Though this story would have been more appropriate for Valentine's Day, this love letter from long ago was returned a week late for that lovey-dovey deadline. Still, this sentimental stuff tugs at our little heartstrings, so we're happy to report that a stolen love letter, dumped in a garden at an empty house in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, and picked up by police has been returned to its author, who is still alive at 98.......

Doesn't sunshine make everything seem better? Alright, it's been brass monkeys but nothing lifts the winter blues like bright skies, crisp air and early daffodils. It's half term for most kids this week so your commute might even be more pleasant. In which case, perhaps you'll be more inclined to get out after work and try something different that's light on your wallet and heavy on aceness. After all, we really can't afford good......

Last night, we learned to mix a good drink with a few shakes of the wrist as part of a Valentine's Day dinner date at Cookbook Cafe in the Intercontinental Hotel and wanted to share the mixology secrets to making a romantic cocktail so you can impress your sweetheart by extending Valentine's Day to the weekend, woo your stalking obsession or soothe your poor lonely heart as you watch The Notebook over and over again......

Did you find yourself stuck in the office late on V Day or just couldn’t quite squeeze in time for all the starred names in your little black book or did you properly and thoroughly cock up what plans you did keep with your sweetie? If so, tomorrow’s Valentine Rewind at The Terrace in the Field might be just the heart-shaped reprise for you. £40 per lover gets you and your nookie partner a......

Tube travellers from Balham to Barnet are unhappy at claims the Northern Lane will be separated. According to leaflets being pressed into commuter flesh at Hendon station, TfL, like some latter-day Moses, has "recently announced plans" to part the oft-delayed line, creating two distinct services - one running south from High Barnet via Bank, the other from Edgeware via Charing Cross, with nary a switchover between the two. Trouble is, the story's cobblers. While......

David Garrett is "part maverick, part genius, total virtuoso". He's also a dreamboat; unfortunately, at present, a dreamboat in bits over his precious Stradivarius which is also in bits since he fell down some stairs onto his violin case after a concert at the Barbican before Christmas. Smash. Oh dear... We don't know if Barbican wine was to blame. The 290 year old instrument is/was priceless; a priceless jigsaw puzzle right now. Estimates for......

There's something of a Valentine's theme to the Arts of choice taking place in the capital this week. But Londonist knows for every young Juliet embracing the idea of timeless romantic love, there's a Bridget hugging her near-empty vodka bottle, crooning to Chaka Khan. So, in the name of balance, here's a varied, half 'rom', half 'com' round-up for you all. Shows for Swingin' Lovers: Photographer Gregg Stone, has been taking snaps of kissing......

This is what we have learned while you were out bisto-ing the Spring air and foraging in the farmers’ markets this weekend: It’s the Baftas tonight, and as the Oscars are on ice, the paparazzi will be out for this in force. ‘Fraid the bloggerazzi prefer watching it on the telly. Battersea is looking for love this Valentines Day. A man has been charged with the unlawful removal of a head. Well, something like......

Ahh, art or money? It's something we ponder daily here at Londonist. (Can't we have both?) The big question is also being asked over at the Old Vic by none other than Kevin Spacey and his mate Jeff Goldblum in Mamet's Speed-the-Plow. We're also pondering how to get our hands on tickets for this sure-to-sell-out show. Previews run til Saturday; the show's booking until April. Also Opening Photography fans should pop along to the......

Now, stories from the IT world ordinarily don’t do much for Londonist besides make our eyes glaze over. (We’re sorry, IT people, we’re sure you’re lovely, that your jobs are fascinating, and that we wouldn’t be able to do what we do without you. It’s just that we can’t understand what you’re saying.) So when we noticed this story about a new website created to help IT companies bid for contracts for the 2012......

Lovers' Marmite hit the shelves of Selfridges yesterday ready for the annual marketing travesty that is Valentine's Day. It's Marmite with 0.3% Champagne mixed in. Remember the special edition Guinness Marmite? We had hoped it was a one off abberation. I mean, if you like Marmite, you don't need fancy permutations of it. You just want the yeasty goodness. Unfortunately, it seems Marmite have aspirations (cash-in plans) beyond their basic and much loved (and......

We'd like to start this week's run-down by wishing a very happy birthday to parent blog Gothamist, which turned four on Friday. If it wasn't for them, the rest of us wouldn't be here. They celebrated their birthday by nabbing an interview with Entourage star Adrian Grenier, who misses NYC public transportation when he's working in LA. They also reported on NYU students protesting a band whose name is also known as a slur,......

If we weren't so cheap we'd send a card to every one of our readers today. But because we are very cheap (and don't want to explain how we know where you all live) you'll have to make do with a photograph that we didn't even take ourselves. heart is by johanna and is a timely reminder to give yourselves a new coat of paint before exposing your love muscles this evening. Happy Valentine's......

It's Valentine's Day and if your cold, bitter heart has not been melted in a furnace of love by this point, then why go on? Your sneaking suspicion that there is, in actual fact, nothing warm and fuzzy in the world is true. Or is it? There is a small pocket of the universe that will soon be wrapped in a few hundred metres of woolly scarf, all knitted by hand, with love and......

Valentine's Day is only a few days away, and we here across the Gothamist network wanted to express, in the spirit of the holiday, just how much we love you, our readers. Don't let it get to your heads, though. There are plenty of things we love, you included. Just be glad you're not amongst the things we hate. SFist saw their beloved mayor enter rehab, and they loved the opportunity to gossip about it.......

Valentine's Day isn't too far off... what to get her this year? Perfume? Flowers? Why not drench her in semen? Hari's, an upmarket beauty salon in Chelsea now offers a 45-minute "Aberdeen Organic Hair" treatment that can give your hair the ultimate shine by massaging into it a protein-rich mixture of semen from thoroughbred bulls and a plant root. Owner Hari Salem had apparently tried hundreds of products including wild avocados and truffle oil......

The London commemoration of the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade is on shaky ground after an argument over who should pay for it: The Mayor of London included £200,000 in his draft budget for this financial year to commemorate the event. But Assembly member Angie Bray said the £275,000 earmarked for the occasion should be cut because it would be better paid for by central government. Mr Livingstone said an attempt......

Aidan Brooks, Trainee Chef, hits Broadway Market during a rare moment of sunshine and provides us with a little Flickr photo show of all the good stuff he finds there (the above is one of those photos). Jess at Ripe London gets some popcorn along with her ceviche at La Bodeguita del Medio and is not pleased: "What this city needs is an honest, unfussy Cuban joint, unpretentious in a mi casa, su casa......

Kentish Town Cyclist, Nik Shah, is taking the time to try and make the morning commute a little more interesting by using it as a poke in the government's eye. PledgeBank is the implement of choice in an attempt to organise a Valentine's Day protest against The Serious Organised Crime and Police Acton: "I will commute past Westminster on a bike wearing a vest that says "SOCPA sucks" but only if 10 other local......

There is a definite spring in the step of all the bulls and bears stomping around the square mile right now. It has been a good year in the City and the end of year bonuses have swelled accordingly. Right now, there are more than a few bankers and traders who are absoulutely swinning in it, which means that they should be able to prop up the property market for a good while yet.......

The following is coming from a purely hetrosexual male persepctive, with apologies to our gay and female readers. It's written for the benefit of any single males who've managed to secure a date for tonight with a woman that they are pretty keen on and would very much like to impress, but can't think of where to go. We're probably pitching this to a minority audience, but hell, if we help just one soul......

As one Londonista said the other day, "we can't ignore it!" - Valentine's Day is here, and love is in the air, even here in Westminster. Many people find power sexy. Others claim that politics is "showbusiness for ugly people" (why else would I be so rabidly political?) On this Valentine's Day therefore, Londonist has a treat for you! Do you fancy being part of a political sex scandal? Do you want to sell......

Another fine week of gigs, and for those of you still undecided about where to take your better half or go stalking on Tuesday, we have a couple of tickets to give away for the Anti Valentines Day Massacre. Read on McDuff. Tonight: Worth picking up a ticket or two (they're still available) for southern fried beardy rockers: My Morning Jacket, whose Z was one of last year's tripped out delights. Friday: Anyone who......

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 Event of the Week Speed Dating: Laws of Attraction, at the Dana Centre What is it with trying to pair off sciency types? First we had that shindig over at the British Library, now the Dana Centre have decided to see if cupid’s arrow obeys Newton’s First Law. On......

13 million people will be tuning for the Wedding of the Year. It's had its ups and downs. Strange relatives throwing a strop. Doubts about whether it should go ahead at all. A first wedding in 1981 which is still fondly in the hearts of the nation. But with all the problems and news items which could overshadow this grand event, it's great to see that our favourite brainiac and his fair haired fiance will......

Valentines Day is almost over and if you spent it on your own, probably in a dimly lit room, probably creating a collage out of faces of lovers that wronged you, or would have wronged you had they actually talked to you, then you need a change of scenery. Try Hackney. In a frankly tenuous survey of a ridiculously small amount of people, nine out of ten Hackney residents claimed to have been in......

Yesterday we brought you our tips for presents to buy girls. Today, in the interest of balance, we bring you our tips for Valentine gifts for boys. To be honest, most men will probably be happy with a bit of special slap and tickle on Valentine's Day, but if your man isn't like that (yeah, right) and you still want to buy a gift, here's a few suggestions. Susannah Chenevix-Trench makes some lovely stuff.......

Valentine's Day. What a nightmare. A nightmare for lonely singletons (and let's be honest, if you're new to London with no roots here, it can be a very lonely place): with the Post Office getting rid of the second post delivery, there's not even that tiny glimmer of hope to last you another few hours when cupid's failed to shoot his arrow through the letterbox in the morning delivery. And a nightmare for couples......