71. A Gaggle Of Ghosts: Part One With All Hallows Eve just over a month away I'd like to share with you some of London's finest, although not necessarily most known ghost stories which The Saturday Strangeness has been bereft of since its beginnings. Sutton House at Hackney, built in 1535 and in the care of the National Trust, is most certainly a very haunted building. In 1990 an architect visiting the premises encountered......

31. Phantom Assailants: Part Three The last two episodes of the Strangeness have concentrated on bizarre and elusive individuals who have slashed their way into folklore. This third instalment in the mini-series continues the thread except that the victims have been domestic cats! 1998 was a very grisly year throughout the city with regards to frequent mysterious moggie murders, by way of decapitation and tail removal. Forty cats had turned up in eight months......

If you missed out on Halloween fancy dress or just want an excuse to get decked out in Victorian garb, then White Mischief offers the perfect opportunity. White Mischief is a night of cabaret, vaudeville, and live music that encourages audience participation and dressing up. The event will be taking over Scala in Kings Cross this Saturday from 8pm until the wee hours. This show's theme is 'From The Earth To The Moon' and......

Londonist got the big scoop of the week with what may be the first images of notorious street artist Banksy in action. They also got on a runaway train without an operator provoking a response from the transport authorities. Elsewhere, London's answer to Central Station is about to open for business, and Londonist got a sneak preview. Meanwhile, spooky goings-on beneath London Bridge, where a cache of skeletons provided an apt story for Hallowe'en.......

Londonist's resident toddler draws the news. By David Le Fleming......

Londonist's resident toddler draws the news. By David Le Fleming......

October hasn't been a great month to be a Royal. If it's not a blackmail attempt, or being immortalised in bronze for a controversial sculpture, now they can't even go out for a spot of recreational rare-bird shooting without some spoilsport kicking up a fuss. It's been reported that Prince Harry was interviewed by police after two rare hen harriers, a legally protected species of bird, were shot in flight at Sandringham. The prince......

Remember remember the fifth of November Gunpowder, treason and plot. I see no reason why gunpowder, treason Should ever be forgot... We know that today is Halloween and Bonfire Night is not until next week, but the truth is, most of the fireworks displays in London will happen before the big day. We've already told you about the display on Clapham Common and we wouldn't want you to miss out on the rest of......

It's the week for spooky goings on and ever more events are coming to our attention. On Halloween night itself, our favourite quiz masters the You're Gonna Need A Bigger Boat film quiz chaps are hosting a horror special. If you want to show off your knowledge of cinematic zombie uprisings, killer earthworms, vampires, werewolves, evil puppets and psychopathic homicidal revenge-seeking cross-dressers then get yourself along to the Boogaloo in Highgate this Wednesday night......

Hooray! It's nearly Halloween! Jack-o-lanterns a plenty, scary masks and annoying trick or treaters who get hyped up on way too many e-numbers (and probably a few cans of cider nowadays). Still, there's so much stuff going on this year, you'd be a fool to stay inside hiding under your sofa this 31st October. It just wouldn't be Halloween without the Rocky Horror Show. So Everyman Cinema snapped up this spooky treat. Dress up,......

Just in time for Halloween, global dark art peddlers, Strychnin Gallery, opened its East London doors Friday night with the “Kings and Queens and Childhood Dreams” exhibition. The show, which still runs for at least a few more weeks, features the works of dozens of artists from throughout the world. Much of the exhibition’s subject matter has a creepy and somewhat sinister edge. By “childhood dreams,” we assume they mean nightmares, creatures under the......

Last Friday’s Halloween Party at Black Pearl Boutique was a spooky retro blast. Jack-o-Lantern orange cocktails were served by a dead cheerleader and (what Londonist reckons was) a zombie prom queen. And if you’ve never had Jack-o-Lantern orange cocktails served by a dead cheerleader and a zombie prom queen, you’ll be pleased to know that they are exceptionally potent with booze. The party was also a frighteningly clever excuse for a bit of shopping:......

24. Haunted Roads For Halloween! Despite London’s congested roads and the daily chorus of thousands of beeping horns, ghosts of the cities roads are in fact sporadic. Look through any catalogue of phantom hitchhikers or ghostly vehicles (for example http://www.roadghosts.com/) and you’ll notice a distinct lack of activity within the capital pertaining to tarmac terrors. Why this is we’ll never know – maybe it’s simply down to the fact that elsewhere in the country,......

The London International Comics Festival is halfway over, so if you haven’t seen any of it yet you owe it to yourself to investigate some sweet action with paper, ink and speech bubbles. The festival continues to tackle a nicely wide range of topics, so this week the highlights we’ve chosen offer Halloween horror, an indie invasion and germane geopolitics. If the festival were a comic book itself, it would be coming to the......

Londoners officially have the biggest debts in the UK according to a survey by credit agency, Callcredit. We're borrowing "above average levels despite the credit crunch". Hardly surprising, is it? We live in the most expensive city in the world with the most expensive restaurants, property and diamond encrusted skulls. Salaries just can't keep up with the cost of living in London. Heck, we're so skint we're even trying to get a refund on our......

Black Pearl Boutique, Carnaby Street’s “haven of rockabilly jewellery, vintage 1950’s clothing, burlesque corsets, and accessories”, is having a free Halloween party this Friday from 6.30 to 10pm. With its ‘Polynesian tiki style’ décor, the shop evokes the spirit of 1950s tiki bars and is a happening place to visit, party or not. So, the fact that complimentary Black Pearl cocktails created especially for the party will be served means this Halloween shin dig......

We've already told you about Oxjam. You know the deal. Listen to great music, dance around like a loon, support Oxfam. It makes perfect sense. And that £1 million target won't raise itself, you know... Grumpy Old Drunks - The Drunks are in charge at Nambucca and ULU this weekend. Live performances from the Piney Gir Country Roadshow and ace gypsy punk outfit (and stars of Stokefest 2007) The Destroyers, while The Maccabees and......

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......

23. The Woman In Black This week’s feature on London’s darker side is more of a review, simply because last week, Saturday 13th October, myself and my cousin ventured to see The Woman In Black stage show at the Fortune Theatre, on Russell Street in Covent Garden. For those of you who are not familiar with this chilling ghost story, it is an adaptation of Susan Hill’s fine book and has been running in......

Phosphatic rock. A radium-luminised gauge dial face. Radium paint. It sounds like an amateur nuclear hobbyist's shopping list, but these are just some of the scary-sounding radioactive materials found recently at the Olympic Park site in east London. Contractors uncovered the objects whilst clearing a 100-year old waste tip near Stratford last month. A subsequent survey, ordered by the Olympic Delivery Authority, revealed "low level" contamination and hotspots of the highly poisonous heavy metal......

As it gets closer to Halloween for LAist, a contributer recollects her tale of staring down the serial killer, Richard Ramirez, otherwise known as the Night Stalker. Must think happy thoughts -- okay, free organic chocolate chip cookies for Los Angeles -- now that's a happy thought. Other happy Los Angeles thoughts include an interview with Jack Kehler of The Big Lebowski (he was the Dude's landlord), a beautiful and magical photographic moment in Venice......

The Mayor of London wants you to stay up late. Stay up late for the Lates October season. He wanted you to cut back on sleep and catch up on culture back in May when the first Lates season was launched, now it's October, he wants you to check out the things you miss during the day in the big museums and galleries. Have you been meaning to see something at any of the......

It's not every night you get to hang out with Tinkerbell, Snow White and Red Riding Hood. But then, Rockaberet isn't your usual night out (where would be the fun in that?). We've told you a bit about it before, but we decided that as it's so much fun, we needed to show you what you were missing. And if you weren't at the Fairy Tale Ball on Saturday, you missed a great show.......

Fresh this Week: If news of the impending Doctor Who hiatus is giving you palpitations, fear not – the Book Grocer brings you not one but three new books based on the popular series: Paul Magrs – Sick Building The Doctor and Martha travel to Tiermann’s World, a planet where sabre-toothed tigers still roam. They arrive to warn everyone that an extremely hungry alien creature is on its way and if they don’t take action......

Like Michael Myers in skiing goggles the Princess of Hearts just won't rest in peace. And al-Fayed isn't a bad choice to replace Donald Pleasence - similar build and no one believed his ramblings in Halloween... until dead teenagers started turning up. Jon Snow summed it up rather well in last night's Ch4 News email: The Diana inquest goes from the bizarre to the very bizarre. The linguistically florid Mike Mansfield QC has gone......

Chris Roberts (not pictured) is a man of many talents. He's traced the origins of nursery rhymes, surveyed London's bridges and even written a musical about Margaret Thatcher. And then there's the Evening Standard random headline generator. Most recently of all, he took us on a walk around the Pool of London. His latest project, One Eye Grey (available at not enough good bookshops), is the first penny dreadful for over a hundred years......

It's times like this that make it especially scary to be a black-out drinker. According to The Guardian, hundreds of customers who visited the Pine Bar at London's Millenium Hotel on November 1 will be tested for exposure to radiation from the polonium-210 which killed Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko. The Health Protection Agency radiation protection division (who knew they had a radiation detection division!) has asked those who were at the bar anytime between October......

Ever been shopping and spent a huge amount of money on something you'll probably never wear? One buyer was a bit more canny, and spent near £1 million at Christie's on that black dress that Audrey Hepburn wears in Breakfast at Tiffany's. And they did it in the name of charidee, with the proceeds going to the City of Joy Aid. The organisation builds schools for the poorer communities in India. Founder Dominic Lapierre......

Halloween is Tuesday, which means this weekend is really the time for all of the –ists to celebrate. And whether they’re designing super-spooky costumes or talking about the super-spooky upcoming elections, we’d say that they’re doing a fine job of it. Austinist knows that few things in life are scarier than zombies, people with way too much money, and politicians who try too hard to be funny. Slightly less scary, depending on whom you......

A mixed bag for the weekend, as mixed as the weather (especially when you think of the snow involved in skiing...) Starting tonight, there's Light It! Festival of Light in Myatt's Fields Park in Camberwell This outdoor event has video installations, circus art, sculptural artworks, music and sound, candles and lanterns and is first in a series of planned annual events for this Victorian south London park. Go along to see leading artists' interpretations......