Whether you queued up for the Cans Festival back in May or missed out on car crashes, piano men, and Banksy getting called out, now is definitely the time to head back over to Leake Street near Waterloo. Almost the entirety of the tunnel under the old Eurostar platform has been painted over with new street art. There may not be the star quality of that guy from Bristol, Brooklyn's Faile, or the ever cheeky......

Sure, the forecast is rather foreboding this week, but frolicking in hot summer showers worked for that splendidly dashing Gene Kelly, so you can make it work for you, too. Finish off July on a rain-soaked, culturally satisfying note with this week's round-up of all sorts of trouble to get into. Oh yeah, and leave the pocketbook at home. Monday: Not exactly known for its diverse and sandy beaches (or, er, any), today's Festival......

Has Banksy now been unmasked once and for all? We doubt it. As Londonist predicted, there were tears before evensong yesterday as a gay bishop was heckled off pulpit. High river levels are threatening swan breeding activities. Alistair Darling clearly doesn’t know what to do with the economy as he has set up some help groups. Newington Green looks set to be the first plastic-bag-free zone in London. Picture from Jovike’s flickr stream under......

Reassured by the omnipresent CCTV cameras that train their Cyclops vision on London's populace as they go about their business? Neither are we, particularly now that a senior police officer has claimed they don't cut crime Back in January we reported that London now boasts some 10,000 cameras, and Britain as a whole ranks first in the EU for "endemic surveillance". Yet Detective Chief Inspector Mike Neville says that barely 3% of robberies on......

What a busy week! What with the Bank holiday, Cans Festival, Pangea Day, May ’68 celebrations and more, free cultural activities abound across London. So get out of bed, you lazy hungover git, and go sample what’s on in our summery city. Monday: In case you missed it over the weekend, catch the last day of the Cans Festival, a graffiti art exhibition headlined by none other than London’s lovable guerilla stencil artist Banksy.......

What’s more exciting than a derelict train tunnel? A derelict train tunnel full of guerrilla artwork, naturally. Street art lovers call get a good healthy dose of Banksy and others of his ilk if they go to Leake Street in Waterloo this weekend for Cans Festival. A half-mile tunnel, formerly used by the now St Pancras based Eurostar has been given over to 30 artists to showcase their works. Big attractions for the installation......

A new piece by the arch-spraymaster. This latest work is on Newman Street, North of Oxford Street, and is believed to be Banksy's biggest work to date. We'd like to see somebody try and nick this one. If you fancy a rant about Banksy, check out this thread over on Kudocities. Image by jordi.martorell, one of many from the Banksy Flickr pool.......

Here at Londonist, we aren't too shy to admit our love for sweets. But that love apparently doesn't hold a candle to the dedication of food artist Prudence Emma Staite. To celebrate the return of blue Smarties, Staite has re-imagined famous works of art with Smarties as her chosen medium. The collection, including Warhol's Marilyn Monroe, Seurat's Bathers, and Banksy's Chalk Farm Maid, is currently on display at the V&A Museum of Childhood in......

In the week that Doris' crack gets filled in, Tate Modern has announced plans for a rethink of the building's river-facing facade. Between May and August, a group of the world's most acclaimed street artists will be allowed to daub their designs across designated 15x12 metre areas on the north side of the former power station, the first time the exterior has been used in such a way. According to curator Cedar Lewisohn, the......

So we had Banksy caught in the act and unmasked a while back.... now here's a video apparently of the man himself at work and having his say: Thanks to Gothamist reader Sam Horine for the heads up.......

Science, the esteemed global magazine of cutting-edge research, has an unlikely cover star this week. Banksy’s Bethnal Green flower adorns the hallowed page with the following explanation: An example of "art" by self-styled guerrilla artist Banksy, as seen in East London in November 2007. Human behavior that would be characterized as antisocial punishment can also be called art; prosocial institutions, most notably the campaign Keep Britain Tidy, refer to Banksy's work as vandalism. Odd......

The new Banksy work on Essex Road is proving rather popular, as this video from romanywg shows. The stencil is already protected by a perspex panel (not shown in the video), after a recent spate of Banksy maulings. Please send links to your favourite London videos, or ideas for videos to londonist - at - gmail - dot com.......

Not only the world’s most famous graffiti stencil artist, England’s own beloved Banksy is also one heck of a studio artist. Don’t believe us (or any of the hype surrounding Banksy)? See for yourself at Andipa Gallery, where – starting this Friday – many of Banksy’s works is to be on view. Most of the exhibition is comprised of studio pieces, many of which are rare and previously unseen. One such rare work is......

Once is a happenstance, twice is a coincidence, but three times is a conspiracy. First the maid of Chalk Farm is painted over (since restored), then we heard the Rosebery Avenue cash machine stencil has also been defaced. And today, it seems the Clerkenwell Road 'Old Skool' pic has been 'collected'. The mural had been surrounded by sheeting for a few weeks, so many suspected it was being removed. But who's doing it? Councils?......

Heart it or hate it, you can’t argue with the fact that Valentine’s Day and all its attendant sentiment inspire some pretty fantastic photography. We’ve rounded up some of our favourites from our friends in the Londonist Flickr group. Enjoy... Heart, courtesy of buckaroo kid's flickrstream Courtesy of version-3-point-1's flickrstream......

While everyone was busy watching last night's fire, an act of destruction was taking place at the other end of Chalk Farm Road. The famous maid stencil by Banksy is in a parlous state. Someone has painted over most of the image, and stenciled the words 'all the best' over the top. Small groups keep pausing in front of the defaced mural, possibly on their way back from looking at the fire damage. Throw......

One of Banksy's most famous stencils - the maid of Chalk Farm - got an augmentation this week. Some japester of a joiner added a mantelpiece on Sunday evening. But street art is the most ephemeral of mediums, and the rogue fitting was removed faster than you can say chim-chimeny. Fans of Banksy might like to visit the Andipa Gallery (or 'Galley' as they accidentally call themselves in the press release) on Walton Street,......

Just when you thought MySpace, Facebook, and other social networking sites had pretty much achieved world domination, along comes a site with even more infinite aspirations. Londoner Victoria Vanstone’s yourdeathwish.com wants to help you create the “perfect” funeral. Yes, in the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee, you could be well on your way to arranging the funeral you’ve always dreamed of: choose the musical set list, the wake menu, the......

Meet the fish-eating Surrey dinosaur. Nothing to do with Michael Winner. He lives in Holland Park. As a clampdown on knife carrying is announced, Londonist exposes a possible loophole. 'Potential for some chaos' as a sliding scale of parking fines is mooted. London rugby clubs doing well. Wanted: Gordon Brown lookalike. Another Banksy piece set to fetch thousands. File in the same draw as Pete does drugs and Amy does everything. Meanwhile, what's going......

Not 'capture' in a 'behind bars' kind of way of course. We mean capture as in 'document'. We've slowly been building up a decent archive of Banksy photos over in our Londonist pool for a while now (thanks mainly, it must be said, to the tireless efforts of Sunshine Indoors). But we'd like to expand on this wealth of data, try and amass the 'complete set' as it were, and than maybe map the......