Should you think, That’s odd, I thought Queen Victoria had been dead some 107 years, you wouldn’t be wrong. But a new tropical bird exhibit housed in a renovated Victorian pavilion deserves a proper launch, and who better to do the deed than the Queen herself? Specially resurrected for the day in the form of aptly named impersonator Sylvia Strange (the most famous of the Queen’s impersonators, mind you), Queen Victoria was on hand......

A group of masked protesters will gather outside the Church of Scientology's centres in London on Sunday morning at 11am, starting at the centre on Queen Victoria St before moving on to the Goodge St location. But what has prompted this IRL display of anger? The protests - which will take place in various other countries on the same day - are the latest and strangest episode in an all-out war between the famously......

Big belchers should stay at home as Ken’s low emission zone comes into force. Wonder what the road tax on camels is… Big spenders are on their way to London, with imminent and potentially record breaking art sales at Christies and Sothebys. Big boost for Waltham Forest residents following the relocation of their library - the launch of, er, a new supportive blogsite. Big deal - £5 for pre-war IRA bomb hero. Great stuff,......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 17th December 1983: An IRA car bomb explodes near Harrods in Knightsbridge, killing six people (including three police officers) and injuring a further 85 Christmas shoppers. Tuesday – 18th December 1890: The world’s first ‘deep-level’ electric tube line opens, connecting Stockwell and King William Street. As we mentioned last year, the City & South London Railway would later become a part of the Northern Line as we......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 3rd December ????: Nothing of any interest has ever happened in London on this date. Sorry. Tuesday – 4th December 1882: The Royal Courts of Justice on The Strand are opened by Queen Victoria. Wednesday – 5th December 1905: Part of the roof of Charing Cross station collapses, killing six people. Thursday – 6th December 1983: Britian’s first heart and lung transplant operation takes place at Harefield......

Fans of pomp and circumstance will line the streets of the City tomorrow to watch one of London’s fine old traditions unfold. Each year, the City of London gets a new Lord Mayor (most certainly not to be confused with the more well-known mayor who inhabits the glass testicle near Tower Bridge). Indeed, the office of Lord Mayor is so tied up in the ceremonial that the official web site doesn’t even bother to......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 5th November 1605: Following a tip-off, a party of armed men led by a Justice of the Peace discover Guy Fawkes guarding a large amount of gunpowder and incendiary materials in the vaults under the House of Lords. Tuesday – 6th November 1869: Queen Victoria opens Blackfriars Bridge, and then Holborn Viaduct. Wednesday – 7th November 1783: John Austin, having been convicted for ‘cruel highway robbery’, becomes......

20. A Chronicle Of Oddness Reaching the twentieth episode in the Saturday Strangeness is somewhat of a mini-milestone for me, and so to celebrate the capital’s frequent bouts of weirdness, here’s a brief catalogue of high strangeness pertaining to the weird, wonderful and downright sinister which has plagued London for the last twenty years. January 1987: Location – Stanmore A domestic cat named Peppi goes for its usual stroll around Anmer Lodge old folk’s......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 6th August 1937: Barbara Windsor is born in Shoreditch in central London. She would achieve fame as an actress, notably as a ‘saucy strumpet’ in the Carry On films of the 60s and 70s and later as a major character in Eastenders. Tuesday – 7th August 2001: The Department of Health pays £27 million for a private Harley Street heart hospital, re-nationalising it and bringing it into......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 25th June 1953: John Christie is sentenced to death for the murder of his wife, whose body was found with several others hidden beneath the floorboards of his house in Notting Hill, West London. His conviction casts serious doubts on a previous murder trial that resulted in the conviction and execution of his fellow tenant Timothy Evans, who would be posthumously pardoned in 1966. The resulting controversy......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 18th June 1972: A British European Airways plane bound for Brussels crashes moments after taking off from Heathrow airport, killing all 118 passengers. An inquiry later concludes that the pilot had made a ‘speed error’ and stalled the plane, causing it to crash into a field in Staines. Tuesday – 19th June 1997: McDonald’s wins a libel case against two members of the ‘London Greenpeace’ campaigning group.......

This week - Simon Pegg polices the country town of Sandford (Hot Fuzz) and Jennifer Love Hewitt lives in Bristol (The Truth About Love). First, we must say sorry for the lack of Saturday Cinema Summary last week. We were saving London from certain destruction. All very top secret - CIA, Interpol, Power Rangers, the cast of Spooks, all that sort of thing. We toyed with trying to tell you that no films had......

This Day In London’s History 1882: The Royal Courts of Justice on The Strand are opened by Queen Victoria. The impressive gothic spectacle that is the building for the Royal Courts of Justice was designed by George Edmund Street (who was, appropriately enough, a solicitor before he became an architect) and built in the 1870s. Also known as the Law Courts, the building is home to England’s primary civil court, dealing with some of......

Yesterday, Londonist went down to Trafalgar Sq. to see comedian Tim Fitzhigham attempting to inflate the world's largest ever man-inflated balloon. By the time we arrived he had been inflating for two hours and had already fainted. Twice. The man is a loon. However, he is a seasoned professional, by no means was this his first record attempt, he has made something of a career out of them. Not only did he break a......

Queen Liz wants to leave the palace lights on all night because tourists might not be able 'to see the royal landmark at night'. Greenpeace et al are none too happy. Scientology has come to London in a big way. £23m of Scientoligism just landed on Queen Victoria Street. It's official: Hackney is crap. Or is it? Noise map of London shows (not unsurprisingly) that London is noisy. Note to London waiters: Don't serve......

Good news for Iain Sinclair. The Temple of Mithras is going home. First the back-story. Lost for centuries, the Roman temple was rediscovered in the 1950s, after the Luftwaffe gave excavations a head start. Subsequent poking around uncovered some of the most important archaeological finds in the city’s history. 1700 years of mithraic splendour, hidden right beneath the banker's noses, was suddenly revealed. So what did they do to this site of significant historical......

The reviews have already begun to trickle in, and one thing is certain: Gerald Barry's new opera at the ENO, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant is some weird, fucked-up shit. You must go see it. We expressed our high hopes for this opera quite some time ago. Our anticipation increased to fever pitch when we read that a dress inspired by Big Brother's Makosi would be worn on stage. (PS, it was.)......

It's probably a good job we don't have an -Ist outpost in the Antipodean regions otherwise there may have been a bit of gloating going on yesterday. As it is we here at Londonist will be able to placate our celebratory appetites by joining tens of thousands of other people who will "line the streets of London" today to congratulate the England cricket team as they are paraded through the city upon the traditional......