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• Rediscovering Tropical Modernism: From colonial imposition to sustainable architecture

  09-05-2024 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  A style of architecture born in damp Britain for use in hot colonies would have been expected to die off when independence arrived, but it flourished until it was killed off by something we’re trying to get rid of today.
  The style, Tropical Modernism, is universally recognisable. It adopts and adapts ancient building ideas to keep interiors cool in hot climates, but it strips away decorative flourishes to create a very obviously modernist look.This exhibition at the V&A Museum focuses
  
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• Visit the atmospheric Pope’s Grotto

  22-05-2024 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  In the 1720s, the poet Alexander Pope dug a series of tunnels underneath his house in Twickenham — and 300 years later, they’re open to the public to explore.
  This is Pope’s Grotto.Alexander Pope bought a villa next to the Thames in Twickenham in 1719, and at some point shortly afterwards decided to dig a grotto underneath the house. Atmospheric grottos were a popular folly for the rich to build, but while most are little more than small shallow spaces, Pope dug a long tunnel a
  
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• Back to the Silverlink: London Overground’s past in a new photo exhibition

  21-05-2024 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Photos of London’s railways and train passengers are filling a camera shop at the moment, offering a look back at pre-Overground services. The link between the photos is that they’re all on stations that were once part of the unlamented Silverlink railway.They’ve all been taken by London-based photographer Simon Wheatley, who has become known for his raw and intimate photographic portrayal of the city and its communities. The photos almost look as if they were taken in dockland
  
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• Tickets Alert: Architecture tours of Haringey’s grade II listed Civic Centre

  21-05-2024 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Next month, you can take an architect-led tour of Haringey’s Civic Centre, a Grade II-listed modern building designed in 1938 but thanks to WWII, wasn’t built until 1958.
  (c) Haringey Council / Hawkins Brown Architects
  The Civic Centre has been home to many of Haringey’s important historical moments. In 1985 Bernie Grant was elected leader, becoming the first-ever black leader of a local authority in Europe. It is also a favourite film and TV set location featuring in season 3
  
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• TfL gets debt ratings upgrade, but need for long-term government support highlighted

  21-05-2024 12:45 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Transport for London’s finances have been given a vote of confidence after one of the debt ratings agencies upgraded the quality of TfL debt.
  When TfL borrows money by issuing debt, it is given a quality score by the ratings agencies, and that affects how much TfL has to pay in interest payments. The better the quality score, the lower the cost of servicing the debt.
  The ratings agencies periodically report on company debts. Now Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has lifted TfL’s
  
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• London’s largest FREE flower show has opened in Chelsea

  21-05-2024 11:30 via ianvisits.co.uk
  This week, thousands of people will have paid eye-watering amounts to visit the Chelsea Flower Show, and yet there’s a large free flower show that anyone can enjoy.
  And it’s also in Chelsea.This is the duel Chelsea in Bloom and Belgravia in Bloom, and this year, for the first time since 1979, a local church will be open, having filled the church with flowers and vestments.
  So, three events in one.
  A tip: visit before Saturday lunchtime if you want to attend all three official events,
  
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• There’s a model railway at Hounslow West tube station

  21-05-2024 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Hounslow West tube station’s ticket hall recently gained a large model railway, sitting inside the old passimeter box where station staff used to check tickets.It was installed last year to mark the double whammy of the 160th anniversary of the London Underground and the 90th anniversary of the rebuilding of Hounslow West tube station.
  Drawing from 1930s art deco posters, designer Dan Maier created a looped background for two trains to run around. The two trains, an early steam train and a
  
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• Royal Portraits: A century of evolution in style and technique at the King’s Gallery

  20-05-2024 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A century of royal portraits have gone on display at the King’s Gallery, showing how royal portraiture has changed in both style and technique.The exhibition brings together 150 photos, some of which haven’t been seen before, from austere Edwardian family photos designed to show off the majesty of the royal family to more intimate family snaps. Many are by noted photographers of their time, and much of the exhibition is actually about the photographer than the photographed, broadly d
  
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• c2c’s oldest trains to get major refurbishement

  20-05-2024 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The fleet of c2c’s oldest trains, which run between Essex and London, are to be refurbished as part of a major overhaul.
  c2c Class 357 train (c) Alstom
  The trains that need refurbishing are the Class 357 Electrostars, ordered by c2c in 1997 to replace the older slam-door trains it inherited from British Rail during the privatisation of the railways. The trains were built at Alstom’s Derby Litchurch Lane site between 1999 and 2002, and need a major overhaul to keep them in service.
  To
  
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• London’s Alleys: Ham Yard, W1

  20-05-2024 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  This upmarket looking Soho passageway lined with posh shops and a hotel is a far cry from what it looked like just a decade ago — as one of the last remaining WWII bomb sites in central London.
  Indeed, the run-down site with the empty plot of land fenced off in otherwise busy Soho was a curious relic and people of a curious mind, almost a tourist attraction to seek out and explore.
  Now, it’s just another posh yard with expensive shops.Originally though, Ham Yard was a square courtyar
  
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• Up to third off tickets for the Tina Turner musical

  17-05-2024 19:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The musical, based on the life of Tina Turner, made a huge splash in the UK during its West End premiere. It is based on the often tumultuous life and legendary music of international recording artist Tina Turner.
  Ticket prices currently start from just £20 for mid-week performances.Tina Turner was born Anna Mae Bullock and raised in Nutbush, Tennessee. From humble beginnings, she rose to fame as the Queen of Rock n Roll and sold more concert tickets than any other solo artist. After her a
  
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• Charing Cross Road’s restored Welsh Chapel opens for Nan Goldin’s exhibition

  17-05-2024 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  There will be a chance to step inside Charing Cross Road’s gothic-looking former Welsh Chapel later this month as it opens its doors for an art exhibition.
  Welsh Chapel (c) ianVisits
  The Welsh Chapel, built in 1888 by James Cubitt on Charing Cross Road, was a busy place of worship until the 1950s, when urban populations drifted to the suburbs. In the 1980s, it became the Limelight nightclub, an Australian-themed pub, and eventually ended up as a squat.
  It was recently restored for use as a
  
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• The City of London’s Leadenhall Market is to open at weekends

  17-05-2024 15:45 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Situated in the heart of the City of London, Leadenhall Market is usually closed at the weekends, but for a couple of months, it will be open as a craft fair marketplace.The weekend series will see the grand Victorian marketplace return to its roots as a trading ground, but instead of selling meat, poultry and game, stalls will be filled with furniture, fashion and crafts.
  A number of the market’s restaurants, cafes and bars will also be open, serving food and drink.
  Judy’s Vintage F
  
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• Demolition of the old Museum of London will go ahead

  17-05-2024 14:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The old Museum of London site on London Wall will be demolished after the government decided not to call in the planning application for review.Last month, the City of London approved the plans, which will see the 1970s Museum of London building and the monolithic Bastion House office block that sits next to it demolished to be replaced with new public spaces and offices.
  At the very last minute, though, Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, issued an Ar
  
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• Lumo applies to run trains between Manchester and London

  17-05-2024 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Low-cost train operator Lumo has applied for permission to run services between Manchester and London, adding to its existing Edinburgh to London services. It is also in talks to run services to Glasgow.
  (c) Lumo
  FirstGroup, which owns Lumo, says that it plans to offer six return journeys a day, restoring the direct Rochdale to London link via Manchester, which last ran in 2000.
  The trains will run from Rochdale to London Euston, calling at Manchester Victoria, Eccles, Newton-le-Willows and Warr
  
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• America’s ‘cable cowboy’ lost out in infrastructure boom

  16-05-2024 22:00 via ft.com
  Wrangling media and telecoms products into business models that produce durable profits has proved to be tough going
  
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• The Red King – New portrait of King Charles III’s is on public display for a few weeks

  16-05-2024 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Much lauded and loathed in equal measure, the first official portrait of King Charles III is on public display in London for a few weeks so you can make your own mind up about it.Dominating the ground floor of Philip Mould’s Pall Mall gallery, the portrait is exceptionally red but, maybe surprisingly, not as red as you might have expected from press photos. It is also a lot more textured than seems to be evident from photos taken of it so far.
  In part, that could be due to the photos in th
  
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• Derelict industrial buildings to house the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration museum

  16-05-2024 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A new museum focused on drawing and illustrations has received a grant to convert some derelict industrial buildings in Clerkenwell into its new home.
  New River Head buildings (c) ianVisits
  The 300-year-old former waterworks in Clerkenwell was mainly a pumping site for sending clean water into London and was also one of London’s first major pieces of urban infrastructure. However, its 18th—and 19th-century buildings have been locked up and left empty for over 70 years.
  The Quentin Bl
  
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• Southeastern set to overhaul its Metro Service with a new fleet of trains

  16-05-2024 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Southeastern has confirmed that it is looking for a fleet of new or upgraded trains to replace its ageing Metro service trains.
  Class 465 train at Gravesend (c) Southeastern
  Southeastern operates a mixed fleet of trains across its network, which includes HS1 services, long-distance services, and local metro services. The metro services are a mix of old Bombardier Electrostar trains, even older Networkers, and some newer City Beam trains acquired from South Western Railway.
  The state-controlled c
  
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• BT’s CEO says she ‘loves to squeeze’ short sellers while unveiling £3bn of cost cuts

  16-05-2024 12:18 via ft.com
  Shares in UK’s biggest telecoms group rise 10% as Allison Kirkby announces strategy and raises dividend
  
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• BT’s CEO says she ‘loves to squeeze’ short sellers as shares jump

  16-05-2024 12:18 via ft.com
  UK’s biggest telecoms group rises 13% as Allison Kirkby announces strategy and raises dividend
  
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• BT to cut another £3bn of costs

  16-05-2024 09:20 via ft.com
  Shares rise 8% as chief executive Allison Kirkby says telecoms operator at an ‘inflection point’
  
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• London’s Pocket Parks: Hatton Cross tube station, TW6

  16-05-2024 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  A series of neglected spaces outside Hatton Cross tube station in west London have been given an ecological makeover.The raised beds were created in the 1970s along with the tube station, and although at times looked after, they have generally not been that well cared for over the decades and had become rather overgrown. It has now been transformed thanks to two projects coming together to improve the station. The gardens have been given a makeover, while a new mural has softened the brutalist b
  
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• Monopoly updates its London Underground themed board game

  15-05-2024 18:30 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  There’s been a London Underground themed version of the Monopoly board game for some years, but it’s been refreshed for 2024 to include some new changes.Apart from the tube map in the centre, the other changes include the fact that the money no longer has a currency, but the banknote designs include a tube map impression in the background.
  The stations have been tweaked — including Victoria (replaces Fenchurch Street), Paddington (replaces Liverpool Street), King’s Cross
  
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• DLR testing improved accessibility at their unstaffed stations

  15-05-2024 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Transport for London (TfL) has started a trial to improve accessibility at DLR stations by offering staffed assistance for people who require it. The new Access DLR trial aims to enable customers to travel who may otherwise encounter barriers to getting around London.Although TfL offers a ‘turn up and go’ assistance service on the other rail services, it hasn’t been possible to offer that on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) until now as the stations are unstaffed.
  As part of a
  
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• From naughty ravens to mischievous cats: Charles Dickens’ pets revealed in this new exhibition

  15-05-2024 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  At a time when animals were expected to work and owning pets for pleasure was still a bit of a novelty, Charles Dickens owned a small zoo’s worth of pets, and now the Charles Dickens Museum is taking a look at the family pets.Some of the pets were known to his readers, as they appeared as inspiration in his stories – such as the talking raven and his bull terrier dog – and others proved the inspiration for characters who could be described with animal characteristics. The raven
  
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• London Underground’s experiment with a carpeted tube train

  15-05-2024 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Fifty years ago, the London Underground put a carpet on the floor of one of their tube trains to see what the public thought. The verdict was not favourable.
  At the time, tube train floors were made of slatted wood, but London Underground faced a problem. The floors were usually made from hard-wearing Canadian maple, but in the 1970s, there was a growing shortage of Canadian timber, and prices for what they could get were soaring.
  LT Museum’s 1938 stock carriage (c) ianVisits
  So, in March
  
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• Moorgate’s shabby lawn to be revamped with bust of the poet John Keats

  14-05-2024 18:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  The rather neglected lawn next to Moorgate tube station is to get a makeover, to be replaced with a number of raised planted beds, and a bust of John Keats to commemorate the poet’s birthplace and work.
  Moorgate and London Wall junction
  The lawn was laid out as part of the neighbouring Moor House office development when it was completed in 2004, and was always intended to be a temporary greenspace until long-term plans were made. The current lawn has lasted rather longer than expected.
  Alt
  
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• Plans shown off for 1,500 homes above ASDA’s Park Royal superstore

  14-05-2024 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  A large ASDA superstore in west London could be redeveloped into a new housing site with around 1,500 homes close to the future Old Oak Common station.
  Early concept for the new development (c) ASDA
  Assuming planning permission is granted, the Park Royal Superstore site will have a replacement superstore built on the existing car park, with up to 1,500 new homes built on a podium above the store. Around a third of the new homes would be classed as “affordable”, although at this early
  
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