Edward T. Meyer is the Vice President of Exhibits and Archives for Ripley Entertainment. He's worked for the company since 1978, and has personally acquired more than 20,000 exhibits. He took some time to answer a few of Londonist's questions about the new London location of Ripley's Believe It or Not, which opens today. Why did Ripley’s Believe It Or Not decide to open a London location? London is one of the greatest cities......

Are you getting that tight throated feeling? Is your wallet feeling lighter? Are you panicking because there simply isn't enough time left. Well have no fear ladies and gents Harrods have come to the rescue! Last week the department store opened their Christmas department a whopping 142 days before Xmas. We know it's good to get organised but surely that's a bit ridiculous? We put this to Harrods and a spokesperson told us that, "With......

A mixture of sunshine and rain helped this weekend's Innocent Village Fete go off with a smile in Regent's Park. A mixture of music, welly wanging and human smoothies, this was how you enjoyed it. Photos used under creative comments license from the flickr streams of feline bird, Annie Mole, Stuart Hedges and Rachel C.......

Dust down your auntie's teapots, South Londoners, you could be sitting on a fortune! And you can find out for sure tomorrow when the Antiques Roadshow sets up store for the day at Dulwich Picture Gallery. The Picture Gallery are clearly expecting a horde of hopefuls to descend on the big day, as they have hired marquees, portaloos, food stalls and a host of entertainments (including a stint from the Dulwich Ukulele Club) to......

Soho East. That's surely what Shoreditch has become. The Forster Gallery is one of the new breed of expensive gallery you'd normally expect to see in Mayfair, yet set in the (Nathan) Barley fields of Shoreditch. It's similar to Eyestorm in that it goes for artists that sell, and sell at relatively high prices. OK, time to come clean. This Londonista has been a fan of this artist's work since first seeing it in......

Earth shattering revelation of the day: Met Commissioner says parents key to bringing up children who don't carry weapons. Yep, apparently so. Unlikely news of the day: Hayward Gallery goes psycho. We'll be there later this week. Motoring news of the day: Lorries park up and protest Faintly amusing news pun of the day: Pawn very popular. Hah. Ha ha. Marvel-lous news of the day: 3D comic book superheroes to go on display Image......

As we mentioned briefly before, Thursday brings the East 2008 Festival. For six days, a cornucopia of performances, exhibitions, workshops, food and other events ensures entertainment with emphasis on promotion of the best of East London. Here’s our pick of the mix: 6th March: F-EAST - artists Wiebke and Nicholas Morgan cook a meal from 12 recipes from a Nigel Slater cookbook, and serve it for visitors as an exploration into ownership and the......

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......

As we ease out of the austerity, self-denial and penny-pinching of January, so too the arts world comes even further out of its shell. This week sees a whole host of exciting openings. Take your pick; payday's passed and February's just round the corner! Be the first Gilbert and Sullivan's hilarious opera about love, corrupt local government, marriage, executions and heroics, The Mikado comes to the Gielgud Theatre from Wednesday. Alistair McGowan stars as......

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... We recommended memberships to various arty places as Christmas presents earlier this week, but in terms of things you can wrap and place under......

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......