2008 is shaping up to be the year that street art went truly mainstream in London. Currently, you can see Banksy at Selfridges, a half-mile tunnel of talent in Waterloo and, for the eagle-eyed, that subtle bit of wall painting at the Tate Modern. Street art is also getting big in the more literal sense. Here are just a few of the supersized pieces around town at the moment. At the top of the......

Coconut, black pepper and rum frappé? Why not. Chive and pineapple with vodka? Sure. Maker’s Mark, Angostura Bitters and fig syrup? Hey, we’re so buzzed from the first two cocktails, at this point we’ll try anything. And at around six or seven quid per drink, we can (on rare occasion) actually afford a little frilly drink exploration. The Shish Bar and Cocktail Lounge in exotic Willesden Green (yes, the same Shish with that corner......

Once is a happenstance, twice is a coincidence, but three times is a conspiracy. First the maid of Chalk Farm is painted over (since restored), then we heard the Rosebery Avenue cash machine stencil has also been defaced. And today, it seems the Clerkenwell Road 'Old Skool' pic has been 'collected'. The mural had been surrounded by sheeting for a few weeks, so many suspected it was being removed. But who's doing it? Councils?......

Londonist asks that most pressing of daily concerns: where to go on your lunch break. Palmers 40 Old Street, EC1V 9AE Nearest Tube: Barbican 020 7250 0002 11am-2am (all week) Expect to Pay: 3 pounds for a medium kofta or shish and salad, 2 pounds for humus and salad. Rating: 7.5 out of 10 Yes, we know, this is a kebab shop, a high street kebab shop. Or in this case an Old Street......

A couple of years ago Chris Roberts - who will be leading our 4th Londonist Walk on Friday evening - (and who is no relation to the Grantham Roberts clan) co-wrote True Blue: A musical about Margaret Thatcher in a bid to come to terms with his own, and his nation’s, past and more importantly setting Geoffrey Howe and others to music. Who better then, to send along as guest reviewer to a spanking......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 4th February 1915: Norman Wisdom is born in Marylebone. He would become a very successful entertainer, as well as (bizarrely) a cult film icon in Albania. Tuesday – 5th February 1924: The Greenwich Time Signal pips are broadcast on BBC Radio for the first time. (Lots more geeky detail on this is available in our post from this time last year.) Wednesday – 6th February 1875: The......

Londonist asks that most pressing of daily concerns: where to go on your lunch break. Franco’s Take Away 67 Rivington Street EC2A 3AY Nearest Tube: Old Street 0207 739 0231 6.30am-5pm (Monday-Saturday) Expect to Pay: £5 or less for a substantial amount of food Rating: 7 out of 10 Despite its seemingly hidden location (and Erol Alkan’s musing), this Italian (cum East Ender) sandwich bar is hardly any secret. Indeed, random queues can form......

People keep mentioning The Wave Pictures to us. First we caught them supporting Architecture in Helsinki back in September, and tomorrow they play the final of 4 Tuesday night sessions at the George Tavern, Whitechapel. It's an amazing venue but not to everyone's tastes. Candlelight, cheap beer and a relaxed atmosphere, slightly reminiscent of an old village pub but with a mixed and lively bohemian crowd. The paint is peeling and you can't help......

Rapha makes clothing for serious cyclists - the couriers, the racers, the hardcore fundraisers pedalling over the Andes. They are also organising one of the most unusual events we've had the privilege of hearing about: this Saturday is the second Rapha Roller Race Culture Clash which is "a four-way clash between teams of bicycle couriers, cycle journalists, media folk and a ‘dark horse’ Dutch team made up of unnamed riders." And before you try......

You may or may not have noticed that this week is Amnesty International's Protect The Human week. Protect The Human week is a snazzy name for the week formerly known as Amnesty Week - a time when people all over Britain celebrate and raise awareness about Human Rights. Up and down the country people have been holding events in aid of the charity and this Friday the week closes in style with a bash......

A night of clubbing is as much about the music you want to hear as it is the experience you hope to get out of it. Whilst there are endless opportunities to don your best threads and brave the night buses to see and be seen, we prefer to come as we are, get sweaty and get down. With their irresistible selection of post-punk and electro classics and obscurities, Our Disco ticks all our......

After following up a superb night with The Field by bringing Gui Boratto a few months later, Allez-Allez have fastly become one of our favourite club promoters. If we're not dancing to the best in minimal techno at one of their Plastic People events, then we're likely downloading one of the many installments in their excellent podcast mix series. This Wednesday, Sam and Steve return to Plastic People with techno superduo Supermayer (Superpitcher + Michael......

After numerous appearances on the Continent, as well as performances at such legendary festivals as MUTEK and Detroit's Electronic Music Festival, we were beginning to think perhaps we smelled bad. Why else wouldn't Gui Boratto come to visit our lovely island? Thankfully we no longer need to be concerned about our possibly poor hygiene, for the kind souls at Allez-Allez have once again teamed with the Kompakt label, this time to bring the Brazilian......

As part of the ongoing Shoreditch Festival, this Sunday it's the rather nice looking 1234 Festival. This isn't a big name puller, but instead a chance to see some of the best new (and mainly London based bands out there). Held from 12pm - 9pm in Shoreditch Park, Har Mar Superstar headlines the event with Fab Morreti from The Strokes forming part of his band. From our point of view choice performers include Manchester......

Unless you’ve had your head buried in the sand since Blair morphed into Brown, the government has now put housing at the forefront of the political agenda, having realised that the current lack of residential units being built is totally inadequate. At the frontline of this campaign is the need to build more homes in brown-field sites in our cities so that we can edge towards those housing targets of about 200,000 a year.......

One club event we've neglected to mention really (and we really should have) is the birth of the amazing Modular Weekly parties at Ditch in Shoreditch. Modular is the label home of some of our favourite electronic artists including The Presets, MSTRKFFT, Klaxons and Cut Copy, as well as looking after Jack Johnson & Yeah Yeah Yeahs. And when they put on a party, they rock it! Sure if you're not wearing skinny jeans,......

Wenlock Arms 26 Wenlock Road N1 7TA Tel.: (020) 7608 3406 Nearest Tube: Old Street Sick of the endless identkit plastic pubs full of plastic people drinking plastic drinks that plague London, we are always up for an unusual and authentic old fashioned boozer with good beer and local colour. The Wenlock Arms is about five minutes' walk from Old Street tube station, and nestles behind some intimidating council tower blocks and past an......

Curated by Kevin Quigley, The Way I See It is a new festival of performance and live art which caught our eye as something a little different for the weekend. While the weather remains glum and grey, it's up to us to find the things that will bring a smile back to your faces - so how about this? The Way I See It is a series of performances and artworks that allow the......

You may remember the Vortex Jazz Club in Dalston for its inspired football World Cup sessions last summer where the on-screen action from Germany was accompanied by two competing free jazz ensembles. This time the club has turned to blues in the shape of South-East London guitarists Steve Morrison and Billy Jenkins who are presenting a brand new programme of topical music to accompany... a chess tournament. This Sunday sees the climax of five......

See comments for major corrections to this post. Another Banksy bites the dust. Some nobber at TfL decided to paint over the famous Pulp Fiction image in which Jackson and Travolta clutch bananas in place of guns. The work near Old Street tube had been around for years. Local barber George Thompson told the BBC, "People used to come from all over to see it and photograph it. There is no way it could......

Loads of skyscraper speculation this week. And we'll say from the outset that all info is sourced from the peerless SkyscraperNews. Go visit. Pop Art Tower for Old Street Roundabout? There it is, pictured. What do you reckon? Bold, distinctive, certainly very different - although the use of bright colours in buildings seems to be a bit of a trend at the moment (one we're sure to regret in 10 years or so). The......

Certain bits of the capital are often mislabelled as 'Secret London' or 'Hidden London' in lazy guidebooks, when they're nothing of the sort. Amongst such places, Bunhill Fields reigns supreme. This non-conformist graveyard near Old Street is drenched in historical connection. It contains the bones of Defoe, Bunyan and - one of the Gods of London - William Blake. Trouble is, the Blake tomb is a con. He's not buried there at all. Anyone......

Right. We were going to save the Jarvis video till Friday, but some clever bugger has ripped the embargoed video and put it on YouTube: Don't Let Him Waste Your Time is the first single proper from the excellent Jarvis. It's out on 8 January and heavily pilfers from Dion's Only You Know. Originally written for Nancy Sinatra (watch her version here), Jarvis must have seen sense and realised no one could deliver the line......

...so we did. For two hours. And nothing happened. It was our biggest disappointment since the time we lingered patiently for triffds at a Heavy plant crossing sign. Bastards. This poster can be found in Old Street (what poster can't?) and bears a similarity in font to those sodding onlyjoe stickers that are plastered all over town. Any connection?......

We've walked past a lot of cupcakes over the last year. Walked past, hesistated for a very long time, and then kept walking, pulling a sad face while thinking of our waistline. But like it or not, ditch the knitting - cupcakes are the latest essential accessory to make yourself look cool, or at least to make your friends love you long time. With that in mind we caught up with one of London's......

Two very different music events are scheduled for this weekend and they are each so unique and original we had to put them back to back just to revel in the extreme oddness of each. We'll go with the bloody, messy, macabre event first. Skip ahead if you don't like chainsaw slasher horror flicks or bands whose names translate as "Dead Port"... St Louisiana duo Puerto Muerto play "uniquely smarmy and intelligent punk folk"......

This week's 'urban decorater' is Blek Le Rat, one of the pioneers of stencil graffiti, from the romantic end of the Eurostar. He recently held an exhibition on Leonard Street (near Old Street) and the two images on the right were located close by, presumably to attract interest. The armed David, meanwhile, can be found a few blocks away on King John Court. Documentary here.......

Just a little bit of juvenile bus stop humour for you. It is Friday, after all. Photo taken by M@ in the Old Street area.......

This cute but sad sticker can be found ALL over town. We're not quite sure who's behind it, but this has been one of our favourites for some time. So we were delighted to chance across a whole row of the little fellows yesterday, on the corner of Cowper and Tabernacle Streets (behind Old Street roundabout).......

A man has been arrested following the murder of a 22-year-old in an east London recording studio last Friday. Police found a body at the EC1 Studio in Old Street on Friday, he had suffered several stab wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. His identity had yet to be made public, but police believe he was approached by a man at the studio and stabbed, before his attacker escaped on foot. Barrington Marcus......