Welcome to the first edition of The London Newsletter! Thanks for signing up. We are wrapping up Maddy's (golden) bank holiday birthday week (mouthful!), and had a lovely time celebrating in Highbury Fields with some tennis and pizza from Oi Vita.
Carnival was last weekend. We're still finding sequins in coat pockets. If you're reading this before 7.30pm, the francesinha pizza at The Fox has until then, and that's it.
Eat this week
The Fox. Last sitting for the francesinha. Porto sandwich on a pie, last orders 7.30pm. My friend Bedel and I had four pizzas here once. 372 Kingsland Road.
Seouls of Mischief. Buttermilk thigh in a potato roll at the Adam & Eve. 155 Homerton High Street, Wednesday to Sunday.
Hon’s BBQ. Taiwanese pork belly and Sichuan short rib, smoked all day above Crate and sold by the gram until they run out. First floor, The White Building, Queen’s Yard. No walk-ins, Wednesday to Sunday.
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Cannelle. Seraphine bakes overnight at Lea Bridge Library, and 9.30 is as early as they let her. 382 Lea Bridge Road, Monday to Saturday 9.30am–4pm.
Drink this week
Circle13. Pétanque in a London Fields arch. Pintxos in the arch, including a potato-crisp runny-tortilla bocadillo. Arches 369 and 370, Helmsley Place. Thursday 12.30–1am, Friday and Saturday 12.30–2am.
107 Wine Shop. Tiny Clapton shop, most of the room for walk-ins. Julie cooking, bottles at takeaway-price Monday, Wednesday and Sunday. 107 Lower Clapton Road.
Marrion's. Cañas on Morning Lane, from Thursday. Elliott Kaye from Norman's. Victoria Málaga in 200ml glasses, tuna melts from the hatch. Walk-ins. 177 Morning Lane, Thursday to Saturday from 6pm.
See and do
Summer Pearl in the garden, Tuesday. There's a woodburner in the Eastern Curve Garden. Ashaine White on first. 13 Dalston Lane, Tuesday the 8th, 7-10pm, £20.
Recycled drum skins at OTO, Friday. Crystabel Riley has been playing them. She's on with Nkisi and Seymour Wright, Friday the 11th, 7.30pm, £14 advance.
House in the Greyhound basement, Saturday. Bower and Jamie Unknown downstairs, DI Audio on the system. 109 Peckham High Street, Saturday the 12th, 11pm-3am.
Ninety presses at the ICA, Saturday. Able Zine and The Grey Zine on the tables, with ninety others. The Mall, noon till 7pm, free.
Last week of Frank's. White port and tonic at Emma Hart's bar, then compost toilets behind the Derek Jarman garden. Card only, no bookings. 95a Rye Lane, until Saturday 12 September.
Free this week
Nunhead crypt, Saturday the 12th. Open House unlocks the ruined chapel and the crypt. Twenty-minute drops, muddy paths, stout shoes. Linden Grove, Saturday and Sunday from 1.45pm, free.
Favourite food of the week
Harissa lamb at East2West. Pickled onions, flatbread, my friend Luis across from me, and some sort of gathering with champagne glasses we could not quite identify. 56 Broadway Market.
This day in London
6 September 1913. Arsenal's first match at Highbury, still unfinished: 2–1 against Leicester Fosse. 20,000 there. They're at home to Chelsea this afternoon, a mile down the road.
Trivia
The Monument is 202 feet tall. That's how far it is to Farriner's bakery on Pudding Lane, where the fire started.
Sport
Arsenal v Chelsea, Emirates, 4.30pm. The weirder afternoon is the Village Cup final at Lord's: club cricketers from actual villages, on the proper square.
It is difficult to speak adequately or justly of London. It is not a pleasant place; it is not agreeable, or cheerful, or easy, or exempt from reproach. It is only magnificent.
If you get the francesinha, tell us whether the whisky comes through.
Maddy and Eric