From the outside, you wouldn't guess anything was going on behind the peeling, Georgian facade at all but inside, what was once called "the handsomest room in town" was graced by equally handsome Hugh Grant and the luscious Helen Mirren as part of a fundraiser to raise awareness of the ever worsening plight of Wilton's Music Hall. Earlier this year, Wiltons hit the headlines when it was listed in the World Monuments Fund top......

The Olympic Park has received a lot of attention lately, unveiling its flagship stadium, promising to start work on it early and suffering fiery blazes which fortuitously destroyed a warehouse due for demolition. This Saturday though, an audaciously different kind of attention will be focused on the Stratford site: imagining the Olympics weren't happening. WE SELL BOXES WE BUY GOLD is an artistic collaboration exploring what the Olympic site means to people and endeavouring......

That's Tony Cowards's wish as he brings his one man stand-up show to The Offside Bar in Islington tonight. Tony, originally from Suffolk but now living in our very own East End, performed his hour long "Festival of Football" at the Edinburgh Fringe this summer where he mixed tales of supporting Ipswich Town with a selection of unusual football headlines and a sideways look at what it means to be a football supporter these......

Gothamist learned about the craziest urban nightmare come true: A huge python found in the bathroom pipes. It was also a nightmare for some Yankees fans, as manger Joe Torre declined to come back and manage the Bronx Bombers. At least the city's attempt to give some direction to subway riders was interesting, pranksters went shirtless at the Fifth Avenue Abercrombie & Fitch and the I Heart Brooklyn Girls calendars came out. And just......

Kick off the week tomorrow with Stephen Fretwell at Cadogen Hall (£15). The singer songwriter is touring his 3rd album "Man On The Roof" and by all accounts it's pretty good. Or if you like your things with a bit more soul (or rubbish pop depending on your point of view) then the 'legend' that is Craig David begins the first of four dates at Ronnie Scott's (£25). The Mercury nominated one man dream-machine......

Who wants to be in the office today? Who wants to be told to take alternative routes because there aren't enough drivers on the Circle Line? Who wants to choose the outcomes of something you have a direct investment in? If you do, head down to The Albany in Deptford for Who Wants To Be? tomorrow night with £10.00 and a few ideas of what you would like to do with £1,000.00... The People......

A new exhibition opens this week in Trafalgar Square. For one week only the Journey installation will be wowing visitors to the square. But there’s good wow and bad wow, and this is definitely in the latter category. For the exhibition is portraying the misery and reality that is modern sex trafficking. The expo unfolds through a series of seven containers designed by some big artistic names including Anish Kapoor, each one representing different stages......

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......

Most of our male readers won't really comprehend this, but the launch event for new posh shoes can be a big deal. A really big deal. So when Harrods yesterday hosted a launch event for some ruby-sapphire-and-diamond-encrusted Rene Caovilla sandals (value - £62,000), they took security concerns a little bit more seriously than normal. Not for them a security guard in a cap borrowed from the nearest Asda. Instead they hire a live Egyptian......

With headlines that bluntly state "Two shot at Notting Hill Carnival", you could be easily led to think this past weekend was more lawless London and that one's life is best spent staying at home if one wants to keep it. Thankfully reality stretches beyond newspaper headlines and the 43rd annual Notting Hill Carnival was a splendid day out that reminded us of everything we love about our city. The tragedy of those injured......

Actually Scotch is not so common in Ealing at the moment. It seems that picnickers in Walpole Park, W5, had a bit of a shock last week when they had their Pimms/lager and lime/whatever confiscated by pernickety Police Community Support Officers (PCSO's). We know not whether the jobsworths in question were thirsty, just plain bored, or the ultimate in over-zealous – complaints have been made, and the ensuing investigation will surely reveal all. Now......

As part of the ongoing Shoreditch Festival, this Sunday it's the rather nice looking 1234 Festival. This isn't a big name puller, but instead a chance to see some of the best new (and mainly London based bands out there). Held from 12pm - 9pm in Shoreditch Park, Har Mar Superstar headlines the event with Fab Morreti from The Strokes forming part of his band. From our point of view choice performers include Manchester......

It's often easy to forget the Liberal Democrats these days, despite the opportunity to write alliterative headlines like that. In the last few days, it must be hard to try to top a new Labour Prime Minister swanning off for a ride in George Bush's motorised buggy, or his Conservative rival escaping the floods to Rwanda, only to return to be dogged by criticism and demands for peerages. But as Boris and Ken start......

By which we mean 'tests the patience of those in charge of public safety and wastes everyone's time, money and resources.' Not wanting to be outdone by the Evening Standard's scaremongering, the Daily Mirror sent two journalists to the Stonebridge Park train depot to plant a fake bomb on a freight train, in order to test the security measures in place. A similar exercise was carried out last year when two Daily Mirror journalists......

8. The Incomprehensibles ‘Zooform phenomena’ was a term coined by Fortean zoologist Jonathan Downes to categorise ‘creatures’ which even cryptozoology – the study of hidden animals – dares not to investigate. These are the forms which have animal characteristics, yet are quite simply too bizarre to be flesh and blood. Take for instance the Mantis Man of London, a weird apparition that visited a ‘Jim’ on the night of January 16th 2004 as he......

Try as he might, Pete Doherty just can't stay out of the headlines. Last time we wrote about him, he was getting his wrist slapped by the police for being a naughty boy. Now, it's long suffering girlfriend (or fiance? who can keep up?) Kate who's giving him the grilling. The news comes just after pretty pants designer Agent Provacateur left Ms Moss on the shelf for their next campaign (yes, even after that......

Happy Father's Day! For those of you who have dads, are dads, or know dads, this one's for you, from all of us at the Gothamist network. It was a week of bizarre, embarassing headlines at DCist. The trial of the local administrative law judge who sued his cleaners for $54 million over a pair of missing pants left everyone shaking their heads. Then the capital city was nearly brought to its knees, twice, by......

There's so much going on across the Ist-a-Verse that it's almost impossible to keep track these days. Fortunately, we do it so you don't have to! Londonist took a walk through Oliver Twist's London, thanks to a gorgeous map layer for Google Earth. They also caught up with modern-day fictional London, with the Fantastic Four and 28 Weeks Later. It was a week of insanity over at DCist. They started the week off with......

Are you related to stabbed PC who died 67 years ago? Students design new police uniform - coloured stripes over shoulder, a bit like old Star Trek. Hatrick of headlines for the rozzers, as plant pot incident launches police chopper. ‘Ridiculous’ totem poles waste money say Tories (no, it's not a Day Today headline). Sl-mo London Marathon runner finally finishes. Bomb plotters go down for life. Image courtesy of Maggsinho via the Londonist flickr......

Two 19-year-old men admitted to actual bodily harm last week in Croydon Crown Court and were ordered to pay fines and submit to curfews and supervision orders. The pair of drunken planks (did you really think there would be no puns?) set upon a student walking home from a fancy dress party dressed as a pirate. “Hamish Reid, prosecuting, said: "Karn grabbed his hat and plastic chain and someone threw a glass at him." The......

We here in the Ist-A-Verse know that we're sensational, but it's very rare that we get a chance to be sensationalistic. This week, we've decided to have ourselves a little fun and try our hand at tacky tabloid headlines, using nothing more than our favorite posts from this week. Torontoist Special Report: Rosie to Trump: "Fire 300 Bicyclists for Fraud!" On DCist: Students Go Wild for Slogans, Secrets and Sexual Harassment The action was thick......

Tomorrow, the BBC announce the acts that will be in contention to represent the UK in Eurovision. Making Your Mind Up, the show, will be held sometime in the next few weeks. Whispers have been flying around for months about who'll be in the running, with some rumours hitting the headlines (yep, Morrissey), but as yet, nobody knows for sure. This year marks the UK's 50th Eurovision entry, as well as the 40th anniversary......

Of their Mayfair embassy, that is. Reports suggest the Yanks might be planning a strategic withdrawal from Grosvenor Square, after nearly 70 years occupation. The U.S. Embassy (USE) is assessing various property management options, among which are continued possession of its current premises or relocation," the embassy said in a statement. The Eagle-topped concrete box has been the target of countless protests and threats over the years, and local residents and businesses are concerned......

The congestion zone, bloated and gorged on the wallets of London motorists, finally loosened its belt this morning. A doubling of girth was observed in the ensuing westerly bloat, which takes in some of London's richest inhabitants. Fans of JG Ballard will be intrigued to learn that the area approximating to Chelsea Marina is included on the extreme western fringe, as though on purpose. But what's the reaction? Mixed, of course. And the overall......

As London Fashion Week struts onto the headlines catwalk, the debate over whether fashion models are too thin took another thrilling turn when Sasha Wilkins, fashion editor for The Observer Magazine, observed that, no, they weren't too thin. However, on Saturday, Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell, said that, yes, they were too thin. Somebody somewhere tried to divert the discussion toward the national problem of life-threatening disorders like bulemia and anorexia, and how those afflictions......

Dear Terrorists, Your days are numbered. We've got the intelligence to stop you before you even know you're about to think up an attack. We've got armed police that will take you, the guy next to you, and even people in the next borough, down in a heartbeat if it means saving the people we don't kill. We have a terror alert system that keeps our citizens updated on whatever you may or may......

York Way, that dusty street alongside King's Cross, is abuzz with construction and redevelopment. Nowhere more so than Kings Place (they're not big on apostrophes in these parts), next to the Regent's Canal. Come 2008, and a new arts and music venue will be open for business. And the fortunate staff of The Guardian and Observer will have a new base. It has already hit the headlines, when part of the site caught fire......

Time was Eurovision was just one day in May. Not anymore, as the internet allows us to follow the very hectic season of national finals from all around Europe. We say hectic, because there's 42 countries in Eurovision this year - sometimes even Londonist can't keep up. We've decided to keep it brief (you don't really want to know who's come 4th in the Albanian semi-final, do you?), so here's a round-up: Norwegians have......

This is a tricky one. Do we really need a permanent SAS unit on standby 24/7 in London? Well, we've got one: The basing of a unit from the elite special forces regiment “in the metropolitan area” is intended to provide the police with a combat-proven ability to deal with armed terrorists in the capital. The small unit also includes surveillance specialists and bomb-disposal experts. Although the Metropolitan Police has its own substantial firearms......

A fitting memorial, some kind of political statement or simply art? Gilbert and George have created six artworks as memorials to the terrorist attacks on London... The pieces contain sandwich-board posters with headlines from London's Evening Standard newspaper. The artists appear to be covered by wire in one picture, and also feature as guards, witnesses and exploding atomised beings, standing in ashes. We won't have much to say about this until we've seen the......