City Lights Turned On For Christmas

The City of London’s Christmas lights were switched on last night at a star studded event on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral. Big name acts such as the reformed Spandau Ballet, Little Boots, Farryl Smith and Scouting for Girls performed for crowds gathered at the Wren-designed cathedral.

The event was coordinated with Oxford St and Regent St switch on ceremonies, and sponsored by Disney’s new version of A Christmas Carol.  Stars of the movie turned on the lights at each of the three locations: Bob Hoskins at St Paul’s Cathedral, Colin Firth at Regent Street, and Jim Carrey at Oxford Street.

Couldn’t make it? Here’s a couple of Youtube videos from the event posted by paulmuchmore…

What’s On This Week: August 3rd – August 9th 2009

So the proverb says (or something very like it), all work and no play make The City a dull place.  So lucky for us there’s a hearty dose of good, clean, fun in the city’s events this week, promising wholesome entertainment for kids young and old.

If you’re feeling particularly creative there’s a chance to make your own musical instruments at Shake, Radical, Roll, a drop-in workshop at the Barbican conservatory on Thursday evening.  Whilst you’re there, a new exhibition of pictures inspired by the journeys, atmospheres and people of London buses is opening in the Library – it’ll be intriguing to see what this particular element of British public transport can inspire, beyond fear for your life whilst trying to navigate the stairs in motion.  It is a multimedia exhibition as well, apparently, so one for the techies.

Those of you on babysitting duty may appreciate the Museum of London’s efforts;  on Sunday afternoon archaeologist John Digger (prophetic name or what?) is telling tales of the secrets that may lurk beneath our city streets.  This follows the weekly Sunday morning Story Time, mildly educational but mostly fun stories about the city’s history of knights, Romans and such like.

Watch out, there’s also a Balloonatic on the loose on New Street Square on Wednesday, threatening to adorn passers by with hats, costumes and toys all made out of balloons.  It’s all part of the City of London festival, which comes to a close this Friday as the young people of the renowned New London Children’s Choir get their chance to shine, performing a range of baroque and classical songs at St Bart’s on Friday Lunchtime.  The Rambert Dance Company’s stars of tomorrow will also be performing this week, as their School will be resident at St Paul’s Cathedral from Wednesday to Friday.

Pub review: The Paternoster

Pater Noster, as good Latin students will tell you, means Our Father and comes from the Lord’s Prayer. It’s also the name of a type of lift, now rarely used in this country for health and safety reasons, which probably obtained it’s name from the occupants being driven to prayer in the hope of a safe transit. Most recently it’s the name of a very good pub near St Pauls, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

The Paternoster is tucked round behind Paternoster square and is only a few yards from both St Pauls station and the cathedral itself and as I was in the area checking out the City of London Festival events I popped in for a drink in between times. It’s a nice, airy place with traditional dark wooden panelling much in evidence but with two sides of the building being open to the light it’s far from gloomy. It was a late Friday lunchtime so I’d managed to miss most of the usual Friday rush and although there were plenty of folks still in there it didn’t feel crowded so I, and mate Paul, propped ourselves up against the bar and chatted with Rach.

It has a much better selection of wines than a number of the other local pubs I’ve been in and an equally wide selection of spirits, though you’ll have to forgive me the schoolboy chuckle when I spooted Knob Creek peeping out at me from the shelves (left). On the beer side they have the usual Youngs beers and a selection of bottled beers with the more interesting ones being the draft “Waggle Dance”, which has honey in it, and bottles of Wells & Youngs double-chocolate stout in the fridge next to the Banana Bread beer. We weren’t around for long enough to sample the food and they do have the standard pub fair of Fish and Chips, Sausage and Mash, hot and cold sandwiches, burgers and pies plus a range of more interesting dishes such as Welsh Rarebit, a couple of Goat’s Cheese dishes, BBQ baby porks ribs and potted shrimps.

Manager Rachel previously spent some time in Bristol before she was tempted back home to Oz for a while but then she returned to the UK and took over the reins at the Paternoster for pub chain Youngs late last year. She recently put on their first, and very successful, quiz night a couple of weeks ago with over 60 people participating and on the back of that she’s planning to book another one in mid-July, in addition to the live bands that they host peridodically in the evening.

As I said to Rachel I could quite happily turn up there at opening time one day and spend the whole day working my way through the selection of interesting wines and beers that are on offer, though my liver may not thank me for it. It’s a very nice spot with a buzzing, but gentle, ambience about it that makes it good for taking parties of people or just a lunchtime drink. Check their website (below) for updates on events and their special offers.

The Paternoster
http://www.thepaternoster.com/
http://twitter.com/PaternosterSq
2/4 Queen’s Head Passage
Paternoster Square
London, EC4M 7DZ

City of London Festival Starts June 19th

The City of London Festival – an annual celebration of the arts and culture in the Square Mile – will begin this Friday (June 19th) and will feature a packed programme of the activities and events lasting through to early August.

The Festival will kick off at noon on Friday with an opening procession from the steps of St Paul’s, led by the “funky percussion duo” Bang On!

Also on Friday, the exciting-sounding  Street Pianos Project begins. Fifteen pianos will be placed around the City available to anyone to come along and partake in an ad hoc singalong.  Let’s hope the sound of fat fingered amateurs attempting “Roll out the barrel” does not become too irritating too soon.

The pianos will be around until the middle of July before being donated to local community groups and schools.

Here at TheCity.co.uk, on our What’s On pages and on our Twitter account, we will be highlighting selected events from the Festival calendar. To see the programme in its entirety, visit the COLF website.

Why Did The Wobbly Bridge Wobble?

When the Norman Foster-designed Millennium Bridge opened in 2000, it became immediately known as the “wobbly bridge” because of the extreme wobbling sensation felt. For two days, people came to stand and wobble on the bridge which connects St Pauls Cathedral with Tate Modern on the South Bank. And then it was closed and work was set about to make the wobbly bridge less wobbly.

Eight years later, a team of civil engineers claims to have identified the cause of the wobbling: it’s the way that humans walk, naturally moving from side to side rather than in a straight line.

The BBC has more….

Daily Photo 01/12/08: St Paul’s from Cannon Street