Meow Meow: It’s Come to This has all the elements of a cabaret, including a pianist and a woman with a vocal range we all wish we had when singing ‘My Heart Will Go On’ at karaoke night.

Yet its unconventional nature goes against the norm.

This was my first cabaret show and I was uncertain about what I was getting into, but it is where theatre, music, and comedy all meet.

While the 1930s inspired Meow Meow, the years between the two World Wars were a time of change and political movement.

If you want a place to laugh off the traumas of politics, while attempting to put the world right with a sprinkle of laughs and shock faces, this show is for you.

This show does not have a fourth wall, the invisible divide separating the audience from the actors.

Instead, Meow Meow engages with the audience, making them get involved.

From crowd surfing to stealing your bags and coats, you’re taken on an adventure. 

Anyone who was a theatre kid will tech and dress rehearsal, where they had to change and experiment with lighting and sound for hours, or their dress would get in the way of dancing.

This show is like that, with all the comedic ‘oops’ moments from a rehearsal in the real thing.

You’ll be laughing out of your seat, with Meow Meow breaking character, snapping at the audience and shouting “nein” or anything in German at you.

Anyone attending had better start practising, as they will be part of the show.

You may also be worndering what do a lazy Susan, rubber clothes and a chandelier all have in common?

While you might find the first two in your house, all three can be seen on the stage at the Soho Theatre, which adds to the show’s comedic value and fun.

As for the star of the show herself, you cannot hide from her in the darkness of the audience, as she will come and find you.

As she puts it, the whole theatre is her playhouse.

At the heart of It’s Come to This is music.

With an impressive vocal range, Meow Meow is breathtaking while singing not just in English but also French and German, which is probably the only time I wish I had paid more attention in language class.

Do not worry, however, as she explains the songs for you so you can also use your imagination.

She said previously that she brought her chandelier, and she is a one-woman show.

She pushes the grand piano on stage, makes her props, and even cleans up after herself – what excellent manners she has.

She can truly do it all: Sing, dance, act, be funny and scary, except play the piano.

You will be belly-laughing all the way home and simultaneously questioning the global political landscape. 

Meow Meow: It’s Come To This runs until 26 May and tickets are available via the Soho Theatre online booking page.

Feature image: Karl Giant

The post The unconventional cabaret show which tries to set the world right appeared first on South West Londoner.

There is a 30-fold difference in smoking cessation spending across London boroughs, according to new NHS England data.

The latest figures from the Clinical Outcomes and Indicators show Westminster, in the period of April to December of 2024, invested (excluding stop smoking aids) £8,196 per quitter while Brent allocated just £273.

This massive spending gap isn’t simply about money, however, but rather about access, and the fundamental right to health interventions. 

Paul Baker is global CEO of Allen Carr’s Easyway, a drug-free, clinically proven, award-winning method to freedom from addiction, which has been integrated into smoking cessation programmes across London, including in Southwark, Lambeth, Kingston, Sutton and Redbridge.

He said: “In of quitting successfully, with our method, it works for everybody, no matter how long you’ve been smoking or your background or your education levels or ethnicity, it doesn’t matter.

“So, it looks like the same success rate on every single one.

“So that’s the good news, there is a method out there that’s drug-free that helps everybody.

“But in of what we’re seeing now, you are seeing higher smoking prevalence in certain deprived areas and things like that.”

The numbers demonstrate a teenager in Brent faces significantly greater odds of breaking free from nicotine addiction compared to their counterpart in Westminster.

This is a difference which is measured in potential life span, reduced healthcare costs, and personal opportunity, as well as pounds.

Yet Westminster, as a relatively afluent borough, has a particulalry high spend, albeit for several reasons.

It has far fewer permanent residents than most outer London boroughs, and uniquely large daily influx of workers and tourists, meaning fewer total quitters or referrals despite high program costs.

According to the City of Westminster‘s figures, the borough is home to around 211,500 people, with 22% not having lived at the same address the year before, and 43% of households in the borough being private rentals. 

However, the inequality displayed by the cost per smoker becomes even more stark when considering the borough’s respective total spends.

Westminster totalled £5,023,987 (excluding stop smoking aids) between April and December of 2024 alone, while Brent spent a mere £4,643.

This £5,023,987 is nine times larger than the next highest spender, Camden, despite the northern borough having almost twice the number of people initially referred compared to its central counterpart.

In spite of its incredibly high total spend, Westminster also only recorded 613 successful quitters, while Tower Hamlets recorded almost double, with 1,178.

This high spend could be, in part, due to the introduction of the Healthy Communities Fund, a £5million programme which aims to reduce the borough’s health inequality gap. 

However, this funding is spread across 42 community organisations, allowing them to run free community-led activities including fitness classes for teenage girls, health education sessions and social sessions for isolated residents, and does not for the £5,023,987 spent, according to NHS data, on smoking cessation services alone.

Westminster Council and d smoking cessation programme Smokeless were approached for comment.

But beyond Westminster’s high spend, authorities such as Brent seem to fail to spend anywhere near their full allocation, with the borough spending only 1.4% of its £321,133 allocation.

Of the 31 London boroughs with available data, around a fifth spent under 50% of their allocation, while nationwide, 23 local authorities also spent under 50%, increasing to 71 when considering a spend of under 75%.  

There are several reasons local authorities may be falling short on smoking cessation spending though, the most obvious being low rates of subscription to programmes.

Baker said: “When we speak to the councils and start to work with them, they say ‘You’re never going to fill the places, we want you to target the deprived areas and the manual workers’, and we go ‘We will’.

“In Kent, for example, they’re blown away by how many people we’re getting through the door and its because were able to reach those people, which you say you aren’t able to reach?

“All we’re doing is speaking to them and saying ‘Here’s a method you haven’t tried before maybe, give it a go’.”

Baker also questioned the validity of the number of successful quitters due to the time frame within which the NHS collects this data rather than the low proportion of those who were carbon monoxide verified.

He said: “The success rate that’s being talked about is a crazy success rate because it’s based on four weeks.

“Except, if you read the details, it’s about people who haven’t smoked in the last two weeks. 

“That’s how it is for NRT (nicotine replacement therapy), etc, but for us, people attend and then we wait four weeks and speak to them.

“Four weeks is too short, so what we do is we follow people all the way through, checking in at four weeks, 12 weeks, six months and a year, so that we can actually see the results.

“That’s what they should be doing, they need to do it long term, because a lot of people at weeks on NRT or vaping will have drifted back to smoking, and it just doesn’t work, so its too short a time frame.

“That’s my opinion but I know its also the opinion of a lot of people in the NHS as well, but it’s just the metric that they use.”

Finn Stephenson, 23, recently quit smoking after reading Allen Carr’s The Easy Way to Stop Smoking, which he regards as a lifesaver.

However, he had not considered any NHS services to help him stop.

Stephenson said: “No, it never really occurred to me.

“I think the NHS could do a lot more to their stop smoking services, everyone that I know who’s recently quit has either read Allen Carr’s book or has tried on their own.”

In spite of the struggle of many local authorities to reach their allocations and Baker’s scepticism about the success rates validity, the UK government announced at the end of 2024 it would be investing an additional £70million in 2025 to 2026 to local authority stop smoking services.

This comes in tandem with the introduction of The Tobacco and Vapes Bill, set to come into force on 1 January 2027, which will see an increase the legal age of using tobacco by one year every year, making anyone born on or after 1 January 2009 unable to legally buy tobacco or have it bought by others on their behalf.

This follows the New Zealand government’s attempt to implement a similar scheme, which, following a change in istration, was repealed due to economic concerns, autonomy, and the potential for illicit tobacco trade, according to Science Direct.

The bill will also provide powers to ban smoking in certain outdoor areas, with children’s playgrounds, outside schools and hospitals all being considered.

It will also ban the advertising and sponsorship of vapes and nicotine products, and allow ministers to regulate the flavours, display, and packaging of vapes so they are less appealing to children.

This comes after a survey by charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) found that in March-April 2023, the proportion of children experimenting with vaping had grown by 50% year on year, from one in 13 to one in nine.

Anyone struggling to quit smoking can be referred by their GP, pharmacist or health visitor, or can phone their local stop smoking service to make an appointment with an adviser.

They can also call the free Smokefree National Helpline on 0300 123 1044.

Feature image: Free to use from Unsplash

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Ollie* ed the day he sold a copy of the Big Issue for £550.

While selling the magazine on the streets of Westminster, a young man approached him with 11 £50 notes.

Ollie was initially sceptical and declined at first.

He said: “Normally when people give you money on the street, they want sex or drugs or both.”

But the young man’s mother insisted he take the money and Ollie used it to stay in a hotel for a few days.

Ollie suspects that stories like these are one of the reasons Westminster has established itself as the hub for rough sleeping in London.

He said: “People fall into a trap when they come to Westminster. They think the streets are paved with gold.”

According to a decade of reports by the organisation CHAIN, Westminster is the London borough with the highest rate of rough sleeping, making up 18% of London’s total population in 2023-2024.

Between January and March 2025, 1001 rough sleepers were sighted in Westminster.

The second highest borough was the neighbouring Camden with 339 sightings.

The many reasons behind this phenomenon are complicated, but some are well-linked.

Firstly, London is widely considered a place of opportunity, and Westminster is at its centre.

The borough contains four big railway stations, Charing Cross, Marylebone, Paddington, and Victoria, making it easily accessible to those beyond London.

Between 2023 and 2024, only 37% of Westminster’s rough sleepers were from the UK, 9% below the London average.

Jenny Travassos is the director of housing and services at the age homeless shelter and was head of homelessness for Westminster council from 2014-2020.

She stated that people outside the UK, citing Romania as an example, often seek work in Westminster to provide money for their families back home.

She said: “For someone to come over here and rough sleep for six months’ work, that’s more than a couple of years’ wages in Romania.”

The number of Romanians seen rough sleeping in Westminster was 371, more than one in three of the Londonwide population.

Along with work opportunities, Westminster also provides a relative amount of security, as the borough has abundant services ing rough sleepers, which offer food and temporary shelter.

Sandwich and soup runs, which are not attached to those services, also enable rough sleepers to sustain a life on the streets.

These securities, of course, do not offer complete safety to those rough sleeping.

David*, now 40, first rough-slept when he was 19.

He grew up in Westminster and knew the places he could sleep in relative safety.

He would never sleep on the Strand because the active nightlife there could lead to drunken aggression.

He said: “People would be kicked, people’s bags would be taken from them down the street.”

David also expressed his anxieties about trusting other rough sleepers.

He said, “You never fully sleep properly. You don’t wake up rested.”

Homelessness is organised locally within London and the UK, meaning boroughs are responsible for finding housing for rough sleepers in that area.

The system for finding housing is incredibly complex and requires rough sleepers to establish a local connection with that borough.

One way to establish a local connection is living in the area for six out of the last 12 months or three out of the last five years.

People can attain this local connection by proving they have been rough sleeping in the area for six months.

Along with the local connection, they need to fulfil further criteria to be considered for long-term accommodation.

Ollie had been rough sleeping in Westminster for two years before he could get housed by the council.

At one point he tried to argue for a local connection after being in a Westminster hospital for six months but this was rejected.

For various reasons, many rough sleepers do not want to return to the places they departed.

With the measures provided in Westminster, many are willing to face six months of rough sleeping to attain the sought-after local connection.

On top of this, the data shows a steep decrease in the provision of long-term accommodation yearly. 

One of the reasons for this may be the nationwide housing crisis, which is particularly affecting Westminster.

As there is little land to develop new housing, Westminster’s delivery target of 985 new homes each year is less than 2% of the London-wide target.

Travassos wants the public to know the best thing you can give a rough sleeper is information about the services in your borough.

Travassos, who has experienced rough sleeping herself, said: “As a professional, I would never give money or food – we provide free food.

“Donate time, donate expertise.”

As for Ollie and David,  they want to break all the misconceptions associated with homelessness.

David said: “The person reading this report doesn’t realise how close to homelessness they could be with only a couple of things going wrong in their life.

“There are a lot of good people who have made good decisions, but life has gone wrong and they have ended up homeless.

“None of us is that far away from ing the people that we look down on.”

*Pseudonyms have been used.

Feature image: Unsplash

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Young adults feel less safe walking in London’s busiest borough compared to older walkers, a survey conducted on Westminster pedestrians has shown.

On average, pedestrians under 30 rated their walking safety at three out of five, whereas those over 30 averaged at four out of five.

Moreover, 14 participants under 30, around half the participants in that age group, had experienced a negative incident on the street in the last year, compared to only two participants over 30.

One participant, 23, said: “I just feel very conscious and vulnerable in Westminster, I can’t relax when I’m walking.”

Another participant, 22, said: “I’ve been approached aggressively so many times for money and sexually harassed.

“It makes me want to avoid walking, especially by myself.”

Incidents included personal attacks like muggings, sexual harassment, groping and verbal assault.

One participant, 21, said: “A man grabbed me by the ankle while I was standing on the street. It was a terrifying experience.”

However, incidents involving road traffic, most commonly e-bikes and cars, were also rife, as pedestrians felt that narrow pavements and overcrowding left them vulnerable to irresponsible drivers.

This issue of pedestrian safety around traffic is highlighted by Transport for London’s data.

Westminster had the highest pedestrian casualty count from road collisions of all London boroughs every year from 2017 to 2023, TFL reported in their latest data annex.

Despite declining by 30% from 2017 to 2023, Westminster’s total casualty count has been 40% higher on average each year than the borough with the second highest casualty.

The only exception to this was during the Covid-19 pandemic, when there was only a 6% difference between Westminster and Croydon.

The number of pedestrian casualties has also steadily risen after the sharp drop seen during the pandemic, with an average casualty increase of 17% each year in total pedestrian casualties.

The public response 3b6s4g

When surveyed, pedestrians’ most common suggestions to improve the walking experience were to reduce the presence of electric bikes and create wider pavements to increase capacity.

The most common solutions pedestrians wanted differed according to age.

A third of participants under 30 suggested the implementation of wider pavements.

Other repeated answers included reducing phone snatching and a higher police presence on streets.

Pedestrians over 30, however, only had one recurring suggestion, 50% were in favour of having fewer electric bikes in Westminster.

The movement to pedestrianise the Strand 5c4y6d

One group of young adults seeking to increase pedestrian safety in Westminster are the students of King’s College London.

A campaign began after Aalia Mahomed, a 20 year old King’s student, died on 18 March when a van crashed into a pedestrianised area on King’s Strand campus.

In response, student Tim Borgeaud started a petition, now at around 3,500 signatures, to fully pedestrianise the Strand and ensure pedestrian safety in the area.

This campaign aims to block car access to the area around St Mary-Le-Strand Church, replacing the opening bollards with fixed ones.

Currently, ed vehicles can access the Strand using the opening bollards.

KCL Student Union is ing the campaign, and Borgeaud aims to go further than the university and collect from campus neighbours like Somerset House and India House, before approaching Westminster Council.

They plan to meet with the University in June to present their findings and get the Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Shitij Kapur to write a letter of so they can engage with external stakeholders.

Borgeaud said: “It would mean peace of mind for students, staff and everyone.

“It comes back to the importance of walkability and the importance of reclaiming our public spaces, for individuals rather than cars.”

The Strand area was partially pedestrianised in a 2022 project to improve traffic flow and create a more attractive public space.

However, Borgeaud argues that the town-square design and seating creates a false sense of security, as pedestrians forget that vehicles can access the area.

One person commented on the petition: “We need to prioritize student safety, protect the peers, and ensure that walkways and crossings are secure for everyone on campus.

“No one should feel unsafe just walking to class.”

Action from Westminster Council 2zq

The council introduced the ongoing Westminster Walking Strategy in 2017 with the aim to make Westminster the London borough with the highest resident walking level by 2027.

They hope that 92% of trips are made on foot by this time.

The council introduced this initiative to accommodate the growing amount of pedestrians in Westminster, as a 30% rise in visitors and 17,000 additional residents was predicted by 2027.

The strategy’s main aims included ensuring safety and accessibility for pedestrians and creating capacity for the increasing pedestrian demand by the end of the strategy.

Specific aims included allocating highway space to give pedestrians more room and identify streets with the highest collision rates to reduce pedestrian casualties.

Survey participants stated that if the council wanted to increase walking, the borough needed to prioritise pedestrians on the street and their feeling of safety.

The Strand campaign reiterated this, as Borgeaud said: “If you have better walkability, it’s a better environment, cars are not really that conducive for a modern city.

“It’s a question of what we want our spaces to be.” 

Westminster Council were approached for comment.

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All bar one of London’s constituencies have ed an increase in the percentage of children living in absolute low-income families compared to three years ago. 

Only the Cities of London and Westminster constituency showed a decrease – a meagre 0.4% – between 2022 and 2024, with every other London area on the rise, according to the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP). 

The average change in this period saw an increase of almost 3.5% across London of children – defined as under-16-year-olds – living in absolute low-income families, with Ilford South, East Ham, Bethnal Green and Stepney, Croydon West surging by more than 6%. 

CEO of Child Poverty Action Group (AG) Alison Garnham said: “That isn’t what people want for the country’s kids and it’s a long way off Government’s vision of better opportunities and living standards for all.  

“London should be a great place to grow up but there are children in poverty all over the capital.”

To see the percentage in your constituency, search on the graph below:

What does this mean? What are absolute low-income families? 25s6b

The DWP states that those in absolute low income are defined as having their net equivalised income below 60% of the median income of the Financial Year End 2011.

This is then adjusted for inflation, according to the DWP website. 

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) equivalised income as a methodology that adjusts household income to for the different financial requirements of different types of household.  

Some key indicators are the size and makeup of the household, as living costs for adults are normally higher than for children, and larger households tend to require additional benefits. 

Further stipulations are also required to qualify for absolute low-income family status.  

The DWP also states: “A family must have claimed Child Benefit and at least one other household benefit (Universal Credit, tax credits, or Housing Benefit) at any point in the year to be classed as low income in these statistics.” 

The London Story 1l1z5n

This average London increase between 2022 and 2024 of nearly 3.5% more children living in absolute low-income families translates to nearly 60,000 in the capital.

The picture for London is mixed, recording some of the highest and lowest figures in the UK. 

Richmond Park, south west London, had the lowest percentage in the whole of the UK, ing 4.3% in 2024, itself the highest the constituency has seen in the previous decade.  

In the same year, the London constituency with the highest proportion of children living in absolute low-income families was Bethnal Green & Stepney, with nearly 30%.

This figure is more than five percent higher than any other area in the capital, and places it in the top ten percent of all constituencies across the UK. 

Aina Omo-Bare, Founder of Idia’s Community Kitchen, located in Tower Hamlets – the same borough as Bethnal Green and Stepney – says the situation in London is only getting worse.

She said: “I have been exposed to a lot, and I’m not going to shut my eyes to it. I know what hunger is like, because I have seen people who have gone without.

“I’m a mother, I’m human, I’ve got brothers, sister, children, nieces and nephews, and these other people are my family too.

“I would hate to see the youth of today, who are the leaders of tomorrow be destroyed by our society. So if all of us can put in our little bit, I’m sure we can make the world a better place.”

Her organisation, whose initial aim was to provide the underprivileged with hot meals, has evolved into a broader project, creating a safe place where people can come down for conversations, spend time, and get whatever help they need.

In recent years, they have focused on looking after children after they finish school in the afternoons, giving them snacks and preventing them from being exposed to young adults who are into drugs and alcohol, according to Omo-Bare.

The three constituencies which followed Bethnal Green and Stepney in the rankings were also situated in North or North East London: East Ham (24.1%), Holborn and St Pancras (23.7%), West Ham and Beckton (23.0%). 

The national context: how does London compare to elsewhere in the UK? 565v1z

London’s average increase (around 3.5%) rests just below the UK average trend in those three years (3.9%), which saw over 500,000 more children reach the threshold for living in absolute low-income families nationwide.

This meant that London ed for over one in ten children in absolute low-income families across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. 

As shown in the graph above, only two out of the 12 regions of the UK have a lower number of children in low–income absolute poverty families than a decade ago: Scotland with over 12,000 less, and 17,000 less in Northern Ireland – the latter a drop in 5%. 

However, in 2024, both of these areas ed an increase from three years previously in 2022, with Scotland increasing by over 5,000, and Northern Ireland by over 20,000.

Yorkshire and the Humber region recorded the highest percentage in 2024 with 26.6%, with the West Midlands in second with 25.5%, meaning over one quarter of children in these areas lived in absolute low-income families last year. 

This compared to London’s overall average of 15.1% in 2024. 

It is worth noting that only one of London’s constituencies – Bethnal Green and Stepney – recorded a higher percentage than the average of both Yorkshire and the Humber and the West Midlands.

What are some of the causes? What can be done?  6i1o43

Two-child benefit limits affecting low-income families 4l4v4i

Garnham believes that the biggest driver of rising child poverty is the two-child benefits limit forcing families – most of them working – to live on less than they need, meaning children go hungry and are cut off from opportunities like afterschool club and school trips. 

Announced in 2017, under the two-child benefit limit, families claiming universal benefit could not claim an additional amount for their third child and beyond. 

Those who were claiming benefits for more than two children before 6 April 2017, were still eligible to continue their original amount. 

Alison Garnham said: “The Government must scrap the two-child limit and step back from cuts to disability benefits.  

“Anything less and we’ll have more children going hungry and a government whose legacy will be more child poverty at the end of its first term than when it took office.” 

In a Parliament debate on the two-child benefit cap on 17 March, Alison McGovern, Minister for Employment the department’s commitment to bringing children out of poverty. 

She said: “All children matter. We are taking of a considerable range of different policy options, carefully working through the impact that they would have, but all the children in this country matter.

“As soon as the Secretary of State and I were appointed, we got to work to establish our child poverty taskforce, as promised in Labour’s manifesto, and those efforts are ongoing.” 

Housing reform 1n3q

Mairi MacRae, Director of Campaigns and Policy at Shelter, believes the plight of children in low-income families is intertwined with the housing crisis, and the effects are already taking their toll on London communities. 

Observing the damage it has caused in her experience with the charity, she argues the effects experienced by absolute low-income families are most visible in the poor – and often absent – standards of housing. 

She added: “Every day we hear from desperate families who are crammed into grim one-room B&Bs and hostels, often plagued by damp and mould.  

“Children are living with no space to do homework or play, having to share beds and are at risk of them and their families being moved miles away from schools and networks at a moment’s notice.” 

MacRae also blames the rise in absolute low-income families on a lack of government planning, and a lack of affordable homes for those who are struggling to cope financially. 

She said: “Only by building safe, secure, and genuinely affordable social homes will families have the foundation they need to thrive.”    

Published on 26 March, a day before the release of the DWP’s child poverty statistics, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves delivered the Spring Statement outlining areas for growth and possible changes to the budget in the previous autumn. 

The Spending Review will take place on 11 June, setting out plans for key public sector reforms. 

A government statement read: “This will not be a business-as-usual Spending Review. 

“The government has fundamentally reformed the process to make it zero-based, collaborative, and data-led, in order to ensure a laser-like focus on the biggest opportunities to rewire the state and deliver the Plan for Change. 

“At the Spending Review, the Budget in the autumn and across the Parliament, the government will continue to prioritise growing the economy to deliver change.” 

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The Blue Note Jazz franchise will open its first UK venue in Covent Garden next year following a public appeal for later opening hours. 

The venue, which will contain two performance spaces with capacities for 250 and 100 people respectively, will remain open until 1am six days a week, and until midnight on Sundays. 

The venue was originally granted more restrictive licensing hours, sparking a petition and widespread across the jazz world, and leading to Blue Note appealing against Westminster Council’s decision.

Blue Note Entertainment Group president Steve Bensusan said: “We’re excited to be coming to London and grateful to Westminster Council for recognising what Blue Note can bring to the city’s nightlife. 

“As we prepare to open in early 2026, we’re looking forward to bringing world-class jazz and a deep cultural legacy to one of the greatest music cities in the world.”

Many musicians and venue owners criticised Westminster Council’s original ruling as being detrimental to the UK’s dwindling grassroots scene. 

A report commissioned by the House of Commons last year found grassroots venues were closing at a rate of around two per week. 

The Music Venue Trust’s venue team manager Sophie Asquith said: “Music Venue Trust is delighted to learn that Blue Note has been granted a licence with the hours needed to enable its world-famous jazz operation to flourish in central London.

“Their plans and commitment have been thorough and conscientious throughout, and so we were very pleased to speak in of the application at their recent hearing.

“The charity wishes them every success in their vision, bringing the very best in global and local grassroots jazz talent to their latest home in London.”

Jazz venues tend to prefer later operating hours as it allows performers to appear multiple times in the course of an evening, and generate a greater income.

Historically, it also provided an opportunity for rookie musicians to perform after the main acts have finished, which many veterans view as a rite of age.

Musician and booker Leo Green, 52, said: “If you want to end up with the kind of artists who have the ability to fill rooms like the O2, the Albert Hall or the Palladium, you have to come through the small venues.”

A spokesperson for Westminster Council said every licensing decision is carefully considered, and the council must keep in mind the needs of their residents as well as businesses. 

They added: “In this case it was clear that venue management have engaged extensively with local people to improve their application and address the concerns that were raised by the police.”

The Metropolitan Police had launched an objection to Blue Note’s original application on the basis audience leaving the venue late at night would lead to an uptick in crime and antisocial behaviour.

Despite it being relatively common for the police to make such objections against licensing applications, their reasoning drew widespread ire.

Jazz musician Ray Gelato, 63, said: “I’ve been in this business over 40 years, and I’ve never seen an ounce of trouble ever. 

“Music gets people away from that.”

Westminster Council announced their decision to approve the new premises licence application on 1 May, and included in their statement their After Dark Strategy, which sets out a roap for improving the city’s nighttime environment. 

Council cabinet member for planning and economic development Geoff Barraclough said: “This is exactly the kind of venue we want to see more of in Westminster and which is encouraged in our After Dark strategy as part of a more varied evening and night-time offer across the city. 

“As a jazz lover myself, I can’t wait to visit.”

Blue Note Jazz operates ten renowned venues across the world, including in New York, Milan, Shanghai, and São Paulo.

The London venue is due to open its doors in early 2026, with further details to be announced later this year. 

Picture credit: Dervon Dixon

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The Meow Meow: It’s Come To This cabaret show is set to dazzle the Soho Theatre between 6 and 24 May.

The show marks titular artist Meow Meow’s return to the London cabaret scene for the first time since before the Covid-19 pandemic, and she will climb over people and give them much love in an intimate environment.

Each night of a cabaret is different, but at the core of each performance lies its connection with the audience.

Meow Meow said, “It’s a wide and varied definition of what.

“I guess it’s a flowing connection with the audience, usually without a fourth wall.

“And it’s several – it’s got immense emotional impact because each song is a lifetime of stories. 

“The essential thing is that you can get maximum emotional impact because you’re doing each song in its world and journey. 

“And so you don’t need to stay within one world – that is a cabaret for me, and there’s an element of deep truth.”

This show uses comedy and music to explore current events, with Meow Meow taking her audience on ride of emotional extremes and ridiculous comedy.

Ultimately, the show is about her dealing with where we are now.

She said: “It’s you and me in a room together; what are we going to do about the world?”

This is an immersive experience and she describes the entire room as her play space, and as with all cabaret, the true essence is storytelling with music.

Cabaret began in the late 1800s in as a form of political and artistic expression in bars, then extended across Europe to Vienna and Berlin in the 1920s to become a mix of political music with comedy and satire.

Meow Meow said: “It’s a mash-up, and cabaret is not defined as one thing.

“It allows diversity, which is what audiences need to see.”

The actress connects her show to history, to understand human nature and what people have constructed.

Meow Meow said: “I need that hunger for stimulation. 

“So I’ve always gotten on the aeroplane or walked, carrying all my stuff, including a chandelier and a smoke machine.

“I will go to the interesting places.”

Ultimately, in cabaret, anything goes while it can be terrifying and liberating at the same time.

Meow Meow said: “Don’t think we often change the world by just screaming at people. 

“I think often it comes through laughter and reflection and little moments of poignancy within music and tenderness.

“I want intense tenderness as well; I think it’s about reflecting as many, and part of me being so heightened on and off stage is about providing a huge space for imagination and fantasy.”

Her cabaret is a contract with the audience: You write the rules or you break the rules, but let’s just go and see where we end up.

When asked why people should come, Meow Meow simply said: “They would be mad not to; everyone is welcome.”

To book your tickets for Meow Meow: It’s Come To This, visit the Soho Theatre online booking page.

Picture credit: Karl Giant

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The St George’s Day Festival is returning to Trafalgar Square on Monday as London prepares to mark England’s national day.

The festival will take place in the heart of the capital from 12-6pm and features an exciting array of traditional music, dance and workshops, with free entrance for the public.

Singer-songwriter Harleymoon Kemp, daughter of iconic musician Martin Kemp, is set to perform and host the event again after doing so in 2024.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said “I’m delighted that our St George’s Day celebrations return to Trafalgar Square this month.

“Londoners and visitors can enjoy an afternoon of free, family friendly entertainment in the heart of our capital. 

“It’s an event that brings our communities together and showcases all that’s brilliant about England, as we build a better London for everyone.”

St George’s Day commemorates England’s patron saint and is observed annually on 23 April, the anniversary of his death in 303 AD.

According to legend, St George slew a dragon which was terrorising an English village and rescued a princess from the beast’s clutches.

This festival’s main stage lineup boasts a variety of acts including The Nigel Grice Jazz Collective, the English Folk Dance and Song Society, south London-based dance company Bird and Gang, spoken word artist Palacio de Poetas, musical theatre group West End Kids, and harmony group Vocal Shack.

There will be some famous Pearly Kings and Queens in attendance, a relic of working-class culture in London, and a traditional morris dancing performance from the iconic Belles of London City group.

Morris dancing is an English folk dance, believed to have originated in the Medieval times, and is renowned for its rhythmic stepping, choreographed figures and the use of props such as sticks, bells and handkerchiefs.

The Belles of London City said: “We are delighted to be dancing at Monday’s celebration.

“London is a gloriously diverse city, and England’s cultural heritage is a great part of that.

“For hundreds of years, morris dancing has been taken up by the ordinary people of England as a community-focused celebration, even when it wasn’t welcomed by the establishment.

“Today we are lucky to be part of a thriving morris and folk scene happening around the country, so if you like what you see on Monday, come and ask us how you can get involved.”

There will also be a designated family zone at the event hosting a range of activities for younger attendees, including Easter Bonnet-making, The Silly Olympic Games, Hobby Horse Dressage and jousting.

Kemp said: “I can’t wait to be back this year, hosting and performing for London’s St George’s Day celebrations.

“I’m looking forward to a full day of entertainment, great food and fun for all.”

Feature image credit: Upslash

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More than 700 runners will be running in this year’s London Marathon on behalf of Pancreatic Cancer UK (PCUK), the marathon’s Charity of the Year partner, to raise awareness and funding for early detection research.

PCUK hopes to raise more than £2million in donations and increase awareness of the impact and symptoms of the disease, as more than half of those diagnosed with the condition die within three months. 

Katherine Free, 39, Research Communications Manager at PCUK, expressed her excitement about the partnership and explained how it should bring much needed attention to this type of cancer.

She said: “It could be one of the most important days ever for pancreatic cancer.

“Pancreatic cancer has been overlooked for such a long time and we really need to bring it to the forefront.

“We’re really lucky to have this opportunity at the London Marathon this year.”

Prior to the marathon on April 27, PCUK set up the Shoes for Hope display by Tower Bridge, the halfway point of the 26.2 mile course, which featured 797 pairs of trainers to represent the number of people in the UK who die from pancreatic cancer every month.

Each pair was provided by someone who lost a loved one to the disease and featured a note describing who the shoes were dedicated to.

The donors included marathon participants such as Emmerdale’s Tony Audenshaw, a 14-time London Marathon runner who lost his wife Ruth in 2017.

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For many of those involved, it was an emotional and powerful experience.

Rebecca Cox, 32, donated her first running shoes to honour her father who died from pancreatic cancer in November 2022.

“Seeing all the dedications there really makes it real.

“These are brothers, sisters, mothers, dads – real life people who have been impacted by it.

“Seeing that as such a powerful visual representation was heartbreaking and so powerful.”

The London Marathon will be Cox’s 100th ever run. 

She said: “I’ve gone from absolutely nothing to running a marathon in 100 runs.”

She took up running in August 2024 after winning a bid for the PCUK team.

Similar to others, Cox described her father’s initial cancer diagnosis, which occurred after he experienced stomach pain, as coming out of the blue because he was really healthy and fit. 

The cancer progressed quickly and Cox’s father died a month plus one day after his diagnosis.

Elaine McConkey, 51, another first-time runner who donated shoes to the display, shared a similar story about her husband who died within seven weeks of his diagnosis in 2023.

She said: “Seven weeks is not enough time to even wrap your head around a diagnosis, let alone try to do anything.”

McConkey’s husband, Jack, ran marathons in high school and college, and would tell her that she was built for distance running, despite her never being a runner.

She started running last spring, and will be participating in Jack’s honour.

She said: “It will prove to me that I can do it.

“I think there will be a lot of catharsis at the end.

“I hope that my husband would be happy with whatever time I run it in – I know that he would.

“It doesn’t matter if I come one minute under the cut off, he’d still be proud of me.”

Both Cox and McConkey hope their runs will bring much needed awareness to pancreatic cancer, which is the deadliest common cancer, and its common symptoms such as weight loss, indigestion, back and stomach pain.

As such, pancreatic cancer is often diagnosed in late stages, contributing to the short time frame between diagnosis and death, with Free citing a er who lost her father less than a week after his diagnosis.

PCUK is using the marathon sponsorship money to fund research for their early-detection breath test, which could help GPs to identify whether someone with one of these common symptoms has cancer or something less serious.

This would help people with pancreatic cancer get diagnostic scans earlier and improve their chances of survival.

McConkey said: “That’s all people want is a bit more time to try to treat it or deal with it mentally, and get things in order.” 

The PCUK research team, which includes three runners in the marathon, hope to have the test available within five years.

They are also currently campaigning for a £35million government investment in pancreatic cancer over the next 30 years.

Free said: “Because we can do only so much, we really need to work with governments as well to make this test a reality.”

In the meantime, they have cultivated a ive environment and excited community of runners.

McConkey said: “Being around other people who have dealt with it helps in some way.” 

Cox, who has now developed a love for running, said: “It’s an incredible thing that we are all part of, but it is part of a club that no one really wants to be a part of.

“No one really wants to be here because ultimately we have lost really close loved ones.

“But out of it we are trying to do something really positive.”

Free added: “This is the biggest team we ever had, and it’s just going to be amazing. So much purple, so much cheering on the day.

“It’s going to be incredible.”

Featured Image: Pancreatic Cancer UK’s Shoes for Hope display featured almost 800 pairs of trainers. Photo credit: PinPep

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London’s jazz scene has responded with dismay to Westminster Council’s denial of a late-hours operating license for a club in Soho. 

The Blue Note Jazz franchise, which operates ten renowned venues across the world, applied to Westminster Council for a premises license to operate their venue underneath the Covent Garden Hotel until 1am seven days a week.

However, they were only granted a license to operate until Midnight on Fridays and Saturdays, 11.30pm Mondays-Thursdays, and 10.30pm on Sundays, following pushback from the police and residents.

David West, who started a petition to appeal the council’s ruling, said: “I always wondered why London doesn’t have a Blue Note, and now I know why.”

In order to secure a premises license, the applicant must address four statutory objectives, under the Licensing Act 2003, including the prevention of crime and disorder, public safety, and protection from public nuisance.

Many of the objections from residents and the police force at the council meeting in February sought to cast doubt on Blue Note’s capacity to address these objectives. 

One anonymous objector questioned “whether the sale of alcohol is ancillary to live music or indeed the music is ancillary to the alcohol.”

The Metropolitan Police’s objection predicted the Soho venue’s later operating hours would lead to an uptick in crime.

A spokesperson for the Met clarified it is not unusual for the force to raise objections against applications for late-hours operating licenses on the basis of increased crime. However, it is not a blanket policy by the force. 

Veterans of London’s jazz scene reacted with ire to the suggestion that a jazz club would cause a localised increase in crime. 

Jazz musician Ray Gelato, 63, said: “They think it’s some kind of den of debauchery and drugs.

“Well, I’m sorry, but that side of it died out in the ’30s or ’40s.”

Fellow musician and booker Leo Green, 52, said: “When I read the report about how people were worried about people leaving the premises and being rowdy – they’ve obviously never been to a jazz club. 

“If you go to Ronnie Scott’s, for example, and you’re watching someone, if you start talking, you’re told to be quiet. 

“People aren’t getting drunk – it’s not that sort of environment.”

Jazz venues prefer later openings as it allows performers – particularly those who have travelled from abroad – to perform multiple sets per evening, so that they can sustain their livelihood.

Historically, it has also allowed for rookie musicians the opportunity to perform after the main band has finished. 

Green said: “if you want to end up with the kind of artists who have the ability to fill rooms like the O2 or the Albert Hall or the Palladium, you have to come through the small venues.”

Both Green and Gelato questioned the agency of the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, who famously stated that he wished to see London become a 24-hour city.

That led to his 2016 appointment of a Night Czar, who stepped down at the end of last year, and the setting up of a Nightlife Taskforce in February. 

A spokesperson for the Nightlife Taskforce reiterated the Blue Note Jazz club will be a fantastic addition to the West End’s nightlife.

They added: “City Hall is in touch with the operators to offer any [they] can.”

In the Lord Mayor’s March 2016 Supplementary Planning Guidance for the Central Activity Zone, it was noted it should be recognised Covent Garden, Soho, and the West End contain the country’s largest concentration of evening activities and are defined in the London Plan as a night-time economy cluster of international importance.

Following Westminster Council’s decision to limit Blue Note’s night-time activities, many jazz musicians questioned how that international importance can feasibly endure. 

Blue Note have appealed the council’s ruling, but were unable to comment on it at present.

In a statement, a Met spokesperson said that they the core hours set out in Westminster council’s licensing policy, and that Blue Note’s application was outside of these hours. 

A spokesperson for Westminster City Council said: “Westminster has some of London’s most iconic music venues and we want to continue offering aspiring artists the opportunity to share their ion for music with others. However, it is important we strike a balance between ing music venues and the needs of residents.

“Every decision made by the licensing sub-committee is determined on their merits and must be mindful to consider the evidence in front of them.

“In this case, the proposed arrangements presented by the applicant as well as the genuine concerns from residents meant the licence was granted subject to the imposed hours and conditions. The committee felt this was necessary and proportionate to uphold the licensing objectives.

“We are in ongoing discussions with the Blue Note Jazz Club to represent the concerns of residents and see how we can their ambitions for opening a new venue in London, and whether or not additional safeguards can be identified.”

Picture credit: Ionianblue

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