As the finale for the celebrations for Ian Fleming's centenary The London Palladium will be host to The Story of James Bond - A Tribute on Sunday 5 October. Hosted by the brilliant combo of Stephen Fry & Joanna Lumley, this glamourous night has been put together in aid of the British Heart Foundation. Stars from the world of film and theatre including Roger Moore will bring Fleming's words to life, while music stars......

James Bond would be neither shaken nor stirred by the news today that MI5 is to launch a recruitment drive for gays and lesbians to join the government's security service. The story was leaked to the Sun of all places (which we reckon isn't particularly well-targetted at gays and lesbians in particular). This is, however, a real turn-around. Until the early 1990s, a gay person couldn't join the London-based national security service as they......

To summarise: On Wednesday, a new novel is coming out about infamous fictional spy James Bond (aka 007). It's called Devil May Care and it's written by Sebastian Faulks. That's it. Quite simple, really. Perhaps enough for a bit of press release? And maybe a nice drinks reception somewhere to meet some key reviewers, do a couple of interviews and help place a few pieces carefully in the right papers to generate 'buzz'? This......

While we're waiting for details of the new Bond film to start leaking, The Barbican are celebrating what would be author Ian Fleming's 100th birthday with a weekend dedicated to the suave legend. The full list of Bond films was voted down to 4 by Barbican website users and they've just announced that the winning films are 'Goldfinger', 'From Russia With Love', 'Casino Royale' and 'Dr No'. Showing on the weekend of 7/8 June,......

A forthcoming publication of a new James Bond novel by Sebastian Faulks marks Ian Fleming’s 100th birthday and presents the perfect opportunity for 5th View (the fifth floor bar atop Waterstone’s Piccadilly location, Europe’s largest bookstore) to celebrate the occasion with a new martini menu. From 19 May to 30 June, 5th View will be shaking, not stirring, four classic and four contemporary new martinis. Spies for Londonist were able to obtain a top......

The police aren’t making it easy enough for Muslims to join the force. Crime rates in London are falling. If you look at them the right way. The 2012 canoe/kayak venue has been moved: the original site was too contaminated. Bond is in town. There’s a Flemming exhibition at the Imperial War Museum. Thames Water have been fined for their shoddy, leaking and unreliable service. But not as much as had been expected. A......

We like to think we have a broad range of cultural interests at Londonist. In a day, we can bring you news of a new electro-pop retro psychedelia band playing Camden, a Korean theatre company performing a German play to tango music, an art exhibition that involves bringing your own art and dance performances full of writhing nude, geriatric bodies. So it gave us no end of pleasure to hear of two news items......

Last night, we learned to mix a good drink with a few shakes of the wrist as part of a Valentine's Day dinner date at Cookbook Cafe in the Intercontinental Hotel and wanted to share the mixology secrets to making a romantic cocktail so you can impress your sweetheart by extending Valentine's Day to the weekend, woo your stalking obsession or soothe your poor lonely heart as you watch The Notebook over and over again......

Most travellers ever on London Underground, 7 December Yesterday was shopping madness Heathrow strike talks have started Olympic strike talk also begins... Catch any Bond this Christmas? Then "For Your Eyes Only" the Imperial War Museum's forthcoming exhibition on the life and work of Ian Fleming and 007 and how any of it was vaguely related to real life war type things is something you may wish to look forward to Image courtesy of......

Straight out of Steptoe and Son - bogus bin men bag bonuses. Straight out of a Whitehall farce - illegal immigrant home office worker to be deported. Straight out of a Bond movie - driverless people shuttles at Heathrow. Straight out of real life - the bit-too-much-booze bus. Straight out of a Dickensian novel - immigrant detention at Heathrow is getting worse. Reminds-us-of-the-end-of-the-world piccie courtesy of paniek’s flickr photo stream.......

Billions pledged for a rail upgrade. Bet they still won't run on time though. Kind women gives escaped sex slave cup of tea and a biscuit. Unexpected visitors! Crabs in your loo. Clever puppy refuses to leave London for Oz. Londonist approves. James Bond style car chase through Mill Hill. Image from Beachy's flickr stream.......

Will the real Buster Crabbe please stand up? And put one of those flippers on each foot up? We were intrigued to discover that the South London Swimming Club will this Sunday morning be hosting a race for the "Buster Crabbe Memorial Cup". That name instantly transported us back to our school holiday mornings, transfixed in front of the televised black and white 1930s adventures of space hero Flash Gordon, embodied by one Clarence......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 28th May 1908: Ian Fleming, creator of the character of James Bond and author of more than a dozen novels featuring the British agent, is born in Mayfair. He also wrote Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Tuesday – 29th May 1886: The current Putney Bridge is opened by the Prince and Princess of Wales, replacing an earlier bridge that was built in 1729. Wednesday – 30th May 1972:......

Once it was a name that evoked magic, dreams and destiny. In recent years it's taken on connotations of folly, nightmare and derision, but now it looks finally as if Wembley might be ready to resume its place at the very top of the pantheon of British sporting venues. The troubled new stadium has been granted its fire alarm safety certificate, the first tangible evidence that it might really be ready to hold all......

If you are after a new spring wardrobe and have a bit of cash to spend on some new outfits now the season is about to change, you've got today to bid for your favourite velvet cape and long stripy woollen scarf combination at Bonhams auction house in Knightsbridge. Bonhams is the oldest and largest auctioneer of fine art and antiques in Britain - terribly highbrow but for today, one of their salerooms will......

The might of the Church of England has been unleashed upon reality television and dumb programming in general. Its members point out that Big Brother, Strictly Come Dancing and even Little Britain aren't very good. In fact they are accused of lowering standards of behaviour and exploiting the humiliation of human beings: There were complaints about everything from BBC news bulletins undermining respect for the prime minister by referring to him only by his......

Well, no. This is almost certainly a PR stunt (possibly inspired by our Touch Up London series) and not a likely development. But an interesting concept nevertheless. The images are by Popularchitecture (and please don't click that link; of all the twatish, unhelpful websites from architecture firms, this takes some beating). Bold as brass, the company are planning mile-high towers in London, each capable of housing 100,000 people. At the centre of the structure......

He might have seen off Goldfinger, but James Bond was yesterday defeated by the cold shoulder. A first edition copy of Casino Royale failed to reach its undisclosed reserve price at a London auction. "It's very disappointing. But the fact that it's an auction means you never know what's going to happen," said Richard Caton, a spokesperson for Bloomsbury Auctions. Surely they should have offered it as a prize in a game of Texas......

Now that Scotland Yard have handed their files on the Litvinenko investigation over to the Crown Prosecution Service, the BBC are hazarding a guess at who done it - former KGB officer Andrei Lugovoi in the Mayfair hotel with the radioactive teapot. Mr Lugovoi met Mr Litvinenko on the day he fell ill, and radioactive polonium-210 has been found in a string of places he had visited in London. But Mr Lugovoi has said......

Well, this one completely passed us by. Man dresses up as James Bond, swims across Thames, scales the London Eye, then throws himself off. Superb. It's been done before, of course, but still, superb. Plummeting tomfool Gary Connery from Maidenhead shares many characteristics with 007. The surname, obviously, but also that silver-tongued way with a bon mot. Reporter: How was it Gary? Gary: Yeah, great, fantastic. Marvellous. Just like a real, grown up spy,......

When secret agent James Bond is not busy neutralizing evil geniuses who live in really cool houses, he becomes sometimes concerned about the welfare of troubled children. Or at least his tux does. Or at least one of the prop tuxes that Daniel Craig wore when he portrayed James Bond in Casino Royale does. At a recent auction to raise money for the children's charity ChildLine, the tuxedo, worn during the shooting of the......

Ever been shopping and spent a huge amount of money on something you'll probably never wear? One buyer was a bit more canny, and spent near £1 million at Christie's on that black dress that Audrey Hepburn wears in Breakfast at Tiffany's. And they did it in the name of charidee, with the proceeds going to the City of Joy Aid. The organisation builds schools for the poorer communities in India. Founder Dominic Lapierre......

We don't have any real desire to plug Marks and Spencers but is this the greatest advert ever? We think so. We don't really know who any of the people are in it apart from Twiggy, but we're very fond of the incredible smugness and evil cackling of a posher version of Kym Marsh who we're told is famous fashion model Erin O'Connor. Now, without wanting to come across as sudden mega Dame Shirley Bassey......

A tribute to the capital’s alleys, ginnels and snickleways. 15. Lazenby Court Where?Short alley connecting Floral Street to Rose Street, Covent Garden. Please mind your head. What?Perhaps one of the shortest short-cuts we've yet featured, this alleyway is nevertheless a relative heavyweight historically. The Court was constructed in 1688, becoming one of the first areas to be built upon in this area. It soon gained a reputation as an excellent place to catch cholera, syphillis,......

This week - Bond is back (Casino Royale) and two magicians go head to head in Edwardian London, (The Prestige). Bond is here! Well... on he will be on Thursday. We watched the last Bond installment last night on ITV2. We had forgotten how gash it was. We'd forgotten about the scene with Madonna in it. It's best to forget. But it looks as if there is a hope.... Bradshaw gives Casino Royale 4/5!......

This Day In London’s History 1709: Samuel Johnson born. When Channel 5 finally get round to making the Top 100 greatest Londoners of all time, the famous dictionary compiler will certainly be in the leading pack. His fame rests as much on the number of bon mots he left the world, as any lexicographical legacy: “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel” ; the overworked ‘When a man is tired of London, he......

Last Friday night, a 35-year-old a Brazilian man, was stabbed to death yards from his home in Fairbanks Road, Tottenham. Yesterday morning a huge fire broke out on the set of the new James Bond movie at Pinewood Studios. Thames Water is going to tap into the city's underground water reserves for the second time this year. They usually only have to resort to the aquifers once every ten years. A married, British Transport......

This week - A 14 year old James Bond, (Stormbreaker), Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn break up, (The Break-Up) and Garfield comes to the UK and finds himself in charge of a castle, (Garfield 2 ) First up, Stormbreaker. Peter Bradshaw gives it 3/5, dubbing it an "entertaining teen Bond fantasy" and writing "what's not to enjoy?" This is the sort of summer film that doesn't go for subtleties. According to James Christopher in......

Raleigh's blood flows through our veins. Summer's on it's way and that means a return to our heritage as thousands of us hurl ourselves into the nearest available sailing vessel for floating frolics ahoy. Most will do little more than get a little drunk, drive too fast and scare a few ducks or frighten the fish. But some will come a serious cropper. The RNLI reported an 8% increase in call outs last year,......

Let's go out onto a limb here and say we don't really understand the appeal of wanting to be a wizard. There's the rubbish clothes, having a broomstick between your legs, having to go to boarding school, pointing small sticks at people in a threatening manner... why so many kids find this interesting is beyond us. Now being a SPY... that's something different altogether. Lots of explosions, car chases, gadgets galore and barrels of......