# data[].attributes.body
...between past and future

# data[].attributes.headline
Some green alternatives for a London tour...

# data[].attributes.subject
Some green alternatives for a London tour...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Green City Guide London  Eco-Friendly Travel London  Planet Green

# data[].attributes.body
A module of "liquid history"

# data[].attributes.body
Immigration and the ungiven empathy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Immigration poem by Fleur Adcock _ Immigration and the ungiven empathy. ©

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Street art tour

Discover East London's most colourful and vibrant art with a walking tour that takes in the majesty of the area's street art. Shoreditch Street Art tours also offer street art photography workshops for those that want to interact with the city streets a bit more.

Afternoon tea bus tour

What could be better than afternoon tea in London? How about tea on board a double decker bus while it's touring the big sights of London? A favourite of parents, there's sandwiches, scones and tea. They even do gluten-free and halal options.

Bullshit London

Walking tours get the fake news makeover at Bullshit London, which sets up very silly and possibly untrue tours of London's best bits. There's a South Bank tourist trap tour and a City one - you'll feel as though you've fallen into a parallel universe.

Unseen Tours

Discover a London not normally experienced by tourists with an Unseen Tour. Head down to London Bridge for its mysterious alleyways around Southwark Cathedral and The Globe. The company also employs homeless or ex-homeless people to help them get back into work.

Pedibus

Get up to 12 friends and pebble power your way between Borough Market and Liverpool Street on a mobile group bike-cum-drinks machine. You all sit round a table and have a few drinks while your legs are doing the hard work. It's all about teamwork, people!

Helicopter tour

Take to the skies above the city with a high flying helicopter tour. See the skyscrapers from a new angle and swoop over some of the city's most famous landmarks. Perfect for solo travellers or groups between two and six people, prices start at £150 per person.

Eating Soho

Uncover Soho's salubrious history while snacking and drinking your way round this hedonistic area. Eating Europe tours stop for little bites and cocktails in some of Soho 's coolest spots while filling you in on its history.

Harry Potter tour

Twice a week, London tours operate Harry Potter tours of London, taking in the spots associated with the famous wizard and the parts of London that have ended up in the films. Meet outside Bank Tube for a tour that last two hours - Muggles are welcome.

East End pub tour

Raise a pint to some of the coolest spots in the East End with this pub and craft beer tour. Discover London's most creative spots and taste some uber local brews. Hipster beards not essential.

Ghost bus tour

All aboard the ghost bus for this nighttime whirl round London. This slightly OTT tour revels in dark delights (and bad amateur dramatics) as it dishes the dirt on the ghostly goings on round the Houses of Parliament, Tower of London and St Paul's. London has a ghastly grisly past if you know where to look, and what's more, it's a lot of fun.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Discover East London's most colourful and vibrant art with a walking tour that takes in the majesty of the area's street art. Shoreditch Street Art tours also offer street art photography workshops for those that want to interact with the city streets a bit more. What could be better than afternoon tea in London?

# data[].attributes.body
Mesterpieces of London you can see in London

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
10 Masterpieces Of London You Can See In London
From Van Goghs to Hamblings, Bacons to Hepworths, London has scores of artistic masterpieces on permanent display. Here though, we focus on 10 permanently displayed masterpieces which are of London itself.
1. View of Deptford Power Station from Greenwich (Queen's House)

Here's a real gem; although depicting big industry and urban life was very much his bag, Lowry painted scant scenes of London. This rare 1959 canvas bristles with all the best quirks of the Stretford-born painter: black, smudgy chimneys, river merging into sky, and an overarching sense of melancholy. See it close to where the scene is set, at the Queen's House in Greenwich.

2. The Meeting Place (St Pancras International)

The detractors can get knotted. Paul Day's towering sculpture of two lovers snogging forms an epic greeting/farewell from the mezzanine of St Pancras station. And while a public display of affection is about as un-Londony you can get, the reliefs around the base of The Meeting Place depict raw, thought-provoking snapshots from city's history. One ingenious touch: first world war soldiers leave for and return to the front, while a contemporary Eurostar pulls up in the background. The detail is such, you feel you could step into this skewered, bronze dimension.

3. Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Chelsea (Tate)

James Abbott McNeill Whistler was inspired to paint his first London nocturne when returning from a trip by steamer to Westminster, on an August evening in 1871. "I wished to indicate an artistic interest alone, divesting the picture of any outside anecdotal interest," Whistler later said. Serene and beautiful though it is, we don't wholly agree with the sentiment: the fisherman wading out into the foreground adds a touch of mystery to this Thames-scape. Don't worry though, Whistler - we still consider it a masterpiece. See it in the Tate, which also has Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Old Battersea Bridge.

4. The Great Fire of London (Museum of London)

The artist might be unknown, but it's thought they must have witnessed the conflagration unfold; look for the details, like the tiny sparks in the sky - and the fact the vantage point would have actually been somewhere safe to sketch from. Anyhow, this is a breathtaking image of a moment that changed London forever. And the serenity of the moon juxtaposed with the red roaring flames - wow.

5. Harry Beck's Tube Map (Finchley Central)

A map of the tube at a tube station is hardly mind-blowing in itself. But this one - on Finchley Central's southbound platform - is different. It's a replica of Harry Beck's 1933 design, and how we adore everything from the muted colour palette to that swish of the Thames. Beck first devised the map - inspired by electrical circuits - in 1931, but at the time London Transport deemed it too 'revolutionary'. It's rather nice to know that Beck, who lived nearby, would have come here and seen such a map regularly, smiling to himself as commuters studied it. Since then, the tube map has become London's most eyeballed masterpiece.

6. Balls: The Evening Before the Morning After (Tate)

We've all had one of those nights out, where the blurry events have been only partially pieced together in the morning. In 1972, Gilbert and George took to the Balls Brothers Wine Bar in Bethnal Green (sadly no longer with us) to create this sprawling black and white photo montage. Not only is it a dizzying account of London drinking culture, it's an unwitting snapshot of the kind of bar you don't really get anymore around here.

7. Battle of Cable Street mural (Cable Street)

The Battle of Cable Street was one of the East End's proudest moments. When 30,000 Londoners of all races and creeds joined forces to block a demonstration by Oswald Mosley and his cronies, it was one in the eye for fascism and a huge hurrah for diversity. Painted on the side of Cable Street houses by Dave Binnington Savage, Paul Butler, Ray Walker and Desmond Rochfort between 1979 and 1983, this mural is a riot of colour, action and East End humour. Photos, news reports, and interviews with people who were there led to meticulous touches, like a chamberpot being emptied onto the heads of the fascists. The riled Hitler may be artistic licence.

8. Bank of England Rotunda in Ruins (John Soane's Museum)

You maniacs! You blew it up! While many images of future Londons feature flying cars and floating walkways, Joseph Gandy's Bank of England lies in ruins like a Roman temple. Gandy was Soane's draughtsman, and sketched many of the buildings that went on to be built. This painting - imposing by candlelight at John Soane's Museum - takes a different tack, reminding Soane - and Londoners - that everything in our city has a shelf life. Most of Soane's Bank of England was demolished and replaced in the 20th century.

9. Ninth of November, 1888 (Guildhall Art Gallery)

London is not short of pomp and pageantry paintings. But William Logsdail's depiction of the Lord Mayor's Procession captures the Londoners around it. Two young boys cling to a lamppost for a better view, a mutton-chopped bobby reigns in the crowds, and a dog threatens to get in the way. The slick streets, paired with breaking clouds give the perfect sense of the city's capricious climate. If you think there's something ominous about this painting, this moment frozen in time is about the time when the body of Mary Jane Kelly - likely Jack the Ripper's last victim - was being discovered close by.

10. Gin Lane (Hogarth's House)

A kind of punch containing elements of the above masterpieces, William Hogarth's Gin Lane has debauchery, destruction and dark laughs by the, er, punchbowl - and doesn't that pretty much sum up life in London? A hyperbolic take on the 18th century gin craze (if only slightly), it's widely believed Gin Lane is set in the rookeries of St Giles (that's St George's, Bloomsbury in the background). You'll look at this a hundred times, and still find something different on the 101st. Though there are incarnations of this engraving all over London, Hogarth's House is the best place to see it - nestled among countless other Hogarth works.
We are aware that this list is woefully under-populated by female artists. Please do tell us of any masterpieces of London that are on permanent exhibition in the city, in the comments.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
10 Masterpieces Of London You Can See In London

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
10 Masterpieces Of London You Can See In London From Van Goghs to Hamblings, Bacons to Hepworths, London has scores of artistic masterpieces on permanent display. Here though, we focus on 10 permanently displayed masterpieces which are of London itself.

# data[].attributes.headline
London - the world's most linguistically diverse  city

# data[].attributes.subject
London - the world's most linguistically diverse  city

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Our planet is one of rich linguistic diversity, with around 6,500 spoken languages in existence and nowhere are you likely to hear more of them at once than in London. Such linguistic diversity makes London an attractive place to live and work for all those with an interest in language, from translation companies to individual students.
Welcome to the melting pot
London is known as a melting pot of cultures, with inhabitants from around the world flocking to the bright lights of the UK capital for its economic prospects, huge array of cultural attractions and world-renowned architectural offerings. These individuals have brought with them a fantastic mixture of languages from around the globe. Some have only stayed for a short while but others have chosen to settle and make London their home, committing to life in England and raising their family in the capital.

London's population reached 8.54 million in 2014 according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), with projected growth to 9.71 million by 2024, with people from within the UK and overseas flocking to the city and adding to its linguistic diversity.

London is currently home to incredible linguistic variety. According to the 2011 Census, 78% of residents speak English as their first language, while some 320,000 Londoners speak English either not very well or at all. In almost every single borough (30 out of 33), more than 100 languages are spoken.

According to the ONS, London is home to 53 'main' languages, which are defined as languages spoken by at least 0.1% of the city's population. A further 54 languages, or variants of languages were recorded as being spoken across the capital.

After English, Polish is London's most spoken language, followed by Bengali, Gujarati, French, Urdu and Arabic. As the capital grows over the coming years, we can reasonably expect that the number of languages spoken there will increase as well. It will be exciting to see how many languages are spoken in London by the 2021 Census!
London versus Europe
London's linguistic diversity is impressive, but it becomes even more so when compared with language use in Europe. Europe has 23 official languages, more than 60 indigenous regional and minority languages and many more non-indigenous languages brought to Europe by migrant communities. So London can give the whole of Europe a fun for its money when it comes to linguistic variety.

Across Europe, bilingualism and multilingualism are common. 54% of Europeans are able to hold a conversation in a second language, according to the EU's 145-page report on 'Europeans and their Languages.' Furthermore, 25% of Europeans are able to speak two languages in addition to their native language, while 10% can hold a conversation in their mother tongue plus three other languages.

Europe's most spoken languages differ a great deal from those most commonly used in London. In Europe, it is German that tops the list of languages that are spoken, with 16% of Europeans using it as their first language. Italian and English are both spoken by 13% of Europeans, while French is spoken by 12% and Spanish and Polish are both spoken by 8%.

English comes into its own as a second language in Europe, spoken by 38% of citizens. French is spoken as a second language by 12%, German by 11%, Spanish by 7% and Russian by 5%.

One of the most interesting figures when considering London's relationship with language in a European context is the fact that the UK is near the top of the list when it comes to monolingual European countries, with 61% of the UK's population only speaking their native language. The continent's most monolingual country - Hungary - beats the UK by just four percentage points, with 65% of Hungarians speaking only their mother tongue. It's followed by Italy at 62%, Portugal tied with the UK at 61% and Ireland at 60%.
The value of linguistic diversity
Linguistic diversity is part of what makes our world such a fascinating place. The interrelationship of language and culture is one that is deeply rooted in history and remains immensely relevant to some of the political tensions faced around the world today. As part of a global community that is growing rapidly and putting a strain on the resources available to us, the need for peaceful communication has never been greater and accepting and celebrating our linguistic differences can play a key role in this.

Of course, if you're reading this post then you're probably already a fan of languages and appreciate their value. Worryingly, though, the EU's latest Europeans and their Languages report found that nine countries recorded a significant drop (greater than 5%) in their level of residents who can converse in two languages as well as their native one, since the previous (2005) report.

Such figures highlight the need to continue pushing for linguistic diversity to be celebrated and advanced, not just in cities like London, but by all of us around the world.
by Louise Taylor, Tomedes Tomedes is a leading professional translation company that provides a range of translation services for business customers and individual clients. They translate documents for the web, for print and for use within companies. Tomedes aims at bringing their customers the most comprehensive range of high quality professional language services.
You might also like:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Languages of London - a Look at the World's Most Linguistically Diverse City

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Our planet is one of rich linguistic diversity, with around 6,500 spoken languages in existence and nowhere are you likely to hear more of them at once than in London. Such linguistic diversity makes London an attractive place to live and work for all those with an interest in language, from translation companies to individual students.

# data[].attributes.headline
Let's explore London's hidden corners...

# data[].attributes.subject
Let's explore London's hidden corners...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
London's Secret Hidden Places | WhizzShare

# data[].attributes.headline
An aftrnoon tea while touring London on a red double-decker bus

# data[].attributes.subject
An aftrnoon tea while touring London on a red double-decker bus

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
One Bump or Two? Afternoon Tea on a London Bus