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

With 2008 racing from winter to summer with nary a hint of spring to be scented, mid-May finds us enjoying glorious weather and turning our thoughts to happy days at the local lido. Despite dozens of closures over the years since the lido's post-war heyday - inspiring such evocative imagery of lost sites in books like Paul Talling's Derelict London - many of London's lidos are still going strong, and some, like London Fields,......

Summer Strallen, who played the similarly named Summer Shaw on teen soap Hollyoaks, has just made her debut in The Sound of Music at London's Palladium Theatre. If, like us, you enjoy a bit of a Hollyoaks omnibus on a hungover Sunday, you'll be familiar with Summer's journey from soap star to West End star. For those of you who are Hollyoaks impaired, it's actually all a bit confusing. Strallen joined the Hollyoaks cast......

There's masses going on for us culture vultures to choose from this week. First Thursdays As it's the start of March, it's First Thursdays this week. More than 80 galleries and museums will be open til 9pm across East London. We recommend John Squire's (yes, him from the Stone Roses) Re-engineered Garments; alternatively, pretend you're an alien at the Barbican. The Martian Museum of Terrestrial Art opens this Thursday. East is East East London's......

Sore at missing out on the £50 million pad up in London's own Billionaire Row that was sold last month? Well, here's the good news - another one's just come on the market. Steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal has decided to up sticks from Bishops Avenue in Hampstead, after Barrat Homes were given permission to build a block of luxury flats right next door. Britain's richest man apparently didn't fancy contending with one of the......

Philadelphia experimental indie stars Enon play the Luminaire on Monday night, with around 17 tickets left (at time of writing) on We Got Tickets. Support comes in the shape of Ill Ease, which features "Elizabeth Sharp playing guitar, bass, drums, tambourine, shaker, car horn and anything else that rattles, buzzes, shakes or hums in a riff-o-matic racket" apparently. Should be good. Meanwhile over at 93 Feet East, Seattle singer-songwriter David Bazan plays his folk-rock. Tickets......

If you're free on Thursday night (13th Dec), then Mercury nominees The Young Knives are playing a pretty cool headlining gig at Canvas, Kings Cross. The Rage Out In Winter is an all evening event (7.30pm - 2am) aiming itself an a more discerning gig goer, hoping to provide cool bands in luxurious settings. They've even got proper caterers on the case to provide food to gig goers which we think is a great......

You can get packed into a club playing bad techno any weekend, but it’s not often that you get to party like it’s 1859. Saturday’s White Mischief, themed “From The Earth To The Moon”, was an evening envisioning the future as the Victorians imagined it (well before George Orwell came along and scared the crap out of us). The crowd was split between those in standard club dress and those who went all out......

Despite the odd recent mishap, London's lidos take their rightful alongside our parks as great places to go around the capital. 70 years ago lidos were people's cathedrals, masterful municipal palaces to promote community health and wellbeing. Over the years since then they have been left derelict or sold off. But now, they are having their renaissance. Blame global warming for warmer temperatures or the Olympics for increased interest in health - but outdoor pools......

We’re gob-smacked we are that Brits have a bad bed rep. As far as the eye can see, quite literally, we’re about as randy as a canine on heat. Sexual sighting number one: freshers strip during freshers week – now that sure is an original way to make friends (although the residents of Kingston might argue to the contrary). Sexual sighting number two: Swedish porn at the ICA. This really qualifies as six sightings,......

We're adamant that this week we're going to pretend it's still Summer. We're not content with sitting in watching the telly. We want to go out and play. But if we're going to do this every night this week, we're going to have to do it for very few pennies indeed. Here's the free stuff we've found this week: Tuesday: We tried really hard but we can't find you any free theatre for Tuesday.......

If Londonist were really rich we'd be out every night doing LOADS of fun stuff. We'd be going to see all of the cool things at London Design Festival. We'd be drinking beer out of plastic cups and dancing at the Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly gig. But we're not. Instead all our money goes on rubbish stupid bills and... actually not much else. So here's what we're going to do instead. Here's a......

There was very little else for Londonist to be concerned with when the threat of a Tube strike became a very unpleasant reality. The inconvenience was extreme: there aren't many alternatives to the Tube in London despite the best efforts of the Londonist team to get everyone from A to B. Brighter news came in the form of the first ever female Yeoman Warder, or Beefeater as the position is more commonly known, and......

Summer has at last hit us. So, with just 122 days to go until christmas, it must therefore be time to start thinking of how to broach that whole visit back to parents/family. What on earth should you do with that horrid snotty nephew? Or, to put it another way: To Panto Or Not To Panto? Now, sorry if this causes offence, but pantomime IS generally rubbish. (*Insert compulsory "oh no it isn't" reference......

It's summer! Shouldn't you be outside enjoying the sunshine? That is, assuming we actually get any. If you don't fancy making the most of the weather, here are a few choices for a night in. On TV, Londonist likes: Tuesday, 21 August Secret Life of the Motorway (BBC4, 21:00-22:00) What screams "summer holidays" more than being stuck on the motorway on your way to or from somewhere fabulous? You'll be sure to love this......

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......

As soon as the sun came out, half of you probably rushed to the nearest beach. Or the nearest pub. Or the nearest airport. Now you're back in the real world and you've spent all your money. It means that we can't go and see the Summer exhibition at Buckingham Palace (we love an excuse to be nosy!) and we can't go and see Orlando Bloom in 'In Celebration' (apparently it's not very good......

With grey skies, low temperatures and ever-present rain comprising the key features of our lovely non-summer, it may seem unwise to choose to see a film anywhere lacking the protection of a roof and four walls. You certainly could choose to stay inside the confines your local multiplex, but then you'd miss out on the return of Film4's fabulous Summer Screen tradition at Somerset House. For ten nights from 2 August until 11 August,......

We've only just recovered from the groin strain and hangovers of The Chap and Hendricks Olympiad and now another alcoholic silly sporting event has come along. Just as well we are all still in fine form after training so strenuously for the golden bowler hat in Bedford Square; time now for London's tipsy athletes to head over to Finsbury Square this Thursday afternoon for the Pimms Urban Regatta. Pimms is hosting a Henley on......

If you're not too busy reading Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows or attending fabulous Londonist quizzes this week, here are are a few things to keep you occupied on a quiet night in. On TV, Londonist likes: Monday, 23 July The Tower (BBC1, 22:35-11:25) It's episode 5 of this 8 part series, and it's all about the romance on the estate. Kelley and Wayne tie the knot with a large part of the......

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......

The dog ate it. The best excuse ever. In this case, however, the cheesy whole truth. Fitz is a dog that stops at nothing for his nosh. Owner Adam Curtis, Assistant Manager at Richmond Park, should have known better than to leave his hungry hound in snuffling distance of a 1.5kg Duddleswell sheep’s cheese destined for Sir David’s buffet plate at the Thames Landscape Strategy’s Summer Event. The German shorthaired pointer is known to......

Despite the recent bomb scare in Hammersmith, and despite the weather giving us anything remotely like summer sunshine, this patch of West London is still determined to have the Lyric Hammersmith Summer Party. The Lyric Hammersmith sits above the shops and chain restaurants of King Street and is a jumble of architectural periods: a cool, minimalist, glass-fronted entrance on Lyric Square leads up to the functional theatre lobby and rather bleak roof terrace. Then,......

We don't talk about opera enough on Londonist so here's a double-whammy of high notes and hollering... For the full Royal Opera House effect without going to the Royal Opera House, the BP Summer Screen brings Tosca to the masses tonight. Puccini's tale of love, murder, deception, jealousy and all the other standard opera elements is being broadcast live from the Royal Opera House on big screens in Canada Square (Canary Wharf), Victoria Park......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 2nd July 1865: One-time Methodist minister William Booth preaches to a large crowd at an open-air ‘mission’ in Whitechapel, founding the ‘East London Christian Mission’, which would later be renamed ‘The Salvation Army’. Tuesday – 3rd July 1981: A punk concert at the Hamborough Tavern in Southall, West London, leads to fighting between skinheads and Asian youths. The riot is just one of many violent ‘uprisings’ to......

What with Paris Hilton's release earlier this week and the upcoming celebration of American Independence (sorry, Londonist!), we've been thinking a lot about freedom. Freedom to vote, freedom to choose, and most importantly, freedom to blog. Here are a few things we're happy we've been free to blog about this week. Being the nation's capital, DCist felt especially proud to let freedom ring this week by exposing the really important issues, like how sad they......

It's not a bad photo by a hasty tourist - it's a key London landmark in darkness. Finally, someone remembered to turn the lights off before they locked up for the night. Courtesy of the Lights Out London campaign organised by Capital 95.8, Londoners turned off all non-essential lights between 9pm and 10pm in order to show how much energy can be saved and how well we can function without a dozen different lamps......

For all you crazy art fanatics out there (you know who you are....) here's the lowdown on what's going on at Free Range this week... Degree Show 5 Who? University College for the Creative Arts Epsom (Graphics & New Media) What? DESIGN (2D & 3D) Where? Atlantis 2nd Floor Your Place or Mine? Who? University of Brighton (Graphics & Illustration) What? DESIGN (2D & 3D) Where? Atlantis 1st Floor University of Westminster Art and......

Ahhh, it's finally summer (try and ignore the rain for a moment). Summer in London means many things: picnics in Green Park, staying out late on a school night and students all over the capital stressing out about their exams and final year exhibitions. Enter Free Range 2007. A show of some of the most prestigious universities' design work, all in the heart of Brick Lane: The Old Truman Brewery. Londonist caught up with......

This year's not terribly inspiring Somerset House Summer Sessions have been announced and are as follows: Thursday 12 July - Mogwai [in surround sound] Friday 13 July – Kasabian Saturday 14th July - Bert Jansch with Beth Orton and Bernard Butler Sunday 15th July – Guillemots Monday 16th July – Lily Allen Tuesday 17th July – Mika Wednesday 18th July – Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Thursday 19th July – The Roots Friday 20th July......