Telecom news

• London’s public art: Finding the leaning lady of Hammersmith

  13-03-2025 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Although thousands of people pass it every day, there’s a rather difficult to spot work of public art next to a busy west London road.This is Leaning Woman, commissioned by the London County Council to bring art to the public by commissioning works of art, often for areas affected by post-war rebuilding.
  This particular sculpture was commissioned to compensate the local community when the Great West Road sliced through their residential estates. However, as the sculpture sits next to the b
  
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• The London Buzz – 16th Sept 2026

  16-09-2026 18:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Old London: Wimbledon Windmill
  Today’s London news round-up:
  Putney Pusher suspect, 44, ‘found dead at home’ nine years after woman shoved under bus Mirror
  Council tax in Wandsworth will double this April unless central government reverses its funding cuts, the council’s finance chief told councillors last night. Putney News
  Heathrow’s third runway cannot be approved without changes to current climate policies, the government’s advisers have said. BBC News
  May
  
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• How a Leicester Square dinner could get you Bayeux Tapestry tickets

  16-09-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  If you really want to see the Bayeux Tapestry in October, you could, if you don’t mind having supper as well.The Whitcomb restaurant inside the Londoner Hotel on Leicester Square offers a deal that pairs a visit to the Bayeux Tapestry with an à la carte lunch or dinner. You need to book a meal from their à la carte menu – so not the fixed or set menus, and hence a bit more expensive – and a ticket to see the Bayeux Tapestry exhibition is included with the meal.
  Ho
  
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• Step-free access comes to Northolt tube station in west London

  16-09-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  After a lengthy construction project, Northolt tube station has now gained step-free access with a new lift and walkway.The station has a modest ticket hall entrance on a busy road, then steps down to an island platform with trains on either side. Facilities-wise, there is a glass waiting room on the platform, a ticket office, some toilets, and a bike store.
  Many other stations that add a lift from the ticket office to the platform have managed to find enough space at the end of the platform nex
  
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• Francis Barber – Britain’s first known Black schoolteacher honoured with London plaque

  16-09-2026 12:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  The first known Black schoolteacher in British history has been commemorated with a plaque at the City of London house where he lived as a servant, friend and eventual heir to Dr Samuel Johnson.Francis Barber was born around 1742 on the Orange River sugar plantation in Jamaica. Enslaved from birth and given the name Quashey, he was brought to England at about the age of eight after the plantation was sold. Here, he was baptised and renamed Francis Barber.
  Barber eventually joined the household o
  
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• Inside the Natural History Museum’s room sealed off since WWII

  16-09-2026 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  A large room in the Natural History Museum that’s been closed since WWII has finally reopened to the public as a new gallery.The once-hidden gallery sits just above the museum’s main entrance and, in size and location, mirrors the minerals gallery on the second floor of the museum’s main Waterhouse building.
  Historically, it served as both an osteology (skeleton) gallery and a mammals gallery. After the Museum’s original herbarium was damaged during the Second World War,
  
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• Vodafone takes up to €1.1bn hit from Drahi’s German broadband deal

  16-09-2026 06:00 via ft.com
  Patrick Drahi’s sale of 50% stake in OXG will deprive joint venture partner Vodafone of potentially substantial future earnings
  
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• The London Buzz – 15th Sept 2026

  15-09-2026 18:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Old London: Opening Stockwell tube station 4th Dec 1890
  Today’s London news round-up:
  A pro-Palestine activist who spray-painted slogans on to a statue of Sir Winston Churchill has been found not guilty of criminal damage. Standard
  Miniature model maker Dean Sarsfield writes about his hobby, which recently had him downsize a much-loved Holborn pub — and now has him nominated for a prestigious art prize. Londonist
  Sadiq Khan has said he will continue “banging the drum for London
  
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• Night time Halloween trail coming to Kew Gardens

  15-09-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Kew Gardens is going spooky next month with a Halloween-themed illuminated trail.
  Pumpkin-Scarecrow (c) Ollie Dixon
  From Friday 16th October, there will be a 1.5 km trail through Kew Gardens, including Dracula’s Lair, a haunted Cursed Tomb, a dark Medieval Dungeon, and a mysterious Forest Ritual tucked away among the trees.
  Elsewhere, an imposing executioner stands guard in the Medieval Dungeon, Dracula hides in the shadows of his lair, and a horned ritualist conducts a spooky woodland cer
  
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• London goes Bayeux Barmy with beers, teas and two more tapestries

  15-09-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  London is going a bit Bayeux Barmy at the moment, with more tapestries on display, teas and beers all jumping on the Bayeux Bandwagon.
  The Beer TapestryOpposite the British Museum is, or more correctly was, the Museum Tavern pub, but for a few weeks it’s The Beer Tapestry pub, having been renamed after a tapestry that’s hanging inside the pub.
  The pub, run by Greene King Brewery, commissioned the artwork to tell the history of beer brewing in England over the centuries. To mark the o
  
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• Exhibition shows off when hospital surgery really was a theatre

  15-09-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  The operating theatre is one of the most familiar settings in medicine, although most people would prefer not to encounter one while conscious. A new exhibition at the Hunterian Museum now takes a look at this rarely seen space where experts work while we slumber.
  The exhibition opens with a painting of the room that gave the operating theatre its name – as originally they were theatres with seating around the sides, for medical students, but also often the curious public.
  And as you will
  
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• Telenor charged with aiding crimes against humanity in Myanmar

  15-09-2026 11:57 via ft.com
  Norwegian authorities say telecoms group handed sensitive customer data to military junta in wake of 2021 coup
  
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• Norway’s telecoms firm charged with aiding crimes against humanity in Myanmar

  15-09-2026 11:57 via ft.com
  Norwegian authorities say telecoms group handed sensitive customer data to military junta in wake of 2021 coup
  
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• GWR’s unusual route to keep trains running during Paddington closure this Christmas

  15-09-2026 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  GWR passengers are getting an early warning that there won’t be trains between Reading and Paddington over a couple of weekends later this year. However, to keep passengers moving, some will be diverted to Euston instead, creating a particularly interesting rail diversion.
  GWR train at Euston (test train on 4th Sept 2026)
  It’s all because repairs to the interestingly named Dolphin Junction will cut rail traffic just outside Slough. The junction allows fast and slow trains to cross be
  
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• Dutch start-up completes funding round for encrypted silicon technology

  13-09-2026 21:51 via ft.com
  Fortaegis claims it can create ultra-secure computer networks by harnessing the unique digital fingerprint of chips
  
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• A decade of London’s bus hopper fare

  12-09-2026 09:45 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  London’s Hopper bus fare turns ten this weekend, having been used for more than 1.4 billion free bus and tram changes since its introduction.
  Mayor Sadiq Khan at the launch of the Hopper Fare in September 2026 (c) TfL
  Launched on 12th September 2016, the fare lets passengers paying by Oyster or contactless make additional bus and tram journeys without paying again, provided they touch in within an hour of their first journey.
  The original version permitted one free transfer. It was expande
  
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• Tickets Alert: Free open day to Capel Manor gardens

  11-09-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Capel Manor Gardens, a landscape training college at Waltham Cross, is having a free open day in October to visit its 30 acres of gardens.
  Japanese garden (c) Capel Manor
  Dotted around the estate are 40 separate managed gardens, including historical walled gardens, a holly maze, a mini-zoo, a lakeside garden, trial gardens, and a cactus house.
  The gardens are open year-round, but they charge an entrance fee to pay a visit. However, on Saturday 3rd October, the gardens will be open to the public,
  
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• Rare breed sheep are being used to graze Hampstead Heath

  11-09-2026 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Five rare-breed sheep have returned to Hampstead Heath as part of a conservation project exploring how traditional grazing can help nature recover in London.The flock of Norfolk Horn and Oxford Down ewes, on loan from Mudchute City Farm, will graze the Heath’s anthill meadow each day until Monday 21st September.
  Sheep were once a familiar sight on Hampstead Heath, but grazing ended during the 1950s. Their return forms part of an ongoing programme to revive traditional land-management techn
  
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• This week’s theatre ticket offers from London Theatre Direct

  11-09-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  This week’s sale and discount theatre ticket offers from London Theatre Direct.
  On stage at the Shaftesbury (c) ianVisits Beetlejuice The Musical
  It’s showtime! Beetlejuice The Musical has arrived in London
  From £25 – SAVE UP TO 63% Moulin Rouge! The Musical
  Pop the champagne and prepare for the spectacular, spectacular Moulin Rouge! The Musical
  From £30 The Devil Wears Prada
  Elton John’s new musical The Devil Wears Prada is now playing in the W
  
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• Confident ‘everywoman’ strides onto Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth

  11-09-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  A confident young woman in a vivid blue dress has strode onto Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth as the latest temporary artwork to occupy the spot.The nine-foot-tall painted bronze sculpture depicts a Black woman stepping purposefully forward in platform shoes, her head held high and her dress caught in motion. Rather than commemorating a monarch, military commander or another famous figure, she represents an ordinary young woman making her way through the modern city.
  The artist, Tschabala
  
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• Princess Diana’s ‘revenge dress’ to go on display in London

  11-09-2026 11:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Later this month, Diana, Princess of Wales’s infamous “revenge dress” will go on public display before being offered for sale at auction.
  (c) Sotheby’s
  The dress owes its fame to the evening of 29th June 1994, when Diana made a showstopping arrival at the Serpentine Gallery for a fundraising dinner hosted by Vanity Fair.
  For the evening, she wore a figure-hugging black silk evening dress by Greek designer Christina Stambolian.
  That same evening, Prince Charles, from whom
  
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• First look inside Surrey Quays station’s new step-free entrance

  11-09-2026 10:01 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Surrey Quays station on London Overground’s Windrush line has opened its new entrance, offering step-free access to the station for the first time.A large entrance comes with six standard ticket gates and two wide gates, two ticket machines, and in addition to the next train indicators, also shows the next buses from outside the station. There is also a new accessible toilet and baby change facilities
  The ceiling design has changed from the early concepts to instead expose the wood structu
  
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• Virgin Media O2 owners target £600mn in cost cuts

  11-09-2026 06:00 via ft.com
  Telefónica and Liberty Global seek job cuts and other reductions in a bid to calm bond investors
  
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• Future Thameslink train seats with added padding shown off

  10-09-2026 16:30 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Thameslink has shown off a prototype for a new seat design that will replace its notorious “ironing board” seats, which the trains have had for the past decade.
  Old and New side by side
  Although Greater Thameslink Railway (GTR) has been working on the plans for over a year and early concepts were tested by the public, the seats on display are still just a prototype, so more changes are to come.
  However, the most important change is the seat padding.
  The old seating used polyurethane
  
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• Tickets Alert: Silent Night returns to Dennis Severs House

  10-09-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  The atmospheric Dennis Severs’ House gets even more so in the winter months, and they’re resuming their candlelit Silent Nights next monthJust 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.
  While most venues let you
  
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• The London Buzz – 9th Sept 2026

  09-09-2026 18:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Old London: Angel Bridge, Edmonton
  Today’s London news round-up:
  Enfield dog owner told to pay nearly £2,000 after driving neighbours barking mad Enfield Dispatch
  Same-sex siblings could be required to share a bedroom until the age of 20, while an additional council housing band could also be introduced under new proposals from Southwark Council. Southwark News
  More than 40 of London’s famous parakeets have been killed in just one park over the past three weeks, a wildlife expe
  
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• Tower of London now offering tours of their ravens enclosure

  09-09-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  The Tower of London is launching a new early morning tour that lets you get up close with its famous ravens before the tower opens to the public.
  Henry and Poe (c) Historic Royal Palaces
  The visit starts with a 45-minute talk led by a Yeoman Warder member of the Ravenmaster’s team before you’re then taken into the ravens’ accommodation to meet the birds that are vital to the preservation of the Kingdom.
  Legend states that King Charles II was the first to insist that the ravens
  
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• A dazzling corten and yellow staircase brightens the City’s revived pedway

  09-09-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  A section of the City of London’s pedway network recently reopened after being closed for several years, and it has one particular joyful moment to explore.The pedway network was a plan for raised pedestrian walkways around the City, avoiding the roads below. Born of the motor car, it never really took off, thanks in no small part to heritage lobbyists preventing the demolition of older buildings that stood in the way.
  Long a series of half-joined bits, most of the pedway network has close
  
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• London bus drivers call off strikes after winning air-conditioning pledge

  09-09-2026 14:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Planned strikes by London bus drivers have been called off after Unite reached an agreement with Transport for London (TfL) and bus operators to install air conditioning in every driver’s cab by the end of May 2027.The deal follows a summer of heatwaves and a campaign by Unite the Union over conditions inside bus cabs, where the union says temperatures sometimes reached 50°C.
  Although newer buses must meet tougher standards for heating, ventilation and air conditioning, many older vehi
  
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• West Coast Main Line to close between London Euston and Watford due to emergency bridge work

  09-09-2026 13:05 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Railway passengers using the West Coast Main Line between Euston and Watford are being warned that the entire line has to close for most of Sunday 20th September to allow a dangerous bridge to be removed
  The closure will also affect the adjacent London Overground Lioness line.
  Oxhey Grange footbridge (c) Network Rail
  The Oxhey Grange footbridge crosses the railway line to the south of Bushey station and had already been earmarked for replacement because of its condition. However, Network Rail sa
  
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