Book-lovers will be checking out a unique new venue on Saturday [2 Feb]: St James Street Open-Air Library in Walthamstow. No payment, no tickets – just bring as many books as you like, and swap them. Fab, but Brrrrrr. Its hours are brief; from 1-3pm the first Saturday of the month. And its book stock is the few hundred its organisers have rounded up from supporters – plus whatever anyone brings. But it’s handily......

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... It seems that everywhere we’ve gone recently, we’ve had the opportunity to buy environment-friendly souvenir and decorative tote bags. Gone are the days when......

2007 is quickly slipping away, and with it the few remaining book events for the year. As most of us are busy buying books for the bibliophiles on our shopping lists rather than reading or going to signings this week, we thought we’d present you with an alternative Book Grocer today. For those of you already finished with your shopping (you overachievers you), the traditional listings follow. If, like Londonist, you go for the......

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......

This week’s events are top-heavy with poetry readings. Have our novelist friends squirreled themselves away to write tomes in their Christmas cards, we wonder? Monday: Head to the RADA Foyer Bar for a reading from the Poetry School’s third anthology, I am twenty people! All inferences to the contrary, there will actually be six, not twenty, new poets reading from their work. Free, 7.00pm. Tuesday: We were reminded last week that poetry isn’t just......

Yesterday comes the news that a shiny new medical centre is to be built on wasteland somewhere behind the British Library….and today sees the start of the more-or-less obligatory protests therein. The idea is to build the £500 million ‘UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation’ as a partnership project – the key players are the Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust, Cancer Research UK and University College Hospital. All very exciting. London could do......

Ahoy hoy, book grocery shoppers! The metaphorical book grocer aisles are stocked high with choice meats and sweet confections this December, so whatever your tastes, fill up your shopping cart and gorge yourself on this week’s selection of literary events – they’ll give you much less of a stomach-ache than mince pies. Monday: Revisit Sylvia Plath by attending the aptly named Sylvia Plath Revisited, at the ICA (7pm in the Nash Room £10 nonmembers/£9......

The brilliantly named artist Foster Spragge has finished her cylindrical artwork Ticket Cylinder made entirely of used railway tickets. With the Oyster card doing away with paper tickets (and even cash and mobile phones eventually...) there's something almost pre-emptively nostalgic about this 5' 2" tower of orange and yellow slips of card. Using no glue and only a pair of very steady hands, Spragge has been building this particular tower in Bethnal Green Library......

The cold weather - and holiday festivities - descended upon Gothamist. The Rockefeller Christmas tree was lit, Broadway stagehand finally ended their strike, and NASCAR decided to run their victory lap through Times Square. There were disturbing photographs revealing the working conditions in which many city manholes are produced and ninjas were also a hot topic, either robbing homes or entering into alibis. But the city was really rocked by how Rudy Giuliani's visits......

Unless there were leaves on the line, not enough station staff, delays at Paris holding everything up or industrial action on either side of the Channel, the first Eurostar train should be pulling into its new station at St Pancras this morning. We've had a sneak preview of what it's like and have been terribly excited about it so far, and at last, today, we get to see it in its full glory. We......

A week after opening for the Queen, St Pancras International is finally ready for the likes of us. The station has been restored beyond its former glory. Britain's answer to Central Station is ready for business. Everyone knows by now that the sumptious Euston Road frontage to the station was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott. But what else in London did the Great Scott design? Time to dust off our old 'Stalks' series,......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 22nd October 1809: The Croydon Canal, linking Croydon to Deptford via Forest Hill, is opened. Requiring 28 locks to overcome the gradients of the route, it would never become a commercial success, and would be closed just 37 years later. Tuesday – 23rd October 1731: A fire breaks out in Ashburnham House in Westminster, damaging much of the Cotton Library – a renowned collection of Middle English......

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,......

The British Library is a great place to hang out. Even if you have no cause to go into the reading rooms to request any book ever published, there are an array of good talks and exhibitions to see, a fine gift shop that sell natty oystercard holders and we once saw Jeremy Paxman in the cafe. (We, of course, cannot guarantee that you'll see a member of the Newsnight team, we don't know......

Here's Newton, outside the British Library, contemplating how every action has an equal and opposite reaction. In this case, 'splash back'. Please, please, please, send in some of your own distorted images of the capital to londonist at gmail dot com.......

What are you up to this weekend? If the answer isn’t “I’m going poking round lots of quirky London buildings, enjoying Open House for all I‘m worth and whooping with delight at all the random facts I glean” then we’ve just lost a little respect for you. (Unless, of course, you’re going to a funeral, or setting off on holiday or something like that. We really don’t mean to suggest that you’re an uncultured......

Area 10 Project Space is an artistic Never Never Land, hidden in wasteland in Peckham, overlooking the now-filled-in canal and overshadowed by the award-winning, (albeit strangely short of books) library. To step through its doors is to enter another world, where aerial perfomers tumble and artists build the most amazing follies out of scrap and left-over timber. It is a magical realm of possibility and fantasy. And occasionally they let the public in…. It......

When we were students, meals involved the following: Super Noodles, cheese on toast, Chinese takeaway, Indian takeaway, cheesy chips at the Student Union and beer. Oh, and more beer. Now this looks like it might change. Nutrition experts at Surrey University have put together a booklet of healthy meals to make sure freshers get all of their As Bs and Cs. Vitamins wise, that is. Recipes include shepherds pie and something called Tangy Tortilla......

Not that kind of constable, though if all missing policemen stories ended this nicely, the world would be a nicer place. A sketch by the artist John Constable, the man behind the famous Salisbury Cathedral painting, has been found after assumed missing for the last 111 years. Constable's grandson sold the sketch of Hyam Church, Suffolk back in 1896 and scholars have been unable to locate the sketch since the Christie's sale. But -......

The Treatment Rooms is a privately owned three-story house in the West London suburb of Chiswick, which over the past several years has had its exterior walls transformed into an ongoing self-contained conceptual piece of mosaic art. The vibrant and well executed mosaics, which cover the front wall of the house and the back garden wall are well worth paying a visit to see. Recently, Londonist took an opportunity to visit the Treatment Rooms......

Huge hangover? Spent all of your money? Yep, us too. So we can't go and watch Barbara Streisand (though we don't think we'll ever be that rich) and we can't go and see Elling. But, here's a few things you can do this week to make things a little easier on your pocket. Monday: Been a while since you've seen a good film? Then the Canary Wharf Summer Series at Canada Square park should......

“Are you lot all sober? In that case you are definitely our best audience ever! Hat’s off to you” Ben Hudson. Mr Hudson & the Library brought their innovative musical fusion to Westminster Reference Library last night. This is not the first time they’ve played in a library, they seem to make a habit of it and Londonist last caught up with them at Swiss Cottage Library in January this year. Completely at home......

Monday night sees Tom “Squarepusher” Jenkinson bring his experimental drum'n'bass with a heavy jazz fusion influence to Queen Elizabeth Hall in the Southbank Centre. Evan Parker supports, and this is sold out unfortunately, though be sure to check back for last minute availability or other sources. Lily Allen places her summer session at Somerset house, with support from Mark Ronson. Tickets are long gone, though Scarlet Mist may be useful for some. The Dykeenies bring......

Londonist asks that most pressing of daily concerns: where to go on your lunch break. Café on the Hill 91 Brixton Hill SW2 1AA Map Expect to Pay: Under £5 Rating: 8 out of 10 Finally Londonist made it south of the river for lunch, and considering how delish and culturally unique our meal was, we’re sure glad we did! Café on the Hill looks like your bog standard London caff, which of course......

Just out the Van: The London Literature Festival, a two week Festival, starts today at the South Bank Centre. Some of the highlights over the weekend and next week include: Sat 30 June - The Uk's biggest ever Book Crossing (free). Mon 2 July - Pat Barker launches her new novel, Life Class, with a reading and discussion about her life as a writer in her only London show (£8.50). Tues 3 July -......

iTunes announced a few weeks ago that they'll host a month of gigs at the ICA throughout July. Tiny gigs for many of the bands, the ICA holds only 350 people, and each gig will be professionally recorded to be available on iTunes. The events features some of today's biggest bands, with the likes of Londonist favourites Mika along with Stereophonics, Amy Winehouse, Editors, Groove Armada and Duke Special all gracing the stage throughout......

Well, the big man’s in town – over thirty times – so we thought it apt to track down his other work in the capital. On the map at the bottom, green points indicate temporary installations that form the Event Horizon project, and purple markers are permanent pieces that predate this show. 1. Quantum Cloud, Greenwich Peninsula Did you know that London contains a Gormley sculpture taller than the Angel of the North? Quantum Cloud......

>>Before we begin, a small non-profit Theatre group is looking for a free rehearsal space one night a week. Email bookgrocer@gmail.com if you can help or know of any good sized rooms (church halls, pub back rooms, community art centres), the more central the betterFresh this Week: Thursday - it’s not quite a weeknight (Casual Fridays opens up new hangover opportunities; wear a wide brimmed hat to work and no-one will notice) however its......

In Next Week: Next Wednesday the winner of the Rossica Prize, awarded every other year for excellence in literary translation from Russian into English, is announced after readings from the short-listed translations. This year’s submissions include texts ranging from the 19th to the 21st century, from Tolstoy's War and Peace to Ismailov's The Railway - our Russian is a bit rusty but хорошее везение к каждому... 23 May at 7pm, £6, The London Review......