While the world and its singlet waits in anticipation for tomorrow's opening of the 2008 Olympics, folk in London's Chinatown are less than excited, claims one report. Money worries mean the 100,000 strong Chinese community packed into Soho's eastern climes are less focused on the men's marathon than making ends meet at home. Rents are heading north, trade has shifted south since the July 2005 bombings, and tourist numbers are down across the city,......

39. Dansey Place Where? Picturebook shabby access road north of Gerrard Street and south of Shaftesbury Avenue. What? Dansey Place today is a foetid passage, where few would care to linger. You have no business to be down here unless you (a) collect discarded duck flesh and yellowing brassica, (b) appreciate the brool of extractor fans, or (c) you're researching a column about back passages for a well-known London web site. Between the wars, however,......

It's easy to get the impression that all things Chinese are in the ascendant in London this year, with both the Mayor and the PRC's own Cultural Office sponsoring major events and exhibitions at almost every venue in the city. In this same year, however, London's Chinese community is suffering two serious blows in the collective stomach. First came February's revamp of the visa system, creating a crisis in the UK's £5 billion Chinese......

Chinatown is to be bull-dozed. No, not that one. The real one – up near Finchley. Rather complicated good news for south of London train users… …and rather complicated bad news for north and east of London train users this autumn. Careless landlords cost lives: a Londoner is fined £20,000 following the death of a little girl in 2005. London bus drivers have a new weapon against abuse, the ‘spit kit’, which enables them......

Whistleblowing teacher gets £70k for unfair dismissal from smeared Saudi school Islington's courting doggy favour Time for eccentric Hackney "moleman" to cough up for repairs T5 scapegoats selected Frisky Epping Forest woodpeckers get aroused and peckish on fragile church roof Image of Chinatown in layers courtesy of Martin...H via the Londonist flickr group.......

Photography courtesy of Phillie Casablanca via the Londonist pool on Flickr. Interested in your foodie photos appearing on Londonist? Click here.......

This is the story of a very strange Sunday that started with eight audience members sitting in shop doorways and concluded at a dining table set up on the busy St John’s Road near Clapham Junction. We went through a lot together – a phonebox, a cashpoint, a wedding in a piss-sodden alleyway, a funeral in a car park and then this surreal Sunday lunch. We were family by the time Barry broke his......

Clapham Junction is very rarely thought of as a magical or dramatic place. Grubby, crowded, chilly, noisy - and that's just the station. The streets around the station are even less inspiring. And yet... and yet here's a theatre company bringing an extraordinary piece of experimental theatre onto the streets of Clapham Junction, turning this area of south-west London into a unique and innovative outdoor stage. We saw something similar in Soho when we......

Tony Benn's granddaughter may become youngest ever MP. Osama Bin London. Kylie in Croydon. Police arrest illegal workers in Chinatown. Must resist pun...must resist pub. Argghhh, it's a Chinese takeawy. There, got it out of the system. Image courtesy of blech via the Londonist flickr group. Tag your own quirky images with 'Londonist' and we might just use them.......

Months of research and workshops run by writer Justin Young and director Suzanne Gorman have created Moonwalking In Chinatown, an extraordinary walkabout performance which leads audiences through Chinatown in the dusk behind bobbing paper lanterns and a variety of actors and stewards. Four overlapping stories for four simultaneous groups, each led by a different coloured lantern, have to weave through the early evening Soho crowds. The range of characters and multiple storylines and also......

And so to our final rugby watching venue post with just 4 teams remaining to accommodate. Italy play Portugal tonight in Paris, 7pm Bar Italia - where else? Japan crunch with Wales tomorrow in Cardiff at 8pm. We didn't think Japan would be the hardest nut to crack but our badgering and internetting and random contacting of Japanese people hasn't turned up a definitive option. So, we'll give you a unconfirmed one. Sirocco London......

Autumn is settling in nicely in London and Chinatown is getting ready to celebrate. The Autumn Moon Festival is exactly what it sounds like: it is a celebration of autumn harvest, the changing of the seasons and, conveniently, is the time of year when the moon is particularly big and visible. This lends itself well to rolling out the many Chinese myths and legends about the moon and the Autumn Moon Festival is a......

A century of plastic is being celebrated at the Science Museum! Eubank arrested after he drove his 32ft seven tonne protest lorry past an armed patrol, entered Whitehall and approached Downing Street. Again. Go to the Museum of London this summer, go to the requisite room and you shall see the skeleton of a headless Roman. Metronet are to 'streamline'. Ooo, ooo, aerodynamic tunnels allowing bullet train speeds? Nope. A crowded-platform's worth of redundancies.......

We don't know about where you are, but it seems like spring can't decide whether or not to happen. Some days are warm, some days are cold, and sometimes you aren't sure which. Baseball may have started up (and soccer/football winding down) but it still seems cold out there. Unless it's not. Anyways, onto the -ists. Austinist happily anticipated fall's Austin City Limits, even though they're not fully recovered from South By Southwest. In......

China has been in London for a long time, and it's not just been in the series of streets, shops and restaurants that constitute Chinatown. As well as a marvellous amount of fun things to see and do around Chinatown this weekend for Chinese New Year, it seems the whole of London wants to get involved. The Victoria & Albert museum, National Film Theatre, City Hall and the Trocadero are all hosting events and......

It's Chinese New Year this weekend and we will be saying goodbye to the Year of the Dog and welcoming the Year of the Pig. Pigs are considered lucky animals because all they seem to do is sleep, eat, hang around for a bit then eat some more and then take a nap. They lead carefree, calm and fattening lives, and we could all do with a bit of porcine serenity in our lives.......

Colindale shopping centre, "Oriental City", has become the nexus of an international dispute. The beloved Edgeware Road mall, which has been called London's "real Chinatown", may be knocked down later this year and replaced with a B&Q home improvement superstore, some flats, a school, and a bunch of other crap. The Chinese consul general, Jiang Yuansong, has written to Mayor of London Ken Livingstone to express his "deep concern" about the project. If the......

Every day this month the Londonist team will be pointing you in the direction of a Christmas present that (with a bit of luck) you won't already have on your list. Climb up onto our collective lap and we'll see what we can move from our sack to your stockings... Fridge magnets...as a Christmas present? You're 'avin a larf, right? Not so, for this stunning set of 18 London scenes takes the medium to......

Every day this month the Londonist team will be pointing you in the direction of a Christmas present that (with a bit of luck) you won't already have on your list. Climb up onto our collective lap and we'll see what we can move from our sack to your stockings... Londonist: So do you think it's a bad thing to suggest to the readers that they may want to buy our book as a......

Every day this month the Londonist team will be pointing you in the direction of a Christmas present that (with a bit of luck) you won't already have on your list. Climb up onto our collective lap and we'll see what we can move from our sack to your stockings... Londonist has designed the Cornershop Christmas Hamper for those who really can't be bothered this year. Perfect for assembling on the way to a......

These stylish slip-on shoes will have you deliberately walking through puddles so you can leave an imprint of the streets of London...on the streets of London. Yup, that's a map of the Thames on the sole. The 'Kensington' shoe is available from Paul Smith for £162, and is also available in a taller, lace-up persuasion. Not recommended as a substitute for the A-Z. Previously: Punk Rock Baby, London in a Bag, Sultan's Elephant, Wardour......

Every day this month the Londonist team will be pointing you in the direction of a Christmas present that (with a bit of luck) you won't already have on your list. Climb up onto our collective lap and we'll see what we can move from our sack to your stockings... Got a comics geek you need to shop for? Not sure which issue of The Amazing Adventures of Testicular Chancer and Goatmonkey they're up......

Every day this month the Londonist team will be pointing you in the direction of a Christmas present that (with a bit of luck) you won't already have on your list. Climb up onto our collective lap and we'll see what we can move from our sack to your stockings... The Londonist Chinatown Christmas Hamper is the alternative collection of foodstuffs that appear this time of year. Though far from original as department stores......

Welcome to the new slot for Notes From The City, joining Friday Film News (which is, um, now on Saturdays) to bring you cultural edification on the weekend. As the seasons shift and change, so the outdoor gigs keep coming in. This week it's all about fireworks and Christmas lights and the public seem to love both! In the summer it's great to play on outdoor stages but as the wintry chill sets in......

Arsenal Reserves 1 Chelsea Reserves 2 Underhill, Barnet Monday 16th October 2006 We hope someone points the Ashes hosts, fretting over the English hooligan menace, in the direction of the behaviour of several hundred souls locked out of Monday night’s Arsenal v Chelsea reserve football fixture. Londonist was amongst the men, women and many children thronging the gates of Barnet’s Underhill stadium for half an hour after the 7pm kick off in perfect, almost......

Another great crime flick at Firecracker this evening, this time from Johnnie To and one night on the streets of Hong Kong with the Police Tactical Unit. This is a standout movie - the opening sequence is an instant classic as protagonists run into antagonists and seemingly insignificant extras step up and push the film where you least expect it. It's grim, it's funny and it's exciting - exactly the kind of flick you'd......

Even though we are way way past school age, we still get a little melancholy at the close of summer. Fortunately, our friends across the -ist network know that the shenanigans don't need to end just because the big yellow buses are back on the roads. So, grab your sunscreen and your favorite hangover cure, as we take a tour of end of summer fun from -ist cities all over the damn place. SFist......

Just catching up on the 'anti-terror' arrests that took place over the weekend. As you probably know by now, on Friday 14 men aged between 17 to 48 were arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 (12 of them at The Bridge to China Town restaurant in Borough); and residential properties across the capital are currently being examined in connection with the arrests. The men are "mainly young British Muslims of Pakistani origin," and have......

We love The Scoop. It's the great little amphitheatre on the South Bank where we can nestle under Ken's Testicle like enlightened crab lice and watch FREE stuff. The full list of events isn't up yet, but there's a decent mix of classic and crowd pleasing films showing through most of June at 9.15pm: Brief Encounter Chinatown Moulin Rouge Some Like It Hot Blowup Walk the Line The Wicker Man Alien Nine Queens Dr......

You may have noticed London was looking a bit festive in an Oriental style over the weekend. The Chinese lunar Year of the Cockerel ended on Saturday and on Sunday the Year of the Dog was ushered in with simultaneous events in Chinatown, Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square. In previous years the event has been celebrated only in Chinatown itself with restrictions on the amount of firecrackers and fireworks that could be used, keeping......