A blog, humbly devoted to all things London, Londonist is – could you have guessed? Meet the fib - no, not the kind you told at uni when submitting yet another late essay - but the poetic kind: a 6-line verse reminiscent, in its constriction of form, of the well-known haiku. Introduced to us by our good friends over at the London Word Festival, the fib takes its syllables from the Fibonacci sequence –......

Bubble-wrap your A-Z, Londoners: traditional maps of its ilk are on their way out, being stampeded over by new-fangled mapping technologies like Google Maps. And what's worse, new electronic maps are missing off London's historic landmarks. The president of the Royal Cartographic Society, Mary Spence, has spoken out about the lack of detail services such as Google Maps offer beyond roads – and Spence claims that by not marking landmarks such as museums and churches......

Those Traf Square fountains, eh! Cor, aren't they fab. Tourists can't get enough of 'em, and they're a convenient birdbath for the square's remaining pigeons plus a natural magnet for mischief-making teens with bottles of soap powder. Still, they could perhaps be spruced up a little, which is something Richard Jones, a GLA councillor with jurisdiction over the square, is tackling head-on. He plans to introduce coloured lights to illuminate the fountains for special......

Visitors to the London Eye yesterday were treated to an extended journey courtesy of a tyre which required repair mid-ride. Whilst a normal trip flies by in roughly half an hour, this fateful trip left sightseers watching nearly 60 minutes tick past on Big Ben before service resumed. Fortunately each capsule comes equipped with an emergency store of blankets, water and tasty glucose tablets, so passengers didn't have to resort to cannibalism. Let this......

Londonist doesn't like to blow it's own trumpet, but by golly we throw a darn good pub quiz. No less than 11 teams (comprising 62.5 people) were pitted against each other in a battle of London knowledge that could, frankly, have rivalled Going for Gold. Maybe even the Krypton Factor. Congratulations to the winning team, who went by the less-than-tasteful name 'The Marchioness'. There they are, to the right, waving their arms like gibbons.......

The biscuits are coming. Why? All will be revealed at tonight's Londonist quiz. (Actually, there's no mystery. We have a round where famous landmarks are obscured by biscuits. Today's Touch Up London is just a lame filler and an excuse to get in another last minute plug for the event. But you really should come. Even if you don't like biscuits very much. We have plenty of rounds that are not based on sweetmeats.)......

Londonist loved Treasure Hunt. It was so exciting. Annika Rice running around in a jump suit, cameraman Graham up her arse and a shiny helicopter to scoot from one end of Wiltshire to the other solving clues, avoiding scary Wincy Willis and hunting for, what was usually rubbish, treasure. Sadly, Treasure Hunt and even its successor, Interceptor (Annabel Croft and nowhere near as good) have long gone but you can relive the thrill of......

It’s not really news that hailing a cab in the middle of the night is getting harder. We can remember the days when you could step out of a bar at midnight or tumble out of a club rather later and still expect to find a magical proliferation of roomy, comfy Hackney Carriages to spirit you home. Alright, you might dent your overdraft but at least you didn’t have to hunt down a smelly,......

We've seen plenty of boastful stats about the reinvigorated Dome — apparently, it could swallow 13 Albert Halls or 10 St Paul's Cathedrals. (Scenarios not all that far fetched, considering nearly a billion quid and numerous reputations have already disappeared into its maw.) But here's a way to judge its size for yourself. Using Google Maps, it is possible to compare London's landmarks from an aerial perspective. The shots are all from the same......

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......

All across the Ist-A-Verse (or at least the American parts thereof), writers and editors are in the midst of enjoying their three-day weekend. But after the week we've all had, we feel like the break is not only needed, but deserved. Just look at everything we've been doing! Gothamist headed into the Memorial Day weekend with a number of tasks accomplished. They worried about Long Islanders giving New Yorkers a bad name. They tried......

Daft old casual chauvinist, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, made a visit to the Cutty Sark wreckage in Greenwich Dock (originally posted by Londonista M@ here) on Tuesday and declared the devastation of one of London’s most important hertitage sites as, “A Bloody Shame”. Although it is easy to make light of such a throwaway soundbite, and we will, it must be pointed out that Prince Philip is the President of the Cutty......

The Save Sloane Square campaign has apparently Saved Sloane Square. Backed by Knightsbridge celebrities, the campaigners opposed plans by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to turn the area into a busy crossroads. Despite the uber-posh location outside the often jammed tube station, the square itself is a forgotten place, lonely and stranded by traffic. The council wanted to replace the square with two public spaces that would extend the pavement areas. However,......

Lots of crucial attention to detail in Wellington Grey's Walk on the Left. Like the way in the above image, motorists are confronted with a fatal accident, a burning bus and a pregnant woman being hurled from the back of an ambulance, but remain angry about the hold up in front as it means they'll miss the beginning of Top Gear. We like stick figures, we like the geometric simplicity of the London landmarks......

You'd think a burly contingent of live in Beef Eaters would be enough to defend The Tower of London from attack, but it seems no one took into account the overwhelming destructive power unleashed by property developers. Plans to stop developers putting up ugly buildings near Britain's heritage sites have been unveiled. Britain's 27 World Heritage Sites, including the Tower of London, are not formally protected by planning laws. But the government is now......

It's Valentine's Day and if your cold, bitter heart has not been melted in a furnace of love by this point, then why go on? Your sneaking suspicion that there is, in actual fact, nothing warm and fuzzy in the world is true. Or is it? There is a small pocket of the universe that will soon be wrapped in a few hundred metres of woolly scarf, all knitted by hand, with love and......

In deference to the Turner Prize, we decided to make this week's entry a work of abstract art. Viz, four very famous London landmarks as Turner, with his notoriously dodgy eyesight, might have seen them. Isn't Photoshop truly the wonder of the modern age? Keep on sending your distorted images of the capital to londonist - at - gmail - dot - com......

If you're currently running round shops trying to fill a Secret Santa for a person you barely know, then you simply can't go wrong with Muji's London in a Bag. Literally what it says on the tin (bag), this is a mini wooden version of famous London landmarks, all in a nice bag, and has been padding out our Christmas presents for the last few years. You get a London Eye, a Gherkin, a......

Calm down, it's not a very slow invasion - just yet another cool thing for us all to gawk at: Today a pioneering airship adventure is being launched in London. 'The Spirit of Dubai', the largest commercial airship in the world, will begin a unique journey from London to Dubai, visiting many of the world's most famous landmarks on the way. It is planned that the journey will take in landmarks including Big Ben,......

We love it when landmarks try and sneak up on you. Reminds us of Spiny Norman shouting for Dinsdale... Fair play then to catya_maria007 for helping the London Eye surprise us.......

This Day In London’s History 1975: The Sex Pistols play their first gig at Saint Martin’s College. After Johnny Rotten joined The Swankers as their new vocalist, the band changed its name to The Sex Pistols under the guidance of its new manager Malcolm McLaren. Shortly afterwards, on this day 31 years ago, they played (or attempted to play) their first gig at Saint Martin’s College. Their debut was not exactly an overwhelming success......

The massive, melting head of Tony Blair is on display in Trafalgar Square. It's just like the glory days, when London's landmarks would be decorated with the noggins of notorious traitors. Only this isn't his real head. And Tony Blair isn't a notorious traitor. No. This is a 4 ft ice sculpture of the PM's private think tank, unveiled today by these green activists. According to the BBC: Their message to Mr Blair is......

The super-stacked summer season of stuff to see and do is over... and the even more packed autumn schedule of stuff to see and do has launched without pause for breath. There's no time to stop and stare in London - and why would you want to? Friday 1 September Late at Tate Britain, 6.00pm - 10.00pm, FREE The monthly Late at Tate Britain, held on the first Friday of each month, is tonight......

Rauf Mohammed, the minicab driver accused of making a 'terrorist video' of London landmarks has been cleared by the jury at Woolwich Crown Court. The 26-year-old from Forest Gate had been accused by the Met of videoing certain London landmarks while "listening to hypnotic music about martyrdom,". The prosecution also said that Mohammed had "spoke of killing Western leaders including Tony Blair". Mohammed claimed that the video was simply a tourist video to send......

Actually we don't. Well M@ probably does. The rest of us love the WORDS because the NUMBERS just make our heads hurt. Anyway - we love tourists that's for sure. We love landmarks too. We also love tourists at various landmarks so we have room in our heart for tourists (and Londoners) holding up baffling signs while they're there: The sum of the reciprocals of the squares of the positive integers is pi squared......

It's time to dust off that rusty racer - the Tour of Britain comes to London next week as the capital hosts the final stage of the nationwide cycle race. As the Tour of Britain website reports: The 2006 Tour of Britain will consist of six stages starting on Tuesday 29 August in Glasgow. The Tour then takes in new routes in the Northwest, Yorkshire and the West Midlands, before a brand new fifth......

We've always thought there was something vespine about those new flats next to Vauxhall Bridge. So it's good to have confirmation that we're not the only ones. Reader Tanny sent in this rather disturbing image of giant wasps and mantis at St George's Wharf. Some of these flats go for over £1 million, so potential buyers can now be stung twice over. Think you can do better? Send your distorted or photoshopped images of......

This week's effort comes from an 'Andy Nomynous' (that may not be his real name). This one's just plain scary - and that's before we consider the clock. Think about the health and safety issues. If that boat hits a rock, the small child is either going to end up lodged inside the grizzly, or thrown back into the giant propellor. And given that Big Ben isn't known for its 20/20 vision and boating......

Reader Simon sends us this image of a single-scoop St Paul's. It's either an allegory for the triumph of consumerism over organised religion, or else a beautiful mirage brought on by the current heat wave. Nice concept, but consider the pigeon problems. Still, we like the idea of tourists climbing the stairs to discover the Whispering Gelaterie. Think you can do better? Send entries to Londonist – at – gmail – dot - com......

Have you seen these yet? They're all over the Tube platforms and the carriages themselves and they show some famous London landmarks such as Battersea Power Station and the Tower of London....except they're filled with gallons and gallons of water, complete with sailboats and swimmers. Next to the hastily photoshopped image are the words: Saving this much water over the next two years (or something similar). Because, you see, the adverts are for Thames......