Albertopolis!

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Londonphilia Spotifiy Playlist: "D"

Here's my Spotifiy playlist of songs about London starting with the letter "D"...from Madness to Dizzee Rascal.

Londonphilia Playlist: The Letter 'C'

Here's all the songs about London on Spotify that begin with the letter 'C'.

Londonphilia Spotify Playlist: The Letter 'A' + a Couple Numbers

I've finally joined Spotify and will be making Londonphilia playlists. I'm going through the alphabet and will be doing a playlist for each letter... plus a couple numbers. Some of the letters will be combined into one playlist.
Please enjoy!

Legendary Londoner: David Bowie

David Bowie was born in Brixton and grew up in Bromley. He found himself in the alleys of Soho. He found his mentors, bandmates, rivals, partners in crime in London. Has been and always will be an inspiration and an influence on everything around us. He changed music and fashion obviously...but he also changed nightlife...The Blitz started off as a Bowie tribute night, it was one of the first club nights to happen on a week day. Without Bowie and the Blitz there would've been no Trash, a club night that I worked at, which would finish every night with Rock n Roll Suicide.

Besides Londonphilia Tours, I also do tours under the name Rock n Roll Camden Walking Tour...through that I have been doing a Bowie themed tour of Soho, Sound & Vision: David Bowie's Soho, since 2014 when the V&A was doing their Bowie exhibition. I will now be doing it the first Sunday of each month starting on February 7th. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to a cancer charity.

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London A-Z: C is for Camden Town

Now I'm gonna be honest...I am completely biased when it comes to Camden. I do a walking tour of Camden, Rock n Roll Camden Walking Tour, because I love Camden so much. The first time I went to Camden on vacation back in the 90's I knew I was home. Camden is full of freaks, geeks and weirdos...goths, punks, mods, cybergoths/punks, trustafarians, rockers, hippies, crusties, b-boys, drag queens, rock-a-billys, death metallers and emos.

I can show you where this was taken.

Camden is the home of Britpop, Madness and Amy Winehouse. The Clash had their rehearsal space in Camden. Prince has played several 'secret' shows in Camden. Amy played pool at one of the pubs...I don't want to give too much away because I want you to come on my tour!
As a Camden local, I stay away from Camden Market on the weekends...Camden is the fourth biggest tourist attraction in London...millions of people come to Camden, usually on the weekends. If you're going to visit, do it during the week, the stall holders will probably appreciate it more. The best way to see the market is to take the Northern Line and get off at Chalk Farm, not Camden Town, it's just a short walk from Chalk Farm Station to the Stables Market. Easy, peasy.

Camden Lock Street Food Market

The street food market in Camden Lock Market is amazing. There is food from every country on the planet...if you can't find something to eat, you're not hungry!

Legendary music venue KOKO

Down on the other end of Camden is Mornington Crescent and KOKO. KOKO started life as The Camden Theatre in 1900 and then was renamed The Camden Hippodrome in 1909. Charlie Chaplin regularly performed there. After a couple other name changes it became the Music Box and the home to several legendary punk shows including a four day residency by The Clash in 1978.
In 1982 it became Camden Palace and Madonna played her first UK show there.
Camden Palace closed in 2004 and reopened as KOKO in 2005. If you have the chance to go to a gig there, you should definitely take it!

Rock n Roll Camden Walking Tour recommends:
The Dublin Castle pub on the Parkway is my favorite pub in Camden. It's the official Madness pub after they did a year long residency there back in the 70's. There are pictures of Madness all over the

Nelson the pub cat at Tapping the Admiral

pub and it has the best jukebox in Camden.

Tapping the Admiral pub is probably on eof the best pubs in North London. It has won 'Pub of the Year' from CAMRA several times. It has an amazing selection of real ale and craft beer. And it has a pub cat named Nelson.
It's kinda hard to find though, it's on the borders of Camden and Kentish Town but actually just a quick walk from Kentish Town West Station.

Londonmusica: Pulp - Bar Italia

Even though Pulp are from Sheffield, a lot of their songs, especially on Different Class, are about London. This song is about a little all hours cafe on Frith Street in Soho, where all the 'broken people go'. It's where all the indie kids would go after a night out in Soho for a last coffee before the night bus home...or to someone else's home.
Of course, my Britpop loving friends and I had to go there for a late night coffee when we first came over to London on vacation...which was ironic for me because I don't drink coffee.
Bar Italia has been owned by the Polledri family since 1949.
Bar Italia was awarded the 2010 London Lifestyle Award for London Coffee Shop of the Year.

London A to Z: My favorite things in London in Alphabetical order

A is for Angel
I used to work in Angel, or The Angel, or Angel Islington (even though there's no other area of London called Angel). I worked at Borders bookstore for 18 months before it went bankrupt and closed on Christmas Eve. So, I've spent a lot of time in the area. There are a lot of good bars and pubs around Angel:

The Lexington - American style food, beer and whiskey. A pub quiz every Monday, but make sure you go when my friends aren't playing cuz they win...a lot. Gigs and club nights upstairs.

The Mucky Pub - A cozy little pub on a back street. Great jukebox. Weekly pub quizzes and DJs. A pool table out the back. Great selection of real ale.

The King's Head - Theatre pub on Upper Street. It has a small theatre up stairs that puts on plays. There's live music downstairs sometimes. Great place for one last drink is you're out and about in Angel.

Slim Jim's - American style bar with a great selection of cocktails, music and bras hanging from the
ceiling. Right next to the King's Head.

There's also an amzing amout of restaurants in Angel, basically from Angel station all the way along Upper Street to Highbury/Islington station there are restaurants of every type; from greasy cafes to fancy French bistros.

Londontelly - Spaced

The cast of Spaced

Obviously, a lot of TV shows are filmed in London too. From Sherlock Holmes to Doctor Who...every genre of television has used London as its inspiration and backdrop.
My favorite TV show set in London is the comedy Spaced. It written by Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson and directed by Edgar Wright, who went on to big screen fame with Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World's End...(my personal favorite of his is Scott Pilgrim Vs The World).

I will live here some day

Spaced is about two strangers, Tim and Daisy, who pretend to be a couple to get a flat in North London. The house is Spaced is located in Tuffnell Park, I used to live around the corner from it and visit it when I had a bad day. Their landlady is hard drinking, chain smoking Marsha, who's daughter Amber we never actually see, we just hear her coming and going. In the basement lives eccentric artist Brian. Tim's best friend Mike, Simon Pegg's real life best friend Nick Frost, and Daisy's best friend Twist fill out the cast...and then Colin the dog joins later.
Spaced should be required viewing for anyone moving to London. It is chock full of pop culture references and one episode was the inspiration for Shaun of the Dead. It is a surreal mish mash of music, television, film and comic book references and then a bit of real life. And that's what makes it a classic, not the references...which are amazing by the way...but that we could still relate to what they were going through. Unemployment, break ups, make ups, job hunting, ex-partners, parties, nights out in Camden, raves, losing your dog, fighting with friends, falling in love, pubs, Star Wars & zombies...basically, life in London.

Skip To The End making of Spaced documentary

Londonmusica - Songs About London

Parklife by Blur released 22 August 1994

Along with the movie blogs on Londonphilia I will be posting weekly videos about London. With Blur being my favorite band, of course I had to start with one of their many songs about London. The songs was inspired by Hyde Park as Damon said at Blur's 2009 Hyde Park show; "I came up with the idea for this song in this park. I was living on Kensington Church Street, and I used to come into the park at the other end, and I used to, you know, watch people, and pigeons...", enter Phil Daniels.

The video was directed by Pedro Romhanyi and filmed on the Greenwich Peninsula.

It won Best British Single and Best Video at the 1995 Brit Awards.

Londonfilmia - About A Boy

Choosing the first film to write about for the Londonphilia website was really hard. I didn't want to pick anything too mainstream and what you'd expect. On the other hand I didn't want to be too obscure. Also, I'm a horror movie fan and didn't want to scare you away by writing about one of them...might save the horror movies for October.
I decided on "About A Boy" because not only is it a great movie, it's also a great book by Nick Hornby. It's one of those movies that you always watch when you come across it on t.v. Ironically, it was directed by a pair of American brothers, Paul and Chris Weitz, at the time more famous for the "American Pie" movie.
It's a great London film because it's not overly in your face London. Most of it was filmed in North London...Regent's Park, Clerkenwell and Kentish Town and a bit in Notting Hill and Waterloo.
This is the movie where Hugh Grant stopped playing the floppy haired bumbling Brit and started playing the short haired kind of a jerk Brit. Also the boy, Marcus, was played by a very young Nicholas Hoult...who has grown into a very attractive man.
Another reason it's a great London film is because it perfectly sums up life in London. How your 'family' and friends are not always the people you expect or want but they are usually the people you need.
It also has a brilliant soundtrack by Badly Drawn Boy.

London Calling w/ Music Heritage UK & Rock n Roll Camden Walking Tour

Besides Londonphilia, I do a popular tour about Camden Town's music history, Rock n Roll Camden Walking Tour...a lot of which is about Britpop.
Several months ago, I was approached by Music Heritage UK to be interviewed about the Britpop scene in Camden. I took them around to some of the local venues and pubs...and basically did what I always do at the pub, I talked about Britpop.
Here's the finished product, which I'm very proud of and quite excited about.

London Calling Ep 2.3 - Camden Town: Birthplace of Britpop by Music Heritage Uk on Mixcloud

Disappearing Soho Tour

Soho has always been an ever-changing area of London since the 17th century...but since the 1980's it has been changing at a faster rate then most people like.
Last year I did a tour of Soho based around David Bowie, as I did the tour I realised that most of the venues I was talking about had disappeared. Many of the  historic venues had been closed or are being demolished and replaced with luxury flats or chain restaurants.
This tour will help celebrate and memorialise these legendary venues...including: Madame Jojo's, The Marquee, The 12 Bar, The Intrepid Fox, The Astoria, Billy's...and Denmark Street.
One pound from every ticket will be donated to Save Soho.

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Disappearing Soho

Soho in London is one of the most interesting, creative, bohemian parts of the city. It started off as a
hunting ground and then became the Red Light District and is now the home of the UK film industry.
Everyone from Oscar Wilde to Dylan Thomas to David Bowie to Elton John have lived, worked and played here.
Sadly, some of the venues that these influential people used have been lost to regeneration.
This tour will take you around Soho pointing out and telling the history of these lost venues...including:
Madame Jojo's
The Intrepid Fox
The Marquee (all three located in Soho)
The Astoria
Central Saint Martins
The 12 Bar and soon to be lost Denmark Street.
Also included is a brief history of Soho.

This tour will be on the third Saturday of each month starting on July 18th until November 21st, 2015.
Please meet me in Soho Square at the Tudor style building in the center of the square.
The price is £10 per person. £1 from the ticket price will be donated to Save Soho.

If you are interested in coming on this tour please email me, Alison, at djalicat@gmail.com.

http://savesoho.com

Coming Soon!

I run the popular Rock n Roll Camden Walking Tour in Camden Town. Now I don't just love Camden...I love London! 
I want to share my passion for all things London with people. This is where all the tours, that aren't to do with Rock n Roll or Camden, will be located!

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