Telecom news

• The London Buzz – 25th April 2025

  25-04-2025 18:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Today’s London news round-up:
  Tattoo artists from across the globe will be reunited next week as they gather to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the first meeting on the London Tattoo Society, held in Clerkenwell. Islington Tribune
  Woolwich Foot Tunnel, where one lift has now been out of service for nearly three years, has been closed until further notice because of a drainage problem. Greenwich Wire
  “Unknown flaming objects” are partly responsible for a fire that swept throu
  
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• Tickets Alert: Sandhurst military academy’s tours for 2026

  07-01-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Not far outside London is Sandhurst, the British Army’s military training centre for officers, and it holds occasional tours of the grand buildings hidden behind high walls.
  The tours are a mix of learning about the military heritage, exploring several grand and impressive buildings, and seeing grounds that are usually off-limits to the public.
  I visited in 2023 – review here.Tours take place at on select dates and must be booked in advance. Once a date is agreed upon, you will arran
  
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• South Bermondsey station reopens after its platform was replaced over Christmas

  07-01-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  South Bermondsey station reopened earlier this week following a long closure to replace the ageing platform with something a tad less bouncy.The station, managed by Southern, can be politely described as the sort of station with a face fit for radio, with barely a shed of an entrance and a dank staircase up to the platforms. All this is accentuated by the station being a bit of a walk from the main road, along a long path that just happens to be a disused freight railway line.The original statio
  
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• Jubilee line embankment works to begin near Queensbury, lasting until summer 2027

  07-01-2026 14:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  There’s going to be around 18 months of work on the northern end of the Jubilee line, where it runs high up on raised embankments.
  Raised embankment passing over the road outside Queensbury station
  A letter sent to local residents and shared by the local Councillor, Jayanti Patel, informs them that the works will start in a couple of weeks time, on 16th January 2026 and last for around 18 months, completing in summer 2027.
  The affected area is the raised embankment around Queensbury tube s
  
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• Steel and rhyme, Still on time: 40 years of Poems on the Underground

  07-01-2026 11:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The first Poems on the Underground appeared in tube trains in February 1986, with poems by Robert Burns and Percy Shelley dwelling on city life, and 40 years later, it’s still running, with a new set of poems about to go on display.
  (c) TfL
  The whole idea of using space on the tube adverts to display poems came from New York born, London resident writer and lecturer, Judith Chernaik, who had a “passion for London and a passion for English poetry”.
  She proposed the Poems on the
  
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• Berkeley Square swaps Nightingales for Dinosaurs as a Triceratops arrives

  07-01-2026 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  In Berkeley Square, where once a nightingale sang, a Triceratops has come to rest.This is Paul Vanstone’s life-size Carrara Triceratops Skull sculpture, now on display in Berkeley Square. Carved from a single 10 tonne block of white Carrara marble sourced from Italy, the work is an artistic interpretation of a 68-million-year-old sub-adult Triceratops Skull exhibited by the nearby art dealer, David Aaron at Frieze Masters 2025.
  The Triceratops roamed the plains of what is now North America
  
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• After a decade of delay, Earl’s Court finally gets planning permission for 4,000 homes

  06-01-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A decade after the Earls Court Exhibition Centre was demolished, planning permission has finally been granted to build homes on the site.
  Proposed development – Source: planning documents
  There have been attempts to do something with the site since 2008, with outline planning granted in 2013, but the plans were dropped following extensive local opposition.
  Originally planned to have some 8,000 homes, including rebuilding council housing around the site, following lengthy protests, the core
  
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• Frameless unveils new annual ticket as a budget-friendly option for repeat visits

  06-01-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Frameless, the huge basement space next to Marble Arch, filled with animated artworks that you walk into, has introduced an annual ticket offer, which can be a much cheaper option for regular visitors.A visit normally costs around £25-£30, depending on various factors, but the new annual ticket is available for £60 per person. So, if you’re the sort of person who would like to visit at least three times in a year, then the annual ticket is going to be a better option for
  
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• Award-winning theatre set designs go on show at the National Theatre

  06-01-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  If, as is claimed, the world is a stage, then there’s an entire solar system of minute worlds on display at the moment, showing off the craft of creating theatre stage sets.These are the winners of the biennial Linbury Prize for Stage Design, established in 1987 by Lady Anya Sainsbury to champion the next generation of stage designers and model makers. The winners and their designs are currently on display at the National Theatre.
  The exhibition itself is largely made up of presentation bo
  
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• Winter sale on Eurostar train trips to mainland Europe

  06-01-2026 12:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  If you’ve been eyeing up a winter escape by rail, Eurostar has just provided a timely nudge, with a new sale offering tickets from £35 each way on its core European routes.
  (c) ianVisits
  The discounted fares apply to journeys between London and Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Lille, for travel taking place between 19 January and 25 March 2026.
  While there are a handful of blackout dates, around 90% of dates during the sale period seem to be available at the headline price,
  
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• New book reveals the overlooked modern architecture of Britain’s Big Four railways

  06-01-2026 11:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A new book is about to be published that examines the architecture of the Big Four railway companies during the interwar years.
  (c) Daniel Wright and Philip Butler
  From the grouping of the Big Four in 1923 to nationalisation in 1947, there was a short-lived yet sweeping transformation in railway architecture, from ornate Neo-Classical designs to the bold new forms of Streamline Modernism.
  As the authors, Philip Butler and Daniel Wright, note, while Charles Holden’s London Underground stati
  
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• UK broadband operator sold to distressed debt specialist

  06-01-2026 00:01
  G.Network’s lenders trigger sale of company with £300mn of net debt but just 25,000 customers
  
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• Tickets Alert: Tours of the richly decorated Moor Park Mansion

  03-01-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A private manor house on the outskirts of London, built in its current style 300 years ago, will have a handful of public open days this year to see its richly decorated interior.The house stands on the site of a former 16th-century palace where Catherine of Aragon lived after the annulment of her marriage to Henry VIII. While the current building dates from around 1617, it was extensively remodelled in the 1720s into the grand manor seen today.
  And “grand” barely does it justice.Own
  
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• Lewisham asks public for ideas to rescue and reopen the Ladywell Playtower

  02-01-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Lewisham Council is seeking suggestions on how to restore the decaying Ladywell Playtower in south London and reopen it to the public.
  The Ladywell Playtower
  As one of Lewisham’s most significant Grade II listed sites, the Ladywell Playtower opened in 1884 as a swimming pool and public hall, and despite closing in 2004, the Grade II listed building remains a feature of the neighbourhood.
  The building was damaged by fire in 2006, but in 2022, the council agreed a development plan that would
  
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• ‘Jewel in the Strand’ project backed by £4.6m grant for St Mary Le Strand church

  02-01-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The central London church of St Mary Le Strand has received a £4.6 million grant toward the cost of urgent repair and conservation works.
  (c) ianVisits
  As part of the grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, both the 18th-century building and its gardens will be restored and redeveloped, alongside work to transform the Undercroft into a community space and improve accessibility throughout.
  A research project will also uncover three centuries of stories about the people who worshipped
  
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• Where to watch the 2026 total solar eclipse

  02-01-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Later this year, there will be a total solar eclipse, and while it just about misses the UK, the path of totality will be reasonably accessible to many who really fancy seeing one for themselves.From the UK
  The solar eclipse will take place on Wednesday 12th August 2026, and if seen from the UK, it will obscure about 90% of the sun. Which is equivalent to a very cloudy sky, assuming there isn’t cloud in the sky already.
  The eclipse for the UK will start around 6:15pm, reach maximum coverag
  
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• How Nokia went from iPhone victim to $1bn Nvidia deal

  01-01-2026 06:00
  Finnish company that brought the world the 3310 has reinvented itself for the AI revolution
  
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• Great British Rail Sale launches with savings of 50% on off-peak and advance fares

  31-12-2025 11:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The UK’s train companies are set to kick off the new year with a January sale, offering discounted fares for journeys across the UK.The participating operators in the Great British Rail Sale are:Avanti West Coast
  c2c
  Chiltern Railways
  CrossCountry
  East Midlands Railway
  Great Northern
  Greater Anglia
  Great Western Railway (GWR)
  LNER
  Northern Trains
  Southeastern
  Southern
  South Western Railway (SWR)
  Thameslink
  TransPennine Express
  West Midlands TrainsAll the DfT-regulated train companies are t
  
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• Another year, another pile of words: The stories that made me smile in 2025

  31-12-2025 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Another year done and dusted… so what have I been up to with all those words?It’s been a bit of a mixed bag, if I’m honest. The first half of the year was rather hampered by health gremlins, which put a definite dent in my usual habit of wandering off in random directions and spotting odd, interesting things simply by being out and about.
  That said, there’s always a flip side. It turned out to be a cracking year for exhibitions, and being a bit more housebound than usual
  
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• Trump Mobile delays plan to launch gold-coloured smartphone this year

  31-12-2025 06:00
  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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