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Vibey bar tucked just off Upper Street is done simply, and done well

Humble Grape in Islington

IT’S not a controversial opinion that one thing Islington doesn’t need is another wine bar. They have sprung up on every street lamp-lit corner, home to the caricature of the small plates-eating, orange-wine swilling north London young professional.

And understandably they have indeed sometimes become a source of derision, with their pretentious owners or customers as the butt of the joke.

Stumble into Humble Grape, tucked just off Upper Street, and you can find however a wine bar done simply, and done well.

It’s cosy, and unpretentious. It feels like the moment when you’ve just got home to your parents’ living room after a long train journey, and your mum puts a bottle of wine on the table. You don’t really care what it tastes like, you’re just happy to be there.

For those who don’t know their Chablis from their Chardonnay, it’s perfect. They don’t expect you to know anything – or act like you know anything.

The service was excellent, attentive but not pushy, and wine that was recommended to us was crisp and drinkable.

We skipped the nibbles, and tried a couple of the small plates. I always feel like you can’t go too wrong with burrata and tomatoes – but the way this one melted was especially good. The cauliflower bites were crispy and sweet, but could have maybe done with a extra spicy kick.

For mains, I opted for seabass, which was flaky and salty, accompanied by a rich roast pepper tapenade and fresh pea puree.

My dining partner’s steak, he said, was cooked well but partnered with a chimichurri sauce that was a little underwhelming.

The best thing we ate may have been the last: a gooey chocolate fondant that rounded off the evening perfectly. The cheese board, however, looked enviable.

Even on a Wednesday there were plenty of people who had popped in for a quick glass, making it intimate and vibey.

Humble Grape wants to be a place for the neighbourhood, a spot where you can come any time of the week. On Monday you can drink any wine at the price it normally is to take away, and on the other days there are plenty of events and deals, from wine-tastings to roasts.

The wine is definitely worth it – ranging from about £7-£12 for a glass of something really good. The food is not at a “let’s just grab something here” price, with mains around £20-£23 needing to be ordered alongside a side or a starter.

Good for a catch-up with a small group of friends, or for a date.

Humble Grape 11-13 Theberton Street, N1 0QY 020 3904 4480

Rebecca Clarke [Peter Field]

INDELIBLY associated with the image of Jenny Agutter waving her bloomers at passing trains, the famous early-70s film of The Railway Children – taken from a book by Edith Nesbit – is something anyone of a certain age will remember with affection and feel protective about. So the news that Mark Anthony Turnage, a composer known for earthily hard-hitting scores, was planning an operatic adaptation raised concerns. Would the charm be lost? And what about the bloomers? Well, the piece has just premiered off-season at Glyndebourne and is apparently a radical update (which

I haven’t yet seen), turning Edwardian poignancy into a Cold War spy thriller. But the reviews have been good. And the show comes to London for one night, Nov 8, playing at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in a concert staging that will reveal all. Turnage’s last attempt at family-friendly opera misfired. Maybe this time he’s nailed it. southbankcentre.co.uk

• More the kind of story you’d expect a Turnage to be tackling, the sex-and-sandals powerplay of ancient Rome inspired Monteverdi to write L’Incoronazione di Poppea (if indeed he did write it: there are doubts) with Nero and his love Poppea scheming their way to unjust deserts. Hampstead Garden Opera have a new production at Jacksons Lane, Highgate; and as HGO neatly sums up the plot, “he’s ruthless, she’s unhinged, together they’re unstoppable”. Runs Nov 7-16. hgo.org.uk

• Female composers from the past still struggle to be heard. And meriting far more attention than she gets is Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979), whose output was small but magical, with a disarming and distinctive beauty. Born in England to an abusive father, she had a bad start in life, emigrated to America, and was largely forgotten until recently. But there’s a whole day of her work at Wigmore Hall, Nov 8, with three concerts in a row that offer a chance to take stock of Clarke’s legacy. Which is greater than most listeners know. wigmore-hall.org.uk

• Something else people tend not to know is the magnificent 18th-century Great Hall in St Bartholomew’s Hospital, which has just undergone a major renovation and is finding new life as a concert venue. The City Music Foundation is using it regularly for a commendable recital series that’s just started: citymusicfoundation.org And Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras are also moving in, with a baroque bill of Purcell, Bach and Handel on Nov 12 that should be a big event. bartsnorthwing.org.uk

• Other big events this week include Mahler’s 7th Symphony at the Festival Hall, Nov 13, done by the Philharmonia under Jakub Hrusa: southbankcentre.org.uk

On Nov 12, Simon Rattle brings his new orchestra, the Bavarian RSO, to the Barbican for Bruckner’s 7th Symphony: barbican.org.uk – and on the eve of Remembrance Day, Nov 8, there’s a Britten War Requiem in Southwark Cathedral, done by the ambitious and evidently up-scaling Outcry Ensemble with star soloists including Elizabeth Watts: theoutcryensemble.com

• But if all that grandeur is too much, try the more modest forces of a clarinet duo, Hannah Shilvock and Boyan Ivanon, in Highgate’s intimate Salon Music series, Nov 12. Two clarinets playing on their own make an unusual combination. But I’m told they’re inventive; their programme includes Piazzolla; and food and drink come with the ticket. Nothing there not to like. salonmusic.co.uk

Dan Carrier talks to artist Nick Botting, whose latest exhibition features images ranging from the Barbican to Venice, and Parliament Hill to the English coast

The Swimmer by Nick Botting

WORKING from a specially built paint box and easel, artist Nick Botting is not confined to a studio: he paints directly from life. The Islington-based artist creates figurative scenes and portraits that reflect the world he sees – it means getting out and up close to the topics he loves to capture.

In a new show at the Portland Gallery in St James’s, Piccadilly, Nick’s eye has created images ranging from the Barbican to Venice, and Parliament Hill to the English coast.

“I paint very much from life and always have,” he reflects. “This started with drawing in the life room and realising what a different deal it is to work directly from people, rather than the dislocation that comes from copying photos.”

Nick studied art history at the University of Kent and his art has taken him around the world. Previous projects have seen him work on sports scenes – cricket scenes include Ashes tours that now hang in Lord’s – and a triptych commissioned to mark the opening of the new Wembley stadium in 2007. This he did from the terraces during the FA Cup Final.

He finds inspiration in early painters who did not have the privilege of photographic technology. “I looked at painters like Corot for landscape and Rembrandt for his beautifully observed pen and ink drawings of figures in the street,” he says.

And in today’s digital world, this offers a fresh perspective.

“I think people are realising the importance of actual engagement now, given that they spend so much time one step removed from reality,” he explains.

“I enjoy watching people together, trying to see how they interact and how that reminds me of my own behaviour. For a painter of my type, the presence of figures changes a composition completely, so that, for example, a painting can be given a diagonal movement by having a figure walking through it, or leaning to pass something.”

Nick Botting

Nick has a specially constructed mobile paint set the size of a briefcase that holds his materials and a painting up to 24 inches wide. He has used it for three decades and likens it to a laptop.

“I have learnt never to ask permission in a pub or restaurant – if you ask you are giving that person responsibility for anything that could go wrong. It never has, but they don’t know that. I learnt years ago that you just have to sit down and start something – usually just a pencil sketch, and from that always comes the kernel of an idea – it could be about structure or composition or something about people like calmness or isolation or affection, and then I start to elaborate on that idea.

“For years I was self-conscious about sitting in a bar with my oil paint laptop, nursing a coffee or two while I worked, and now of course, everyone is sitting there with a laptop.”

Built by a cabinet-making friend, it means he can take his work wherever he goes. This impacts on the topics he chooses.

“I like to paint in bars and restaurants because there are endless possibilities, like a game of chess, as to how it can work,” he says.

“In the Barbican café I will change and adjust figures as they come and go, trying to balance them to echo the mood.

“There is a bustle in the late morning which is different to the quiet a little earlier, or in the afternoon there’s a lull which carries a calm with it. I like how people settle in after a while of being in a place, so that they project a very different mood the longer they stay.”

While the Barbican is on his doorstep – he lives in the Angel – his work relies on plenty of further travel.

The Barbican piazza, summer

“I have painted all over the world, St Petersburg to Havana, and have learnt a lot about different light across the world, but I live in the Angel and know London best,” he says.

“I have grown to love the Barbican and I love that it’s built on the oldest part of London, has Roman walls sticking out of the ground, was burnt to the ground, rebuilt, bombed and rebuilt again in such a fantastically ambitious and confident way. I like to be within the busy London streets and then to be far away from them, which echoes Londoners’ typical life of escaping to the coast.

“I have painted in the Australian outback to experience absolutely nothing to be seen in any direction. I love to go to the National Gallery early in the morning – where better to look at some of the best paintings in the world? Other collections: The Wallace Collection or Kenwood House hold beautiful paintings by Guardi, who could really sense atmosphere, Richard Parkes Bonington, who could paint the finest calm sky. Then I like more raw painters like Jack Yeats who painted people in a loose rough way – I like this because there is an authentic engagement and an immediate response that feels like it has integrity, that it’s felt there and then.

“When I paint I try to carry the experience of decades of observing and drawing figures, balance that with an understanding of colour and people like Corot or Guardi or Manet, then just lose myself in the day.”

The Barbican interior, winter

His daughter has been at school in the Barbican for the past nine years so he knows it well, and has enjoyed learning about the design of the Brutalist complex. “I went on an architectural tour and was amazed to learn it was designed with an Italian Piazza in mind, with water, a grand lakeside terrace, columns and fountains. I love the futuristic ambition of it – and its space and quiet. There is a sense of making something to last and keeping it going rather than knocking it down as happens to so much of our architecture. To paint it is a challenge as there is such a strong linear structure that doesn’t work with my freehand way of working, so I had to find a way of painting just enough precise structure without overburdening the image.”

And in contrast to the work that focuses on the life of the Barbican, Nick includes plenty of seascapes. The coast and sea create something that feels timeless and offers a contrast to the fleeting characters he includes.

“I think about us here now, and in turn the value of things that stay longer than us – things that don’t ever change like the sea and breaking waves and tides. I like the way people turn to the sea for some understanding, how they walk by it, stare at it, swim in it. Within the endless span of time that the sea encompasses, I love the moment that is now, and I tried to paint that particularly in The Swimmer – a figure in the moment or two of lowering herself into the water.”

• Nick Botting – Barbican, Venice and the Sea runs from November 12-28 at the Portland Gallery, 3 Bennet Street, St James’s, SW1A 1RP. See:

Claire Carmelia will be the next mayor of Westminster after a resounding win on Tuesday night. Carmelia captured nearly 54% of the vote over challenger Bruce Baker, who won over 25% of the vote, and David Demott, who came away with just more than 21% of the vote.

Current mayor Nancy McNally decided not to run for re-election.

DeMott is an eight-year council incumbent while Carmelia was elected to the council in 2023. Both touted their experiences on the council and their ability to work with different groups to reach consensus on various issues as qualifications to be mayor.

Baker — a former council member — is a frequent critic of the city’s current administration for its perceived overspending on big-ticket items, like the new water treatment plant and the downtown area.

Carmelia couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday night. But in a recent commentary in the Westminster Window, she expressed her wholehearted backing of the development of downtown Westminster.

“This project is more than just a stand-in replacement for the old mall, it’s a long-term investment in our city’s future,” Carmelia said. “And the returns are already visible both financially and culturally.”

Westminster residents also elected three city councilors out of a field of eight candidates in the city’s 2025 municipal election on Tuesday.

Council incumbents Obi Ezeadi and Sarah Nurmela appeared to be winning in their bid to keep their at-large seats on the council. Ezeadi had collected 19% of the vote on Tuesday and Nurmela won just over 16% of the vote, according to preliminary results.

Newcomer Jack Johnson appeared to pick up the third and final slot on the council, also winning just over 16% of the vote.

This story will be updated as new results come in.

(Nathan Hartley)

CHILDREN from Peasedown St John Primary School’s Year 6 recently enjoyed a memorable full-day visit to Westminster, exploring the historic Houses of Parliament.

Pupils from Year 6 took time out from their regular studies to spend an entire day exploring the historic and iconic Houses of Parliament in Westminster, gaining a unique insight into the workings of British democracy and the country’s rich political history.

School Headteacher, Ruth Noall, said:“Year 6 were privileged to visit the Houses of Parliament on Wednesday, October 8. It was an incredible experience. We were able to enter the House of Commons, the House of Lords and Westminster Hall.”

“We’re very grateful to the staff in Parliament for making us feel so welcome and showing us around. It was a memorable experience that will remain with our pupils for a very long time.”

Highlights of the visit included viewing Queen Victoria’s throne, exploring the chamber beneath which Guy Fawkes famously placed his gunpowder, seeing the statue to which Emmeline Pankhurst chained herself during her suffragette campaign, and touring the 1,000-year-old Westminster Hall, historically used for royal banquets and even by Henry VIII for playing tennis.

Ruth added: “It was a truly wonderful day, and the students represented the school superbly, listening attentively, asking thoughtful questions and behaving respectfully at all times. Since then, the children have been working hard to publish newspaper reports about the experience.”

The trip was one of many excursions organised this year for pupils at Peasedown St John Primary School. Others throughout 2025 have included the American Museum, The Egg Theatre, the MShed and the Life Skills Centre in Bristol.

For more information about Peasedown St John Primary School visit their website www.psjprimary.co.uk and follow them on Facebook at @psjprimary