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June 30, 2008
It would seem Jay-Z is a tad partial to London’s casinos. Londonist rather hopes that he doesn’t start to rap about crap. Two men have died in an apparently suspicious fire at flats in New Cross. Your council really is rolling in extorted PCN money. Londonist contests every one it gets, and most of them get cancelled eventually. Fight, London, fight. English Heritage want to protect the BBC centre. There’s a right old Olympian...
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Where do Britons go when, in Christina Aguilera’s parlance, they want to get dirrty? (We’ll give you one guess.) Adding to its ever accumulating pile of accolades, London, according to a poll conducted by hotel site HRS.com, is the preferred destination for dirty weekends away. Libidinous London topped Blackpool and Newquay to, ahem, come first – nudge nudge, know what we mean, know what we mean? Yeah. You do....
Continue Reading "Naughty, Naughty"
Long a feature of the New York summer, yesterday saw crowds estimated at 45,000 turn out for London’s first Salute to Israel, held to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Jewish state / tragedy of the Palestinian people / bungling British withdrawal from tricky bit of Empire (delete as appropriate). A Star-of-David-studded march proceeded down Piccadilly to Trafalgar Square to hear luminaries such as Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosser and er, LBC...
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Whilst we're none too happy about the new tube ads we're completely charmed that public transport advertising can have a positive, life changing outcome. Baby Katy might not have been born were it not for her parents-to-be investing £2000 in bus ads, asking for an egg donor. We're equally charmed that some young woman saw these on her way to work one day and decided that she could help - anonymously - just because...
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As of today, giant cinema-style screens have been installed opposite platforms at Piccadilly Circus, Euston, Bank, Liverpool Street and Bond Street stations to bombard you with cutting-edge advertising intended to 'enhance' your journey. The system, called XTP, is centrally controlled so that advertising folk can decide what you need to see at different times of the day: commute to work with Sky News, get out to lunch with the trailer for Kung-Fu Panda and...
Continue Reading "TFL: Enhancing Your Journey By Assaulting Your Eyes"Advertisement: Londonist Continues Below!
June 30, 2008
Existential crises seems to be a common theme for various London spots at the moment. With Tower Hamlets calling for Shoreditch station to be renamed Banglatown, Brent Council has decided to get in on the act: they're considering rebranding themselves as Wembley Council. With the council set to relocate to new offices next to the much praised stadium by 2012, Brent are contemplating a name change that reflects what they consider the area's most...
Continue Reading "Brent Ponders Name Change"June 29, 2008
Here’s what we’ve learned this weekend whilst you’ve been cavorting at this festival or that: RIBA have commended the Terminal 5 building and Wembley Stadium. As if they could get away without praising Wembley…. A new report on gun crime fails to report anything that’s particularly new. The police seem to have misplaced a bailed terrorist. Pleasure cruises that are a bit too pleasurable: police raids net some dodgy substances. The BBC have admitted...
Continue Reading "Weekend Round-Up"June 27, 2008
Bojo’s tried and failed to Save our Post Offices. Will he have any more luck appealing to parliament? Don’t miss next month’s thrilling episode. A WWI hero’s medals have been sold for a whopping £200,000+…. …just as Bojo announces free travel for veterans. Barmy Barnet council is fining residents for trying to sell cars outside their own homes. A particularly odious paedophile has been jailed. And the most imaginative fraudster of the year award...
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In a press release from City of Westminster, some astonishing news about clamping and towing cars: it's going to stop. Entirely. Completely. From today, only vehicles causing a serious obstruction in a disabled or suspended parking bay will be removed to a safer location and issued a parking ticket, with no extra charges for the removal costs. Wheel clamping has in fact been slowly phased out over the last two years but today that...
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As the third anniversary of July 7th approaches, new security measures aimed at preventing another terrorist attack have been unveiled by the Department for Transport and British Transport Police. Airport-style x-ray machines (complete with saturnine operators) are to be introduced at certain Tube and mainline rail stations from this week. The machines will be used to scan passengers bags, and come on the heels of those knife scanners that stop people boarding with a...
Continue Reading "Tube Security Gets Teeth "
We turn now to Lambeth, a borough with a proud pugilistic tradition, where an epic battle is raging between two of nature's most tenacious talents: Rattus rattus, or the black rat, and Lumbricus Terrestris, otherwise known as the humble earthworm. Sadly for fight-fans everywhere, the two species aren't set to engage in hand-to-hand (or rather claw to, er, 'wormy head') combat. The feud has been sparked by a wily caretaker at Dunraven school in...
Continue Reading "Rats vs. Worms: Fight, Fight, Fight! "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....
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It turns out that, contrary to popular media opinion, politics is alive and well with our great capital's young. Last night we squeezed into the State of London Debate, an event at Central Hall Westminster hosted by Boris Johnson and his team. A ticket did not guarantee entry and luckily we got there in plenty of time because the event was full to the brim with Londoners, young and old, anxiously waiting to ask...
Continue Reading "London Is In A Bit Of A State"
Kate Hoey, former Labour sports minister and controversial aide to our new Conservative mayor, has admitted that Boris is not certain where some fairly large and important things are. That in itself might not be much of a revelation, but according to her interview with the Metro he's not the only one searching behind the sofa: Some boroughs cannot even tell you what [sports] facilities they have...We haven't even got a proper absolute plan...
Continue Reading "Boris: Some Of Our Swimming Pools Are Missing"June 26, 2008
Do you dread walking down Brick Lane because of the torrent of curry touters? Well fear not ASBOshave started being handed out to persistent touters! Who knew! As well as wasting time, facebook has proved it has it's worth by helping to catch a diamond thief in Ilford. If you were wondering why you were kicked offStreatham Common on Sunday, it's because a WWII grenade was being removed! Now we've nicked off with Boris,...
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June 26, 2008
It's either a sign of Islington advancing or people getting priced out of their homes, depending on how you want to look at it. The Woolworths at Angel has been bought by the slightly posher Waitrose, with the change-over of shops to be complete by the end of the year. Waitrose manager Mark Price has said there has been great demand for one of the supermarkets in the area, and that those worried about...
Continue Reading "Angel's Woolworths to Waitrose Fairy Tale"
Forget credit woes - art collectors certainly don't seem bothered by the global economic hangover. Christies last night saw a silly amount of cash flashed in their Impressionist and modern art sale, the highest amount ever for a European auction. Top of the bill was Claude Monet's Le Bassin aux Nympheas, which changed hands for a snip under £41 million. A Picasso still-life, a Henry Moore bronze and a Degas pastel were also sold,...
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Tube strike approaching, but not that kind... 700 London Underground cleaners will walk out for a 24 hour strike scheduled to start at 6.50pm this evening with a second walk-out set for 1 July which will last 48 hours. Such specific timing for the start of this week's strike is intriguing - is ten minutes to seven the point in time when the freesheets from the evening rush hour reach critical mass? Dismissed as...
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Those slightly addle-eyed folk who rant about Government conspiracies, claim that we're all microchipped at birth and believe the Oyster card is a sinister scheme to track our movements may be feeling a little righteous today: Transport for London has been criticised for "collecting data without a clear purpose" when asking kids to fill in an application form for their free Travelcard. Since June, kids looking to jump on the bus or tube have...
Continue Reading "Have Data, Will Travel"
The Greenwich Wheel finally starts turning in the grounds of the Royal Naval College this afternoon at 5pm, after logistical delays. The wheel is 60m high with 36 capsules each holding six people and 2 kids plus obligatory VIP pods with leather seats and a DVD player (why?). Panoramic views as far as Hampstead Heath and the Olympic Park are promised from the top and at £7 for a 12 minute ride, we bloomin'...
Continue Reading "Greenwich Wheel Gets Turning"June 25, 2008
Alex the Croydon gangsta seems a little lonely. The third runway debate at Heathrow rumbles on. There’s yet another racism allegation for the Met. Jennifer Aniston flies into London. And then straight out again.. Aren't we friends any more? Boris’ pledge to map the crime stats of London street by street has gotten hiccoughs. Paddington becomes a quinquagenarian if not in style, then at least with lots of fun. Croydon sunset from pixelhut’s flickr...
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Londoners tired of their foppish Mayor may have an unlikely saviour come the 2012 elections: bombastic businessman Alan Sugar has suggested that he might stand as Labour Party candidate in the next mayoral election. The ex-Amstrad boss and East End barrow-boy would certainly make a tough figurehead for the city. Whether the ability to amass heaps of dosh and shout at hapless apprentices on TV equips one to run the nation’s capital city is...
Continue Reading "You're Hired: Sir Alan for Mayor?"
A nurse may get sacked for playing Undercover Angel at Ealing Hospital. Back in 2004, Nomalizewe Ndebele wore a camera around Ealing Hospital, where she works as a healthcare assistant. She secretly filmed the less than stellar standards of patient care for a Channel 4 programme, which aired January 2005. Needless to say, the hospital was less than thrilled with this report, and the Nursing and Midwifery Council wasn't pleased either. The hospital claims...
Continue Reading "Nurse's Job in Jeopardy After Dispatch Debacle "