This Week In London’s History Monday – 31st March 1990: Violence erupts as hundreds of thousands of anti-poll-tax protesters take to the streets in the West End. An estimated £400,000 of damage is caused to property as cars are overturned and set alight. Hundreds of arrests are made. Tuesday – 1st April 1965: The administrative area known as Greater London is formed, amalgamating and consuming parts of central London and the home counties. Wednesday......

Oxford pulls ahead. Image courtesy of Simon-K's photostream via the Londonist Flickr pool Oxford prevailed. But you probably know that by now. And the view from the shore? Wet. But Londonist was there. In the name of journalism, we packed ourselves into the Doom Bar tent in Furnival Gardens yesterday with 300 of our closest newly acquired friends and did our best not to spill/be spilled on/grind/be grinded on whilst waiting optimistically for the rain......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 17th March 1984: The Boat Race is postponed after the Cambridge boat crashes into a moored barge less than an hour before the race’s scheduled start. Tuesday – 18th March 1496: Mary Tudor is born at Richmond Palace. She would become ‘queen consort of France’ due to her marriage to Louis XII. Wednesday – 19th March 2005: As many as 200,000 protesters march through central London on......

As the buzz surrounding the weekend's Tour de France action in London builds steadily, more and more people are asking where will be the best places to watch, especially during the Prologue individual time trial on Saturday afternoon. Unlike the annual Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race, where the best vantage points are well established, there's no obvious form to go on for this one-off cycling spectacular in terms of where to set out your viewing stall......

Assuming the crews are able to make it past the semi-final, Cambridge and Oxford University's mens' eights will take to the Thames on Saturday at 4:30pm for just under 20 minutes' worth of water borne endeavour that will be watched by between 15 and 100 million television viewers around the world (depending on whose figures you believe) as well as some 250,000 spectators thronging the riverside vantage points. Oxford are the defending champions and......

This day in London’s history April 3rd was a typically busy day at the Old Bailey in 1695 and by the end of proceedings, six Londoners had been sentenced to death, 12 were due to be 'burnt in the hand' and just one was to be 'whipt'. The hand of justice moved a little swifter in those days didn't it? Not everyone came a cropper though, James Hambleton was accused of marrying two wives......

This post is written from a personal point of view, eschewing the Ist 'We' for once, because it expresses what is most decidedly a minority view within the Londonist camp. I disagree entirely with what Alex wrote below; here's why ... Confession time: I'm a lapsed boatie. I still have the calluses - they never go away - and the drawer-full of self-designed t-shirts - complete with "hilarious" nicknames - to prove it. Why......

In case you hadn't noticed, the Boat Race is taking place this Sunday. The 152nd meeting between the crews of Oxford (dark blues) and Cambridge (light blues) will begin at 4.35pm near Putney Bridge and will finish 17 minutes or so later at Chiswick Bridge. Around 250,000 spectators will line the sides of the Thames, cheering on their favoured boat, with the most popular vantage point being the 'Surrey Bend' near Hammersmith Bridge. You......