Greenness is certainly suffering mixed fortunes today. For a start, Mayor Boris had originally moved to save trees, only this evening to reverse Ken's planned £25 CO2 congestion charge hike. Into the bargain he also thanked Porsche for donating their subsequent legal costs paid by Transport for London to charidee. Meanwhile a campaign launched last week to promote London's Outdoors included the temporary siting of an Outdoor Office in St James Park, but then......

Love London is a "green-up" festival packed with 3 weeks of "eco-events'. We mentioned the Green Tours last week but there's much much more going on, starting with the Recycled Sculpture Show at ZSL which hosted the launch of the festival last Thursday. Previously lumbered with the title "London Sustainability Weeks", Love London's snappier current form covers events as diverse as naked bike riding, fair trade tea dancing, a locally sourced, midsummer feast in......

Tra la, it’s May, the lusty month of May – and we, apparently, feel like singing. Is it the gorgeous weather? The lovely literary events in our diary? Our trips up and down the too-hot-to-trot Northern Line? The Pimm’s coursing through our veins? (No, surely not that.) Need to ramp up your own book lust for the week? Then have a gander at our groceries: Wednesday: Your choice of poetry events today: As part......

Something surprising is happening in our fair river: Conservationists have found seahorses among the muck in the Thames. More exciting, the seahorses are a rare short-snouted breed -- Hippocampus hippocampus, for you bio fiends out there -- that usually live around the Canary Islands and Italy. Seems like a long way to travel for a horse with no legs. The little creatures, which normally live in shallow muddy waters, estuaries or seagrass beds, have been......

Every month, the folks at Fancyapint? get together to vote for their top ten favourite pubs. These are recently visited pubs that for one reason or another (the ambience, the booze, the company) stuck in their collective memory. Kindly, these booze-savvy Fancyapinters have decided to share their latest picks with Londonist and all our readers. Cheers! Here’s the current list from Fancyapint? in no particular order of merit. They assure us that all ten......

After the (non-)scandal of (un-)banned Tube posters, the works of Lucas Cranach the Elder are now well and truly on show at the Royal Academy. Painter, print-maker, illustrator, businessman, propagandist, and huge fan of the female nude, this is Cranach's first major exhibition in Britain. And while you're gazing at all the nakedness, remember; this was a mate of Martin Luther, and those erotic female nudes are all about Protestant devotion. Honest. Openings Ahoy!......

Carving your beloved's name on the trunk of a tree, or doodling it on the school desk, is so 20th century. For the modern urban dweller, the only way to really impress your betrothed is to spread your love in three-foot high letters on the side of a train. That was Raymond Agbegahs's plan. The graffiti vandal has spent the past decade spraying messages for his girlfriend on train carriages and railway stations in......

Boris Johnson might just have won himself the election with a pledge to abolish the bendy bus and bring back the Routemaster. Emotions were high today as the Bethnal Green tube station disaster was commemorated, 65 years on. Londonist is feeling left out: we want to climb up something and protest: today saw two up a crane grumbling about the EU Treaty. On the Olympic front, today saw the announcement that the IOC is......

Harrygate escalates: Prince pulled out of Afghanistan, whilst the media whip selves into frenzy over involvement in the news blackout/leak. Winegate averted (for now): Winehouse will not face charges in connection with husband’s alleged attempts to pervert justice. Guess which city is the world’s museum capital? We’ll give you three guesses; first two don’t count. A day after M&S announces it will charge for plastic bags, Gordon Brown indicates that the government is ready......

Even on its quietest weeks, London is something of a happy haven for bibliophiles such as ourselves, though we may be doing nothing more than perusing one of the city’s many lovely bookshops. This week, however, we’re in a veritable book geek heaven, as the London literary scene goes all glittery, playing host to some major names and fantastic events, leaving us tongue-tied and weak at the knees. Do we gush? Very well then,......

The Germaniaxx Isn't the weather glorious? Stand in the sunshine and it's definitely spring. This makes us happy! This means that we can walk in the park and get about town and not feel miserably wintry and therefore desperate to waste our hard earned on firelit pubs and woolly accessory buying. Well, not quite so much. We are, however, saving up our cash to spend on Creme Eggs and the rebuild Camden Market fund so......

This might just be an excuse for us to post a cute puppy pic on a Friday, but wouldn't you want to know if your dog hated your taste in music? At a kennel for seeing-eye dogs in Woodford Green, a caretaker noticed the penned-up pups would calm down when she put on classical music. She tested out different kinds of music, and found the little yappers responded best to classical. Now they let......

Macabre London: First, man denies murdering model but admits to necrophilia; then a headless corpse turns up in northwest London. We find ourselves suspiciously eyeing other commuters on our Tube ride home this evening. Corrupt London: We know that London is ranked first on all kinds of lovely lists. But we’d prefer to forgo the dubious distinction of being first in rates of debit and credit card fraud. Tonally challenged London: Londonist thinks it’s......

Ken Livingstone has officially launched a program to help London become the greenest place to film in the world. Not *that* kind of green - we're not going to see Regents Park stand in for the Amazon Basin anytime soon. We're talking the other green. The one we got all excited about yesterday. Y'know, the environmental one. 'Green Screen London' is a series of initiatives aiming to make our film and television industry the......

The fourth in our series of spooky, kooky guided walks is almost upon us. Wander Lonely Streets Part IV takes place on Friday, from 7.30, beginning at the north end of Green Park's Queens Walk (pedestrian route on the East side of the park). This is between the Tube exits and the Ritz. Do drop us a line if you'd like to come along (londonist - at - gmail - dotcom). It's free, and......

Having barely emerged from January’s wreckage of failed New Year’s resolutions, it was with a groan that we greeted the news that Lent arrives early this year. Questions of belief aside, Lent always seems likes such a promising self-improvement programme: give up chocolate, drink less, quit smoking. But didn’t we just make – and break – those same resolutions last month? We’re not such optimists to think we should try again so soon. Perhaps......

Is it just us or was January rubbish? Nice then that February, with its special extra day this year, commences with Brazilian Carnival, yummy pancakes and Chinese New Year... it's like a whole new start for 2008 and lots of it totally FREE! Monday: Get some Monday Love at the Inspiral Lounge, Camden Lock as UK Indymedia host their radical film, talk, and music night. Free entry for all those who still believe in......

Having treated audiences at the May 2007 All Tomorrow's Parties' "ATP vs. The Fans" festival to her gentle brand of Northern Californian folk, Mariee Sioux returns to the UK this week to play a series of London gigs. A childhood friend of Rough Trade favourite Alela Diane, Sioux also grew up in the mountainous, artist-friendly town of Nevada City, a landscape which can be heard speaking through both singer's works. With a languid step......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 21st January 1976: Concorde’s first commercial service, from London to Bahrain (and Paris to Rio de Janeiro) commences. Tuesday – 22nd January 1876: The Royal Aquarium opens in Westminster. It would be demolished just 26 years later and replaced by the Methodist Central Hall. Wednesday – 23rd January 1571: The Royal Exchange in the City of London is officially opened by Elizabeth I. Over the next few hundred......

You wouldn’t think Jacqui Smith scares easily. In her time as Home Secretary she’s dealt with car bombs and blazing jeeps, and she’s lately been facing down a bunch of mightily annoyed cops. But in an interview appearing today in the Sunday Times, Jacqui revealed that she wouldn’t dare walk down a London street alone at night. Would she feel safe walking alone at night in, say, Hackney, east London? She looks alarmed: “No.......

We don't know whether crime is on the up or down but two new initiatives to engage London youth in the debate hit the news today. In Wood Green, kids suggested that a text 999 hotline to the police might encourage people to report crime on buses without drawing attention to themselves. Across town in Forest Gate, a genuine El Salvadoran gangsta attempted to deglamourise gang culture at a school assembly, giving the Met......

London’s councils have agreed to fund more green projects. An awfully large black market DVD ring has been busted in South London. Patients of the Epsom and St. Helier NHS Trust are undoubtedly seeing red today – theirs is officially the meanest hospital in Britain. The boys in blue have come up with a grand idea in Bermondsey – lure troublesome teens off the streets with free Xbox/Playstation access. Golden Globes in the offing......

One of the most thrilling aspects of live comedy is surely its intimacy. When you watch a big act in a small room, a charming comic can make you believe that they are there just for you, as if the jokes they tell were being told exclusively for your pleasure. There's a new club in town that is trying to go one step further. Anthology is a night in Portabello Green W10 which does......

Announcing the fourth Londonist guided walk. When: Friday 8 February. What: Piccadilly warriors, sapphic Royalty, bonkers fashion, nazi dogs, naval heroes and lovesick gardeners are amongst the cast on this dysfunctional relationship stroll through St James. Who: Chris Roberts, your genial guide from our previous walks is back. Chris is a veteran tour guide, author of Cross-River Traffic, resurrector of the Penny Dreadful with his One Eye Grey, and all-round top bloke. Where: Meet......

Above-inflation fare rises and teeming queues at the ticket machine as people flock to renew their passes; January 2nd is traditionally not the best day for the rail industry. TfL may be harking about a single fare freeze (whilst downplaying the Travelcard fare increase), but for Londoners today the news in general is less good: two of the capitals busiest transport hubs are closed. Liverpool Street station, shut since December 23rd while engineers were......

Right, so you're either saving up to blow the last of the December salary on one helluva NYE out or you're just stony broke after Christmas/sales shopping. Either way, unless you're happy to simply hibernate for the week here are some ideas for New Year jollity on a budget. New Year's Eve: Follow our top tips and gird your loins for the massive fireworks display along the Thames, focusing on the London Eye and......

First it's our music venues, now it seems even our police stations are up for grabs. With a potential value of £1.5 billion, the Metropolitan Police property protfolio is quite a cash-cow. No wonder then, that they're going to be reviewing the number of nicks. This asset Management strategy predicts that some stations may close to be replaced with smaller facilities across the (32) boroughs. Unsurprisingly, there are a few concerns. Mike Green, councillor......

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... How do you get people to cycle more? Ken would like to know I'm sure. Well, let's hope someone buys him some Green Knickers......

Now unfortunately, stories about the Royal Mail and any, er, lack of competence therein, are like red flags (bearing yellow insignia) to this Londonist bull. Today’s special postal story is a wondrous tale involving a Christmas journey…but not quite the pilgrimage you might imagine. No, this is about a seasonal greetings card sent from within England to Braemar Avenue, Bounds Green, London. It did indeed arrive in London. Braemar Crescent, London, Ontario. Great, isn’t it?......

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......