Telecom news

• British Library extension to include Crossrail 2 tunnels

  12-04-2022 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  The British Library has shown off its final designs for a large expansion of the library to the north of the current building, including early works for Crossrail 2.
  Proposed extension – Source: British Library planning application
  The proposed development would involve extending the northern aspect of the existing British Library to provide library accommodation; commercial space designed to cater for knowledge quarter uses (including life sciences, cultural, scientific and heritage colle
  
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• The London Buzz – 14th Oct 2026

  14-10-2026 18:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Olde London – The Kingsway subway
  Today’s London news round-up:
  Westminster Council proposes slashing council tax support by up to 30 per cent Fitzrovia News
  Gail’s Bakery, the absolute poster girl for rampant gentrification, will be inviting Brixtonites to nibble on their kimchi, cheddar and gochugaru chili croissants from this Friday Brixton Buzz
  Labour-run Ealing Council has rejected an opposition motion calling for plans for a 1,200-seat temporary Troubadour theatre in Walp
  
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• Lord’s ballot for tickets to watch international cricket now open

  14-10-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  If you fancy watching some international cricket at Lord’s next year, then it’s time to enter their ballot for tickets.There’s no financial commitment at this stage, as the ballot simply enters you in for the opportunity to buy tickets if your name comes up. There’s no commitment either, so if you change your mind, then the tickets are released to other people.
  So if you’re maybe “cricket adjacent” and know someone who would love to attend a match, you c
  
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• National Theatre offering free 7-day trial of its at home streaming service

  14-10-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  The National Theatre is offering a free week of theatre at home, with a new seven-day trial giving eligible new subscribers unlimited access to its streaming catalogue.It’s the first time National Theatre at Home has offered a free trial, letting viewers watch productions filmed live on stage with an audience.
  You need a valid payment method to sign up, and the subscription starts automatically after the seven days – so put a note in your diary if you think you might want to cancel.
  
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• Rainham Hall exhibition reveals the making of Sense and Sensibility

  14-10-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  A little under 300 years ago, a decent-sized manor house was built east of London, and more recently, it became a film set for the latest movie adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility.And, showing the sort of financial prudence Elinor Dashwood might approve of, the National Trust has followed Rainham Hall’s spell as a film set with an exhibition revealing how it was done.
  An exhibition dotted around the house mixes costumes and props from the film, but what makes it more in
  
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• Tickets Alert: One week to Bayeux Tapestry Ticket Day

  14-10-2026 12:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  It’s the 960th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings, and a timely reminder that the next batch of Bayeux Tapestry tickets will go on sale soon. Quite why the tickets aren’t going on sale today — the actual anniversary — seems a curiously missed opportunity.But, just as the battle lasted nearly all day, modern ticket hunters might need to prepare for their own lengthy campaign. Although this one should involve fewer arrows and more cups of tea as you watch the website&rsq
  
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• Proposed West End pedestrianisation scheme delayed by a year at least

  14-10-2026 11:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Plans to pedestrianise the wide road between Piccadilly Circus and St James Park appear to have been delayed after an updated consultation pushed back the next stage of works.
  Regent Street St James
  The proposals include making Regent Street St James’s, Waterloo Place and the south side of Piccadilly Circus traffic-free, creating more than 35,000 square metres of new public space in the heart of the capital.
  The plans would also improve junctions, pavements and drainage across Regent Stree
  
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• London’s Pocket Parks: Rosemary Gardens, Islington, N1

  14-10-2026 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  This is a large, varied park next to the Regent’s Canal that owes its existence to a poisonous factory and the clearance of the houses that once sat next to it.
  This part of London was still fields until a couple of hundred years ago, but a local landmark at the park’s southeast corner, the Rosemary Branch, a large pub, gave the park its name. However, the name has nothing to do with the fragrant plant, but comes from the pub’s location at a branch of the Ros stream – hen
  
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• Fifty-five years after Betjeman saved Rules, London’s oldest restaurant is secured again

  14-10-2026 01:01 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Fifty-five years after John Betjeman helped save it from demolition, London’s oldest restaurant, Rules in Covent Garden, has had its future secured again after the building was donated to the National Trust.
  Rules (c) ianVisits
  The restaurant’s landlord has gifted the Maiden Lane building to the charity, protecting the home of an institution that has served diners since 1798. Over the centuries, Rules has built up the sort of list of illustrious customers that would put an edition of
  
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• The London Buzz – 13th Oct 2026

  13-10-2026 18:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Olde London – Victoria station around 1904
  Today’s London news round-up:
  Almost 5,000 evacuated in City of London gas leak BBC News
  Wandsworth Council’s Cabinet last night approved a plan to nearly double council tax next April, at a testy meeting where the only voice raised against it had no vote. Putney News
  Counterfeit goods seized from 15 second-hand phone shops in Edmonton Enfield Dispatch
  Pedestrianised streets are teaching London a lesson in place-making The Spaces
  Hackn
  
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• Creditors sue Patrick Drahi’s Altice International over asset shifts

  13-10-2026 17:27 via ft.com
  Lenders allege that billionaire illegally moved assets worth billions of dollars out of their reach
  
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• A 127-year-old delivery van returns to London’s streets

  13-10-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  One of the world’s oldest still-running cars will be on display in central London later this month ahead of its participation in the annual London to Brighton Veteran Car Run.
  RM Sotheby’s London to Brighton Veteran Car Run
  The 1899 Mercedes-Benz combination delivery vehicle – an exceptionally rare example from the earliest days of commercial motoring – will be on display at the St James’s Motoring Spectacle on Pall Mall on Saturday 31 October, as part of a large di
  
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• How BT’s TalkTalk swoop left broadband rivals fuming

  13-10-2026 06:00 via ft.com
  Rescue deal will boost BT’s market leadership at a time when regulators are trying to encourage competition
  
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• Inside KKR’s €22bn bet on Italy’s telecoms network

  11-10-2026 06:00 via ft.com
  Two years after the FiberCop deal closed it is struggling with high debt and difficult relations with its biggest customer
  
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• Across London – a day of humiliation and fasting

  10-10-2026 10:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  On this day, 360 years ago — 10th October 1666 — the entire city observed a day of fasting and prayer in repentance for the Great Fire of London.
  The Londoners lamentation
  Ordered by King Charles II, the ‘day of fasting and humiliation’ was observed to implore God for mercy and forgiveness for the nation’s sins. Because, of course, it was sin that caused the Great Fire, not a careless baker, which was quite a nice get out of jail card for the baker.
  In addition, eve
  
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• US telcos shed $60bn in value after SpaceX announces spectrum purchase

  09-10-2026 19:41 via ft.com
  Elon Musk takes big step towards launching Starlink mobile service for US consumers
  
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• The London Buzz – 9th Oct 2026

  09-10-2026 18:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Olde London – Denmark Hill and the Fox Under The Hill pub around 1904–1905Today’s London news round-up:
  Artists are taking over the old Wandsworth library on Garratt Lane, nearly three years after the library moved to a new building yards away. Putney News
  Window cleaners become trapped on 15th floor of London skyscraper Independent
  An underground wartime shelter that could hold up to 800 people was found during works to revamp Lewisham town centre, The Greenwich Wire
  Prime Min
  
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• US telcos shed $45bn in value after SpaceX announces spectrum purchase

  09-10-2026 16:37 via ft.com
  Elon Musk takes big step towards launching Starlink mobile service for US consumers
  
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• Tickets Alert: The atmospheric Dennis Severs’ House Christmas experience

  09-10-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  The atmospheric Dennis Severs’ House gets even more special for Christmas, and tickets are now on sale for the often sold-out winter season.Just around the corner from Spitalfields Market in East London, Dennis Severs’ House is laid out as a Georgian house where the family has just stepped outside for a moment. You are invited into their home to walk around while they’re out.
  It’s not a museum with lots of precious objects but an experience. You are exhorted to step back
  
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• TfL staff’s art exhibition on public display in Canary Wharf tube station

  09-10-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  The people who drive London’s trains, staff its stations, and reunite passengers with lost belongings are showing another side of their talents at Canary Wharf’s Jubilee line station.It’s the TfL staff art exhibition and brings together images of 80 artworks created by TfL staff in their own time, ranging from paintings and drawings to textiles and woodwork.
  TfL’s annual staff art exhibition is usually held internally, but this year its property arm, Places for London, ha
  
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• Virgin targets 2030 launch for cross-Channel trains from London

  09-10-2026 09:15 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Virgin Trains has confirmed that it plans to launch its cross-Channel rail services in 2030, after signing an agreement for 12 new Alstom trains and securing a deal to maintain them at Temple Mills depot in east London.
  (c) Virgin Trains Europe
  The company proposes to run 20 daily return services linking London with Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam, adding almost 7.5 million seats a year to the cross-Channel market. It says the venture could create up to 1,000 jobs.
  In August 2025, Virgin Trains Eu
  
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• US telcos stocks tumble after SpaceX announces spectrum acquisition

  09-10-2026 00:50 via ft.com
  Elon Musk takes big step towards launching a Starlink mobile service for US consumers
  
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• Rare chance to see Nelson’s letters before £6 million auction

  08-10-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  (c) Sotheby’s
  A collection of Admiral Lord Nelson’s letters, ranging from accounts of naval battles to intimate correspondence with Emma Hamilton, will go on display at Sotheby’s this month, offering a rare chance to see the documents before they are sold at auction.
  The exhibition at Sotheby’s runs from 21st to 28th October, opening on Trafalgar Day, the anniversary of the battle in which Nelson was killed in 1805.
  Assembled over 40 years by the collector and philanthrop
  
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• Chelsea’s Garrison Chapel hosts a celebration of traditional craft

  08-10-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  An intricately painted Ganesha, a roughly textured Christian icon and watercolours inspired by ancient rock art bring very different religious artistic traditions together in a graduate exhibition.Held every three years, the exhibition features work by past and present students from the King’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts. This year’s theme, Light and Darkness, leaves plenty of room for interpretation, so the exhibition ranges from clearly religious paintings to a collection
  
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• TfL confirms it will apply for DLR extension to Thamesmead in early 2027

  08-10-2026 12:35 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  The third and final consultation on the proposed DLR extension to Thamesmead has, unsurprisingly, favoured building it. After all, if you ask people if they want better public transport, you’d have to propose something really bad for people to say “no thanks”.
  (c) TfL
  Although the general plans were already known, the latest consultation focused on the finer details, such as the design of the two new DLR stations and the construction impacts in the local communities.
  TfL says t
  
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• King Charles III’s formal state portrait to go on display in London

  08-10-2026 11:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  The first official portrait of King Charles III in formal state attire, with a coronation robe and an orb and sceptre, will be on display in central London for a couple of weeks.
  Stern Pissarro Gallery
  The portrait is by Toronto doctor artist Dr Suan-Seh Foo and was commissioned by the Office of the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia for their official portrait.
  It will be permanently displayed at Government House in Halifax, but for a short while, it will be on display in London.
  The oil-on-can
  
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• London’s Pocket Parks: St Johns Street, Clerkenwell, EC1

  08-10-2026 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  This is a new linear park near Farringdon Station that opened a few months agoSt Johns Street is a historic street in Clerkenwell and forms the first section of the original route of the Great North Road – the coaching route between London and Scotland. This section of the road has always been very wide, probably as a turn around spot before the road reaches Smithfield markets, so in 2022, plans were put forward to shrink it a bit for the first time in its history.
  The two way road has bee
  
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• The London Buzz – 7th Oct 2026

  07-10-2026 18:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Olde London – Parliament Hill, Hampstead
  Today’s London news round-up:
  O2 has struck a record deal thought to be in the region of £200m to retain the naming rights to the London venue the O2 in the largest renewal of its kind in UK history. The Guardian
  In photos: Kennington Skatepark (the Kenny) becomes a homeless camp Brixton Buzz
  The candidates hoping to be London’s second Tory mayor BBC News
  A new study published today explains, for the first time in detail, how the s
  
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• Future GBR trains expected to offer step-free access by default

  07-10-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  All new Great British Railways (GBR) trains will be expected to try to offer step-free access without needing staff-assisted ramps, the government has confirmed.
  No more ramps with GBR trains?
  The Transport Secretary has confirmed that unassisted access between platform and train will be a baseline expectation for new GBR trains.
  The commitment forms part of the government’s rolling stock and infrastructure strategy, announced last month, which will bring decisions about trains, track, dep
  
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• Sleepy European telcos turn to data centre craze

  07-10-2026 16:28 via ft.com
  With data centres, companies in the sector may finally be on to happier hunting grounds
  
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