• The Telecoms.com Podcast: Talking turmoil

    Now with added video! 
  • The London Buzz – 9th Sept 2026

    The London Buzz – 9th Sept 2026
    Old London: Angel Bridge, Edmonton
    Today’s London news round-up:
    Enfield dog owner told to pay nearly £2,000 after driving neighbours barking mad Enfield Dispatch
    Same-sex siblings could be required to share a bedroom until the age of 20, while an additional council housing band could also be introduced under new proposals from Southwark Council. Southwark News
    More than 40 of London’s famous parakeets have been killed in just one park over the past three weeks, a wildlife expe
  • Tower of London now offering tours of their ravens enclosure

    Tower of London now offering tours of their ravens enclosure
    The Tower of London is launching a new early morning tour that lets you get up close with its famous ravens before the tower opens to the public.
    Henry and Poe (c) Historic Royal Palaces
    The visit starts with a 45-minute talk led by a Yeoman Warder member of the Ravenmaster’s team before you’re then taken into the ravens’ accommodation to meet the birds that are vital to the preservation of the Kingdom.
    Legend states that King Charles II was the first to insist that the ravens
  • A dazzling corten and yellow staircase brightens the City’s revived pedway

    A dazzling corten and yellow staircase brightens the City’s revived pedway
    A section of the City of London’s pedway network recently reopened after being closed for several years, and it has one particular joyful moment to explore.The pedway network was a plan for raised pedestrian walkways around the City, avoiding the roads below. Born of the motor car, it never really took off, thanks in no small part to heritage lobbyists preventing the demolition of older buildings that stood in the way.
    Long a series of half-joined bits, most of the pedway network has close
  • Advertisement

  • London bus drivers call off strikes after winning air-conditioning pledge

    London bus drivers call off strikes after winning air-conditioning pledge
    Planned strikes by London bus drivers have been called off after Unite reached an agreement with Transport for London (TfL) and bus operators to install air conditioning in every driver’s cab by the end of May 2027.The deal follows a summer of heatwaves and a campaign by Unite the Union over conditions inside bus cabs, where the union says temperatures sometimes reached 50°C.
    Although newer buses must meet tougher standards for heating, ventilation and air conditioning, many older vehi
  • West Coast Main Line to close between London Euston and Watford due to emergency bridge work

    West Coast Main Line to close between London Euston and Watford due to emergency bridge work
    Railway passengers using the West Coast Main Line between Euston and Watford are being warned that the entire line has to close for most of Sunday 20th September to allow a dangerous bridge to be removed
    The closure will also affect the adjacent London Overground Lioness line.
    Oxhey Grange footbridge (c) Network Rail
    The Oxhey Grange footbridge crosses the railway line to the south of Bushey station and had already been earmarked for replacement because of its condition. However, Network Rail sa
  • Richard and Su Rogers’ radical Wimbledon house given to the National Trust

    Richard and Su Rogers’ radical Wimbledon house given to the National Trust
    A pioneering modernist house in south London that influenced the design of the Lloyd’s building in London and the Centre Pompidou in Paris has been given to the National Trust, saving it for the nation.
    (c) National Trust – Megan Taylor
    The Wimbledon home at 22 Parkside was designed in the late 1960s by Richard and Su Rogers for Richard’s parents, and became a testing ground for architectural ideas that Richard Rogers later developed on a much larger scale.
    Built as two linked
  • Kings, battles and willies: Inside the British Museum’s Bayeux Tapestry exhibition

    Kings, battles and willies: Inside the British Museum’s Bayeux Tapestry exhibition
    We’ve waited nearly a thousand years for this moment, and it’s finally here – the Bayeux Tapestry exhibition opens on Thursday, and oh, wow, blimey!In a way, it doesn’t matter what I, a humble writer, say about the exhibition, as tickets sold out so fast they nearly crashed the British Museum’s ticketing website, and will likely do so again when the next batch is released on 21st October.
    And yes, some curmudgeons have pointed out that you could have visited the tap
  • Advertisement

  • The London Buzz – 8th Sept 2026

    The London Buzz – 8th Sept 2026
    Old London: Liverpool Street Station, circa 1920s
    Today’s London news round-up:
    Heathrow and Gatwick among airports hit by air traffic control problems BBC News
    A Traveller community in North London is calling for something to be “done fast” to address their dangerously overcrowded site, where, on one pitch, up to 15 people are having to share a single bathroom. Harrow Online
    City Hall has defended its “pragmatic” approach to building new developments on high-qualit
  • BT Tower conversion to include access to 35th floor outdoor terrace

    BT Tower conversion to include access to 35th floor outdoor terrace
    More details have been revealed about how the BT Tower will be converted into a hotel, including public access to an outdoor terrace on the tower’s 35th floor.
    The coveted lift pass (c) ianVisits
    The BT Group sold the tower to MCR Hotels for £275 million in February 2024, and since then they’ve been working on their plans, which will include public access to the top floor of the tower, as well as a public outdoor swimming pool on the roof of one of the lower-level buildings.
    Of
  • Liberty Global seals €669mn towers sale ahead of Ziggo spin-off

    VodafoneZiggo to sell assets to consortium led by DigitalBridge as it works to reduce debt
  • Royal Observatory Greenwich to close entire site from this November

    Royal Observatory Greenwich to close entire site from this November
    The Royal Observatory in Greenwich has announced it will close later this year for several months as part of its ongoing refurbishment.
    Greenwich Royal Observatory (c) ianVisits
    Perched at the top of Greenwich Hill, the Observatory is a complex of historic buildings that have grown organically over more than three centuries. While rich in history, the layout can make it challenging for visitors to explore, with narrow routes and steep gradients limiting access to parts of the site.
    They’re
  • Liberty Global agrees €670mn towers sale ahead of Ziggo spinoff

    VodafoneZiggo to sell assets to consortium led by DigitalBridge as it works to reduce debt
  • TfL trials new ‘calm space’ at Ealing Broadway station

    TfL trials new ‘calm space’ at Ealing Broadway station
    Transport for London (TfL) is trialling a new “calm space” at Ealing Broadway station, offering passengers a quieter place to retreat to if the busy station environment feels overwhelming.
    (c) TfL
    The temporary space, located beyond the ticket barriers, was installed in partnership with NOOK and autism research charity Autistica and will remain at the station until Friday 2nd October 2026.
    It is intended particularly for neurodivergent passengers and others who may need somewhere wit
  • Tickets Alert: Nighttime opening of Severndroog Castle

    Tickets Alert: Nighttime opening of Severndroog Castle
    Severndroog Castle, a tall folly in southeast London that offers clear views across the city, will be open one evening in November to watch the fireworks across the city.Because the space on top of the tower is quite small, they’re offering timed slots throughout the evening of Saturday 7th November, from 6:20pm to 8:40pm. Once you’ve climbed up to the top of the tower, you’ll have 20 minutes to take in a 360-degree view of the lights of London.
    Their tearoom will also be open
  • Free light show on the front of St Paul’s Cathedral

    Free light show on the front of St Paul’s Cathedral
    There’s going to be a free light show on the front of St Paul’s Cathedral for ten nights this month, as part of a pair of installations by Ukrainian artist Mykola Kabluka.
    Visualisations of ‘Soul’ and ‘Point of Unity’ by Mykola Kabluka. Visualisations by Expolight.
    Kabluka is a lighting designer and contemporary artist, and the founder and creative director of Expolight, a Ukrainian lighting design and media art studio. Presented in the UK for the first time,
  • Tickets Alert: Open weekend at the LT Musuem’s Acton depot

    Tickets Alert: Open weekend at the LT Musuem’s Acton depot
    London Transport Museum is again opening its Acton storage depot later this month, offering a chance to explore thousands of objects normally hidden from public view.The depot, next to Acton Town tube station, is the working store for much of London Transport Museum’s collection. While the main museum in Covent Garden displays a relatively small selection, the Depot houses items from a collection of more than 320,000 objects.
    September’s open days will have a design theme, highlighti
  • More Tube tunnels switch on mobile coverage in recent months

    More Tube tunnels switch on mobile coverage in recent months
    The ongoing rollout of mobile phone coverage on the London Underground continues, with nine more sections switched on in the past month.
    Based on a comparison of the June and August 2026 coverage maps, the new sections where phones now work include:
    Bakerloo lineEdgware Road to MaryleboneJubilee lineSwiss Cottage to St John’s WoodPiccadilly lineKnightsbridge to Hyde Park CornerNorthern lineEuston (Bank branch) to Camden Town
    Oval to Stockwell
    South Wimbledon to MordenSub-surface linesGreat
  • Tickets Alert: Free exhibition of Freddie Mercury music memorabilia

    Tickets Alert: Free exhibition of Freddie Mercury music memorabilia
    Ahead of a major auction of music memorabilia, there will be a free exhibition of the lots up for sale, ranging from as large as a grand piano often used by Freddie Mercury down to one of his microphones.
    Musicland Studios’ Yamaha C3 Grand Piano Played by Freddie Mercury (c) Propstore
    The collection also includes early working lyrics handwritten by Mercury for “My Love Is Dangerous” and “Let’s Turn It On,” both from his 1985 debut solo album, Mr. Bad Guy. Feat
  • Heathrow expansion could revive plans for Elizabeth line extension to Staines

    Heathrow expansion could revive plans for Elizabeth line extension to Staines
    An extension of the Elizabeth line to Staines-upon-Thames could be back on the cards after a call for expanding Heathrow Airport to come with improved public transport links.
    Hypothetical Elizabeth line map with Heathrow extensions
    In its response to the Department for Transport’s (DfT) consultation on proposed amendments to the draft Heathrow Expansion National Policy Statement (HENPS), the London Assembly Transport Committee wrote a letter to the Rt Hon Heidi Alexander MP, Secretary of S
  • Royal Mint releases Star Trek branded 50 pence coins

    Royal Mint releases Star Trek branded 50 pence coins
    The Royal Mint has released a limited edition series of 50p coins to mark Star Trek’s 60th anniversary, and it comes with royal approval.
    (c) Royal Mint
    The coins are collectables, so not the sort you would see in the shop anytime soon, but all coins issued by the Royal Mint need a formal proclamation from the King to authorise them.
    And a few months ago, King Charles III issued a proclamation announcing that it “appears to Us desirable to order that there should be made at Our Mint
  • VodafoneThree to launch debut TV service in challenge to UK rivals

    UK telecoms group hopes adding the TV platform will help it double its broadband business
  • Elliott builds stake in Deutsche Telekom and opposes T-Mobile US merger

    Activist hedge fund wants German telecoms company to focus on ways to boost shareholder value, such as stock buybacks
  • Private equity firms snap up more London-listed companies

    Bodycote agrees takeover by Veritas and Epiris to acquire Gamma Communications
  • London’s Tube finally escapes its mobile blackout

    Transport for London says 121 subterranean stations and tunnel network to have coverage by year end
  • Leyton tube station’s new footbridge installed in overnight crane operation

    Leyton tube station’s new footbridge installed in overnight crane operation
    Regular users of Leyton tube station will see a big difference from this morning, as a large footbridge was installed overnight as part of the station’s step-free upgrade.
    Earlier in August (c) ianVisits
    Later in August (c) ianVisits
    At the moment, Leyton station’s entrance is little more than a shed above the tracks, a type of tube station in need of refurbishment, but it is also overcrowded during the rush hours.  The upgrade involves building an entirely new ticket hall next
  • First of ten new Elizabeth line trains enters passenger service

    First of ten new Elizabeth line trains enters passenger service
    The first of the Elizabeth line’s ten new trains entered passenger service this morning.
    Elizabeth line train 345071 (c) TfL
    The ten additional trains were ordered in the dying days of the last government, partially to assist in keeping Alstom’s Derby factory functioning but also because Transport for London (TfL) was able to put forward a strong case that it needed them to deal with surging passenger numbers on the Elizabeth line.
    The capacity is needed not just because the Elizabet
  • Tickets Alert: 600th anniversary of the Harmondsworth Great Barn

    Tickets Alert: 600th anniversary of the Harmondsworth Great Barn
    To mark the 600th anniversary of the Great Barn at Harmondsworth, a one-day conference will celebrate the building’s history and survival.The ‘new barn’ was built in 1426 by Winchester College, who owned the manor of Harmondsworth, to replace old barns used to store cereal crops. The manor had been bought a generation earlier by William of Wykeham, then Bishop of Winchester, as part of his endowment for Winchester College. Despite its agricultural origins, the barn has been hai
  • V&A museums to close for a couple of days due to strike action

    V&A museums to close for a couple of days due to strike action
    Several of the V&A Museums in London will close for a couple of days due to staff strike action.
    V&A East Museum (c) ianVisits
    PCS members at the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum are taking coordinated strike action with Prospect over pay, conditions, and dignity at work.  This follows a vote in which 95.39% of PCS members voted for strike action, with an 87.04% turnout.
    PCS General Secretary Fran Heathcote explained today that V&A members “have now been left with no c
  • Three floral displays coming to London

    Three floral displays coming to London
    An increasing number of venues are filling up with floral arrangements to attract visitors, and three big ones are taking place in London.Strawberry Hill House
    10th to 13th September
    The gothic house in south-west London is filled with floral displays dotted around the building. They promise over 30 floral designers will be displaying during the exhibition.
    Prices are £30 per adult.
    Tickets and details here.
    St Mary le Strand
    22nd to 24th Septemer
    A three-day display, but also with an opti

Follow @Telecom_UK_ on Twitter!