Remixing Spaces We Live In

Quote of the Week - “First we shape the cities, then they shape us.” - Anon.

Good Evening, London. This week, in The London Palette, we’re revising the spaces we live in. From Trafalgar Square turning into an open‑air stage for a day of music, food and heritage. To Southwark Cathedral’s nave transformed into a sky of hope, the city is reclaiming its most iconic settings in surprising ways. You might wander Brutalist corridors that hum with familiar sounds. Or, sip your way through an after hours wine odyssey, followed by Wyclef Jean’s take on carnival at Koko’s. Whatever takes your fancy, this edition is your invitation to explore the bold reimaginings shaping the places we call our own.

Snatched highlights from this edition:

1. Sink into Barbican’s Sound Odyssey

2. Quietly View Southwark’s Peace Doves

3. Check Into the Latest Hotel Club in Covent Garden

4. Live Music - Dele Sosimi, tribute to Donald Byrd & lots more!

Let’s dive in.

—Bybreen Samuels

COUNCIL CANVAS

Access Takes Centre Stage in 2025 Borough of Culture

Wandsworth has pulled a radical move by putting disabled artists at the centre of its Borough of Culture map. The Council and CRIPtic Arts have curated a free, borough-wide programme that culminates during the Liberty Festival from September 24 to 29. Venues including Battersea Arts Centre, Tara Theatre, World Heart Beat, The Bedford, The Clapham Grand, Wandsworth Civic Suite and Battersea Park, have positioned access not as an add‑on but as the operating system. The event is billed as the Mayor of London’s flagship disability arts festival, delivered as part of the London Borough of Culture 2025.

Liberty reframes who public culture is for and who leads it. They’ve shown this by commissioning disabled creatives to make ambitious work across theatre, music, dance, film, installations and cabaret. Embedded within this is a relaxed approach to movement and noise, re‑entry, relaxation spaces, step‑free routes, British Sign Language, captions and audio description, across venues. CRIPtic’s producing role signals a structural shift, not a one‑off. Their nineteen research and development commissions awarded earlier in the year, seeded a pipeline that’s now surfacing, at Liberty. The build up included headline to micro pieces designed to tour and grow beyond Wandsworth.

In relation to the other collaborators, Battersea Arts Centre acts as the main hub by hosting highlight and headline moments covering, Capturing the Forest by Kristina Veasey and Alejandro Ahmed, Oily Cart and Polyglot’s, When The World Turns, SADBOI by Simeon Campbell, Krystal S Lowe’s Daughters of the Sea, and a Disco Neurotico and Deaf Rave takeover. Tara Theatre layers performance with meaningful conversation entailing, The Baked Bean Company’s Life of I, Chisato Minamimura’s The Lost Golden Lotus, a mini‑conference with Sense Arts and Flawbored. While World Heart Beat stages Adrian Lee’s Hexagram. The contributions extend to, The Bedford co‑hosting an open mic session with CRIPtic. The Clapham Grand opens with a radical cabaret led by Midgitte Bardot. And Battersea Park closes with an easy, family picnic led by Miss Jacqui.

Liberty is purposefully designed to leave a residue of skills, networks, and expectations, by embedding disabled leadership into venues and public space operations across Wandsworth. The Greater London Authority’s framing is clear. Liberty is biennial, moves with Borough of Culture, and is meant to model joyful, radical inclusion that other boroughs can adapt. If Wandsworth’s approach works namely, cross‑venue delivery, sector development, and community rooted commissions, it sets a template for other local authorities. Meaning, shifts can be made from accessible events to accessible ecosystems, with procurement, training and programming aligned throughout the year.

In a season crowded with cultural noise, Liberty’s wager is that access unlocks ambition that’s free, relaxed, city‑facing and proudly led by people with disabilities. If Borough of Culture is a test of what a place believes about itself, Wandsworth’s answer is on the record between September 24 and 29. Let the most inclusive idea win and let it be the headliner.

Find out more here - https://welcometowandsworth.com

CITY PALETTE

A Sky Full of Hope Lands in Southwark

From the moment you step inside Southwark Cathedral, the noise of the city dissolves into a quiet sky of paper wings. Peter Walker’s Peace Doves installation suspends thousands of delicate doves high in the nave, each one carrying a handwritten message from residents, schoolchildren, and visitors. Above you, David Harper’s ethereal score swells and fades, turning the space into a living, breathing canopy of hope. The sentiment continues until September 13, so accept the invitation to pause, look up, and feel part of something bigger than your own day.

You’ll feel the impact in two waves. First, the sheer visual spectacle of thousands of doves seeming to take flight in slow motion. Then, followed by the intimacy of reading what strangers have wished for. These messages, from prayers for peace to notes of gratitude and love, stitch personal stories into one shared sky. Peter’s touring installation has lit up other cathedrals across the UK. But here, its resonance deepens, just steps from Borough Market’s bustle and the slow tide of the Thames, offering a sanctuary in plain sight.

For those of you who favour the city at dusk, the Peace Doves Lates open after work for immersive, music‑scored evenings under the installation. Weekday twilight sessions run through August, with a final late night on Friday, September 12. Entry is free and donations are welcome. And aside from short closures during Sunday Eucharist, the display is open during the Cathedral’s normal hours. Spanning from the west doors to the high altar, it transforms the entire central space into a communal moment of stillness.

What makes Peace Doves more than just a beautiful spectacle is its role as a civic ritual. In an age where our attention is relentlessly pulled into screens, this installation draws it upward towards light, sound, and shared intention. The only thing it asks for is your presence. In return, you leave carrying the sense that our capital’s heart still beats in quiet, collective moments. Before September 13, step inside, add your message, and let your words join the city’s unfolding sky.

Find out more here - https://cathedral.southwark.anglican.org

Tate Decants the City to Turn Wine into Culture

Bankside swaps brushstrokes for bottle notes as Tate Modern hosts Pour Choices. A natural wine fair that treats the Turbine Hall’s vibe like a decanter, airing out big ideas about taste, terroir, and how London drinks now, all in one night. Your ticket includes seven 25ml tasting tokens, a takeaway glass, drop‑in workshops, informal masterclasses, and music. Plus, you have the chance to meet producers who allow you to discover the wonders of grape on your palate. All of this is framed by Tate’s after‑hours energy, this is culture you can sip.

The experience is refreshingly democratic. Start with seven pours, you can buy extra tokens if your curiosity outruns restraint. Then, follow your palate from pét‑nat spritz to elegant, old‑vine calm, there’s wine by the glass and bottles to take away, too. The Corner bar and Tate’s stellar cellars underpin the evening with serious credentials. This is the same programme that fields Australian deep dives and chef‑paired dinners, so you can expect production talk with real substance as you bounce between stands and sounds. Pour Choices sits neatly inside Tate’s broader Lates calendar, which keeps the museum buzzing long after daylight fades.

Timing matters, and so does access. Pour Choices lands on Saturday, September 13 2025, from 7pm to 11.00pm. If you’re a Tate member you’ll get priority offerings. Beyond this, the format is very much come as you are. Drop in for a glass of something or make a night of it with workshops and music layered between tastings. If natural wine still feels like a scene, this is the antidote. Take a guided wander that lets producers explain the why behind the haze, the fizz, and the farm.

Looking through a wider lens, Pour Choices reflects a pointed snippet of London. There’s an evolving trend towards institutions opening up to creative maker culture, wine cellars meeting sustainability, and a city that wants experiences as much as it wants objects. Pour Choices takes the snobbery out of serious wine without dumbing it down. And, it turns a world of soil types and spontaneous ferments into a shared, low‑stakes conversation under Tate Modern’s iconic roof. This is definitely one for your diary. Bring your questions, and leave with a glass and a shortlist of bottles that tell stories well beyond their label.

Book tickets here - https://www.tate.org.uk

UNDISCOVERED GEMS

Buildings Play Back in Immersive Sound Odyssey

There’s a soundwalk that ripples from the Barbican’s Silk Street doors to the underground car parks and out onto the Lakeside Terrace. It’s a lesson in rethinking listening as something the whole body does. You have until August 31 to uncover the meaning of this. Feel the Sound folds eleven interactive installations into a single route. You can feel music without sound, sing inside an ever‑growing digital choir, and move with bass rolling through concrete as Brutalism becomes an instrument. The exhibition is co‑produced with Tokyo’s MoN Takanawa, that’s built to tour, and is pitched as the flagship of the Barbican’s summer Frequencies season.

All the commissions land with personality. Miyu Hosoi’s Observatory Station greets you at Silk Street, blending field recordings from around the world with the Barbican’s own acoustic fingerprints, to conjure a stranger’s daily life. UN/BOUND opens a holographic choral field by TRANS VOICES, ILĀ and MONOM, inviting your voice to fold into the mix. Hear this as an embrace of expression and belonging in a layered space. Kinda Studios with Nexus Studios turn inward for Your Inner Symphony, mapping the body’s vibrations to surface the link between feeling and sound. Temporary Pleasure’s Joyride drops you into a car‑culture echo chamber. Imagine salvaged motors, modified systems, rave memory, all claiming the car park as an underground club you can literally feel.

Feel the Sound centre’s accessibility because beyond tactile, low‑audio encounters. The programme includes Audio Described tours for blind and partially sighted visitors. Along with dedicated British Sign Language tours, these additions extend an exhibition that already privileges vibration, gesture, and visualisation over traditional volume. Outside, poet Raymond Antrobus’s Heightened Lyric flies seven kites above the water, each carrying text about missing sound alongside British Sign Language, a deliberate space where meaning lives without audio at all. From mid-week onwards, enjoy the later opening hours that have timed entry segments.

Has The Barbican developed a quiet manifesto? Maybe. London’s most iconic Brutalist maze has been turned into a listening device, where technology and touch reframe who gets to experience sound and how. If you’re curious, it’s a playground. And, for those of you who care about accessibility, it’s a proof of concept for the city. This expression is a timely reminder that culture doesn’t need four white walls to resonate. If galleries are where we look, this summer’s gem is where we tune. So, arrive with time to wander, take the car park detour, and let the building play you back before the end of August.

Find out more here - https://www.barbican.org.uk

LONDON BUZZ

Trafalgar Turns Up the Volume on Black Culture

The air in Trafalgar Square will vibrate with drumbeats, basslines, and voices reclaiming a famous landmark. Black on the Square returns with its living showcase of Black creativity, history, and community spirit, staged in the open heart of the capital. From sunrise soundchecks to the closing cheer, it’s a free immersion in music, culture, and togetherness.

Across the site, you’ll find performances in every corner. There are live bands tearing into reggae, soul, and Afrobeats. Poets folding heritage into urgent, modern lines. Dancers moving to rhythms with roots in Africa, the Caribbean, and London’s streets. Market stalls full to the brim with African fabrics, Caribbean streetwear, artisanal goods, and stacks of vinyl. For foodies there are vendors serving everything from sizzling jerk skewers to vegan jollof bowls. So you can eat your way through the diaspora while the soundtrack shifts around you.

The atmosphere is deliberately open and welcoming. There are no tickets, no barriers, and programming is created for all ages. Bring your children so they can join craft workshops and storytelling sessions. For those of you looking for conversations, drop into talks and heritage trails exploring the contributions of Black Londoners across the centuries. Along the way you’ll find step‑free routes, sign interpretation on the main stage, and plenty of resting spaces. This is as much about connection as it is celebration. Black on the Square is a space where identity and allyship can coexist, in full colour.

When you look beyond the stage lights you’ll see why Black on the Square Matters. This is civic ownership in action by turning one of the UK’s most famous spaces into a platform for voices that have shaped the city’s story. You might arrive for the music, the food, or even the fashion. But you’ll leave having been part of something bigger. London loudly and joyfully recognises the influence of its Black communities. Mark your calendar for September 6, come hungry for both culture and conversation. And, be ready to dance in the middle of Trafalgar Square.

Find out more here - https://www.london.gov.uk/events

LONDON SOUNDSCAPE

Crazy Coqs - August 22

Slip into the art deco glow at Crazy Coqs and let The Sugar Kings turn Piccadilly into pre-revolution Havana. A place where son montuno, cha-cha-chá, bolero, and mambo delivered with that warm, cigar-box timbre and trumpet sparkle built for close-up rooms like this one. Fronted by Cuban percussionist-vocalist Flavio Correa, the band channels Buena Vista spirit with urban bite, promising authentic grooves. It’s an intimate showcase tailor made for swaying tables and spontaneous coro, right in Brasserie Zédel’s jewel-box cabaret.

Book tickets here - https://www.brasseriezedel.com/crazy-coqs

Green Note - August 16

Streetlights kiss the rain-washed pavement outside Green Note. And inside Errol Linton turns a Brixton lifetime into sweet and low blues with a reggae undertow that makes the groove lean back. Three-time UK Blues Harmonica Player of the Year, and repping Britain in Memphis and Braga, Errol brings that honeyed harp, Chicago flavour, and London swagger to an 8.30pm slot that always sells fast. You can expect songs from recent albums and a band that swings with joyful grit.

Book tickets here - https://www.greennote.co.uk

Koko - August 24

Drums meet steel pans in Camden as Wyclef turns KOKO into a Notting Hill warm up you can actually get into. Karnivalé, is here for one night only and is billed as his first London headline in 15 years. Enjoy this victory lap that promises Fugees anthems, Carnival‑season heat, and that genre‑hopping showmanship only Wyclef pulls off. With the date landing squarely on Carnival weekend, this will be a sweat‑box celebration that blurs hip‑hop, kompa, and pop hooks into pure street‑party energy.

Book tickets here - https://www.koko.co.uk

Mu - August 16

Basslines bloom like warm winds over Dalston as Dele Sosimi brings his Quartet to MU, distilling decades of Afrobeat craft into a club-sized communion where groove leads and everything else follows. Dele’s ready to deliver elastic polyrhythms, call‑and‑response vamps, and that unmistakable Rhodes touch from Fela’s former rhythm keyboard player. The MU sessions have become a Dalston ritual that’s intimate, head‑nodding, and irresistibly danceable. Make sure you arrive early and let the interlocking drums, bass, guitar and keys elevate you.

Book tickets here - https://mu-ldn.com

Pizza Express Jazz Club - August 20

Velvet lamps, crisp martinis, and that Dean Street hush before the first brush on snare set the scene for Clare Teal’s Summer Party. It lands like a postcard from swing’s golden age with modern sparkle. Marking her 25th anniversary, Clare fronts a killer quintet with Jim Watson, Dave Archer, Simon Little, and Will Cleasby. They’ll be scatting through Ellington, Coward, and cheeky Great British Songbook detours with wit and smart phrasing. Soak up the chemistry, quickfire patter, and arrangements that make classics breathe like brand-new tunes.

Book tickets here - https://www.pizzaexpresslive.com

Ronnie Scott’s - August 20

Strings sweep, hi-hats kiss, and suddenly Soho smells like Philly vinyl. Natalie Williams’ Soul Family is throwing a three night Philadelphia Soul Summer Festival at Ronnie Scott’s, starting August 20. They’re ready to deliver satin-slick harmonies, Atlantic Horns, and a repertoire that threads classics with neo‑soul heirs. Think Jill Scott to Musiq, plus Jasmine Sullivan detours delivered by a 10‑piece residency honed over 16 years. Recent lineups have featured Vula, Brendan Reilly, Robin Mullarkey, and more.

Book tickets here - https://www.ronniescotts.co.uk

606 Club - August 17

Sunlight spills through Lots Road as Yuko Yokoi eases into a lilting bossa, her tone silk-soft but jazz-sure, shaped by conservatoire chops and years on London’s circuit. This Sunday Lunch set at the 606 leans towards Brazilian, Verde-era colours, airy improvisation, and that hush, then bloom dynamic the room was built for. Piano textures will cradle her unhurried phrasing that you can savour. This will be a warm, melodic afternoon with standards rethreaded with Brazilian sway, and a band tuned to conversation over volume.

Book tickets here - https://www.606club.co.uk

Soul Mama - August 24

When Nyboma steps onto the Soul Mama stage, you’re not just hearing Congolese rumba, you’re moving into its golden age, kept alive by a voice that still shimmers with warmth and authority. The legendary Zaïko Langa Langa alumnus brings his unmistakable tenor, those neon bright guitar lines, and the hypnotic, time bending swing that made him a star across Africa and beyond. With a full band in flight and call and response hooks pulling you into the action, this Congolese Rumba Royalty set launches Toleka’s new Icon Series. DJs will set the ndombolo pulse long before the first note. Make sure you come ready to dance, not just watch.

Book tickets here - https://www.soulmama.co.uk

The Jazz Cafe - August 19

Reflect back to 1975 and let the Mizell brothers’ strings and clavinet glide lift you up. Places and Spaces wasn’t just a Blue Note release, it became rare‑groove scripture, from Wind Parade to Dominoes. At The Jazz Cafe on Aug 19, a handpicked crew of top UK players performs the album front to back, with extra Donald Byrd gems folded in for good measure. Don’t miss the moment when Camden turns into a jazz‑funk time capsule.

Book tickets here - https://thejazzcafe.com

BUSINESS SCENE

Check In, Move In to Covent Garden’s Hotel Club

Follow the cranes into the Wellington Block and you step straight into a hospitality experiment that’s becoming a blueprint. The Other House is opening its next Residents Club in Covent Garden later this year. And you’re invited to experience a model that fuses apartment style living, hotel service, and private club culture, all under one roof. You’ll have 146 Club Flats and signature bedrooms wrapped around a five storey glazed atrium, with the Royal Opera House and piazza on your doorstep. It’s tailor made to capture extended stay demand without losing an ounce of West End glamour.

Here, you’re not treated like a guest, you’re a resident. It doesn’t matter if you check in for one night or a year, you get your own fully equipped Club Flat. You’ll receive hotel level service, and exclusive access to a private club. This hub has lounges designed for lingering, wellness spaces you’ll actually use and cultural programming you didn’t expect. In addition, The Peacock Lounge roof top has views worth lingering over. The Other House is a clever blur between an aparthotel, lifestyle hotel, and members’ club. It’s reminiscent of Soho House levels of polish, but with seamless, built‑in access for those already staying there.

From a business perspective, Covent Garden is a strategically smart play for The Other House, because it captures year round demand from leisure, corporate, and relocation markets. While at the same time offering a distinctive heritage meets luxury product in a postcode short on extended, long‑stay options. With rates from £350 per night, the model blends efficiencies with on‑site revenue from bars, wellness, and curated events, powered by bold design.

The Other House leans into bold design and destination drinking spots to drive non‑room spend, while a residents first membership builds long term loyalty. This is an attractive hedge against online travel agency commissions and seasonal dips in the theatre district. If this works, the brand’s highly replicable model can scale fast. Belgravia is already on the roadmap.

Crucially, the project comes with regeneration credentials. Seven historic buildings are being repurposed, showcasing sustainability in action. And, there’s low carbon concrete, timber certified by the Forest, and a 92.5% diversion of construction waste. All of this matters in a central London market that’s densifying and demanding greener footprints. If its South Kensington opening was the proof of concept, Covent Garden is the big stage. It seems The Other House is setting a new standard for a long stay in the city’s priciest postcodes. As a result, it has the potential to keep things less transient, more community focused, and deliberately hard to leave.

Find out more here - https://otherhouse.com/covent-garden

LINGUISTIC TAPESTRY - WORDS OF THE WEEK 

English Word:
Urbane
Pronunciation: /ɜːˈbeɪn/
Definition:  Having the polished, confident manners and refined style of someone accustomed to sophisticated social and cultural life.
Cultural Note: Over centuries, Urbane evolved into a shorthand for cosmopolitan charm, often used to evoke a person who moves effortlessly through high society, art openings, and complex negotiations alike.

Congolese (Lingala) Word:
Bomoyi
Pronunciation: /boh-MOH‑yee/
Definition:  Life, the state of being alive, encompassing both physical existence and the vitality of spirit.
Cultural Note: Bomoyi goes beyond its literal meaning to express a deep reverence for life as a shared journey. It appears frequently in Congolese rumba and soukous lyrics. Often as a metaphor for resilience, joy, or the struggles that define the human experience.

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