Archives

• Pictures of trams in the 50’s

  Retronaut has a lovely post showing trams in the  hustle and bustle of 1950’s London. I’m a particular fan of the old adds for Bisto. Mmmmm. Trammy goodness.

   

• Welcome to Big Smoke

  Big Smoke editor Jim Jepps welcomes you to the new site. Hello. You’re looking well. Have you lost weight? Thanks for stopping by to our new online magazine for London, we hope you enjoy it. You’ll notice that we have quite a strong focus on environmental and community issues. For […]

   

• Islington says “Twenty’s plenty”

  The Islington Tribune reports that Islington Borough Council has gone for a twenty mile an hour speed limit on every road controlled by the local authority (ie this excludes the larger TfL roads). This is fantastic news that road safety campaigners across London will be delighted by. Green Party activist […]

   

• A city of bars and railings

  As Transport for London seem to be ripping down every spare railing in London (presumably to help in the war effort) it seemed fitting to reprint this piece by Jim Jepps on who owns the land (this article first appeared in the Morning Star) Britain has a long history of […]

   

• Event: Faith, Identity and London Citizens, Weds Nov. 23rd

  Event: Faith identity and London citizens Wednesday, November 23, from 7 pm Trades Union Congress (In Vision 1), Congress House, 23-28 Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3LS http://www.interfaithalliance.org.uk/   Community Organising, Big Society and Blue Labour have been critical ideas in recent public discourse about faith communities. Reflecting on recent […]

   

• Consultation on “improvements” to Bank area

  The Corporation of the City of London are requesting contributions to their consultation on improvements to the roads in the Bank area. The deadline to contribute is, as always, pretty tight: the 28th November, but if you don’t have time for a full-scale fully indexed report they also have a […]

   

• Stuck with pollution in London?

  The BBC reports that “For the past few months a fleet of specially adapted gritting lorries has been spraying adhesive on some of London’s pollution hotspots in the middle of the night.” The idea is that a fleet of special vehicles spray the road with a pollution trapping glue keeping […]

   

• Tour du Danger

  This Saturday’s ‘tour du danger’ took around 300 cyclists to the ten most dangerous junctions in London to highlight the need for cycle safety.

   

• Looking out for each other

  A new video by Camden Council urges us all to look out for each other on the roads.

   

• It’s time to democratise the city

  The Occupation protest puts the curious non-democratic status of the City under the spotlight, argues Natalie Bennett Green Party London Assembly candidate The Corporation of the City of London has withstood a lot. It withstood William the Conqueror, who agreed “to establish the citizens in all the rights and privileges […]