Eastcheap, EC3 by Malcolm Edwards. Contribute your photos of words around town to this discussion in the Londonist Flickrpool.... [continue]

47. Passing Alley Where? We're back in Clerkenwell to probe this connector of St John Street and St John's Lane. What? Oh what japery the denizens of Clerkenwell must have enjoyed around this one over the centuries. Passing Alley is only one vowel shift from accuracy, as attested by a number of fruity puddles on our visit. Alternatively, as shown in the picture, a little obfuscation of the sign re-enforces our back passage innuendo. Ooo,... [continue]

The annual Lord Mayor's Show was held yesterday, despite heavy rain, with over 150 floats taking part in the procession which has been held in London for nearly 800 years. The Lord Mayor, not to be confused with Boris, is the head of the City of London Corporation which provides it's own local government services to the City of London. The Lord Mayor, Alderman Ian Luder, joined the parade in the highly decorative gilded State... [continue]

Yesterday we were so bemused by the prolix perambulations in Boris' Way To Go transport document that we neglected to consider the very real probability of significant cuts to long-planned transport schemes. After the laughter, come the tears: today, in their 10-year business plan, TfL announced its aim to save £2.4 billion over the next decade by axing jobs and scrapping projects. The bloodbath of culled transport initiatives is a long, sad list, and... [continue]

We are proud to bring you a constant stream of the best and brightest entertainment news each day... but we are also proud of our reports on London past. In this series, we join up our talents and take a look at London entertainments that no longer exist, and the closest equivalent available today. 1. Hippodrama They were just like any other ordinary melodrama: they had a hero and a villain and a maiden... [continue]

The O2, Greenwich peninsula and the Isle of Dogs If there were something, dear readers, that we could give to everyone of you to show you how much we care, it would be this: a ride in the Star Over London airship. Unfortunately, at £360 a pop for the best ride, this is pie in the sky talk from your favourite London blog so, next best thing, we wangled a freebie and went for you.... [continue]

We say, we say, we say: What’s black and re(a)d in your lunchbreak? No, good fellow, the answer isn’t Londonist. We do rather refer to a mysterious new lunchtime visitor to the Natural History Museum. Whilst exploring their lunchboxes, entomologist’s at the august establishment have observed an as yet unidentified flying object in the museum’s grounds, a wee red and black buggy thing. Experts believe that the tiny insects (which are the size of a... [continue]

Plans for a pedestrianised Parliament Square piazza (a tautology, surely?) have been scotched by City Hall. Mayor Boz has decided to review an £18m plan minted by his predecessor to "do a Traf Square" on the area, paving the southern bit beside Westminster Abbey and putting in extra benches in aid of turning it into a nice spot to gather and graze. The reason for this rethink? Concerns over traffic congestion, an issue that... [continue]

Londoners tired of their foppish Mayor may have an unlikely saviour come the 2012 elections: bombastic businessman Alan Sugar has suggested that he might stand as Labour Party candidate in the next mayoral election. The ex-Amstrad boss and East End barrow-boy would certainly make a tough figurehead for the city. Whether the ability to amass heaps of dosh and shout at hapless apprentices on TV equips one to run the nation’s capital city is... [continue]

Honestly, what kind of topsy-turvy world is it where a man can't keep for himself the spoils of war he half-inched on a foreign lark? That's just what Boris Johnson is wondering. The mayor has been forced to hand over a cigar box that he pilfered from the charred remains of Baghdad to Scotland Yard. Boris was in Iraq in 2003, shortly after the fall of Saddam Hussein's government, when he visited the home... [continue]

May's mayoral election was criticised by psephological purists for being all style over substance: much of Boris' appeal lay in his ebullient media persona, honed by regular appearances on Have I Got News For You. If certain rumours are to be believed, then BBC television shows could be the new proving ground for mayoral candidates - Labour insiders are apparently considering Sir Alan Sugar as their man for the 2012 election. Labour want a... [continue]

News of breathtaking excitement and deep significance has reached Londonist Towers this very afternoon: not only is there to be A NEW CARRY ON FILM, but it bears the working title of CARRY ON LONDON (IST?). It is reputedly set to follow the antics of a firm of chauffeurs running actors to and from a spoof awards ceremony: expect much to be made of gear sticks, honking, horns, and the general giving of rides. Political... [continue]

There's a Spitfire in Trafalgar Square today. Not a Banksy Spitfire, amusingly positioned so it looks like it is crashed into the steps leading from the National Gallery. It's not propped up between the lions by a protest group and it's not there as a misguided celebration of Prince Harry's safe return to England. It's there to launch a campaign to put a statue of Sir Keith Park on the fourth plinth and do... [continue]

For good or ill, a man can be prickly when pressed on the subject of his, ahem, endowment. Spare a thought, then, for Juan Pablo Di Pace, who has seen his manhood manhandled by the marketing department of the Royal Opera House. Cast in the crowd scenes for a 2001 production of Verdi's Rigoletto, Di Pace was surprised to discover some years later that his naked torso was used on posters advertising shows he... [continue]

Thanks to a concerned reader, we were alerted today to a potential tragedy in the making. It seems that the folks over in Monopoly Land are holding an online vote to choose the world’s top twenty cities (in addition to two wild cards) for its Here & Now: World Edition version of the classic game. Winners will be awarded prime real estate slots in the world edition board game – leading us to wonder... [continue]

A major fire has broken out in Camden Town. Part of the Canal Market, Chalk Farm Road, caught fire around 7pm. As dense black smoke billowed out from beneath shutters at least four fire engines and a surveillance helicopter rushed to the scene. Nearby shopkeepers rallied together bringing buckets and extinguishers. The market appeared to be closed and there is no indication of any injuries. 7.50 This is a major, major fire. At least... [continue]