An aid agency is trying to achieve what the Luftwaffe and V-2 rockets failed to do: the destruction of St. Paul's cathedral. ActionAid has submitted an application to the City, requesting the "total demolition" of Wren's 17th century masterpiece, in order that they can search for precious metals underneath. Surely they can't be serious. The very idea! What's yanked the chain of these cheeky chariteers? The request is actually an ingenious way of calling......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 28th July 1540: Thomas Cromwell is executed for treason at the Tower of London, at the behest of Henry VIII. Tuesday – 29th July 1981: Prince Charles marries Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul’s Cathedral. Wednesday – 30th July 1966: England defeat West Germany in the FIFA World Cup Final at Wembley Stadium, claiming the Jules Rimet Trophy (and, of course, the status of Football World Champions......

Photography courtesy of a faz via the Londonist pool on Flickr Interested in your foodie photos appearing on Londonist? Click here.......

Image courtesy of Richard Parmiter via the Londonist Flickr pool taken at the Nissan Qashqai Challenge Mountain Bike Freeriding final held outside the Tate Modern museum last Saturday.......

It was just last week that Londonist speculated our new mayor might not be so enthused about the skyscrapers redrawing London's skyline as his predecessor was. Now we have confirmation from the blond-barnetted one himself: he is to demand tougher rules on high rise buildings. Johnson outlined his views on skyscraper requirements thus: "They should be buildings of quality, they should be buildings of distinction... I do think we should be protecting strategic views......

Ken Livingstone's on a tap water crusade. Him and Thames Water have launched a campaign to encourage Londoners to be proud to ask for tap water, however many grannies it's been through. Not only are they extolling the quality of the water and the clear financial benefits, they're trying to make it sexy by running a competition to design a carafe worthy of holding our precious Eau de Londres. Asking for tap water in......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 28th January 1807: The gas lamps on Pall Mall are lit, making it the first street in the world to be illuminated in such a fashion. Tuesday – 29th January 1976: Twelve IRA bombs explode in the area around Oxford Street, injuring a taxi driver and starting several small fires. Wednesday – 30th January 1969: The Beatles perform live for the last time ever, on the roof......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 7th January 1927: The first commercial transatlantic telephone service is launched, connecting London and New York. Tuesday – 8th January 1991: A packed rush hour train carrying over one thousand commuters collides with the buffers at Cannon Street station, killing one person and injuring hundreds more. Wednesday – 9th January 1806: Following a grand state funeral, the body of Lord Nelson is buried beneath the dome of......

There’s plenty of tomes on the market describing our city’s buildings. A search on Amazon for the term ‘London architecture’ yields 1070 results. Into this crowded marketplace - one of the few not designed by Horace Jones - steps the London Atlas of Architecture. It’s a highly visual guide with up to eight photographs per page and plenty of maps. Section one is a chronology of architecture, spanning 1800 years from the Roman wall......

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......

Forget supping champagne as you hurtle from shiny new St Pancras to Gare de Nord by Eurostar, soon we'll be considering a picturesque pedal to Paris. No doubt inspired by this summer's Tour de France prologue in England which took an ultra scenic route to the French capital, three County Councils have signed an agreement with Transport for London to back the development of a cycle route to span both sides of the Channel......

Composer Alvin Curran and the London Symphony Orchestra will be performing Maritime Rites on the banks of the Thames outside Tate Modern and on a barge on the water itself this Friday evening. Described as a sound sculpture, Maritime Rites is a semi-improvised live event that incorporates the bells of St Pauls, the sound of traffic on the river and music associated with the Thames. As if this piece of live music and site-specific......

Everyone remembers the tragedy that was 7/7. In 2005, 4 suicide bombers killed 52 people. A further 800 were injured. Whilst it's still resonant to us, it's even more so for the survivors who today launched legal proceedings after the Home Office refused to hold an independent public enquiry. Lawyers have said that the group of survivors involved want the hearing to 'ensure lessons were learnt in the future'. Oury Clark Solicitors feel the......

New exhibition at St Pauls tackles human trafficking. Orpington golf course ripped asunder. Could it be toy car man exacting his revenge? London has 169 gangs. A quarter have murdered. More embassies attempt to duck out of C-tax Image 'SouthBank' courtesy of Orhan via the Londonist flickr group.......

Some of you might recall that a few years ago the Central Line was suspended for almost three months, following a derailment at Chancery Lane. At that time, this meant that this Londonista’s daily commute often involved walking from Bank to Holborn, past St Paul’s and across Holborn Viaduct – a part of our journey that soon got annoying, but was still quicker than taking the overwhelmed bus services. (London Underground never did cough......

See listings here for today and here for ongoing events. Wednesday Architectural History of the Albert Hall: Pretty self-explanatory. Take a guided tour round the old, red beehive for £7.50. Tours from 11am, requires booking. Pub and Church Crawl: From holy spirits to those of the distilled kind, this tour of Clerkenwell’s historic boozers and churches is led by former RIBA president Maxwell Hutchinson. £7, booking required. Building the Gherkin: Documentary on the construction......

…it’d probably look something like this. Not a still from the recent parallel-universe cyberman episodes of Dr Who (that was all in Cardiff, of course), but taken by Londonist from the improbably named Wardrobe Terrace.......

There can be few buildings in Europe to match the splendor of the Palace of Westminster. Millions of tourists, some of them off-worlders, flock to the landmark each year, even if few actually enter. But a couple of weeks back (and sorry to keep going on about it) Londonist did just that. Our tour of the houses of parliament inspired us to find out more about the architect, Charles Barry. Was this his only......

One hundred years is a deucedly long time in the life of a great city. And much has changed, as this selection box of statistics shows. Figures are for greater London, unless otherwise stated. The first number indicates the 1905 value, the second shows the 2005 figure. Population (Greater London): ~6.8 m; ~7.5 m Population (Inner London): ~4.5 m; ~2.8 m World ranking (by population): 1st; 19th Murder rate: 8 per million; 27 per......

While the other Londonistas are loafing around, reading their papers, nursing their hangovers, I like to do everything that Sundays were not designed for. Going out in the rain, CHECK; miles of lonesome hiking, CHECK; ne’er a whiff of a Sunday roast, CHECK. But this is not some countryside ramble. Oh no. My ideal Sunday is a focussed wander around the streets and alleys of London. What do I mean by a ‘focussed wander’?......

It all comes down to what you expect to see out of a London hotel bedroom window. In the red corner, we have Ken Livingstone and his insatiable lust for all things over 30 floors. In the blue corner we have the local authorities and their supporters, who don’t want the skyline cluttering up. Today’s Telegraph highlights the impending clash, after seeing ‘unpublished responses to a consultation paper by the mayor’. It seems that......