Telecom news

• Vodafone: endowering towers

  26-07-2019 18:49 via ft.com
  In low-yield developed economies, hefty cash flows make phone masts sexy investments
  
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• Rarely seen Stubbs horse painting gallops into the National Gallery

  10-03-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A large painting by the master horse painter, George Stubbs, has been kept in a private collection, but has gone on public display for only the second time in its history.
  This is Scrub, by Stubbs, and a free exhibition of equine art by George Stubbs has opened at the National Gallery.The painting dominates the exhibition space with an almost theatrical presence. Scrub rears against a pale, open background, his powerful body twisting mid-movement, the light catching every muscle and tendon.
  The
  
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• Tickets Alert: Take your old things to the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow

  10-03-2026 10:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  If you’ve ever fancied having something valued by the experts at the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow, one of the new series will be filming in London later this year, and tickets are now available.The London recording will take place on Sunday 7th June 2026 at Valentines Mansion in Ilford, east London. You need to apply for a ticket, which will be issued by ballot about 4 weeks before the recording takes place. If they are over-subscribed, they reserve the right to allocate tickets according
  
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• London Transport Museum adding new exhibitions galleries

  10-03-2026 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The London Transport Museum is adding more space for temporary exhibitions and events, having submitted plans to convert some of its staff spaces into a public area.
  They recently opened up some old space on the ground floor for a quiet space that also doubles up as a cinema room. The next plan is to convert a large office area on the first floor of the museum, next to the now semi-permanent posters gallery, into a public gallery focused on education and community programmes.
  Proposed Wellington
  
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• Mind the tap: Stansted Airport starts accepting London’s contactless travel tickets

  10-03-2026 07:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The long row of bright red signs at Liverpool Street station, warning passengers heading to Stansted Airport that they need to buy a paper ticket, has been replaced with signs promoting contactless travel.
  From this:
  To this:
  The change follows the delayed rollout of contactless payments on Greater Anglia services, which finally came into effect on Sunday. Passengers travelling to Stansted Airport can now use contactless payment instead of having to buy a paper ticket in advance.
  The lack of con
  
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• India cuts telecom spectrum prices as operator interest dries up

  10-03-2026 02:30 via ft.com
  Also in this newsletter: States move to ban social media for minors
  
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• Why Mother’s Day used to be about churches, not mums

  09-03-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  This weekend is Mother’s Day — although the day didn’t originally have anything to do with your mum.
  Instead, it was about your stone mother.
  Yes, really.The original “mother”
  Mother’s Day, as we know it, began as Mothering Sunday, a religious tradition in which people returned to their “mother church” — the church where they were baptised. Each year, Mothering Sunday falls on Laetare Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Lent and in 2026, that l
  
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• TfL taps our largest nuclear fusion reactor to power the London Underground

  09-03-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Transport for London (TfL) is planning to power parts of the Underground directly from nuclear fusion — aka the sun — through a number of new solar farms that could be built in the future.TfL currently uses about 1.6 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity each year, making it the largest single electricity consumer in London. Once operational, the solar installations could supply up to 65,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of renewable electricity each year — equivalent to roughly two-third
  
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• Designers revealed for London Museum’s underground collection store

  09-03-2026 14:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The London Museum has named the team responsible for fitting out the basement galleries beneath the former Poultry Market in Smithfield.
  Proposed ground floor exhibition space in the Poultry Market (c) Atelier 78
  The museum has been converting a former Victorian meat market near Farringdon station into its new home, and the site also includes the 1960s concrete poultry market. The intention is that the Victorian buildings will house the museum’s permanent collection, while the poultry mark
  
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• Suffragette medal awarded to Pankhurst’s nurse goes on display

  09-03-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A rare and previously unseen Suffragette medal, awarded to the nurse who cared for Emmeline during her hunger strikes, has gone on public display for the first time.The silver medal, awarded to nurse Catherine Pine, had been missing for decades before recently being rediscovered. It will now be shown publicly for the first time in a new display at the Florence Nightingale Museum.
  The circular medal is decorated with eleven silver bars and the purple, white and green ribbon of the suffragette mov
  
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• The Last Collar: Rare survivor from Charles Dickens’s wardrobe goes on display

  09-03-2026 10:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A rarely seen piece of clothing believed to be the last shirt collar worn by Charles Dickens will go on display in London – a rare survival from a writer whose personal wardrobe has almost entirely vanished.
  Dickens by William P. Frith (c) Charles Dickens Museum
  The collar, recently acquired by the museum, is believed to have been worn by Dickens as he sat down to dinner at his home, Gad’s Hill Place in Kent. He collapsed during the meal and died the following day.
  After Dickens&rsqu
  
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• Virgin Media O2 owner eyes broadband deals to take on BT Openreach

  09-03-2026 09:46 via ft.com
  Telefónica’s Marc Murtra vows to ‘help’ UK subsidiary better compete with Openreach network
  
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• London’s Alleys: Roberts Alley, South Ealing, W5

  09-03-2026 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  This is one of the oldest paths through South Ealing, dating back to when most of the area was still fields.Running almost parallel to the main South Ealing Road, it was once expected to become a main road as well, but housing faced the other way, leaving the alley as just that, a back passage behind the homes.
  It was also once much longer than it is today, running from St Mary’s Church in the north all the way down to the bottom of what is now the South Ealing Cemetery.
  OS Map 1893
  The al
  
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• Virgin Media O2 owner eyes broadband deals to take on BT’s Openreach

  09-03-2026 06:00 via ft.com
  Boss of joint owner Telefónica vows to ‘help’ its UK subsidiary better compete with BT’s Openreach network
  
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• Public access to the Foulness military firing range reopens next month

  06-03-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  If you fancy visiting a small museum in the middle of a military firing range, then you may want to put some dates into your diary.The Foulness Heritage Centre can be found deep inside a military firing range island on the far edge of Essex, facing out to the North Sea. Being military grounds, the whole island is off-limits, save for a few farmers who still live there, and on just one Sunday per month during the warmer seasons, one road opens to the public.
  After going through security and a 5-m
  
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• Tickets Alert: Easter tours of the House of Commons’ Speaker’s House

  06-03-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The now semi-regular opportunity to see inside the richly decorated Speaker’s House within the Houses of Parliament returns for Easter.
  The State Dining Room in Speaker’s House (c) UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor
  Speaker’s House can almost be described as a Palace within a Palace, as it’s exceptionally richly decorated and is both the private home of the Speaker of the House of Commons and a suite of state rooms used for events away from the main Parliamentary buildings
  
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• Tracey Emin’s Tate Modern blockbuster is packed with people – and discomfort

  06-03-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  One of the UK’s most famous artists has filled several rooms in the Tate Modern with a wide range of really quite uncomfortable art.This is the Tracey Emin blockbuster. An exhibition that will sell out regardless of what anyone says about it, because it’s a celebrity artist doing what she does best – painting and talking about herself. It’s not that she doesn’t have a remarkable and troubling story to tell, but if your entire art is about a genuinely hard life, then
  
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• The church with anti-aircraft guns: Kilburn’s unusual naval relics removed

  06-03-2026 10:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Not many people knew they were there, but two WWII-era naval training guns have been in Kilburn since the 1960s, but not any more.
  The Tin Tabernacle in 2021 (c) ianVisits
  You probably wouldn’t have seen the WWII guns because they were housed inside an old metal church – The Tin Tabernacle – which had been taken over by the Sea Cadets in the late 1940s and converted into a naval training vessel TS Bicester.
  And in the late 1960s, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) loaned them two la
  
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• Tickets Alert: Open days at the Postal Museum’s overflow warehouse

  05-03-2026 18:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The Postal Museum is reopening its overflow warehouse in Debden, giving visitors a chance to see objects too large for display at The Postal Museum’s central London site.
  Debden depot (c) Postal Museum
  The depot used to be open occasionally but stopped some years ago – and after a long gap will resume now.
  The visit will consist of an hour-long tour of the store, led by The Postal Museum’s curators, followed by half an hour of free time to explore the space and get up close to
  
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• Mayor steps in after Barnet Council blocks homes next to High Barnet tube station

  05-03-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A rejected plan to build homes next to High Barnet tube station has been called in by the Mayor of London for review.
  Initial concept image (c) Barratt London
  High Barnet is a northern terminus for the Northern line and sits at the bottom of a slope alongside sidings for used to store tube trains when not in use.
  The plan, put forward by TfL’s property arm, Places for London and Barratt Homes, would have seen approximately 300 new homes, including 40% affordable homes, built on the car par
  
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• Kew’s Victorian Palm House set for £60m overhaul after lottery funding boost

  05-03-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A major £60 million project to refurbish the Victorian Palm House at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew has moved a step closer after the scheme secured an initial £240,000 development grant and a potential £10 million delivery grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
  Palm House (c) ianVisits
  The funding will support plans to restore the 19th-century glasshouse, which sits at the heart of Kew’s UNESCO World Heritage Site but now requires substantial work after decades o
  
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• The posters that helped topple communism go on display in Westminster

  05-03-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A good protest is often remembered not just for what it demanded, but for how it looked – and a new exhibition explores the poster designs that helped define the pro-democracy protests sweeping Eastern Europe in the dying days of the Cold War.The slogans shouted in the streets, the posters pasted to walls, and the banners waved above crowds often outlive the policy arguments that inspired them. They distil complicated political struggles into a few sharp words and images.
  They are the visu
  
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• West London Orbital railway plans take another step forward

  05-03-2026 11:32 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Plans for the proposed West London Orbital railway linking Hendon and Hounslow have taken a step forward after £6.65 million was secured to progress the next stage of planning.
  West London Orbital map 2026 (c) TfL
  If built, the West London Orbital could run up to six trains an hour and provide ten new interchanges with rail and Underground services, alongside four new stations. Plans currently include four new stations at Old Oak Common Lane, Neasden, Harlesden and Lionel Road, while some
  
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• More people now qualify for discounted train travel as Disabled Persons Railcard expands

  04-03-2026 11:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The range of people who can qualify for discounted train tickets with a Disabled Persons Railcard has expanded this week.The new eligibility criteria for the Railcard will be phased in over two stages so that both visible and non-visible disabilities are better recognised and supported. They are designed to provide benefit when the evidence requirements are straightforward and to introduce assessment for more complex cases later in the year.
  New groups who are eligible include those who:Receive
  
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• Expecto Merchandum: Giant Harry Potter shop coming to Oxford Street

  04-03-2026 09:16 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Bad news for the dodgy souvenir shops selling questionable wizarding tat around central London, as an official Harry Potter shop is opening on Oxford Street.
  The Ribbon store and office development (c) Orms
  Joining the existing Harry Potter Shop at King’s Cross as the UK’s only official Harry Potter retail destination, the new store will open about halfway between Oxford Circus and Tottenham Court Road.
  The shop will also be hard to miss.
  Covering around 21,000 square feet across two
  
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• The curious case of the red corbel on Risinghill Street

  04-03-2026 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Stuck up high on the side of a 1970s block of flats near Angel tube station is a most peculiar sight – a red stone decorative capital or corbel.There’s nothing to indicate what it is or why it’s there, but a very plausible theory can be worked out.
  Fortunately, the first hint comes from a foundation-stone-style plaque beneath it, which doesn’t mention the red protrusion above but offers a hint of what is going on.The plaque states:
  ON THIS SITE STOOD THE OFFICE
  OF THE PEN
  
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• Barbican’s £231m renewal gets green light – with year-long closure planned

  03-03-2026 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A £231 million overhaul of the Barbican Arts Centre has been approved, with the City of London committing £191 million to the first phase of the major renewal programme.
  The remaining funding to complete the project will be sought through philanthropic and partnership support.
  Main foyer (c) ianVisits
  At the heart of the scheme is a substantial upgrade to the Barbican’s Conservatory. Longstanding maintenance and accessibility issues will be addressed, alongside the creation of
  
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• Shell shocked: Strawberry Hill plans to rebuild Horace Walpole’s lost garden seat

  03-03-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Strawberry Hill House & Garden has launched an appeal to restore Horace Walpole’s long-lost Shell Seat — once one of the most enchanting features of his celebrated eighteenth-century garden.
  Jean-Henri Müntz, View of the Shell Seat and Bridge at Strawberry Hill, 1755. Ink drawing. Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University.
  Designed as a place for rest, conversation and gentle spectacle, the Shell Seat was part of Walpole’s self-styled “land of beauties”, a lan
  
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• Mind the Art: Tube stations transformed into atmospheric paintings

  03-03-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A series of large-scale paintings depicting Tube stations, paired with the ambient sounds of the Underground, are on display at the Guildhall Art Gallery, creating an immersive plunge into the depths of London’s transport network.The paintings are by Jock McFadyen, accompanied by an ambient underground soundtrack by Jem Finer.
  One of the paintings is of Bank tube station, showing an advertising space that had the adverts scraped off, leaving behind almost abstract art in their wake. Many o
  
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• London Overground trains are calling at London Bridge station this Saturday

  03-03-2026 12:43 via ianvisits.co.uk
  This Saturday, there will be a fairly rare sight as London Overground trains will be calling at London Bridge station.Running all day on Saturday 7th March, the unusual London Overground service between London Bridge and West Croydon is needed because TfL engineering works are closing the Windrush line north of New Cross Gate.
  Edited TfL Overground map showing affected area
  Therefore, on Saturday only, between 7am and 10pm, a special train service will operate between London Bridge and West Croy
  
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