The Editor’s Picks: Tony Gallagher, editor of @thetimes.com, really likes a diet of unadulterated junk, doesn’t he?

The splendour of Amin Taha/Groupwork’s 15 Clerkenwell Close. Which Islington Council, who approved much of the garbage on City Road, tried to get demolished. Twice.

Jean Marsh has died at the age of 90. Brian Shuel's 1961 photograph of the actor hangs in London's National Portrait Gallery and is one of the most striking images in the collection

"I saw some graffiti the other day - YANKS GO HOME. Yeah, like Ronald Reagan's gonna be walking down Guildford High Street and see that and go, 'Oh! OK then'." - Alexei Sayle, 1984 "What Starmer needs to do - a long thread" - ledges of social media, 2025

A tricky thing about modern society is that no one has any idea when they don’t die. Like, the number of lives saved by controlling air pollution in America is probably over 200,000 per year, but the number of people who think their life was saved by controlling air pollution is zero.

🔥 🔥 🔥 www.ft.com/content/47c2...

"I'm the man who broke the bank at Mar A Lago..."

Lewisham’s Riverdale Centre, ten thousand years ago. sites.gold.ac.uk/inlivingmemo...

"Trump Is Amazing He Just Can't Tell Us Why!" is the most Bezos era WaPo headline of all Bezos era WaPo headlines. #WaPo #WashingtonPost They went from "democracy dies in the dark" to "somebody turn out the lights."

Very droll from The Critic magazine.

Sunshine at Brompton.

Bad days at St Katharine’s Dock.

It’s amazing to find out at this late date how much the rule of law depended on people simply deciding, on a voluntary, daily basis, not to break the law.

Premise: I really should enough staples to last for the rest of my life.

Wapping reverie: a gentle vernacular PoMo on the site of the old London Docks.

Sunday’s @thetimes.com cartoon times.newsprints.co.uk/morten-morla...

I appreciate that I’m massively over-simplifying here, but… 1500 personnel per usable plane?

In 2019 Nigel Farage's Brexit Party voted against plans to tackle Russian propaganda, calling claims of Russian interference "scare stories" One of his MEPs was Nathan Gill, who has just been accused in court of taking bribes in exchange for defending Russia in the European Parliament

Just seen Farage and Truss (grifting over in the US) described as "the Slug and Lettuce".

“Far from being dismissed as a useful idiot to hostile foreign powers, the British press continues to allow Farage to portray himself as a true British patriot, while he spends as much time as he possibly can outside of this country telling lies about us for money” open.substack.com/pub/adambien...

Reading the obituaries in @thetimes.com today. Perhaps it’s for the best that The Jam never reformed.

They. Never. Actually. Leave.

Thursday’s @thetimes.com cartoon times.newsprints.co.uk/morten-morla...

Like many people of my generation, I was very sad to hear of drummer, Rick Buckler's passing. So I think it's apt to put this up. The Jam's 'When You're Young' from 1979, the video of which was filmed around Kilburn and Queens Park. youtu.be/GO-3oXkZwPg?...

Kerbside London.

Germany's manufacturing GDP is over three times Russia's. Ultimately Europe being cowed by Putin is some variety of political problem. That's not saying it's easy.

Big guys: Aberdeen Park off Highbury Fields.

Highbury hallelujah.

Minster Court is fading into the redevelopment mist. It'll come back as a shadow of itself – defanged, bland and more marketable. I was inspired to illustrate it by listening to the @grindrod.bsky.social podcast with @philipdowner.bsky.social.

Good: George Monbiot humiliating far right grifter Matt Goodwin on Question Time Great: Far right grifter Matt Goodwin never being booked on Question Time in the first place

Good morning to this man, and this man only #bbcqt

OH WHY DON’T YOU JUST BLOODY LEAVE IT ALONE.

Joseph Michael Gandy's design for the conservatory at Pitzhanger Manor, 1810. How's that for proto modernism?

when writing about the rise of British populism it’s worth bearing in mind that voters still prefer Starmer to Farage… ….and even prefer Ed Davey to Farage

London Wall: the Terry’n’Richard show.

The magnificent and threatened Bastion House, and all the crunched-up modern clutter on the rest of London Wall.

Took a break from my Pepys walk around the City to look at this delightful building while listening to @grindrod.bsky.social ‘s excellent Monstrosities Mon Amour podcast. Appreciated the Waterhouse mention, first thing I thought was Po-Mo Manchester Town Hall. Can’t believe it might be demolished.

Travel halfway round the world (at vast monetary and environmental expense) to have a go on our roller-coaster. People do baffle me sometimes.

Here be monsters: the City, January 2025.

The “Editor’s Picks” in @thetimes.com can really emphasise the paper’s slide into tittering irrelevancy.

OUTRAGE www.nottinghilleditions.com/product/outr...

A Monumental nerve: crinkly aluminium tries to steal the Monument’s thunder. From the “look at ME ME ME” school of architecture.

Thanks Katharine!

Flogging a dead horse: Minster Court and the neighbouring Corn Exchange.

Quite right too. Work on the Bakerloo extension should start soonest, with Crossrail 2 following in short order. (Plus other key UK works, eg HS2 to Manchester, Leeds metro network, etc.)

The knackers yard beckons at Minster Court.

Oh my word! A friend just sent me this amazing review of my podcast from the Radio flipping Times. Thank you Anna Jones!

This is, by some distance, the most unforgivably stupidest thing the government is doing. An easily sellable proposal, which would actually help Brits, and unlocks meaningful negotiation. Irrational and anti-growth.