The creators of The Chap Magazine have announced that the eagerly awaited final heat of the Chap of the Year contest will be held on Saturday 21st May 2011. In true Chap style, the event will be a stylish soiree doused in cocktails and peppered with live musical entertainment and witty repartee.

Taking place at The Grand Hall, a beautiful 1930’s ballroom in central London, The Chap Magazine’s inaugural Chap of the Year contest will set out to find the individual whose entire being personifies the ethos of the Chap. The three-round contest will be a celebration of elegant dress, grooming and good manners, as the ten caddish challengers are asked to pit their gentlemanly skills against one another in front of a live audience.

What exactly is a Chap? A true Chap crosses boundaries of age, race, social class and even gender – indeed even a lady can be a chap in this contest. A chap is a person who saunters about the world, dressed immaculately from head to toe, perfectly groomed and with such good manners that everywhere he or she goes, they leave a trail behind of good cheer, open doors, freshly dusted seats and bonhomie.

Throughout the evening, the audience will be able to ruminate on the debonair displays and whom they deem fit to wear this coveted crown, all while enjoying delicious classic cocktails from the Bourne and Hollingsworth bar. Following the award ceremony, the party continues. Guests will be entertained by live bands, vintage DJs and amusing sideshows, or by exchanging romantic missives with other guests via a butler with expert match making skills.

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For tickets please visit – Chap of the Year

The candlelight Club is a clandestine pop-up cocktail bar in a secret London venue, a stunning, tucked-away den with a 1920s speakeasy flavour, lit only by candles. Each event offers a one-off bespoke cocktail menu and there are special themes, guest mixologists and featured ingredients, with food and drink masterminded by Will Sprunt, plus vintage DJing and live music.

For every legitimate bar that closed as a result of Prohibition, half a dozen illegal ones opened. By the mid-1920s there were, according to some estimates, as many as 100,000 speakeasies in New York City alone. It was said that you could get a drink in pretty much every building on 52nd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.

Some got by simply by bribing everyone from the police to the Federal Prohibition Agents. Others used secrecy—the term “night club” was coined in this era as a euphemism and members were given passwords to gain entrance. The 21 Club had four different alarm buttons in the lobby, which automatically sealed off the five secret booze stores and tipped the shelves in the bar, dropping all the bottles into the sewers. Some of the alcohol was actually stored in the basement of the building next door, accessed through a brick door that weighed two tons. At the Colony the booze was kept on a lift that could whisk it into the attic or the basement if there was a raid. Claudio’s was built on a pier—at low tide liquor was lifted up through a trap door from boats sailing underneath.

To celebrate this age of guile and ingenuity—when drinking suddenly became more glamorous and exciting, ordinary citizens became criminals and for the first time bars became hangouts for women just as much as men— each Candlelight Club evening brings you a unique menu of both classic and specially created cocktails.

Guests to the club dress in glamorous, vintage apparel and enjoy live 1920s jazz music. In keeping with the speakeasy theme the actual location of each party is kept secret and only revealed to ticket holders a couple of days prior to the event. Drinks are served in simple utilitarian glassware, wine bottles are wrapped in brown paper bags and a simple complimentary supper of sandwiches is laid on.

For afficionados of vintage culture or mixology this night is a must!

Dress code: 1920s dandies and gangsters, degenerate aristos, decadent aesthetes, corrupt politicians and the Smart Set In the Know

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For tickets please visit – The Candlelight Club

For one night only, an exhibition by Wellcome Collection: Friday 8 April 2011, 7 – 11pm

Wellcome Collection is a free visitor destination for the incurably curious. Located at 183 Euston Road, London, Wellcome Collection explores the connections between medicine, life and art in the past, present and future. On 8th April the collection will be opening late for Elements, a spectacular night of chemical romance, intrigue and performance, filling the whole building with arsenic, iodine, oxygen and mercury. Entry is free although some talks and performances will be ticketed with tickets available on the night of the event only, visitors are welcome to drop in anytime.

Liquid crystal Credit:Karen Neill/LCI

The exhibition explores four elements; each of which can be lethal yet all have been used in medicine.  Bringing together beauty and danger, health and hazard, Elements runs from 7pm to 11pm. See your reflection in a deadly pool of mercury, as Quicksilver Pools reveal the rippling beauty of this lethal element, and discover paintings full of mercury and arsenic, whose vermillion and green pigments rely on toxic compounds for their brilliance. Put Arsenic on Trial as a judge and prosecutor revisit famous cases of arsenic poisoning, from Napoleon to Mme Bovary, and call on the audience as witnesses and jury.  Biogeochemist Andy Meharg will be on hand to talk about the historical prevalence and dangers of arsenic and its present-day abundance in millions of people’s water supply.

Potato starch Credit:Spike Walker

The freshest breath you are ever likely to take is on offer at the Pure Oxygen Bar – average inhalations carry only 21% of the element. Once you’ve filled your lungs at the bar you can listen to biochemist and writer Nick Lane talk about the element’s central role in life – and death. Andrew Szydlo will be running the chemical experiments that the earliest alchemists used to uncover oxygen, introducing visitors to the extraordinary world of Cornelius Drebbel and his Mystery Submarine.

Bathe in the light created by these four elements in artist Henny Burnett’s multimedia installation, which uses candles burning oxygen, iodine halogen lamps, mercury vapour lamps and LEDs based on arsenic.  There will be tales about the self-experimenting J.S. Haldane, and singer and pianist Virginia Firnberg will be bringing our elements together in song.

Liquid crystal Credit:Karen Neill/LCI

Food writer and self-styled gastronaut Stefan Gates will be blending anti-oxidising cocktails and in the Iodine Messy Play Area, you’ll find out how to tell both temperature and time with an element best known for disinfecting properties.

Meet these star elements:

ARSENIC: a semi-metal best known today for its regular appearance in murder mysteries. Arsenic compounds stimulate the metabolism and were once regarded as a cure-all. Their reputation continues to the present day, with the development of modern treatments for syphilis and leukaemia.

IODINE: discovered accidentally in 1813 when seaweed was employed to make saltpetre for gunpowder, its shiny black crystals vaporize to form a beautiful violet gas. Its relatively mild disinfectant properties make it suitable for treating minor cuts. Today, rare isotopes of iodine are used in medical diagnosis and radiation therapy.

MERCURY: one of the handful of chemical elements known in antiquity and the only liquid metal. Alchemists believed it held the key to the transmutation of base metals into gold. Through the ages, mercury has had many uses – from ornamental garden pools to dental fillings. Today, it is banned from many applications because it is highly poisonous.

OXYGEN: the third most abundant element in the universe oxygen makes up a fifth of the earth’s atmosphere. Any change in this proportion – either up or down – would threaten humankind. It is highly reactive, able to corrode metals and destroy natural organisms. Oxygen is thus regarded both as the stuff of life, but also as the hastener of ageing.

Event Calendar – Unusual London Events

For more information visit – The Wellcome Collection

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This event is so good I almost don’t want to tell you about it!  Yet again the BandH group have outdone themselves producing a breath-taking, sell out experience. Belle Epoque is set in the Shoreditch Studios with its 3 different bars. Upon arrival you’re instantly drawn to the lavish red velvet draped from the hall’s balcony and the acrobatic hoops hanging tantalisingly from the ceiling..a hint at the entertainment to come.

Belle Époque is French for “Beautiful Era”. A period in European social history which began during the late 19th century and lasted until World War I, it was characterised by new technological and medical discoveries and optimisms, occurring during the time of the French Third Republic and the German Empire. The Belle Époque was named in retrospect, when it came to be considered a “golden age”.

Whilst Belle Epoque isn’t a night which strictly adheres to the style of the era in question, the night wouldn’t be as good if it did. Like all BandH events wearing jeans is quite simply not an option, the men dressed as gentlemen and the ladies opted for a look reminiscent of a sophisticated Moulin Rouge.

I would advise you to position yourself as close as you can to the stage or up in the balcony to get the most out of the entertainment which was refreshingly different: Piano Playing Burlesque, a trio of Can Can dancers, even the comparatively normal rope acrobatics still astounded in such a personal venue.  The venue does get hot…but who cares about that when you are having this much fun dancing away to a band followed by a DJ – both of whom did a fantastic job balancing a modern day good time but set in a Beautiful Era.

A fantastic night to be highly recommended!

Having Googled 1920′s clothing I established the options for men looked limited so decided to keep it cool and classic - slim black suit, red braces, shiny black shoes, topped off with a trilby and a red rose in my lapel, it was valentine’s weekend after all!  I’m very glad I made the effort though as everyone and I mean EVERYONE was dressed up and looked amazing, it was like walking on to the set of Goodnight Sweetheart, it would appear time machines really do exist.

The first thing I should say about Prohibition is that it’s a very sexy event and why not? The 1920′s was a sexy time! A little secret for you guys too, in stark contrast to your average bar where men outnumber women, at Prohibition glamorous ladies sporting sophisticated red pouts abound!

The night kicked off with a game of roulette, unfortunately my double or nothing strategy back fired when I lucked out on four spins in a row, to double up would have cost my house!  Thankfully it was only pretend money…  The venue had 3 bars and whilst it took a while to get served this provided a good opportuinity to chat to other Prohibitioners.   Favourite drink of the night had to be the absinthe cocktail, though as you can imagine you don’t want to be taking on board too many of those babies, woooohooo!

The night’s entertainment was good, it kicked off with a feather clad Burlesque dancer, a treat for the men but surprisingly equally appreciated by the women…definitely the age of equality.  The rest of the night we rocked and swung away to a fabulous 1920′s Prohibition band. 

All in all my friends and I had a wonderful time, the accoustics could have been better and the toilets were a little full but this was due to a last minute change of venue which was out of the organiser’s hands. Despite this they still managed to put on a thoroughly enjoyable night and I look forward to their other events The Blitz Party, La Belle Epoque and The Chap Olympiad…be warned though, you’ll need to book early as these tickets sell like hot cakes!!

An exhibition by Wellcome Collection: 24 March – 31 August 2011

Wellcome Collection is a free visitor destination for the incurably curious. Located at 183 Euston Road, London, Wellcome Collection explores the connections between medicine, life and art in the past, present and future.

Wellcome Collection’s major new exhibition takes a closer look at something which surrounds us, but we are often reluctant to confront.  Dirt: the Filthy Reality of Everyday Life travels across centuries and continents to explore our ambivalent relationship with dirt. Bringing together around 200 artefacts spanning visual art, documentary photography, cultural ephemera, scientific artefacts, film and literature, the exhibition uncovers a rich history of disgust and delight in the grimy truths and dirty secrets of our past, and points to the uncertain future of filth, which poses a significant risk to our health but is also vital to our existence.

Advert for ‘Sunlight’ laundry soap Credit:Wellcome Library, London

We live in unmistakeably filthy times. For the first time in human history over half the world’s inhabitants live in urban environments and exposure to dirt is the corollary of overcrowding, inadequate sanitation and the industrial shaping of metropolitan life. Meanwhile scientists are debating whether our increasing obsession with cleanliness is stripping away our ability to combat infection.  However we may wish to sweep it under the carpet or wash our hands of it, this is a subject that continues to make its mark.  Dirt will reveal the fascinating world of filth that remains one of the very last taboos of society.

Engraving: ‘Monster Soup…” by William Heath Credit:Wellcome Library, London

Anthropologist Mary Douglas observed that dirt is ‘matter out of place’. As such, the exhibition introduces six very different places as a starting point for exploring attitudes towards dirt and cleanliness: a home in seventeenth century Delft in Holland; a street in Victorian London; a hospital in Glasgow in the 1860s; a museum in Dresden in the early twentieth century; a community in present day New Delhi; and a New York landfill site in 2030.

Highlights from Dirt include paintings by Pieter de Hooch, the earliest sketches of bacteria, John Snow’s “ghost map” of cholera, beautifully crafted delftware, Joseph Lister’s scientific paraphernalia, and a wide range of contemporary art, from Igor Eskinja’s dust carpet, Susan Collis bejewelled broom and James Croak’s dirt window, to video pieces by Bruce Nauman and Mierle Ukeles and a specially commissioned work by Serena Korda.

Ant eggs and maggots etc. Credit:Wellcome Library, London

Dirt looks through the lens of Delft scientist Anthony van Leewenhoek’s early microscope, to reveal what he described as the “little animals” of the microbial world, and explores the widely celebrated and satirised 17th century Dutch obsession with cleanliness.  Picking a path through the crowded Victorian slums and pest houses of Soho, the show takes in John Snow’s work on cholera and the development of public sanitation in London, and the voices of the mudlarks, ragpickers and dustmen and women whose meagre living depended on the dirt and detritus of the city.

When Joseph Lister arrived at Glasgow Royal Infirmary 1860, patients presenting broken limbs faced a 90% probability of amputation; such were the levels of infection. His regime of cleanliness transformed the hospital and marked the birth of antiseptic surgery. But the widespread mantra of hygiene took a darker turn in Dresden, where the Deutsches Hygiene-Museum, founded after the International Hygiene Exhibition in 1911, was co-opted into the ideological horrors of racial purity and ethnic cleansing by the Nazis.  From modernity’s dogma to corrosive metaphor, the exhibition charts both scientific discoveries and tarnished discourses of cleanliness.

Diorama of the Lister Ward Credit:Science Museum/SSPL

Collisions of personal, ethical and environmental responsibility run throughout Dirt. The meeting of figurative and literal dirt finds a focus in present day New Dehli, where survival by manual scavenging, the clearing of human waste, persists and is most often associated with the Dalits, the people formerly known as ‘untouchables.’  Facing a social stigmatism perpetuated by the cultural projections of pollution, the plight of manual scavengers is explored through the work of charity Sulabh International and the extraordinary faecal sculptures of Santiago Sierra.

The eternal issue of waste disposal is taken up again as Dirt looks to the future, with the 30 year project to transform New York’s Fresh Kills, once the largest landfill in the world – a colossal beacon to our everyday waste visible from space – into a public park.

Illustrative Aerial View of Fresh Kills Park Credit:James Corner Field Operations / Courtesy of the City of New York

Ken Arnold, Director of Public Programmes at Wellcome Collection, says: “Dirt is everywhere and periodically we get very worried about it. But we have also discovered that we need bits of it and, guiltily, secretly, we are sometimes drawn to it. Dirt is a perfect subject for Wellcome Collection to explore in our eclectic fashion – the good and bad, the art and science, yesterday and today, in London, Glasgow, New York, Dresden, Delft and New Delhi.”

Dirt: the Filthy Reality of Everyday Life is part of the DIRT Season from Wellcome Trust. Look out for online games and events at special dirty locations, including Eden Project,  Glasgow, Glastonbury and other Summer festivals.

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For more information visit – Dirt Season

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