A woman died in Brixton last night after being hit by a police van. The woman was reportedly blocking traffic near Brixton Town Hall and taunting the driver of the Serco van just before she was hit and dragged under the vehicle, which was then swarmed by passers by. The van was transporting 11 prisoners, all of whom were uninjured and accounted for. The as-yet unnamed victim, aged about 30, died at the scene.......

Feminists. They don’t shave their armpits and they bathe in toad spit and the pubic hairs of young boys. Right? Well, you could try asking that question at the European Feminist Summit, but we would advise against it. Part of the London Festival of Europe, the summit, titled The Future of European Feminism will discuss feminism in the 21st century, in the context of Europe, politics, art and media. With feminist blog The F......

OK, so Londonist is taking it easy like the rest of you, putting their feet up, spring-cleaning their keyboards, and eating indecent quantities of chocolate truffles. Just posting gentle fluffy things and useful stuff. But when we popped into Londonist Towers this morning, this story leaped out at us from the screen, begging to make it on to our column. Hey, it won’t do us any harm to keep our ranting facility well-honed, otherwise we’ll......

Fun Fun Fun Fest 2007 Recap from Super!Alright! on Vimeo. Austinist attended a town hall meeting about proposed noise ordinances that could undermine the city's future as the Live Music Capital of the World, and lamented the possible loss of Texas's only feminist bookstore. Throughout the week, they interviewed a bunch of indie fashion designers and D-I-Y websites—Etsy, Ornamental Things, 31 Corn Lane, and Aorta Designs—for the upcoming Stitch Fashion Show. They also did......

It’s funny what it takes to get the townsfolk riled. A few murders here and there, rampant drug abuse, the cost of living, the state of the world…. these are met with little rumbles of protest at best. No, if you really want to get those petitions signed and that drum banged, bring on the dancing girls. Seriously. (Actually, citizens have also been known to unite over shoddy refuse collection, but that too comes down......

What do you do if you’ve got a gallery full of works by William Morris, one of Britain’s most famous artists, and you’re a cash-strapped borough council? (a) Publicise the gallery and get loads of tourists spending their money there. (b) Hitch a ride on green awareness — Morris was an early environmentalist and the collection is housed in his former home, in magnificent grounds, all of which the borough owns. (c) Suggest giving......

It would seem that Mayor Livingstone, famous for courting the unusual, is at it again. He is new-best-friends with the Polish community in London. His jolly japes this time include a Polish reception at Town Hall, replete with pierogi and pickles, and a trip to POSK, the Polish Community Centre in Hammersmith. He is quite the darling of the Polish press, by all accounts. Of course only the very cynical would suggest that it has......

London is well accustomed to the old North/South debate. In times fortunately gone by, the question of on which side of the river you resided was up with whether you eat peas off your knife in terms of social significance. It seems however that recently there is something of an East/West issue as well. According to our man at Wandsworth town hall, those spoiled westerners of Acton and beyond have been offered a viable......

We here in the Ist-A-Verse know that we're sensational, but it's very rare that we get a chance to be sensationalistic. This week, we've decided to have ourselves a little fun and try our hand at tacky tabloid headlines, using nothing more than our favorite posts from this week. Torontoist Special Report: Rosie to Trump: "Fire 300 Bicyclists for Fraud!" On DCist: Students Go Wild for Slogans, Secrets and Sexual Harassment The action was thick......

Lambeth town hall has come if for a good kicking: AN INFAMOUS council has become the worst in London. Lambeth has been judged the poorest performing council in the capital. It is now ranked among the five most pitiful councils in the whole of England. The borough's Labour administration has been left reeling after the national body that measures local authorities' performance decided the council's services to residents had got worse. The Audit Commission......

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......

Lots to see and do this weekend - don't succumb to staying indoors and waiting for spring. Grab your coat, keys, wallet and camera and keep going - there's no stopping in this town and no excuses either... Tonight Because the Night is a special event organised by Artangel to celebrate the end of the Nights of London which saw many artist collaborations producing and presenting work on the theme of darkness and night......

Sincerest apologies, dear readers. The author of this column (Column? Post?) has had a particularly trying week, what with almost getting fired from his high-pressure media sales job and also being asked to vacate the sofa near Highbury Corner he had been staying on since July. Now, we know, this is no excuse. Two posts in a fortnight is almost unforgivable. How much more trouble can he get in, do you wonder? Well, two......

The Diesel:U:Music Awards is back for a fifth year and the organisers are gearing up to choosing their finalists for 2006. Gigwise say "The Diesel-U-Music Awards - the biggest unsigned act competition around today will take place on October 4 at Shoreditch Town Hall, London. Concentrating on Rock, Urban/Hip Hop and Electronic artists/bands from all over the globe the awards have previously been won by the likes of Tom Vek and The Pistolas." We......

Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez made quite a splash in London over the weekend: Around a thousand people packed into Camden Town Hall to witness a mixture of a Latin American populist rally, an evangelical meeting and a football match... And yesterday in the People's Republic of Camden the villains remained very much President George W Bush, his acolyte Tony Blair, big business and the forces of reaction. Ken was in his element playing host......

Here is the first entry for our local elections competition. Submitted by Richard Pope of electionmemory.com, this is: Lambeth Contrary to perception, Lambeth is currently run by a Lib-Dem/Tory coalition (a workable solution to a hung council or a 2001 pre-election deal, depending who you believe). And with wordy manifestos touting good stewardship after years of "Labour waste" they are running definite incumbents' campaigns. That said, the Lib Dems will be going for it......

The traffic warden - one of the most hated jobs in London. The hatred is especially prominent in Camden, where a protest will take place against the number of tickets given in the borough. At least 200 cars will encircle the Town Hall, their disgruntled drivers dressed as pirates, to reinforce their claim that parking enforcement is banditry. The oddest display, however, will be a picket consisting of cabbies and local celebrities, including Michael......

These listings appear every Wednesday. If you want to let us know about any upcoming science or technology events, you can contact us on LondonistSciTech@Gmail.com No ‘Event of the Week’ in today’s listings. Sorry. Two reasons. (1) Nothing really catches the eye this week (the big event - Richard Dawkins talking about The Selfish Gene 30 Years On - is sold out). (2) This Londonista is getting married in a few days and, frankly,......

Londoners are beginning to get used to the Oyster card. It took some time to digest the idea of "topping up" your little slip of plastic with weekly or monthly travelcards and what the hell Pre-pay is supposed to be, but with not too much fuss, the Oyster card has been absorbed into the London Underground fare system and is as much part of the system as the zones, delays on the Northern Line,......

Who really enjoys Christmas shopping in London? Seriously - who? Though it is always the thought that counts, it is sadly true that you are obliged to put the thought into physical form in order for it to count, which means putting on your coat and hitting the shops to pick up that unique and original Christmas gift - which usually turns out to be the same unique and original gift that 50 million......

Just a quick follow up to the Lambeth 'Christmas' lights story everyone was talking about last week. If you remember, the council had begun to refer to the the festive displays as ''Winter Lights' or 'Celebrity lights' in adverts for the switch-on event, the assumption being that they were somehow attempting to extract all the religion out of the event. Conservative councillor Bernard Gentry then went and opened his gob to the Beeb, announcing......

For the foodies who like their meals without any animal influence, there's a real treat in store. It's the London Vegan Festival this Sunday (25th September) and Kensington Town Hall will be packed to the rafters with meat-free goodness. Celebrate veganism with like-minded people enjoying lots and lots of lovely food and drink, and also music, speakers, campaigning and rescue groups and the chance to meet the best ethical suppliers around. Apart from the......

Just when we got used to Jason Statham's flippable features (ie if you took his head off, turned it upside down and reattached it no one would notice) he goes and grows a bloody great big moustache - or maybe had one glued on. Oh well, it looks about as realistic as anything else in Guy Ritchie’s slightly skewed view of gangsters, London and dried up old pop singers (get well soon Madge/Esther/Whatever). The......

Did you see the Top 20 Film Locations list that was put together by Film London last week? It was pretty rubbish. We know these kind of things are designed to provoke dicussion and argument, but one company counting up which of the locations on their books have been used the most over the past year really isn't that great a read. Potters Field Park (as used in Little Britain)? Bethnal Green Town Hall......

How often do people praise their local council for something? Probably about as seldom as they commend traffic wardens or applaud the work of Steve Penk. But Londonist salutes forward-thinking Camden Council, as it reveals plans to install wind turbines atop its town hall in Argyle Street. And, no, we’re not talking about those massive wind farms that regularly get NIMBYs into a tizzy. These are discrete little baby turbines that will sit unnoticed......

Ahh, the good old days of the gentlemen spy: bowler hats, poison-tipped umbrellas, cigarette cases and, best of all, no David Shayler. What's made us all misty-eyes for the golden years of espionage? The discovery of a KGB 'spy's guide to London' in the latest bundle of MI5 files released to the National Archives. "Apparently seized by the Germans from a Russian agent captured in Paris during World War II," only to fall, "into......