SS Robin, with the Canary Wharf skyline in the background (photo by Dean Nicholas) While the Cutty Sark and HMS Belfast are well-known icons of Britain's marine history, London's only other National Historic Ships Register Grade I-listed vessel was, until recently, in serious danger of being scrapped. The SS Robin, built at Bow Creek in 1890, is the world's oldest working steamer, and hauled raw materials all over Europe during the Industrial Revolution. Bought......

We are curious. Last weekend we noticed this rather peculiar-looking contraption sitting in the middle of West India Dock. Despite quite a bit of slack-jawed staring, we are frankly none the wiser as to its purpose. One possible (and rather obvious) clue is the Crossrail sign that is affixed to it. But that still doesn’t help us much – we can’t imagine why a project that has been inexorably stalled for the last couple......

We considered saying it was 'a sweet idea' with reckless use of sugar-related terms like 'raw' and 'unrefined' - but then realised how inappropriate these terms are for new art work that is none of the above. Powerful, considered and carefully constructed are more apt words. London-born, New York based artist Satch Hoyt has created several sculptures using only sugar for the City of London Festival. Two sugar slave ships are on display in......

Today’s snow made us feel quite festive, even though it’s the wrong time of year for all that. But with all the unpredictability of our modern changing climate, we need to enjoy these sorts of things when we can. So instead of contributing to the rising tide of dissatisfaction with how poorly equipped our services are to deal with a small amount of snow these days, we thought we would turn our thoughts to......

If you’ve travelled through the Canary Wharf area in the last week or so, you may have noticed a bloody great 12 metre tall illuminated snowman sitting by the footbridge over West India Dock. You can get an intriguing view of the back of his head from the DLR as it passes through West India Quay station, but to really get the best effect you’ll need to view him from the front – he......