Randomness Guide to London

Hi RGL readers!

This week's featured article is for the Gidea Park Micropub, where there's plenty of beer and a variety of pork pies on offer. There's a dartboard too, which always worries me a bit when space is at a premium. Like those beds that fold up vertically into a cupboard - it's just asking for trouble.

There's more microscopic beer in Penge, at the Southey Brewing Tap Room, for which we have a new page. The decor may be a little basic but their beers are fresh and tasty, just like Penge itself. There are also two new pages for cafés in Brockley: Fred's and Arlo and Moe are both near Crofton Park station, but which one does 'Sexy Toast'? You'll have to click through to find out...

We have an update to the West Norwood Library & Picturehouse following a visit, which revealed some decent vegan options on the menu. We've also paid the Phoenix at Rainham pub a visit following its recent change of management. They also have a dartboard, hopefully one with a bit more space for their patrons to fling their 'arrers around.

Finally, the Parma Cafe greasy spoon in Kennington has closed, and is now a sushi bar. I wonder if there any establishments that have gone in the other direction, from sushi to spoon?

Evening readers!

This week's featured article is for Roti Joupa, a Trinidadian takeaway near Clapham North tube. I don't tend to venture to Clapham much (unless I've got on the wrong Overground train at Canada Water without realising), but I might make an exception for somewhere that sells macaroni pie. I enjoy macaroni, I enjoy pie, I also enjoy tamarind sauce - perhaps one day I will even enjoy Clapham?

Regular readers will recall last week's spoiler alert concerning a jaunt to Bromley ('the place where broom grows'), resulting in new pages for Sanxia, a Sichuan/Hubei Chinese restaurant, and the Star and Garter pub. There's also updates for the Red Lion, the Barrel & Horn, and Indian restaurant/hotel Tamasha, which has mucky pictures in the loos "ancient Indian artwork of an adult nature". One can only hope it's up to the standard of the infamous decor of Cafe Bangla (aka the Princess Di place) on Brick Lane.

How might one get to Bromley, I hear you ask? The direct path is unlikely to involve Cannon Street, but if you find yourself in said station you could visit the Sir John Hawkshaw Wetherspoons or nearby Japanese restaurant Koya. But where *can* you get to from Cannon Street? Douze points to whoever said Sidcup ('a flat topped hill'), where there are three pub updates, for the Hackney Carriage microbrewery, the Alma and the Hill Top Tap.

Right at the top of Green Lanes in Winchmore Hill, there's a new page for the Little Green Dragon pub, and an update for Turkish restaurant Big Seff. There's also a new page for the Temple Brew House bar and microbrewery, just off the Strand.

Finally we come back to Trigger's Bromley, where the Cineworld is temporarily closed, while it transforms chrysalis-style into a Picturehouse.

Morning RGL readers! Apologies if you've been having trouble accessing the site, hopefully it should be working again now. We're rounding off the year with Swan Books in Upminster as our featured article. They've got a large children's section, plenty of local history books to peruse, and as you can see from the photo above, a cavalcade of different fonts on their shop frontage.

There are new pages for two small cafes: Roome, a smart establishment in Herne Hill with large teapots but small cup handles, and the New York Deli, situated not in New York but a mere 3,747 miles away in sunny Dartford.

The Black Horse in Bexley has had an update following a visit to make sure the carpet is still there, while after multiple name and location changes, vegan cafe Vitao on Oxford Street has now closed.

Finally, the Panton Street Odeon has reopened as the Odeon Luxe Haymarket. Apparently it will stick to showing the more unusual cinematic releases, as it did before, but you can now enjoy them while sat in an expensive-looking reclining chair.

That's it from us until 2018 - see you then!

Evening all, hope your Bank Holiday was pleasant! I spent mine looking at my local supply of anatomically incorrect dinosaurs in Crystal Palace Park.

This week's featured article is for Dexter Burger in Purley, home to interesting veggie burgers with a high rating on the all-important Bun Structural Integrity scale.

We've got new pages for Lamberts in Balham, a restaurant specialising in seasonal British produce, and Tandoori Naan And Chapati, a bakery in Walworth with a seemingly slapdash attitude to food hygiene. I think I'd rather go to Lamberts, myself.

There are Vietnamese food updates in the form of Dat Cang Supermarket and Mama Pho, both in Deptford. Also updated following a visit is vegan-friendly creperie Senzala, over in sunny Brixton.

Closures to report: the Breadroom bakery in Brixton has literally ended up in Valhalla, while the Cineworld Hammersmith is to be demolished. I cannot confirm or deny that the last film to be shown in this (admittedly rather run-down) Art Deco building was Kung Fu Panda 3.

Evening everyone!

This week’s featured article is for A Wong, a modern Chinese restaurant in Victoria - quite different in style to last week's featured Chinese restaurant! There’s plenty of interesting dim sum on offer - the mushroom and truffle steamed bun sounds like a good choice.

There’s a brand new page for the new Curzon cinema inside the Goldsmiths campus, in New Cross. Meanwhile the New Cross Turnpike is not actually in New Cross but in Welling, and is now reopened after last year’s fire.

Some pub closures to report: the Obelisk in Chingford is on the market, and Wetherspoons have sold both the Cap In Hand in Southborough, the Plough and Harrow in Hammersmith and the Picture Palace in Ponders End.

Hullo all! It's been a busy week for me - I've moved nearer to the Equator! Lots of other stuff has been happening too.

Our featured article this week is for Cineworld Wood Green, which I personally visited a few months ago to see the amazing/terrible Jupiter Ascending (2015) starring Mila Kunis as 'a young woman discovers her destiny as an heiress of intergalactic nobility and must fight to protect the inhabitants of Earth from an ancient and destructive industry.' Don't get it mixed up with the Wood Green Vue which is just by the tube station. I definitely didn't do this. Meanwhile the old Cineworld in the Trocadero is now the Picturehouse Central, and looks much fancier for it.

New to RGL are two veggie cafes in Fitzrovia: the miniscule Kin off Great Portland Street, and Ethos near Oxford Circus, which sells by the slightly pricey 100g. Even more costly however is the loss of Beatroot on the other side of Oxford Street, a fine veggie cafe which has closed due to the redevelopment of the bottom end of Berwick Street. In further sad news for vegetarians, Food For Thought on Neal Street has closed too.

The RGL crew has paid a visit to the Hagen and Hyde, an Antic pub in Balham which does a reasonable food menu, as you'd expect. There's also an update to Manchurian Legends in Chinatown following a dinner visit.

The Grove in Golders Green has closed and is now a mysteriously goth-looking bar called 'Wallace'. Finally, the Melton Mowbray Fuller's pub on Holborn has been done up and rechristened as the Inn of Court. And that's your lot for this week! Even if I hadn't been unpacking boxes I'd be exhausted after all that.