Telecom news

• The London Buzz – 22nd July 2026

  22-07-2026 18:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Old London – Woolwich free ferry in 1931
  Today’s London news round-up:
  Protesters demand return of ‘precious’ London Fields paddling pool  Hackney Citzen
  Wandsworth’s planning committee has approved what residents believe is the first Laser Quest ever built directly beneath residential flats, overruling the local MP and two ward councillors. Putney News
  A humanitarian worker is being ‘monitored and assessed’ by specialists in a London hospital after
  
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• The London Buzz – 23rd July 2026

  23-07-2026 18:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Old London – Bramshot Avenues, Westcombe Park
  Today’s London news round-up:
  Blackheath Fireworks will return for 2026 – but free displays unlikely to come back Greenwich Wire
  Wandsworth pledges 24 extra police officers under new leader Putney News
  Met police ‘can’t afford the hay and vet bills for its horses’ New Journal
  A portrait of London Mayor Sadiq Khan, painted by an art student, has been unveiled at City Hall. BBC News
  Thames Clippers has introduced rea
  
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• TfL says Silvertown Tunnel has cut Blackwall congestion after first year

  23-07-2026 17:06 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Transport for London (TfL) says its first year of monitoring suggests the Silvertown Tunnel has reduced congestion around the Blackwall Tunnel, encouraged more people to travel by bus across the Thames and coincided with improved local air quality.
  But it has displaced some traffic to other river crossings that are still free to use, such as Rotherhithe and Woolwich.The findings are published in TfL’s first annual report on the road tunnel, which opened last April, and follow on from a pre
  
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• Tickets Alert: The Tank Museum comes to London (sort of)

  23-07-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Dorset’s legendary Tank Museum is sending its staff to London for an evening later this year, for a talk about the history of what else, but tanks.Join the Tank Museum and special guests – including Al Murray and James Holland  – for an evening exploring the rise – and potential fall – of the tank as the dominant force on the battlefield.
  Plus, in this special fundraising event, they’ll share more about the impact they are having as a museum as they tell
  
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• Westminster Cathedral lights up with immersive summer projection show

  23-07-2026 13:30 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Westminster Cathedral – that’s the Catholic one – is currently being filled with a video light show several evenings a week throughout the summer months.Titled LUMINISCENCE, the production combines 360-degree video mapping with choral performances by the Lux Aeterna Choir, alongside a narrated script voiced by actor Hugh Bonneville. The production includes a newly commissioned script by writer Tim Whitnall, which traces the history of London from its early development through t
  
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• Dry weather to affect some late evening train services in east London

  23-07-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  There’s going to be some late evening cuts to mainline train services through east London next month, because the ground is too dry.
  Uneven track on the c2c route caused by dried-out soil (c) Network Rail
  Following England’s warmest spring on record and hot summer so far, the peat and clay that sits under long stretches of the railway has dried out and shrunk. This has caused the track to drop in places and become uneven.
  To fix the problem, Network Rail engineers use machines called
  
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• Ballot Alert: Tours of 10 Downing Street

  23-07-2026 10:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  The annual ballot for a chance to follow Larry through the famous black doors of 10 Downing Street and take a look around the corridors of power is now open.
  10 Downing Street (c) Crown Copyright 2013, Photographer: Sergeant Tom Robinson RLC
  The tour is offered by Open House London, which opens up hundreds of buildings across London for free in September. However, while most are open to just walk in – with some requiring booking – the tours of 10 Downing Street are offered by a free
  
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• Experimental 1960s Fibreglass Sculpture Given New Lease of Life

  23-07-2026 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  A sculpture that looks like it should be a 1960s bronze but is actually made from an experimental material – fibreglass – has recently been restored to its original appearance.It’s called Generations, representing two generations of a family, and is by one of Henry Moore’s assistants, the sculptor Geoffrey Harris. Sadly, Geoffrey Harris was not a commercially successful sculptor, but was a good lecturer at several London arts colleges. Much of his work was lost in a house
  
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• Plans unveiled for 2.5-metre-wide tunnels to carry waste heat beneath south London

  22-07-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Two long tunnels could be dug beneath south London to carry surplus heat across the capital, creating a low-carbon heating network that could eventually warm around 300,000 homes.
  (c) London Strategic Heat Main – Cory
  The proposed London Strategic Heat Main would transport otherwise wasted heat from industrial sources to district heating networks, which would then distribute it to homes, offices and other buildings.
  If approved, the scheme would create what is effectively a “motorway
  
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• Tickets Alert: Free entry to St Paul’s Cathedral for its late evening opening

  22-07-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  St Paul’s Cathedral will be having a late opening evening in September, and it’s free to visit.
  St Paul’s Cathedral from the Triforium (c) ianVisits
  In addition to being able to enter the Cathedral as the sun sets, there will be a range of events throughout the evening, from heritage skills demonstrations to talks and self-guided tours. The crypt cafe will also be open in the evening.
  Admission to the cathedral, including the crypt is free – with donations appreciated.
  Th
  
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• Trent Park House of Secrets – London’s WWII spy museum has opened

  21-07-2026 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  A grand country house that became one of Britain’s most closely guarded wartime secrets has opened as a new museum, revealing the little-known intelligence operation that helped shorten the Second World War.Trent Park House, in north London, looks every inch the elegant country mansion. Rebuilt in the early 20th century in a mock-Georgian style, it was home to the fabulously wealthy and well-connected Sassoon family, who entertained royalty, politicians and celebrities within its lavish re
  
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• The London Buzz – 20th July 2026

  20-07-2026 18:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Old London – Clapham Park Road circa 1900
  Today’s London news round-up:
  A mum-of-two says she feels “victimised” after claiming her housing association told her children’s toys must be removed from a communal garden following a request to install a trampoline. News Shopper
  Lea Bridge Road shisha bar forced to turn music down Waltham Forest Echo
  Plans have been revealed for a major development that could bring hundreds of new homes, co-living apartments, shops and pu
  
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• London is getting a new museum showing off Roman and medieval fortifications

  20-07-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  London is set to gain a new museum later this year, when an important section of the Roman Wall and a medieval bastion are opened to the public.
  From a previous visit (c) ianVisits
  The remains were discovered in the 1900s during the construction of a Post Office building on the site of a former monastery near St Paul’s Cathedral. At the time, archaeological remains did not enjoy the level of legal protection they do today, and the monument came close to being demolished before being saved.
  
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• A colourful exhibition of Afghanistan’s disappearing textile traditions

  20-07-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  If someone said Afghanistan, you’d probably conjure up a lot of images, but maybe not an image of skillfully embroidered clothing. And that’s what’s on display at the SOAS Gallery at the moment.Drawing primarily from the Karun Thakar collection, alongside loans from the V&A, the exhibition brings together around 100 embroidered objects spanning the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Rather than presenting Afghanistan as a single cultural entity, the displays reveal the dis
  
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• London’s Alleys: Victoria Passage, St John’s Wood, NW8

  20-07-2026 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  This short industrial passage can be found in the genteel housing around Regent’s Canal in St John’s Wood and is both old and modern in its layout.The original Victoria Passage was a long, back-of-house mews passage that ran east-west behind the houses and was built in the early 1800s, as London expanded over the fields that had long dominated the area. That mews, later renamed Victoria Place, still exists, but you’d not recognise it today as massive rebuilding around the area
  
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• Telecom Italia backs Poste Italiane takeover bid

  18-07-2026 16:48 via ft.com
  Cash and paper offer would give state-controlled postal service full control of telecoms group
  
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• The London Buzz – 17th July 2026

  17-07-2026 18:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Old London – Broadhurst Gardens, Hampstead in 1923
  Today’s London news round-up:
  Government issues notice due to ‘serious concerns’ about how Hillingdon Council is run Harrow Online
  Brockwell Park cygnet deaths – local resident accuses Lambeth Council of mismanagement Brixton Buzz
  A Wandsworth tenant threatened with eviction last year, at the age of 82, has been told by the new council administration that no eviction process was ever formally opened. Putney News
  Pla
  
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• Tickets Alert: Attend the City of London’s ancient Silent Ceremony

  17-07-2026 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Each year, the new Lord or Lady Mayor of London is sworn into office in a ceremony as rich in pomp as it is ancient in history, and in total silence. And a smallish number of the public are invited to attend.
  (c) City of London
  For over 800 years, on Michaelmas Day, the City of London’s liverymen elect a new Mayor for the year ahead, and a few weeks later, the Silent Ceremony takes place. It’s not absolutely silent, as, apart from the occasional muffled cough or ringing of a mobile p
  
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• London Overground’s Suffragette line to get four new railway bridges

  17-07-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Several 130 year old railway bridges supporting the London Overground are to be replaced this summer, Network Rail has announced.
  The four bridges to be replaced (c) Network Rail
  All the bridges that need to be replaced can be found on the London Overground’s Suffragette line, between Leytonstone High Road and Woodgrange Park stations.Talbot Road – E7 0DX
  Strode Road – E7 0DU
  Stracey Road – E7 0HG
  Latimer Road – E7 0LHNetwork Rail says that work will begin at the Ta
  
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• The Crick Institute’s ancient DNA exhibition Does Not Appeal

  17-07-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  I think I’ve just visited the first exhibition for the podcast generation, where the exhibits have to be listened to rather than looked at and read about.It’s the Francis Crick Institute’s look at ancient DNA and how it helps track human evolution, migration, culture and disease.
  Naturally, the big problem with DNA is that it’s not exactly something you can put on display for people to look at, but the science that investigates it is very big, visible, and quite fascinati
  
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• First GBR Anglia trains unveiled as Greater Anglia and c2c merge their fleets

  16-07-2026 16:06 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Two new GBR-branded trains were side by side at Liverpool Street this morning, showing off the merger of Greater Anglia and c2c rail services.Greater Anglia and c2c are now managed jointly along with Network Rail’s East of England division to create GBR Anglia as a unified organisation.
  Merging the passenger and infrastructure functions to form regional operations has already been implemented in the Southeastern and SWR regions, and the aim is to reduce the bureaucratic and contractual red
  
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• Hackers who crippled TfL systems sentenced to more than five years in prison

  16-07-2026 14:40 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Two teenagers who hacked into Transport for London’s (TfL) computers, causing nearly £30 million in damages, have been jailed for five years and six months after admitting to carrying out the attack.Thalha Jubair, 20, from east London, and Owen Flowers, 18, from Walsall, both pleaded guilty at Woolwich Crown Court
  Apart from the cost to TfL, the cyberattack caused considerable disruption for staff and passengers, as TfL took large swathes of its systems offline while each was inspect
  
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• Free exhibition brings centuries of London’s working people to the streets

  16-07-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  For centuries, images of countless Londoners, both famous and forgotten, have been recorded as they go about their daily work in the capital.And there’s an outdoor exhibition telling the stories of some of those people captured in paintings and photographs. The oldest photo is of William Anthony, a night watchman, taken shortly before he died in 1863, with the most modern being a young man working in a Southwark shoe factory in 1954
  There’s the disabled street musician, a lot of ladi
  
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• Crystal Palace’s famous dinosaurs restored to their Victorian glory

  16-07-2026 09:11 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Crystal Palace’s famous dinosaurs have been removed from Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register following several years of restoration work.
  Iguanodon (c) Andy Bate
  The multi-million-pound project, jointly delivered by Bromley Council and the Crystal Palace Park Trust, is the largest programme of improvements to the park since the Crystal Palace itself was destroyed by fire in 1936.
  At the heart of the scheme was the restoration of the Grade I listed dinosaur sculptures and the
  
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• London’s Pocket Parks: Moorgate Corner, EC2

  16-07-2026 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  This is a recently revamped corner park near Moorgate tube station, sitting next to the site of one of the ancient gates through the Roman Wall.The site of the pocket park was developed by the 1600s as a small cluster of houses and workshops surrounded by roads, and for the next few centuries, very little changed. The buildings were torn down and rebuilt at times, but the layout didn’t change.
  Faden’s 1819 revision of R Horwood map
  It would probably look the same today, but for WWII
  
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• The London Buzz – 15th July 2026

  15-07-2026 18:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Old London – St Paul’s Church and Essex Road, Islington
  Today’s London news round-up:
  Former Hackney councillor ‘debanked’ by HSBC after Ukraine trip  Hackney Citizen
  Gatwick Airport chaos as flights declare emergency and diverted after sudden runway closure Standard
  Rainham Launders Lane fire: Pictures show charred earth Romford Recorder
  A leading Newham councillor has dodged questions over whether her pledges to roll out free parking in the borough will lead
  
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• Tower of London to open historic architectural archive to the public for the first time

  15-07-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  The Tower of London’s architectural archives will be opened to the public for the first time as part of a revamp of the Tower’s educational facilities.When it opens, the new Archive Study Centre will bring together more than 25,000 drawings encompassing over 200 years of design, building and conservation work across the Tower and other palaces cared for by Historic Royal Palaces.
  The decision to open the archives is part of a wider revamp of Historic Royal Palaces (HRP)’s educa
  
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• Austrian master returns to Britain after 170 years in free National Gallery exhibition

  15-07-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  The first-ever UK exhibition of paintings by the 19th-century Austrian artist Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller has opened at the National Gallery, showcasing his range of landscapes, from arid to forested. He worked mainly around Vienna, Salzburg and later Italy, giving the works on display a slight air of tourist diary travelling around central Europe.Waldmüller is one of the most important figures in 19th-century Austrian art, known for his work as both an artist and an influential teacher
  
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• London Underground’s Central line is getting more trains at weekends

  15-07-2026 12:02 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Passengers on the Central line will see a new timetable introduced from Monday 20th July, bringing more frequent weekend services through central London but also reducing weekday trains on the Ealing branch.The biggest change is an increase in weekend services between White City and Leytonstone, with additional trains also running on Sunday early evenings to cater for growing leisure travel demand.
  However, the Ealing spur branch will be reduced to six trains per hour on weekdays — from an
  
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• London Open House 2026 preview goes live

  15-07-2026 11:06 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  It’s an early Christmas present for London architecture fans as the annual Open House London preview has gone live this morning.
  Euston Tower – from the top of the BT Tower
  The annual event sees hundreds of buildings open to the public for free, allowing visitors to wander in and take a look around. The vast majority are free to wander in and have a look around, but some are reserved for prebooked tours, and the very best will be in such high demand that they are allocated by ballot.
  
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