Telecom news

• Secure ‘quantum messages’ sent over telecoms network in breakthrough

  23-04-2025 17:12 via ft.com
  
  Researchers harness quantum mechanics to create communications system that can avoid being hacked
  
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• Plans unveiled for a covered Soho alley through former Twentieth Century Fox HQ

  17-12-2025 14:30 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Central London could get a new covered alley, running through a building from Dean Street to Soho Square, if plans to refurbish Twentieth Century Fox’s former London headquarters go ahead.
  (c) 31-32 Soho Square consultation
  The site includes 31-32 Soho Square – formerly known as Twentieth Century House, 65-66 Frith Street, 10 Chapone Place and 22-25 Dean Street.
  The Twentieth Century House, which comprises most of the site facing Soho Square, was built in 1936 for Twentieth Century-F
  
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• From 1925 onwards: the Tidal Thames News archive is now online

  17-12-2025 13:30 via ianvisits.co.uk
  This year marks the centenary of Tidal Thames News, and to mark the centenary, the Port of London Authority (PLA) has digitised an edition from each decade, spanning back to 1925 and made them available to read online.
  (c) Port of London Authority
  The story began in November 1925, when the Port of London Authority (PLA) launched its first staff and industry magazine, PLA Monthly. Sold for sixpence, the publication represented a shift in how the Authority communicated with its workforce and the w
  
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• From pigeon droppings to public art: Clapham Junction underpass gets a dramatic makeover

  17-12-2025 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Barely a month after the first panels were installed, Clapham Junction’s formerly grimy underpass has been transformed.The 100 metre long Falcon Road underpass runs under the railways to the eastern side of Clapham Junction station and is the only route north-south under the railways in the area. Despite how busy it is, it has long been a very shabby route, with two narrow pedestrian paths, walls lined with stained and broken tiles, and the floor covered in pigeon droppings.
  And it was wet
  
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• Tickets Alert: Tours of Buckingham Palace’s private east wing

  17-12-2025 11:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Buckingham Palace will resume tours of the usually private East Wing in the new year, the front from which the royals are seen on the balcony.
  Buckingham Palace’s east wing (c) ianVisits
  The summer opening mainly focuses on the state rooms on the west wing of the palace, and they only started occasional tours of the east wing in 2024. It’s not cheap though, as the 90-minute tours are designed to give you a more in-depth look at the East Wing, at a time when the Palace is not usually
  
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• An unusual London Overground trip is possible during Betwixmas

  17-12-2025 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Thanks to engineering works on the London Overground over the Christmas period, there’s a chance to travel over a bit of railway that doesn’t usually see passengers.
  Departure board at Camden Road showing the “impossible” destination – Dec 2022
  Over Christmas, engineers will need to close the Mildmay line between Brondesbury Park and Willesden Junction to replace 10 sets of points that are currently in poor condition and held in place by deteriorating timber sl
  
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• Weekend rail closures will disrupt Gatwick and Brighton train journeys in early 2026

  16-12-2025 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  There will be several weekends of closures on the Brighton Mainline in the first few months of 2026, affecting travel to Gatwick Airport and Brighton.
  1994 Gatwick Express advert
  Network Rail says it will be carrying out essential maintenance and upgrades along the entire line. They usually aim for winter work on the line, as it’s quieter than the busy summer season.
  The closures will mean there’s no connection between London Bridge and Gatwick Airport, but a longer diversion route w
  
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• Free light and sound show to fill City of London’s historic sites

  16-12-2025 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  For two nights in January, several areas of the City of London will be lit up in a new sound and light festival.Vibrance will feature more than a dozen artworks across five locations, transformed by artists, designers and performers from the Guildhall School.
  The shows will be free to attend and take place on Thursday 29th and Friday 30th January 2026 from 5:30 to 8:30pm.
  It’s likely to be best to walk the route in the following order – starting at Guildhall, and ending at Milton Cou
  
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• A train-sized tunnel is now carrying electricity under South London

  16-12-2025 14:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Electricity has started flowing through a deep-level tube train sized tunnel running through South London.
  New power cables map (c) National Rail
  The first of two new circuits that connect National Grid’s New Cross substation in Southwark with its Hurst substation in Bexley is now live, running for 18km beneath South London through tunnels up to 50 metres deep.
  This new link replaces one of two buried cables that have served the capital since the 1960s, with the other to be replaced when t
  
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• Buttons, blood and bright red tunics: Inside the revamped Guards Museum

  16-12-2025 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The large and surprisingly little known Guards Museum near Buckingham Palace has revamped some of its displays and starts with an unexpected story of soldier buttons.The museum tells the history of the five regiments of Foot Guards, namely the Grenadier, Coldstream, Scots, Irish and Welsh Guards, and ranges from their foundation up to the modern day. So a visit is a walk through history as brightly coloured uniforms worn in combat were slowly supplanted by the far more practical combat wear worn
  
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• UK plans curb on freeholders blocking broadband cabling in flats

  15-12-2025 01:01 via ft.com
  Building owners would no longer be able to ‘unreasonably refuse’ upgrade requests from leaseholders
  
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• US has failed to stop massive Chinese cyber campaign, warns senator

  12-12-2025 23:08 via ft.com
  Staff reductions at vital agencies have undermined efforts to tackle ‘Salt Typhoon’ hack, says Mark Warner
  
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• Watch a mainline train run along part of the London Underground

  12-12-2025 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  There is going to be a chance to see a mainline train travelling along part of the London Underground as part of a special farewell tour for the SWR’s Class 455 trains.
  SWR into British Rail (c) ianVisits
  Two trains will run the trip on Sunday 21st December, and after leaving Waterloo, they will diverge from the mainline just before Putney to run over the District line tracks to Wimbledon, where they will rejoin the mainline.
  That means fans of the unusual can see an SWR-branded train pass
  
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• Late-night Northern line disruption as Bank branch to shut early for engineering works

  12-12-2025 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Late-night Northern line passengers are being warned that the Bank branch will close at 10pm on most evenings for several months in early 2026, as part of planned works on the line.
  Amended tube map showing closures
  The early closure means that trains will stop serving the Bank branch from 10pm, but there will be an additional four trains an hour on the Charing Cross branch. However, to accommodate this, TfL will have to reduce the overall frequency of some Northern line services from around 9:3
  
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• ‘JPMorgan has crossed a line’: How Altice’s debts ensnared US banking giant

  12-12-2025 15:13 via ft.com
  US bank stepped into messy confrontation between billionaire Patrick Drahi and aggrieved Wall Street funds
  
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• Tickets Alert: Tours of Battersea Dogs & Cats Home

  12-12-2025 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  If you’ve ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes at the Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, they offer tours.Tickets are released in batches, and they’ve just released their tickets for tours in the first few months of 2026.
  As well as a behind-the-scenes look at Battersea’s work, you’ll pay a visit to their kennels and cattery, hear how the hydrotherapy pool and clinic transform the lives of so many animals, stop off at the outdoor exercise paddocks, and learn more abo
  
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• Sale on tickets to the Potted Panto at Wilton’s Music Hall

  12-12-2025 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Potted Panto – the riotous 80-minute romp that squeezes seven pantomimes into one show – is currently offering discounted tickets for performances this month.Now settled into the wonderfully atmospheric Wilton’s Music Hall, the West End’s longest-running panto unleashes a rapid-fire cavalcade of gags as characters from across the pantomime canon hurtle into each other’s stories.
  Its hapless double act careers from rubbing Aladdin’s lamp to roaming Dick Whittin
  
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• Barbican Arts Centre to close for a year for a £240m upgrade

  12-12-2025 12:41 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A £240 million renovation of the Barbican Arts Centre is set to get started after the City of London granted full planning permission.
  However, it will also see the Barbican close for a year to allow the rebuilding to take place.When it opened in 1982, the arts centre was described as “one of the wonders of the modern world.” Although the core building still matches its lofty ambitions, decades of wear and internal changes have interfered with the original vision.
  Many of the b
  
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• Newham’s oldest secular building to be saved as Spotted Dog pub restoration begins

  12-12-2025 11:30 via ianvisits.co.uk
  An east London building that may have been King Henry VIII’s hunting lodge, and is now the oldest secular building in Newham, is about to be restored after decades of ruin.Known as the Spotted Dog pub, it is claimed to have been a hunting lodge leased to King Henry’s Master of the Hounds, who was allowed to keep the income from selling refreshments to people passing through. That naturally led to it eventually becoming an Inn, and in 1921, Leopold Wagner wrote that until WWI, the Spo
  
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• Tube lifts learn to ‘tell on themselves’ in new TfL push for reliable step-free travel

  11-12-2025 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  One problem with relying on lifts at railway stations to get around is that they occasionally break down, leaving the station inaccessible. To mitigate that, Transport for London (TfL) has started adding real-time reporting to its lifts and says it has now upgraded a third of its lifts so they can automatically update journey-planning tools to warn people in advance.Currently, 93 lifts at 28 Tube stations self-report as out of service, without needing to be reported by station staff. This new te
  
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• Tickets Alert: Go on a tour of the Trinity House headquarters

  11-12-2025 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Next to the Tower of London is a 230(ish) year old building that is the headquarters of the people who look after the lighthouses.
  Trinity House
  Originally founded by King Henry VIII in 1514 to manage shipping safety along the Thames, what is today Trinity House was officially called (deep breath!)… “The Master, Wardens, and Assistants of the Guild, Fraternity, or Brotherhood of the most glorious and undivided Trinity, and of St. Clement in the Parish of Deptford-Strond in the Count
  
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• Wellcome Collection cutting its opening hours as visitor habits change

  11-12-2025 14:30 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The Wellcome Collection in central London, with a range of popular free exhibitions, is cutting its opening hours from next year as it adjusts to changing visitor habits.At the moment, the galleries and reading room are open from daily except Mondays, from 10am to 6pm – but also open late every week on Thurdays to 8pm. While several large galleries and museums have occasional late openings, the Wellcome Collection is one of the few to routinely open late every week.
  However, that’s c
  
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• Tube and Overground fares up in March, but bus and tram freeze extended until July 2026

  11-12-2025 13:19 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Fares are to rise on London’s transport next year, as TfL complies with its funding deal to raise prices by more than inflation.However, the fare rise will be staggered with Underground and Overground fares rising in March, and bus and tram fares rising in July. The delay in fare rises for buses and trams will be funded by a transfer from the City Hall budget to TfL so that TfL remains within its requirement to see a net increase in revenue for the whole year.
  The overall fare rise will be
  
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• Housing development at High Barnet tube station blocked by local council

  11-12-2025 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A second attempt to build blocks of flats next to High Barnet tube station has been blocked by the local council.
  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 park an
  
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• Construction of St Paul’s new public square to start next year

  11-12-2025 12:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The final design for a new public square near St Paul’s Cathedral has been approved by the City of London.
  (c) City of London
  The area, known as the St Paul’s Gyratory, the roads form a large roundabout encircling the former BT headquarters building and dates from a 1970s remodelling of the former GPO buildings area.
  As part of a remodelling of the roads in the area to remove the gyratory, the plans will see one side of the gyratory pedestrianised and apart from creating a new public
  
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• Illuminated River boat ride tours add extra dates over Christmas

  09-12-2025 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The Thames bridges through central London are illuminated each night as part of a vast public artwork, best appreciated either on foot along the riverside or from a boat gliding beneath them.Illuminated River currently lights nine bridges: London, Cannon Street, Southwark and Millennium were the first to receive their vivid night-time makeovers in 2019, with Blackfriars, Waterloo, the Golden Jubilee, Westminster and Lambeth joining the project in 2021.
  The boat tour operator has now announced so
  
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• Unexpected repairs force TfL to shut Barons Court tube station’s platforms through 2026

  09-12-2025 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The ongoing refurbishment of Barons Court tube station has uncovered more problems than expected, and Transport for London (TfL) has announced that it will have to partially close the station.Refurbishment of the station to repair damaged sections and repaint the platform canopies started earlier this year. Although TfL initially said it did not expect to close the station, that has now changed.
  TfL wrote to H&F council in early December to say that circumstances have changed.
  “After w
  
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• Smithfield Market’s Christmas Eve meat auction is back for 2025

  09-12-2025 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Smithfield meat market’s Christmas Eve sale is a much-loved highlight for many attendees, and the organisers have confirmed to ianVisits that it will go ahead again this year.The sell-off dates back to the days before refrigeration, when customers would buy as close to Christmas as possible, and meat dealers needed to sell off everything before the Christmas shutdown.
  Such was the throng at the market on Christmas Eve that it sometimes made the news, as in 1912, when one trader was said to
  
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• Southbank Centre lights up winter nights with a free illuminated art trail

  09-12-2025 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A winter lights display has appeared around the Southbank Centre, offering a free illuminated exploration of the area.Physically visible all the time, they naturally look their best at night, and maybe if you don’t object, just after it’s been raining when reflections are at their best.
  It’s a fairly small widespread display, so you can do the whole lot in maybe 20 minutes, and some might not even look like temporary art at all. For the instagrammers, there’s a large cube
  
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• LNR rolls out longer trains, delivering 20% more seats on Euston services

  09-12-2025 12:02 via ianvisits.co.uk
  London Northwestern Railway (LNR) has announced it will introduce thousands of extra seats on its services to and from London Euston this weekend as part of a major timetable change.
  (c) London Northwestern Railway (LNR)
  From 14th December, LNR is rolling out new longer trains onto its Trent Valley line, which connects the capital with destinations in Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Buckinghamshire.
  The new fleet – known as Class 730/2s – are longer than the trains they replace and w
  
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