Ann Widdecombe MP was arrested outside the Houses of Parliament yesterday and taken to the Clink Prison where bail was set at £35,000. The fact that she was already wearing prison uniform when she got nicked hinted at the possibility that this was a charitable stunt rather than a tabloid-topping shocker, fall from grace thriller of a crime story. Widdecombe was participating in the Jailbreak campaign to raise cash for Guide Dogs for the......

Hello Jeff! But don't bother opening your mouth to reply, because I haven't got the time to listen; I'm too busy celebrating! No no, don't worry, you haven't missed St. Satan's Day. I'm celebrating because it's been a year since I started doing stand-up! You'll have to forgive me, as this may be quite a self-indulgent post. But I can scarcely believe I've managed to persevere for this long! You see, I'm a notoriously......

We always think going to a video shoot would be really fun, but until we go to one and realise it's sitting about in the cold eating soggy sandwiches, we're going to keep bringing you opportunities to go. This time it's the Stereophonics who personally have been making our ears bleed for about the last 5 years, but given their album went to #1 yesterday some of you must still like them. Anyway on......

Londonist asks that most pressing of daily concerns: where to go on your lunch break. Doughmasters 20 Charlotte Street W1T 2NA Nearest Tube: Goodge Street 020 7637 1158 10am-4.30pm (Monday – Friday) Map Expect to Pay: £3.50-£4.00 Rating: 7 out of 10 Self-described “creators of the popular rolled sandwiches,” Doughmasters differentiates itself from the multitude of London’s sandwich bars by preparing fresh dough daily on its premises. This dough is tasty stuff; we particularly......

If you've been wanting to join the cycle revolution but are put off by all that aggressive, unpredictable and dirty traffic out there then maybe this weekend's Hovis London Freewheel, which will trundle through nine miles of traffic-free town on Sunday, will help you get on your bike. The number of cyclists on London's streets has apparently increased a stunningly impressive 83% in the last 12 months. Unfortunately, it's too late to register to......

Since we announced to the world that all round top London icon and friendly bear, Paddington, is headed for Hollywood, there's been a resurgence of interest in our marmalade munching mate. What with all those late night botox parties, coke fuelled awards scraps and high class hookers just around the corner you'd have thought that what old Paddington slaps between two pieces of bread would be the least of anyone's worries. But now revered......

Camden Town may be changing with the relentless advance of corporate chain stores (no, not those kind of chains) and glass and steel canalside developments but the Council is upholding the area's reputation for cyberpunk techno-progressiveness. It's launching webcasts and podcasts to be more accessible to the teched-up community and encourage local residents to get involved in local democracy. So, has it recorded a punchy, motivational and trendy radio show with a slurry call......

London, a melting pot of immigrant cultures and strange beasts. Amongst other things of course. But none of this is anything new. Way back in October 1958 a bear arrived on a lifeboat from Darkest Peru with a suitcase full of marmalade sandwiches. Luckily he was discovered on the concourse of Paddington station by the remarkable Brown family (possibly related to our glorious leader, we're not sure) and went to live with them at......

If all your mates are off on holiday and work is unbearably dull and hot then here's some home entertainment to get you through the mid-August slump. On TV, Londonist likes: Monday, 13 August Panorama (BBC1, 20:30) If you're avoiding Dawkins on Channel 4 (and we've no idea why you would but it's not about London so we're not going to make a fuss about it but it's on at 20.00 and we could......

We at the Gothamist network would like to express our heartfelt wishes to the people of Minnesota in the days after their tragic bridge collapse. We're not trying to discount the severity of the accident by making note of it in opposition to our usual -Ist lightheartedness – we just wanted to take a moment and recognize those affected last week. After the Minneapolis bridge collapse, Bostonist did a little research and found that Massachusetts......

Londonist asks that most pressing of daily concerns: where to go on your lunch break. Fuzzy’s Grub Fleet Street 62 Fleet Street London EC4Y 1JU Tel & Fax: 020 7583 6060 Monday to Friday 7:30am till 3:30pm Map St James’s 6 Crown Passage London SW1Y 6PP Tel: 020 7925 2791 Fax: 020 7930 7192 Monday to Friday 7:00am till 5:00pm Map Bow Lane 10 Well Court London EC4M 9DN Tel & Fax: 020 7236......

Huge hangover? Spent all of your money? Yep, us too. So we can't go and watch Barbara Streisand (though we don't think we'll ever be that rich) and we can't go and see Elling. But, here's a few things you can do this week to make things a little easier on your pocket. Monday: Been a while since you've seen a good film? Then the Canary Wharf Summer Series at Canada Square park should......

Londonist asks that most pressing of daily concerns: where to go on your lunch break. Waterside Café Barbican Centre EC2Y 8DS Map Average Lunch Price: £8 Rating: 8 out of 10 There’s no middle ground when it comes to the Barbican. Londoners either love it or hate it. To those readers who love this futuristic concrete wonder, read on. Barbican’s Waterside Café, located lakeside at the Barbican Centre, might not offer the best meal......

Londonist asks that most pressing of daily concerns: where to go on your lunch break. Benugo Throughout London Average Lunch Price: £5 Rating: 7.5 out of 10 Snoop around the Internet and you’ll find several references to sandwich shop Benugo’s free WiFi. For example, this post by Gavin Bell suggests that other cafés ‘should take the lead from Benugo and offer free WiFi like they offer free sugar’ because the ‘cost per month of......

Londonist ask that most pressing of daily concerns: where to go on your lunch break. Canela Café 33 Earlham Street WC2H 9LS Map Average Lunch Price: Ranges from less than £2 to more than £10 Rating: 7.5 out of 10 Just up from Covent Garden, Canela offers a range of lunch options with Portuguese/Brazilian sensibility. Londonist had the feijoada, the national dish of Brazil featuring black beans and rice with smoked meats, accompanied by......

Craving Vietnamese food in the city? Well now you can satiate your noodle soup desires at the restaurant Pho found in Clerkenwell. Unlike its brethren congregated along Kingsland Road, Pho stands out as the only Vietnamese restaurant amongst the more upmarket dining options on St Johns Street. Pho has a decent number of tables though always appears full anytime past seven during the week when its open. After that you'll have to queue and......

Though we love London for being so damn urban and gritty, sometimes when the sun shines and the air is warm, we find ourselves longing for the quieter, greener setting of a village. Debate continues over London's composition; is it one sprawling megalopolis or a series of interconnected villages, each with its own identity and dialect? We're siding with the village idea for today and tomorrow, as Trafalgar Square will be covered with turf......

Another pummeling for the Olympics via land tax questions, demands for the actual budget to be revealed and how to justify a possible £9bn bill. Is Ken raising an army of Uruk-hai? If not then what exactly is happening to our trees? Badgers: 1, Silly Sport: 0. London woman wins nationwide poetry contest about fishing.. Our own entry 'Fish Fingering in Cold Climates' failed to plaice. The real Queen is apparently pleased by the......

Valentine's Day is only a few days away, and we here across the Gothamist network wanted to express, in the spirit of the holiday, just how much we love you, our readers. Don't let it get to your heads, though. There are plenty of things we love, you included. Just be glad you're not amongst the things we hate. SFist saw their beloved mayor enter rehab, and they loved the opportunity to gossip about it.......

You pop in to see a neighbour to drop off some disposable polystyrene food trays (the kind divided into sections as if for TV dinners), you stay for coffee and a chat... then somehow the coffee becomes a beaker of Scotch, you sing three classic hits of the 1960s and half a dozen family skeletons come high-kicking out of your neighbour's closet, much to your horror and secret delight. Amy Lamé's Mama Cass Family......

A misremembered memoir sounds rather melancholy and a bit... arthouse. Unless, of course, it is the misremembered memoir of writer, broadcaster, Duckie co-founder, performer and Celebrity Fit Club contestant Amy Lamé. In her hands, the potentially sentimental nostalgia of an autobiographical one-woman show becomes something far more bizarre and biting. Add songs, sandwiches and strangeness and all the accolades it received at the Edinburgh Festival this year, and you've got a hit at Soho......

Keep saving those air miles. Alan Watts from Harrow is about to swap his for the ultimate upgrade – a ride into space. Mr Watts, manager of an electrical engineering firm, has accumulated over 2 million air miles on Virgin jets. And that’s enough to qualify for a free trip on one of Richard Branson’s fleet of space ships, due to enter service in 2009. I saved up my flying club miles to go......

Now listen up, chaps - tomorrow is the big day that all the well-dressed gentlemen about town have been waiting for: the glorious sartorial guide The Chap has joined forces with Hendrick's Gin and is hosting its annual The Chap Olympics. Aye, the centre of town (Bedford Square near the British Museum to be precise) will be pullalating from 5.30pm onwards with dandies and dashing young men all getting their finest tweeds and three-pieces......

So apparently a five foot high Paddington Bear was wandering around Paddington Station this morning, on his way to visit Buckingham Palace. a 5ft Paddington joined commuters as he strolled along a platform eating one of his favourite marmalade sandwiches. The children's literature garden party, which commemorates the Queen's 80th this year, also coincides with one of Paddington's birthday. He has two like the Queen - his other birthday is on Christmas Day. Dammit,......

We recently wrote about the £85.00 sandwich available at Selfridges. The McDonald sandwich consists of every possible luxury ingredient that can be squashed between two slices of fancy bread and seemed quite tasty at first sight. On reflection, it was too much, too rudely combined. Our slightly sneering comment on the excesses of this bungled attempt to make a functional food item into something deliriously luxurious was actually hiding an incredible amount of gastronomic envy,......

Quite often, one can be walking/cycling/driving through Parliament Square and see Brian Haw, the now world-famous protestor, standing in his underpants washing himself. Now it's not a pretty sight, and nor are some of his posters, but you have got to admire the man's conviction. Whether you think he's a champion of the anti-war movement, or a few sandwiches short of a picnic (he DID leave his family to hold his protest, which has......

To us Borough Market has always been about food. Ostrich burgers, speciality cheeses, all types of crazy breads, and those amazing chorizo sandwiches from that one stall (mmm, we're making ourselves hungry just typing this). But now the market is home to the latest addition to the Paul Smith mini-empire. Smith's newest little shop is located at 13 Park Street on the fringes of the market area. It will sell all the usual Paul......

Shredders have become all the rage. Only this very morn, BBC’s Breakfast program reiterated the message: identity theft is on the increase; shred all personal documents before disposing. But please don’t mince those old shopping lists, or you’ll put this lovable loon out of a hobby. Scott Allsop, a teacher from Raynes Park, has the highly original obsession of collecting discarded grocery lists (currently over 250). But more than this, he also analyses, annotates......

Nice to see the Beeb giving time for a little slideshow fun with Michael Bond on his 80th birthday and his immortal creation Paddington who himself is heading for the big five oh. No surprise that he's still such a firm favourite with a perfectly rereadable series of perfect books (no matter what your age) and a classic TV show. In fact he may well be our favourite bear here at Londonist, edging out......

Well, TV Troll was 50% right, which is better than nowt, as salt-o'-t'earth Strictly Come Dancing winner Darren might say. We're still kicking ourselves for not having put money on Shayne to win as we predicted aaaages ago; we could have bought new cushions for the dungeon or something with the winnings. Congrats to the winners and the runners-up; both finals were superb, although it was a pain in the arse having to swap......