Skip to Content

Alastair Reid Schanche

Alastair is a features writer at London X London. He joined the team in late 2022 hot off the back of a five-year stint in Shanghai where he wrote for Time Out and ran a very niche blog about Chinese food.

He’s unable to shake his addiction for Sichuan noodles, but will be found devouring London’s other glorious cuisines when he’s not warming seats at the Prince Charles.

From Michelin stars to Maltby Street Market, our guide to all the best places to eat in Bermondsey.   Bermondsey is one of the places you should go to find a fine dinner south of the river. Being just off the main hub of eating and drinking that is Borough/London Bridge, the restaurant scene has enough …

Read More about The Best Restaurants in Bermondsey: Unmissable Places to Eat

Your body is a temple. Keep it that way with our guide to the best healthy restaurants London has to offer. What’s the secret to good food? The answer you’ll commonly get to that question is something along the lines of: lots of butter and lots of salt. We don’t necessarily disagree (there’s a time …

Read More about Your Body is a Temple! Discover London’s Top Healthy Restaurants and Feel Good About What You Eat

Discover London’s villages – the havens of tranquillity tucked away in the heart of the big city.  It’s commonly said that London is as much a series of villages strung together as it is a city. That’s a saying that’s probably truer than most people realise. Many areas of the capital began life as sleepy …

Read More about Discover Life on the Quiet Side: Beautiful Villages in London

How many Big Ben facts do you know?  If you’re any kind of Anglophile, or a Londoner yourself, you’ll know what the Houses of Parliament’s clock tower looks like, and you will probably have heard it chime too. What else is there? Well, how about Big Ben’s history, and how Big Ben got its name? …

Read More about 25 Fascinating Facts About Big Ben We’ll Bet You Never Knew

Our guide to the top house-sitting platforms for finding London house-sitting jobs. Out of a house for a short time? Coming to London on holiday? Perhaps you’re off on a trip and want someone to take care of the manor while you’re gone. Whatever your reasons, house-sitting is becoming more and more popular in London.  …

Read More about House-Sitting in London: All the Best Options for Finding a Place to Take Care of as if It Was Your Own

Looking for the best things to do in London in September? Don’t miss the best things to see and do in the capital this month with this handy guide. We don’t know about you, but we can’t quite believe how fast this year is going. September sees the tail end of festival season (though, it’s …

Read More about 18 Wonderful Things to do London in September 2023

There’s a summer-long events programme underway at Barking Riverside and it’s looking very exciting. Here’s what’s going on at the Summer Sessions.  *sponsored by Barking Riverside Limited* Hot news from east London: Barking Riverside’s Summer Sessions – a programme of events along the riverfront, are in full swing and it looks brilliant! It’s already underway …

Read More about Summer Sessions: Barking Riverside’s Summer-Long Events Programme

As Take a Moment returns, you can get your picture on London’s most iconic advertising screens.  Picture this: you’re walking through Piccadilly Circus and there, on those iconic big screens, is your very own face. Sounds too good to be true? Well, over the next few months, it could become a reality.  Art of London …

Read More about You Can Have Your Photo (And Your 15 Minutes of Fame) On the Piccadilly Circus Screens This Month

A free festival of black British culture is coming to London. Here’s what you need to know London’s getting a new festival. Black on the Square will celebrate the city’s black culture, gathering people from the African and Caribbean communities at Trafalgar Square to showcase some of what they do best.  The festival has been …

Read More about Black on the Square: Trafalgar Square’s Cool New Festival of Black Culture

Our guide to the best London pubs owned by celebrities.  London is never short of two things: celebrities and pubs. It was only a matter of time, then, until some of these celebs started to get stuck into the pub trade. We’re not guaranteeing you’re going to spot the celebs behind the bar, but it …

Read More about Sink Star-Studded Pints – A Guide to Celebrity-Owned Pubs in London