Are we a threat to national security?

Dear Londoners — We hope you’re feeling suitably well rested by the weekend’s balmy weather — maybe you even caught a tan? (Hey, stranger things have happened.) Fingers crossed we’ll be seeing more signs of spring soon.

At our end, we’re still giddy over our inclusion in a New Yorker piece on new London media which profiled our editor, Hannah, and founder, Joshi. If you haven’t read it yet then you can do so here. Here’s a little taste of how we're described:

If that sounds like something you want to support, then take advantage of our early bird offer below — we can't do it without you.

Keeping reading for your Monday briefing, a collection of London’s biggest stories and best spots to eat, drink and hang out — along with a dash of the capital’s juiciest gossip.

Big story: How The Londoner became a threat to national security

Topline: City Hall has suggested The Londoner would make UK citizens “more vulnerable to a national security threat”. The reason? Because we wanted to cover a potential conflict of interest at the mayor’s office.

Context: Long-time readers may remember our exposé on a mysterious events firm that paid £3,000 to treat the mayor and his team to tickets to see Taylor Swift — and how we revealed that the firm in question, LS Events, had won some £45m of contracts from City Hall to run major events. Among its most lucrative awards was a massive contract worth tens of millions of pounds for the managing of the Queen’s funeral, known as Operation London Bridge, which it won despite being a relatively small events company at the time. 

What happened next: We here at The Londoner were determined to find out more. After we published that story we submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to City Hall asking for copies of the bidding documents submitted by LS Events that convinced City Hall to award them the contracts, as well as any formal assessments carried out on the company by its officers. 

A threat to national security?: At the end of last week, City Hall finally responded to our request — and the answer was a firm no. Why? “Safeguarding national security”, of course; an exemption that allows public bodies to decline to release information that “would make the UK or its citizens more vulnerable to a national security threat”. Despite the fact that the funeral happened three years ago, the mayor’s office justified their refusal by claiming that the arrangements for Operation London Bridge would be “likely to form the basis of any future similar arrangements”. As a consequence of this, they couldn’t divulge any details about the bid submitted by LS Events, even the sections unrelated to operations on the day.

A wider threat?: The threat to national security was among six exemptions they cited to justify refusing to share the information. (Normally, you’d only need one as an authority to reject an FOI, but why use a nutcracker when you can use a sledgehammer, right?). These included claims that the revelation of this information would somehow pose a “potential risk to public safety” and that it would reveal the “names and details of third-party staff members” — information which is usually redacted in FOI disclosures anyway. The Londoner will, of course, be appealing their decision. 

Bigger than City Hall?: A lack of transparency is becoming a nationwide problem. Last year, Press Gazette found the UK public bodies were granting just a third of FOIs — a record low. At the time, transparency activists and journalists warned that many public authorities were using questionable exemptions (or failed to respond to requests altogether) to avoid releasing potentially embarrassing or damaging information.

Your news briefing

🚘 Over the past few years, Khan’s ULEZ expansion has proved extremely divisive. However, a recent report from City Hall has found conclusive evidence that pollution in London has been reduced after the scheme was introduced. Levels of NO2 — a toxic gas that raises the risks of cancer — across the entirety of the capital are estimated to have decreased by 27%, the report found. Yet opponents of the scheme still aren’t happy, telling the BBC these results would have happened regardless, as drivers took notice of the existing Inner London ULEZ. 

🛍️ Less than 2,000 people are now estimated to live in Soho, almost a third of what it was two decades ago, reports the Standard. The disappearance of residents at the capital’s heart has been blamed on a rise in Airbnbs and other short-term lets in the area that have seen entire apartment blocks converted into lucrative tourist accommodation. 

🏠In other broken housing market news: London councils have spent £140m since 2017 to buy homes outside of the capital to temporarily house the city’s growing homeless population. According to the Guardian, who broke the story, most are in satellite towns of the capital like Luton and Harlow. But there’s an increasing trend of councils investing in homes in towns in the Midlands and North East, where property prices are more forgiving to their stretched budgets. 

🏀 The London Lions, the capital’s main professional basketball team, are planning to build a new permanent stadium in the capital, reports Reuters. The move has backing from the mayor, who has been pushing for London to hold more American NBA games.

Got a story for us to look into? Please get in touch.

Gossips’ corner

🗣️ Much has been made about the graphic content of The Years, the much-lauded adaptation of Nobel Prize winner Annie Ernaux’s memoir that’s recently transferred to the West End. One scene in particular, which depicts a backstreet abortion, has made headlines for causing audience members to faint. But at The Londoner, we’ve started to hear rumours that some of these reactions may not be entirely genuine… A quick poll found that, of people who had seen the play, every single one had had a person faint during the performance. It’s so widespread that even a recent Reddit thread turned conspiratorial. Let us know in the comments if you think the mass faintings are legit and, if you have any information about the phenomenon, do get in touch.

🗣️ Since Caledonian Road restaurant the Yellow Bittern opened last October, it’s been the talk of London’s culinary scene (including in this very publication) — as have founder Hugh Corcoran’s Instagram screeds. Almost on the daily, Corcoran mounts diatribes against critics (including The Londoner) and reposts praise from high-profile admirers, such as Nigella Lawson. 

Now that the restaurant has reached the lofty heights of a New York Times profile, Corcoran has announced that it’s time to wind down his Instagram account. To mark the occasion, he immediately entered into a spat with Evening Standard restaurant critic, David Ellis, who wrote an early negative review of the Bittern. Ellis could “go and f**k himself”, said Corcoran. “He and his wife [Independent food and drink editor, Hannah Twiggs, who Corcoran, oddly, refused to name] set themselves up to be some sort of gourmands and critics but they are charlatans. They know nothing of wine. They are pretentious fools.” 

Ellis responded via Corcoran’s preferred medium, Instagram Stories, saying “your restaurant is a theatre set from 1983. You are role playing”. He then posted various unappetising-looking photographs of Bittern dishes. 

It’s the kind of toys-out-the-pram tirade we’ve come to expect from the ever-cantankerous Corcoran — and the type that we’ll miss, in a funny way, when his account has gone. Not that we expect that to be for very long, of course — The Londoner’s money is on about two weeks, max.

Do you have any gossip? Tyrannical chefs, rival law firm partners, beefing celebrity neighbours, dubious hedge fund guys — big or small, let us know.

If you missed it, go and read Miles Ellingham’s weekend story about how a non-league, anti-fascist football team managed to stage a successful revolution in East London. It’s a fascinating, film-like narrative of people coming together to achieve an underdog victory against authority.

Wining and dining

With endless offerings and non-stop openings, we all know that deciding where to eat and drink in the capital can be fraught. We want to make it easy — so every week we’ll give you our insider guide to the city’s best spots. 

One perfect meal: Portobello Road has its charms but, since it became a tourist hotspot, there are always too many people. However, if you turn off and into Makan, you’ll be able to treat yourself to one of London’s best laksas. For those of us with cowardly tongues, the Singaporean seafood soup (which also comes in chicken and vegetarian variants) can be spiced to taste, and the staff won’t look at you askance if you want it mild. Behind the counter, there’s a wealth of snacks: samosas, curry puffs and crab claws. 

You can also get a pretty decent halal full English breakfast and, if you’re still hungry, you can finish off the meal with a moist square of banana cake. The roti canai is excellent too, and not too expensive, by west London standards, at £8.50. Grab a window seat and watch west London go by. 

One perfect pint: The Pig & Whistle on Bramley Road is one of those flat-roof 1970s pubs that have recently grown increasingly trendy. It’s been here for 55 years, co-run by Anne, who’s been standing behind the bar since 1991 — her son and daughter often pitch in too. The building backs onto Grenfell — one of the bar staff was staying in the tower at the time of the tragedy, but stayed late on their shift that day. 

There’s a brilliant atmosphere in The Pig & Whistle. With loud Irish music, pool and football — as well as Friday karaoke nights — it reminds you of what pubs are for. Anne and her family have managed to nurture a feeling of no-nonsense warmth among the towering high-rises and labyrinthine passages that snake under the Westway. 

Ins and outs

Ins: Fitzrovia pubs, ordering the Wolseley rarebit as a bar snack, the Regent Street Cinema, smiling at strangers on the Tube, Ji Xiang Bao Zi oyster cakes, rosé with ice cubes, the ruff worn by the cat at the Seven Stars (name: The General), the John Lewis haberdashery department, Tube station flower stalls, paying in cash, pints of Timothy Taylor’s Landlord.

Outs: Soho pubs, anchovy martinis (just order antipasti!), queuing for bakeries, queuing for the bar, destination sandwiches, paying more than £3.50 for a latte, a performative love of Guinness (it should go without saying that the splitting the “G” trend is most definitely out), taking videos in public, the French House (I’m sorry), Scandinavian-inspired cafe interiors.

Our favourite reads

Gareth spent years believing he was a lucky boy, but now wants the truth to come out — Chloe Hadjimatheou, Tortoise

A brilliant new piece of narrative journalism from Tortoise follows the case of Gareth, who, at 14 years old, had an all-consuming sexual relationship with his female teacher at Finchley’s Christ’s College secondary school. To investigate this story, Tortoise explores the cover-up that followed, and asks what lasting damage this relationship might have done to Gareth.

The disturbing case of a Tantric yoga guru and his followers — Amelia Abraham with additional reporting by Cat McShane, Observer

When Miranda, a schoolteacher from Oxford, decided to pursue a path to “enlightenment” via a tantric yoga school in East London, things quickly became extremely dark. Beginning in the prosaic environs of a glossy Old Street yoga studio, the story quickly descends into a terrifying account of “a literal cult” presided over by a guru currently awaiting trail for kidnap, trafficking and rape. 

To Do List

🎞️ If the uncharacteristically sunny weekend made you demand to be whisked off to the Italian riviera, maybe consider the cheaper alternative of watching the best of modern Italian cinema at the BFI this week. Many of the films will be getting their first screening in the UK — but hurry, there’s only a week to treat yourself to a bit of Mediterranean magic.

📚Last month, Israeli police raided the leading Palestinian-owned Educational Bookshop in occupied East Jerusalem. The police confiscated more than 250 books and detained both owners — one of whom, Mahmoud Muna, will be in conversation at the Upper Hall this Wednesday. The talk is being run in partnership with human rights organisation English PEN. 

From the archive

A gem from 1976, this Melvyn Bragg-introduced BBC short is a fascinating examination of the Cockney accent from its genesis to its late-20th-century iteration — and the story of how it influenced what we now think of as the Essex accent. From the argot of the dock workers of the old East End to the influences and permutations of the Cockney spoken by multicultural, multilingual communities in the 70s, it’s an ever-pertinent reminder of how London shapes, and is shaped by, its people.

Join us

Last but not least… our parent company Mill Media is hiring experienced freelance editors. Find out more about the role here.

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