• India cuts telecom spectrum prices as operator interest dries up

    Also in this newsletter: States move to ban social media for minors
  • Virgin Media O2 owner eyes broadband deals to take on BT Openreach

    Telefónica’s Marc Murtra vows to ‘help’ UK subsidiary better compete with Openreach network
  • Virgin Media O2 owner eyes broadband deals to take on BT’s Openreach

    Boss of joint owner Telefónica vows to ‘help’ its UK subsidiary better compete with BT’s Openreach network
  • Public access to the Foulness military firing range reopens next month

    If you fancy visiting a small museum in the middle of a military firing range, then you may want to put some dates into your diary.The Foulness Heritage Centre can be found deep inside a military firing range island on the far edge of Essex, facing out to the North Sea. Being military grounds, the whole island is off-limits, save for a few farmers who still live there, and on just one Sunday per month during the warmer seasons, one road opens to the public.
    After going through security and a 5-m
  • Advertisement

  • Tickets Alert: Easter tours of the House of Commons’ Speaker’s House

    The now semi-regular opportunity to see inside the richly decorated Speaker’s House within the Houses of Parliament returns for Easter.
    The State Dining Room in Speaker’s House (c) UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor
    Speaker’s House can almost be described as a Palace within a Palace, as it’s exceptionally richly decorated and is both the private home of the Speaker of the House of Commons and a suite of state rooms used for events away from the main Parliamentary buildings
  • Tracey Emin’s Tate Modern blockbuster is packed with people – and discomfort

    One of the UK’s most famous artists has filled several rooms in the Tate Modern with a wide range of really quite uncomfortable art.This is the Tracey Emin blockbuster. An exhibition that will sell out regardless of what anyone says about it, because it’s a celebrity artist doing what she does best – painting and talking about herself. It’s not that she doesn’t have a remarkable and troubling story to tell, but if your entire art is about a genuinely hard life, then
  • The church with anti-aircraft guns: Kilburn’s unusual naval relics removed

    Not many people knew they were there, but two WWII-era naval training guns have been in Kilburn since the 1960s, but not any more.
    The Tin Tabernacle in 2021 (c) ianVisits
    You probably wouldn’t have seen the WWII guns because they were housed inside an old metal church – The Tin Tabernacle – which had been taken over by the Sea Cadets in the late 1940s and converted into a naval training vessel TS Bicester.
    And in the late 1960s, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) loaned them two la
  • Tickets Alert: Open days at the Postal Museum’s overflow warehouse

    The Postal Museum is reopening its overflow warehouse in Debden, giving visitors a chance to see objects too large for display at The Postal Museum’s central London site.
    Debden depot (c) Postal Museum
    The depot used to be open occasionally but stopped some years ago – and after a long gap will resume now.
    The visit will consist of an hour-long tour of the store, led by The Postal Museum’s curators, followed by half an hour of free time to explore the space and get up close to
  • Advertisement

  • Mayor steps in after Barnet Council blocks homes next to High Barnet tube station

    A rejected plan to build homes next to High Barnet tube station has been called in by the Mayor of London for review.
    Initial concept image (c) Barratt London
    High Barnet is a northern terminus for the Northern line and sits at the bottom of a slope alongside sidings for used to store tube trains when not in use.
    The plan, put forward by TfL’s property arm, Places for London and Barratt Homes, would have seen approximately 300 new homes, including 40% affordable homes, built on the car par
  • Kew’s Victorian Palm House set for £60m overhaul after lottery funding boost

    A major £60 million project to refurbish the Victorian Palm House at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew has moved a step closer after the scheme secured an initial £240,000 development grant and a potential £10 million delivery grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
    Palm House (c) ianVisits
    The funding will support plans to restore the 19th-century glasshouse, which sits at the heart of Kew’s UNESCO World Heritage Site but now requires substantial work after decades o
  • The posters that helped topple communism go on display in Westminster

    A good protest is often remembered not just for what it demanded, but for how it looked – and a new exhibition explores the poster designs that helped define the pro-democracy protests sweeping Eastern Europe in the dying days of the Cold War.The slogans shouted in the streets, the posters pasted to walls, and the banners waved above crowds often outlive the policy arguments that inspired them. They distil complicated political struggles into a few sharp words and images.
    They are the visu
  • West London Orbital railway plans take another step forward

    Plans for the proposed West London Orbital railway linking Hendon and Hounslow have taken a step forward after £6.65 million was secured to progress the next stage of planning.
    West London Orbital map 2026 (c) TfL
    If built, the West London Orbital could run up to six trains an hour and provide ten new interchanges with rail and Underground services, alongside four new stations. Plans currently include four new stations at Old Oak Common Lane, Neasden, Harlesden and Lionel Road, while some
  • More people now qualify for discounted train travel as Disabled Persons Railcard expands

    The range of people who can qualify for discounted train tickets with a Disabled Persons Railcard has expanded this week.The new eligibility criteria for the Railcard will be phased in over two stages so that both visible and non-visible disabilities are better recognised and supported. They are designed to provide benefit when the evidence requirements are straightforward and to introduce assessment for more complex cases later in the year.
    New groups who are eligible include those who:Receive
  • Expecto Merchandum: Giant Harry Potter shop coming to Oxford Street

    Bad news for the dodgy souvenir shops selling questionable wizarding tat around central London, as an official Harry Potter shop is opening on Oxford Street.
    The Ribbon store and office development (c) Orms
    Joining the existing Harry Potter Shop at King’s Cross as the UK’s only official Harry Potter retail destination, the new store will open about halfway between Oxford Circus and Tottenham Court Road.
    The shop will also be hard to miss.
    Covering around 21,000 square feet across two
  • The curious case of the red corbel on Risinghill Street

    Stuck up high on the side of a 1970s block of flats near Angel tube station is a most peculiar sight – a red stone decorative capital or corbel.There’s nothing to indicate what it is or why it’s there, but a very plausible theory can be worked out.
    Fortunately, the first hint comes from a foundation-stone-style plaque beneath it, which doesn’t mention the red protrusion above but offers a hint of what is going on.The plaque states:
    ON THIS SITE STOOD THE OFFICE
    OF THE PEN
  • Barbican’s £231m renewal gets green light – with year-long closure planned

    A £231 million overhaul of the Barbican Arts Centre has been approved, with the City of London committing £191 million to the first phase of the major renewal programme.
    The remaining funding to complete the project will be sought through philanthropic and partnership support.
    Main foyer (c) ianVisits
    At the heart of the scheme is a substantial upgrade to the Barbican’s Conservatory. Longstanding maintenance and accessibility issues will be addressed, alongside the creation of
  • Shell shocked: Strawberry Hill plans to rebuild Horace Walpole’s lost garden seat

    Strawberry Hill House & Garden has launched an appeal to restore Horace Walpole’s long-lost Shell Seat — once one of the most enchanting features of his celebrated eighteenth-century garden.
    Jean-Henri Müntz, View of the Shell Seat and Bridge at Strawberry Hill, 1755. Ink drawing. Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University.
    Designed as a place for rest, conversation and gentle spectacle, the Shell Seat was part of Walpole’s self-styled “land of beauties”, a lan
  • Mind the Art: Tube stations transformed into atmospheric paintings

    A series of large-scale paintings depicting Tube stations, paired with the ambient sounds of the Underground, are on display at the Guildhall Art Gallery, creating an immersive plunge into the depths of London’s transport network.The paintings are by Jock McFadyen, accompanied by an ambient underground soundtrack by Jem Finer.
    One of the paintings is of Bank tube station, showing an advertising space that had the adverts scraped off, leaving behind almost abstract art in their wake. Many o
  • London Overground trains are calling at London Bridge station this Saturday

    This Saturday, there will be a fairly rare sight as London Overground trains will be calling at London Bridge station.Running all day on Saturday 7th March, the unusual London Overground service between London Bridge and West Croydon is needed because TfL engineering works are closing the Windrush line north of New Cross Gate.
    Edited TfL Overground map showing affected area
    Therefore, on Saturday only, between 7am and 10pm, a special train service will operate between London Bridge and West Croy
  • Kentish Town’s disused cinema to be restored as a community space and work hub

    A former Kentish Town cinema that had fallen into disrepair is to be renovated and converted into a new community event space and workspace for hire.
    An artist’s impression of the Kentish Town Neighbourhood Space. Picture credit: IF_DO Architects
    The former Palace Cinema on Prince of Wales Road in Kentish Town was built in 1913 by the prolific cinema designer, John Stanley Beard, but closed as a cinema in the 1950s. The cinema used to have its main entrance on Kentish Town Road (next to th
  • Lost tiles and ghost poster frames revealed at Oval tube station

    For a few weeks, you have a chance to see fragments of the 1920s at Oval tube station as the 1990s cladding has been removed for repair work.Oval tube station opened as part of the City and South London Railway in 1890 and originally had a distinctive red brick station building with a large glass dome for lifts down to the platform.
    When that branch of the Northern line was modernised in the 1920s, they also rebuilt Oval tube station, replacing the lifts with escalators and the Victorian Arts an
  • Battersea Power Station is offering free Chimney Lift trips to shoppers

    Battersea Power Station is offering free trips up its Chimney Lift – if you spend £50 in the local shops.The Chimney Lift is a glass elevator that fits inside one of the four chimneys and whisks you to the top, where it emerges and gives you about 10 minutes to see the sights before being sucked back down to the ground again.
    As a ticket for the Chimney lift can cost £24 for an adult, so long as you have a desire to spend £50 on clothes or similar, then it’s not a b
  • Ares to inject £115mn into TalkTalk as potential bidders explore options

    Capital infusion into UK broadband provider will partly replace £47mn debt facility which was due to be redeemed in March
  • You can now have afternoon tea in the Old Bailey

    The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, known the world over as the ‘Old Bailey‘, regularly offers tours of the grand building, but they are now adding an afternoon tea option as well.
    Old Bailey Great Hall (c) ianVisits
    First things first, as this is not a cheap lunch.
    Afternoon teas never are, but this is particularly not cheap. However, as a one-off special treat, it’s going to be difficult to beat for the location alone.
    The afternoon starts with a tour of the Old
  • Tickets Alert: Attend the Lady Mayor’s lecture at the Guildhall

    There will be a chance to go into the Guildhall’s impressive Livery Hall later this year, when the Lady Mayor of London gives the annual Gresham Lecture, and free tickets are now available.
    Entrance to the Old Library, Guildhall (c) ianVisits
    The event is Gresham College’s annual Lord Mayor’s lecture, which by the City of London’s standards, is a fairly new annual tradition that was started in 2010, and takes place in either Mansion House or at the Guildhall each yea
  • Gold, Gods and a Pricey Pharaoh: Ramses exhibition will worry your wallet

    All that glitters sometimes can be gold, and a new exhibition about the Egyptian Pharaoh, Ramses the Great, is full of glittering gold things to see. If you can afford the ticket price.From the moment you step inside, the tone is clear: this is not an academic museum exhibition, but more of a bling-filled showroom of goodies to gawp at. If you went to the Tutankhamun exhibition in 2019, then you’ll know what to expect, as the Ramses exhibition has been organised by the same people.
    Low lig
  • New DLR trains not expected to return to service until this Summer

    Passengers won’t be able to ride the new DLR trains until later this year, as investigations into braking problems continue.A couple of weeks after the first of the new trains came into service last year, a problem occurred when one of the trains overshot its stopping point. Three of the fleet of 54 new trains had entered service, so all three were removed while the braking issue was investigated.
    The investigation remains ongoing with the manufacturer’s supply chain and the relevant
  • Adverts are returning to Euston station’s big screen

    Euston station’s big screen will be showing adverts again, although not quite as eye-burningly bright and big as last time.
    Proposed screen with space on either side for adverts (c) Network Rail
    Network Rail says that it plans a two-week trial to test advertising content on the screen’s outer sections from Monday 2nd March.
    They say the trial was developed with feedback from customers and stakeholders, drawing on lessons learned when the full-width screen was first introduced in 2024
  • Save up to 50% on West End hits with this week’s theatre offers

    This week’s sale and discount theatre ticket offers from London Theatre Direct.Shadowlands
    Hugh Bonneville reprises his critically acclaimed role
    From £37 – GREAT SEATS AT £65Kinky Boots
    Opens 17 March 2026
    Kinky Boots struts back into the West End!
    From £15 – BOOK 7+WEEKS AHEAD AND SAVEMagic Mike Live
    Channing Tatum’s Magic Mike Live at the Hippodrome has everything you could ever want!
    From £48 – SAVE UP TO 34%I’m Sorry, Prime Ministe
  • UK’s second-tallest residential tower planned for last big Vauxhall site

    The UK’s second-tallest residential tower could be built in Vauxhall, as part of a development on the last remaining large plot of undeveloped land near Vauxhall station.
    (c) Vauxhall Square
    With 68 floors and standing 230.5 meters AOD, the new tower would be a shade shorter than the 78 floors 239 metre tall Landmark Pinnacle tower in Canary Wharf. As you might have guessed from the numbers, the new tower, to be built in Vauxhall Square, although only slightly lower in height, has far fewe
  • Green light given to pedestrianise Oxford Street as traffic sees red

    The pedestrianisation of Oxford Street is set to go ahead, with Transport for London (TfL) now planning how it will remove road traffic from the busy shopping street. In 2025, the Mayor consulted on his proposal to designate a Mayoral Development Area and establish a Mayoral Development Corporation to drive the regeneration of Oxford Street
    Since then, there have been a couple of consultations on the Mayor’s plan to take control of the area from Westminster Council, and although pedestrian
  • The Royal Mews collection of horse-drawn carriages is reopening

    Tucked away behind Buckingham Palace are the Royal Mews, home to the King’s horses and historic carriages, and they’re reopening to the public next week after their winter closure.The Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace evolved from the King’s Mews, originally just to the north of Trafalgar Square and originally to house royal hawks.
    The name ‘mews’ derives from the word ‘mew’, meaning moulting, as the birds were confined there at moulting time. As a result,
  • Go-Ahead’s 1,000th electric bus boosts London’s zero-emission fleet

    Go-Ahead, which operates 170 bus routes across London, says that it has taken delivery of its 1,000th electric bus.
    (c) Go-Ahead
    Go-Ahead London is the largest bus operator in London, running over 2,500 buses across 170 routes, serving more than one million passengers daily. The delivery of the newest bus means that almost half of Go-Ahead London’s routes are now served purely on zero-emission buses.
    The zero-emission buses at Go-Ahead London will cut carbon emissions by around 60,000 tonn
  • British Museum announces Bayeux Tapestry ticket sales dates

    Tickets for what will be a genuine once-in-a-lifetime event will go on sale on Wednesday 1 July 2026, as the British Museum prepares to host the Bayeux Tapestry.The exhibition of the 70-metre-long masterpiece, telling the dramatic story of the Norman Conquest stitch by stitch, is expected to become one of the most sought-after exhibitions in the Museum’s history.
    Prices are still to be confirmed.
    Tickets for visits between September and December 2026 will go on sale on 1st July, with two f
  • Southwark’s “Owl and the Pussy-Cat” house could be restored and opened to the public

    Southwark’s 19th-century “owl and the pussy cat” house could be restored and opened as a cafe under plans to redevelop the modern building next to it.Sitting on Southwark Bridge Road, next to the railway line between Blackfriars and Elephant and Castle, the two 19th-century townhouses are locally famous for the small statues of an owl and a cat in the upper-floor niches.
    It’s said the previous owner added them around the turn of the millennium.Why they are there is still
  • Charing Cross station to be hit by three-week summer closure warns Southeastern

    Both Charing Cross and Waterloo East stations will have to close for three weeks this summer as part of a major programme of engineering works on the busy stretch of railway leading into Charing Cross.
    Charing Cross station (c) ianVisits
    During the 22-day closure, Southeastern trains into central London will continue to run, but many trains will be diverted to alternative terminals. Most services that would normally use Charing Cross will instead run to London Victoria, London Cannon Street or L
  • Why you end up following a stranger through a busy railway station

    If you’re trying to get through a busy railway station, you might think you’re planning your own route through the crowd, but you’re probably following a stranger — even when you don’t realise it, and even when it’s not the fastest route.
    Liverpool Street station
    The unseen “crowdsourced” pathing was uncovered from watching how train passengers navigate around a platform obstruction at Eindhoven Centraal station.
    Researchers analysed three years of
  • Bromley’s historic archives to get bigger home in Priory Gardens

    Bromley’s historic archives are to get a new home, after plans to demolish their existing site and build a larger modern building were approved by the local council.
    Existing site (c) Bromley Council
    An enlarged archive store is needed in part because the council closed the local museum a decade ago, and the replacement space provided in Bromley library is too small to hold the entire collection. The library is also about to move to a new location, and the new site will not be able to hous
  • Could rising contactless fares push commuters back to season tickets?

    This Sunday, contactless tube fares will rise by an average of six percent, but if you can switch to season tickets, those fares are being frozen.Even with more people commuting to work more frequently now, paying with contactless daily still seems like a saving, but depending on your travel pattern, fare rises may push the monthly spend closer to what a season ticket would cost anyway.
    The advantage that a season ticket offers is that you get a whole week/month/year of travel for a fixed amount
  • Tickets Alert: Guided tours of the Richmond Theatre

    In the centre of Richmond is a grand theatre that recently marked its 125th anniversary, and they offer tours of the building.The Richmond Theatre opened in 1899 as the Richmond Theatre and Opera House. Designed by the prolific theatre builder, Frank Matcham, barring some modest changes, it’s pretty much still the same theatre that opened over 125 years ago.
    A few changes are pointed out in a tour – such as the decently sympathetic extension to one side to create more space, and as w
  • Camden’s iconic Black Cap gay pub to reopen in March 2026

    Camden’s legendary gay pub, The Black Cap, has confirmed its reopening date, a smidge over a decade since it was forced to close.The pub, which has been a gay haunt since the winter of 1965/66 was forced to close in 2015 when the owners decided they wanted to redevelop the site. The owners themselves closed in 2020, and the company’s administrators sold the building to a new owner who has been working to reopen the venue once again as a gay cabaret pub.
    It had been expected to reopen
  • Relief for Stansted Airport travellers as contactless train ticketing arrives in March

    Travellers heading to Stansted Airport will finally be able to use contactless payments for train journeys from next month, after long-delayed approval was given to extend London’s contactless system.
    The lack of contactless payments on the railway to Stansted Airport has often caught travellers out, as they were unaware they needed to buy a conventional ticket, and were often hit with fines when arriving at the airport. Warning signs were added at Liverpool Street ticket barriers to try t
  • TfL warns of widespread rail and Tube disruption throughout March

    There will be significant disruption to TfL’s rail and tube services throughout March due to large-scale engineering works, and TfL is advising people to plan ahead.
    The new Piccadilly line train at Hammersmith station, Jan 2026 (c) ianVisits
    The Elizabeth line will be particularly affected in the eastern branch as Network Rail carries out engineering works on their tracks. In the central part of the Elizabeth line, TfL will also undertake some track renewals.
    The Overground will be affect
  • Royal Docks plans would add floating parkland and residential boat berths

    Plans are being shown off to encourage more boats to use the Royal Docks for long-term mooring, as well as an intention to create a new floating park in the dock.
    (c) Royal Docks Management Authority
    The plans would affect an area known as Royal Victoria Dock West, which is the end closest to London City Hall and the Cable Car.
    If carried out, the two biggest changes will be a range of floating walkways reaching into the dock, lined with water plants. There already is one small floating park in
  • London’s Alleys: Ship Tavern Passage, City of London, EC3

    This central London alley, next to Leadenhall Market, is named after a ship but dominated by a swan.The alley likely came into existence when the first Leadenhall Market, as a market for herbs, opened, with a long passage leading from the market to Gracechurch Street.
    William Morgan’s Map 1682
    OS Map 1875
    The alley used to be longer and straighter, but the eastern half was cut off when a building was constructed on the site. That building was demolished in 2000, and archaeologists research
  • Altice France liabilities add around €1bn to debt pile

    Rival telecoms groups are considering new bid for Patrick Drahi’s French business
  • Altice France liabilities add about €1bn to debt pile

    Rival telecoms groups are considering new bid for Patrick Drahi’s French business
  • Tickets Alert: Half price tickets to see Zippos Circus

    The travelling circus is coming to town and will be popping up around London throughout 2026, and there’s a way of getting half-price tickets to the show.
    (c) Zippos Circus
    Prices to watch the shows vary depending on how close you are to the action, but range from £21 for the rear seats to £35 for ringside seats. However, the opening-night preview show, just after they settle into each location, offers half-price tickets, so from £12 to £15 per seat.
    Which, for a 2-
  • Four free exhibitions at the V&A South Kensington

    The V&A has several large paid-for temporary exhibitions, but dotted around the building are a number of smaller free exhibitions worth seeking out.
    They range from a single display case to several rooms – and all are free to visit.
    Photography Now
    Until 12th September (rooms 96-97)
    A collection of recent acquisitions by the V&A, including, unusually for a photography collection, sculptures. A case of small tear bottles has been made from the remains of photos burnt by their owners
  • Musk’s Starlink to be tested against Eutelsat on French shipping fleet

    Move by CMA CGM comes amid European efforts to support OneWeb as a rival to SpaceX’s satellite network

Follow @Telecom_UK_ on Twitter!