2012 Games won't benefit locals, claims think tank Take that, Monaco - London now has the world's priciest homes Our Amy's up for three Ivor Novello gongs Lie detector software proves a nice little money-saver for south London council Russian heavyweights to square off at the High Court Which? reveals candidates for London Restaurant of the Year Image courtesy of Orhan* via the Londonist flickr group.......

It's somehow refreshing to see that the rich & powerful are no more capable of spotting a ruse than the rest of us. In a tale straight out of the niftiest grifter's playbook, businessman Terry Collins was relieved of £1 million by a couple of con artists who convinced him that he was about to buy the Ritz. Property investor Mr. Collins made the acquaintance of a certain Tony Lee back in 2006. Mr......

Motown legends The Four Tops won a victory in court last Friday, as they successfully prevented a rival band from touring with their name. Apparently singer Viscount Oliver Miller had been touring with his band, who went under the somewhat suspect name of "Viscount Oliver's Legendary Four Tops". There were surely Four Tops fans who were hoodwinked by this name trickery and attended the advertised gigs, assuming they would see at least one member......

With the opening of St Pancras and its high-speed line to the continent, the approval of Crossrail, and glimpses of the futuristic bullet trains that will soon call London home, there are plenty of encouraging signs that Britain's rail network is in good health. They don't come much more inspiring than the former railway man who has set up his own rail service. Grand Central Rail was established in 2000 by former British Rail......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 23rd July 1986: Prince Andrew marries Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey. As a wedding present (of sorts), the Queen grants them the title of Duke and Duchess of York. Tuesday – 24th July 1987: At the High Court, Jeffrey Archer wins damages of £500,000 in his libel case against the Daily Star. 14 years later he would be convicted of perjury and perverting the course of justice......

If you’re a woman in London, you have most likely experienced being groped, touched, leered at, harassed, followed or hit on by random strangers in public. It happens to women of all ages, from preteens to grannies. It has even happened to this Londonista, getting pushed into traffic by a man whose wrath was incurred when his request to 'smile, baby' was turned down five years ago. If you haven’t experienced something like this,......

Seattlest has a talk with the photographer from last week's "Segway Mom" and then experiences some dissension in the ranks over the question of wine vs. beer. It's not West Side Story, but about as close as they'll get. They're also still waiting on some inbox relief after a spammer is arrested. As Chicagoist counts down the days to its third anniversary party, they found all-organic pizza to be underwhelming amidst the hoopla, tried......

"They do not love that do not show their love. The course of true love never did run smooth. Love is a familiar. Love is a devil. There is no evil angel but Love." "Sadly, only bitterness has proved to have flourished in the soil in which once hope and love had briefly seemed viable." "Near, far, wherever you are, I believe that the heart does go on." Three quotes about love. One credited......

Protestors and police never seem to be bosom buddies, especially when there is an anarchic flavour to their activity. London is no exception, where the Met police really aren't fond of the capital's monthly 'Critical Mass' bike protest rides.Each one starts off at Waterloo, and each time the destination is deliberately not agreed in advance. As big fans of order and discipline, it's no surprise that this kind of free-wheeling attitude unsettles your average......

Another blow for drivers as a test case regarding speeding over Tower Bridge has ruled against the motorists involved: Thousands of drivers are facing fines of up to £150 for speeding on London's Tower Bridge. Ruling on a test case, the High Court dismissed the defendants' challenge that the speed-limit signs on the bridge were not legal. The thin borders around the signs apparently made them invisible, but the judge was having none of......

Mama Mouse: [To her 9 children] My darling mouslings, it has taken us a while to settle into our new home in Newham General Hospital, after a bitterly cold and cruel winter. But we are comfortable and prosperous now, and I think we all deserve a treat. Mouslings: Yay! Chocolate! Chocolate! Chocolate! Papa Mouse: You shall all have chocolate, except our oldest son, Tim-Tim, who is addicted to crack. For him, we shall give......

An 18-year-old woman has been charged with assisting one of the men involved in the attempted bombings of 21 July. Ken has been busy today trying to overturn his four-week suspension for likening a Jewish reporter to a concentration camp guard. Oh great, another London property boom. Just what we need. The New Gangs of London video game is getting mixed reviews. Thanks to the High Court you will now still be able to......

You know how it is... you get to a certain age and the pressure builds for you to germinate. But what happens if you're well past your prime and your seed has seen better days? Well that arch enemy of superstition, Science, can step in and encourage a fresh spurt : Seeds which have been stored away since the time of George III have been persuaded into new life. Scientists from the Millennium Seed......

This day in London’s History We have to admit that it can sometimes be a struggle to find a suitably interesting slice of London history. Being interesting and engaging is obviously of paramount importance, which is why we often find ourselves hoping that we can dig up something more noteworthy than say, Jeffrey Archer stubbing his toe on a coffee table in his riverside penthouse whilst taking a break from writing another cack novel......

As we reported earlier, Parliament Square protestor Brian Haw has had his protest stripped down to just a couple of placards. Police turned up at 2:45am and removed most of his placards, and many of his possessions. Naturally, Londonist just had to go down to Westminster and ask Haw what was going on. When we arrived, Haw being mobbed by photographers, cameramen and reporters, including a crew from an Iranian TV station. A group......

Nice slip by the BBC here: Not only that, but the stocky black man with the strong French accent bore little resemblance to the picture on the expert’s website, which showed a slim white man with blue eyes and blond hair. The corporation’s News 24 channel apologised to its viewers yesterday and admitted that its interviewee was not Guy Kewney, the respected editor of Newswireless.net, but a local taxi driver. The cabbie, who is better......

Quite often, one can be walking/cycling/driving through Parliament Square and see Brian Haw, the now world-famous protestor, standing in his underpants washing himself. Now it's not a pretty sight, and nor are some of his posters, but you have got to admire the man's conviction. Whether you think he's a champion of the anti-war movement, or a few sandwiches short of a picnic (he DID leave his family to hold his protest, which has......

How much does a hospital bed cost these days? Around £10,000 if you refuse to leave it: A man who has been in hospital for almost three years, despite needing no medical treatment or care, has been ordered to leave by the High Court. The 72-year-old, known as Mr X, was given 14 days to leave the Finchley Memorial Hospital in north London. What a disgrace, how the hospital thinks it's justified in.... hang......

Londonist aims to give you a concise yet informative idea of the daily goings on at Westminster (and the rest of London's political sphere) with this, the Westminster Daily post. Speaker Martin has Heart Op The first big story so far this week is the absence of the Speaker of the House of Commons, Michael Martin. Mr. Martin was admitted to hospital in his native Glasgow during last week's parliamentary recess after suffering chest......

George Michael was arrested just before 2am this morning at Hyde Park Corner, on suspicion of possessing class C drugs after being found slumped at the wheel of a car. Ken's off to the High Court today to challenge his supension. (Dan Brown and Livingstone are both at the High Court today, going to be a busy one!) Today sees the 'last ditch' talks between RMT and London Underground in an attempt to avert Thursday's......

Ron Howard's The Da Vinci Code is due out on May 19th but in true Dan Brown style there may be one more twist in the tale before we get to that point. Next week Brown is up in High Court on charges of plagiarism brought agaist him by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh,the authors of the (very good) non-fiction book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. Their complaint is obvious if a......

After the inquest into the death of Jean Charles de Menezes was reopened yesterday, his family have asked that a High Court judge investigate the shooting. But according to the Met, since July 7 three major terror attacks on London have been foiled and each time the decision to 'use a 'shoot to kill' policy was not taken. The RMT have voted by 884 to 479 to strike next Thursday (March 2). They are sitting......

Shock news: People weren’t arrested outside parliament yesterday. Indeed, a group of carol singers, who were previously threatened with arrest under the Serious Organised Crimes and Police Act, were allowed to wassail unmolested in Parliament Square. The law bans demonstrating without police permission within a half mile radius of the Palace of Westminster, as Maya Evans, one of last night’s carollers, found out recently when she was arrested outside Downing Street for reading out......

The Houses of Parliament are a familiar London sight: visitors and regulars alike gaze wonderingly at the seat of power, steeped in history, majesty... and protest. Parliament Square has seen its fair share of protest by those who have exercised their right to speak out for what they believe at the very site where that right was created. Brian Haw has maintained a vigil of protest outside the Houses of Parliament for four years.......

The four-year battle to stop the construction of a 22-storey tower outside Tate Modern has finally got personal. Residents of nearby flats on Bankside have now launched a legal action against the the developers and John Prescott who backed the plan. The history of the 'Prescott Tower' goes right back to 2001, but the short version goes something like this: On 12 July last year the Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal by the......

What can we say...apart from maybe "Thanks God that's over with"? The Hampstead Heath Winter Swimming Club have finally won their case to use the ponds in the winter (although, why they couldn't have just changed the name of the club to Hampstead Heath Summer Swimming Club and saved everyone a lot of time we're not sure). The club's High Court challenge against the Corporation of London finally ended today when the Judge ruled......

The Hampstead Pond debacle ratched up another notch yesterday as the case hit the High Court, and the real dangers behind the extreme sport of 'splashing about in ponds' became fully apparent. In case you're unaware of the history behind this, last summer the Corporation of London rejected a proposal by the Heath Winter Swimming Club to allow "self-regulated swimming in a natural pond on public ground" because of health and safety risks. So......

Today's Times offers us a 'fascinating' insight into the lives of the "Chelsea set" via the story of Roland Straub and Cynthia Taylor. Roland is the president of the Optimus Corporation and owns porperties in London and Zug in Switzerland. He met Cynthia while on holiday in Italy, shortly after divorcing his second wife. According to the paper "A romantic relationship developed and they began to spend time together". Aaah, it;s just like a......

Not content with wreaking havoc through The Premiership, Arsenal football club are also running riot over small business folk standing between them and huge profits. As part of Arsenal Football Clubs grand plan to position themselves in the UEFA uber-club sphere (the breakaway league is coming, just admit it) they're in the process of building themselves a swanky new stadium of Nou Camp proportions, however not everybody is welcoming their new footballing overlords with welcome......

You could say that the Evangelical Christian church took a bit of a knock yesterday as one of their preachers was ordered by a High Court Judge to "stop harassing Mormons". Now, we all know what fun it can be to tease Mormons (and they do make it pretty easy sometimes), but even we had to admit that Andrew Price of Chiswick took things a little too far: - he made thousands of calls......