Harry Potter may have completed his seven years at school, but younger wizardlings are in for several years of service disruption on the Hogwart's Express. Platform 9 and 3/4 will be shifted later this year to allow construction work on the West side of King's Cross, according to Jon Burden the former Duty Station Manager at King's Cross, who led a tour of the area yesterday. The enchanted platform will be relocated to the......

Well, it’s over for another year. Time to settle down, relax, and get ready for another batch of shopping in the January sales. On TV, Londonist likes: Carmen (BBC2, 13:45-16:25) This just might be the world’s most famous opera, and even if you’re not an opera fan, you’ll definitely recognise some of the songs. From the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, this production features an international cast, impressive sets and live animals. My......

The legendary girls from St Trinians had their premiere last night in Leicester Square. St Trinian's is the 2007 film of the 1950s film series is getting certain bits of the press excited, with a cast that features Rupert Everett in drag, Russell Brand twatting about with no noticeable change of costume or persona, Colin Firth striding about being humourless and lots of attractive women playing schoolgirls. Celia Imrie and Anna Chancellor both have......

Hundreds of fans flocked to Leicester Square last night for the London premiere of The Golden Compass. Fans who braved the slightly rainy weather were treated to glimpses of stars Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, along with the thirteen year old star of the film Dakota Blue Richards and director Chris Weitz. Based on the first book in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, Northern Lights, the film has been the subject of much......

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......

Every now and then, a bit of London-centric news drifts around the Londonist newsroom (which doesn't exist but imagine a bunch of emails flying around in lieu of an actual office) and is not paid that much attention. However, there comes a time when something requires a closer look for what it is really saying, such as this report on a poll for the top ten London film locations. Commissioned by cinema advertising company......

BAA seek injunction to ban climate protests at Heathrow. But protestors will 'carry on regardless'. The Curse of Chislehurst Comedy Club (not a new Harry Potter book). North Korean art on show. Michelangelo Antonioni, director of 'Blowup', dies. Image of George Irwin funfair, Victoria Park courtesy of buckaroo kid via the Londonist flickr group.......

If you're not too busy reading Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows or attending fabulous Londonist quizzes this week, here are are a few things to keep you occupied on a quiet night in. On TV, Londonist likes: Monday, 23 July The Tower (BBC1, 22:35-11:25) It's episode 5 of this 8 part series, and it's all about the romance on the estate. Kelley and Wayne tie the knot with a large part of the......

This week ended with the launch of the seventh and final Harry Potter installation. But while the world was consumed with Pottermania, it's important to remember that there were more serious things going on in the world, too – two of them in -Ist cities. Sampaist was shocked when a passenger jet crashed into the center of Sao Paulo, killing at least 200 people. The airplane, an Airbus A320, skidded off the runway at the......

Unless you've been hiding under a very large rock, you'll be aware that July is the month of Harry Potter. Not only is the seventh and final book released on Saturday, but the film version of the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order Of The Phoenix, opened in London on 12 July. There are no less than thirty cinemas showing the film in London, so you certainly have plenty of viewing options. Londonist......

Fresh this Week: Amr Gharbeia and Hari Kunzru consider the internet as a space for free expression and censorship at this event tonight. Amr Gharbeia is a leading Egyptian blogger, currently facing a legal campaign to block his website along with other blogs and human rights sites in Egypt. Hari Kunzru's novels and non-fiction engage with the theme of new technology and his recent writing highlights the complexities of internet censorship as a source......

When you're dreaming of your most fabulous night ever, we're sure that, like us, your ideal night out would include 500 Harry Potter fans, JK Rowling and the Natural History Museum. Until now, that beautiful dream looked like it would never come true, but Harry Potter geeks, you are in luck! Rowling's publisher, Bloomsbury, is offering 1700 lucky fans the chance to get a copy of the final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and......

This week we'd like to congratulate the -ist network's Mother Hen, Gothamist's Jen Chung, who found herself a recipient of Wired Magazine's Wired Rave Award. If that doesn't sound terribly exciting, keep in mind another recipient was J.K. Rowling. Yep, that's right, the -ist network and Harry Potter now have something in common. Go us. Austinist has a chat with the ever-fashionable Golden Girl Rue McClanahan, and managed to catch some local fashionistas making......

A tribute to the capital’s alleys, ginnels and snickleways. 31. Platform 1, King's Cross Where? Erm, King's Cross. But it's more than just a platform. It's a sneaky back passage. What? Harry Potter's Platform 9 3/4 isn't the only secret portal on the station. Platform 1 runs along the east side of the main building - it's the one with the pirate-themed pasty stall and the AMT coffee kiosk. The powers that be allow pedestrians......

So if you had to choose between licking the backside of Harry Potter, Ron Weasley or Hermione Granger which would it be? Let's have a poll: We've been looking for an excuse to try that out. This is all about your favourite French stamp of course: From 17 March, Harry - decked out in Hogwarts uniform - will be on stamps for domestic priority mail. His friend Ron Weasley appears on stamps for slow domestic......

We were glad to read yesterday that Daniel Radcliffe's turn in the new production of Equus didn't get a kicking. We always thought the only good thing about Harry Potter was that the speccy little git stops kids shooting and stabbing each other for one night a year because they're all too busy queuing outside Waterstones in their pajamas. But after reading a few interviews with the kid he actually comes across as quite......

...Arsenal will even throw in a football match for free! Seriously, though, tonight represents an excellent opportunity for those who can't normally get a ticket to watch Arsene's finest, but would love to have a butcher's around their new stadium and didn't fancy forking out over £50 to watch Portugal beat Brazil the other week. Arsenal host Cardiff City tonight in an FA Youth Cup quarter final which might typically have been held at......

This week - Simon Pegg polices the country town of Sandford (Hot Fuzz) and Jennifer Love Hewitt lives in Bristol (The Truth About Love). First, we must say sorry for the lack of Saturday Cinema Summary last week. We were saving London from certain destruction. All very top secret - CIA, Interpol, Power Rangers, the cast of Spooks, all that sort of thing. We toyed with trying to tell you that no films had......

Between fake terrorist alerts and scandals big and small, this just might be the Best Best of the -ists ever. We're exhausted just thinking about it. First up, SFist, who saw their little 'ole site be the center of what was a nice little scandal (even getting their editor on TV) only to find their scandal dwarfed by the even bigger scandal caused by their Mayor boffing one of his aides' wife. We're not......

Around 200 hydrogen peroxide bottles are the latest piece of evidence in the July 21 terror case A second protester, this time a BT engineer, has been found guilty of stirring up racial hatred Even the games organisers are worried over the real cost of the Olympics More mice, but this time in Asda and munching on chocolate. Awww And Harry Potter's penis, a horse and some breasts have annoyed some idiots......

What's most interesting about Pornography by Colin Gregory Palmer isn't that he got the girl to hold the sign, but that she actually seems to be eating it. And because we didn't have a Photo of the Day on Friday (which had nothing to do with us being drunk) here's a bonus pic from Herschell Hershey, The UK Prime Minister with the editor of The Guardian, Mr Harry Potter (12): So a big hello......

Welcome to the new slot for Notes From The City, joining Friday Film News (which is, um, now on Saturdays) to bring you cultural edification on the weekend. As the seasons shift and change, so the outdoor gigs keep coming in. This week it's all about fireworks and Christmas lights and the public seem to love both! In the summer it's great to play on outdoor stages but as the wintry chill sets in......

West Bromwich Albion 0 Arsenal 2 The Hawthorns League Cup Third Round Tuesday 24th October 2006 Last week the reserves, this week the “A” team. Still not quite the real thing, but with noticeably more experience on show than the official second string, Arsenal’s League Cup incarnation comfortably strolled past West Bromwich Albion into the next round on Tuesday night. Strolled, sauntered and gambolled past them, in fact. The home supporters were still grinning......

Hammersmith & Fulham (and a few other London boroughs) put their heads together to drum up a bit of tourism and have come up with a West London movie map entitled Go West: One in five visitors are inspired to holiday in Britain because of a film they have seen. Today, film tourism is a growing global phenomenon creating a new breed of tourist – the ‘set-jetter’. Set jetter - nice. West London is......

Childrens' literature is big business at the moment and currently, everyone has a reading age of about 12. But while Harry Potter, Alex Ryder, the Series of Unfortunate Events and His Dark Materials are seeing us through long train journeys and creating amusing scenarios in bookshops as adults rampage and pillage the childrens' section, the Grandfather of childrens' literature who got us all started on this reading lark is not forgotten. Most will remember......

This week - A dysfunctional family hop in a VW van and travel across the USA to take a young daughter to a beauty pageant (Little Miss Sunshine), a British comedy with Julie Walters and Rupert Grint (Driving Lessons) and some Americans join a German beer-drinking olympics (Beerfest). Bradshaw gives it 2/5. For him, "Little Miss Sunshine is a genial and breezy film, with a neatly engineered dramatic twist - yet the satiric intent......

Really, it was worth reporting on this story just so we could write this headline wasn't it? So here it is: Daniel 'Harry Potter' Radcliffe is all set to staras Alan Strang in Equus when it comes to the West End next year. In case you haven't read it, we aren't really spoling anything for you if we say that Strang's favourite hobby is sneaking around stabbing horse's in the eyes with big metal......

We've often walked past the Rex Cinema on Rupert Street, late at night and wondered what exactly went on in there. With a bouncer on the door it didn't look like the type of place you could just wander on into to see the latest Harry Potter. Now we've done a little investigating and figured out its a 75 seat cinema, with a bar, and a very expensive price tag. If you don't have......

Nothing strikes fear into the hearts of a bully like the spectacle of a bunch of balloons floating lazily across a filthy river. At least that's the message being sent out later today (we think) when Chantelle 'almost a celebrity' Houghton and Nicky 'almost a mayor' Gavron are joined by a bunch of kids to let loose a volley of hope across the bows of the dread ship Bully: Ms Houghton, deputy mayor Nicky......

The railway hinterlands rearside of Kings Cross. It’s cold, it’s dark, and there are an inordinate number of people in stripy stockings here. In fact, there are an inordinate number of people here, period. Round a bend, by the canal, and the inordinate turn into the innumerable. A melange of denim, leather, legwarmers and excessive make-up skulking outside a seemingly disused goods shed emboggles our senses. In the distance, we note an elongated pink......