Depending on which side of Prince Charles you stand, it's either to our shame or credit that London has yet to welcome a Frank Gehry building. No longer: the architect's first project here, this year's Serpentine pavilion, opened last week. Gehry brings a wealth of controversies and preconceptions. To fans he's an iconoclast able to redefine entire cities (his Guggenheim museum spawned "the Bilbao effect") and design breathtaking yet functionally adept buildings on time......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 28th July 1540: Thomas Cromwell is executed for treason at the Tower of London, at the behest of Henry VIII. Tuesday – 29th July 1981: Prince Charles marries Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul’s Cathedral. Wednesday – 30th July 1966: England defeat West Germany in the FIFA World Cup Final at Wembley Stadium, claiming the Jules Rimet Trophy (and, of course, the status of Football World Champions......

Sir Simon Milton appointed Deputy Mayor Wembley Park Sports Ground protestors refuse to budge Ronnie Kray prison barter artwork under the hammer Prince Charles pops down the East End Organisations sign up for the London Child Poverty Pledge (to alleviate it, that is) Image taken at Rise this weekend courtesy of onionbagblogger via the Londonist flickr group.......

It was just last week that Londonist speculated our new mayor might not be so enthused about the skyscrapers redrawing London's skyline as his predecessor was. Now we have confirmation from the blond-barnetted one himself: he is to demand tougher rules on high rise buildings. Johnson outlined his views on skyscraper requirements thus: "They should be buildings of quality, they should be buildings of distinction... I do think we should be protecting strategic views......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 7th April 1779: The Reverend James Hackman follows Martha Ray, a singer and the mistress of the 4th Earl of Sandwich, to the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. When she leaves the theatre after the performance, Hackman shoots her dead, seemingly out of jealousy. Tuesday – 8th April 1908: Edward VII appoints Herbert Asquith as Prime Minister, following the resignation of his predecessor, Henry Cambell-Bannerman, due......

Madam Tussauds may have given him the brush-off, but Gordon Brown can still count on his fellow statesmen to offer him the clammy hand of comradeship. Today he welcomed the US Republican presidential candidate to London, while he also announced plans to chew the fat with the Dalai Lama and the new Russian president later in the year. John McCain, the GOP nominee and oven chip czar, winged into town today on the latest......

Thanks to a lousy US box office reception, Grindhouse – the adored bastard sprog double-feature of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez – was hacked in two when it finally came here. Film nerds agog at the prospect of a three-hour neo-exploitationfest had to cough for Planet Terror and Death Proof separately, and miss out entirely on the geekalicious treat of the fake trailers that accompanied them. O cruel fate/boringly cautious distributors. But at last......

Well known architectural pundit Prince ‘Chuckles’ Charles gives the London skyline a right royal disapproval: Not just one carbuncle on the face of a much loved old friend, but a positive rash of them that will disfigure precious views and disinherit future generations of Londoners. Says the grey heir. Charles was born in 1948, so the lamented ‘old friend’ he loves so much must be the shabby, bombed-out city of the 1950s. And those......

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......

St James wine merchant Berry Brothers and Rudd could be considered as a family-run community corner shop. But when you consider that the family are eighth generation owners, their local community includes the Queen and Prince Charles, and even the ‘corner’ is formed from Henry VIII’s tennis court, you soon realise that this place is in no danger from supermarket encroachment. It's possibly the poshest corner shop in history. Londonist, lucky us, recently wangled......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 14th May 1842: The first fully illustrated weekly newspaper, the Illustrated London News is launched, costing sixpence. It was still being published weekly as recently as 1971, but its publication frequency has since declined. Tuesday – 15th May 1981: Zara Phillips, the daughter of Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips, is born in a private wing of St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington. She is currently the world......

In this new late-licence era, it is no longer the final chime of midnight that signals clocking off time for magic and wonder: more often than not, it is 3am when the carriage turns into a pumpkin, the beautiful gown turns into a ragged velour tracksuit and the prince turns into a boorish squaddie on the lash. Yes, Clarence House, home to Prince Charles, his good lady wife Camilla and Princes William and Harry,......

Del Boy's Reliant goes at auction for £44,000 Ken reveals his green plan for London. We hope the 232 pages are recycled paper. Meanwhile, his forthcoming super powers are criticised by a Labour MP. Royale to go: Prince Charles wants MacDonalds banned. Image 'London cliche 43' courtesy of Chutney Bannister via the Londonist flickr group.......

Between fake terrorist alerts and scandals big and small, this just might be the Best Best of the -ists ever. We're exhausted just thinking about it. First up, SFist, who saw their little 'ole site be the center of what was a nice little scandal (even getting their editor on TV) only to find their scandal dwarfed by the even bigger scandal caused by their Mayor boffing one of his aides' wife. We're not......

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... The Londonist Chinatown Christmas Hamper is the alternative collection of foodstuffs that appear this time of year. Though far from original as department stores......

The Olympics. Tired of all the naysaying and doom-mongery? Here's a site that's sure to include more positive spin than a world-class discus throw: the official 2012 Olympics blog. No half-baked observations about office life or photos of cute kittens here. Oh no. This is quite a differnt calibre of freshman blogger: I met HRH the Duchess of Cornwall who was visiting to site to find out more about the venue. She arrived at......

Watch your step this weekend: there is a veritable feast of festivals for Londoners starting from tomorrow until the last person stands partying on Sunday. You're very likely to just trip over one. Cardinal Place Carnival This new shopping and dining area in Victoria is putting itself on the map as a chic and unique place to spend your money and eat well. It is very definitely not a shopping centre and attempts to......

The missing teenager and her 18-month-old cousin who went missing from Fulham last Thursday have been found safe and well in Harrow. The FA are apparently confident that next season's FA Cup will be held at Wembley and they have no plans to book the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff (might be all down the park then). Following the tat extravaganza that was last year's debut London International Tattoo Convention, the second one has just......

A 29-year-old father of two has been shot dead in Chalk Hill, Wembley as he was taking his children to school. The man who climed the Eye yesterday was finally talked down after seven hours and promptly arrested. The winning image in the Nokia Citizen Journalism Awards 2006 is a shot of the No.30 bus in Tavistock Square taken just after the explosion on 7th July. Prince Charles opened the Jameel Gallery of Islamic......

There's a Firecracker screening of Yasuzo Masumura's Blind Beast tonight at the Curzon Mayfair: A blind sculptor kidnaps an artist's model and imprisons her in his warehouse studio - a shadowland of perverse monuments to the female form. Here a deranged passion play of sensual and sexual obsession is acted out in a world where sight is replaced by touch... An intense exploration of perversion, art and sado-masochism, this incredible, visually inventive tale of......

God forgive him... Andrew Lloyd Webber is bringing a new production of beloved musical The Sound of Music to the London Palladium in the West End this November. He hasn't trashed the original music by Richard Rodgers nor the lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein - we're quite certain God himself has enforced some sort of holy, invisible protective shield around classics such as "Climb Every Mountain" and "A Few of My Favourite Things." But he......

The Fourth Korean Festival is due to kick off again this Saturday and as usual it's a fantastic line up and yet again puts other events of a similar nature to shame by remaining FREE. Saturday at the Mean Fiddler you get the opportunity to see Crying Nut billed as the best punk rock band in Korea along with Wanderlust and a surprise special guest - we think we know who that will be,......

By 7am this morning Labour had lost eight of their London councils, five of them to the Tories. Tony Blair is viewing Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez,'s plans to meet up with Ken and not him when he arrives here later this month as a 'snub'. Prince Charles yesterday attended the opening of a Bedouin tent made of goat hair in the gardens of the former St Ethelburga's Church which was destroyed by the IRA......

Perhaps in an alternate universe Diana never got to Paris and is alive and well, but serving time at her mother in law's pleasure after stabbing Camilla in the chest 17 times with the royal cutlery. That's what sprang to mind while reading about this messy little triangle: A wife referred to Prince Charles's affair with Camilla before stabbing her husband's former lover, a court heard. Alethea Foster, 61, quoted Princess Diana's "there are......

Pete And Dud: Come Again - The Venue, Leicester Square For many, ourselves included, the introduction to the work of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore came through howls of adolescent laughter at some of the most inventive filth ever to creep through the headphones. Not finding the idea of retreiving lobsters from Jayne Mansfield's bottom hysterically amusing would immediately set you out as being of slightly less cool than the Dungeons & Dragons crowd.......

When the Frightfest made the move from the Prince Charles to the Odeon West End we couldn't help but feel a little sad. We attended the last full day event before the main festival relocated and we thought that was that. We were wrong. Frightfest itself doesn’t kick off until August, but for March 18th Eli Roth has provided a preview print of his Cabin Fever follow up, Hostel to be shown at the.........

Quick note for you to scribble into your Time Lord branded diary: SCI-FI-LONDON 26 - 30 April. This year the festival is partnered up with SFX magazine whose editor, David Bradley, sums up the event quite nicely: "SCI-FI-LONDON is growing in prominence every year, and the SFX team is excited to be working with a festival that not only showcases a varied range of SF films but also boasts the Douglas Adams Memorial Debate......

Just one more plug for our first birthday party, which is happening this Thursday at the Offside Bar on City Road, Islington. You should have this engrained into your memory by now, but just in case you haven't: the festivities kick off at 8pm until late, and it's free to get in (just let them know you're there for the Londonist party). We'll have DJs all night as well as images from the London......

As you might have seen already seen, it's our first birthday party next month and as part of the celebrations we're holding a birthday raffle. Basically it's just a way for us to say thank you to our readers by giving them the chance to walk away from the party with armloads of cool stuff. What we didn't realise when we started this was just how much cool stuff we were going to get...truth......

These listings appear every Wednesday. If you want to let us know about any upcoming science or technology events, you can contact us on londonistSciTech@Gmail.com Event Of The Week Beyond the Human Genome Project: Medicine in the 21st Century James Joyce once said of his masterpiece Ulysses "I’ve put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant!". He might just as well......