In the world of designer bags, discerning shoppers are willing to put down thousands of pounds for the perfect Louis, Fendi or Birkin. They’ll even wait for years on waiting lists. Now, some may not be getting their beloved arm accessory status symbols due to a rash of bag burglaries. A crash-helmet-wearing moped gang has targeted high-end retail shops and smashed windows to get to their goods. They’re responsible for thefts over the past......

Four weeks till Christmas! Argh. Funds are all focused on present buying and getting through the party season but we still want to go out and about because the heating isn't working properly at home. We can't afford to go and see Gandalf drop his trousers in King Lear but, thankfully, there's lots of cheap and interesting stuff about as usual. Monday: Start the week with an event truly in the spirit of London......

Londonist asks that most pressing of daily concerns: where to go on your lunch break. Euro Coffee House 81 Duke Street W1K 5PF Map Expect to Pay: £4-7 Rating: 6.9 out of 10 About a month ago, when we reviewed Sfizio Café, one anonymous reader commented with the following request: Can someone please do a write-up of my favourite lunchtime haunt, Euro Coffee House … near Bond Street tube? It's a proper, old-fashioned greasy......

Some of our most packed and venerated shopping streets are going be upgraded and canonised. Sort of: A light sculpture and large pedestrianised areas are part of a £40m proposal to transform some of the world's most famous shopping streets. Westminster Council's Oxford, Regent and Bond St (Orb) Draft Action Plan hopes to renew the central London area. The light sculpture will be suspended 30ft in the air encircling Oxford Circus [and] will change......

19. St Christopher's Place Where? A clement thoroughfare connecting Oxford Street (near Bond Street Tube) to Wigmore Street. What? It might be full of beautiful people today, but St Kitt's was once a rather slummy backwater known as Barretts Court. It later found some semblance of respectability under the guidance of Octavia Hill, one of the Victorian founders of the National Trust, who bought the noisome plot and rechristened it after her pet saint.......

This Day In London’s History 1990: Pandemonium in Westminster as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher fails to win outright victory over Michael Heseltine in the Conservative Party leadership contest. Following a lengthy period of discontent from her own party, including the resignation of Sir Geoffrey Howe from his position as Deputy Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher’s leadership was formally challenged for the second time in as many years, this time by Michael Heseltine. It was widely......

Saturday 2nd of December has been declared Very Important Pedestrian Day: Two of the most famous shopping streets in the UK will be traffic-free for the first time to help Christmas shoppers. Both Oxford Street and Regent Street in London's West End will be free of vehicles on Saturday 2 December. Ohhhhh that sounds like a good idea. Londonist of course does all its Christmas shopping online, but we'll happily wander the car free......

Brian Haw appeared in court today for breaching conditions over his demonstration outside the Palace of Westminster (i.e. his placards exceed an area of 3m by 1m). The case has been adjourned for the defence to apply for a 'judicial review of the conditions imposed on Mr Haw'. A survey has found that a quarter of bankers in the City expect their bonus this year to be more than double what they got last......

There will be a direct action march and demo against the invasion of Lebanon today, starting at Gilbert Street near Bond Street station, 1.00pm. This demo welcomes anyone and everyone who wants to express their feelings about the current situation in Lebanon. Instructions for those attending are to be creative, bring enthusiasm, anger and / or passion. Bring banners, bring noisy things, fake blood and anything will get your point across. Follow-up meeting planned for......

If you're not worn out and over-stretched running around London for this most exciting London Architecture Week and you feel able to fit in a bit of sculpture-snooping too, there is plenty to see in the third annual London Sculpture Week. Though aimed at collectors and buyers, the event is a good chance for anyone interested in sculpture and 3D art to see what is tucked away in the galleries and dealerships in town......

The BBC, police and local authorities are considering blanking out big screens across the country after violent scenes at the Canary Wharf screening of England's laboured 1-0 victory (we did say they struggled in the heat) over Paraguay on Saturday. Police were called at 3:30 pm as around 200 of the 6,000 fans gathered in Canada Square threw missiles and fought, an affray some witnesses said began with youths throwing beer over each other.......

Londonist is a regular visitor to New London Architecture, the exhibition space of the Building Centre on Store Street. Not only does it contain a remarkable 3-D model of the capital, complete with as-yet unbuilt skyscrapers, but it also swaps around the content of its exhibition area with dizzying regularity. The latest incumbent is a tribute to the various estates that, since the 17th Century, have brought a sense of orderliness to parts of......

Any Londonist readers get really carried away by yesterday's romance-fest and actually pop the question? Did you buy the ring beforehand? If not, and you're maybe planning a trip down New Bond Street to look for something sparkly this weekend maybe you should pop into Graff. We hear they've got something pretty special in stock. In fact Lawrence Graff managed to break the record for the most money spent per-carrot on a ruby yesterday......

The Music Room near Bond Street plays host to the Olympus Inheritance Exhibition on 17th-18th February, plugging Olympus's range of digital SLR cameras but also showcasing images from 22 photographers including David Bailey, Amanda de Cadenet, Mary McCartney Donald and the late Lord Lichfield. Given the range of photographers who have contributed to the exhibition you can expect a wide variety of styles, so if celebrity photos aren't your thing then take your pic......

After spending last week photographing dead presidents, we thought it only decent to turn our services to former British prime ministers. The Parliament Square Collection Dead monarchs have Westminster Abbey; prime ministers have Parliament Square. There’s six of the blighters here, with a seventh – David Lloyd George – in the works if funding can be raised. Canning by Richard Westmacott (1832); Peel by Matthew Noble (1851); Lord Derby also by Noble (1874); Palmerston......

That’s right. This week we decided to track down the Leader of the Free World. He might sit in the oval office but, when in London, it seems that he prefers to hang out in squares… FDR, Grosvenor Square You can’t sit comfortably in Grosvenor Square. Armed guards doggedly patrol the Western end, protecting the US embassy. The giant gilt eagle nesting atop this concrete cliff adds another layer of menace. And then there’s its......

Christmas chill on Oxford Street? declares the BBC website this week... and they're not talking about the weather. Yes, it's that time of year again, when all those high street scare stories make thier festive appearance and the BBC is shamelessly leading the way with statements like this: The smell wafting down London's most famous shopping street isn't just that of roasting chestnuts - it's of high street desperation. What does high street desperation......

Now this is the kind of story we like to read. The Guardian has a great little piece on the poor souls who stand outside in all weather letting us know where exactly the nearest Golf Sale or foot long tuna sandwich is: The 'board guys' of London's west end. In the course of a morning in the west end, the lowest-paid board guy I encounter is on a princely £3.80 (the minimum wage......

The body which represents West End retailers has made public its plans to improve the area by cutting traffic and creating more pedestrian areas. The New West End Company unveiled its 'stretegic study' called Choices for a Better West End (PDF) at the end of last week at an exhibition in John Lewis on Oxford Street. The exhibition (which is free and runs until the 18th) outlines "innovative and exciting ideas on how the......

While we’re on the theme of close liaisons on the Underground, we should probably mention a story from the Beeb that suggests things are going to get a whole lot closer. A new study concludes that our already-bulging Tube and train carriages will have to accommodate a 24% increase in commuter journeys over the next decade. Gadzooks! Fortunately, the transport authorities have a shed-full of plans for improving the network. We thought it was......

Common sense prevailed today when Londonist's favourite mulletted-twat-punching Deputy Prime Minster John Prescott announced that the plans put forward by London Underground for redevelopment of Camden Town tube station (which would have meant the demolition of Camden Market and the Electric Ballroom) would be refused permission to go ahead. The decision follows an appeal by London Underground against Camden Council's eminently-sensible reaction to the plans in 2003. The report in the Evil Standard said......

Fans of Kaiser Chiefs (the band, not the football team) will no doubt be excited about the release of the debut album Employment today. They should be even more excited to learn that Kaiser Chiefs will be playing a free gig at HMV on Oxford Street (the Oxford Circus store, not the Bond Street one) tonight at 8.30pm. The gig is open to only 400 lucky people, however, via the obtaining of a wristband......

March is set to see a frenzy of Robert Crumb activity in the capital. Crumb is the artist and illustrator who's longevity and interest in large bottomed women has seen him rise from underground comic genius to weirdo icon while remaining a source of inspiration for anyone working outside of the mainstream. Terry (Ghost World) Zwigoff's documentary Crumb proved once and for all that if anything Robert is the normal one in the family.......