’s design contest has been revealed, it’s looking like the building is one for architecture fiends as well as music fans. The new design proposals showcase a modern, airy wooden building designed by renowned architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro, famous for their work on the High Line in New York and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. The City of London Corporation says that the building is intended to be ‘visually breathtaking’ and ‘acoustically perfect’. Aiming to be the Tate Modern of the music world, the £2.49 million building will also provide space for rehearsals, small performances and education programmes – and it’ll be open to the public even if you don’t have a ticket for a show, so you’ll be able to go and immerse yourself in music whether you’re watching a performance or just sauntering around. If it gets built, it will sit on the emerging ‘Culture Mile’, which weaves together landmarks such as Tate Modern, St Paul’s Cathedral and the Millennium Bridge. There are also plans for the Centre for Music to host pop-ups, events and non-classical gigs. However, like the two Crossrail stations i

Are you one of the 9,000-odd people who actually live in the tiny City of London? Probably not – but if so, congrats! According to data collected by Barratt Homes, the City is officially the fittest area of the capital. With Hackney and Islington close behind, London takes eight spots in the top 20 fittest places in England. However, City slickers shouldn’t get too smug: based on analysis about how often residents engage in physical activity, it’s actually Exeter which takes the crown for the fittest place in the UK. With 79 percent of its residents exercising for 150 minutes or more per week, the south-western city puts us all to shame. Barking & Dagenham ranked the most unfit borough in London, with both Enfield and Barnet also ranked among the least fit (they still beat Slough, though: the most unfit place in the whole of England). But don’t get down in the dumps: Instagram hashtag data showed that London was the UK city most motivated to get fit in 2019. So if getting toned is your new year goal, put on those trainers, get your blood pumping and rally for your London borough. Here’s a map of how fit each London borough is, according to the Barrett Homes data… Need a change of pace? Check out the best fitness classes in London for 2019. And sign up here to get the latest from London straight to your inbox.

It’s been more than a decade since Gordon Ramsay last opened a new restaurant in the West End, but now the sweary celebrity chef has revealed plans for a new venue. The restaurant and lounge in Mayfair, which will be named Lucky Cat, is apparently inspired by the drinking dens of ’30s Tokyo and will take the place of Ramsay’s joint Maze, which closed last weekend. Lucky Cat will open 21 years after the chef launched his flagship and first solo restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Chelsea, which was followed by a string of openings in the UK and overseas. The ‘authentic Asian eating house’ is set to open in the summer. Until then, here’s our list of London’s best Japanese restaurants for all budgets from Mayfair to Mile End. Love London? Sign up here to get Time Out tips in your inbox every week.

Once a swampy bit of estuary, the Isle of Dogs opened its first docks in 1802. London was the busiest port in the world, and the majority of the city’s grain and timber came through these parts. By the start of the twentieth century, the population had grown from just a couple of hundred to 21,000. Despite heavy bombing in WWII, business continued to boom until the ’60s, when the docks dealt with a record-breaking 60 million tons of cargo in a year. But by the ’70s, a shift towards shipping containers had moved UK docks to the coast. This photo was taken from Greenwich by local Kevin Wood in the mid-’80s, after the last wharves had closed, leaving many islanders facing an uncertain future. By then, plans were already afoot to give the area a major facelift. The London Docklands Development Corporation was founded to create a new financial centre, filling the area with yuppies clutching brick-sized mobile phones, and skyscrapers such as One Canada Square completely transformed the skyline of ‘the Island’. In 2018 Kevin Wood returned to the same spot in Greenwich Park to capture the view over the Isle of Dogs, more than 30 years later. Where there had once been derelict docks, there were 16 buildings, each over 60 metres tall, and loads more major skyscrapers in the process of being built. Who knows what the view will look like in another three decades’ time? For more unique looks at London life, sign up here to get Time Out features straight to your inbox.

Winter is coming – and no, we are not referring to the new season of ‘Game of Thrones’. A smattering of snow fell over west London this morning, and there might be more to come. Some forecasters have even warned that last year’s Beast from the East could be making a chilly return. An unusually mild start to the year is about to end, bringing colder weather to the UK (lucky us!). Flakes of snow were spotted all across west London early this morning, and more is forecast for next week. The likelihood of a storm of the same strength as February 2018’s remains low but it’s there – there’s even a chance of widespread snow as early as next Thursday. While the usual London rain will continue to fall, sub-zero temperatures could easily turn it into the white stuff. So while some apocalyptic online reports may end up looking a little overblown, you’ll want to prepare yourself for a very cold end to January. For now, chill out (not literally) and enjoy your last week of non-minus-degree temperatures. Be extra-prepared with our ultimate guide to London in the snow.

If the January blues have got you down and you’re already dreaming of your next break, you’re in luck! Over 105,000 discounted tickets are up for grabs in Eurostar’s January sale. It might not be a trip to the tropics, but the sale (which runs until January 21) lets you purchase one-way tickets to Paris, Brussels and other French cities for prices starting at £29. So you can start planning your journey across the Channel without having to empty out your piggy bank. The sale has limited availability and there is a minimum of two travellers per purchase, so if you fancy the journey, make sure you find a special someone to bring along. The sale includes journeys up until April 17, so why not hit it up the waffle capital of Europe or take a romantic weekend away in the city of love? And don’t forget to check out Time Out Paris and the best things to do in Brussels for all the crucial info you’ll need to make the most of your trip. Sign up here to get the latest from London straight to your inbox.

If you were a wealthy socialite back in early Victorian London, serving fashionable ice-cold food would have been quite an ordeal. To keep ice frozen, in the days before freezers, it would have to be hand-chipped from man-made underground caverns, wrapped in hay and carted off to your house on horseback – making ice a bit of a status symbol. Now archaeologists have started to rediscover London’s long-forgotten ice trade, with the recent excavation by MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) of London’s oldest subterranean ‘ice house’. This recently discovered brick cavern, which was previously believed to have been destroyed during the Blitz, sits only ten metres above the tunnels of the Jubilee line close to Regent’s Park, under Regent’s Crescent in Marylebone. Originally built in the 1780s, from the 1820s onwards it was integral to the London ice trade, thanks to ice merchant William Leftwich. Upon hearing about the uncleanliness of the ice then available in London, Leftwich chartered a vessel across the North Sea, landing in Norway and filling his boat with 300 tons of fjord ice – which he then ambitiously shipped back to London and up the Regent’s Canal, to this very cavern. Developers from Great Marlborough Estates are now talking about opening the ice house up to the public, but for now, there’s no set opening date. So if you desperately want to check out this bit of secret London history, you’ll have to cool it. Sign up here to get the latest from London straight to your in

Frank Wang has been selling coffee outside Bethnal Green tube station for 15 years. However, six months ago – after Frank’s electricity supply was cut off and his back-up generator stolen, he was forced to move locations, threatening his livelihood. Many people observed that small traders like Frank are integral to the traditional, community-focused culture of the East End, and that his fight to keep his business running was one the whole community should get passionate about. So, in order to show their support, more than 100 locals showed up to protest about Frank’s eviction. And it worked! Now, thanks to the local community rallying together, signing petitions and lobbying local politicians, Frank has finally been granted permission to remain outside the tube station. It’s not quite a victory yet, though. Facing the financial stress of being out of work for half a year, Frank was forced to sell his coffee cart in order to support his family. So his loyal customers have now set up a Crowdfunder to raise money towards new equipment, so that Frank can get up and running again within the next couple of months. The people behind the fundraising page say that since Frank is known for his generous spirit, regularly giving hot drinks and snacks to the homeless, he deserves our generosity in return, so he can continue to serve up coffee to the people of east London. Dig deep and get Frank back on his feet! Love London? Sign up here to get Time Out tips in your inbox every week.

Heading to the park this weekend? We’ve got good news for you. Deliveroo has just revolutionised outdoor eating while simultaneously making us all lazier, thanks to the launch of their new delivery service, which means you can now get food delivered straight to the park.  Available in select parks in east London, Deliveroo’s new service will allow picnic enthusiasts to sack off the soggy sandwiches and let someone else do the legwork. As part of the new service, the folks at Carluccio’s have put together a delicious picnic selection, which includes antipasti, focaccia, couscous and poached chicken breasts, and an apricot and hazelnut salad. You can also choose a vegetarian selection if you’d prefer, and both come with a seasonal fruit tart and traditional fig and nut biscotti – all of which sounds way more enticing than the usual picnic fare of houmous and crisps. All you have to do is download or open the app for iOS or Android, enter your location and drop the delivery pin at the nearest park entrance. Then meet your driver at the nearest designated meeting point and enjoy your hassle-free nosh. The new service is available at the following East London parks: Victoria Park, London Fields, Haggerston Park, Hackney Downs and Highbury Fields. More information is available via the Deliveroo website