We fell in love with Black Cab Sessions the moment we first heard of them. How could we not? Taking a drive around the best city in the world (okay, we're biased, yes) in a design classic with some of our favourite bands rockin' out in the back seat: it's exactly how we'd like to spend a lazy afternoon. Since we generally are unable to scrape together enough coins to even steal sideways glances......

Let Londonist help you celebrate one of Britain’s most cherished traditions, the Sunday Lunch. The Snooty Fox 75 Grosvenor Avenue, London N5 2NN Nearest Tube/Overground: Highbury & Islington/Canonbury (so close!) 020 7354 0094 Expect to Pay: £7.95 to £10.95 and £12.95 for the legendary "Full Bifter" Rating: 8 out of 10 The Snooty Fox is a perfect lazy, lounging Sunday afternoon boozer. Tucked away by Canonbury Station away from the hustle of Islington the kitchen......

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......

The 2008 running of the Womens' Head of the River race on Saturday was certainly as unpredictable as many expected given the absence of Britain's elite oarswomen at a pre-Olympic training camp. In the picture above, one of many in a marvellous Flickr set from London Annie, you can see last year's winners, Thames A, on the far right being overhauled by Osiris, the Oxford University Blues Boat, who went on to take the......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 3rd March 1982: The Barbican Centre is opened by the Queen. After 15 years of construction, at a cost of £161 million, the centre would become the largest performing arts centre in Europe (as well as being voted the ugliest building in London). Tuesday – 4th March 1882: Britain’s first electric trams go into operation in Leytonstone, East London. Wednesday – 5th March 1856: The second Covent......

This week saw Londonist get incredibly excited about a few live music events. First up, was French pop sensation Yelle, who played an intimate show at the Old Blue Last. Then, we had the Camden Crawl line up which, as ever, is pretty amazing for those of us who value music over sleep. Finally, Sally got (understandably) excited about The King Blues @ the 100 Club. Once we've come down from our excitement of last......

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?......

Lets face it, everybody loves a bit of zombie, there’s something oddly loveable about the undead as they lumber about feasting on flesh and being generally hungry. So what could possibly be better than a whole night of zombies on the truly massive and awe-inspiring screen that is the BFI IMAX? Absolutely nothing that’s what. The perfect date night in fact! The After Dark Zombie All-Nighter on 19 January features 4 of the best......

While pigeons are getting a bit of stick today, heartwarming news of sparrows getting new homes at London Zoo courtesy of prisoners in Spring Hill prison balances the scale somewhat. After a long absence, sparrows have come back to London and are being housed in ten brand new bird boxes built by prisoners at Spring Hill prison in Buckinghamshire. The question "Where have all the sparrows gone?" crops up again and again in nostalgia-tinged......

Once long ago, Mama Londonist wasn't happy with little Londonist and wanted to give us an earful. However, Londonist had got married to this other blog with a trendy hat, a silly double-barrelled name and a penchant for perverting the course of justice. Soon, Londonist was being photographed with its nose full of white powder and its hair all over the place, not in it's usual 'beehive' style as was fashionable in those days.......

A group of men robbed a St Pancras telecommunications firm on Thursday evening by dressing up as policemen, in a plot bearing a touch of Alanis Morissette about it. The thieves were let into the building by one of the firm’s employees, after claiming to be investigating reports of people on the roof. Once inside, they ditched their pretensions to law and order and tied up five members of staff. They then made off......

OK, so maybe not kills, although it might, but it is bad for you. Details to follow. A new report shows that shopping in an area with a high volume of traffic has a worse affect on your lungs than walking around a park. For a moment this looks like one of those no shit Sherlock stories; however, the study is specifically related to people with asthma and the effect that diesel engines have......

Londonist asks that most pressing of daily concerns: where to go on your lunch break. Pret a Manger Throughout London (just look over your shoulder or click here) 0207 827 8888 Expect to Pay: Under £5 Rating: 7 out of 10 Yeah, we eat here too. Usually when there’s no other option or not enough time for more than a quick, mandatory refuelling. That said, the lunchtime edibles they offer are more than decent.......

The Londonist Music Minions have had a night off from their hectic gigging schedule tonight, and we hope that you have done the same. The party season is rapidly approaching, and you need at least one laid-back evening to conserve your energy for the rest of the week… If you can, start things off gently tomorrow (Tuesday) with one-time Zero 7 vocalist Sia at King’s College Student Union (tickets are officially sold out, but......

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......

A special two-for-one offer on gig reviews this time. Londonist saw the slightly odd combination of Gorgoroth (old-school Norwegian black metal) at Scala on Wednesday, and former System Of A Down frontman Serj Tankian the next night at the Astoria. Musically they were worlds apart, despite a shared taste for heavy riffs.Gorgoroth are not a band for the faint-hearted. Once arrested in Poland for a "blasphemous" stage show that included naked women on crucifixes and......

It’s probably fair to say that the couple of hundred people who wandered up to the Union Chapel in Islington last Friday were expecting a fairly low-key affair. Arguably the biggest name at the Little Noise Sessions gig in aid of Mencap was to be the compere, Radio 1’s Jo Whiley, although we accept that a few of the audience may have been a bit excited about US indie rockers We Are Scientists. Not......

Whilst many, last night, were labouring under the somewhat unreasonable expectations that our national football side might do something a little old school, like win, there was a group of us who went home late with a collective smile on our faces. The aforementioned happy folks gathered at the 229 Club, at the far end of Great Portland Street. There we faced drums that go thuddity thuddity thuddity boom, guitars that go danga danga......

After an extended holiday, Saturday Cinema Summary is back, courtesy of James Bryan... This week Ridley Scott makes a bid to join the hallowed greats of gangster films with American Gangster, the naked pixelated form of Angelina Jolie drips in gold in Beowulf and Brick Lane gets the film treatment. American Gangster seems to have all the ingredients of an instant classic, even the title smacks of definitive greatness. Throw in the setting of......

Had TfL existed in his time, the great Samuel Johnson may well have amended his famous aphorism to read "a man who is bored of London needs to hop on the number 19 bus". In its perambulation from Battersea to Finsbury Park, the 19 cuts a swath across the capital's economic and cultural barriers, revealing the world within one city that modern London manifests. Vogue has certainly been impressed by the number 19. The......

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......

Once again the artists are out in front of the eggheads and politicians. Earlier we covered tonight’s experiment in direct economic democracy at The Albany – effectively, attendees pay a £10 tax to join The Albany’s mini-society, and they all get a say on how the pot will be spent. Just imagine if council tax operated on the same basis! If that weren’t enough financial excitement, tomorrow the new Radiohead download comes out – priced......

This weekend column is brought to you by the founders of Niceties Tokens, Liz and Pete of Team Nice. 18. Social Revolution? When I was a kid, television was dominated by the game show, like The Price Is Right or Bulls Eye. I think the appeal was through empathy of that elated feeling of winning something great… Bully’s special prize. Then our society changed. Reality television took over, we became more interested in how......

Harrow motorist in jail after 172 mph motorway run. DNA to the rescue in decades-old murder case. London has nine spots that breech EU pollution limits. Once the Big Smoke always the Big Smoke. The Telegraph has a guide to London. They recommend you visit the New Piccadilly Café. We recommend you do not, unless you're a fan of 'Closed' signs. Image courtesy of tezzer57 via the Londonist flickr group.......

Once again South London demonstrates that it is at the forefront of cultural hip and happeningness. This year’s Elefest (at the Elephant and Castle - duh!) is as bright and sparkly as ever, with a range of events covering almost every conceivable cultural medium. Londonist is just really sorry that this article didn’t go up two days ago, as it means we have missed the first two days. Hey ho. We particularly like the......

Or, stuff you think about London that's true but is actually rubbish. 2. Dick Whittington and his cat. Everyone enjoys a good story. Especially one with a happy ending, interesting characters and familiar friends. Well this Londonista was a bit shocked and annoyed to discover that Dick Whittington's cat was completely made up. Well, that is to say there's no evidence to show it ever existed. For those of you who can't remember, let......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 17th September 1961: Police arrest 1,314 demonstrators at a CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) protest in Trafalgar Square. Bertrand Russell is amongst those arrested. Tuesday – 18th September 1970: Guitar legend Jimi Hendrix is found dead in his basement flat in Notting Hill, west London. A subsequent inquest records an open verdict on his death, noting that he drank wine and took nine sleeping pills the previous......

We'll do anything to dull the pain of a long commute these days, even reading the free rags that have been forcibly thrust into our hands by over achieving paper persons on every street corner between work and the tube station. Once we've ignored the next fifteen Amy Wino / Pete Dogenderty stories we head straight to the puzzle pages since we can't afford one of those nifty Nintendo brain trainers. The question we......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 20th August 1989: The Marchioness pleasure boat collides with the dredger Bowbelle under Cannon Street Railway Bridge, causing the Marchioness to sink rapidly. 51 of the pleasure boat’s 132 passengers drown. Tuesday – 21st August 1920: A boy who would be named Christopher Robin Milne is born in Chelsea, West London. His father, the author A. A. Milne, would use him as inspiration for the Christopher Robin......

As the name suggests, this post could be something out of a fairy tale. Well, a modern day one anyway. So, are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin. Once upon a time there was a lovely pensioner called Dick Whittington who left his home in Weston Super-Mare in Somerset to come to London to seek his fortune. Or, rather, his pension. He, like many others reckon it's about time there was a rise in......