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

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.......

Here at Londonist, we believe in being kind to animals, which is why it breaks our hearts to stories of animal abuse. There's also little satisfaction in hearing of the conviction of Alexandra Zochios, 49, a teaching assistant who starved her mother's shiatsu. The shiatsu, called Zoe, weighed a mere 2kg when she died. The RSPCA intervened on 6 November and took the dog for treatment, however after Zoe went into cardiac arrest, the......

Is London starting to look like an episode of "When Dogs Attack"? According to recent NHS statistics, the number of attack victims under 18 seeking emergency treatment has more than doubled in our city over the past four years. So what's being blamed for this rash of dog-bites-underaged-man stories? One theory is that attack dogs have increased in popularity, becoming a "badge of honour in some communities." While we're more used to seeing fancy......

At the time when government is cracking down on our Fire Brigades to proactively work on diversity and equality in the Service, it is happily recruiting outside its normal demographic. Outside our species, in fact. The Urban Search and Rescue canine squad is receiving a £430,000 investment to expand its elite sniffing skills to London's fire service and another 16 services nationwide. The dogs - usually springer spaniels or collies - receive 18 months......

We hope you’re standing up for this: A KCL study finds that sitting on your arse all day contributes to the ageing process. Whereas regular exercise apparently makes you look like Elle MacPherson. In a wholly uncorroborated and unscientific study undertaken in the last 5 minutes, Londonist notes that the rockstar lifestyle isn’t so bad an antidote to ageing either. Our evidence: 56-year-old Sting and 62-year-old Eric Clapton, who will headline Hyde Park’s Hard......

We all know that there is an alternative to the traditional stuck with the family and mired in food and booze Christmas we moan about on an annual basis. But it takes quite a lot to change habits and risk something new. Skilled people - this is your year. Crisis needs you! As well as offering warmth, sustenance and merriment Crisis' Open Christmas also provides essential services to its homeless clientele. Opticians, dentists and......

So this week, we spent all our money on cold remedies and extra balmy tissues for our beleaguered noses. The plan is to be back and fighting fit by Monday so here are some of the things we could all get up to this week for very little wonga. Monday: Call the BBC Ticket Line on 0870 901 1227 and get free tickets for the recording of Clare in the Community - the radio......

If you’re a fan of musicals then you probably think the bigger the better. In which case you must pop down to the BFI Imax, where their After-Dark All-Nighter event will be screening four modern musicals on the trot on Saturday 8th December. First off the bat is 1980’s high school classic Fame at 11.15pm where the students of the New York High School for Performing Arts discover sex and show tunes. For those......

Ann Widdecombe MP was arrested outside the Houses of Parliament yesterday and taken to the Clink Prison where bail was set at £35,000. The fact that she was already wearing prison uniform when she got nicked hinted at the possibility that this was a charitable stunt rather than a tabloid-topping shocker, fall from grace thriller of a crime story. Widdecombe was participating in the Jailbreak campaign to raise cash for Guide Dogs for the......

You'll forgive dear old Londonist for being a touch misty-eyed, but in our day a dog was a child's best friend, a source of companionship and a trusted pal through thick and thin. Times have changed though, and according to the RSPCA there's an increasing problem of pooches being used as status symbols and de-facto weapons, rather than the loveable pets who fetch slippers and chew the Sunday periodical. Last year saw a 42%......

Have you been watching the telly channel Dave? If yes, then you'll have been having a comedy improv revivalist session as "Whose Line Is It Anyway" plays back to back for hours on end. If this is you, we suggest you shake off the couch potato act this weekend and get yourself to the Isle of Dogs for comedy improv in the here and now. Stories That Want To Be Told will be previewing......

After smoke billowed across London for most of the afternoon, tonight we can at least be thankful that it was 'only' a fire, and that no-one was injured. As upon seeing the dark clouds spreading across Canary Wharf this lunchtime, many people thought it may be something else. The scene at Waterden Road in Hackney has now been contained and the building that was destroyed was oddly due to be demolished on Monday in any......

Hackney Council's Parks Services has urged dog owners to stop their pets from 'strengthening their jaws' on park trees. Apparently, some dog owners are too cheap to buy their pets toys to munch on, and encourage them to chew on bark or—get this—hang from the branches of live trees in several of the borough's parks. This has caused severe damage to some 100 trees in the past few years. The Parks Services have been......

Heathrow co-pilot arrested for being drunk. Helen Mirren's dogs win award. Song devoted to Enfield homeless man. Henman versus Edberg in the Royal Albert Hall. Voice of Homer Simpson on stage in London Image courtesy of TwoCrabs via the Londonist flickr group.......

Londonist spent all of its money this week getting drunk at its 3rd birthday party. Hopefully, you were one of the many people who decided to join us. As a thank you, London On The Cheap is back (hurrah!) showing you what fun and fabulous free stuff you can entertain yourselves with next week: Sunday: We had an extra hour today so you get an extra day of news from us. Out to Lunch......

Music, as Bono, Geldof, Martin or any of the members of Screwdriver will tell you, is a tool for peace and harmony. Selling memorabilia, on the other hand, would seem to be the domain of scrapping dogs, hound-like or otherwise. But now we hear that the owners of Elvisly Yours and The London Beatles Shop have settled their differences in a flurry of cheesy song references.* Story goes like this: Beatles guy (Howard Cohen)......

Londonist asks that most pressing of daily concerns: where to go on your lunch break. Hot Dog Stand outside the British Museum 63 Great Russell St WC1B 3BF Hours of operation seem to reflect the museum’s hours Expect to Pay: £2.50 for a jumbo hot dog Map Rating: 6 out of 10 Haut cuisine it’s not, but what’s more indulgent than a hot dog every once in awhile? And, at £2.50 for a “jumbo”......

Gothamist learned about the craziest urban nightmare come true: A huge python found in the bathroom pipes. It was also a nightmare for some Yankees fans, as manger Joe Torre declined to come back and manage the Bronx Bombers. At least the city's attempt to give some direction to subway riders was interesting, pranksters went shirtless at the Fifth Avenue Abercrombie & Fitch and the I Heart Brooklyn Girls calendars came out. And just......

Think Battersea and think Dogs Home. Or Power Station. Well, the Kennel Club and Sky Movies are about to change that by making Battersea Park home of the world's first Dog Walk of Fame. We're not quite sure why. The Kennel Club secretary says that the move "promotes the importance of dogs within our lives" but we think it's more about promoting the annual Discover Dogs show coming up in November and the sponsor/tie-in......

This year is Jalal al-Din Rumi’s 800th birthday (it was on 30th September, to be as precise as we can be about these things) – and there’s an impressive range of exciting stuff going on in London to celebrate. Rumi – the original dude poet, truly one of Iran’s greatest exports, and one of the creators of ecstatic dance. From which you will surmise that Londonist is quite fond of him. I mean, what’s......

Well Londonist has run two animal stories into one here, on account of not wanting to look like we’ve gone soft. And to keep all parties happy, there’s a doggy one, and a kitty one. Although the cat one is actually rather sad: the business of an abused and diseased kitten which was abandoned to die at a West London recycling depot gets us as full of passion and anger as the next daft, animal-mad......

Film maker extraordinaire Quentin Tarantino has arrived in the UK to promote the DVD release of his latest film, Death Proof. Nothing newsworthy in that per se. But the whens, whos and wherefores of this publicity event are nothing short of astonishing. Londonist has learnt that the movie icon snucked (or was dragged) along to Wimbledon Dog Stadium on Monday evening where he watched the likes of Shayne Ward, Charlie Simpson (from Busted) and a......

18. The Cheetah Of Shooter's Hill Over the years many ‘flaps’ of ‘big cat’ sightings have hit the headlines, from the so-called ‘beasts’ of Exmoor and Bodmin, to the more recent Bluewater leopard Bexley ‘big cat’. However in south-east London during the early 1960s, the Shooter’s Hill ‘cheetah’ scare was on everyone’s lips – back during a time when such cats were considered extremely mythical and were often misunderstood and wrongly identified, but were......

Or, Pointless Debate For A Sunday Afternoon... Londonist's pool of writers have been riven in twain over the status of the Isle of Dogs. One faction holds it to be an island, the other claims it as a peninsula. Who's right? Before you weigh in on the argument, consider the arguments on both side. It is an island because 1) It's called the Isle of Dogs. 2) It is completely surrounded by water (see image......

Happy first weekend of September - and happy Labor Day weekend, too, for our American cities! Let's take a look at what's been happening around the Ist-a-verse. The deaths of two firefighters shook Bostonist this week. Boston's firefighters bent over backwards all week long - first, they fought flames pouring from the Boston Tea Party museum, and then a restaurant fire killed two and injured many more. Their efforts make everything else - like Tom......

Fundraising events, for whatever cause, should always try to be novel and attention grabbing if they're going to reap the quids in. Londonist keeps up with the best of them. Lately, we've had the vet in a dog bowl, the bunny rabbit taxi and bid for a date girl. All excellent ideas to varying degrees. However, we've yet to come across a scheme that beats "Beards for Battersea". Yes, staff and volunteers from Battersea......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 6th August 1937: Barbara Windsor is born in Shoreditch in central London. She would achieve fame as an actress, notably as a ‘saucy strumpet’ in the Carry On films of the 60s and 70s and later as a major character in Eastenders. Tuesday – 7th August 2001: The Department of Health pays £27 million for a private Harley Street heart hospital, re-nationalising it and bringing it into......

It used to be that the wealthy, with their high powered jobs that meant they couldn’t make it home in time to walk the dog, paid someone to do it for them. They got all the perks of having a dog without having to actually put on wellies, throw sticks and bag turds. The world’s gone topsy turvy though and, apparently, the wealthy animal lover about town now wants to pay someone else for......

This is not another article about the high cost of living in London, though it has great relevance to the silly prices of houses inside the M25. All of that is well documented elsewhere - we're far more eager to devote screenspace to sensible, affordable and frankly brilliant ways to get by in this city without compromising your cool. Camelot Property Protection have been featured in today's Telegraph for their clever way of pleasing......