70. The Thamesmead Prowler During the early hours of Saturday 10th August at Goldfinch Road, west Thamesmead, a man awoke and peered around his curtain into the blackness of the night. A small animal startled him in the distance as it scurried around a corner into the gloom, but what shocked him even more was its pursuer. A large black animal seemed to begin to roll on the grass between two trees. "Bloody Hell!......

The unfeasibly appropriately named Phillip Catt is in line to pay court costs of around £25,000 after his second appeal to keep a special Savannah Cat breeding enclosure in his back garden was lost. The Finchley feline fanatic built the first of four 10m by 8.6m cages at his home in Finchley Garden Village Conservation Area in 2006 much to the annoyance of his neighbours. Mr Catt now has 1 month to take down......

48. The Phantom Cat Whilst searching through my archives, like a gleeful grave-digger shoveling out the mounds of soil on a moonlit night, I literally stumbled across a text from a pamphlet dated 1674, in reference to a peculiar haunting, if it was indeed a haunting, or maybe one of the first ever encounters with a large 'panther'! I make no apologies for transcribing the original document exactly for weirdness sake! News from Puddle-dock......

No, Helen Mirren's academy award hasn't been thrown overboard, but London's favourite battleship, HMS Belfast, has lost Oscar - one of its two cats. We're keeping our hopes alive that the ginger moggy hasn't drowned as he apparently tried in vain to find the other ship's cat, 'Kilo'. History is on Oscar's side. During World War II, the German warship Bismark sank to the ocean floor and took almost 2,000 men with it. But......

Every day this month the Londonist team will be pointing you in the direction of a Christmas present that (with a bit of luck) you won't already have on your list. Climb up onto our collective lap and we'll see what we can move from our sack to your stockings... It seems that everywhere we’ve gone recently, we’ve had the opportunity to buy environment-friendly souvenir and decorative tote bags. Gone are the days when......

31. Phantom Assailants: Part Three The last two episodes of the Strangeness have concentrated on bizarre and elusive individuals who have slashed their way into folklore. This third instalment in the mini-series continues the thread except that the victims have been domestic cats! 1998 was a very grisly year throughout the city with regards to frequent mysterious moggie murders, by way of decapitation and tail removal. Forty cats had turned up in eight months......

Our friends at the South East London Folklore Society (SELFS) will be hailing and celebrating Yule tonight with a good old fashioned game of pin the tail on the Yule Cat. There will also be beer, chips, storytelling, songs and games. If you're a fan of urban legends, One Eye Grey, Jack the Ripper walks, gory London histories, oddities, nooks and crannies, the occult, paganism, Morris dancing, dragons, witchcraft and the like, you need......

Londonist loves Horse Meat Disco at South Central in Vauxhall. But it's on a Sunday night. So what do you do if you need a bit of disco on a Saturday, well Disco Bloodbath has arrived and it's Hackney based antics are making us pretty excited. Dan Beaumont, Damon Martin and Ben Pistor are the boys behind it When and why did you set your night up? Damon:Our night began in April of this......

Here’s what we learned this weekend, whilst you were drawing up your Christmas card lists (or crossing people off them): It’s been a bad weekend for London’s performers, with even the ROH being dissed, and one band getting the worst review this Londonista has ever seen. But it has been a great couple of days for pussy cats, with three of them being rescued from a derelict flat, and another being turned into a......

& BOO for the City. The former has just come top of the class for the least amount of waste sent to landfill (just 7% - the lowest in the country), whilst the latter has apparently buried a whopping 93% of its refuse (which is the highest in the country). Tower Hamlets is also featured in the league of shame as it is home to the smallest percentage of households who recycle (11.8%). Councils need......

Black fashion week at the V&A. Police to hold talks with gang leaders. Why don't any of the articles on this topic explain why the police don't just arrest the gang leaders? Speaking of arrest, Eubank's about to receive a call from the boys in blue. Eurostar ads cause offense. Meet Honorary Constable Tizer, a 13-year old feline in the employ of Lambeth North. Image courtesy of tezzer57 via the Londonist flickr group.......

Londonist asks that most pressing of daily concerns: where to go on your lunch break. Seven Stars 53-54 Carey St WC2A 2JB Nearest Tube: Chancery Lane, Temple 0207 242 8521 11am-11pm (Monday-Friday) 12pm-11pm (Saturday) 12pm-10:30pm (Sunday) Map Expect to Pay: £10 or slightly more for mains Rating: 9.5 out of 10 This week’s What’s for Lunch? finds us back in the pub. And, considering we’re nestled in and having a scrummy meal across from......

Tutankamun's coming to town! First we had Anubis and now pyramids are popping up all over London. Created by Brazilian pop artist, cheeky looking Romero Britto, with the help of 1500 school kids, the biggest - a colourful 45fter - was unveiled at Speakers' Corner, Hyde Park yesterday whilst its smaller sibling, just 25ft, will sit outside the O2 on Peninsula Square, guarding access to the first major exhibition at the sweetly named Bubble......

Black Pearl Boutique, Carnaby Street’s “haven of rockabilly jewellery, vintage 1950’s clothing, burlesque corsets, and accessories”, is having a free Halloween party this Friday from 6.30 to 10pm. With its ‘Polynesian tiki style’ décor, the shop evokes the spirit of 1950s tiki bars and is a happening place to visit, party or not. So, the fact that complimentary Black Pearl cocktails created especially for the party will be served means this Halloween shin dig......

Well Londonist has run two animal stories into one here, on account of not wanting to look like we’ve gone soft. And to keep all parties happy, there’s a doggy one, and a kitty one. Although the cat one is actually rather sad: the business of an abused and diseased kitten which was abandoned to die at a West London recycling depot gets us as full of passion and anger as the next daft, animal-mad......

21. The Beast Of Barnet For ten years the so-called Barnet ‘big cat’ caused confusion in the London suburbs – a few years before the ‘beast’ of Bexley reared its head, even though both were possibly the same animal, or at least part of the same puzzle. Strangely, in 2001 the press claimed that the elusive wild cat had been caught – after many years of frustrating police searches, fruitless tracking, and numerous sightings......

We were hoping Bobby Davro would get a plum lead in a seasonal favourite this year and had early bets on a Dick Whittington. Or at least his cat. However, we can now reveal that in fact he'll be hamming it up as Muddles the Jester in the New Wimbledon Theatre production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Davro may be a household name but last year they had the Fonz. You can't......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 1st October 1868: St. Pancras Station is officially opened as the London terminus for the Midland Railway, despite its construction being incomplete. Part of the buildings would form the iconic gothic St. Pancras Chambers, which housed the Midland Grand Hotel. Tuesday – 2nd October 1909: Twickenham Stadium hosts its first ever rugby match, with Harlequins beating Richmond 14-10. Wednesday – 3rd October 1975: After three days of......

20. A Chronicle Of Oddness Reaching the twentieth episode in the Saturday Strangeness is somewhat of a mini-milestone for me, and so to celebrate the capital’s frequent bouts of weirdness, here’s a brief catalogue of high strangeness pertaining to the weird, wonderful and downright sinister which has plagued London for the last twenty years. January 1987: Location – Stanmore A domestic cat named Peppi goes for its usual stroll around Anmer Lodge old folk’s......

Modbury in Devon was the little trailblazer and now all 33 Boroughs have got together to ask us the big question: should the plastic shopping bag be banned in London? The stats are pretty shocking. We really do take placcy bags for granted. Over 13 billion bags are issued to shoppers each year which works out at at least 220 per person in the UK although, it actually feels a lot more to us. Unfortunately,......

Or, stuff you think about London that's true but is actually rubbish. 2. Dick Whittington and his cat. Everyone enjoys a good story. Especially one with a happy ending, interesting characters and familiar friends. Well this Londonista was a bit shocked and annoyed to discover that Dick Whittington's cat was completely made up. Well, that is to say there's no evidence to show it ever existed. For those of you who can't remember, let......

18. The Cheetah Of Shooter's Hill Over the years many ‘flaps’ of ‘big cat’ sightings have hit the headlines, from the so-called ‘beasts’ of Exmoor and Bodmin, to the more recent Bluewater leopard Bexley ‘big cat’. However in south-east London during the early 1960s, the Shooter’s Hill ‘cheetah’ scare was on everyone’s lips – back during a time when such cats were considered extremely mythical and were often misunderstood and wrongly identified, but were......

Long dead man gets parking fine. Paris Hilton wants to call her first-born 'London'...after her cat? "I want kids next year, so I have got to get my body ready." Big Scottish party tomorrow Have a happy weekend: Tube strike called off! Image of Hammersmith Bridge courtesy of Lu¡s' via the Londonist flickr group.......

This weekend column is brought to you by the founders of Niceties Tokens, Liz and Pete of Team Nice. 14. The Right To Protest It seems to me that the government is particularly exposed whenever it is seen to block the right of its citizens to protest. Freedom of speech and the right to protest are two of the founding pillars of democracy, and that is what the government is fighting so many wars......

As the name suggests, this post could be something out of a fairy tale. Well, a modern day one anyway. So, are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin. Once upon a time there was a lovely pensioner called Dick Whittington who left his home in Weston Super-Mare in Somerset to come to London to seek his fortune. Or, rather, his pension. He, like many others reckon it's about time there was a rise in......

If you're anything like Londonist, you're saving up to go on holiday somewhere sunny (well let's face it, it's not going to happen here any time soon). So, like us, you'll be watching the pennies this week. This means we can't go and see David Suchet at Theatre Royal Haymarket, or go and watch the new Simpsons Movie. We're very annoyed about this, so we've found some exciting free stuff to do instead: Monday:......

Over 270,000 people have signed a Christian petition to oppose the proposed building of a supposedly enormous mosque in Newham. The petition, which closed this week, stated: We the Christian population of this great country England would like the proposed plan to build a Mega Mosque in East London Scrapped. This will only cause terrible violence and suffering and more money should go into the NHS. Human rights organisation Blink lobbied the No. 10......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 9th July 1968: The Hayward art gallery on the South Bank is opened by the Queen. Tuesday – 10th July 1958: Britain’s first parking meters are installed in Mayfair. Soon there would be 625 of them in the district, charging 6 pence per hour. Wednesday – 11th July 1848: Waterloo Station is opened. The original station would survive just 52 years until 1900, when it would be......

Hello Jeff! I've only written two proper columns abut the London comedy scene for Londonist, but already I'm getting offers of work from excited parties. For example, the guys at 'What Man?' magazine have asked me to cast a wry eye over the week's men, and I'm particularly excited by an offer from a notable tabloid, to write a column called 'Beef Review'. As the title suggests, it'll be me reviewing bits of beef......

Remember those poisonous caterpillars that were causing a fuss in Park Royal? Now the lucky residents of Kew get to share in the fun! The caterpillars, which are covered in thousands of toxic bristles , were spotted in Kew Gardens recently. Luckily, the garden's staff are on top of the situation and won't let the caterpillars turn into an infestation of Oak Processionary Moths. The incredibly high-tech solution to getting rid of the caterpillars......