A small Camden charity, Hare Krishna Food for All, was named Novelis Community Recycing Project of the year at The Resource Awards last week. We hadn't heard of them before today but nosing around their website we're really rather in awe of their humanitarian and environmental efforts in central London. It's a really simple idea. Food For All provides disadvantaged people with free hot meals in Camden, Kings Cross and Holborn, by collecting food......

Brown on Livingstone: Ken is an “inspirational figure” and a “crusading mayor”. Thank you, we’ll have none of your moral turpitude here: US immigration officials deny entry to London dandy Sebastian Horsley. Gap-owned Banana Republic opens its first UK store on Regent Street today amid allegations that the chain exploits workers in India. City homeless projects to receive £19 million in government funding. Doggy arson: Clueless canine burns down Luddesdown kennel. Fortunately, the hapless......

Of the anywhere from 25,000 to 100,000 people who apply for asylum in the UK each year, Amnesty International estimates that approximately two-thirds are turned away. Once rejected, applicants are given 21 days to leave the country, at which point those without children are cut off from financial support and accommodation provided by the National Asylum Support Service. Many, for reasons as complex as those that brought them to the UK in the first......

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......

“… Christmas turkey pie from Eat.....mmmm..... pie. Can we have a review of that too please?” So pled a Londonist reader in that Pret appreciation thread which sparked up in response to our last What's for Lunch? post. Of course, Londonist isn’t against a little pie every once in awhile. Especially Christmas pie. We’re not massive fans of Eat, but (like Pret) the only thing we can really fault ‘em on is their ubiquity.......

You may remember that we're not exactly lukewarm about this place. We were even up for finding love here. I guess you could say we're fans. Nothing has changed with a change in exhibition: Sleeping and Dreaming is marvellous and you must go. For a start, it's free. Nought pee. You can just swan through the doors, turn left and there you are. But that's where it gets dark and you immediately start watching......

Four weeks till Christmas! Argh. Funds are all focused on present buying and getting through the party season but we still want to go out and about because the heating isn't working properly at home. We can't afford to go and see Gandalf drop his trousers in King Lear but, thankfully, there's lots of cheap and interesting stuff about as usual. Monday: Start the week with an event truly in the spirit of London......

Regions. Are you listening? You must exploit us. London takes all the profit. Make trade and investment links with us. And soon you will be boom towns too. Richmond Council's biofuels plan hits a snafu. Anton "butter likely to melt in mouth" Ferdinand in a spot of bother. Is this an eagle over Battersea? The fire is out. The best photos coming up... Homeless in Toytown courtesy of Chutney Bannister via the Londonist flickr......

An exhibition of doodles from The Pavement - a free monthly magazine for homeless people - is on show at the Cartoon Museum. The Pavement contains news, information and humour to help make life on the streets a wee bit safer and more tolerable. It’s well known amongst its target audience - London’s rough sleepers - but is virtually unheard of in more affluent circles. Editor Richard Burdett, whom we interviewed earlier this year,......

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.......

Westminster Council, never known for grand philanthropic gestures, is now leading calls for a curb on soup runs and food distribution to the homeless. The argument, which is supported by no less than homeless champion John Bird, is that easy access to food will only proliferate homelessness, as it removes some of the spur to find work and shelter. It is also true that there are some who have accommodation but still seek to cash......

This is the story of a very strange Sunday that started with eight audience members sitting in shop doorways and concluded at a dining table set up on the busy St John’s Road near Clapham Junction. We went through a lot together – a phonebox, a cashpoint, a wedding in a piss-sodden alleyway, a funeral in a car park and then this surreal Sunday lunch. We were family by the time Barry broke his......

Yesterday saw St Martin-in-the-Fields reopen its revamped and expanded crypt cafe hot on the heels of Sunday's first church service for 90 weeks following a multi-million pound renewal and restoration project. The 18th century landmark church, which opens onto Trafalgar Square, is dearly loved in London not only for just being there but for its fantastic concert programme. This includes jazz nights, classical evenings, free lunchtime concerts and the famous and atmospheric Concerts by......

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......

This weekend, a man was found dead in Orpington High Street. Apparently his death is being treated as 'sudden'. What's surprising about this is that although his death was sudden, no one spotted him for 13 hours. Think about this for a second. A whole day. We never really think about time passing. But we're starting to realise just how long a day really is. We'd like to think if we were sick, or......

We are the people who live in London. Some of us are born here and some of us will die here. Some of us have been here forever and some came here yesterday. Some of us will stay forever, like it or not. We have been those people for nearly 2000 years and our consciousness has shaped our environment from our gardens to Parliament, from our market stalls to the London Eye. The way......

Sickening news today of the case of a homeless man who was "happy slapped" to death for "a right laugh" in Stratford last September. The three men charged with Gary Turner's murder, all in their early twenties, apparently went on a violent spree that night attacking three people in total. The gang recorded their first attack on the passive, sleeping and intoxicated Mr Turner on a mobile phone and then returned several hours later......

Holy smokes! Giant fish on the MTA, Paris Hilton in jail, then out, then in again, Al Gore, goatses, blumpkins, Matt Damon, and baby art critics! It's been a busy week across the Ist-A-Verse, and here's a smattering of what's been going on. In Gothamist's neck of the woods, they found out that many things are possible: A man caught a 40+ pound fish off the Rockaways and took it home on the subway. Graffiti......

Deirdre and Maria, the Mormon chilli-wielding child dislikers, are jailed. 60,000 of our citizens are missing. Mourinho falls in love with the Olympics. One bedroom flat in Belgravia costs £3 million. But it does have a high ceiling, so plenty of space. If you're Spiderman. The image above comes from Tanya Nagar, who has a little chat with the loosely clad and homeless Stuart over on her blog.......

London's running schedule is hotting up next month. Alongside the capital's tussle with Liverpool and Glasgow on the morning of Sunday 3 June, workers in The City and Docklands have their own chances to nip out, buy some emergency trainers and get some kilometres under their belts (which might be straining if they've been investing their inflated xmas bonuses in too much rich food and Krug). First up we have the Canary Wharf Jog......

Ken, you have a contender. John Bird, successful businessman and founder of The Big Issue, announced his candidacy for Mayor of London and unveiled the accompanying manifesto. Mr Bird, running independently but courting interest from the Conservatives, said his platform would be one of ‘social inclusion,’ targeting youth crime, irresponsible businesses and housing problems in the capital. "The first thing I would do as mayor would be to look at the great oxygenators of......

A few weeks back we brought you the tale of a man who, out of the kindness of his own heart, takes people's broken iPods, fixes them for free and passes them on to others. Could there be a nicer man in the whole kingdom? Well, yes there could. His name is Richard Burdett, and he edits a free magazine for homeless people. The Pavement has no big charity backing and is almost entirely......

The soon-to-be-constructed 'Cheesegrater' building seems to have attracted a little murine attention. Could it be the same family of mice we previously encountered at Newham Hospital, and Asda? Could it...could it? Papa Mouse: [to his 8 starving children] My little mouslings, now that we have been driven out of both Newham General Hospital and the Lavender Hill branch of Asda and we are hungry and homeless, we must concentrate all our efforts on finding......

Texas is thawing, the Northeast is freezing, and a sort of natural order seems almost restored to the Ist-A-Verse. Almost. Londonist HQ—that is to say, the city of London—was battered by heavy winds, making it a bad time to be a twelve-meter (nearly forty-foot) tall snowman. Still, not everyone decided to keep warmly covered. Meanwhile, back indoors, the Big Brother racism is now causing all kinds of headaches for international diplomats, and Londonist got into......

Rumour has it that the SAS use the Northern Line to break new recruits. Put 'em down the holes in High Barnet and Edgware then pick up the pieces in Morden at the end of the day. They rebuild them as unflinching fighting machines because they know the worst is behind them. Every now and then you spot one of the few who didn't make it, mumbling and lost on the escalators at Kennington.......

If for you Christmas isn't really that special and you just end up pigging out all day before watching television bored (hang on! isn't that everyone?), then maybe you should consider forgoing the Turkey and Nut Roast this year to help Crisis. Crisis is a charity which aims to fight homelessness and empower people to fulfill their potential. Over Christmas, the charity runs the Crisis Open Christmas - seven centres between 23 and 30......

The Londonist Literary List appears every Tuesday. If you'd like to bring an event to our attention, please email londonistlit@gmail.com. If you haven't seen the blog, or spotted them in the Guardian, Post Secret's conceit is simple - send a postcard airing a single piece of your dirty laundry. Now there's a book and an accompanying exhibition at Foyles till December the 10th. The new Smoke - a London Peculiar is out too. Here's......

A tribute to the capital’s alleys, ginnels and snickleways 15. Bull Inn Court Where? Long, sloping alley dropping from Maiden Lane down to Strand. What? Named after, unsurprisingly, the Bull Inn tavern, which once stood at the foot of the hill. A narrow cutting between the Adelphi and Vaudeville theatres widens in the middle, allowing in a little daylight. Charmingly spooky, if you ignore the smell. Why use? This alley checks all our boxes. 1.......

Tim 'The Tube Man' O'Toole has said that he doesn't believe Abu Hamza's son posed a threat while working as a labourer on the Underground. Ex-IRA spy Kevin Fulton has been arrested in London in connection with two murders in Northern Ireland. The Telegraph delves into the 2012 budget and comes up with a few surprises. Centrepoint have opened a new facility for the homeless featuring internet-access in every room. The Doors (not all......

We just received an email asking for help in locating a missing person from the Haringey Association for Independent Living (HAIL) Limited: Enclosed is a picture of Mr George Tanyi. Mr Tanyi left his home in Tottenham on the morning of 4th July. He left without taking his travel pass or any money, so we believe he is probably still in the London area. He is non-verbal and autistic, and we very worried about......