Telecom news

• The London Buzz – 1st May 2025

  01-05-2025 18:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Today’s London news round-up:
  Deer have returned to Greenwich Park for the first time in four years after their paddock was improved and extended. Greenwich Wire
  A global survey of lawyers and arbitrators has found that London remains the top choice of location for international arbitrations Legal Cheek
  Toy giant Lego is to move its London headquarters from Farringdon to new offices on the South Bank overlooking the Thames. Standard
  London is “a long way off” meeting Sir Sadiq
  
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• Trump Mobile delays plan to launch gold-coloured smartphone this year

  31-12-2025 06:00 via ft.com
  Move marks latest setback for project that originally promised to sell a US-made device
  
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• Winter sale on GWR train tickets starts this Friday

  30-12-2025 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Great Western Railway (GWR) is launching its January Sale next Friday (2nd Jan 2026), with 225,000 lower-cost train tickets available, including 150,000 Standard seats and 75,000 First Class seats, offering up to 50% off the most popular Advance fares sold across the GWR network.The January Sale runs for just four days from Friday 2nd to Monday 5th January, for travel between Friday 9th January and Friday 10th April 2026, excluding travel on Sundays and some selected dates.
  Prices will vary depe
  
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• Train firms slapped for “cheapest ticket” claims after regulator ruling

  30-12-2025 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Two train companies and one train ticket seller have been rapped over the knuckles for claims that they offered the cheapest possible tickets.Both Greater Anglia and ScotRail were found to have misleadingly advertised the cheapest tickets possible, because they didn’t sufficiently highlight the availability of split ticketing, which can reduce the headline figure offered on some journeys.
  Split ticketing is where it turns out that, instead of buying one ticket to the destination, it can be
  
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• Museum of musical instruments to be reimagined as part of £30m refurbishment

  30-12-2025 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A museum of musical instruments inside the Royal Academy of Music could become easier to visit after the Academy announced a £30 million refurbishment of its central London campus.
  Museum concept (c) Wright & Wright Architects
  The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in Marylebone is split over two buildings linked by an underground tunnel, and thanks to a £30 million donation from philanthropist Mrs Aud Jebsen, they are planning improvements to the layout and facilities.
  As part of the
  
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• TfL raises ‘existential’ concerns over track access under Great British Railways

  30-12-2025 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Transport for London (TfL) is warning that unclear clauses in the Great British Railways legislation going through Parliament could leave it with long-term uncertainties about its operations.
  Elizabeth line trains on the western branch (c) ianVisits
  In a submission to the Transport Select Committee’s Call for Evidence, TfL writes that it welcomes the proposed Railways Bill as a step towards a simpler and more reliable railway, but raises concerns about how the national railway would affect
  
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• Gunnersbury Park Museum closing for a month of refurbishment work

  29-12-2025 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The new year will start with a temporary museum closure, as the Gunnersbury Park Museum has announced its closure for refurbishment work.
  Gunnersbury Park Museum
  Only for a month, as they say they will spend the time preparing for the park’s centenary, which takes place on 21st May 2026.
  Gunnersbury Park Museum will be closed from 5th January to 3rd February. During this time, the park will remain fully open, and a new park cafe, Pure in the Park, will be opening on 5th January.
  Gunnersbur
  
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• DLR delivers: Cutty Sark station gets new escalators via the tracks

  29-12-2025 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The replacement escalators have arrived at Cutty Sark DLR station, and they were delivered by rail.
  Delivery by DLR (c) Quattro Plant
  The DLR station is currently closed as all the escalators are being replaced after repeated attempts to repair them failed to fix the faults. Because the station was built with very limited space, it had to close during the repairs, as there was no sensible way of redirecting passengers.
  Old escalators at platform level (c) ianVisits
  The cramped space also means i
  
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• Winter sale on West End theatre tickets for plays, pantos and musicals

  29-12-2025 11:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  This winter, London theatre-goers can snap up deals in a Winter Theatre Sale, with London Theatre Direct offering up to 50% off on top West End shows and many tickets starting from around £15.Whether you’re after family favourites, blockbuster musicals or thought-provoking dramas, there’s something to suit every taste.
  From pantomimes and holiday specials to long-running West End blockbusters and contemporary plays, discounted tickets are available now online, but availability
  
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• London’s Alleys: Murray Terrace, Hampstead, NW3

  29-12-2025 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  This very short, but quite pretty little lane in Hampstead village, and also one of the earliest little passages to be built in the area.It’s unnamed, but appears as a longer road in an 1848 map leading via some shorter passages through to Streatley Place. However, just 50 years later, it’s showing up as having been cut back to its current length, with the land to the west cleared. That’s because the site was needed for the New End Primary School.
  OS Map 1953
  It took a while fo
  
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• HS2 railway shifts from excavation to civil works amid cost and schedule rethink

  29-12-2025 07:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  An end-of-year update from HS2 railway has outlined its progress on Britain’s largest infrastructure project, at a time when it is being fundamentally restructured.
  Colne Valley viaduct (c) ianVisits
  The data show that excavation of all 23 miles of deep-bore tunnels on the section of the railway between Old Oak Common and Birmingham Curzon Street has now been completed. Around 70 per cent of the project’s earthworks have been delivered, alongside the use of almost 300,000 tonnes of s
  
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• Fancy a slice of Paris? London’s oldest French restaurant is selling its wall art

  26-12-2025 15:55 via ianvisits.co.uk
  London’s oldest family-run French restaurant is selling off some of its French decor, so if you fancy a bit of je ne sais quoi in your home, this is your chance.
  (c) Catherine Southon auctions
  The restaurant, Mon Plaisir on Monmouth Street in Covent Garden, was founded by Jean Viala and his wife in 1943 and bought by their head waiter Monsieur Alain Lhermitte in 1972. In April 2022, Lhermitte retired, and the restaurant was acquired by Fabio Lauro & Family, making them the third family
  
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• The e-scooter isn’t new – London was zooming around on Autopeds a century ago

  24-12-2025 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The e-scooters that clutter up pavements may seem like a new thing, but a hundred years ago, there were already people zooming around London on powered scooters.
  Lady Florence Norman 1916 (street background expanded)
  These were the Autoped, an American import that was once popular enough to regularly appear in the newspapers before vanishing seemingly without a trace.
  Invented in the USA in 1915, they first appeared in London in 1917, despite a ban on imports during WWI, and really took off when
  
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• Mummers, wassail and folklore: Bankside marks Twelfth Night with free riverside revels

  23-12-2025 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Bankside’s annual Twelfth Night revels will return on Sunday 4th January, as the Lions Part troupe of actors perform a mummers play for free.A festival, to mark the end of Christmas and the wassailing of the apple trees to wake them from their slumber, is a staple of English customs, and the Lions Part performs an urban rendition each year.
  If you are fond of “ye olde english traditions”, then you’re bound to love this.
  The revels begin outside Shakespeare’s Globe t
  
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• Old trains, new wheels: Southeastern’s train wheels heads to Crewe for a major refresh

  23-12-2025 11:40 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Nearly 100 Southeastern trains are to get their wheels refurbished after signing a £20 million contract with Alstom.
  General view of Slade Green and sidings with Networker units (c) Network Rail
  Southeastern’s Class 465 Networker fleet first entered passenger service in 1992, and the overhaul enables Southeastern to keep operating them while it waits for a replacement set of more accessible trains in a few years time.
  The maintenance project will see the wheel bogies that sit underne
  
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• From soggy piles to wooden beams: Inside Colindale’s new timber tube station

  23-12-2025 07:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  After a couple of years of building work, London Underground’s first* modern tube station built using timber construction has opened to passengers at Colindale on the Northern line.
  From this
  To this
  The new open-span entrance, topped by a timber roof, replaces a much smaller structure that was built after the original entrance was damaged during the Second World War. As well as subtle references to the area’s aviation heritage through the use of glulam timber, the station’s or
  
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• National Portrait Gallery buys rare photographs of Ada Lovelace for the nation

  22-12-2025 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The only known photographs of mathematician and computing pioneer Ada Lovelace have been acquired by the National Portrait Gallery just before they were expected to be sold to a private buyer.
  (c) Bonhams
  Ada Lovelace was an English mathematician and writer, and is chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage’s proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine. She was the first person to realise that the machine had applications beyond pure calculation, and is widely re
  
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• London’s Alleys: Ransom Walk, Charlton, SE7

  22-12-2025 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  This short passage in Charlton that runs under the mainline railway spends most of its life as a very quiet little passage, and occasionally throngs with huge crowds. That’s because it happens to be one of the routes to Charlton football club stadium, but as a passage, it owes its origins to the thing that gives the stadium its nickname – The Valley.Long before there was a football stadium here, there was a large sand-and-chalk open-air mine excavated for building materials. And to g
  
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• Christmas and New Year rail travel in London: Day-by-day guide to closures and reduced services

  19-12-2025 14:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  It’s Christmas time when the trains all go to sleep, but the maintenance teams get busy repairing the railways. Despite how busy the getaway rush feels, during the Christmas slowdown, there are far fewer travellers, so it’s a less disruptive time to carry out major engineering works.
  Festive travel
  During the Christmas period, over £160m of major investment projects will take place across the network.
  In the run-up to Christmas, trains and stations are expected to be particular
  
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• Winter sale on tickets to Starlight Express

  19-12-2025 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The famous roller skating trains have returned in a revival of the 1980s classic, and there’s a sale on tickets at the moment, with tickets now available from £25.Starlight Express is a dazzling spectacle for the senses, performed entirely on roller skates. At its heart is Rusty, a humble steam engine with dreams of winning the crown — and the affection of a glamorous coach.
  As a child drifts into sleep, wheels begin to spin, toys spring to life, and a touch of magic transforms
  
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• Where does Black Tom toll the Devil’s Knell? Welcome to the King William College quiz

  19-12-2025 12:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  If you want to spend Christmas cursing, then King William College’s famously difficult annual quiz has been released, and you’ll need a large supply of headache pills to cope with the questions.
  King William’s College General Knowledge Paper (GKP)
  King William’s College, based on the Isle of Man, was founded in 1833, using a legacy itself established in 1668, and in 1904 set its first annual general knowledge test, known as the General Knowledge Paper (GKP). Once a privat
  
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• The ancient Trial of the Pyx is moving to Mansion House in 2026

  19-12-2025 10:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  For the first time in its centuries-long history, the ancient Trial of the Pyx will take place next year inside the Lady Mayor of London’s official residence at Mansion House.
  Preparing for the trial at Goldsmiths’ Hall in 2025 (c) ianVisits
  The what?
  The Trial of the Pyx is an annual court case that puts the Royal Mint on trial to validate the quality of the coins it has produced over the past year.
  Why?
  Because the security of the coins of the realm is a serious matter, and althoug
  
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• Santander Cycles to get self-charging e-bikes and new smartphone app

  18-12-2025 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  TfL’s cycle hire scheme is set to upgrade its e-bikes next year so they can be recharged when docked, rather than swapping batteries as currently happens.There are currently 2000 e-bikes in the Santander Cycle fleet, leading to a significant increase in longer hires.
  At the moment, staff visiting the docking stations swap out the batteries when they are low on power, but this risks bikes being unavailable if they are not checked regularly.
  With the docking station recharge, that problem sh
  
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• The Union flag that led Nelson’s fleet at Trafalgar may be saved for UK museum

  18-12-2025 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The Union flag that led Nelson’s fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar could be bought by a UK museum after an export bar was imposed following its sale at auction.The Union Flag flew from the Royal Sovereign, the ship that led the British charge at the Battle of Trafalgar, and still features burn marks and splinters inflicted during the battle.
  It was recently put up for sale and sold for £450,000.
  This flag is believed to have been made and maintained by sailors aboard the Royal Soverei
  
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• January bargain: Heath Robinson Museum drops £8 ticket for pay-what-you-can Fridays

  18-12-2025 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  If you’ve never visited the Heath Robinson Museum in north London, then maybe January will tempt you with a cheap tickets offer.
  Heath Robinson Museum (c) ianVisits
  Every Friday in January 2026, entry tickets will be “Pay What You Can” instead of their usual £8 entry charge. There’s no need to book online, just turn up at the museum and let them know how much you would like to pay.
  The ticket gives you entry to the entire museum, including the Heath Robinson art gal
  
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• Step-free access work at Wandsworth Town station to start in February 2026

  18-12-2025 14:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Network Rail has confirmed that long planned work to install lifts at Wandsworth Town station in southwest London will start in February 2026.The station, served by SWR trains, is raised on railway arches and has four platforms, accessed via stairs from a corridor that runs through one of the arches from a street-level entrance on the south side. Although it has four platforms, as the middle two are a shared island platform, just three lifts will be needed to make all four platforms accessible.P
  
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• Discounted tickets to Pinocchio at Shakespeare’s Globe

  18-12-2025 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Pinocchio will be staged at Shakespeare’s Globe this festive season in a new musical production aimed at family audiences. The show is presented in the Globe’s famous open-air theatre, with savings of up to 60% on selected performances.This new musical adaptation retells the familiar story of Pinocchio at one of London’s most recognisable theatres. The plot follows Geppetto, a solitary woodcarver, who creates a wooden puppet in search of companionship and purpose. When Pinocchi
  
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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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