Public confusion: Londonist is not alone, apparently in failing to comprehend the Olympic budget. Tony Benn stomps his feet over plans to sell off a school playing field in Holland Park. The cases of two gunshot victims in Wembley are possibly linked. If you want to ‘Be a Councillor’ in London, it seems your moment might have arrived. A London teacher has been fined for cramming 13 people into his Volvo. And then driving.......

A sign of this country's creeping Torification, with Britain's top two Blues boasting their two-wheels-better philosophy at any opportunity (never mind the traffic signals)? Or merely a sensible policy that could help get more people on their bikes? Kensington and Chelsea are to trial a scheme by which cyclists will be allowed to go the 'wrong way' down one-way streets. Natty new signs are to be introduced on six streets in the borough, advising......

'Martyrdom videos' made by accused jet bombers Ken's clandestine kids cause controversy For those keeping up with the Tube strike ping-pong rally: it's off again Holland Park statue goes up in flames - but is that pic from before or after the blaze? A home in your shell, like: 'Raw space' demand spreads to London Image of An Ordinary Life (isn't that what we all want, really?) courtesy of unusualimage via the Londonist flickr......

A couple of news items guaranteed to register on Prince Charles' carbuncle-ometer: plans for London commissions by two of modern architecture's most innovative practitioners took a step forward this week. Back in January Frank Gehry was announced as the designer of this year's Serpentine Pavilion, the temporary build that goes up during the summer and autumn in Kensington Gardens. The structure has now been unveiled. An "urban street" that provides a covered walkway from......

Lucky old Holland Park. Him of high waisted trouserage and brutal honesty in the 'will you make it in the pop game stakes', Mr Simon Cowell, has invested in another property in the area. The £40m des res in the making is apparently having an extensive underground extension built, which is what all the wealthies are doing these days, darlings. Whilst reports claim that it's all for swimming pools, spas and car parks we......

Meet the fish-eating Surrey dinosaur. Nothing to do with Michael Winner. He lives in Holland Park. As a clampdown on knife carrying is announced, Londonist exposes a possible loophole. 'Potential for some chaos' as a sliding scale of parking fines is mooted. London rugby clubs doing well. Wanted: Gordon Brown lookalike. Another Banksy piece set to fetch thousands. File in the same draw as Pete does drugs and Amy does everything. Meanwhile, what's going......

Having closed its doors in 2004, and playing host to squatters in recent months, there's finally some good news to report about the Commonwealth Institute in west London. The disused building is to be the welcome recipient of £20 million development plan, with hopes to turn it into an art gallery (yay!), museum (double-yay!) or "centre for a corporate foundation" (erm, possibly yay - we're not sure what that means). This should hopefully mean......

New writing theatre company Paines Plough are presenting an absolutely cracking new way to see plays this autumn and making us think that there should be more theatre programmed like this. New writing, an exciting theatre space, a sensible time slot, a hot snack and a drink are all included in the ticket price and you can be on your way having had your culture fix by 8pm when other theatres are raising the......

Some of you might recall that a few years ago the Central Line was suspended for almost three months, following a derailment at Chancery Lane. At that time, this meant that this Londonista’s daily commute often involved walking from Bank to Holborn, past St Paul’s and across Holborn Viaduct – a part of our journey that soon got annoying, but was still quicker than taking the overwhelmed bus services. (London Underground never did cough......

Having spent an enjoyable couple of hours exploring leafy Holland Park last week, our next mission in our continuing quest to find out more about the city we live in was to investigate some parts of the decidedly more urban locale of St Pancras (sans audio-guide this time). Our first stop was to be St Pancras Old Church, at the top end of Pancras Road. Easier said than done, as it happens – we......

Here's something fucked up: A London school is to embark on a trial to fingerprint children when they return to school. That'll stop the little buggers from flying planes into the tuck shop. But is it enough? Why stop there? For a start this is simply to 'monitor attendance'. Must be that the kids were bypassing the old system in such a complex way that fingerprinting them was the only solution. It plans to......

It's something every Londoner wonders about: which of these filthy, crime-ridden streets is more crime-ridden than all the others? Well, now we have our answer (and it's completely unsurprising): New ward-by-ward police data show more than 20,000 crimes were committed in the West End in the 12 months to April. The central London shopping and theatre district was also the scene of 247 street robberies - the fourth most in 625 wards. It was......

We’ve remarked before that, as London residents, we can often be rather complacent about the interesting sights and sounds that our city provides us. London is full of fascinating places and stimulating attractions, but because we know we can see them any time we want we sometimes tend not to bother. So, to attempt to redress the balance a teeny little bit, we’re going to explore some of the areas to which we’ve never......

With the polls opening at 7am tomorrow (they are open til 10pm, so there is no excuse not to vote!), Londonist provides you with the third entry for our local elections competition. This time courtesy of Hans Sloane: The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea With Sloane Square, Harrods and a palace or two within its boundaries, it's no surprise that Kensington and Chelsea is dominated by Tory councillors - 42 out of 54......

News of incidents at Warren St, Oval and Shepherd's Bush, plus the no 26 bus in Hackney. No injuries reported but the tube network is down for the moment. Sky news: At Warren Street there were reports of a nail bomb explosion. Sky's Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt said police believe this may have been the sound of detonators going off. Victoria Line train passenger Ivan McCracken told Sky News he spoke to an Italian man......