Monday miscellany

150 years of John Lews - the third floor of the Oxford Street branch will be showing an exhibition of the history of the firm from 3 May for seven weeks. The roof will be open to the public. More info here. Things have changed since the times in the picture - the store was hit by a bomb in 1940 and most of the street has been rebuilt -

Much the same view (via)

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The Advanced Style blog, launched by Ari Seth Cohen in 2008, is much loved for celebrating the fashion flair of ladies of a certain age. Its influence has, at least in part, led to brands ranging from Lanvin to American Apparel using older models. This spring sees a documentary film to accompany the site, following several AS favourites as they pull together their outfits. [The film premiers in the UK at the Curzon Mayfair on 6 May.] One woman makes eyelashes out of her own hair; another designs trousers to put over her leg brace. They are united in their determined pursuit of personal style – something that is to be admired at any age.

No age limit: scene from Advanced Style's documentary (via)

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Daily painting - a 64-day project by Christopher Baker -

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See some of the results via youtube or on his website. The exhibition is at the Kevis House Gallery, Petworth, 3-17 May and at the nearby Moncrief-Bray gallery, 4-24 May.

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30 years since the Aids virus was discovered, the public seems not to know much about the disease, especially men aged 16-24, finds a survey by the National Aids Trust. People's understanding hasn't kept pace with medical advances, for instance emergency treatment PEP. If a sufferer is doing well on treatment, the chance of passing on HIV through unprotected sex is virtually zero. Nearly 100,000 people in Britain are living with HIV, more than a fifth of whom are unaware that they are infected; in 2012, there were 6360 new HIV diagnoses in Britain - and of the 35 million people worldwide living with HIV/Aids, 69% are in sub-Saharan Africa.

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Cheap food - what's the real cost? 90% of the world's soya and a third of cereal is fed to factory-farmed animals - whereas these crops could feed millions of starving people. Cows and sheep release more than a third of the world's methane, which is 23 times as warming as CO2 ... industrial farming is causing ecological meltdown. In May, Friends of the Earth is running a Meat-Free May campaign - information and fundraising packs will be available soon from their website. As the saying goes, "every little helps", including just cutting down on meat consumption - a quarter of adults in the UK say they eat less meat now than a year ago, and one in six young people doesn't eat any meat at all. The internet is stuffed full of vegetarian recipes - here, for instance -

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"This was believed to be a sheep grown on a plant from a melon-like seed.
Introduced to England by Sir John Mandeville in the fourteenth century,
an example of this legendary zoophyte can be found at Lambeth Palace."

Adam Dant's "Vegetable Lamb of Tartary" is part of his set of chiaroscuro woodcuts, "Ten Creatures of London Legend". 

The phantom chicken has been seen as recently as 1970 in Pond Square, Highgate.

Other subjects include a 12 foot fossilised Irish giant and spring-heeled Jack.

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Beginner's guide to north london cultural gems - here - useful for residents who haven't been out of doors for some years, too. (There's a south london guide as well.)

For instance ... the Zabludovicz Collection has been within walking distance since 2007, and has a cafe, and this is the first I've heard of it?

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(via The Londonist)