There may not be a London Grand Prix just yet, but for the second time in five years the capital is playing host to some of the world's most glamorous pieces of motor sport hardware. If Formula 1 is the Champions League of single-seater car racing then A1GP is the World Cup as teams representing 22 nations as far flung as Mexico, India, South Africa, New Zealand and, naturally, Great Britain, battle it out......

Yesterday, we saw a strange sight in Soho: Cars are being lifted straight out of their parking spots onto trucks and being hauled away. Even more surprisingly, we heard reports of it happening again today, on Regent Street. Well, we can expect to see many more cars being carried by cranes, as it turns out that TfL have yet another congestion-reducing trick up their sleeves. Yesterday they announced that 21 new high-tech removal vehicles will......

Gold, frankincense, myrrh. What are these to a small child? If the magi were really such wise men, they'd have headed to Regent Street, where Hamleys and the Disney Store provide all the playthings a growing Saviour needs. Please send festively themed Touch Up London entries to londonist - at - gmail - dot com......

Sugary sperm might help us escape the threat of cancer and HIV Women escape fondling: guilty groper bailed on the understanding he steers clear of busy tubes and DLR trains Real life prison break: man escapes secure unit at Bedlam A happy escape in sight for Egham Foot and Mouth farmers, hopefully Escape rubbish news on your commute, Notes from the Underground bi-monthly lit freesheet launched Image of window display at Hamleys Regent Street......

Hackney bringing up the rear in schools table Independent athletics anti doping body to be set up for 2012 Dubai considering selling up in London The story of the Sats results Image of the Regent Street Christmas lights courtesy of ADevlin-Photographer via the Londonist flickr group.......

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......

It's definitely time to start scrimping on things so you've plenty of dosh for those Christmas outings and present buying blitzes. London on the Cheap returns after a hiatus (we were temporarily flush, we made the most of it...) to help you get the most of the city on the scrag ends in your pocket. Monday: Get in the right frame of mind for Christmas shopping. Fortnum and Mason has just emerged from its......

It seems Ken Livingstone isn't content with the new, faster Eurostar, but wants to make London actually resemble Paris. He is proposing pedestrianised, tree-lined streets a la the French capital and even wants to get us our own version of the famous Paris Plage, the artificial beach that takes over the Right Bank of the Seine. For this, the Mayor wants to shut a section of the Victoria Embankment's four lanes from traffic. Other......

The National Archives show that back in 1967 there was a "grave security breach" when a diplomat, Mr Murray MacLehose, left the details of correspondence between Prime Minister Wilson and US President Johnson concerning the Vietnam war in a bank on Regent Street. It probably went a bit like this - Johnson - Are you sure you don't want to come and fight for the free world in Vietnam? Wilson: No, really, we're ok.......

Some of our most packed and venerated shopping streets are going be upgraded and canonised. Sort of: A light sculpture and large pedestrianised areas are part of a £40m proposal to transform some of the world's most famous shopping streets. Westminster Council's Oxford, Regent and Bond St (Orb) Draft Action Plan hopes to renew the central London area. The light sculpture will be suspended 30ft in the air encircling Oxford Circus [and] will change......

Given the interest generated here by the news that the NFL is coming to town later this year we feel there'll be lots of you wanting to satisfy your curiosity by catching this year's American Football showpiece, the Superbowl, live from Miami starting very late on Sunday night and continuing well into Monday morning. Now, obviously, you can do this in the quiet comfort of your own home courtesy of the free terrestrial coverage,......

An illuminating, if somewhat troubling article over in the Guardian concerning a certain coffee chain, whose aromatic tentacles are spreading across the capital faster than an upended Americano in a wind tunnel. If you stand on the corner of Regent Street and Wigmore Street in central London, you are within five miles of 164 branches of Starbucks. As they'd say in Seattle: enough already. Quoth the Starbucks: Not on your nelly. Yesterday, the company......

Saturday 2nd of December has been declared Very Important Pedestrian Day: Two of the most famous shopping streets in the UK will be traffic-free for the first time to help Christmas shoppers. Both Oxford Street and Regent Street in London's West End will be free of vehicles on Saturday 2 December. Ohhhhh that sounds like a good idea. Londonist of course does all its Christmas shopping online, but we'll happily wander the car free......

We always figured that cabbies had hidden depths. They have such a deep understanding of any subject that they are never shy at coming forward with an opinion on the world's ills. Plus a few years back an Ig Nobel prize was awarded to research that showed taxi drivers to have a larger hippocampus compared to the rest of us (that's the part of the brain associated with navigation in birds and animals). So......

The super-stacked summer season of stuff to see and do is over... and the even more packed autumn schedule of stuff to see and do has launched without pause for breath. There's no time to stop and stare in London - and why would you want to? Friday 1 September Late at Tate Britain, 6.00pm - 10.00pm, FREE The monthly Late at Tate Britain, held on the first Friday of each month, is tonight......

Last night, we calmly mooched along Oxford Street at 8pm taking our time to get to the pleasantly open late Apple Store on Regent Street to buy a birthday present for today. When we got there it was shut, and there were a gaggle of teenagers outside. Checking exactly what was going on via web on our phones (asking a real person is too much), we were mildly pissed off to find that Richard......

Londonist is a regular visitor to New London Architecture, the exhibition space of the Building Centre on Store Street. Not only does it contain a remarkable 3-D model of the capital, complete with as-yet unbuilt skyscrapers, but it also swaps around the content of its exhibition area with dizzying regularity. The latest incumbent is a tribute to the various estates that, since the 17th Century, have brought a sense of orderliness to parts of......

We don't usually kick things off with news, but this is too cool to hide after the jump. One of our favourite labels, Anchor Bay, are releasing The Adventures of Blake and Mortimer on DVD next month. If you like Tintin then this is a must have collection. Pretty good timing too as there's a movie in the works with Rufus Sewell and Hugh Bonneville in the adventuring leads while Gong Li will play......

Londonist gets invitations to all sorts of things, in all sorts of places. Last night's outing was to hear a series of oral histories from those who experienced the 1956 Revolution in Hungary at the Hungarian Cultural Centre, Covent Garden. It got us thinking... what other cultural centres can be found in London? For such a big place filled with so many international people, languages, cuisine and arts, there must be loads of places......

On April 5th Londonist is going to be hosting it's very first event at the Apple Store on Regent Street. Entitled Blogging Demystified the idea is to get a mix of successful UK bloggers to talk about why, what, where, and how they blog in order to try and drag blogging out into the open and hopefully give a clearer picture of the community than the muddied, somewhat cliched version that gets reflected sometimes......

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......

The second part in our guide to the best holiday season art exhibitions (read Part 1). Design Museum: Robert Brownjohn Retrospective of the American graphic designer at his peak in the 50’s and 60’s. His work includes the title sequences for the James Bond films Goldfinger and album artwork for the Rolling Stones. Why you should see it: Brownjohn injected a little rock’n’roll into modern typography. He’s like the Jagger of font, man. Design Museum,......

The body which represents West End retailers has made public its plans to improve the area by cutting traffic and creating more pedestrian areas. The New West End Company unveiled its 'stretegic study' called Choices for a Better West End (PDF) at the end of last week at an exhibition in John Lewis on Oxford Street. The exhibition (which is free and runs until the 18th) outlines "innovative and exciting ideas on how the......

It's strange, we never really shopped at Dickins & Jones that much, but when we read today that the store was to close it brought a little tear to our eye. Ok, so we didn't literally well up, but it is a little sad that something that has stood on Regent Street since 1790 should now be put up for "redevelopment" thanks to a "downturn in consumer spending" and rent rises. Apparently the building......

There has been a lot of talk about 'urban gaming' in recent weeks, what with projects like Uncle Roy All Around You and the like popping up all over the UK and Europe. Now it seems there are plans to turn the whole of London into a giant Monopoly board. This doesn't mean we'll be seeing giant, silver Scotty dogs bounding down Regent Street trampling shoppers underfoot (although that would be pretty cool), instead......

Londonist trundled past Hamleys on the bus this morning and sneaked a look at the huge, new Star Wars window display which features a genuinely frightening, lifesize Darth Vader (if anyone can snap a picture of that before we do, please send it in). If they're actually trying to get kids to come into the shop they're going the wrong way about it, but we like it. This coming Saturday, if you want to......

It's Wednesday so it must be the middle of the week and time for the Mid Week Music News. We're thinking of calling this column: We Read The NME So You Don't Have To. Let us know whether you're in favour. So the big news, not that we care, is that Oasis are playing some club dates in London in support of new album: Don't Believe The Truth. Tickets go on sale this Friday,......

If you work/live anywhere near Regent Street then you've probably noticed the weirdly named Gizmondo store which has looked to be on the verge of opening since the end of last year. Now, finally, we hear that the store is to open its doors on 19 March...so what is it going to be selling. Well Gizmondo is described as a "unique device [that] gives users an amazing experience across gaming (incorporating 3D and GPS),......

Yes, we know – everyone is talking about the Dan Flavin exhibition at Haunch of Venison, but that is with good reason – it is spectacular! Flavin was an American artist who revolutionized modern sculpture with his light installations throughout the world. He began sketching his sculptures, but eventually they became entire rooms of light which he designed. Flavin also did some work with the lighting in Grant Central Station in New York City. You......

Over the coming weeks Londonist will be presenting some helpful guides to the festive season. Stuff like buying presents, making the food, what to drink, how to win the annual family argument...that kind of thing. Today we kick off with a guide to buying present for that special lady in your life. Londonist used to hate Christmas before online shopping was invented. Normally, we're pretty cool, calm and collected but recently we've come to......