While most will undoubtedly be snuggling up on the sofa, warmed chocolate cupped in one palm, tv remote in the other, the residents of East Barnet will be endeavouring upon a very different xmas eve: as was the tradition back in 1932, those with a ghoulish disposition will be flocking to Church Hill Road, near Oak Hill Park, in the hope to catch a glimpse of the former Sir Geoffrey de Mandeville, a headless......

Bitterness aside (yes, we too were not on the pulse fast enough to bag tickets before their price sky-rocketed), we are rather enjoying the bitch fight that is ‘should Ewan McGregor have been cast as Iago in the Donmar Warehouse’s production of Othello?’ Bloomberg, while slightly disappointed by McGregor’s under-emphasis of evil intent, are definitely the most complimentary of his performance: Fortunately, Ewan McGregor gives a very creditable performance -- codpiece and all ... The......

Londonist is a massive fan of two-wheeled transportation, especially when it comes with a gift voucher attached. Yes, the lucky residents of Islington can now give up the motor, get on the manual and be £100 richer. Or even £300 richer, for those who would otherwise fork out £200 annually on a parking permit. We were practically packing the bags and moving to the Borough upon reading this, but alas, the following recent government statistics......

It happens at the worst of times, always. You'll be in that changing room of Topshop, jeans straddled around your hips, or on that tube platform, waiting for a train with a requisite five minute delay and then it strikes you - the urge to pee. Out of your comfort zone (the zone of knowing where the nearest cubicle is), the fear magnifies tenfold. You could surreptitiously enter that local restaurant, and negotiate the humiliation......

Londonist is fuming, literally and alas will be for quite some time – the £150 million plan to chill the tube looks set to be suspended. It’s deemed too expensive (shock, horror) by Transport for London, who has taken over from maintenance company Metronet. Of course our hopes of a cooler network were not that high – what with seemingly ludicrous plans to install ice under the seats or redirect cold water in Victoria –......

Blues skies aside, winter is upon us - the halcyon days of summer a distant memory; thermals and visible breath a present reality. Therefore what better way to raise darkened spirits during these darkened days than going to the comedy and loosing yourself in laughter? We at Londonist certainly think this is a great plan (we’ve been on a not-so-secret comedy revival mission for years), and good news for us, Stewart Lee is playing at......

Children, children, Londonist wants to play a little game with you: it’s called “How to make you cry in one single snapshot.” The rules are pretty simple: you come equipped with your best smiles for the next school piccie and we’ll wipe them off your face instantly: black kids over there please ... yes, you ... Oh and you look a little dark of skin – over there as well please. Still smiling? Alright, Jewish......

Smoking is cool – hhhm, potentially debatable, although we know which side of the fence we straddle. Puffing a six-inch, battery powered ‘e-cig,’ which bears an uncanny resemblance to a pregnancy test, so not cool – non-debatable … or so we thought … A meagre few months into the ban, with chilly season fast approaching, club owners are getting savvy with the ciggie, most specifically the owners of Soho hotspot Chinawhite, who have just introduced......

We’re gob-smacked we are that Brits have a bad bed rep. As far as the eye can see, quite literally, we’re about as randy as a canine on heat. Sexual sighting number one: freshers strip during freshers week – now that sure is an original way to make friends (although the residents of Kingston might argue to the contrary). Sexual sighting number two: Swedish porn at the ICA. This really qualifies as six sightings,......

Of all the things Brits can be proud of - great roasts, telephones, Shakespeare - the African Slave Trade is most definitely not one of them. Fortunately, it was abolished 200 years ago, which for the record is 41 years up on our neighbours, the French (well, actually they abolished it before us, but then decided to re-instate it until 1848). To mark this momentious occasion and indeed achievements of the black community in general,......

Crickey, what does it say for us mere unarmed mortals when top cop Inspector Glen Smyth is too scared to travel solo on trains late at night? Admittedly, Smyth's fear has been provoked: a failed attempt to arrest a drunk, unruly train passenger in Feltham on the night of the England V. Germany football match at Wembley left Smyth all bloody-nosed. A spokesman for the British Transport Police says: He has a right to feel......

Brian Paddick of the “softly softly” approach towards cannabis will not be happy. A “zero tolerance” crackdown on its users has just been decided by police and lawyers, who believe tough action to be the only solution. The policy shift will first take the form of a three-month operation in the crime-ridden Latchmere area of Battersea. Those openly dealing the drug will no longer be given merely a warning, rather will be arrested and then......

Double-take caption in the Times today reads: “More whites than Asians stopped by antisuicide bomber police.” According to this article, Scotland Yard released figures yesterday on the ethnic composition of its stop-and-search figures: of the 32,000 people stopped between April and August of this year under the Terrorism Act, 17,348 were white, compared to 6,755 Asians and 4,287 blacks. Of course this evidence does not extricate the Police from the witch hunt charge: given the......

Anyone remember the Sex and the City moment when Carrie has her Manolo’s snatched? They wanted her shoes – say what? Well, such crime is no longer confined to the silver screen, nor the streets of Manhattan. Early yesterday morning, two fashion houses, Brora on Marylebone High Street and Luella Bartley in Mayfair, were broken into and handfuls of handbags and cashmere seized. The villains – reported to have travelled by moped – skilfully......

If train-spotting be your bag, then you can soon enjoy it with bubbles. Set to open alongside the new London terminus for Eurostar in St Pancras Station is the 'world’s longest champagne bar'. The 78 m expanse – brainchild of catering company Searcy, operator of the restaurant roofed in the Gherkin, and designer Linda Turner (Inature) of Arbutus and Wild Honey fame – will run parallel to the tracks and is designed to fit......

We’re sticking to our laurels – we just don’t care about London Fashion Week. But we do care about Prince, our Purple Hero of Pop. Thus, this morning, we cast our eye for a protracted second on a more enjoyable fashionista blurb – “Prince wows London fashion elite.” Turns out the artist formally known as Prince not only joined Matthew Williamson’s show, but stole it, leaping onto the stage to cajole all with his......

Londonist has a case of the spookies – deathly headstones in deathly places. More specifically, Sutton Cemetery. According to This is Local London, bereaved relatives frequenting their loved one's resting place have been confronted by not-so-subtle wooden support stakes and yellow post-its informing them of the instability of the headstones, which must then either be shored up or replaced. A spokesman from Sutton council explains these actions are a response to the rising number......

Our Ken’s been getting a little hot under the collar of late – what with tubes strikes aplenty and London landscape controversies, lest we forget the fast tick-tock till election day – the time has never proved more ripe to woo the electorates of his London. The latest in Ken’s bid for our affection? Cheap housing! Yep, angered by what he perceives as individual councils aligning themselves against the acquisition and distribution of affordable......