Those amiable people in the Kudocities London crew have organised a drinking session thinly disguised as a cultural outing to the National Portrait Gallery. There's a free film showing in the Ondjaatie Wing about artist John Virtue and his commission to paint a series of London landscapes. They're gathering at the nearby Ship and Shovell from 5.30pm and the film starts at 7pm, although tickets are on a first come, first served basis. Be brave!......

Not much to whinge about here apart from a migraine and hazy memories of the most stultifying Sunday evening you've had in awhile, but no matter -- it's a 4-day workweek, which means nothing if not carefree magic. Rest your pretty little head this evening, and revel in the knowledge that this week, only four mornings will begin with slapping the alarm clock's backside. Monday: It's August Bank Holiday, which since 1966 has become......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 31st March 1990: Violence erupts as hundreds of thousands of anti-poll-tax protesters take to the streets in the West End. An estimated £400,000 of damage is caused to property as cars are overturned and set alight. Hundreds of arrests are made. Tuesday – 1st April 1965: The administrative area known as Greater London is formed, amalgamating and consuming parts of central London and the home counties. Wednesday......

The National Gallery have announced their rediscovery of a portrait of Elizabeth Carter in a private collection. The painting, done by John Fayram circa 1735-1741, shows Carter as the Roman Goddess Minerva (or the Greek Goddess Athena, if you prefer), goddess of wisdom and war. The portrait will be part of of an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery called Brilliant Women: 18th Century Bluestockings, which is running from 13 March to 15 June.......

There's something of a Valentine's theme to the Arts of choice taking place in the capital this week. But Londonist knows for every young Juliet embracing the idea of timeless romantic love, there's a Bridget hugging her near-empty vodka bottle, crooning to Chaka Khan. So, in the name of balance, here's a varied, half 'rom', half 'com' round-up for you all. Shows for Swingin' Lovers: Photographer Gregg Stone, has been taking snaps of kissing......

Congratulations – you can read! (Presumably. Unless you just look at Londonist for the pictures.) Literacy is sexy. Hyper-literacy, even sexier. Or so we at Londonist tell ourselves as we don our Coke-bottle glasses and curl up each night with a bottle of wine and a dictionary. But enough about our steamy Valentine’s Day plans. What have you got planned? Now, you may have inferred that we’re a jaded lot over here at Londonist.......

Is it just us or was January rubbish? Nice then that February, with its special extra day this year, commences with Brazilian Carnival, yummy pancakes and Chinese New Year... it's like a whole new start for 2008 and lots of it totally FREE! Monday: Get some Monday Love at the Inspiral Lounge, Camden Lock as UK Indymedia host their radical film, talk, and music night. Free entry for all those who still believe in......

A conspiracy is afoot. Literary London is listless and lethargic these next few days – after back-to-back Burns Night and Australia Day outings this weekend, we can relate – yet there’s an explosion of midweek activity, leaving us paranoid that the powers-that-be are plotting to drive us crazy, leave us whimpering and indecisive, cursing our inability to be in two places at once. Yes, between this and the stock market madness, we’re a short......

Staff at the National Portrait Gallery may seem especially cheery today in response to the news that the Aston Villa boss, Randy Lerner, has made a gift of £5 million towards the development of the collection of faces as well as vital display, education and outreach work. This is definitely a good thing. At a time when public funding for the arts is increasingly competitive and not something to be relied on, private philanthropy......

Photograph of the Trump Soho by Riccardo Sinti Gothamist went to the scene of the Trump Soho construction collapse, which left one construction worker dead and others injured (an indirect culprit - Manhattan's hot real estate market, causing rushed construction jobs).Shanghaiist is confused by media reports as to whether Playboy will be available in China during the year of the Olympics.LAist got fugged in an interview with the Go Fug Yourself girls.Torontoist set hearts......

Three weeks into the New Year, probably one week until payday and telly's rubbish (except for new CSI), the weather's grey and the detox is wearing thin. Don't give in to those January blues! Here's what can get you out of the house for not a lot of wonga this week. Monday: This is the most depressing day of the year. We've said it before but we're going to say it again because we......

Ahoy hoy, book grocery shoppers! The metaphorical book grocer aisles are stocked high with choice meats and sweet confections this December, so whatever your tastes, fill up your shopping cart and gorge yourself on this week’s selection of literary events – they’ll give you much less of a stomach-ache than mince pies. Monday: Revisit Sylvia Plath by attending the aptly named Sylvia Plath Revisited, at the ICA (7pm in the Nash Room £10 nonmembers/£9......

After a 2-month hiatus spent reading Finnegans Wake (alright, would you believe rubbish romance novels?), The Book Grocer returns, with a continually evolving format and its diary stuffed full with book-ish events. Here are our picks for the week: Tuesday: Anne Sebba, author of Jennie Churchill, Winston’s American Mother, in conversation with Hugh Whitemore, playwright and writer of the Emmy-award winning Winston Churchill drama The Gathering Storm, at Waterstone’s Notting Hill Gate store, 7pm,......

The Mayor of London wants you to stay up late. Stay up late for the Lates October season. He wanted you to cut back on sleep and catch up on culture back in May when the first Lates season was launched, now it's October, he wants you to check out the things you miss during the day in the big museums and galleries. Have you been meaning to see something at any of the......

The London arts scene got some good news today. The National Portrait Gallery and The V&A are amongst 43 galleries across England to benefit from a whole load of cash from the Wolfson Charity grant: over £4million in total. So what does this mean for London? Well the V&A has been given the most cash. £300,000 is going to go towards helping with issues such as access and sorting out public areas and there......

China has been in London for a long time, and it's not just been in the series of streets, shops and restaurants that constitute Chinatown. As well as a marvellous amount of fun things to see and do around Chinatown this weekend for Chinese New Year, it seems the whole of London wants to get involved. The Victoria & Albert museum, National Film Theatre, City Hall and the Trocadero are all hosting events and......

This Day In London’s History 1759: The British Museum in Bloomsbury opens its doors to the public for the first time. Some may feel that the British Museum these days is little more than a massive boast, bragging about how many cool things the British Empire has stolen from the rest of the world. But regardless of whether this criticism is fair or not, it’s hard to deny that the museum is still one......

This Day In London’s History 1991: A packed rush hour train carrying over one thousand commuters collides with the buffers at Cannon Street station. At 8:44am on 8th January 1991, the 07:58 train from Sevenoaks failed to stop when pulling into Cannon Street station and hit the buffers at the central London terminus at about 5 miles per hour. Despite the relatively low speed, the impact caused the infrastructure of some of the carriages......

The Londonist Literary List appears every Tuesday. If you'd like to bring an event to our attention, please email londonistlit@gmail.com. If you haven't seen the blog, or spotted them in the Guardian, Post Secret's conceit is simple - send a postcard airing a single piece of your dirty laundry. Now there's a book and an accompanying exhibition at Foyles till December the 10th. The new Smoke - a London Peculiar is out too. Here's......

The British al Qaida terrorist who planned to blow up the tube has been jailed for a whopping 40 years. Kate Moss is at the forefront of a new National Portrait Gallery exhibition.. The Faces of Fashion exhibition will run from June next year. Meanwhile Kate's waster of a boyfriend was at court again today to be fined for attacking a Radio 1 newsreader he attacked when leaving the same court earlier in the......

Potter boy Daniel Radcliffe becomes the youngest non-royal to get his portrait displayed at the National Portrait Gallery. 'It was strange seeing myself as I was two years ago, not as I am now,' said the young muggle. Presumably he never watches his own films, then. We don't normally cover the markets. Apparently, Copper futures have taken a dive after 'a technical chart some traders use to gauge trends signaled recent gains may be......

Most people enjoy le petit mort either on their own or in very carefully chosen company. It's not often a photographer is present to capture the moment when one sets off the heirbags or drops a fanny bomb. However, a new exhibition titled My Vanilla Life from photographer Derek Mossop shows several people reaching climax, on their own, in his studio and offers a rare glimpse into exactly what the vinegar strokes look like......

There's the rest of today, all of tomorrow and all of Saturday. That's a little over two days to brace yourself and exercise your mental defences. When the clock strikes midnight and it officially becomes Sunday 26th March... that's it. It's going to be Mother's Day. Aren't mums lovely? That special lady who brought you into the world and looked after you, stayed up all night worrying and watching over you when you were......

This day in London’s History 1985: Conservative MP Ivan Lawrence made the longest parliamentary speech of the 20th Century. The filibusting backbencher had the house hanging on his every word for 4 hours and 23 minutes, as he argued the case against fluoridating tap water. 1835: 150 years before this supreme act of word creation came the opposite: the complete destruction of a large number of words. On March 6, philosopher John Stuart Mill paid......

The National Portrait Gallery (up there as one of our favourite London galleries) marks its 150th birthday this year and, as you'd imagine, there's a few things going on in the way of celebration. First off the NPG have installed a series of what they call 'interventions' in the various galleries, each of which is designed to "display or portrait represents a significant moment in the Gallery's development". So you've got portraits of all......

So we read over the weekend (second bullet down) that the National Portrait Gallery is to adopt the 'GAP Welcome'. This doesn't mean the staff are going to run at you with generic leisure wear as you admire the artwork, rather a "front-of-house assistant will nod, smile and, most importantly, make eye-contact," at you when you come in the front door. Why? To make you feel like a valued and important 'customer' of course.........

Tired of the telly? All Playstationed out? Over the next three days we'll bring you a guide to the best holiday season art exhibitions. So grab your coat, we’re goin’ down the galleries. National Portrait Gallery: Cornel Lucas - Shooting Stars Brings together fifty of Cornel Lucas's portraits including iconic images of Joan Collins, Dirk Bogarde and Lauren Bacall. Why you should see it: Four words - Brigitte Bardot in fishnets. National Portrait Gallery, St......

If there's one thing Londoners don't do enough of it's walking. Ok, so we're not quite at Los Angeles standards yet but (as Ken will no doubt tell you) a lot of us still rely too heavily on our cars and even getting the Tube means we don't get to see enough of the city itself. But help is at hand, because artist Francis Alys is a walking expert and lately he's been pounding......

Just a couple of exhibitions we were meant to tell you about at the end of last week and completely forgot about for obvious reasons. The first is the fantastic World's Most Photographed at the National Portrait Gallery. This started last week and it's only £4 to get in so it's well worth it, if only becasue you've got the BBC and the NPG joining forces to present some truly iconic images, so you......

Tomorrow sees the beginning of one of Londonist's favourite annual arty events: the BP Portrait award at the National Portrait Gallery. This year has seen a record-number of entries (955 to be exact) competing to win the first prize of £25,000, which should hopefully mean an even greater quality of paintings on dispaly for us, the viewing public. And if the short-listed entries are anything to go by, this should be a great exhibition......