If you live or work in the Ladbroke Grove area, this morning will have found you gazing upon a grizzly post-apocalyptic wasteland. If you dropped a Red Stripe brewery from a plane onto a sewage processing unit, this is what the aftermath would look like. In the face of such a sensory assault, it can be helpful to reduce the problem to simple, comforting statistics: 100 tonnes of rubbish needs removing, enough to fill......

Thames Water chase quick buck with luxury flats over super sewer Penny pinching Boris takes early break from Transys, the original Oyster operators, to find cheaper alternative Stop and search at Climate Camp causes consternation The Evening Standard unreservedly apologises to Prince Phillip over prostate cancer story Yum, yum: there's a Thai food festival in Greenwich Park this weekend Image courtesy of Stu_Egan via the Londonist flickr group.......

Divorced, male lawyer? Man, you must be shattered. Sir Ian Blair's probably feeling it too. 12 naked ladies coming to the West End stage Sinking to new lows; dodgy mortgage brokers exploit illegal immigrants Bikers hit by new Westminster parking fees Unsolved - Jill Dando, what next? Image courtesy of toguko via the Londonist flickr group.......

A tedious survey from a government department we'd barely heard of has concluded that kids in the UK know little to nothing about the 2012 Olympic Games coming their way. The Olympic bad news yawnarama continues. Considering it's 4 years off, the whole Beijing thing's yet to explode and that the research was mostly conducted almost a year ago we're really not that surprised and care even less. 4 years is an inconceivably long......

Olympic Delivery Authority criticised over construction emissions Attack on police in Croydon may have been gang retaliation Don't read this if you ate strawberries at Wimbledon Notting Hill Carnival will be "Welcoming the World" "funkapolitan" style with Boris ululating on the side Image courtesy of Kayode Okeyode via the Londonist flickr group.......

Boris wants boxing lessons and Latin, Lily wants a benefit gig. We've pretty much got to the point where anything and everything's worth a try as far as convincing kids not to carry knives and guns goes. However, chocolate sculptures strike us as one of the most maverick and least effective ideas so far. Chocolatier, Wayne Paul Gregory, hopes the shocking image of a baby with a gun or a stab victim lying in......

Tis the season to protest for fair pay. First tube cleaners, then council staff. Last night, waiting staff at Italian chain Carluccios, supported by community group London Citizens joined the call for a living wage. Diners at the Canary Wharf branch were interrupted at their pasta as protestors hoiked up a banner outside the E14 restaurant about their dubious wage terms. As the Independent reports: The company claims that, as a result, waiters are......

Train staff assaulted daily Tube cleaners take fair pay demonstration to City Hall When there's bad news, it's suddenly called the Dome again Islington Council plans to appeal against ruling it harrassed a registrar who refused to preside over "gay weddings" due to religious beliefs Southbank skateboarding safe for now Image of National Theatre photography exhibition courtesy of wottalottapixels via the Londonist flickr group.......

Sir Simon Milton appointed Deputy Mayor Wembley Park Sports Ground protestors refuse to budge Ronnie Kray prison barter artwork under the hammer Prince Charles pops down the East End Organisations sign up for the London Child Poverty Pledge (to alleviate it, that is) Image taken at Rise this weekend courtesy of onionbagblogger via the Londonist flickr group.......

You wouldn't believe it from the weather but summer really is here and the news is therefore getting thin. So, it's definitely time for a spurious survey to deliver some asinine assumptions to pad out the business pages and get a wedge of PR to boot. Today, a survey by an IT security company claims that City workers are addicted to email. Gadzooks! Send them to the Priory, cry we who check our emails,......

Those people persevering with wordy email scams from Nigeria, involving "confidential business transactions" worth vast amounts of money, civil unrest and promises of mighty rewards for the simple act of paying their expenses really ought to take a leaf out of the audacious book of the fake Contessa de Aliva, one crafty Elda Beguinua of Dulwich. This charming lady defrauded major financial institutions and persuaded an entire retinue to wait on her before conning......

Reports that hate crime is on the rise don't really surprise us. In the wake of the earlier shocking news about the murdered French students and the relentless wave of violent crime we seem to be riding at the moment, we're not really feeling the love at all. However, Barnet is specifically reporting a 20% increase in reported race crime, whilst other boroughs report a decline. Statistics, of course, can be wonderfully open to......

Sickening details of the so far motiveless murder of 2 French Imperial College research students have emerged over lunchtime. The stab wounds inflicted on the two men were so extensive that the attack has been described as "frenzied" and the DCI in charge of the case spoke of how everyone involved in the investigation has been "deeply shocked" by the extent of the attack. No murder weapon has yet been found. The attacker set fire......

A bloody great shopping mall will be gateway to Olympics Boris is going to consult on the Congestion Charge extension in September But would 41,000 alleged missing votes have kept him in Henley? Proof that Londoners shouldn't go trekking north of the Watford Gap And finally, there'll be an open air office in St James' Park tomorrow complete with Wi-Fi, a reception area, boardroom, creative room, work desk area and even a water cooler.......

Fire broke out in mansion flats on Edgware Road this morning just before 6am. Residents were evacuated and the road closed while 40 firefighters rescued people from the 8th floor and the roof and got the blaze under control. Thankfully, no one else was involved and fire crews and ensuring the block is safe before allowing residents to return.......

Eye witnesses report a massive fire on a railway bridge over Stratford station. People on the platforms are seeing flames and smoke from only a metres away down the track. Apparently nothing going in or out of Stratford Overground but TfL haven't caught up with this on their website yet. We will have updates and pictures from eye witness soon. Also, unrelated, Mile End station is currently closed due to a person under a......

Populist brings you a bite sized round up of the best of Londonist this week. Catch up on the coolest, quirkiest, most recommended and talked about stories and find out what's hot and what's happening for the week ahead. In the news: Your Olympic round up for this week: Bozza & Becks will jazz it up at Beijing, there were doubts about free swimming by 2012 and Boris was keeping an eye on costs yet......

Ken Livingston's vision of driving a Routemaster to Beijing as a 2012 promotional exercise may have been ditched as a total waste of time and money because of the Sichuan earthquake but the bus itself is still in line to be the star of the handover ceremony at the end of this summer's Games. In fact, it's already on it's way in a container ship. As for the spangly ceremonials, as per the rumours,......

Sheltered, London 2008 There have been shootings in New Cross and Peckham this afternoon. Two men are seriously injured. It's not just youths who are dangerous with knives, a pensioner has been sectioned after attacking an 11 year old girl in Feltham with a bladed weapon Cyclists petition for reconsideration of motorcycle bus lane use The Mayor announced a crackdown on the taxi tout trade to protect passengers while Addison Lee decided not to take......

At a time when the mainstream media is awash with knife crime statistics and government-sponsored images of dismembered hands, it is refreshing to find that members of the public have taken it upon themselves to offer assistance in the ongoing War on Knives (yes, this term exists). It seems that youngsters in South London have responded well to a newly piloted anti gun and knife crime scheme, which has seen Crimestoppers receive a 440%......

Westminster City Council has announced that it is trialling a budget parking scheme in its Queensway car park. Using a pricing structure based on that of Easyjet, the hourly rate will vary depending on how full the car park is when the driver enters. When it is nearly empty customers will be charged as little as 20p per hour for the duration of their stay, a price which will rise on a scale to......

On the day a research report confirms what we've been resigned to for yonks, that 2 in 5 of us are priced out of first time homeowning in our capital, a news report about empty council houses in Lambeth Council rubs salt in our renter's wounds. Lambeth are accused of letting 845 Council properties languish untenanted despite a housing shortage, with a hefty 357 reportedly needing less than £5k's worth of work done on......

We can only assume that Boris Johnson, the man charged with finding a solution to London’s spate of tragic youth violence, has been delving into his own past for inspiration. As such, on his 16th birthday, every boy in London will receive a Michelin restaurant guide, a case of Bollinger and a plant pot full of £50 notes. Well, that’s not true, but a suggestion put forward by our new Mayor yesterday, in the......

Earth shattering revelation of the day: Met Commissioner says parents key to bringing up children who don't carry weapons. Yep, apparently so. Unlikely news of the day: Hayward Gallery goes psycho. We'll be there later this week. Motoring news of the day: Lorries park up and protest Faintly amusing news pun of the day: Pawn very popular. Hah. Ha ha. Marvel-lous news of the day: 3D comic book superheroes to go on display Image......

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, chances are it's a ... This was our thought upon reading the news that a teenage member of Scientology-protesting group Anonymous, who goes by the name EpicNoseGuy on the Enturbulation forums, had his sign confiscated at the May 10th anti-"Church" of Scientology protest in Queen Victoria Street by the City of London police, and has been issued with a......

Operation Blunt 2 cracking down on knife crime made its first big arrest on Saturday night on the top deck of a bus in Deptford. An astonishing 24 teenagers were stopped and searched after boarding the bus en masse and police officers recovered the following makeshift arsenal: six knives, two screwdrivers, a corkscrew, a golf club, a metal baseball bat, a mallet, two wrench handles, a claw hammer and a metal bar were found......

What if god was one of us... Grow up. A letter written by Einstein, dismissing the idea of god and the bible as "pretty childish" has sold for $400,000 at a Bloomsbury auction. We are living in a material world... and Posh and Paris are competing through a tabloid pout marathon to flog their wares across the West End C'mon feel the noise... and map it for DEFRA Keep on movin':Jazzie B gets OBE......

7/7 survivors and heroes who tried to save others receive Royal Humane Society award The Bachelor: London Calling finds 'true love' with blonde, Californian actress. Oh, telly.... East End clergy get police protection Dodgy circumcising Leyton GP struck off Art is objective concedes Streatham council Man left dead on the loo for a year and a half. Cat dead too. Pearly Kings & Queens at the Covent Garden Puppet Festival courtesy of Siberfi via......

Exactly what caused last Thursday's explosion in a residential street in South Harrow is still being investigated. Some of the evacuated residents have now been allowed to return to their homes but police forensic experts continue to examine the site of the incident which demolished one house and badly damaged 2 others last Wednesday. Emmad Qureshi, 26, was killed in the explosion. A teenage girl and another man remain in hospital. The intrigue around......

The cause of the explosion that ripped apart a Victorian terrace in Stanley Road, south Harrow, on Wednesday continues to baffle the authorities. The body of a man who died has been removed, and with no trace of a gas leak thus far discovered, police are now investigating whether the blast was detonated deliberately in a quite brazen, albeit successful, act of murder. As more details emerge, some warming anecdotes have come to light.......