Kew is going placcie bagless. A man has been stabbed to death near the Elephant and Castle. A measles epidemic is predicted unless more kiddies get jabbed. London did the honours for the world premiere of Mamma Mia last night. 75% of London pubs are suffering ‘cos of the smoking ban. Tickets to see our Andy win tomorrow are fetching up to £1,500 a piece. Messing about on our river photo taken from abovebelowh2o’s......

SFist worried over drugstore chain Walgreens celebration of Black History Month.Gothamist was surprised that apparently New York City is the fourth most miserable city in the country, after Detroit, Stockton, CA, and Flint, MI.Shanghaiist finds out what the Chinese think of Hilary and Obama.It was with a healthy amount of schadenfreude that Phillyist reported that former Eagle, and now Cowboy (ew), Terrell Owens owes the Eagles a significant wad of cash.Torontoist is two weeks......

Photograph of the Trump Soho by Riccardo Sinti Gothamist went to the scene of the Trump Soho construction collapse, which left one construction worker dead and others injured (an indirect culprit - Manhattan's hot real estate market, causing rushed construction jobs).Shanghaiist is confused by media reports as to whether Playboy will be available in China during the year of the Olympics.LAist got fugged in an interview with the Go Fug Yourself girls.Torontoist set hearts......

Hello Jack! I've not blogged here for a couple of weeks. Did you miss me? ...what do you mean you've forgotten that this column even existed? Damn your face, and all it stands for! Actually, that's nasty of me. I apologise profusely and unreservedly. You've got a lovely face, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise, least of all David Milliband. It would be a terrible shame to cast your face asunder from the......

Roding foreboding - East End river's flood defences may be inadequate. Pensioner dies after being pelted by by kids. Man ploughs car into group of girls. The nightclub owner who's openly flouting the smoking ban. There's always one. DLR to get longer trains. Image courtesy of onionbagblogger via the Londonist flickr group.......

While SFist cringed at the fatal dose of crime littering the Bay Area, it found solace in Hillary Clinton's San Francisco campaign headquarters opening, which featured loads of exposed mammary glands. In other news, SF Taxi Commission ruled that Satan's cab must keep its (in)famous medallion number, 666; and in an un-fashion-forward frenzy, San Francisco Fashion Week (chortle) bars bloggers from covering and getting smashed at their shows and parties, respectively. Also, they found a......

How many weeks after a smoking ban is implemented does it take before the wrath of the smokers results in violence? The answer is three. A trio of men at a south-west London club were seen fleeing the scene after James Oyebola, a former British heavyweight boxer, was shot in the head and leg. Oyebola, 47, had confronted the men about smoking at the club, Chateau 6 in Fulham Road. He was taken to......

Rockabaret is fabulous. Dress up. Be crazy, silly, decadent, beautiful. And then dance the night away to your favourite songs! Londonist had a chat with Nikkie Amouyal, director of Rockabaret, who runs the night with Tony Maggs. The next night is on Saturday 21st July at the Cobden club: Viva La Revolution! What is so different about your club night? It's glamorous, extravagant, elegant and what a rock star party should be! We have......

Whether we're happy about it or not, everyone is aware that the smoking ban is in full force. And going down surprisingly well for the most part. The one downside of the ban is that it will unfortunately have an impact on some pubs and restaurants. Especially those without outside seating areas. But two weeks into the ban and it seems that some people aren't too happy with this. They think that for some......

When the long arm of the law finally caught up to bike thief Daniel Westrop, it....slapped him gently on the wrist and said “You naughty boy! You’ve been very bad. Now go sit on that comfortable armchair and think about what you’ve done!” Westrop, 27, had been stealing scores of expensive mountain bikes from stations in the heart of commutersville, mainly targeting Walton on Thames, West Byfleet, Brookwood and Surbiton. Though only charged with......

We couldn't resist really. After all, Londonist used to be known as The Big Smoker. How could we not mark the smoking ban with a bit of pictorial fun. Please send your own images of the capital, all twisted and distorted, to londonist - at - gmail.com......

The big day has arrived! I couldn't be happier that never again in this country will I have to play a gig in a smoky room, but it is going to be interesting to see what side effects the new smoking ban has. Scaremongers are predicting that less people will go to gigs if they can't smoke and that the people who do go will keep going running during the performances to smoke. Now......

Fresh from the muddied fields of Glastonbury, Fat Freddy’s Drop arrived in London on Wednesday, playing the first of two sold-out Astoria dates. Most of the city’s dub reggae-loving New Zealanders must have turned up to see their countrymen mix up reggae, soul, jazz and electro-dub in the way that only FFD do best. Kicking off in fine form with their biggest hit Wandering Eye, the Astoria was transformed into a sea of bopping......

Europe's biggest gay and lesbian festival, Pride London, is back this Saturday. Expect a hefty downpour, if the current forecast is accurate. There's heaps on this year, though, if you make it out to support your brothers and sisters. It all kicks off when the ever-eclectic Parade heads through the centre of town from 1pm, along a route taking in the West End's Oxford and Regent Streets before heading over to Tafalgar Square and......

Londonist's resident toddler draws the news. This week: the smoking ban. by David Le Fleming and Paul Ewen.......

We're not going to lie to you – Londonist likes a pint now and then. And, on occasion, we've been known to get a bit drunk. So, if we were going to set out to get ourselves barred from every pub in a London borough, we would probably take it one pub at a time. And, because we're not really very troublesome, it would probably take a very long time to manage it. A......

Ken Livingstone has joined the anti-patio heaters brigade, which is sad news for all the smokers that will be huddled outside pub doors after the 1st July smoking ban. While he doesn't have the power to actually ban the heaters, he feels very strongly about their use and has urged retailers not to promote them. Environmental group Friends of the Earth called for the ban of the heaters earlier this month, and garden centre......

We're looking forward to the smoking ban in July, not only for the fresher air in pubs and novelty uses for defunct ashtrays but also for all the events springing up to mark the occasion. The Last Tuesday Society is, apparently, a society set up by William James of Harvard in the 1870s and is currently run by artist Viktor Wynd. The society is devoted to "exploring and furthering the esoteric, literary and artistic......

Boycott overpriced food and merchandise at the FA Cup final!!! And take an umbrella. Charity bike ride. They'll cross that bridge when they come to it, 14 times. Holy smoke! Dean of Southwark not happy with smoking ban. Image courtesy of dartar via the Londonist flickr group.......

There's so much going on across the Ist-a-Verse that it's almost impossible to keep track these days. Fortunately, we do it so you don't have to! Londonist took a walk through Oliver Twist's London, thanks to a gorgeous map layer for Google Earth. They also caught up with modern-day fictional London, with the Fantastic Four and 28 Weeks Later. It was a week of insanity over at DCist. They started the week off with......

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......

Texas is thawing, the Northeast is freezing, and a sort of natural order seems almost restored to the Ist-A-Verse. Almost. Londonist HQ—that is to say, the city of London—was battered by heavy winds, making it a bad time to be a twelve-meter (nearly forty-foot) tall snowman. Still, not everyone decided to keep warmly covered. Meanwhile, back indoors, the Big Brother racism is now causing all kinds of headaches for international diplomats, and Londonist got into......

An Italian terrorism expert who met Litvinenko at ITSU has tested positive for Polunium-210. Thierry Henry is out of tomorrow's North London - Arsenal v Tottenham derby thanks to a neck injury. London church leaders met last night to plan major prayer events for the capital next year, including a rally to be held at Upton Park. The much-awaited smoking ban now has a date. It's due to come into force in England on......

Somehow, the world of -ists managed to make it through the week despite news that Jen & Vince broke up. -Chicagoist had fall on their mind as they made squash and fudge, read "House of Leaves" and ">tried to figure out what's next for the Cubs. Not fall related, but still of utmost concern, the whole skinny black pants thing. -Torontoist fought off an evil scourge of raccoons and went to go see who would......

A particularly silly article entitled Is London the New New York? Or Is It the Other Way Around? appeared recently in the New York Sun. The main arguments for the immediate twinning of our two cities put forward by the hackette what wrote said article seem to be: A) Paul McCartney, Gwyneth Paltrow and Madonna all own homes in both cities; B) sushi-lovers can choose to eat from at least two Nobu restaurants; C)......