The Face of Croydon: it's not, despite what you may hope, the perma-tanned scowl of Palace chairman Simon Jordan, nor the sneering snarl of ex-Big Bruv contestant Alex de-Gale. No, it in fact belongs to one Kym Whittle, who became the Face of the borough after winning a modelling competition last weekend. Yet the result, announced at a festival on Saturday by organisers Fashion Enter, has been thrown into doubt after questions were raised......

23 year old Croydon mum, Alex De-Gale, was last night removed from the Big Brother house for "behaving in an unacceptable and sometimes intimidating manner towards fellow housemates". Tonight's BB footage will show her in discussion with Darnell about her "gangster friends" on the outside and generally making Croydon cringe about their latest headline hitting local. Alex was clearly under stress, having been nominated for eviction but she'd hardly been sweetness and light beforehand.......

Here’s what we’ve learned this weekend whilst you’ve been slapping on that Factor 15: Now that that annual backstabbing fest otherwise known as Big Brother is underway, the knives are out for Croydoner Alexandra, who is apparently dating a man accused of murder. Yesterday’s anti-knife and gun rally was understandably well-attended… …even if a debate on the issue in the Commons shamefully wasn’t. A huge fire in South London left thousands without power overnight......

I know we seem to be shocked by the arrival of every new month, but doesn’t it seem odd that it’s June already? We feel that it should be summer, and we should be on fabulous holidays at the beach. Since we are not (and since it is clearly not summer yet), we’ll watch some TV this week instead. On TV, Londonist likes: Wednesday, 4 June My New Best Friend (BBC4, 21:00-22:00) We find......

Paris Hilton arrives at a nightclub, then leaves. The end. Yes, you can all go home now. Class dismissed. Oh, you want more? Fine. That's right folks, London be a lucky place this week. Paris is in town, and the hacks are getting excited at reports she was paid £70,000 to roll up at Kensington's own Mahiki with her rocker boyf and waddle lethargically around, a look of bored insouciance dolled onto her kisser,......

A conspiracy is afoot. Literary London is listless and lethargic these next few days – after back-to-back Burns Night and Australia Day outings this weekend, we can relate – yet there’s an explosion of midweek activity, leaving us paranoid that the powers-that-be are plotting to drive us crazy, leave us whimpering and indecisive, cursing our inability to be in two places at once. Yes, between this and the stock market madness, we’re a short......

Tough business being a writer. Our editors have promised us a 100 percent pay increase if we win a Bloggie in March, but even that won’t cover the cost of our pub outings. Still, if now’s the moment of truth, kids, when you choose prose or poetry as the more lucrative career path, note the following. When A.L. Kennedy won the Costa Book of the Year award on Tuesday for her novel Day, she......

This is what we have learned whilst you have been browsing through holiday brochures this weekend: A pub in Tottenham with a really bad record for trouble is to be shut down. Londonist can think of a few more that should be… A gang fight at a greengrocers has left one man stabbed to death. A met. policeman accused of killing his wife has been found dead. As has his former mother-in-law. People have......

Ken and TfL launched a new, united scheme for 11-18 year olds who qualify for free travel today. From June, they'll need a snappily titled Zip card which is a free Oyster photocard that must be beeped - a la 'pay as you go' - for them to get around town for nothing. Lurking beneath the shiny revamped scheme though lies the dark beating heart of Big Brother. Compelling kids to beep their Zips......

What stops you recycling? Are you lazy? Don't know where to start? Does your rubbish overwhelm you? The Rubbish Game wants to know. Then it wants to turn your rubbish around, with the help of the Binman of Love. It could get filthy. The Rubbish Game takes place on Wednesday 16 January at the Dana Centre at the Science Museum. It sounds a bit like Hungamunga crossed with the Krypton Factor and wrapped in......

In years to come as historians look back on the events that triggered the untimely demise of this once great nation of ours, they'll probably be analysing the following timeline: October 2003: First grumblings about raising the Council Tax in London to pay for the Olympics if we get it. February 2006: Travelling Ken asks for a bit more money to fund the Olympics, 65p a week on London's Council Tax bills. December 2007:......

Blues skies aside, winter is upon us - the halcyon days of summer a distant memory; thermals and visible breath a present reality. Therefore what better way to raise darkened spirits during these darkened days than going to the comedy and loosing yourself in laughter? We at Londonist certainly think this is a great plan (we’ve been on a not-so-secret comedy revival mission for years), and good news for us, Stewart Lee is playing at......

When Lisa Connell hit the local press last month we were impressed by her spirited determination and charitable entrepreneurship in the face of personal adversity. We caught up with her this weekend to find out how the fundraising's going, whether there's been any naughty business yet and just where should you take Barnet's finest once you've bid her up? So, how’s the dating going? Well its still in the early stages. I’ve managed to......

It looks like summer might actually have arrived in London this week, but if you're determined to stay inside, here are a few things to help you bide the time. On TV, Londonist likes: Monday, 3 September – Wednesday, 5 September Dumped (Channel 4, 21:00-22:00) We’ve already told you about this interesting concept involving contestants living on a rubbish dump, and since you’re no doubt looking to fill the Big Brother void in your......

If, like us, you’re exhausted and skint after the bank holiday weekend and just not up to taking advantage of all the fun things London has to offer this week, here are a few things you can watch and listen to from the comfort of your front room. On TV, Londonist likes: Thursday, 30 August Robbie Coltrane: B-Road Britain (ITV1, 21:00-22:00) Robbie Coltrane takes to the roads and travels from London to Glasgow using......

Part 2: "Let's all go down the strand"...Music Hall. "The music hall is dying, and with it, a significant part of England. some of the heart of England has gone; something that once belonged to everyone, for this was truly a folk art." John Osbourne - 1957. Music Hall helped to shape the entertainment scene in London. It's even had a bit of a revival of late, with music and supper clubs like the......

We’re all going to die at some unpredictable point. However, discovering you’ve an identifiable mortality timebomb discreetly ticking away in your brain is going to make you reassess your life. You can’t ignore the fact that you’ve been dealt a rather more difficult card, highlighting your vulnerability, yet not allowing you to plan for anything, because, who knows how long you’ve got. This happened recently to Lisa Connell, 28, of Barnet. Initially devastated by......

By which we mean 'tests the patience of those in charge of public safety and wastes everyone's time, money and resources.' Not wanting to be outdone by the Evening Standard's scaremongering, the Daily Mirror sent two journalists to the Stonebridge Park train depot to plant a fake bomb on a freight train, in order to test the security measures in place. A similar exercise was carried out last year when two Daily Mirror journalists......

Huge hangover? Spent all of your money? Yep, us too. So we can't go and watch Barbara Streisand (though we don't think we'll ever be that rich) and we can't go and see Elling. But, here's a few things you can do this week to make things a little easier on your pocket. Monday: Been a while since you've seen a good film? Then the Canary Wharf Summer Series at Canada Square park should......

We mentioned the Watch This Space festival at the National Theatre just before it started but wasn't as enthusiastic as we were last year when the summer weather was hot enough to require dispensers full of free sunscreen. With all the rain and thick grey cloud that heralded the opening of this annual outdoor performance festival, we anticipated distribution of free umbrellas and cancelled performances... But look! At the time of writing, it isn't......

There's about to be a whole load of rubbish on Channel 4. And no, we're not talking about Big Brother. It's a brand new show currently filming in Croydon, and it's all about rubbish. Well, all about people trying to make a living out of rubbish, that is. The 10 contestants in the show moved into the site in Beddington Lane, Croydon, last week and are going to attempt to survive for three weeks......

If you’ve ever boarded a Tube train after it has reached the end of its line and is preparing to make the return journey, you will have had the experience of wading knee-deep in London’s best cat tray liners – the freesheets. Folded neatly on every seat, splayed across every square inch of floor space and perched haphazardly on every ledge are those peons of journalistic greatness, the Metro, thelondonpaper and London Lite. Together......

This is a new weekend column brought to you by the founders of Niceties Tokens, Liz and Pete of Team Nice. 4. Doublethink The Big Brother silly season has started and this year it seems to have cut straight to the controversy in record time. So now seems an appropriate moment for Team Nice to risk potential ridicule and suggest that Big Brother does, with great eloquence and subtlety, deliver a message of huge......

No matter what your opinion of the 2012 olympics, we're now all helpless to stop it and we won't be able to get away from it for five years so in a Stockholm Syndrome-like way we should all come to love our captors and get excited. After a video treasure hunt across the web, today the branding was launched. How was it to represent London? Would it be all beefeaters and black cabs? The......

The 2007 Bollywood film awards return to the UK next week, for the first time since they were originally launched here in 2000. At the glittering ceremony, Oscar-esque trinkets will be handed out for things like the 'Best Villain' ("Boo!") or 'Style Diva of the Year' ("Oooh!"). We're a bit disappointed there isn't something in there for 'Most Swish Light-Bulb-Removing-Style Bhangra Dance Routine', as we've been doggedly perfecting ours on the dancefloor of the......

Such was the misinformed delighted squeal from the official Big Brother forum today as the first shots of 2007’s house of pain in Elstree were revealed. Yep, this year it’s all arse about face; the fridge is in the garden, the bath is in the living room, the chickens are encased in glass. "Modernistic sur-reality" apparently. It’s not yet clear where the cooker actually is but we can all be put out of our......

What with all the drinking and smoking, pubbing and clubbing, gigging and ligging, not to mention trying to hunt down old Big Brother housemates with a custom Ted Nugent bow it's a wonder Londonist ever finds time to stop and smell the flowers. Yet even we will occasionally take a break from our hectic schedules to grab a good noseful of nature's gentle bounty. Pretty, aromatic, occasionally nutritious, easily recycled and low carbon emissions;......

When photography involved patient sittings, stinky chemicals and a certain amount of luck there was also mystery, magic, and risk – a lost romance, like vinyl records, or even the tape cassettes that Currys have just announced they will no longer be stocking. Now, instant images are everywhere. Having a camera on your phone, in your bag, and on every your street corner may be a modern miracle but it’s as romantic as Big......

Reality TV: Not quite the white-hot topic it maybe was a few months ago at the height of Shilpagate but still newsworthy, if you're a lazy newspaper editor with a comment space to be filled, anyway. What can there possibly be new to say on the subject? Well, a debate being held next Tuesday (3rd April) in the Southbank Centre aims to explore the shifting interface between "watcher" and "watched" embodied by Big Brother,......

The might of the Church of England has been unleashed upon reality television and dumb programming in general. Its members point out that Big Brother, Strictly Come Dancing and even Little Britain aren't very good. In fact they are accused of lowering standards of behaviour and exploiting the humiliation of human beings: There were complaints about everything from BBC news bulletins undermining respect for the prime minister by referring to him only by his......