The Londoner

The homeless artist of Mayfair Meet Kollier Din-Bangura, London legend

ICYMI last week me profiled of Kollier Din-Bangura, the homeless artist of Mayfair beloved by everyone from the King to Naomi Campbell.

www.the-londoner.co.uk/the-homeless...

Particularly proud of my latest @londonermag.bsky.social investigation into Linea Homes, a developer that says it saves pubs but actually shuts them and turns them into luxury flats.

I spent a night with Oli Carter-Esdale, the landlord of their latest victim, The Trafalgar in Wimbledon.

One of South London's oldest Turkish restaurants is being fined £2.5m over a misplaced vent Plus, the future of McGlynn's, trader evictions in Elephant and Castle and horses on Tooting Common

Exclusive: Why is one of South London's oldest Turkish restaurants faced with a £2.5mn fine over a misplaced vent?

Plus, evicted traders in Elephant and Castle, McGlynn's set to reopen and an "anarchist bible study crush".

Read our Monday Briefing:

www.the-londoner.co.uk/one-of-south...

They claim to save London pubs. So why have they shut so many down? Linea Homes has been called the “grim reaper” of pubs. Their targets include some of Peckham, Wimbledon and Camden’s most iconic boozers.

This is a terrific article on pub closures, including looking at the Trafalgar near me in Colliers Wood.

It’s so impressive what @londonermag.bsky.social, and @jim.londoncentric.media’s @londoncentric.media, are doing for London journalism.

www.the-londoner.co.uk/trafalgar-wi...

True, but our thinking was that it's in the area of Colliers Wood – while South Wimbledon is the nearest station, it's less of a recognised district versus Colliers Wood

They claim to save London pubs. So why have they shut so many down? Linea Homes has been called the “grim reaper” of pubs. Their targets include some of Peckham, Wimbledon and Camden’s most iconic boozers.

Linea Homes says it brings London pubs "back to life".

But we've discovered the firm has tried or succeeded to shut dozens of pubs to turn them into luxury flats.

Their targets include some of Peckham, Wimbledon and Camden’s most iconic boozers.

www.the-londoner.co.uk/trafalgar-wi...

The Londoner London's new quality newspaper

From scooping Jay Rayner to breaking news of the death of the beloved Corsica Studios, it’s been a landmark month here.

But we need help. We’re ten new subscribers away from hitting our monthly target.

If you enjoy our work, please help us get over the line!

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Great reporting here, of something I'd been looking at, after receiving a bunch of emails from aggrieved people. Clearly I didn't get on to it quickly enough. The Londoner very much have the story.

This is quite the story. Proper, fact-collecting reportage too

Exclusive: Corsica Studios is closing next year Plus, Thames Waters’ wasted £500mn, arson attack on an asylum hotel and the return of one of Bermondsey’s best boozers, all in your Monday briefing

🚨 EXCLUSIVE: Iconic south London club Corsica Studios is set to close next year.

Read: www.the-londoner.co.uk/exclusive-co...

Cracking reporting here 👇👇

Check out my latest @londonermag.bsky.social exposé on Michelin Star winner, and Giles Coren's "favourite kind of chef", Victor Garvey.

It's one of those insane sagas that feels impossible to sum up in a single tweet or headline.

He's one of London’s most famous chefs. So why do so many people say Victor Garvey owes them money? Giles Coren called him his “favourite kind of chef”. But former staff and business partners paint a different picture of the Michelin star winner.

Victor Garvey is one of London's biggest chefs; beloved by critics like Giles Coren.

But ex-staff, friends and investors paint a different picture; of bailiffs, mid-restaurant fights and Warhammer 40k fans losing their savings to Garvey.

Our weekend exposé:

www.the-londoner.co.uk/the-rise-and...

A new development in our Jas Athwal investigation Plus, underground film screenings, getting trapped in sewage tunnels  and the truth about Declan Rice’s supposed £14mn housing donation

After 9 months of fighting, we've obtained secret docs from Redbridge Council that shine a new light on our Jas Athwal exposé.

Plus: underground film screenings, getting trapped in sewage tunnels and the truth about Declan Rice’s £14m housing donation.

www.the-londoner.co.uk/a-new-develo...

‘He's like the Batman of pigeons’: On the road with London's bird rescuers Rats with wings? Or long-misunderstood feathered friends? Meet the group who spend their days protecting the capital's Columbidae

Every day, a group of dozens of volunteers across the capital stand ready as a rapid response force.

Their job? To save trapped pigeons. @petercarlyon.bsky.social went out on patrol to find out why they're dedicated to London's most-hated feathery friend.

www.the-londoner.co.uk/hes-like-the...

Inside simulated London Fake supermarkets? Imitation bus stops? Welcome to PEARL, the capital's cutting-edge urban laboratory.

In deep East London, a nondescript warehouse filled with fake supermarkets and imitation bus stops is shaping the future of our city.

Welcome to PEARL, the capital’s cutting-edge urban laboratory.

www.the-londoner.co.uk/inside-simul...

Exclusive: Reform’s first London councillor is a “rogue landlord” with a 33-person HMO Mark Shooter has been fined thousands of pounds for illegally renting out crammed bedsits in Camden. One of his former tenants just became Green Party leader.

EXCL: Reform's first councillor in London is a convicted "slum landlord" who rents out a 33-person HMO.

While digging into him I found out one of his former tenants is new Green party leader Zack Polanski.

www.the-londoner.co.uk/reforms-firs...

Karl Marx's Labubus The memeification of the communist grandee's final resting place

Labubus, love letters and Brewdog cans. Some insane tributes have been left at Karl Marx's Highgate grave over the years.

This is the story of how and why things got so weird, and the one man who now looks after the messy collection of tributes.

www.the-londoner.co.uk/karl-marxs-l...

The secret army keeping the city pedalling On an assuming Elephant & Castle side-street we meet the people who fix your e-bike, 24/7

On an unassuming side street in Elephant and Castle is a secret workshop.

It's where an army of outsourced mechanics fix the city's vast fleets of rental e-bikes.

We went in to find out more

www.the-londoner.co.uk/the-secret-a...

Is another London pub getting shut by Asif Aziz? Plus: Tube strikes, Latin American strip malls and the convicted pedophile attending anti-migrant protests for the "protection of women and children"

A new pub shut by Asif Aziz, Latin American strip malls and the convicted pedophile attending anti-migrant protests for the “protection of women and children”.

Catch up on yesterday's Monday Briefing

www.the-londoner.co.uk/is-another-l...

The South London lock up home to one of the world's best cultural archives James Hyman has built up a globally renowned magazine collection. What should he do with it?

For @londonermag.bsky.social, I visited the Hyman Archive, the world’s biggest magazine collection, as it sits in a strange limbo inside a south London lock-up www.the-londoner.co.uk/the-south-lo...

From Washington Post to Manchester's Mill Media for new investigations editor Ex-Washington Post managing editor Cameron Barr hopes to help "restore and revive investigative accountability" at Manchester-based Mill Media

🚨I'm absolutely delighted to announce that the brilliant Cameron Barr, the former Snr Managing Editor of the @washingtonpost.com, has joined @millmedia.bsky.social as our first Investigations Editor. It's a huge win for us and for local journalism in this country.

pressgazette.co.uk/the-wire/med...

London’s Brazilian Blood Couriers 'If you’re delivering food, nobody gives a fuck about you. With blood it’s more respect.'

Across London, hundreds of couriers carry blood, urine or tissue samples all over the city. Almost all of them are Brazilian.

@petercarlyon.bsky.social finds out what it's like to be the secret backbone of the capital's medical sector.

www.the-londoner.co.uk/londons-braz...

Is London running out of water? Between data centres, industry and new homes, London is facing record demand for water just as climate change leaves the capital drier than ever. The real problem is what comes next.

So I failed to post this as I was on leave, but I wrote about how London is dying of thirst for @londonermag.bsky.social.

Give it a read: it's a weird saga of sweaty firefighters, collapsing bank vaults and references to the ancient Trojan seer Cassandra.

www.the-londoner.co.uk/is-london-ru...

A rotten business: Inside London's spoilt meat dealing ring How a visit to a Walworth cutting shop blew open a nationwide scheme to sell pet-food grade meat to unsuspecting customers

I wrote about the crime ring diverting pet food meat into London butchers for @londonermag.bsky.social

www.the-londoner.co.uk/a-rotten-bus...

Honouring London's outcast dead Outside a cemetery for sex workers and paupers, the Crossbones Vigil happens every month without fail. What brings people back?

Nice piece on Crossbones graveyard, and what it means to people today, from @londonermag.bsky.social

"Honouring London’s outcast dead"

www.the-londoner.co.uk/honouring-lo...

(I hold a fancy that debtors from the Clink prison may have been buried here, but have no evidence.)

Honouring London's outcast dead Outside a cemetery for sex workers and paupers, the Crossbones Vigil happens every month without fail. What brings people back?

Such a fine piece of journalism courtesy of Hannah Williams for @londonermag.bsky.social

How to freeze a Londoner We visited the rag-tag group of men determined to ensure you live forever — all from a dilapidated South Ealing YMCA

In a dilapidated South Ealing YMCA, a rag-tag volunteer team are trying to fight off death, with ice, antifreeze and industrial amounts of "wishful thinking".

Welcome to Cryonics UK.

www.the-londoner.co.uk/freezing-lon...

Exclusive: The billionaire developer closing London's pubs Companies linked to Asif Aziz have been buying up and shutting down some of the capital’s most beloved boozers. Now, we’ve mapped them.

"He's a serial pub killer ... a danger to urban life as we know it"

Billionare developer Asif Aziz has bought and shut dozens of London pubs for redevelopment. Good reporting by @andrewkersley.bsky.social for @londonermag.bsky.social

Aziz is a hugely prolific landlord. Through his companies, he owns everything from the Dalston McDonalds to huge parts of Leicester Square.

His empire is hard to map. But we've discovered he's been busy with London's pubs.