Whenever we're in the West End and need to kill some time we usually wander down to Sister Ray on Berwick Street for a bit of a browse. We flick through the cool vinyl, play with the tenori and generally think it's a wicked shop. We never actually buy anything though, and that seems to be the problem, as it's just been announced that the store has gone into administration. As one of the......

It's somehow refreshing to see that the rich & powerful are no more capable of spotting a ruse than the rest of us. In a tale straight out of the niftiest grifter's playbook, businessman Terry Collins was relieved of £1 million by a couple of con artists who convinced him that he was about to buy the Ritz. Property investor Mr. Collins made the acquaintance of a certain Tony Lee back in 2006. Mr......

If you’re paying attention to the mayoral race you probably already know a little about where the candidates stand on crime and bendy buses. But what candidate will be best for your bank account? To help you answer that question, we’ve put together a quick economic summary of the big-party candidates: Ken Livingstone We already have a pretty good idea of what the incumbent will do in this area — more of the same.......

2012 "Friend-ship" scheme shelved before it sets sail. Is the sun setting on the Square Mile? Grape of wrath: Man slips on squashed fruit and sues M&S for "loss of confidence". We think he's got more chance of turning a profit by sending the video in to You've Been Framed. Stingy NHS won't cough up money for grandmother's sight-saving operation. Costs for parking a plane at Heathrow set to rise. Naturally, passengers will be......

Richard Scudamore of the Premier League has not been the most popular footballing figure of the last few weeks. The executives overseeing football in favoured destinations for his plan of playing Premier League matches abroad, such as China, Thailand and the USA, have lined up to express their objections, as has the President of world football's governing body, FIFA. However, not every land that loves football comes under FIFA's aegis. Scudamore might be able......

We like independent traders, specially those that are a bit different or even odd. Small set-ups doing interesting things with one eye on their ethics, the other on their speciality, the other one their customers in the style of a benevolent, entrepreneuring tri-clops. Well, our friends over at Qype are down with them too and have created the Hidden Gem Awards to celebrate them, to culminate in a "glitzy awards ceremony" later this year.......

The London Art Fair opened to the public today in Islington. It's a massive art trade fair with modern and contemporary art to buy. There were many smart, be-scarved or brightly tie-d artsy types manning stalls looking bored or eating sandwiches and lots and lots of interesting art to ponder, point at and take photos of, which is apparently acceptable (I'm taking a photo to see if Flavia likes it, yah....). This is a......

Dick Maxwell, who retired last year as the NFL Senior Director of Broadcasting after almost thirty years with American Football's governing body was Wednesday night's guest lecturer in the seminar series organised for students of the MSc in Sports Management and the Business of Football at Birkbeck, University of London. Nowadays an NFL consultant in the areas of television and instant replay, Mr Maxwell kindly fielded a few questions for us after his well-received......

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......

Fresh this Week: Conceived in Jamaica, Elizabeth Marsh (1735-85) traveled further than most men, including eastern and southern India, visiting the world's biggest ports and naval bases, from Portsmouth to Rio de Janeiro. Author Linda Colley, author of In The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh, reads tonight at The London Review Bookshop, or you can hear her on Radio 4's Start the Week. Thursday 14, 7pm, LRB, 14 Bury Place, WC1A 2JL - Buy online......

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger added to his recent complaint about cup replays with some further stern words aimed in the direction of London rivals Chelsea and their just announced £80m operating loss for the most recent accounting year: They have a super sponsor. With normal mathematics, minus 80 is minus 80. It is 80 miles below water, and to survive so deep is normally very difficult... I have said many times that all clubs......

If you're a car thief, yesterday might have been a good time to be out there. 350 TVR drivers and workers came to London in their swanky cars protesting about the company's re-location to Italy. A Dutch architect is going to create an "East End Amsterdam" in London. This will include an urban village, a floating office, and a disappointing lack of hookers. Cheapside is trying to not be deserted at weekends by opening......

The Londonist weekly Culture Crawl is crawling with things to see, do and enjoy: this week, we have dogs, more fireworks (but not dogs AND fireworks combined because that would be unpleasant) and the first mention of Christmas shopping. Let's start with some wagging tails... Saturday and Sunday Described by the Kennel Club as "best fun dog event this year," Discover Dogs is a two-day event at Earls Court for dog lovers, dog owners,......

The Nelson Mandela Challenge football match between South Africa and Egypt scheduled to take place at Brentford’s Griffin Park stadium on Wednesday November 15th is in danger of being called off. Two weeks ago, the South Africa Times announced that this annual fundraiser would be moved to London for the first time “to raise its profile,” but, with the game less than a fortnight away Brentford claim to have received no more than a......

An 18-year-old woman has been charged with assisting one of the men involved in the attempted bombings of 21 July. Ken has been busy today trying to overturn his four-week suspension for likening a Jewish reporter to a concentration camp guard. Oh great, another London property boom. Just what we need. The New Gangs of London video game is getting mixed reviews. Thanks to the High Court you will now still be able to......

Last week we told you you had to go New designers show at the Business Design Centre. So, did you go? Well if you didn't here's the dealbreaker: designs inspired by London's transport network. According to the Beeb, the pieces are the finalists in a competition to create a Transport for London related product, and at some point today they're going to announce a winning product which will be maufactured and sold in the......

For all you design nerds out there, you should know that the "largest and most exciting graduate design event in the UK" just opened today at the Business Design Centre in Islington. New Designers 06 is basically one huuuuge event, incorporating 4,000 "of the brightest young UK designers from 20 creative disciplines to 14,000 industry professionals and design enthusiasts". Mmmm design orgy. So right now you've got part one which lasts until July 2......

Those spoilsports in the Immigration Service must have jumped when they saw the BBC's "Wrong Guy" Guy Goma being interviewed in place of Guy Kewney. Just as they did with former Big brother housemate Makosi - they heard the accent and jumped onto the database, checking the legality of his UK residence. It turns out, that (again, like Makosi), his status in the UK is questionable. It is being reported now that Goma is......

A year after Associated Newspapers promised to share its afternoon newspaper distribution rights the owners of the Metro freesheet have "unconditionally and irrevocably" given up its exclusive right to distribute on the rail networks. The top 10 areas in the UK with the highest reported instances of ID theft are all in London. David Cameron has been asking whether the 2012 developments will benefit all of London. London Underground has won Train Operator of the......

Another day, another report about how underfunded and overcrowded London's transport system is. This time it's the Centre for Economics and Business Research who are doing the reporting on behalf of the lobbying group London First. And their shocking message is that we need "significant investment" in our Underground in order to keep London as one of the 'world's leading cities'. According to the research, overcrowding on the Underground will double by 2016 "if......

Over the weekend fresh claims have arisen regarding The Met's 'covering up' of evidence related to the death of Jean Charles de Menezes. And as for the 'real bombers', MI5 have admitted that they've got no leads on the July bombings. Condoleeza Rice is in town to attend the international conference on Afghanistan. Prepare for some bad Wembley news this Tuesday when Multiplex outlines it's 'progress'. New guidelines issued by the Met says that policemen......

The eighteenth annual London Art Fair is on at the Business Design Centre in Islington today and this weekend, showcasing some of the best of Modern British and Contemporary Art. Ninety eight galleries are taking part this year’s fair - the place oozes art. When Londonist had a sneak preview this week, they were still putting the finishing touches to the displays and we half expected to see an artist here and there applying......

You may remember that we recently highlighted the imminent bidding frenzy for the 125-year lease to Alexander Palace. Actually, you probably don’t, as a surfeit of TV shows with the words ‘bid’ and ‘property’ in the title have forever diluted our interest in such things. For those of you who do care, the palace is set for a much-needed rejuvenation after a chequered lifetime of fires, flops and financial failure. The bidding parties have......

We had heard tell that Cory 'Boing Boing' Doctorow had been seen making the ocassional foray into Speakers' Corner, but we always thought it might be difficult, nay impossible, to find hard news coverage of said event. Then we stumbled across ZD Net.co.uk (Where Technology Means Business folks) and our curiosity was sated. We even got a photo of Cory on a stepladder, which we've reproduced here in flagrant opposition of copyright laws...if you......

Well, not really. Yes, the headlines look good but the details don't really support the hype. "The inexorable rise of blogging has been officially acknowledged by the Association of Online Publishers, which for the first time is including blogs in its annual awards." says Brand Republic But when you get to the nitty gritty we find that the four shortlisted blogs are "Emap Performance Interactive's Q4Music.com blog, The Guardian's blogs, the BBC's inclusion of......

Londonist was very amused to find this little nugget in yesterday's Media and Business section of the Observer (we can't find it online so we'll just reproduce it here word-for-word): Anyone wondering why Matt Barbet, a presenter on BBC's local London news, was looking a little sun-kissed this week should know that he spent last weekend at 'The Big Chill', a sort of pared-down rave for middle-aged clubbers. Barbet caused a stir among some......

Londonist was bemused to discover this morning that the BBC had a panic switch fitted back in 1934 in case the Corporation was ever taken over by extremists or worse... students: Bullet-proof shutters were also installed as a security measure. The shutters could be instantly lowered in an emergency and two guards at the main entrance had orders not to allow any unauthorised persons to enter. Oddly inspired we fitted our own cut-off switch......

That headline may sound like the title of one of Richard Desmond's more 'downmarket' publications, but we're actually talking about his impending free London paper: the London-i, which seems to have been 'impending' for quite a while now. To be fair Des' does have a pretty good excuse: he's been awaiting the result of the Office of Fair Trading's investigation into Metro's distribution on the tube. But it seems he's got bored of waiting......

Working in an office block overlooking the Thames and the City beyond - as this Londonist contributor is occasionally lucky enough to do - one occasionally sees some odd things. But this, spotted today at about 3pm, really takes the digestive biscuit. The launches were observed from both sides and have no writing or identification marks on them. The black-and-white ship "leading" the flotilla might be a police barge. But it was certainly involved. Here's......

If you are looking for something to do besides follow the premiership matches this weekend (which may be well impossible for a majority of our readers), you may consider making your way over to the Business Design Centre in Islington for the 17th Annual London Art Fair. Over 80 galleries representing more than 1250 artists will be on display through Sunday. And, never fear, all art was judged by an independent board so you......