We don't want to put you off your lunch, but some of London's public services need a serious clean up. Holding cells for detained immigrants have been branded "squalid" in Southwark with "pubic hair on mattress plinths and congealed blood and human waste on some walls" and two of London's biggest hospitals, Guys & Thomas' and East London's Barts & the London are in the top 10 for pest control visits nationwide. Forget MRSA,......

Southwark's Menier Chocolate Factory has well established its reputation with productions being transferred to the West End since opening in 2004. So it is not so much a surprise as you may think that two stars of television and the stage took to the tiny 190 seat theatre last night. Starring Connie Fisher and Alistair McGowan, 'They're Playing Our Song' was packed with critics and guests (including showbiz theatre producer David Ian) all out......

41. Red Cross Passage Where? Deep in the heart of Borough, a little south of Union Street, this passage links Red Cross Gardens to Ayre Street. What? The alleyway runs alongside a series of model dwelling cottages designed to improve the lot of local residents. The cottages were built by uber-reformer Octavia Hill in 1887, who noted that much of Victorian Southwark was given to crime, pollution and poverty. Her solution was to build an......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 30th June 1894: Tower Bridge is opened by the Prince of Wales. It would become an iconic symbol of London, and arguably the most well-recognised ‘bascule bridge’ in the world (even if tourists do sometime mistake it for London Bridge). Tuesday – 1st July 1858: Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection is presented at the Linnean Society at Burlington House, Piccadilly. Wednesday – 2nd July 1865: One-time......

A slice of sponge cake and a hearty round of "Happy Birthday" to the Rotherhithe Tunnel! Not the nearby Brunel-designed Thames Tunnel, (the world's first underwater tunnel, lest we forget) but its quieter, lesser-celebrated neighbour that ferries road traffic underneath the Thames from Southwark to Tower Hamlets. It turns 100 years old today. Opened in 1908 by the future King George V, Rotherhithe was the first road tunnel linking north London with south, and......

On the day a research report confirms what we've been resigned to for yonks, that 2 in 5 of us are priced out of first time homeowning in our capital, a news report about empty council houses in Lambeth Council rubs salt in our renter's wounds. Lambeth are accused of letting 845 Council properties languish untenanted despite a housing shortage, with a hefty 357 reportedly needing less than £5k's worth of work done on......

We don't like to start the week off with a horrifying headline like this. Another tragic teen stabbing story (time to step up those new gory anti-knife ads?) marks this year's 16th violent teen death in the city. We don't have much information, but a 15-year-old girl wearing her school uniform was found in the lift of Matheson Lang House on Baylis Road in Lambeth with at least 10 knife wounds to her front, neck......

54. Something Strange In Southwark On the morning of Tuesday 22nd April 2008 I met up with Paul Ross and JoAnne Good on their BBC Radio Breakfast Show to discuss sightings of mysterious creatures roaming the capital. After the talk, which was very well received, I went home, checked my mail and was stunned when I found a report sent by a Mr Burns, who claimed that on the same morning, but during the......

T.S. Eliot wrote that “April is the cruelest month,” but we're officially endorsing Birthday Boy Bard’s more optimistic quote instead: “April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.” Feel young and sprightly in the warmer weather as you sample the Shakespeare-themed week ahead in honor of his “official” 444th birthday (his actual date of birth remains a mystery). Monday: And wilt thou be the school where Lust shall learn? One of London’s best......

"I like to remember things my own way... not necessarily the way they happened". With this key line the orchestra swells to a small crescendo, and following a subtle beginning this audacious English National Opera production suddenly feels, well, operatic. Olga Neuwirth's startlingly faithful music-theatre treatment of David Lynch's 1997 neo-noir has been resurrected in the Young Vic for a short run. Fans of the film are doubtless aware of its complex Mobius-strip narrative,......

Londonist brings it on home… NAME: IRAN e MA STREET POSTCODE: SE1 0AJ Delivery Area: Southwark + the City (3 mile radius) PHONE NUMBER: 020 7620 0100 HOURS: 7 DAYS a WEEK, Mon-Fri 5-11pm, Sat-Sun 12 noon – 11pm Expect to Pay: £6-£8 a head for a huge main course; £8 minimum delivery charge Rating: 8 out of 10 Although Londonist isn’t particularly carnivorous, we recognise the fact that there are times when only......