Peter Watts writes about art and culture for The Times, Independent On Sunday, New Statesman, Time Out, Uncut and others, and blogs about London at The Great Wen

Features

Is Denmark Street really London’s Tin Pan Alley?

Once famous as the home of music publishers and recording studios, Denmark Street has adapted to a changing city but never lost its soul

18 Oct 2023
Features

London’s most gruesome museum is back – and weirder than ever

The Hunterian Museum has reconsidered the ethics of showing human remains without sacrificing its weird charm

18 May 2023
Comment

Street smart – how to own a piece of London’s West End

A set of Misha Black’s famous street signs is going under the hammer – and it’s the closest most of us will get to owning some prime London property

10 Sep 2021
Features
Group of quadrants in ‘Science City 1550–1800’ at the Science Museum, London. Photo: © Jody Kingzett, Science Museum Group

The scientific revolution gets the royal treatment

The Science Museum’s new gallery makes subtle links between royal patronage, scientific progress and earthly conquest

19 Sep 2019
Reviews
Image courtesy Four Corners Books

Ever seen an eyeball card? How about a UFO?

A new book series explores the strange subcultures of post-war Britain, from CB radio enthusiasts to alien investigators

6 Oct 2017
Comment
Artwork on concrete blocks acting as bollards on 4 July, 2017 in Melbourne, Australia. Photo: Michael Dodge/Getty Images

The art of anti-terrorism

Artists and urban planners are finding creative ways to brighten up the concrete blocks and barriers that pepper today’s urban spaces

27 Sep 2017
Reviews
'Into the Unknown: A Journey through Science Fiction' (installation view; 2017), at the Barbican Centre. Photo: Tristan Fewings/Getty Images

A sci-fi spectacular at the Barbican

This is an exhibition targeted at the senses more than the brain, more Star Wars than Stalker

11 Aug 2017
Features
Jumping boys, High Wycombe (1980), Gavin Watson. Image courtesy Youth Club Archive

Is youth culture a thing of the past?

London may soon have a museum of youth culture. Does this mean it’s over?

10 Apr 2017
Reviews
A march of 2,000 anti-conscription protesters in London,1939. © IWM

A show of pacifism at the Imperial War Museum

‘People Power: Fighting for Peace’ at the IWM London is a bold exhibition that uses individual stories to humanise major global issues

4 Apr 2017
Features
Detail of the Great Fire of London by an unknown painter. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Artists mark 350 years since the Great Fire of London

On 2 September 1666, a fire took hold on Pudding Lane that would devastate London. As the anniversary approaches, exhibitions and events are being staged across the city

31 Aug 2016
Features
Edge City: Croydon. Photo: courtesy Sophia Schorr-Kon

Croydon: ‘It’s a lot more interesting than you might think.’

The National Trust is on a mission to make people appreciate the suburb’s post-war architecture. Why not join one of their tours?

15 Jul 2016
Reviews

Art of Protest: Student Unrest at Berkeley

Modern student protest was invented at Berkeley

2 Feb 2016
Reviews

Lust, gin and grime: ‘Hogarth’s London’ at the Cartoon Museum

If Victorian London belongs to Dickens, the Georgian city is Hogarth’s

7 Nov 2014
Reviews
The earliest printed map of London, from Braun and Hogenbergh’s Civitates Orbis Terrarum, drawn in c. 1560 (printed in 1572).

The greatest hits of London cartography: ‘Mapping London’ at Oxo Tower Wharf

Daniel Crouch Rare Books’ engaging display of maps old and new

11 Sep 2014
Apollo December 2024

Current Issue

December 2024

View this issue

Most popular

  • Recent

Podcast

Masterpiece [Re]discovery 2022. Photo: Ben Fisher Photography, courtesy of Masterpiece London

The Masterpiece podcast: episode three

This episode explores an ancient funeral stele, Marie Antoinette’s breast bowl, and how digital technologies are helping to preserve Egyptian heritage sites

Art news daily

Slovak National Gallery’s department heads resign – with 177 staff threatening to follow

Magritte painting sells for $121m – highest sum ever for a Surrealist work

Frank Auerbach has died at the age of 93

Latest Comment

Martha Stewart’s recipe for success

What painters and anatomists have in common

Seeing London through Frank Auerbach’s eyes