Fundraising events, for whatever cause, should always try to be novel and attention grabbing if they're going to reap the quids in. Londonist keeps up with the best of them. Lately, we've had the vet in a dog bowl, the bunny rabbit taxi and bid for a date girl. All excellent ideas to varying degrees. However, we've yet to come across a scheme that beats "Beards for Battersea". Yes, staff and volunteers from Battersea......

There aren't many bloke-only professions these days. Maybe Roman Catholic priests, operatic tenors, despots... (insert satirical comment about Maggie here). Today that list grows even shorter, with the appointment of the Tower's first female beefeater. The unnamed recruit will turn up for duty in September. She'll wear the same blue and red work uniform as her male counterparts, specially cut for her figure. The appointment will finally allow mixed dancing lessons for the Yeomanry,......

Wandsworth Council have given consent to six planning applications and one variation concerning detailed designs for one of our favourite lump of bricks - the Battersea Power Station: These consents, representing a total area of 4.5 million sq ft mean that, for the first time, the project can now move forward towards the construction stage and leasing programme. Victor Hwang, President of Parkview International explains why it's taken so long to get this far:......

1940 St. Paul's is hit by bombs. One myth of the Battle of Britain was that St Paul's Cathedral remained untouched (Churchill had insisted on it). However, the cathedral was hit on this day in 1940 (and again on April 17th 1941) and the Choir Stalls and Altar were badly damaged. On September 12th 1940, a time-delayed bomb which had struck the Cathedral was successfully defused and removed by a Bomb Disposal detachment of......

More news of a plot intended to strike terror into our hearts that seems to have been thwarted at the last possible moment: Plans for a Doctor Who spin-off show starring Billie Piper were scrapped at the last minute, series producer Russell T Davies has revealed. Davies later decided the programme, Rose Tyler: Earth Defence, was "a spin-off too far" and called it off. As if turning on the TV wasn't risky enough with......

Sad sad news: Due to his commitment to the upcoming Simon Cowell series "America's Got Talent," "Baywatch" star David Hasselhoff will no longer be playing Captain Hook in a London holiday pantomime of Peter Pan. Say it ain't so. We were seriously considering going along to live blog the damn thing. The show's producers First Family Entertainment are "in negotiations to secure a major star to take on the role”. We're not sure we'd......

The sensible bits are the press release, but the smartarse commentary is 100% Londonist: The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) has started the process of designing a logo and identity for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. It has appointed AAR, a leading agency search and selection company, to help select a brand and design agency. The chosen agency will help refine the brand positioning for the London 2012 Games......

Londonist is as addicted to buying DVDs as everyone else, so it made sense that we should start a regular column to highlight the little laser-etched treats coming your way over the next week or so. Let us know what you think in the comments. Well folks, it's getting to the time of year when the likes of Chegwin, Biggins and Daniels descend begrudgingly upon [enter the name of your hometown here] to switch......

The 13th Raindance Film Festival is well underway and we've already been bowled over by the gems on offer. Yesterday we saw a cracking Swedish police thriller based on Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander novels, a snowy Japanese indie flick about three kids up to their necks in trouble and the hit of the festival so far - Late Bloomer. A beautifully shot piece of film about a man with cerebral palsy slowly becoming a......

We haven't mentioned Doctor Who for a while so thought we'd get a quick word in following the fantastic ARE YOU MY MUMMY? episodes and before it all gets mundane again with another trip to Cardiff (Time and Relative Dimensions in Space... in SPACE - that means they can fly further than Wales and the South Bank, Russell). SPOLIERS AHEAD! GO BACK! STOP READING! So while those of little brain are watching Big Brother......

Londonist would like to say a very hearty (almost Brian Blessed-eque) "Thank You" to all our readers who nominated us for a 2005 Bloggie award. Thanks to you, Londonist has been short-listed for Best British or Irish blog. We would tell you who our competition is but as we write this the Bloggies site is down due to exceeded bandwidth. Hopefully the page will be back up later and we can update this post......