Three weeks into the New Year, probably one week until payday and telly's rubbish (except for new CSI), the weather's grey and the detox is wearing thin. Don't give in to those January blues! Here's what can get you out of the house for not a lot of wonga this week. Monday: This is the most depressing day of the year. We've said it before but we're going to say it again because we......

Last full week before Christmas, we expect your bank account's feeling the strain. All that Christmas shopping and partying taking its toll? If you want to make the most of being out and about before Christmas cabin fever and complete exhaustion set in then we're here to help. Monday: Keep the braincells going through silly season. Go to the free lecture at Gresham College about why our society rewards celebrities, fads and fashions and......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 3rd December ????: Nothing of any interest has ever happened in London on this date. Sorry. Tuesday – 4th December 1882: The Royal Courts of Justice on The Strand are opened by Queen Victoria. Wednesday – 5th December 1905: Part of the roof of Charing Cross station collapses, killing six people. Thursday – 6th December 1983: Britian’s first heart and lung transplant operation takes place at Harefield......

London is one big stage for endless, tiny bits of theatre. Dashing through rush hour crowds at the train station has its own particular brand of dramatic tension and a company visiting from Australia is presenting this part of everyday London life in a very different light. Back to Back Theatre is bringing their performance ">Small Metal Objects to London as part of the Barbican's Ozmosis season of contemporary Australian performance. The company of......

Anyone who has ever surfed the internet in a quest for enlightenment about British theatre will undoubtedly have come across the West End Whingers’ blog. By now, Andrew and Phil have become internet blogging stars, doing for theatre what Belle de Jour did for prostitution with only slightly less lubricant. Andrew and Phil have ranted against ticket prices, bar prices, fringe theatre and the general state of affairs since 2006, accumulating a huge fan......

If you're anything like Londonist, you're saving up to go on holiday somewhere sunny (well let's face it, it's not going to happen here any time soon). So, like us, you'll be watching the pennies this week. This means we can't go and see David Suchet at Theatre Royal Haymarket, or go and watch the new Simpsons Movie. We're very annoyed about this, so we've found some exciting free stuff to do instead: Monday:......

We'll let you into a secret: Londonist is a bit skint. And we all know that the wonderful events in the city can add up to quite a hefty sum. It means that we can't go and see the Dali and Film exhibition at the Tate Modern, or go and see Amy Winehouse on Friday. Booooo. Hisssss. What are we to do? Well here's a few things we found that you can do over......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 7th May 1663: The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane opens for the first time. There have actually been four theatres on this site since the 17th century, and the first one didn’t even last 9 years before burning down in 1672. The second was built in 1674, but demolished in 1791. The third lasted from 1794 until it burned down in 1809 (flammable things, these theatres). Finally, the......

Just out the Van: Margaret Atwood leaves the telepresence book-signing robot at home and joins fellow authors Andrew O'Hagan and Erica Wagner and publisher Stephen Page, Chief Executive of Faber & Faber, to discuss the brave new world of authors, readers and publishers in the age of new technology. Digitise or Die: What is the Future of the Book? is part of the London Book Fair. Tuesday 17th, 7.30pm, £9, The Southbank Centre. In......

Township Stories opens tonight at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East after a successful run in the Edinburgh Festival and is the kind of play that reviewers cannot help but describe with words like "sordid underbelly" and "gritty" and "contemporary urban realism." This new play about post-apartheid South Africa and "the moral breakdown of a community" is brutal, violent, shocking and stirring: lots of characters all with their own personal struggles cross paths and collide......

Londonist brings you triple-decker theatre news for a Friday afternoon, of the good, good Lord! and good grief... varieties. First of all, of the "good" variety, Eddie Izzard is to play Sally Bowles in a production of fishnet-tastic Cabaret next summer. The much loved cross-dressing comedian is only in talks at the moment for the role at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane but with any luck, we'll see L'Izzard strutting his stocking and suspenders......

Just as people of a certain age can always remember where they were when they heard that Kennedy had been shot (as comedian Steven Wright put it, ‘I remember where I was, I was on the sixth floor of a book depository....’) so Londonist imagines that most people can remember the first time that they saw the Mel Brooks movie The Producers, particularly if they had the benefit of not being told what the......