Think back to those hazy pre-mayoral-voting days when you would gaze at loveable candidate Boris's mischievous face in your daily edition of the Evening Standard, and ruminate on his status as ‘one of us’, or 'man of the people'. Well, nostalgic friend, those days are over. Today's news reveals that Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is not, as he would seem, just your average Tom, Dick or Harry. Johnson is the latest celebrity to......

Massive "event" gigs currently seem to be in favour at the moment, with Live8, Live Earth, and last saw one of the biggest to date, and most worthy: 46664, to celebrate Nelson Mandela's 90th Birthday and also to raise awareness of his AIDS charity's work. You've probably heard about it in the press - the whole Amy Winehouse will she turn up / won't she turn up situation, the issue over whether Nelson Mandela was......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 9th June 1958: Queen Elizabeth II flies into a revamped Gatwick to officially open London’s second biggest airport. Tuesday – 10th June 2000: The Millennium Footbridge opens, spanning the Thames between Bankside and the City. It would initially suffer from ‘synchronous lateral excitation’ (a.k.a. wobbliness), necessitating its closure and the fitting of dampers. Wednesday – 11th June 1988: The Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute (a.k.a. Mandela Day......

We're obsessed with the details of planning, preparation and politics that goes on with staging the beastly sporting behemoth that is a 21st century Olympic Games. Almost daily, we mutter about billion pound budgets, lasting legacies, sustainability, cultural Olympiads and corporate sponsors. How refreshing then, to consider the first London Olympics whose centennial anniversary is being celebrated today with a royal reception. The 1908 Games were cobbled together in just 2 years when Rome......

You can't blame the Queen for not visiting East London very often. You can't get the tube there from Buck House for starters, and since the Number 38 went 'bendy' the Corgis won't get on it. But this week she went to the remarkable length of flying to Istanbul to meet a group of teenagers from Hackney. To be fair, she was on a visit to Turkey anyway. But she spent the day meeting......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 3rd March 1982: The Barbican Centre is opened by the Queen. After 15 years of construction, at a cost of £161 million, the centre would become the largest performing arts centre in Europe (as well as being voted the ugliest building in London). Tuesday – 4th March 1882: Britain’s first electric trams go into operation in Leytonstone, East London. Wednesday – 5th March 1856: The second Covent......

Here’s what we’ve learned this weekend whilst you’ve been taking tea with mother… Greed, stupidity and a gambling addiction are not a good combination: a council housing official is duly jailed. Aspiring immigrant mini-cabbies are to be asked to obtain a ’certificate of good conduct’ from their country of origin. Yeah, like this is really going to work. Did Lucy really want to marry Mike, or did she just want to be on Capital......

This week saw Londonist Get Scientific when we previewed We Are Scientists playing Soho Revue Bar this Tuesday, get excited about Eurovision and get cosy with Portico Quartet. A busy week all in all! Looking ahead to this week however, we have Eels playing Royal Festival Hall on Monday night. They've invited the Queen too, so it could be an amusing evening. Austin, Tx stars Spoon play a sold out show at Scala and rising......

Al Fayed and his Royal Ghouls conspiracy - Macca, Mills and the millions - enough already!! Science Museum specialists to strike over pay... Unsurprising since London's streets may as well be paved with gold Junior suffrage in action as Young Mayor of Tower Hamlets elected (are you registered to vote in May?) Eels attempt to put the Royal back in Festival Hall Image courtesy of Shutterbuguy via the Londonist flickr group.......

Doesn't sunshine make everything seem better? Alright, it's been brass monkeys but nothing lifts the winter blues like bright skies, crisp air and early daffodils. It's half term for most kids this week so your commute might even be more pleasant. In which case, perhaps you'll be more inclined to get out after work and try something different that's light on your wallet and heavy on aceness. After all, we really can't afford good......

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......

A group of masked protesters will gather outside the Church of Scientology's centres in London on Sunday morning at 11am, starting at the centre on Queen Victoria St before moving on to the Goodge St location. But what has prompted this IRL display of anger? The protests - which will take place in various other countries on the same day - are the latest and strangest episode in an all-out war between the famously......

Big belchers should stay at home as Ken’s low emission zone comes into force. Wonder what the road tax on camels is… Big spenders are on their way to London, with imminent and potentially record breaking art sales at Christies and Sothebys. Big boost for Waltham Forest residents following the relocation of their library - the launch of, er, a new supportive blogsite. Big deal - £5 for pre-war IRA bomb hero. Great stuff,......

Brian Haw arrests 24,000 police for protesting at Westminster. Prisons in London are less popular than ever. We learn the costs of free travel for kids. A touch of glass is coming to South London: Crystal Palace is soon to rise again. Pilot finds God on the way to Heathrow. Fortunately God also seems to have found the pilot, as no harm was done. Is this the real life? We Will Rock You, the......

Need a way to get rid of January ennui? Screw vitamins and detoxing, we're flinging ourselves headfirst at a fiery folky mid week fling with Paprika Balkanicus at Magpie's Nest, an eclectic folk/acoustic/experimental evening at the the Old Queen's Head on Wednesday. Nothing sounds quite as effective at banishing January blues than some in your face, Eastern European, gypsy riot delivered by 3 cool geezers in ties. Expect fiddles, accordians, stamping, whooping and smiling......

A Korean company performing their own interpretation of a German Expressionist play to contemporary tango music using only chairs could, on paper, be utterly preposterous. Yet, in the flesh, Woyzeck by The Sadari Movement Laboratory (at the Queen Elizabeth Hall last night) was an incredibly strong, powerful and moving production presented as part of the London International Mime Festival. Woyzeck deals with sexual jealousy, the brutalising of soldiers by war, paranoia, oppression and class......

Five London restaurants have newly received fabled Michelin stars in the latest edition of Michelin’s guide to good eating. No restaurants were awarded two or three stars, the marks of truly exceptional restaurants. So where should you take your date for a dinner that really captures the zeitgeist of London fine dining? The new star-boasters are Hibiscus, La Trompette, Quilon, Rhodes W1 and Wild Honey. We’re sure these restaurant are immensely chuffed but, at......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 21st January 1976: Concorde’s first commercial service, from London to Bahrain (and Paris to Rio de Janeiro) commences. Tuesday – 22nd January 1876: The Royal Aquarium opens in Westminster. It would be demolished just 26 years later and replaced by the Methodist Central Hall. Wednesday – 23rd January 1571: The Royal Exchange in the City of London is officially opened by Elizabeth I. Over the next few hundred......

There is the usual hoo-ha over crime figures. We all know that they’re up really, so who’re they trying to kid? First she was deformed, and then maimed. Leslie Ash gets rather a tidy sum by way of compensation. Axe wielding motorist gets his sentence quashed. Well, he was only swinging it at clampers, so hey-ho. The Cardinal of Westminster Cathedral is praying for divine financial intervention. Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup has joined......

Every month, the folks at Fancyapint? get together to vote for their top ten favourite pubs. These are recently visited pubs that for one reason or another (the ambience, the booze, the company) stuck in their collective memory. Kindly, these booze-savvy Fancyapinters have decided to share their latest picks with Londonist and all our readers. Cheers! Here’s the current list from Fancyapint? in no particular order of merit. They assure us that all ten......

Right, so you're either saving up to blow the last of the December salary on one helluva NYE out or you're just stony broke after Christmas/sales shopping. Either way, unless you're happy to simply hibernate for the week here are some ideas for New Year jollity on a budget. New Year's Eve: Follow our top tips and gird your loins for the massive fireworks display along the Thames, focusing on the London Eye and......

Merry Christmas! (Or, if you’re not so much into the whole Christmas thing, Happy Tuesday!) We hope you’re having a very lovely Christmas day. If you need a break from the family madness, here are a few things you might want to take a peek at. On TV, Londonist likes: Top of the Pops Christmas Special (BBC1, 13:30-4:30)) Fearne Cotton and Reggie Yates present this look at the year’s most popular acts – and......

Hello Jeff! Ho ho ho and a bottle of rum - it's Christmas time! Happy Saint Jesus Day, to almost all of you! And what an event it is - a time for giving, sharing, and taking; a time for thinking about the past, as well as looking forward to the future, all the while contemplating the here and now; a time of remembrance and joy, coupled with inebriation, rage, and light misogyny. And......

We're still wondering whether civil servant, Trushar Patel, is either a clever sod, just another thieving crook, or a bit of both. Either way he's spending the next 18 months on the tax payers board and lodging for: conspiring to procure the execution of a valuable security. Or, in the long-lasting Queen's English, he swindled London Underground out of twenty two grand by getting his family to fill in bogus fare refund forms. Now......

Her Majesty The Queen is now the oldest monarch Britain has ever enjoyed. Hang on, that sounds pervy. Let’s try again. Queen Elizabeth II today becomes the oldest British monarch. That’s better. The AFP, taking no chances that she might die overnight, filed the story thus: Queen Elizabeth II was set Thursday to become Britain's oldest monarch.. She surpasses Queen Vic, who snuffed it aged 81 years and 243 days. But our Liz will......

2007 is quickly slipping away, and with it the few remaining book events for the year. As most of us are busy buying books for the bibliophiles on our shopping lists rather than reading or going to signings this week, we thought we’d present you with an alternative Book Grocer today. For those of you already finished with your shopping (you overachievers you), the traditional listings follow. If, like Londonist, you go for the......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 17th December 1983: An IRA car bomb explodes near Harrods in Knightsbridge, killing six people (including three police officers) and injuring a further 85 Christmas shoppers. Tuesday – 18th December 1890: The world’s first ‘deep-level’ electric tube line opens, connecting Stockwell and King William Street. As we mentioned last year, the City & South London Railway would later become a part of the Northern Line as we......

Londonist asks that most pressing of daily concerns: where to go on your lunch break. Queen Boadicea 292-294 St John St EC1V 4PA Nearest Tube: Angel 0207 354 9993 11.30am-Midnight (Monday-Thursday) Midday-2am (Friday-Saturday) Midday-11pm (Sunday) Map Expect to Pay: Under £10 for lunch Rating: 8 out of 10 Ooh wait. Do we have time for one more pub lunch before 2007 comes to a close? Well then, allow us to mention Queen Boadicea. There’s......

Ken's been coming under the cosh for his fact-finding trip to Delhi last month. The mayor and his long-time nemesis, Tory councillor Brian Coleman, have been flapping barbs at eachother in the London Assembly, with the Barnet bruiser landing a number of heavy blows on Livingstone, accusing him of taking a "larger entourage than the Queen". He went on to question whether Ken's fellow visitors Myleene Klass and a group of dancers from the......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 3rd December ????: Nothing of any interest has ever happened in London on this date. Sorry. Tuesday – 4th December 1882: The Royal Courts of Justice on The Strand are opened by Queen Victoria. Wednesday – 5th December 1905: Part of the roof of Charing Cross station collapses, killing six people. Thursday – 6th December 1983: Britian’s first heart and lung transplant operation takes place at Harefield......