King's Road in Chelsea is closed due to an incident involving gunfire: members of the public reported hearing gun shots in the area and police were fired at when they approached. The armed police officers discharged their weapons in return at approximately 5pm and the incident is still unfolding. No injuries have been reported, no arrests have been made yet but King's Road is closed and shops in the immediate area are closed. Business owners......

We've been known to hit the clubs on occasion to take a little tipple, do a little dancing and mingle with our friends, neighbours and hopefully a few attractive strangers. But a fun night can quickly turn ugly when an insult is lobbed, someone's pride is shot and the drinks shout "Fight!" Still, it's most often a case of the bark being worse than the bite, not usually escalating past a few heated words or......

Met police reception staff are mighty miffed Shooters get shirty about Olympic venue choice Ken bribes the student vote with 100 days till election While Gordon attempts to inspire the world about 2012 with his unique charm and zest Image of the doomed Flying Duck Enterprises in Greenwich courtesy of Mondoagogo via the Londonist flickr group.......

The cold weather - and holiday festivities - descended upon Gothamist. The Rockefeller Christmas tree was lit, Broadway stagehand finally ended their strike, and NASCAR decided to run their victory lap through Times Square. There were disturbing photographs revealing the working conditions in which many city manholes are produced and ninjas were also a hot topic, either robbing homes or entering into alibis. But the city was really rocked by how Rudy Giuliani's visits......

Today marks 20 years since a dropped match started a blaze at King’s Cross tube station that killed 31 people. Smoking on the sub-surface portions of the Underground had been banned two years before the 1987 fire, but at the time smokers were still allowed to light up on their way out of the station. It’s thought that a smoker’s match fell beneath the wooden escalator and ignited the mixture of grease and rubbish......

Apparently they are fed up with being dissed in and by the media, and distrusted by society at large. As the BBC launches its Talking Teenagers campaign, a brave and shiny teenager has taken up the challenge down in Bexleyheath, claiming that the press are too keen to focus on under-performing, dysfunctional adolescents and all too ready to ignore happy teenage stories (such as her own – she is a champion St. John’s Ambulancer). Londonist......

Anyone looking at this case for the first time would be dumbfounded. Were the Metropolitan Police Force in breach of health and safety laws when they shot an innocent man seven times in the head? Health and safety laws? Isn't that like prosecuting Genghis Khan for illegal immigration? Terminology aside, the Met were yesterday found guilty of endangering the public when, on 22 July 2005, they misidentified Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes as a......

October hasn't been a great month to be a Royal. If it's not a blackmail attempt, or being immortalised in bronze for a controversial sculpture, now they can't even go out for a spot of recreational rare-bird shooting without some spoilsport kicking up a fuss. It's been reported that Prince Harry was interviewed by police after two rare hen harriers, a legally protected species of bird, were shot in flight at Sandringham. The prince......

We always think going to a video shoot would be really fun, but until we go to one and realise it's sitting about in the cold eating soggy sandwiches, we're going to keep bringing you opportunities to go. This time it's the Stereophonics who personally have been making our ears bleed for about the last 5 years, but given their album went to #1 yesterday some of you must still like them. Anyway on......

Gothamist learned about the craziest urban nightmare come true: A huge python found in the bathroom pipes. It was also a nightmare for some Yankees fans, as manger Joe Torre declined to come back and manage the Bronx Bombers. At least the city's attempt to give some direction to subway riders was interesting, pranksters went shirtless at the Fifth Avenue Abercrombie & Fitch and the I Heart Brooklyn Girls calendars came out. And just......

Giant crack in the Tate Modern. Half of those living near Heathrow would quite fancy a new runway. A pretty grim account of the Menezes shooting emerges in court. Newts get evicted from Olympic site. Croydon branches of Greggs are employing bouncers, claims local news site. Crumbs, that half-baked idea really takes the biscuit, etc. etc. Image courtesy of Dartar, who gets picked again for visiting one our favourite pubs. Image via the Londonist......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 24th September 1917: A zeppelin drops a 50 kilogram bomb that lands just outside the Bedford Hotel on Southampton Row in Bloomsbury, central London. 13 people are killed and a further 26 injured. Tuesday – 25th September 1818: The first human-to-human blood transfusion is performed at Guy’s Hospital. Previous blood transfusions had used animals’ blood. Wednesday – 26th September 1850: The first stretch of the North London......

Do you want to go and see some Peregrine Falcons? We were enjoying ourselves today on a leisurely stroll along the South Bank (home of London's finest avian encounters) when we stumbled upon the RSPB outside the Tate Modern. They had four telescopes pointed up at the central tower. To the naked eye nothing could be seen but with the help of the lens the beautiful creatures were a delight to watch. The birds......

Extremist literature in our libraries. Filed under 9/11 in the Dewey Decimal system? Man makes 15,000 nuisance phone calls. By way of community service, he's been given Bob Crow's number and unlimited calling credits. Alcoholic jockey tells court "Don't tag me, I won't be able to get my riding boots on". Sir Ian Blair receives another grilling over Menezes shooting. Image of the closing New Piccadilly Cafe courtesy of buckaroo kid via the Londonist......

Or, stuff about London you think is true, but is actually rubbish. 1. The Eros statue in Piccadilly Circus. Ah, the Eros statue. A symbol of love in the midst of tourists and shoppers. How romantic. Er, actually, sorry to dissapoint you, but it's all rubbish. Think we're making it up? Allow us to explain. The statue is a memorial to The 7th Earl of Shaftsbury (yep, that's where the avenue got its name) and......

As the more hoop-savvy amongst you will know the NBA has beaten the NFL to London by just over a fortnight as the Boston Celtics are scheduled to face the Minnesota Timberwolves in an already sold out pre-season game at the O2 Arena on October 10th. If you're not fortunate enough to have a ticket for that then this weekend offers you the opportunity to join in the basketball razzmatazz as NBA Madness 2007......

In part two of our follow up to last year's article on which player's our Premiership clubs should buy we cover Tottenham, West Ham and Fulham. Click here to see yesterday's piece on Chelsea and Arsenal. TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR What was the problem position? Left wing. What did the club do about it? Like rivals Arsenal over their goalkeeping situation, not much. Indeed, Spurs eventually sacrificed England world cup winger Aaron Lennon to the ol'......

Remember Derek? Our very own secret agent? Well he's still roaming the capital with his water pistol. He's not too happy with the pseudonym but appears to have forgiven us. And what a busy week he's had. First, there was a stakeout at an embassy. Sorry, even we don't know which one. Then he kills people and then has to do it again. Now before we go any further, let us stress to the......

Chicagoist is gearing up for this weekend's annual Air & Water Show along the lakefront. In what's becoming an annual tradition around there, staff member Todd McClamroch even got to fly with one of the participants. Chicagoist's decidedly opinionated readership was also appalled that one of their staffers found a popular local brewpub to be a great place to bring a kid. They also think that an unlikely activist for immigration rights should just take......

What we now know about the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes- * The stories that Jean Charles acted suspiciously by running away from the police and jumping the barriers at Stockwell tube are untrue. * He was not wearing a bulky jacket or a bomb belt with visible wires hanging out. * Members of the police force knew this (for instance, the ones that followed and shot him.) * Senior officers knew that......

Report: public 'misled' over Menezes shooting. Murder, murder, murder, rape and murder. BBC London sure is a depressing place today. And their Crossrail story isn't too optimistic either. Robbers use digger to raid cash machine. They fail. Our old friend Andrew Hudson-Smith has built some neat representations of London in Second Life. See image above. Image taken from the the Digital Urban blog.......

While SFist cringed at the fatal dose of crime littering the Bay Area, it found solace in Hillary Clinton's San Francisco campaign headquarters opening, which featured loads of exposed mammary glands. In other news, SF Taxi Commission ruled that Satan's cab must keep its (in)famous medallion number, 666; and in an un-fashion-forward frenzy, San Francisco Fashion Week (chortle) bars bloggers from covering and getting smashed at their shows and parties, respectively. Also, they found a......

How many weeks after a smoking ban is implemented does it take before the wrath of the smokers results in violence? The answer is three. A trio of men at a south-west London club were seen fleeing the scene after James Oyebola, a former British heavyweight boxer, was shot in the head and leg. Oyebola, 47, had confronted the men about smoking at the club, Chateau 6 in Fulham Road. He was taken to......

The last woman ever to be hanged by the British government, Ruth Ellis, is back in the news 52 years after her execution. A petition to have the Ellis case reopened is being supported by Gordon Brown after new evidence possibly exonerating Ellis was brought to light. Author Monica Weller, who was doing research for a book with Ellis’s sister, claims that evidence never heard at the trial may have resulted in a much......

Earlier this week we told you about Galaxy Zoo, where ordinary web users help astronomers by classifying the galaxies they capture in their telescopes. But Londoners are an exploratory bunch, and after sorting a few dozen of the Milky Way’s neighbours you might ask what you could see if you went outside and looked up at the sky yourself. We’ve got good news and bad news for you on that front. The bad news......

As the buzz surrounding the weekend's Tour de France action in London builds steadily, more and more people are asking where will be the best places to watch, especially during the Prologue individual time trial on Saturday afternoon. Unlike the annual Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race, where the best vantage points are well established, there's no obvious form to go on for this one-off cycling spectacular in terms of where to set out your viewing stall......

Hooha over very expensive council corporate suite at the O2. But Bon Jovi christens it with "hair rock". Motorist hides gun between buttocks in Tooting. But local newspaper fails to spot 'Shooting craps' pun potential. At Wimbledon, if the rain doesn't get you, the snipers will. Madonna adds a sixth London home to her collection. Image courtesy of Chutney Bannister via the Londonist flickr group.......

Seattlest has a talk with the photographer from last week's "Segway Mom" and then experiences some dissension in the ranks over the question of wine vs. beer. It's not West Side Story, but about as close as they'll get. They're also still waiting on some inbox relief after a spammer is arrested. As Chicagoist counts down the days to its third anniversary party, they found all-organic pizza to be underwhelming amidst the hoopla, tried......

“With any luck, they also eat squirrels and tiny, annoying dogs.” So said AlyxL, commenting on our earlier post about big cats. Well AlyxL, if that is your real name, it really doesn’t matter. We have occasionally popular performance artist Mark McGowan to act in that capacity. The serial stunt-puller ate a corgi live on Resonance FM last night. (By ‘live’, we really hope the Metro is talking in the broadcasting sense.) McGowan, whose......

No, this is not a Touch Up London entry involving a giant root vegetable or a cross-looking Stefan Edberg (whimper). The magnificent Swede in question is the rather stunning Götheborg, a full-scale replica of an 18th century merchant trading ship that this weekend popped to visit the capital and have a bit of a face-off with a modern-day warship. It's not entirely an accurate replica - the deck is 10cm higher as seamen are......