LOWDOWN: A Night With Lady Luck
Fancy dinner with the Wild West End Belle?
Good afternoon lovely readers,
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. At LOST ART HQ we should have got some well earned rest, but we were just so VERY excited to announced the second, incredibly sexy installment of our magazine, ‘Spill The Beanz: Digital Arts and Cultures’.
That’s right - we're doing a collector’s edition, baby.
Now, for a chance to get your hands on this bumper mag, you are cordially invited to our launch party at The Sloane Club on July 30th. For this event, we’re doing more than just a jolly old knees-up, for we’re bringing the text to life with a panel talk from some of the thought-leaders and pioneers featured in the issue.
Fear not, the usual drinks, canapés and mingling will also be heartily encouraged, à la Sloane Club style.
Now - for this week’s THE LOWDOWN we’re stripping down to what’s real. We’ve got the stalwarts of burlesque, Lorna Tucker’s new memoir on homelessness and top-to-tail eating bursting with summer flavour.
Enjoy!
Maya Sall x
Writer and editorial assistant
THE LOWDOWN by LOST ART
Pro Tips: Know Your Rights
If I say the words ‘tenancy rights’, you will probably feel your eyes glazing over instantly with thoughts of endless pages of legalese, but it’s important to know how to handle any problems that do arise. Here’s a non-expert guide to what your tenancy rights protect.
What if…something’s broken?
Small repairs will be your responsibility, but you’ll want to contact your landlord for larger fixes regarding electricity, gas, water, or your roof and walls. They have to provide safety reports for gas and electricity systems and install smoke alarms—make sure you test alarms and change their batteries regularly. If problems occur, keep records of the defects and your communications with your landlord; if your landlord isn’t completing repairs, get in touch with your letting agent or building management, if your property has one.
What if…your landlord sells your home?
Even if this happens, your tenancy keeps going with the same rent and tenancy terms. The new owner needs to give you their name and contact details, and if they want to end your tenancy, they’ll have to go through the same legal steps as your initial landlord. Depending on your tenancy agreement’s terms, you may be obliged to let potential buyers view your home.
What if…your rent increases?
If your tenancy agreement outlines a procedure for increasing rents, your landlord has to abide by it. Otherwise, they may ask you to sign an agreement for a rent increase, renew a fixed-term tenancy agreement with a higher rent, or submit a form to increase the rent after your fixed-term tenancy ends. In all cases, the increase must be fair and realistic (meaning in line with typical local rents), and the landlord has to get your agreement on increases beyond what you’ve previously agreed to.
Diamonds & Dust & Dita: A Sparkling Ensemble
By Emmeline Blythe
The mood to visit: when you’re seeking a spicy night out with glamour and grit.
The Queen of Burlesque is making her mark on the West End. Dita Von Teese has turned the Emerald Theatre into her own corner of the Wild West with her new show, ‘Diamonds and Dust.’
The Emerald Theatre isn’t quite like other venues on this side of town. It’s an intimate setting where every audience member’s experience is deeply valued. And if you feel dangerously underdressed? Don’t worry. The blue, amber, purple lights are enough to glam up whatever you’ve pulled from your closet.
‘Diamonds and Dust’ proves itself as more than a sultry variety show. Inspired by Kitty Leroy’s wildlife of dance, gambling, and men — you’re watching a West End production executed as Americana burlesque. Honestly, it’s about 87% burlesque and 13% plot. But hey, Kitty’s narration is laced with zingers I wish I was clever enough to write.
The real star, though, is Dita Von Teese. Her interpretation of the fickle Lady Luck is one you’ve never seen before - a glittering goddess revealed when the BIG pink curtain is unfurled. Von Teese commands the stage as a Wild West End Belle, a sparkly cowboy, and even dons a rosy millionaire’s murderess widow robe.
I’ve always pictured “Lady Luck” to be clad in gold or green. But then I remember that we’re sat in the Emerald Theatre… So, this queen must shine beyond expectations by thinking pink.
Most critics would dub ‘Diamonds and Dust’ as “seductive,” but if I had to pick one word, it’s simply “gorgeous.” Visitors are in for a night of sparkle, danger, and mischief — the kind of night even Lady Luck would bet on.
WHERE: Emerald Theatre, 8 Victoria Embankment, WC2R 2AB
WHEN: Until September 28th 2025
WEBSITE: click here
AN INTERLUDE: You’ve already spent a final moment with people you thought you would see again
Confronting the Past: Lorna Tucker’s BARE
By Wang Sum Luk
The mood to visit: you’re brave enough to explore a painful side to London life that most of us avert our eyes from
‘I have lived in Watford. I have lived in Camden. I have lived on many streets, in many pitches deep in the shadows within the stinking and filthy parts of Soho in London…’
There’s a London that many of us have never noticed: a city made up of alleyways and hostels and park benches, its geography full of grime and danger. This is the city that filmmaker Lorna Tucker, known for documentaries about figures like Vivienne Westwood, guides us through in her debut memoir Bare, about her experiences as a homeless, heroin-addicted teenager and single mother.
At an author event, Tucker explained that while she’s campaigned to raise awareness about homelessness via projects such as her 2024 documentary Someone's Daughter, Someone's Son, she was initially hesitant to write Bare, wanting to avoid publishers who’d demand that she handle the subject in stereotypical or inaccurate ways.
This commitment to telling her story on her own terms gives Bare its startlingly intimate edge. Even when describing harrowing sexual and physical violence, explaining what it’s like to take heroin or look for shelter late at night, Tucker’s narration balances its warts-and-all portrait of her younger self with a deep sense of humanity, presenting a street-level portrait of homelessness and addiction.
‘I don’t want to waste my life dreaming of dying,’ Tucker writes. It’s a spirit of hope that animates even the bleakest moments of her life story.
Truly honest, well-informed approaches to homelessness are regrettably rare, but you’ll be able to learn more at the Museum of Homelessness. Founded and run by people with direct experience of homelessness, its insightful exhibits are the natural next step to understand the issues that Lorna Tucker’s book addresses.
WHERE: BARE is published by Hachette.
WEBSITE: click here
A Love Letter to Simplicity: Columbia Road’s Brawn
By Ryen Snowden
The mood to visit: you are just DYING to eat sunshine on a plate
Since 2015, Head Chef Ed and his wife Josie Stead have since been steering the magnificent, meaty ship that is Brawn. Chef Ed is known for his nose-to-tail cooking, and dexterity with a butcher’s knife. So, imagine my elation when wine importers, Les Caves de Pyrene invited me for dinner at the Columbia Road resto.
None of us present are Brawn virgins, and but that doesn’t stop us being giddy with giddy with excitement.
We begin with a trio of starters served family style; a salad of Vesuvio tomatoes and melon with shaved ricotta, dressed in Liqueur de Tomates from Distillerie Cazottes. Both fruits perfectly ripe, the extra depth of tomato flavour from the liqueur creating a heady sense of summer which leaves you wanting more.
The Terrine de Campange we have next transports me immediately to childhood summers spent feasting on bread and pâté in France. Then its scallops baked in the shell and encased in puff pastry. Around the table, faces contort in concentration as we attempt shucking our shells, and celebratory cheers herald their popping open.The scallops are sweet and succulent – a worthy prize for our toils – which we throw into our mouths with wild abandon.
The main course of pork loin, beans and peaches with lovage is a lesson in minimalism, and one of the most harmonious dishes I’ve had this year. The pork, pink and juicy with a gorgeous rendering of fat along the outside pairs perfectly with the light curry of lovage, sweetness of the ripe peach and crunch of the piattone beans. I could eat this all summer long.
We finish with a cherry clafoutis and a more than generous glass of Capreolus Cherry Eau de Vie, a beautiful way to end a meal, and commemorate the fruits of summer.