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......

This weekend column is brought to you by the founders of Niceties Tokens, Liz and Pete of Team Nice. 44. The driving test Driving in London is a wonderful environment for social interaction studies. Most London drivers, when trying to join a busy line of traffic from a parallel parked position will edge their out until they force the next car to stop and allow them through. Most of this is without eye contact.......

Nobody likes traffic, do they? Especially not Madonna, who is apparently taking as a personal affront to musicians trying to make their gigs in the congestion zone. In an interview with Q magazine, the Britified American said, "I would make it so that young musicians, aspiring musicians wouldn't have to pay the congestion charge or pay taxes." What a dream... no C-charge for carrying a guitar. And no taxes, too? Sign us up for piano......

Another day, another transport strike looms: this time it’s South West Trains. Quick: What’s 7 + 8 + 4 + 9? Did you have to use your fingers to complete the calculation? Half of Londoners do. And it’s costing us £500 million a year. Right, so the money goes to a worthwhile cause, but please don’t name your child Ulysses. We’ll take our greens with a side of green, please: Camden Council wants to......

Up to 9000 members of the Public and Commercial Services Union, including security staff at the Houses of Parliament, Police Community Support Officers, Traffic Wardens, 999 Operators and admin support staff will be striking - most pointedly - on Budget Day, 12 March, to protest against a below inflation pay offer. Seems union action is rumbling all around London at present. Yesterday we reported on the mobilisation of bus drivers for standardised pay and......

Morrissey starts the first of a string of six dates at the Roundhouse on Monday night, playing every night except Thursday until next Sunday. As you'd expect, tickets are all gone, but you may be able to find a few last minute spares floating around. Londonist favourites Sons and Daughters play The End's first Birthday, and Stephen Fretwell plays his melodic melancholy at the Luminaire - a few tickets left at £12.50 from WeGotTickets......

Announcing the fourth Londonist guided walk. When: Friday 8 February. What: Piccadilly warriors, sapphic Royalty, bonkers fashion, nazi dogs, naval heroes and lovesick gardeners are amongst the cast on this dysfunctional relationship stroll through St James. Who: Chris Roberts, your genial guide from our previous walks is back. Chris is a veteran tour guide, author of Cross-River Traffic, resurrector of the Penny Dreadful with his One Eye Grey, and all-round top bloke. Where: Meet......

Londonist went on a sojourn to Manchester recently, and loved the place. Home of iconic bands, incessant rain, pretty canals, and some of Britain's most interesting modern architecture outside London, Manchester has a lot to offer. If only there were a way to get there that didn't involve spending half your life savings on an overpriced, inflexible rail ticket. Never let it be said that Virgin Trains can't spot an opening in the market.......

The Hangar Lane Gyratory has been given the dubious honour of being named Britain’s scariest road junction. In fact London claims 3 of the 4 top adrenalin-fuelled traffic experiences in the country, with Marble Arch and the Elephant and Castle coming 3rd and 4th on the list. Londonist begs to differ, slightly. Hangar Lane is, admittedly, a teensy bit petrifying on the first or even second encounter, but once you understand what it is there......

OK, so maybe not kills, although it might, but it is bad for you. Details to follow. A new report shows that shopping in an area with a high volume of traffic has a worse affect on your lungs than walking around a park. For a moment this looks like one of those no shit Sherlock stories; however, the study is specifically related to people with asthma and the effect that diesel engines have......

Advent is upon us. Hanukkah starts on Wednesday. Office parties are already everywhere. Tis the season to be jolly, jolly, jolly but we know this can be draining, emotionally and financially. Don't let the state of your wallet throw you over the edge. We can't afford to buy tickets to the BFI IMAX all-nighter next weekend and we're not allowed to enter our own competition. But we can do the following splendid things for......

Four weeks till Christmas! Argh. Funds are all focused on present buying and getting through the party season but we still want to go out and about because the heating isn't working properly at home. We can't afford to go and see Gandalf drop his trousers in King Lear but, thankfully, there's lots of cheap and interesting stuff about as usual. Monday: Start the week with an event truly in the spirit of London......

There have been many suggestions for women's safety at night: travel in groups, don't get minicabs, always walk facing traffic, carry a rape alarm, make sure you're home before it gets dark and stay indoors until daylight. All really helpful - for putting sexual equality back to the dark ages (so to speak). Women should be able to be out and about at night without fear of being attacked, raped or sexually harrassed which......

It seems Ken Livingstone isn't content with the new, faster Eurostar, but wants to make London actually resemble Paris. He is proposing pedestrianised, tree-lined streets a la the French capital and even wants to get us our own version of the famous Paris Plage, the artificial beach that takes over the Right Bank of the Seine. For this, the Mayor wants to shut a section of the Victoria Embankment's four lanes from traffic. Other......

With the opening of St Pancras and its high-speed line to the continent, the approval of Crossrail, and glimpses of the futuristic bullet trains that will soon call London home, there are plenty of encouraging signs that Britain's rail network is in good health. They don't come much more inspiring than the former railway man who has set up his own rail service. Grand Central Rail was established in 2000 by former British Rail......

Had TfL existed in his time, the great Samuel Johnson may well have amended his famous aphorism to read "a man who is bored of London needs to hop on the number 19 bus". In its perambulation from Battersea to Finsbury Park, the 19 cuts a swath across the capital's economic and cultural barriers, revealing the world within one city that modern London manifests. Vogue has certainly been impressed by the number 19. The......

As reported last week, Monday should see you going crazy to hear that one good song (are there others) by Peter Bjorn and John at the forum. More importantly make sure you get there in time to see support act Those Dancing Days. We caught them at Water Rats on Saturday and are pleased to report they combine cuteness and moodiness with alarming grace. The much loved Beirut play an instore at Rough Trade......

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......

The world’s busiest international airport is also the world’s least favourite. Delays on the tarmac and in the terminals have led a survey of 2,500 travellers to vote Heathrow as their least favourite airport. The airport, currently operating beyond its intended capacity, has been slowed down by increased security checks and had kept passengers waiting for their baggage, and passengers have also complained that their luggage frequently goes missing. The BAA, who own Heathrow,......

It's a rare day when London's drivers and the parking authorities can actually kiss, make up and play nice, but we think this scheme might do the trick. Westminster Council has chosen 200 'Golden' parking bays, which - until 6.30pm this evening (that's Thursday, folks) - will be entirely gratis.Yes, if you can make it through our glacially slow traffic, you may be lucky enough to park your motor for free. This is no......

It may be up there with "dog bites man" as a redundant headline, but it's true: traffic in London is slow. Four years of congestion charging may have swelled the coffers of TfL, but it hasn't done much to relieve the blood pressure of motorists. Despite a 20% reduction in traffic since 2003, snaking jams of snarling drivers are common, and things are slower than in the days of horse and cart. So we......

A glimpse of the future for London rail travel was unveiled today at Hitachi’s depot in Ashford. (And this dumb-broad Londonista thought they just made tellies and stuff). We are to get a bullet train (which some droll spark has named the ‘javelin’ in honour of the Olympics – geddit?) as of 2009. The aim is not only to whisk sports spectators from downtown St. Pancras over to the main-goings-on at the Olympic stadium in......

It’s time to announce our third Londonist guided walk. When: October 12. Meet at 7pm outside Atlantis Books, Museum Street. What: This walk around Bloomsbury will mention Mr Crowley, screaming queens – of the Egyptian variety – haunted clocks, incompetent executioners and much else as it meanders from St Giles to Holborn. The walk lasts about ninety minutes and focuses on spooky events and odd folklore. Who: As usual, this offbeat tour is led......

Cameras at the ready. It's time to get Green. That's the theme of the Shoot Photomonth's event being held this Saturday. But green what? Well, anything really. Traffic lights, jumpers, trees, jelly beans. Even the bit of mould you cut off the loaf of bread this morning. Just as long at it's green. Now you have to register for this event in advance which is why we're telling you about it now. But it's......

If you've been wanting to join the cycle revolution but are put off by all that aggressive, unpredictable and dirty traffic out there then maybe this weekend's Hovis London Freewheel, which will trundle through nine miles of traffic-free town on Sunday, will help you get on your bike. The number of cyclists on London's streets has apparently increased a stunningly impressive 83% in the last 12 months. Unfortunately, it's too late to register to......

The fourth in our series of interviews with potential candidates for next year's Mayoral election. Previously: Victoria Borwick (Tory), Andrew Boff (Tory) and Warwick Lightfoot (Tory). Sian Berry is the Green's candidate for next year's elections. Unlike the Tory rivals we've previously interviewed, she is a strong supporter of the congestion charge. She's the only person we've ever known to use the words 'The North London Line is good'. And she's also got a......

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......

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......

Londonist likes enterprise. The idea of making money in a creative and unusual way. The bob-a-job scout, the travelling tinker, the wandering minstrel, these are fun and hard-working figures who deserve their honest crust. The other part of this poorly contrived syllogism is that Londonist hates sitting in traffic jams. Especially in London. All those fumes and all that rage all concentrated into one urban corridor. Bad news all round, really. So therefore Londonist......

The BBC are facting us out from under the sheets this morning with a bevy of traffic stats garnered from London councils. 5 million parking tickets were issued in 12 months up to March 2007. That’s roughly one per car in the greater London area, and a 2.7% increase on the previous year. People have cottoned on that straying into bus lanes is a bad thing. Penalties have dropped by 41%. However, nearly 300,000......