The power of pee – Balham Bar installs London’s first ever pee-controlled video game….

Fancy playing a video game with your pee? Well if you do happen to hold such a fetish, you can fulfil such desires in a bar in Balham.

The bar in question is called The Exhibit, which has been fitted out with urinals equipped with sensors that are wired to a screen above the urinal. The Urinal video games are then powered by a gentleman aiming his pee in the urinal – The mind boggles!

Talking about the bars’ inventive – to say the least – new venture, Drew Weatherhead, The Exhibit’s owner, said:

“We’re always looking for innovative ways to differentiate ourselves from the London competition. These units will give us a big edge when it comes to driving new promotions and attracting and retaining new customers.”

Well the south London bar has certainly succeeded in the ‘publicity’ stakes, as if you hadn’t heard of The Exhibit before, you sure have now!

If you like the sound of playing video games with your pee – which could prove fairly dangerous if you’ve had a few pints – the urinal games available at The Exhibit include, Splashing Battle, the aptly named Manneken Pis, The North Wind, and the Sun and Me, whereby players with a more forceful pee-stream can blow up Marilyn Monroe’s skirt with virtual wind! – Definitely sounds like the kind of game that men who are willing to play a pee-controlled video game would like to play!

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Forget the London Olympic Games 2012’s rowing event, as London’s Head of the River Race is the largest continuous rowing event in the world. Taking place on March 17, 2012, this highly prestigious event will see 420 “eights”, that’s boats with eight rowers for the rowing-terminology uninformed, flock to the River Thames to participate in this extremely competitive event.

The Head of the River Race 2012 begins at Mortlake and takes rowers down the Thames for 6800 metres, that’s 4 and quarter miles, to Putney, where the race finishes – a challenge which makes the 2000 metre Olympic regatta look like child’s play in comparison!

This truly engaging race takes approximately two hours to finish and if weather conditions are a little on the harsh side, which they often can be in mid-March in the UK, it only adds to the exhilaration and dynamics of the event!

Being such an exciting sporting fixture, the River Thames banks are literally brimming with spectators on the day of the Head of the River Race, all eager to catch a glimpse of the rowers as the glide past.

With the best view of the race being at the northern part of Hammersmith Bridge, the crowds are particularly heavy here, which, of course, only adds to the atmosphere and excitement of this formidable annual sporting event.

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For some, old, pretty and ‘idyllic’ churches are synonymous with the countryside and small rural villages. London is home to a higher density of churches than anywhere else in England, and these churches and chapels are, not only extremely numerous, but are also tremendously diverse.

This is representative of London’s expansion in the 19^th century, when many new churches and chapels were built independently from the growing nonconformist urban population. As a consequence of this increasing nonconformist style, London’s churches are extremely varied in their age, style, design and evolution, of which at least 600 different architects had made contributions.

If you are keen to receive a touch of religious sanction in London, then check out three of London’s prettiest churches.

St Paul’s Church, Knightsbridge

1st on our list of London’s prettiest churches is St Paul’s Church in Knightsbridge. It been cited as being “one of the most beautiful Victorian churches in England.” Since it was built in 1843, St Paul’s has been a place where God is encountered in ‘the beauty of holiness’. The church is home to a friendly community, which is as almost as diverse as the churches are in London as a whole, and holds various services throughout the week to cater for different temperaments and preferences.

For more information about this stunning London church, visit www.stpaulsknightsbridge.org/.

Temple Church, Temple

Being famously round in shape the Temple Church is not only one of the prettiest, stylistically-unique and most recognisable churches in London. Having been built by the Knights Templar in the 12^th century, Temple Church is also one of the oldest churches in London.  The church’s design is representative of the circular church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

Not only is Temple Church famous for its organ recitals and choral music but it was one of the key locations for Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code.

Visit templechurch.com for more details about this inspirational London church.

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The Alexander McQueen fashion house was founded by the late luxury fashion designer Alexander McQueen. The brand quickly became notorious for its controversial style, including the famous “bumster” hipsters, trousers so low that they left little to the imagination.

In July 2006, the company launched its McQ line, a more realistically priced diffusion of the Alexander McQueen fashion house, bringing the style, daringness and notoriety of the McQueen brand to the masses.

For the first time since the McQ line was launched, the brand will be presented at the London Fashion Week in February, exhibiting its autumn/winter 2012/2014 collection to the highly anticipated London Fashion Week catwalk.

The catwalk show will preview a snippet of what will be on sale in the first McQ store which will be opening in London sometime in the spring. The, some may argue, too long in coming store is going to be located in an impressive Georgian townhouse at 14 Dover Street in west London. The four-storey store will consist of 273 square meters of retailing heaven and will be the McQ’s first flagship store, offering both menswear, ladieswear and accessories.

Another famous name to be presented in the February London Fashion Week 2012 is Stella McCartney, who will be hosting a special fashion presentation on the evening of February 18, 2012.

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Old London Bridge was built in 1209 and was the first stone bridge ever built in the world. Its 20 huge arches were home to many houses and shops and until 1750 was the only crossing across the River Thames.

The bridge’s entrance was known as ‘Traitor’s Gate’, as it was where the heads of beheaded traitors were placed on tall spikes to act as a deterrent to others. The Old London Bridge stood proudly for over 600 years until it was finally demolished in 1831. But have you ever wondered what happened to Old London Bridge?

When it was demolished the Victorians decided to sell parts of the stone work to various locations across London, where they have remained ever since.

Some of the best surviving remnants of the Old Bridge are the stone-domed alcoves, of which there were originally 14 at each end of the piers. Victoria Park is home to two of these ancient alcoves, which, since the 1860s have provided many a visitor to Victoria Park a place to rest or shelter from the sun or the rain.

Another of these great domed monuments stands alone in a courtyard of Guy’s Hospital, while another, somewhat unusually, ended up in a garden of a block of flats in East Sheen.

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