The last Tuesday of every month is open house night at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).

Each month, the RIBA’s 66 Portland Place headquarters puts on a range of talks, tours, exhibitions and film screenings around a single topic.

October’s event, City Stories!, focused on great cities and their hidden histories, and included a fascinating talk by Dr Yat Ming Loo on London’s first Chinatown.

From the mid-nineteenth century Chinese seamen from Canton and Shanghai settled close to Limehouse Docks, with communities emerging on Limehouse Causeway, Pennyfields and Amoy Place.

Between the 1890s and 1920s the area become notorious as a place of gambling, opium dens and evocative smells – the legend of Fu Manchu originated here. However, the reality was quite different, with a very familiar London street scene greeting those who were curious, albeit with clinics, shops and boarding houses run by the Chinese.

The Blitz and various slum clearance projects before and after the Second World War saw the end of London’s first Chinatown, and there is little physical trace left today.

In the 1940s and 50s many families moved to the West End to capitalise on the growing demand for Chinese food, laying the foundations for London’s present day Chinatown.

Yat Ming Loo’s upcoming book “Architecture and Urban Form in Kuala Lumpur: Race and Chinese Spaces in a Postcolonial City” will be published in April 2013.

The next “Last Tuesdays” event on 27 November, Colour Me Vertical, will explore colour, light and architecture. Admission is free.

Follow @RIBA on twitter for #LastTuesdays updates, or visit www.architecture.com for more information.

Here’s a great video showing some of the highlights of the Chinese New Year celebrations in London from last weekend.

Do you have any photos of the events? Don’t forget to add your photos to the Visit London Flickr pool.

For our Hong Kong in London entry we looked no further than the London Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival. This annual event has been held in London since 1997. After 10 years at London Docklands Watersports Centre, it moved to London Regatta Centre at Royal Albert Docks in 2007, allowing it to become a lot bigger. This year’s London Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival is expected to attract around 10,000 spectators.

The Hong Kong connection lies partially in the sponsorship – the HKETO (Hong Kong Economic Trade Office) is the event’s principal sponsor. And, the less-than-serious nature of the London race perhaps reflects the fact Hong Kong has enjoyed more freedom than mainland China during the past century. But event organiser London China Town Lions Club‘s Monita Hung is quick to add that Dragon Boat racing is a longstanding Chinese tradition, with events held all over China although some of the most serious competitions are to be found in Hong Kong.

The main aim of the London race, however, is enjoyment. “How much practice competitors do beforehand depends on how much they want to win! But this is not a serious race, it’s more about a fun event that everyone can enjoy,” says Hung.

The festival grows in size every year and is now second only to Chinese New Year on the Chinese cultural calendar in London. “Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival is a lighthearted event that’s not as serious as Chinese New Year.

“It’s more of a community event for locals and is very family friendly as it’s free to enter, with lots of food and children’s activities such as a bouncy castle.” Hung says the event is also very popular with Hong Kong-born students who are studying in London, of which there are many.

Besides the festival, Hung, who is originally from Hong Kong but has lived here for 30 years, says she finds “Hong Kong in London” by shopping at Chinese supermarkets, particularly in Chinatown. “Tesco is getting better but you’ve got to go to a Chinese supermarket for all the sauces and other Chinese essentials. You can’t not go to Chinatown – you’ll always find something great there.”

The next London Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival will be on 19 June 2011. Find out more at www.lclc.co.uk