Your words have the power to hurt, to heal, to heal, open minds,

Your words have the power to hurt, to heal, to heal, open minds, open hearts and change the world.

Never Forget the responsibity you have over the worlds you speak.

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Obama slams GOP as party of billionaires then attends $32k-a-head fundraiser hosted by billionaire property tycoon named Rich Richman

Obama chided the Republican Party for catering to the 'interests of billionaires' in an email on Tuesday

He then attended a series of Democratic Party fundraisers hosted by wealthy donors, including billionaire Richman 

Another was held at the home of Bill White, a former museum head who had to pay New York $1 million in restitution for a state pension scheme

 President Barack Obama chided the Republican Party for catering to the 'interests of billionaires' in an email to supporters on Tuesday, then attended a series of high-dollar fundraisers, including one at real estate mogul Rich Richman's house.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee fundraiser at Richman's house in Greenwich, Connecticut, cost as much as $32,400 a person, according to the White House. 

The other two events, held in New York and sponsored by the Democratic National Committee, cost between $1,000 and $32,400 to attend. 

President Barack Obama returns to the White House on Tuesday night after an afternoon of fundraisers, including one held at the home of a supporter named Rich Richman that cost $34,000 a person to attend

As Obama was yucking it up with wealthy Democratic donors, he sent out a fundraising email slamming the GOP for being in the pocket of billionaires, the Washington Times reports.

'If the Republicans win, we know who they’ll be fighting for,' Obama allegedly wrote. 'Once again, the interests of billionaires will come before the needs of the middle class.'

The president opined in the email that 'Republican groups are spending massive sums against us.'

At the fundraisers Obama did not discuss Republican representatives' loyalties, but he did plead with donors to elect Democrats in November if they want to see changes to the immigration system, paid family leave, repairs to the country's infrastructure and an increase in the federal minimum wage. 

'We have achieved so much but we still have so much to do,' Obama told attendees of the DNC event in New York. 'So far, we can't get Republicans to cooperate.'

The president told his audience that despite Republican obstructionism in Congress, his administration has had a number of successes, as well.

'The reason you don't hear about them is they elicit hope,' he said. 'They're good news.'

The cynical media doesn't like to promote good news, he argued.

'Cynicism is a choice. Hope is a better choice,' he told attendees. 'I've never been more hopeful.'

The fundraisers on Tuesday brought the total number of money-raising events Obama has attended this year up to 56.

While candidates have hesitated to be seen with the president, the Democratic Party has not been shy about trotting him out at private events hosted by the rich and famous.

In addition to the event at Richman's house, Obama attended a roundtable with Democratic supporters on Tuesday that was closed to press and a fundraiser at the home of Bill White and Bryan Eure.

White is the former head of the Intrepid Air and Space Museum in New York. White resigned in 2010 after coming under investigation by then-state attorney general, now governor, Andrew Cuomo, for his participation in a state pension fund scheme. 

The attorney general's office never brought charges against White, but the longtime Democratic donor was forced to pay $1 million in restitution to the government.

That event at his home on Tuesday also cost $32,400 to attend.

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A sign Obama and Hillary are pals! Pair dance the night away at mutual friend's Martha's Vineyard birthday party

A photo of the president getting his groove on was posted to Instagram by a fellow party goer, however it has now been deleted

Reporters were not allowed into the private dinner but a White House spokesman said: 'The Obamas danced nearly every song'

Obama's meet-up with Clinton was hotly anticipated after she criticized his approach to foreign policy in an interview

As Obama and Clinton partied, it was revealed that U.S. and British troops were planning an emergency evacuation of Iraqis stranded on a mountain

On Tuesday France's foreign minister took a shot at Obama for continuing on with his two-week vacation while Iraqi refugees were dying

 President Barack Obama appears to shrug-off his well-publicized spat with Hillary Clinton - joining the former Secretary of State on the dance floor to boogie the night away at a friend's birthday party.

The President was photographed getting his groove on at the Martha's Vineyard party on Wednesday night following a dinner where he sat next to Mrs Clinton days after she criticized his foreign policy.

In an interview last weekend, Clinton described U.S. policy in Syria as a failure and said Obama's doctrine of "'don't do stupid stuff" is not an organising principle' for a great nation.

Good times: Hillary Clinton joins President Obama on the dance floor during the Birthday party of Vernon Jordan's wife at Martha's Vineyard

Reporters were not allowed into the private dinner celebration at the Farm Neck Golf Club, but White House spokesman Eric Schultz said afterward: 'The Obamas danced nearly every song. A good time was had by all.'

Obama, Clinton and their spouses sat at the same table and the Obamas were 'happy to have the chance to spend time with Secretary Clinton and former President Clinton.'

Approximately 150 people were at the celebration where both Obama and Clinton delivered 80th birthday toasts to guest of honor Ann Jordan, wife of Democratic adviser Vernon Jordan.

Mr Jordan, a civil rights leader and staunch Obama supporter, is a close friend of Bill Clinton who he served as a senior adviser.

In 2006, Jordan served as a member of the Iraq Study Group, making recommendations on the U.S. policy in Iraq.
A photo of the president dancing was posted to Instagram by a fellow party goer, however it has now been deleted. Reports he and Mrs Clinton hugged are yet to be confirmed.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius took a shot at Obama on Tuesday for continuing on with his two-week vacation while Iraq burned.

'I know it is the holiday period in our Western countries,' Fabius said, 'but when people are dying, you must come back from vacation.'

A word in your ear: President Obama chats to former President Bill Clinton following Hillary Clinton's well publicized criticism of his foreign policy

Still got it: Bill Clinton struts his stuff on the dance floor during the birthday celebrations. A White House spokesman said: 'A good time was had by all'

This photo of President Barack Obama partying the night away was posted to Instagram by fellow party guest Liz Cecil. It was quickly deleted this morning after news outlets began sharing it

As the president enjoyed a meal of surf and turf and pasta as it was revealed that U.S. and British troops were about to be deployed to a mountain in northern Iraq to save refugees who had been stranded there for more than a week.

Approximately 5,000 Iraqis were still thought to be stuck on Sinjar Mountain as of yesterday evening, prompting the two countries to plan an international rescue mission. But special forces sent in by the U.S. to survey the situation discovered that most of the refugees had already escaped.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said his country would shift it's focus to providing food and water to the hundreds of thousands of displaced Iraqis, many of whom are camped out in the independent region of Kurdistan, Syria and Turkey.

Cameron rushed back from vacation yesterday to oversee his country's response to the humanitarian crisis while Obama stayed put at Martha's Vineyard. 

Obama is not scheduled to return to Washington until Sunday. He'll spend two days at the White House attending meetings and then return to Martha's Vineyard to finish out his vacation.

While the president has refused to cancel his holiday or come back early, he attempted to stay out of public the eye on Wednesday.

In an interview last weekend, Mrs Clinton described U.S. policy in Syria as a failure and said Obama's doctrine of "'don't do stupid stuff" is not an organising principle' for a great nation

Water under the bridge: 'We have disagreements as any partners and friends, as we are, might very well have,' Clinton told reporters crowded into a bookstore signing of her memoir Hard Choices yesterday. Great nations need organizing principles, and "don't do stupid stuff" is not an organizing principle,' she said, referring to a version of the phrase Obama and his advisers have used privately to describe his approach to foreign policy.

The former Secretary of State's critique came at a particularly challenging time for Obama, with bombs falling on Iraq and disputes raging in Syria, the Mideast, Ukraine and elsewhere. 

Obama has continued on his vacation in Martha's Vineyard as displaced members of the Yazidi community were evacuated from from the Sinjar Mountains. Thousands of displaced Iraqis are now fleeing into Syria through the Fishkhabur bridge over the Tigris river in Northern Iraq

Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are now displaced and are living in refugee camps in Syria, Turkey and the Kurdish region

An Obama spokesman said yesterday that the White House 'is looking onwards and upwards,' while Clinton joked she was planning on hugging it off with her former boss.

'We have disagreements as any partners and friends, as we are, might very well have,' Clinton told reporters crowded into a bookstore signing of her memoir Hard Choices yesterday. 

'But I'm proud that I served with him and for him, and I'm looking forward to seeing him tonight.'

The media was not allowed in to see whether Clinton delivered her promised make-up hug after she tried to set herself apart from the unpopular Obama in a recent interview, but Schultz insisted yesterday that Clinton and Obama 'have had many hugs over the years' and the forthcoming one would be no different.

A former top Obama adviser, David Axelrod, took to Twitter to jab Clinton back: 'Just to clarify: "Don't do stupid stuff" means stuff like occupying Iraq in the first place, which was a tragically bad decision.'

Clinton voted in favor of the Iraq War in 2002, while Obama voiced opposition.

The very public foreign policy disagreement was Clinton's biggest split with Obama since their 2008 presidential primary campaign when she questioned whether her younger Senate colleague was qualified to take a 3 a.m. phone call on an emergency. 

Clinton took a more hawkish stance than Obama in that campaign, particularly on the Iraq War, but Obama put their bitter contest behind them by naming her his top diplomat.

Hillary Clinton and Obama attended the same birthday party last night in Martha's Vineyard but reporters were not allowed in. The last time Obama was seen publicly outside of the party was on Tuesday, when he was spotted playing golf in the afternoon and dining with his wife and several members of his administration at a local restuarant

Clinton loyally carried out Obama's foreign policy agenda for four years but described some objections she raised internally in Hard Choices, which focuses on her time in the administration. 

She expanded on those objections in her Atlantic interview, saying Obama's 'failure' to fully support the rebels in Syria fueled the rise of Islamic State militants now the object of U.S. airstrikes in Iraq.

Reporters who crowded in front of a table set up for Clinton's signing at the Bunch of Grapes bookstore yesterday asked her whether she disagreed with Obama's Iraq policy.

'I'm excited about signing books,' she said, turning to a line of hundreds that snaked through the rainy streets near the ferry dock that brings summer visitors to the island.

About 1,000 copies of the book were bought in advance, and the store was open only for those who had made the purchases.

Schultz declined to say whether the president was upset over her critique of his performance as he juggles several crises overseas, although he acknowledged 'an honest policy difference' on the Syrian rebels. 

The deputy press secretary said Obama appreciated that Clinton called the president Tuesday to say she was not trying to attack him.

'They have a close and resilient relationship,' Schultz said.

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The Circus of Fashion

 

Adam Katz Sinding/Le 21ÉmeThe street-style magnet Ulyana Sergeenko, who often changes outfits multiple times a day, twirls for the cameras during Paris’s fashion week last September.

We were once described as “black crows” — us fashion folk gathered outside an abandoned, crumbling downtown building in a uniform of Comme des Garçons or Yohji Yamamoto. “Whose funeral is it?” passers-by would whisper with a mix of hushed caring and ghoulish inquiry, as we lined up for the hip, underground presentations back in the 1990s.

Today, the people outside fashion shows are more like peacocks than crows. They pose and preen, in their multipatterned dresses, spidery legs balanced on club-sandwich platform shoes, or in thigh-high boots under sculptured coats blooming with flat flowers.

There is likely to be a public stir when a group of young Japanese women spot their idol on parade: the Italian clothes peg Anna Dello Russo. Tall, slim, with a toned and tanned body, the designer and fashion editor is a walking display for designer goods: The wider the belt, the shorter and puffier the skirt, the more outré the shoes, the better. The crowd around her tweets madly: Who is she wearing? Has she changed her outfit since the last show? When will she wear her own H&M collection? Who gave her those mile-high shoes?!

 

Kamel Lahmadi/Style and the CityPhotographers in the Tuileries in Paris.

The fuss around the shows now seems as important as what goes on inside the carefully guarded tents. It is as difficult to get in as it always was, when passionate fashion devotees used to appear stealthily from every corner hoping to sneak in to a Jean Paul Gaultier collection in the 1980s. But the difference is that now the action is outside the show, as a figure in a velvet shoulder cape and shorts struts his stuff, competing for attention with a woman in a big-sleeved blouse and supertight pants.

You can hardly get up the steps at Lincoln Center, in New York, or walk along the Tuileries Garden path in Paris because of all the photographers snapping at the poseurs. Cameras point as wildly at their prey as those original paparazzi in Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita.” But now subjects are ready and willing to be objects, not so much hunted down by the paparazzi as gagging for their attention.

Ah, fame! Or, more accurately in the fashion world, the celebrity circus of people who are famous for being famous. They are known mainly by their Facebook pages, their blogs and the fact that the street photographer Scott Schuman has immortalized them on his Sartorialist Web site. This photographer of “real people” has spawned legions of imitators, just as the editors who dress for attention are now challenged by bloggers who dress for attention.

 

Marcy Swingle/Gastrochic; Avenue MagazineLeft: The Vogue Japan editor-at-large Anna Dello Russo in an Alexander McQueen dress and sunglasses. Right: Bryanboy, a blogger, in Maison Martin Margiela headwear.

Having lived through the era of punk and those underground clubs in London’s East End, where the individuality and imagination of the outfits were fascinating, I can’t help feeling how different things were when cool kids loved to dress up for one another — or maybe just for themselves.

There is a genuine difference between the stylish and the showoffs — and that is the current dilemma. If fashion is for everyone, is it fashion? The answer goes far beyond the collections and relates to the speed of fast fashion. There is no longer a time gap between when a small segment of fashion-conscious people pick up a trend and when it is all over the sidewalks.

Now that women and men (think of the über-stylish Filipino blogger Bryanboy, whose real name is Bryan Grey Yambao) are used to promote the brands that have been wily enough to align themselves with people power, even those with so-called street style have lost their individuality.

 

Stefania Yarhi/TextstylesThe streetstyle gaggle, from left: Elena Perminova, Michelle Harper, Natalie Joos, Miroslava Duma, Anya Ziourova, Anna Dello Russo, Giovanna Battaglia.

Smartphones are so fabulous in so many ways that it seems daft to be nostalgic about the days when an image did not go round the world in a nanosecond. In the mid-1990s, when I stopped having to run from the shows to the film developing lab and first saw digital images, I blessed technology and was convinced that my working life was changing for the better. I had no inkling of the role that images would play, pitting fashion’s professionals — looking at shows for their own purposes of buying or reporting — against an online judge and jury. While fashion pros tend to have personal agendas related to their work, bloggers start a critical conversation that can spread virally.

Many of these changes have been exhilarating. It is great to see the commentaries from smart bloggers — especially those in countries like China or Russia, where there was, in the past, little possibility of sharing fashion thoughts and dreams — although I am leery about the idea that anyone can be a critic, passing judgment after seeing a show (from the front only and in distorted color) on Style.com or NowFashion. But two things have worked to turn fashion shows into a zoo: the cattle market of showoff people waiting to be chosen or rejected by the photographers, and the way that smart brands, in an attempt to claw back control lost to multimedia, have come in on the act. Marc Jacobs was the first designer to sense the power of multimedia. When he named a bag after Bryanboy in 2008, he made the blogger’s name, and turned on an apparently unending shower of designer gifts, which are warmly welcomed at bryanboy.com.

Many bloggers are — or were — perceptive and succinct in their comments. But with the aim now to receive trophy gifts and paid-for trips to the next round of shows, only the rarest of bloggers could be seen as a critic in its original meaning of a visual and cultural arbiter.

Adhering to the time-honored journalistic rule that reporters don’t take gifts (read: bribes), I am stunned at the open way bloggers announce which designer has given them what. There is something ridiculous about the self-aggrandizement of some online arbiters who go against the mantra that I was taught in my earliest days as a fashion journalist: “It isn’t good because you like it; you like it because it’s good.” Slim chance of that idea catching on among the fashion bloggers. Whether it is the sharp Susie Bubble or the bright Tavi Gevinson, judging fashion has become all about me: Look at me wearing the dress! Look at these shoes I have found! Look at me loving this outfit in 15 different images!

 

Marcy Swingle/GastrochicThe All the Pretty Birds blogger Tamu McPherson dressed to the nines in a Jil Sander skirt and Balenciaga shoes.

Fashion has to some extent become mob rule — or, at least, a survival of the most popular in a melee of crowdsourcing. The original “Project Runway,” a television show that chose participants with at least a basic knowledge of fashion, has been followed worldwide by “American Idol”-style initiatives, in which a public vote selects the fashion winner. Who needs to graduate from Central Saint Martins in London or New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology when a homemade outfit can go viral on YouTube with millions of hits?

Playing King Canute and trying to hold back the wave of digital fashion stuff is doomed for failure. But something has been lost in a world where the survival of the gaudiest is a new kind of dress parade. Perhaps the perfect answer would be to let the public preening go on out front, while the show moves, stealthily, to a different and secret venue, with the audience just a group of dedicated pros — dressed head to toe in black, of course.

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The opposite of look-at-me fashion: leave it to the French to master understated chic.

 

Kessler Studio; Sarah Aubel; Team Peter StigterFrom left: Vogue Paris’s Emmanuelle Alt; French Vanity Fair’s Virginie Mouzat; Interview’s Ludivine Poiblanc.

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Free And Cheap London Events: 6-12 October 2014

Interesting and unusual things to do for a fiver or less this week. For more ideas have a look at our Free & Cheap page.

Spitalfields Art Market takes place this week. Details below

All Week

PUB: Just want to kick back and relax with a pint and a packet of pork scratchings? Our pubs guide has information about all of the best pubs in London, organised by area for your convenience. Find a boozer near you, or see if your favourite made the cut.

BUY DIRECT: Spitalfields Art Market covers many mediums, predominantly painting and photography, giving you a chance to buy direct from the artists, cutting out the middle man and letting everyone go home happy. 9-12 October 

ART EXHIBITION: See Beware Wet Paint at ICA. This is a group show of individual works by artists for whom painting forms a single strand within a multidisciplinary practice. £1, until 16 November

Monday 6 October

EXILED WRITERS: The monthly gathering of writers exiled from their homeland takes place at Poetry Cafe, with featured performances. Hosted by Jennifer Langer. £4/£2, just turn up,7.30pm

COMEDY: The Loft Tickler Free Comedy Night takes place at The Loft in Clapham. Tonight’s acts are Nick Helm, Dan Green, Lea Rose Emery, Paul Duncan McGarrity and Tony Dunn. Free, just turn up, 8pm

MORE COMEDY: Head to the Dirty Dick’s Pub in Liverpool Street and enjoy a night of stand up comedy and open-mic. Some of the acts confirmed are Andy J. Wilson, Edward At Last and Njambi McGrath. Free, just turn up, from 8pm

Tuesday 7 October

GET INSPIRED: Noise Festival Exhibition opens today at More London. Take a stroll along the Queen’s Walk and enjoy this free outdoor exhibition. On display are works by 55 up-and-coming creatives selected by the festival’s curators. Free, until 7 November

FRENCH ART: >frenchartstudio gallery presents an exhibition dedicated to French street artist Tancrède Perrot, aka Tanc. The private view is tonight and the artist will be there: you can book your place in advance online. Free, until 5 November

MUSEUM LATE: Sir John Soane’s Museum opens its doors after normal closing time and gets lit by candlelight. This is a free event but we suggest you get there early, as entrance is on a first-come first-served basis and always very popular. Free, just turn up, from 6pm

CINEMA NIGHT: Head to The Book Club in Shoreditch for an evening of short films and animations. The theme — not very jolly — is the end of the world and apocalypse. Free,prebook, from 7pm

LET’S DANCE: The Social in Oxford Circus hosts a music night called The Fix. Live acts from Nothing But Thieves, Secret Company and Stealth. Free, prebook by email, 7pm

POETRY: Burn After Reading is hosted by a community of emerging young poets, each month featuring the foremost voices of poetry and spoken word. This month is a transatlantic special featuring R.A. Villanueva and Paula Varjack, taking place in Seven Dials Club, Covent Garden. £3, just turn up, 7.45pm 

Enjoy a free Shakespeare play in Exchange Square. Details below

Wednesday 8 October

LUNCH BREAK: UCL’s Grant Museum of Zoology hosts its regular learning session Show ‘n’ Tell. PhD student Hannah Robson will talk about one object taken from the museum’s collection. Free, just turn up, 1pm

FILM SCREENING: See Beryl’s Last Year screened tonight at King’s College Anatomy Lecture Theatre. This film is connected to the exhibition about artist Beryl Bainbridge. £5/£3, prebook, 6.30pm

FREE SHAKESPEARE: Enjoy a free outdoor performance of Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice at Exchange Square, just off Liverpool Street. The show is brought on stage by London Contemporary Theatre company. Free, just turn up, today and tomorrow, 6.30pm 

MUSIC TALK: Go to Ace Hotel in Shoreditch for a free talk hosted by Bill Brewster from Late Night Tales. He will be in conversation with Robert Raths from Erased Tapes, Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy from Classic Album Sundays and Robin Murray from Clash Magazine. Free,prebook, 7pm

FORTEAN SOCIETY: Head to The Bell pub in Liverpool Street for a talk about The Slendermen. Cat Vincent from London Fortean Society talks about this modern monster. £3/£2, just turn up, 7.30pm

Thursday 9 October

UCL LECTURE: Listen to cultural field specialist Dennis Rodwell talk about sustainable development and heritage conservation. The event takes place at UCL Institute for Sustainable Heritage. Free, prebook, 6pm 

LIBRARY LATE: The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich hosts a talk which explores naval war gaming from Fred T. Jane to the present. The talk is led by curator Andrew Choong. £5/£4, prebook, 6.15pm

FOREIGN LANGUAGE: Interested in learning a new language? Lingua Diversa Group offers an introductory lesson to Spanish at its offices in Holborn. £5, prebook by email, 6.30pm-7.30pm 

UGANDA DAY: London’s School of Uganglish opens its door to the public on Ugandan Independence Day. View the works by Uganglish community printers, create your own textile print to join their installation and sip on a cup of chaise — a traditional spiced tea. Free, just turn up, 7pm

FOLK MUSIC: Join folk singer and songwriter Nigel of Bermondsey and author Dave Arthur for a gig at The Old King’s Head tonight. They will give their tribute to Albert Lancaster Lloyd, an English folk singer who was a key figure in the folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s. £3/£1.50, prebook by email, 8pm

Friday 10 October

ART TALK: Artist Nadia Kaabi-Linke, whose first UK solo exhibition is currently on show at The Mosaic Rooms, speaks with Lorenzo Fusi, director of Open Eye Gallery, about her art. The event takes place at the ICA. £5, prebook, 1pm  

PUBLIC LECTURE: The Royal College of Nursing in Cavendish Square hosts a public lecture in occasion of World Mental Health Day. The event is free but prebooking is required. Free, prebook, 6pm

LIVE MUSIC: Head to The Montague Arms in New Cross for an evening of free music. On stage will be Tweed & Hyenas, Little Liar, King Of Hearts and True Collectives. Free, just turn up, from 7.30pm 

Explore Brixton Market with a guided tour this weekend. Photo by Cheylene on Flickr

Saturday 11 October

OPEN STUDIOS: For the first two weekends in October, artists currently working in the Wandsworth area open the doors of their studios to the public. Browse the website to discover the different art trails you can undertake. Free, 11-12 October 

RIVER THAMES: Wilton’s & the River is a weekend of free activities dedicated to the River Thames, taking place at Wilton’s Music Hall in Tower Hill. The line-up of events includes workshops, talks, family activities and of course drink and food stalls. Some of the events need to be prebooked. Free, 11-12 October 

VISIT A CHURCH: For today only, St Paulinus Church in Crayford hosts an open day. Enjoy a variety of music including an organ recital, church choir performance and the worship band, try to ring its bells and have a tour of the old and new courtyards. Free, just turn up, 10am-4pm

OPEN DAY: Visit the historic Ilford Hospital Chapel for free and get a free guided tour if you fancy.  Free, just turn up, 10am-2.30pm

BOOKS ARE MY BAG: Dulwich Books celebrates this year’s Books Are My Bag campaign with a day of events at the shop. The first 100 customers will receive a free Tracey Emin tote bag and free books, and authors and poets will be popping in throughout the day. Free, just turn up, 11am-3pm

AFRICAN CULTURE: As part of Black History Month, the Mayor of London’s office has organised Africa on the Square, a celebration of African culture in Trafalgar Square. Expect live music, fashion, dance, stalls, food, plus fun activities for the kids. Free, just turn up, 12pm-6pm

STYLIST’S RAIL: The Stylist’s Rail gives the public a chance to browse and buy from the wardrobes of a selection of London’s top stylists and fashion folk, bang-on-trend vintage brands and up-and-coming independent designers. Plus live music and free cocktails, all at the Hoxton Hotel in Shoreditch. Free, just turn up, 12pm-5pm 

BRIXTON MARKET: Explore Brixton and its popular market with Brixton Society. Tickets for this guided walk can be prebooked in advance by emailing marketwalks@brixtonsociety.org.uk, pay on the day. £3, prebook, 2.30pm

Sunday 12 October

ANTIQUES: Adams Antiques Fairs returns to the Royal Horticultural Halls in Victoria. Dealers specialising in antique linens, fine jewellery, silver, ceramics and paintings come from all over Europe to form over 140 stalls. £4, prebook, 10am

VISIT A BARN: Harmondsworth Barn is also known as the ‘Cathedral of Middlesex’. The barn is now owned by English Heritage and today it opens its doors to the public. Free, just turn up, 11am-4pm

HONEY SHOW: Learn all about bees and beekeeping at Twickenham & Thames Valley Bee-Keepers Association’s annual Honey Show at The Apiary in Twickenham. Free, just turn up, from 1pm

WARREN HOUSE: Enjoy the autumnal colours at the historical mansion as part of theNational Garden Scheme. There will be free tours of the property by Vicky Good, author of The Warren House Tales, and tours of the historic gardens by head gardener Andrew Fuller. Tours are free after buying tickets to the house but prebook is essential, email tales@warrenhouse.com to get your place. £3.50/free, prebook, 2pm/3pm/4pm

DRUMMING WORKSHOP: As part of AfroRetro’s School of Uganglish month, there’s a Busoga Drum workshop in Cambridge Heath. Listen to the sounds of the Busoga Drum and the Talenga Clan and learn to beat the Busoga style drums. Free, prebook, 3pm-7pm

COMEDY SHOW: The Camden Comedy Club hosts a stand up comedy show at Camden Head, about obscure people from history. £5, prebook, 4.30pm

PENNY READINGS: Head to The Clore Ballroom at Southbank Centre for The London Penny Readings. The event, which celebrates the triumph and struggles of human life,  follows on from the Victorian tradition where people could listen to literature being read aloud, all for the cost of one penny. Readers include writer and patron of The Reader Organisation Erwin James and Frank Heweston, Greenpeace activist. Free, prebook, 5pm

Check out our map of free things to do in London for more frugal fun. Or pop over to BrokeInLondon.com who also have plenty of great ideas.

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