That instinct to crack on is the footing of our winter edit, making its debut next week. Ahead of its arrival, we’re setting the tone with London Calling, a playlist with its own sort of weather. It’s steady, textured, and built to last — like Barbour wax or a Sunday roast.
The mix moves from Waterloo to Wuthering Heights. The Kinks’ north London streets, The Smiths out of Manchester, Blur and Pulp in their Britpop prime — art school and council estate in equal measure. Dexys at full tilt, Small Faces in technicolor, Joy Division in stark black and white. Later, it slips south of the river — The xx, James Blake, Jessie Ware, FKA twigs — before swinging back through Oasis and The Verve’s ’90s swell, Arctic Monkeys’ Sheffield bite. Pub jukebox to late-night minicab.
SET THE SOUNDTRACK
If you’re looking for a taste of London locally, New York has its corners. Tea & Sympathy for a proper cup and a bobblehead of the Queen. Lord’s for curried lamb Scotch eggs and sausage rolls. King for long, low-lit lunches that exhale into the evening. Dover Street Market, Sunspel, Drake’s — all dependable points on the map.
Add to that: Myers of Keswick for pork pies and Branston on a homesick afternoon. Jones Wood Foundry on the Upper East Side for shepherd’s pie and cask ale. The Churchill Tavern in Midtown for rugby on telly and steak-and-ale pie. In the West Village, A Salt & Battery fish and chips in paper. Across town, The Shakespeare serves sticky toffee pudding and pints beneath dark wood beams. And if it’s something more modern you’re after, The Portrait Bar at The Fifth Avenue Hotel — velvet banquettes, mirrored walls, a martini with a twist.
A different horse for the course: McNally Jackson for a stack of Penguins and the London Review of Books. The Whitby Hotel for afternoon tea — tiered trays, clotted cream, patterned china. None of this is nostalgic, exactly. It's just a way of moving through the city with your collar up and tea hot.
