Telecom news

• Take a journey into the brain at this King’s Cross exhibition

  30-04-2024 19:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  The complexities of the brain are being explored through the medium of knitting in a new exhibition at the Francis Crick Institute in King’s Cross.
  The exhibition looks at how the brain works, or at least what little we know about it, and how scientists, many working in the same building as the exhibition, are trying to uncover its mysteries.
  One mystery is who thought of asking people to recreate the tiny neurons in the brain as large pink fleshy knitted ganglia. However, it is an idea th
  
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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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• Barnes railway bridge to close for a week of repairs

  14-05-2024 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  A key rail link across the Thames in west London will be closed for a week in late July due to bridge repairs.
  Barnes rail bridge (c) ianVisits
  The rail bridge crosses the Thames at Barnes,, and Network Rail says that it needs to replace all 48 solid wooden “wheel timbers” supporting the track across the Grade II-listed structure. Wheel timbers differ from traditional railway sleepers in that they provide extra strength and length in areas such as river bridges and are generally wide
  
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• Tickets Alert: Dry dock tours of the Golden Hinde

  14-05-2024 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  A few Sundays this summer will offer an opportunity to go down into the dry dock around the Golden Hinde replica ship and get up close to the restoration work being carried out at the moment.
  (c) The Golden Hinde
  The ship is a full-size replica of Francis Drake’s original and was launched 50 years ago, in 1973, on a global tour.
  Since 1996, she has been berthed in a dry dock next to Southwark Cathedral as a tourist attraction. At the moment, a restoration project is underway, and tours wil
  
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• A day trip to Stansted Mountfitchet – Castle, Churches, Toys and a Windmill

  14-05-2024 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Not far from London is a small village old enough to appear in the Doomsday book that’s now far better known for the airport that stole its name. This is Stansted Mountfitchet, and for such a small village, it has a heck of a lot to see on a day trip.
  The town boasts an ancient church, a gothic church, an old windmill, one of Europe’s largest toy museums, a dinosaur park, and a large replica castle.
  Mountfitchet Castle and Norman Village
  Right in the centre of the village is a full-s
  
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• Expanded mobile phone coverage goes live on Elizabeth line and Underground

  14-05-2024 07:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Mobile phone coverage on the London Underground and the Elizabeth line has expanded again, with more sections going live in recent weeks.On the Elizabeth line, 4G phone coverage is now live in Paddington, Whitechapel, Canary Wharf, and Woolwich stations, completing the rollout to all the new Elizbaeth line stations. Work to deliver coverage within the tunnelled sections of the Elizabeth line continues, with the first sections between Bond Street and Liverpool Street expected to get coverage with
  
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• Investors place record £300mn bet against BT

  14-05-2024 06:00 via ft.com
  New chief executive Allison Kirkby is battling to reverse adeclining share price
  
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• Wallpaper maker to return to former offices nearly a century after moving out

  13-05-2024 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  An Arts and Crafts wallpaper factory inChiswick built in 1902 has recently been restored and will again be occupied by the firm that commissioned it, along with the William Morris wallpaper designs that form its archive.
  Voysey House (c) Jack Hobhouse
  Sanderson, a manufacturer of fabrics and wallpaper, was founded in 1860 and in 1879 built a factory just off Chiswick High Road. In 1902, they expanded into a brand new modern factory, now known as Voysey House.
  However, Sanderson left the building
  
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