Mice at the viral panto, new coats of arms and a £451m facelift for the Barbican

Dear Londoners — We hope you had a good weekend. You can tell it's nearly Christmas: not one pub in Soho this Friday had a free seat (not even my trusty fail safe, the downstairs bar of the Glasshouse Stores). Still, it's nice to see the city's residents and visitors making merry, even if my legs still hurt a little from all that standing up. On that note, we always love reader suggestions, so please let us know what your favourite festive activities to do in the city are (whether big or small!) in the comments below. Bonus points if they're off the tourist trail.

In today's briefing, we have news on the Barbican renovation, the GLA's new-old coat of arms and the mice at the theatre hosting the viral panto starring Jeremy Corbyn and Ian McKellan — as well as a new spot for a northern Thai soup and a brilliant Tower Hamlets pub. We're also running our first sponsored slot today. While the large majority of our revenue will always come from our subscribers, this helps us to get closer to breaking even and making local news sustainable.

Your news briefing

🏗️ Catastrophic leaks and a £451m budget: The Guardian was given inside access to the team handling the Barbican’s multi-million pound renewal project, aiming to give the iconic centre a new lease of life in time for its 50th anniversary in 2032. The changes range from the massive — like removing and replacing its gargantuan central heating system — to the smaller, like stripping the centre of its drab carpets and lighting. 

👑 The King has given Sadiq Khan permission to use the Greater London Council (GLC)’s old coat of arms, which hasn’t been used since the council was abolished in 1986. The current City Hall, otherwise known as the Greater London Authority (GLA) submitted the petition last week. The heraldic design features blue and white waves to reference the Thames, while a gold crown on a red background represents the city's Saxon origins and gestures towards the historic county of Middlesex.

🐘 Affordable housing residents in the landmark Elephant Park development by Elephant & Castle tube station have been forced to subsidise the cost of a gym, cinema and concierge used by their richer neighbours that they are banned from accessing. The Observer spoke to the tenants after a recent tribunal victory over the property giant that runs the development. The saga is eerily reminiscent of a similar case The Londoner covered in Battersea involving the housing association Notting Hill Genesis.

🐁 Ever since the Pleasance Theatre in Islington announced that their annual panto — Wicked Witches — would feature appearances from both former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and acting royalty Ian McKellan, the show has gone viral (the Telegraph even sent out their theatre critic to review it). But we discovered that the theatre is less than squeaky clean: it’s listed as having a 1 out of 5 hygiene rating on the council’s website. One FOI later, and details of the venue’s mouse infestation were right in front of us. The report from October identified mice droppings found on countertops and in a food store room, and inspectors ordered urgent changes to be made to stop contamination of the theatre’s food supply (as well as noting disrepair on the venue’s ceilings, along with an image of what looks like mould). You might want to bring your own mince pies, then… 

Quick hits: An unnamed, high-profile footballer was arrested for assault in the West End on Saturday; the Tower of London has reopened after protestors tossed apple crumble and custard on the display case of the crown jewels; Liverpool Street retains its title as London’s busiest station, thanks to the Elizabeth line; masked men describing themselves as a “hardcore group of Zionists” have targeted the Palestinian embassy in Hammersmith; to avoid engineering works at Euston Tower, the bus route 274 is currently going on a 4km (2.5 mile) diversion.

In case you missed it…

• There are only a handful of statues of women in London. On Saturday, we spent a day visiting and mapping the few that exist, to find out which members of the fairer sex have been given their dues by the capital
• Black cabs are set to be extinct within 20 years. So why are the numbers of applicants taking the Knowledge — the infamously difficult licensing exam — going back up? On Thursday, we met some of the hopefuls at one of the capital’s last Knowledge schools.
• On Wednesday, we wrote about the case of Vincent Chan, a nursery nurse who pled guilty to 26 child abuse charges last week. We found that Bright Horizons, the chain that ran the nursery where he worked, had a history of safeguarding failures at the other centres it ran in London.

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Wining and dining

With endless offerings and non-stop openings, we all know that deciding where to eat and drink in the capital can be fraught. We want to make it easy — so every week we’ll give you our insider guide to the city’s best spots. 

One perfect meal: One of the most thrilling things you can see in your life is a chef using a knife. Perhaps even more thrilling: seeing a chef use a blowtorch. Sitting at the counter at Khao-Sō-i on a bustling Wednesday night service, I watch Chef Win Srinavakool do both. Founded in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand in 2021, the modus operandi of Khao-Sō-i is its eponymous noodle dish. It’s long been difficult to find a decent version in the capital (one of London’s few blind spots); for those unaware, it’s a curried coconut soup filled with slippery egg noodles, topped off with pieces of crunchy fried noodle.

Guided by Bonnie, the restaurant's absurdly charismatic maître d', I opt for a version with tofu and seared scallops. When it arrives steaming in front of me, the dish is deliciously intense. Served alongside garnishes of pickles and wedges of lime designed to cut through the richness, the broth is rich and fragrant with spices, while the noodles are bouncy and plentiful. I finish off mine within five minutes. Alongside, I eat a dish of pla som, a cured sea bream fried whose sweet-acidic flesh felt like a revelation, and drink ocho and pandan margaritas. On a windy, drizzling winter night, this is food and drink that feels good for both the soul and the stomach. — Hannah

One perfect pub: There’s a certain type of pub that’s particularly in vogue at the moment: stained carpets, cheap beer and a cast of gregarious regulars. What people call "old man pubs". Recently, I discovered what may be the platonic ideal of that idea. Sat on the edge of the Commercial Road, it’s one of a small handful of old East End boozers that have survived the constant flux of Tower Hamlets. It’s also a short walk from another amazing pub — The George Tavern — that is famed for its live music, making the Hungerford a perfect pre-gig pint spot. And that’s before even getting to the best bit: this is probably the cheapest pub in London. £4 a pint, all day, every day. I’m not sure what kind of witchcraft is needed to sustain that sort of pricing scheme in the capital, but I’m happy living in ignorance. — Andrew

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Our favourite reads

The Traveller community’s London Christmas drive – in pictures — Jill Mead, The Guardian. 

If you walked through London last Saturday, you might've passed a line of horses and carriages. But this isn't a new Winter Wonderland-esque tourist attraction: it's an annual tradition. The Traveller community’s London Christmas drive sees about 200 horse drawn carts make a 14-mile trip across the capital. The Guardian were there to capture some great pictures of the whole affair.

Why does Tucker Carlson hate Britain? — John Elledge, New Statesman.

It’s been hard to avoid the growing obsession with the state of the UK from right-wing American politicians and pundits, and most of it seems to centre on a distorted view of London that sees the capital as some sort of crime-ridden hellhole. John Elledge has written a witty column for the New Statesman on Tucker Carlson, one of the leading figures pushing that narrative, to find out what’s behind the obsession.

To Do List

1. The Royal Shakespeare Company’s adaptation of Twelfth Night, which sold out shows in Stratford-upon-Avon earlier this year, has started a six week run at the Barbican. Tickets here.

2. For all festive film nerds out there, the Prince Charles Cinema is hosting a Christmas edition of its film quiz. Teams of up to five will be competing for limited-edition PCC merch, free cinema tickets and exclusive movie prizes. Tickets here.

From the archive

For a ghost of Christmas past, try this 1945 news reel of the first post-war Christmas, mostly filmed in London, featuring factory lines of toy workers, black market turkeys and a haunting voice over from a child praying their father doesn’t go to war again.