What surprised us most was how many of you, our paid readers, who insisted we don’t issue refunds, but instead hold on to your subs for the time being…

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But unfortunately, our apologies don't end there: we're sorry to say we're still not quite ready to return to the Spy.

We've tried not to go on about this too much, but for the past couple of years we've been fitting in the newsletter around our day jobs in journalism. We'd always hoped we’d grow to a point where we could go all in on the Spy. And we've come oh-so-close, with enough of you becoming paid readers to allow one of us to go part-time.

But despite that, we're feeling a bit burnt out. We've not quite hit the goal we first set out to achieve with the Spy, and the extra time we've got still doesn't feel enough to meet our initial vision ― a fully fledged London news mag. We've found ourselves chasing publication deadlines rather than stories, keen to ensure you had something in your inbox each week ― but it was never supposed to be this way. We always wanted to do local news that took time, focusing on a few things to go really deep on. But with our current resources, each week has felt too much like playing catch-up.

All of this is to say that our passion for reporting on London remains unchanged ― the issue for us is format and frequency. So we've made a decision to step back and spend some time figuring out where we go from here. We're not sure when we'll return, and how often we'll publish when we do. We're basically weighing up if we can continue the Spy in a more light form, publishing an in-depth feature or investigation maybe once or twice a month. But to be frank, we don't know if that's possible yet.

What's already clear to us, though, is that for our paid subscribers, we'd be publishing this newsletter in a way which doesn't fairly reflect what you signed up for. So in the next day or two, we'll be issuing refunds. Our understanding of Substack's system is that you'll be refunded pro rata, up until the point we first paused publication at the end of July. If you're a monthly subscriber, you'll get part of the month back, and if you're annual, a chunk of your year, depending on where you were in the cycle. But if that doesn't feel fair, shoot us an email and we'll refund you in full: londonspy@substack.com.

This would have been a much harder email to write if the London media scene was still in the sorry state it was in when we first started publishing in 2023. Thankfully, it's not. At a city-wide level, there's been the launch of The London Minute, London Centric and The Londoner, who've all really upped the game. And it's been great to see borough papers trying new things over the years ― like the Camden New Journal's and Islington Tribune's expansion into Substack. Behind the scenes, there's also been the establishment of the London Newsmakers, which has been organising and supporting the city's indie publications. We're confident we're leaving you in good hands.

In the meantime, we want to say a massive thank you to everyone who's supported the Spy over our two or so years — whether that be speaking to us for stories, giving feedback or just quietly reading along. If there's one thing we hoped we've achieved, it's showing that London news doesn't have to be boring, shallow or clickbaity. And that, instead, there are things going on in the city that are worth taking the time to dig into properly.

So it's goodbye for now, but hopefully not forever. After all, to borrow a well-worn phrase: if you’re tired of London news, you’re tired of life.

Cheers,

The Spy team 🕵️

Morning — the recent London heatwaves have taken a toll here at Spy HQ. All that sunshine has reminded us that we're in dire need of a summer hol, so we've decided to take a break from this newsletter until roughly the end of August. Hopefully we won’t miss much — it’s the silly season, after all — but if we do, we’ll have a bumper August round-up for you when we’re back.

For our paid readers: we'll be pausing your subscriptions while we're away, so you won't be charged until we're back. We’re also using the break to lay the groundwork for some longer reads — expect juicy deep dives from across the capital soon.

In the meantime: here's one last round-up before our break. We lead on the news that a High Court judge has ruled that the expansion of Wimbledon can go ahead.

Plus: the mayor's trip to Africa, facial recognition at Notting Hill Carnival, and the gayest supermarkets in London.

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What we've spied

🎾 South London locals have lost their High Court battle to stop the expansion of the Wimbledon tennis site. On Monday, a judge dismissed the case of campaign group Save Wimbledon Park, which had tried to argue that plans to build 39 new tennis courts were unlawful, as the proposed land — a former golf course — was protected. Instead, the judge sided with the All England Club (AELTC), which runs the annual Wimbledon tennis championships, and the Greater London Authority, which granted planning permission for the expansion last year. The AELTC says the expansion will allow Wimbledon to host its qualifying tournament on site and effectively extend the championships by a week. But Save Wimbledon Park say the fight isn’t over — they immediately announced their intention to appeal against Monday's verdict. The group, made up of local residents, said that the High Court's judgment "would, as it stands, set a worrying precedent for the unwanted development of protected green belt and public open spaces around London and across the country".

Related: in another case of sports vs green space, Tottenham Hotspur has won approval from City Hall to build a women's football academy on a park in north London. Around 16 hectares of Whitewebbs Park in Enfield will be fenced off as part of the plans, which have also been approved by the borough council. Locals had also tried to challenge the development in court, warning of the precedent, but they too lost.

One last thing on sport: the government has backed a London bid for the 2029 World Athletics Championship and World Para Athletics Championships, which would be held at the London Stadium in Stratford. No word, though, on whether the government is officially supporting City Hall's hopes of hosting the 2040 Olympics in the capital.

✈️ Sir Sadiq Khan and a delegation of 27 London companies have returned from a trade mission to Africa. The mayor spent last week visiting five cities across Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa, a tour that he described as "the first visit of its kind by a mayor of London — to bang the drum for the capital and further develop the strong ties between our countries". In Lagos he met representatives of the city's art and entertainment industries "to celebrate creative links and forge new partnerships"; in Accra he spoke of the benefits international students bring to London and announced City Hall will host its first-ever London-Africa business summit next year; and in Cape Town, he unveiled a new £1.4m funding pot to support community sport, Go! London. The mayor also announced that his upcoming memorial to the victims of the transatlantic slave trade in the Docklands will be part of a "network" of memorials that will also include works in Ghana and Sierra Leone. Not everyone was impressed with all the announcements — on a visit to east London, shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride said the mayor was "more interested in photo ops abroad than fixing problems at home".

Elsewhere for the mayor: an independent investigation has cleared Khan of wrongdoing in relation to his acceptance of free Taylor Swift tickets from a City Hall contractor last year. This week, the Greater London Authority's monitoring officer Rory McKenna concluded that Khan hadn't broken the GLA's code of conduct and that he exercised appropriate caution in accepting the £3,000 tickets from LS Events, which had previously won contracts to run events for the GLA. In response to the investigation's findings, a spokesperson for Khan said: "Any gift accepted by the Mayor is declared openly and transparently. In this case there was an administrative error which was quickly corrected". Among those calling for the investigation in the first place was Susan Hall, the leader of the City Hall Conservatives, who said this week: "I am disappointed that the investigation has finished this way, but ultimately it'll be up to Londoners to decide whether the Mayor acted appropriately in accepting free tickets from a firm that contracts with the GLA for tens of millions of pounds."

📹 Live facial recognition technology will be deployed at this year's Notting Hill Carnival, the Met Police has said. Cameras that scan for people marked as wanted will be placed on the boundaries of the carnival to catch "a tiny minority of individuals intent on causing serious harm to others" at the August Bank Holiday event, according to the Met's deputy assistant commissioner, Matt Ward. But the measure has drawn some criticism — Zoë Garbett, a Green London assembly member who has campaigned for more scrutiny of the Met's use of facial recognition, said: "How is it justifiable that people celebrating their heritage, dancing in the streets, wearing traditional clothing, attending with their family and friends, should be scanned and tracked like potential criminals? This feels rushed and massively targeted". The Met has also said it will be deploying 7,000 officers to the carnival as well as setting up screening arches at entry points to conduct stop and searches for knives and other weapons. It comes after carnival organisers recently secured more funding to bolster public safety.

👨‍⚖️ A man has been found guilty of murdering a London couple and dumping their remains in suitcases at a bridge in Bristol. On Monday, a jury convicted Yostin Mosquera, 35, of the double murder of Paul Longworth, 71, and Albert Alfonso, 62, while staying at their flat in Shepherd's Bush in July last year. Mosquera dismembered the couple then transported some of their remains to Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, where members of the public saw him dragging suitcases. Following the verdict, detective chief inspector Ollie Stride, who led the Met’s investigation, said: “This has been one of the most harrowing murders my team have ever investigated, a case that will stay with many of us for a long time. Paul and Albert were murdered in the most brutal and callous of ways in their own home. The investigation has been complex and intense and we worked tirelessly to build a catalogue of evidence which would ensure we brought Mosquera to justice."

💸 The price of London Oyster cards rose for the first time in a decade this week. As of yesterday (Tuesday), TfL has nearly doubled the price of a 60+ Oyster card, from £20 to £35, while Oyster cards for under 16s, students, apprentices and carers have all gone up by £1. TfL has blamed the price hikes on a significant rise in the projected costs of its concession schemes, particularly for over 60s, as explored in this recent deep dive in the Times newspaper. Alex Williams, chief customer and strategy officer at TfL, said: “We are fully committed to keeping travel in London affordable and accessible to everyone. Our fees for photocards haven’t increased in 10 years, and these changes will mean that we can continue to provide these concessions while ensuring that the fees better reflect our costs for operating the schemes.”

Elsewhere for TfL: a reduced timetable has now come into force on the DLR, following delays to the introduction of new trains on the line; plans to improve pedestrian and cyclist safety in Shoreditch, at one of “the most dangerous junctions in London”, have been unveiled; and new designs celebrating TfL’s 25th anniversary have been unveiled for buses, trains and trams.

🔍 And finally, we leave you with:

• The gayest supermarkets in London (TikTok)

• The big Tesco of big Tescos in London (TikTok)

• The annual Soho Waiters’ Race (TikTok)

• Mind the gap canyon (TikTok)

• The trial of pay-per-minute, street-legal golf carts in west London (www)

• Mice spotted at the original Ivy restaurant in the West End (BBC)

• Charli xcx marrying George Daniel at Hackney town hall (Daily Mail)

• A bird catching an eel in the canal in Hackney (TikTok)

• A man cuddling swans in Hyde Park (TikTok)

• How stolen Lime bikes became the new sound of the summer in London (Guardian)

• A report suggesting empty London office blocks should be turned into ‘late-night party zones’ (www)

• Kew Gardens’ tropical Palm House shutting for five years for a makeover (Guardian)

• Using the Lizzy line to charge your vape (TikTok)

• The Pearly King of FINSBURY (TikTok)

• Filming for HBO’s Harry Potter spotted at Embankment (TikTok)

• History clinging on for dear life in central London (TikTok)

So we thought we’d do some groundwork for HMRC. Using property sale records, we’ve found at least 3,800 homes in London that have sold for more than £6m — the sort of threshold being floated for a wealth tax. And if the rate is 2%, as is also being suggested, it could mean some eyewateringly steep bills for the capital’s super-rich. £1.36 million in the case of one Chelsea penthouse owner. And £63,000 for rapper Drake’s Hackney pad.

How a wealth tax would hit London property is after your round-up below.

Plus: Notting Hill Carnival saved, London’s first new park since the Olympics, and fanning yourself with a packet of ham on the Tube.

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What we’ve spied

🎊 Notting Hill Carnival will go ahead this year after almost £1m in funding was raised to improve security and safety. City Hall, Kensington & Chelsea council and Westminster council have pooled together to provide £958,000 for the carnival, which is scheduled for August 24 and 25. It follows a review earlier in the year that identified “critical public safety concerns” and led to carnival organisers warning the government that the event’s future could be in jeopardy without more funding to address the issues. Reacting to the new cash, carnival organisers said: “Although this support comes just weeks before the event, it is a much-needed and welcome commitment”. The Met Police, which has previously voiced concerns of a “mass casualty event” at the carnival, reacted with caution. Deputy assistant commissioner Matt Ward said: "We welcome the news that some additional funding has now been secured. However, we must acknowledge that with just six weeks to go a lot of hard work is still required to mitigate all of the risks identified."

💐 A memorial service marking 20 years since the 7/7 London bombings took place at St Paul’s Cathedral on Monday. Families of the victims and survivors were joined by politicians and the Royal Family at the event, which also included a wreath-laying ceremony at the 7/7 Memorial Gardens in Hyde Park. BBC London has been doing some excellent coverage in the run-up, speaking with survivor Dan Biddle, who was in the same carriage as one of the suicide bombers on the Circle line, as well as George Psaradakis, who was driving the number 30 bus when it was attacked.

🚇 TfL is offering sponsorship rights to the Waterloo & City line, in its latest attempt to generate cash from brand tie-ins. According to the Standard, TfL placed an advert for the potential deal to sponsor the two-stop shuttle service between Bank and Waterloo on LinkedIn, writing: “This goes far beyond a typical media opportunity. It’s full-line branding, from moquette seat fabric and signage to maps and experiential spaces, all right in the heart of London’s business district”. A spokesperson for TfL has since clarified that “no line or stations will be renamed” as part of any deal. It follows an increasing number of brand tie-ins on TfL’s network — in 2023, Bond Street was renamed to Burberry Street, and in 2024, Old Street became Fold Street in a tie-in with Samsung. Together, those two deals raised £500,000 for TfL. City Hall Lib Dems have been voicing criticism of the potential W&C deal and the impact branding will have on accessibility, with group leader Hina Bokhari saying: "This decision is a disgrace. Once again, neurodivergent and disabled Londoners have been sold down the river so TfL can chase corporate cash.”

Elsewhere in London transport: further sections of the Northern and Victoria lines now have access to 4G and 5G, and the government has paused the rollout of floating bus stops. London has 164 of the stops, which are designed to separate cyclists from buses, but they’ve been criticised as unsafe by accessibility campaigners.

🌳 London’s biggest new park since the Olympics has officially opened. Sir Sadiq Khan was among those attending the opening of Springfield Park in Tooting this week, which has been created as part of the redevelopment of Springfield University Hospital. The park is 32 acres and features a cafe, amphitheatre, fitness trail, play areas, ponds and 700 trees.

🔍 And finally, we leave you with:

• Fanning yourself with a packet of honey-glazed ham on the Tube (TikTok)

• Another day surviving central London with the looming threat of 1,000 Spanish children on a school trip (TikTok)

• Central line. 30 degrees. Spanish student group. Nightmare rotation. (TikTok)

• When the Central line starts to feel like that scene from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (TikTok)

• Getting a ride to the station from the local milkman (TikTok)

• Exploring an abandoned hospital in Finsbury Park (TikTok)

• Exploring an abandoned office in Stratford (TikTok)

• Exploring another abandoned office in central (TikTok)

• Breathtaking views while eating gelato on Camberwell Green (TikTok)

• Police being called out to enforce rules at Brockwell Lido (TikTok)

• Mile End station’s resemblance to the NYC subway (TikTok)

• A Pret on literally every corner (TikTok)

• POV Notting Hill Carnival is 45 days away (TikTok)

• When being cool in east London gets too much (TikTok)

• A series of London bus drivers navigating a sharp turn (TikTok)

• On flat-roofed pubs in London (TikTok)

• Ten magnificent London trees to seek out this summer (Londonist)

• The Shard slashing the price of tickets for its viewing platform (Time Out)

• Long summer days on Hampstead Heath in pictures (Guardian)

• Locals cashing in on Wimbledon (Reddit)

• The Wimbledon dog locking in (TikTok)

• Using Tube escalators as runways (TikTok)

• A cross-stitch of the London Underground map (Reddit)

From Mayfair mansions to Drake’s Hackney pad: How a wealth tax would hit London property

The accountants of London's super-rich may soon find themselves rather busy — there's increasing chatter about a UK wealth tax, a measure which would rake in a lot of cash from the capital.

Last week, former Labour leader Neil Kinnock called on the government to introduce a tax of 2% on wealth over £6m or £7m, after the welfare bill rebellion thwarted Rachel Reeves's attempt to save money through cuts to disability benefits.

If the government does adopt such a tax, then at least 3,800 property owners in London could automatically qualify, simply because their mega mansions and penthouses are worth so much.

Wealth taxes hit the rich in many ways — they're levied on financial assets, like shares, stocks and bonds, as well as the value of physical treasures like sports cars, yachts and art.

But the value of property assets also factors into wealth tax bills — which makes London easy pickings for HMRC.

We've arrived at our figure after examining sale records published by the Land Registry, which show that 3,888 residential properties in London have sold for at least £6m over the past few decades.

This is an underestimate, as there will be more London homes worth at least £6m which haven't been sold since the Land Registry's records began in the 1990s.

We've also not adjusted for house price rises. In reality, some older sales would probably now qualify for a wealth tax, once their value today is taken into account.

But the 3,888 homes we've uncovered offer a first glimpse at where a wealth tax would hit hardest in London.

The vast majority of eligible homes are in central and west London. Kensington & Chelsea has 1,616 properties sold for over £6m since 1996, while Westminster has 1,339.

But the madness of London property means some residents in less-central boroughs would also need to cough up under Kinnock's proposal.

That includes 368 £6m+ homes in Camden, 115 in Barnet, 86 in Merton, 77 in Wandsworth, 65 in Richmond, 46 in Haringey and 48 in Hammersmith & Fulham.

Other boroughs have only a handful— we found there was only one property sold for at least £6m in Enfield, Brent and Hillingdon since 1996.

That's not to say there wouldn't be wealth taxpayers in those boroughs — in practice, the £6m threshold could be crossed by all sorts of wealth, not just property.

But averaging across the capital, and taking a 2% rate, we estimate these 3,888 properties would lead to an average wealth tax bill of £80,800.

Here's some of the specific wealth tax bills we've estimated:

3 Grosvenor Square, Mayfair

Last sold for: £53,360,000 in August 2020

Wealth tax bill: £947,200

In August 2020, a residence at 3 Grosvenor Square – dubbed the “Ambassador’s Residence” in a redeveloped diplomatic building – sold for a whopping £53.4 million.

This Mayfair townhouse-turned-apartment is a stone’s throw from the current American embassy. It’s part of a former embassy compound that was converted into a 44-unit luxury complex complete with private concierge, spa, pool and even a replica of the White House Oval Office.

With a price tag that high, its annual wealth tax bill would approach £1 million – underscoring how a single Grosvenor Square home can embody a colossal concentration of London wealth.

Penthouse, The Glebe, Chelsea

Last sold for: £68,250,000 in October 2023

Wealth tax bill: £1,365,000

This Chelsea penthouse’s most recent sale price – £68.3m – is so jaw-dropping that its wealth tax bill alone would top £1.3 million.

The property is the crown jewel of The Glebe, a hyper-exclusive development of just nine residences built within a converted Edwardian school across 118,360 sqft.

Each home was lavishly outfitted by a different top designer, and the complex boasts over-the-top features like six private swimming pools and a giant two-ton retractable “guillotine” window – the largest of its kind in Europe and evocative of, er, the French revolution?

Apartment 6, Battersea Power Station Boiler House, Wandsworth

Last sold for: £12,382,860 in December 2022

Wealth tax bill: £127,657

Battersea Power Station’s transformation from a derelict industrial relic into a swanky address has minted flats like this £12.4 million apartment. Even in the comparatively “grittier” borough of Wandsworth relative to K&C and Westminster, a single unit here would carry a wealth tax levy of around £128k.

The wider £9bn development has been criticised as a “playground for the super-rich” — its rooftop “villa” apartments go for about £8 million each, and the on-site shopping includes Rolex and Cartier boutiques.

38 Avenue Road, St John's Wood, Camden

Last sold for: £38,500,000 in March 2019

Wealth tax bill: £650,000

This St John’s Wood mansion on Avenue Road illustrates the speculative frenzy of London’s elite property market.

It sold for £38.5 million in 2019 – nearly double its price just four years earlier – after developers expanded it into a mega-home with multi-level basements and deluxe amenities. In fact, the site was once an ageing, boarded-up house that kept rising in value even while derelict, flipping through multiple owners and gaining £20 million in just three years.

Now roughly 18,000 sq ft in size, the completed residence would face about £650k in wealth tax – a hefty bill, yet one commensurate with the extreme opulence (and investment potential) found on this “Billionaires’ Row” near Regent’s Park.

The Westminster Suite, St George Wharf Tower, Vauxhall

Last sold for: £15,000,000 in February 2015

Wealth tax bill: £180,000

One of London’s tallest purely residential skyscrapers, St George Wharf Tower in Vauxhall has been nicknamed the “tower for the toffs”, and its £15 million Westminster Suite shows why.

This 50-storey building (214 units in total) infamously includes zero affordable housing. Wealthy overseas buyers snapped up nearly two-thirds of the flats, often through anonymous offshore companies, turning the tower into a largely empty emblem of London’s housing divide.

For the owner of the Westminster Suite, they could expect a wealth tax bill of around £180,000.

1 Navarino Road, London Fields, Hackney

Sold for: £9,150,000 in September 2022

Wealth tax bill: £63,000

For evidence of the gentrification that’s gripped parts of Hackney, there’s 1 Navarino Road near London Fields, which sold for over £9m in 2022. Most sensationally, rapper Drake is rumoured to be the buyer, snapping it up at the same time as he was getting Netflix to re-air Hackney-based crime drama Top Boy.

This double-fronted Victorian villa was transformed into a six-bedroom party palace complete with an indoor pool, cinema, sauna, bar and gym. With an estimated £63k wealth tax hit, the property is an extreme outlier in Hackney – proof that pockets of extraordinary wealth have begun cropping up even in traditionally less-affluent quarters of London.

33 Bishops Avenue, East Finchley

Last sold for: £24,500,000 in July 2024

Wealth tax bill: £370,000

Bishops Avenue, which links Hampstead and East Finchley, is another of London’s ‘Billionaires’ Row’, but this mansion manages to stand out. The ten-bedroom property (replete with an underground swimming pool and private cinema) was swept up in an anti-corruption probe after UK authorities flagged it under an Unexplained Wealth Order, suspecting it was bought with questionable funds.

It turned out to be owned via offshore companies linked to the family of Kazakhstan’s former president, sparking a high-profile legal battle. The High Court ultimately quashed the UWO in 2020, citing a lack of evidence – but under a new wealth tax, this mansion would still carry a £370k charge. All that drama was apparently too much for the Kazakh elite — the house was sold for £24.5m almost a year ago to the day.

Penthouse, One Blackfriars, South Bank

Last sold for: £57,600,000 in October 2021

Wealth tax bill: £1,032,000

Our final tax bill involves another glassy tower — One Blackfriars, a 50-storey vase-shaped development by Blackfriars Bridge. It too epitomises the new breed of luxury skyscrapers redefining London’s skyline.

As we reported all the way back in June 2023, the building’s secretive penthouse deal fetched a record £57.6 million, the highest price ever paid for a UK high-rise flat. A similar valuation today would mean a wealth tax bill of £1m.

Like St George Wharf, One Blackfriars contains zero affordable housing — the developer even scrapped a promised public viewing gallery to make room for more sellable penthouse space. If only there were some other way of generating cash for projects like that…

Morning — “I’m literally from California and even I’ve heard of Hackney council’s dickish exploits.”

That’s how one commenter put it in an online discussion about Hackney’s long-running war on ravers — a reputation earned in the 1990s, when across the borough, sound systems were seized, squatters were evicted, and a beloved club was shut down.

But, more than two decades on, the fight is still going. Hackney council is preparing to extend a special order banning unlicensed music events in Hackney Marshes — the last holdout of east London’s once-thriving free party scene.

A deep dive into Hackney’s crackdown on illegal raves is below.

But first — a quick look at the big London stories this week:

🎾 TfL and Sir Sadiq Khan are facing criticism for Tube disruption during Wimbledon. Thousands of tennis fans were left waiting in hot carriages after four consecutive days of delays on the District line. Local MP Paul Kohler said the disruption “is an international embarrassment”.

🚲 The majority of London cyclists run red lights, according to a new survey. The stat comes from a study commissioned by e-bike provider Lime — overall, 52% of cyclists in the capital said they ran reds, rising to 58% of daily cyclists.

🔨 An exhibition honouring the Windrush generation in Brixton has been vandalised. The portraits, installed in Windrush Square, were found to have been smashed and covered in paint. The Friends of Windrush Square said the act was “not only an attack on public art but a blatant act of racial hatred directed at a community that has given so much to the life and spirit of the UK”.

🎥 The Met Police have now made more than 1,000 arrests using live facial recognition technology (LFR) in London. The force released the stats ahead of the imminent installation of the UK’s first permanent LFR camera in Croydon.

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‘Some things don’t change’: Hackney’s long war on illegal raves rumbles on

By the Spy

In November 1998, the techno duo Kektex released a track titled 'Hackney Council Are A Bunch Of C***s'.

It had been a bitter few years for east London’s rave community.

"I was just getting into this scene back then," recalls one veteran. "Hackney was known for its squat culture, both in terms of rent-free living and partying in abandoned buildings.

"This track epitomised the feelings of the people vs the inevitable crackdown by the council. It was a part of the fight against gentrification."

Tensions between ravers and the council had been building for a while. Back in 1994, a protest outside Hackney Town Hall against a new anti-rave law ended in clashes with police.

The council responded by seeking court injunctions to ban those arrested from council property — including public toilets — unless they got written permission.

After that anti-rave law came into effect, Hackney began cracking down on parties across the borough.

That included ones involving Kektex's two members — the producers D.A.V.E. the Drummer and Lawrie Immerson.

Events were broken up, sound systems were confiscated.

Then there was Hackney council's decision in 1997 to shut down Club Labyrinth in Dalston, an indoor rave venue.

Since the early 1990s the club had hosted acid house, jungle and hardcore nights. The Prodigy had held their first ever gig there.

But the council had redevelopment plans for the building, which it had owned since 1977. It repossessed the premises and the club was closed.

Together, these actions earned Hackney council a notorious reputation — not just in London, but globally.

"I'm literally from California and even I have heard of Hackney council's dickish exploits," wrote one commenter on the YouTube upload of Kektex's track.

Today, the site of Club Labyrinth is part of a glassy residential new-build surrounding Dalston Junction station — the Dalston Square development.

Many of the Hackney warehouses that hosted the free parties of the 1990s have gone a similar way.

But there's one last holdout of the borough's mostly killed-off scene — a pocket of unauthorised partying that's become the latest battleground in Hackney's long war on raves.

It's a collection of green spaces on the eastern edge of the borough's borders, just to the west of the River Lea: the parks and woods of Hackney Marshes.

Read more

Morning — New York and London have a lot in common: sky-high rents, unaffordable childcare, and a cost-of-living crisis that won’t quit. But one of them might be about to try something different.

Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist, won the Democratic nomination for New York mayor this week with a bold plan he claims will make the city cheaper to live in — from rent freezes to city-run supermarkets to free buses.

Sir Sadiq Khan has on occasion nodded to some of the same ideas — rent controls, universal schemes — but often in limited form. So how far could London go if it tried to follow Mamdani’s lead? We’ve taken a look after your round-up below.

Plus: Met officers sacked over Child Q search, pedicabs move closer to crackdown, and a JustEat driver saving stranded Thameslink passengers.

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What we’ve spied

👮‍♂️ The Met Police has sacked two officers who were involved in the strip search of a Black teenager known as Child Q at a Hackney school in 2020. Trainee DC Kristina Linge and PC Rafal Szmydynski were dismissed by the force this week after a disciplinary panel found they had committed gross misconduct when they strip-searched Child Q, wrongfully suspecting the 15-year-old girl was carrying drugs. The panel found the search was "disproportionate, inappropriate and unnecessary" and made Child Q feel humiliated and degraded. A third officer, PC Victoria Wray, was found by the panel to have committed misconduct and was served a final written warning.

The strip search of Child Q led to protests in Hackney, with hundreds gathering outside the local town hall in March 2022 with placards saying "no to racist police" and "hands off our children". The case was cited by Baroness Casey in her 2023 review into the Met, which found the force was institutionally racist. Casey wrote: "The prevalence of widespread racial disproportionality in intimate searches lends weight to the claim that ‘adultification’, where Black children are treated as adults and as a threat ... is present in the Met". However, according to the Met's statement on the dismissals this week, the disciplinary panel "did not find that the officers were influenced by Child Q’s race, nor that [she was] subject to adultification". But Met commander Kevin Southworth apologised for "the damage this incident caused to the trust and confidence Black communities across London have in our officers."

Worth reading: this piece by BBC London's Sonja Jessup, who's spoken to other teenagers in London about how the case has left them feeling unsafe.

Elsewhere in London policing: the Met has made a big show of stepping up patrols outside Dua Lipa’s Wembley concerts, in the same week an ITV News poll found 57% of women do not feel safe on the streets of London.

🚳 TfL is pushing ahead with its plans to regulate central London's pedicabs following a consultation that found overwhelming support for the crackdown. Over 95% of respondents said they agreed with TfL's plans to require pedicab drivers to pass UK criminal background checks and to introduce new controls on them playing music. 85% said they felt pedicab fares are too expensive — TfL is proposing to regulate fares with a new pricing structure, in the wake of reports of tourists getting massively ripped off. TfL is now developing more detailed proposals, which will go to further consultation later this year. In the meantime, here's our deep dive from last year on life as a London pedicab driver.

Elsewhere in London transport: TfL has announced plans to give the Pontoon Dock DLR station a major, “futuristic” upgrade; Bolt has announced it’s entering London’s e-bike market; and glass-floor cabins are coming to the London cable car.

🔴 Sir Sadiq Khan was among those who called on the government to rethink its changes to welfare cuts, before the U-turn on Friday. The mayor went public with his opposition on Tuesday, as more than 100 MPs threatened to vote against a bill in the Commons next week. Khan told the Guardian: “I have always said that more must be done to support people to go from relying on benefits to getting back into work. It’s vital for a healthy and prosperous London. What we can’t do is take away the vital safety net that so many vulnerable and disabled Londoners rely upon.” He also shared an analysis for the Greater London Authority that found Londoners would lose £820m in total as a result of the proposed changes to Personal Independence Payments and Universal Credit, with 360,000 mostly poor, vulnerable and disabled people facing a reduction in their incomes. Within the Commons, one prominent rebel was Dame Meg Hillier, MP for Hackney South and Shoreditch — she welcomed the government’s changes to the bill on Friday.

🏘️ A 'new town' of 25,000 homes is in the works in west London. Called Old Oak, the mega development will lie across three London boroughs — Brent, Ealing and Hammersmith & Fulham — and is due to be built within 30 years. The 70-acre site is currently brownfield and is near Old Oak Common Station, which will be connected to HS2. Plans for the development were outlined by Ealing council this week in collaboration with the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation, which has been set up by the mayor of London.

🔍 And finally, we leave you with:

• A JustEat rider throwing water bottles to Thameslink passengers stranded in the heatwave (TikTok)

• When it’s 30 degrees and Westminster council whips out the public urinals (TikTok)

• The London city farm being threatened with closure (Time Out)

• Chaka Khan headlining Pride in Trafalgar Square next weekend (BBC)

• Dominic Cummings backing Tom Skinner for London mayor (X)

• The winning designs for the Queen Elizabeth II memorial in St James’s Park (Secret London)

• A modernist Hampstead Heath walking tour (TikTok)

• The joy of making a man stand up for you on the Overground (TikTok)

• What if the Clapham Common bandstand was designed by other famous architects (TikTok)

• A once-in-a-year chance to visit Victorian ice wells in Kings Cross (Londonist)

• Criticism of the seating direction of London bus stops (TikTok)

• Gatecrashing a Hyde Park summer party with a random QR code (TikTok)

• The weird Burberry outlet store in Hackney (TikTok)

• Claims the drug ‘devil’s breath’ has been used on the Tube (TikTok)

Rent freezes, free buses, public supermarkets: Could a New York socialist’s ideas work in London?

“New York is too expensive. Zohran will lower costs and make life easier.” So runs one of the campaign taglines of Zohran Mamdani, who this week caused a major upset in the race to be New York's next mayor. A self-described democratic socialist, 33-year-old Mamdani beat former New York governor Andrew Cuomo for the Democratic nomination, despite only polling in the single digits a couple of months ago. He'll now face off against incumbent New York mayor Eric Adams in a full election in November.

Mamdani's success has been credited to his laser focus on cost-of-living issues and the role city government can play, particularly around housing, transport and childcare. Already, voices on the British left, like Owen Jones in the Guardian and James Meadway for Novara Media, are calling for Mamdani to be emulated over here. When it comes to London, the comparison is apt — our city gives New York a run for its money in terms of affordability.

So we thought, while everyone's still basking in the Mamdani afterglow, we'd dig into the details. Could Mamdani's ideas for New York also work in London? Here's how some of his key pledges stack up — taken from his online manifesto.

1. "Freeze the rent"

Mamdani's policy: Immediately freeze rents for all "rent-stabilized apartments" in New York.

Could it work in London? The idea of bringing rent controls to London is more mainstream than ever, but we're a long way off having a system like New York's.

More than two million New Yorkers live in so-called rent-stabilised apartments, around half of the city's households that rent. Though these flats are often owned by a private landlord, they can't set rent arbitrarily — instead, a board appointed by the mayor of New York sets an annual cap on rent rises. In the year to September 2024, this cap was set at a maximum of 3% for a one-year lease. These apartments also come with protections for tenants, so they can't be evicted without cause, and tenants also have the right to renew their lease. However, these flats can be hard to come by, with long-standing tenants often holding onto them for many years.

By contrast, the majority of Londoners in tenancies have a private landlord with rent driven by the market. In the year to November 2024, the average private rent rise in London was 11.6%, the highest on record and vastly outstripping NYC's rent cap. Londoners renting privately also have no right to renew their lease and, until the upcoming national ban comes into force, can be hit with Section 21 'no-fault' eviction notices and chucked out arbitrarily. To be fair, half of New York tenants who don't have a rent-stabilised flat are in a similar position.

Social housing in London, through councils or housing associations, is the closest equivalent to New York's rent-stabilised system, but that covers only a minority of London renters. Like New York, rent increases are capped, but in our case, to the annual inflation rate plus one percent, instead of being set by a city board. That led to some unusually high rent increases in social housing recently, given inflation hit 11%, though in 2022 the government introduced a temporary 7% cap. There is another key difference — social housing in London is means-tested and tied to low income. New York's rent-stabilised apartments are available to anyone who can find one.

One way of putting all this is: in New York, more renters live in regulated rental accommodation, but in London, low-income and vulnerable residents are more likely to be shielded from market rents.

Sir Sadiq Khan has previously backed the introduction of rent controls in London. In 2023, he made a speech calling on the then-Conservative government to "give me the powers to introduce a rent control system for London that would allow me to freeze rents" — very Mamdani. However, in the run-up to the 2024 general election and the Labour landslide, Khan went on record saying he's "not been able to persuade" Sir Keir Starmer to give him rent control powers. Instead, Khan is now pursuing a much smaller-scale scheme: 6,000 new rent-controlled homes by 2030. It's still quite different to NYC's system — Khan's homes will be limited to key workers like teachers and bus drivers, with rents set at 40% of their salaries and rises linked to wage growth.

Rent controls are popular among Londoners. A YouGov poll commissioned by the City Hall Greens in December 2023 found that 69% of Londoners supported rent controls, rising to 82% amongst Londoners who rent. The Greens are now the main voice in the London Assembly calling for city-wide controls, with assembly member Zoë Garbett publishing a report exploring how it could work this February.

2. "City-owned grocery stores"

Mamdani's policy: Set up city-owned supermarkets selling food at cost (no rent, taxes, or profit) to lower grocery prices.

Could it work in London? The idea of publicly-owned supermarkets might sound far-fetched in London — but it’s not without precedent, at least in principle.

Mamdani's plan in New York would see the city step in to directly operate grocery stores, bypassing landlords and profit margins to sell food closer to cost price. These stores would buy in bulk, distribute centrally and focus on under-served areas where private retailers won’t go. Think of it as a public option for food shopping. Other American cities, like Kansas and Atlanta, have already set up their own government-supported stores.

In London, there are some grassroots examples of food sold cheaply without a profit motive. Dozens of community pantries, like those in Lambeth or Barking and Dagenham, offer staple groceries at discounted prices to residents on low incomes. They’re usually run by volunteers and stocked with surplus food from supermarkets, often supported with cash from local borough councils. There are also co-operative buying schemes, like Cooperation Town, headquartered in Kentish Town, where neighbours club together to buy in bulk and save money. But these are small-scale, patchwork efforts — not city-run.

If City Hall were to take on a more direct role, it would be breaking new ground. There’s no existing structure for the mayor of London to operate retail outlets, and no budget earmarked for food purchasing or distribution. Public procurement rules, building leases, staffing, and regulatory hurdles would all need navigating. But supporters might argue: if councils can run leisure centres, public libraries and crematoriums, why not grocery shops?

Food prices have certainly become a flashpoint in London. Polling from the think tank Centre for London has found that the share of Londoners saying food is unaffordable has risen from 13% to 31% since 2020, and food inflation remains stubbornly high, even as overall inflation eases. Mamdani also points out that New York already spends public money subsidising private grocery store operators — London arguably does the same through housing benefits and hardship funds that are often spent just keeping people fed.

So while there’s no blueprint yet for a City Hall supermarket chain, Mamdani’s logic — using public infrastructure to lower living costs, rather than topping up private profit — might resonate in a capital which already has 300 food banks.

3. "Fast, fare free buses"

Mamdani's policy: Make all city bus services permanently fare-free and speed them up with dedicated lanes and signals.

Could it work in London? Buses are already free for some Londoners, but making it universal would require a lot of new funding. When it comes to speed, London buses are faster than those in New York, in part due to better bus infrastructure. But both are considered slow globally.

Buses are generally more expensive in New York than in London. In NYC a standard single fare costs $2.90, about £2.30, versus £1.75 in London after the most recent fare rise. However, in London, there's a daily cap on bus travel of £5.25, compared to no cap in New York. The Big Apple does have its own version of the Hopper fare, with free changes for two hours, which is actually more generous than our one-hour window.

London also wins on fare concessions — bus travel is free for: under 11s, under 18s with Zip Oyster photocards, over 60s with a 60+ Oyster, those of state pension age with a Freedom Pass and disabled Londoners. In New York, you have to hope your kids aren't too tall: free travel is only given to children under 44 inches (about 3ft 8 inches) with up to three per adult. But pupils travel free during school hours. For other groups — the elderly and the disabled — New York's transport authority only offers half-price fares.

Of course, the big impact of making buses free is the forgone fare revenue — and here's where it gets tricky for London. Mamdani recently told a Brooklyn newspaper that universally free buses would cost New York's Metropolitan Transport Authority (MTA) about $650m (approx £475m) a year. He's proposed tax rises on the wealthy to pay for it (more on that later).

But buses are way more popular in London, with around 6 million bus journeys per day, versus 1.4m per day in New York City. TfL leans far more heavily on fares for its revenue than New York’s MTA, making any move toward free buses a much steeper fiscal challenge. In its most recent accounts, TfL reported generating £1.6bn from bus fares, a far heftier money ask than what's facing Mamdani. With next to no tax-raising powers at City Hall, national government would have to stump up a subsidy. For context, £1.6bn is about the day-to-day spending costs of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and more than we spend per year on things like flood defences in England.

Take this back-of-the-envelope maths with a pinch of salt — we're not even estimating things like e.g. more people taking free buses instead of the Tube, in turn hitting another source of TfL's revenue.

One last thing, on Mamdani’s pledge to speed up buses. TfL's latest performance data shows an average London bus speed of 9.2mph in 2024/25. That compares to the latest figures from the MTA, which show an average speed of 8.2mph in New York. We're miles ahead on bus infrastructure, literally — London has at least 189 miles of bus lanes, versus 163 miles in New York.

But other cities put us to shame — Berlin clocks average bus speeds of 14mph, while in Seoul they run at 21mph. Most chalk it up to London and NYC’s relatively high levels of traffic congestion.

4. "No cost childcare"

Mamdani's policy: Provide free full-time childcare for all children aged six weeks to five years.

Could it work in London? Like New York, London has become a tough place to raise a family financially. But unlike New York, early education policy sits with national government, not City Hall.

Childcare costs are on par across the two cities these days — between $1,500 to $2,000 a month in New York, versus £1,200 to £1,600 a month in London. And there's evidence in both cities that families are being forced to move out over affordability. The enrolment rate across New York City's public school system has been falling year-on-year, and there are now 100,000 fewer primary school-aged children in the city since the pandemic. It's a similar story in London, where some boroughs have been closing schools due to steep drops in the number of pupils. Meanwhile, the charity the Felix Project published a recent survey that found one in four working London parents struggled to afford to feed their families.

There are some childcare subsidies in Britain, but it's national government policy and falls short of the pledge from Mamdani. In England, as of 2024-25, working parents get 15 free hours a week from their child's 9th month and 30 hours for three- to four-year-olds. Many don't think it's enough — just this week, there was a protest outside Hackney town hall over the council's decision to cut local nursery subsidies. Families say the cuts will 'force them to leave' the east London borough.

While Sadiq Khan isn't in charge of schools and nurseries in the same way as the NYC mayor, he's rolled out a few initiatives trying to tackle affordability for families. There is the mayor's free school meal program for all primary pupils, which he estimates saves families "over £500 per child per year". Khan is also exploring setting up 'baby banks' across the capital that could hand out free essentials for families. But financially, it’s a drop in the ocean compared to Mamdani's childcare policy. Speaking of…

5. "Taxes on big corporations and the wealthiest New Yorkers"

Mamdani's policy: Finance his policies by raising corporation tax and introducing a flat 2% tax on New Yorkers earning above $1 million.

Could it work in London? On the one hand, the mayor of London lacks many of the tax-raising powers Mamdani would have at his disposal if he becomes NYC mayor. On the other, Mamdani doesn’t actually control the taxes he’s pledged to increase — he’s instead said he’s committed to trying to convince the state government to go along with his plans.

According to a costing document put out by his campaign, Mamdani plans to raise $10bn to pay for his policies. $5bn would come from raising New York state’s corporation tax to 11.5%, while $4bn would come from a 2% income tax on millionaire New Yorkers. Neither of these taxes is controlled by the NYC mayor — it’s up to New York State, and Mamdani will need to get sign-off from the governor and state legislature.

It’s not too dissimilar to the position Sadiq Khan finds himself in with the new Labour government. Khan has long argued that City Hall should have more control over how London raises and spends its money. At present, the mayor’s fiscal powers are limited to setting a small slice of council tax, adjusting business rates in certain zones, and deciding how much drivers pay in the Congestion Charge and ULEZ. There’s no ability to tax income, profits or wealth — even indirectly. Any meaningful redistribution would have to come via national government.

In that sense, Mamdani’s proposals are closer to London’s reality than they first appear: big ideas, pinned on a mayor without the formal powers to make them happen.

That hasn’t stopped Khan trying. In the past few months, he’s voiced his support for a “tourist tax” — a nightly levy on hotel stays and AirBnBs, common in cities like Paris and indeed New York. Labour didn’t include it in their general election manifesto, but chancellor Rachel Reeves has said she’s “open to exploring” local fiscal powers as part of a broader devolution push underway in England at the moment.

More controversial are calls to tax wealth. In November 2023, Khan was pressed on this by Green London Assembly member Zack Polanski, who’s since launched a bid to lead his party nationally. Khan responded that he supported progressive taxation in principle, but was quick to add that decisions about taxing the rich weren’t in his gift. Since then, he's largely avoided the topic.

That said, in May, Khan said he supported allowing London boroughs to charge more than double council tax on second homes and empty investment properties. Essentially, a tax on wealth, though with a specific aim of alleviating London’s housing crisis. “I am not being funny, if you can afford a flat and leave it empty, you can pay double council tax,” he told LBC radio. “I think boroughs should be allowed to charge much, much more. We’re lobbying the Government to give councils more powers to dis-incentivise leaving a property empty.”

Still, it's a long way from Mamdani’s vision of the mayor's office as a redistributive force — taxing the rich to fund universal public services. Unless Whitehall gives City Hall sweeping new powers, the political will to spend may exist in London, but the legal tools don’t — yet.

Morning — London’s AI and digital economy is booming, but not without cost.

Tower Hamlets council is warning of a looming electricity shortage, driven by a surge in energy-guzzling data centres on the Isle of Dogs. Without urgent upgrades to the grid locally, major housing schemes could be stalled for a decade or more, the council’s officers have warned.

It has echoes of the crunch already seen in west London, where data centre growth along the M4 corridor forced City Hall to step in and freeze housebuilding plans. Tower Hamlets, perhaps learning from that fallout, is already trying to act — with plans to impose stricter power limits on any new facilities.

How data centres could overload the Docklands is after your round-up below.

Plus: Notting Hill Carnival ‘in jeopardy’, 32C temps recorded at Kew, and the final boss of Soho pop-ups.

What we’ve spied

🔊 The organisers of Notting Hill Carnival have warned that the festival’s future is ‘in jeopardy’ if it doesn’t receive funding to address safety concerns. In a letter leaked to the BBC, carnival chair Ian Comfort has written to culture secretary Lisa Nandy to request more cash in order to keep “safeguarding the future and public safety of this iconic event". It follows the findings of an independent safety review commissioned by carnival organisers and paid for by City Hall as well as Kensington & Chelsea and Westminster councils which identified “critical public safety concerns” over crowd management. If Nandy grants the cash, it would be the first time national government has funded the carnival. The Met Police has also expressed concern about the need for extra security at the festival, having previously said it feared a “mass casualty event”. Sir Sadiq Khan said he shared police concerns, particularly around the risk of a crowd crush. Organisers now await a response from the government.

🥵 London is officially in the midst of a heatwave — temperatures have exceeded 28C three days in a row since Wednesday. A temperature monitor in Kew Gardens clocked in at 32.2C on Thursday, the highest in the UK in 2025 so far. The Met Office has issued an amber heat-health alert until Monday, and today (Saturday) is set to be another scorcher, with a high in London of 32C. The heatwave has led TfL to activate its hot weather plan on the Tube and to urge passengers to carry water. Meanwhile, London Fire Brigade has issued a wildfire warning.

🦶 Sir Sadiq Khan is moving ahead with Oxford Street pedestrianisation, after a consultation found 63% of Londoners support barring traffic from the flagship shopping street. The mayor says more detailed proposals on how he intends to pedestrianise Orchard Street to Great Portland Street will be published later this year, while a new mayoral development corporation will be established by 1 January 2026. This corporation will give Khan the legal power to pedestrianise Oxford Street by creating a zone where he’s in charge of planning, instead of the local borough council, Westminster.

Also, on Thursday, the mayor revealed the locations set to receive funding to support al fresco dining and drinking under his recently announced Summer Streets scheme. The winning spots are:

• St Martin’s Lane in Westminster: The West End street, near Covent Garden, will be car-free from 11am to 11pm every day, with al fresco licenses available for up to 34 businesses.

• Rivington Street and Redchurch Street in Shoreditch: “For the first time ever” bars and restaurants on the streets will be able to offer outdoor dining and drinking until midnight, and will be car-free on Fridays and Saturdays.

• Atlantic Road + a “summer zone” in Brixton: Atlantic Road will be getting more “car free days” on select weekends through to October “to support local dining and entertainment”. In addition, central Brixton is getting its first “summer zone”, which will offer open-access outdoor seating on Saturday evenings “where people can relax with food, enhanced by live performances, workshops and Brixton’s market traders”.

• Francis Road and Midland Road in Leyton: The former is having its car-free hours extended, while the latter is getting further outdoor dining.

The schemes have been welcomed by the hospitality industry — Michael Kill, CEO of the Night Time Industries Association, said: “The launch of al fresco dining in key areas like Brixton, Shoreditch, Leyton and the West End marks the beginning of an important initiative that supports the recovery and long-term growth of London’s nightlife and hospitality sector.”

🚇 The rollout of new trains for the Piccadilly line has been delayed by up to a year. The 94 fully walk-through trains with air con and CCTV were meant to be rolled out by late 2025 to replace the existing 1970s fleet, but TfL has now announced they’re coming in the second half of 2026. Testing for the trains is beginning this summer. Worth watching: in late 2023 transport YouTuber Geoff Marshall was flown out to a test track in Germany for an inside look at the new trains. Elsewhere in transport: Lime and Forest have been fined over £30,000 for abandoned e-bikes, following the introduction of TfL’s new enforcement policy on main roads last year.

📊 A recent poll suggests that more Londoners than not think gentrification is a “good thing”. Pollster YouGov published a survey earlier this week that found 37% of Londoners think gentrification is a “fairly” or “very good thing”, versus 27% who think it’s fairly or very bad. There was quite a lot of uncertainty though — 36% of Londoners said they didn’t know. But overall, YouGov’s poll found that London is more positive about gentrification than any other English region. The national split was 27% good vs 24% bad.

🎾 Campaigners in southwest London have raised £200,000 to fight the expansion of Wimbledon. The group Save Wimbledon Park is hoping to stop the All England Lawn Tennis Club’s plans to build 39 new courts and an 8,000-seat stadium on protected open land on Wimbledon Park. The plans were approved last September, but a two-day judicial review is set to take place later this year.

🌋 Locals in Rainham have won a court case over an illegal landfill that keeps spontaneously combusting — the notorious Launders Lane. On Tuesday the High Court ruled that Havering council’s decision to designate the dump as uncontaminated was "premature and unlawful", in a win for residents who’d brought the challenge under the banner of Clean the Air in Havering. The council will now need to reassess if the site is contaminated. For years now, the landfill has been catching fire during summer, and locals fear the smoke is having an impact on their health, especially since no one quite knows what’s buried at the site. One of our first ever Spy features was on the debacle, which dates back to dodgy dumping during the London Olympics — read it here.

🔍 And finally, we leave you with:

• The final boss of Soho pop-ups (TikTok)

• The billionaire landlord locked in a David v Goliath battle for London’s West End (Guardian)

• Netflix’s new documentary on the Grenfell Tower fire (Netflix)

• The curious case of Sadiq Khan’s new nightlife adviser (London Centric)

• The best lidos and outdoor swimming pools in London (Time Out)

• Southwark was the ‘Beverly Hills of Londinium’ (Times £)

• A new riverside walking and cycling route launching in north London (Time Out)

• Watching your sauna arrive from the platform (TikTok)

• An average Monday in Hackney Wick (TikTok)

• London’s lost Brutalist icon (TikTok)

• £1,700,000 for a Highbury warehouse (TikTok)

• £12,000,000 for Sting’s former Hampstead mansion (Standard)

• Someone leaving a wad of cash by Tower Bridge (TikTok)

• Guerilla gardening at Walthamstow Central station (TikTok)

• Sadiq Khan asking AI for his drag name (TikTok)

• Hounslow > south of France (TikTok)

• The odd thing about Hounslow West (YouTube)

A data centre boom could stall housing in the Docklands for a decade

By the Spy

In London’s Docklands, the water that once powered shipping and trade now cools racks of blinking servers.

At Cloud House — a 40,000 sq ft data centre owned by Digital Realty — an elaborate system of pipes connects to Millwall Inner Dock.

Water is pumped up from the dock, fed through tubes in the server halls, then returned — all to keep the tech running at the optimal temperature.

"A combination of sensors and controls ensure that only the required volume of water is drawn, reducing our energy consumption and minimising our waste," explained a lead engineer in a recent promo video.

It's a key benefit of building a data centre on the Isle of Dogs, a peninsula once defined by shipping and heavy industry, now reinventing itself as a hub for the digital economy and AI.

Water aside, there's another big appeal: proximity to Canary Wharf and its banks, hungry for fast internet and computational might.

Business is booming — more than 20 data centres now operate on the Isle of Dogs and nearby South Poplar, according to one industry directory, many having come online in just the past few years.

But for all the innovation, a basic fact remains: data centres require an immense amount of power to run.

And the recent boom is threatening to push the local electricity supply to the limit.

So much so that there is now a "severe" risk of a lack of power for future housing in the Docklands, according to Tower Hamlet council documents uncovered by the Spy.

Read more

Morning — one of London’s most hard-bargaining workforces has won what many others can only dream of: a four-day week, on full pay.

Today we’re bringing you an internal TfL memo we’ve acquired under Freedom of Information laws that lifts the lid on plans for a four-day week for Tube drivers. There’s been a lot of technical jargon and diagrams to wade through, but it’s a clear gain for drivers: an extra four and a half hours off the clock each week.

But beyond that, the document sheds light on how TfL plans to cope with fewer working days per driver, and what that means when things go wrong on the capital’s transport network. That includes new restrictions on drivers — as well as a new fleet of personal iPad-like devices.

All that and more is below.

But just one thing first: It can be a right faff doing these FoI stories — carefully writing the request, waiting weeks for a response, only to be rejected. But for us, publishing these otherwise private documents is what local journalism is all about. So please consider becoming one of our paid subscribers — for a couple of quid a month, you give us the time we need to dig.

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What a four-day week for Tube drivers actually looks like

By the Spy

The rollout of a four-day week for Tube drivers could begin “early next year”, the Spy can reveal, as we disclose an internal TfL memo laying out major changes to work on the Underground.

Under TfL’s current offer, Tube drivers will move to new rotas with three rest days, and their overall time at work will be reduced by 4 and a half hours a week.

Instead of working five shifts a week, each lasting 7 hours and 42 minutes, drivers will begin working four shifts a week, each lasting 8 hours and 30 minutes, according to the memo.

Though daily shifts will be longer, in total it means Tube drivers will see their time at work reduced from 38.5 to 34 hours each week.

The memo also reveals that the rollout of a four-day week will be staggered line-by-line on the Underground, and that drivers will be paid for their daily 30-minute lunch breaks for the first time.

The proposed changes are the result of an offer made by TfL to driver unions to avoid major strikes on the Underground network last year.

The offer was first made in general terms in a letter sent by TfL to the unions in November 2024, but earlier this year London’s transport body provided unions with more detail of how a four-day week will actually work.

The Spy has acquired a TfL presentation laying out these details, via a Freedom of Information request.

However, only one of the two unions that represent Tube drivers has formally accepted TfL’s offer.

Members of ASLEF, the union that represents the majority of drivers, voted to accept the offer this April.

By contrast, members of the RMT, the other union representing drivers, voted to reject the offer.

A spokesperson for the RMT told us this was because the offer did not meet the union’s expectations around “excessive night working, which is seriously damaging our members’ health”.

ASLEF, however, told us it was optimistic the four-day week would be rolled out soon.

Finn Brennan, ASLEF’s London organiser, said he expected that “the first new rosters will be introduced early next year".

He added: “The agreement means a real improvement in quality of life for our members while reducing fatigue and introducing new technology that will mean a better and more reliable service for passengers.”

Our summary of the key slides in the TfL memo, plus a link to a full PDF, is below.

Read more

Morning — a quiet cutback, then a messy fallout. Newham council has approved a plan to slash sick pay and holiday for hundreds of school cooks and cleaners — many of them low-paid women from ethnic minority backgrounds. The decision, buried in redacted documents and pushed through under pressure, is aimed at covering losses from the borough’s free school meals scheme. But it hasn’t gone unnoticed: councillors raised the alarm, City Hall is facing questions, and even the mayor of Newham admitted unease. Our report on the cuts hitting school cooks and cleaners in east London is after your round-up below.

Plus: DLR and Bakerloo extensions on the line, Apple and Google under fire over phone theft, and an overlay of the Great Fire of London on the city today.

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What we’ve spied

💸 The fate of two major transport projects in London is on the line today, as chancellor Rachel Reeves prepares to deliver her spending review. City Hall has asked Reeves for funding for extensions to the DLR and the Bakerloo line, as well as more cash for the Met Police. But, according to a Guardian report, Sir Sadiq Khan’s office isn’t hopeful. A source close to the mayor tells the paper he’s “furious” with Reeves over her lack of spending plans for the capital. The source goes on to say it would be “unacceptable if there are no major infrastructure projects for London announced in the spending review and the Met doesn’t get the funding it needs”.

Khan’s team has attempted to argue that extending the DLR to Thamesmead and the Bakerloo line further into south London is critical to spurring on more housing development in the capital. But, based on what’s been trailed so far, it appears Reeves is prioritising projects in cities other than London. The lack of cash comes on top of more bad news for the DLR earlier this week: new trains that were meant to be introduced on the line in April 2024 have been delayed, leading to a temporary reduction in timetables. And in perhaps a sign of pessimism over the prospects of a Bakerloo extension any time soon, this week TfL announced that the ‘Bakerloop’ express bus service tracing its planned route will launch this autumn.

Meanwhile, London’s borough councils have publicly called on Reeves for more cash to support pupils with special educational needs and disabilities. In a statement published ahead of the spending review, London Councils warned that 16 of the capital’s 33 local authorities “are at heightened risk of bankruptcy because of insufficient schools funding”.

Reeves is due to announce her spending plans at roughly midday today.

📣 Elsewhere in London transport: TfL has once again become embroiled in a Tube advert controversy. This time TfL is coming under fire for its decision to ban adverts campaigning for the decriminalisation of abortion submitted by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS). BPAS’s ad campaign featured case studies of women investigated by police or prosecuted after terminating their pregnancies, as well as QR codes calling for people to lobby their MP to support decriminalisation ahead of a vote in Parliament expected in the coming weeks. But TfL rejected the ads, citing how the “serious allegations” made about police could bring the Met and City Hall into disrepute. TfL’s ban may be overturned, however — Khan has now stepped in to order an urgent review of the decision, following BPAS accusing TfL of “silencing the voices of women”. Just a couple of days later it emerged TfL has banned another ad — this time one by the Save the Children charity calling on the government to scrap the two-child benefit cap. In this case, TfL deemed the ad to be in breach of its rules on political advertising.

📱 MPs have accused Apple and Google of deliberately stalling the rollout of an anti-phone theft feature that’s been requested by London police. 18 months ago the Met Police asked the two tech giants to stop stolen phones from being able to access cloud services like iCloud and Google Drive — a move that would effectively brick the devices, and in turn make them less valuable to thieves. But despite soaring phone theft figures in London, the feature has yet to be implemented, and the delay was criticised by a group of MPs last week when they held a meeting with Apple and Google representatives. During the meeting of the House of Commons tech committee, Lib Dem MP Martin Wrigley went as far as to say that the two companies had avoided adding the feature in order to protect their bottom lines. He said: “Apple and Google continue to make profit and continue to sell more phones because these phones are not removed from the system”. In response, Apple and Google representatives pointed to existing anti-phone theft features on their devices and raised concerns about the potential for accidental user lockouts or even blackmail. More tech details on the Met’s request are in this article in the Register.

🚗 Lambeth council has been ordered to immediately remove a low-traffic neighbourhood (LTN) in West Dulwich by the High Court, following its defeat in a landmark case brought by residents last month. The council has also been denied the right to appeal the ruling, which found that the way Lambeth implemented the south London LTN in 2024 was unlawful, and has been ordered to pay £34,000 towards the legal costs of residents who challenged it. But the residents aren’t done — they’re now calling on Lambeth to refund fines it issued in relation to the LTN. “This ruling is definitive — the LTN was unlawful,” said a spokesperson for the West Dulwich Action Group. “The Council has lost, has been denied permission to appeal, and must now face the consequences of what that means. At the top of that list is the £1 million-plus in fines it issued while the unlawful scheme was in place. We now call on Lambeth Council to clarify whether it will refund those fines. This is not just about legality — it’s about fairness and public trust. If the law was broken, the money should be paid back”. Reacting to the latest High Court ruling, a spokesperson for Lambeth said the council “remained committed to delivering our programme to reduce road danger for those most at risk and make our streets calmer, more community-friendly places".

🏚️ Residents of a development in Bermondsey have been awarded £550,000 in compensation over fire safety defects in the cladding on their flat block. The Exchange development, built by the housing association Notting Hill Genesis and the construction company United Living, was one of thousands of developments identified as having similar building safety issues to Grenfell Tower following the fire in 2017. In 2020 the Exchange’s residents began a legal case to ensure remedial work was carried out and that they wouldn’t be footing the bill. They have now won their case, and compensation is being awarded to 76 leaseholders and freeholders in the block. “We are pleased that NHG and United Living have at last done the right thing, but disappointed it took so long,” said one resident, Kyle Taylor. “We bought our homes in good faith and were devastated to discover they were not safe because of cost-cutting construction.” The Exchange residents say they hope their case will set a precedent for others living in blocks with unsafe cladding.

🔍 And finally, we leave you with:

• The Great Fire of London overlaid on the modern city (Reddit)

• Intense AI adverts on the Underground (TikTok)

• The mother of all Tube gaps (TikTok)

• A tuff Lime bike drift (TikTok)

• A ‘fox infestation’ on the roof of Google’s £1bn King’s Cross office (Guardian)

• The story behind the design of London’s Standard Hotel (TikTok)

• A heron interrupting a London lunch (TikTok)

• The 25th anniversary of the Millennium Bridge (BBC)

• Frustration that London women’s football is too ‘family-friendly’ (TikTok)

• Frustration with the amount of rubbish left on Regent’s Canal (TikTok)

• Uber Eats taking the scenic route in Hackney (TikTok)

• Plans to turn Grosvenor Square into a ‘wildlife haven’ (BBC)

• Testing a London cabbie’s knowledge (TikTok)

• The first photos of deer returning to Greenwich Park (BBC)

• A miniature Tube set created for a music video (TikTok)

• The ‘unstoppable’ invasion of parakeets (TikTok)

• Checking Central line privilege (X)

Amid funding shortfalls, the cost of London school meals falls on catering staff

By the Spy

An east London council is stripping back sick pay and holidays for its school cooks and cleaners, despite concerns the cuts will disproportionately affect "minoritised women".

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Morning — it was supposed to be the start of a culture reset. But three years on from a damning review into misogyny and racism at the London Fire Brigade, progress is stalling. Despite pressure from City Hall, fire chiefs have now rejected calls to raise their recruitment targets for women and ethnic minorities. We’ve seen the letter — and the pushback. A snubbed DEI drive in London’s fire service is after your round-up below.

Plus: Khan calls for weed decriminalisation, Jenrick chases fare dodgers, and swingers descend on a stately home in south London.

In case you missed it: last Saturday we published a big read on London’s helicopter wars. For years Battersea and Fulham residents have been rowing with London Heliport, which they claim has turned the skies above their homes into a fast lane for the rich. But now things have really boiled over — heliport management are quitting a group meant to hold them accountable.

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What we’ve spied

🚗 Campaigners have told the Spy that Lambeth plans to appeal a landmark court ruling over a low-traffic neighbourhood (LTN) in Dulwich — as we reveal the council’s legal bill from the case. Earlier this month the High Court handed victory to the West Dulwich Action Group (WDAG), a group of residents who had taken Lambeth to court over a controversial LTN that was being trialled for 18 months starting September 2024. Lambeth said the scheme would “reduce road danger” in West Dulwich as well as improve local health, but on May 8 the High Court ruled the LTN trial was unlawful because the council had failed to fully consult residents beforehand. It was the first time an LTN had been nixed by a court in the UK, and the ruling has significant implications for other London boroughs looking to implement one.

While WDAG celebrated the ruling, it’s also criticised Lambeth’s decision to fight the case as “a shameful misuse of resources”. And according to a response to a Freedom of Information request we received this week, the legal bill is already hefty. It reveals that Lambeth has so far spent £24,042 on barristers from Landmark Chambers in relation to the case, plus £303 in court fees. The full cost of Lambeth’s defence is unknown, however — the council said it was unable to provide a figure for the effective cost of the time spent on the case by its internal legal staff.

Reacting to the FoI, WDAG spokesperson Almira Mohamed told the Spy:

We are saddened that, rather than coming to the table to address our genuine concerns, Lambeth council finds it easier to spend public money fighting its own residents. There are no winners in this situation. Taxpayers fund both sides — first through the council’s legal costs, then again as we raise money to challenge them in court.

All we’ve asked for is a proper discussion about the real impact of the West Dulwich LTN, which we believe increases pollution, raises hazards on already overburdened boundary roads, and disproportionately affects poorer communities who live on the boundaries, and a large number of commuters, including 6,300 schoolchildren who go to school or commute through these roads daily.

Mohamed also said: “Lambeth is seeking to appeal the judgement, spending even more of our money.” When we asked the council, its press office didn’t deny this — instead referring us to a statement from the council’s leader, Rezina Chowdhury. She said: “We acknowledge the court’s decision and are carefully considering the implications of this judgement; we will provide further updates in due course. The current trial scheme in West Dulwich will remain in place in the meantime, while we await further directions from the court.”

🌿 Sir Sadiq Khan has backed decriminalising the possession of small quantities of cannabis for personal use. “We need fresh thinking on how to reduce the substantial harms associated with drug-related crime in our communities,” the mayor said on Wednesday, following the publication of a report by the London Drugs Commission, which Khan established in 2022 to examine the impact of cannabis laws in the UK. The commission’s report made 42 recommendations, which include:

• Removing natural cannabis from the Misuse of Drugs Act

• Eliminating the smell of cannabis as a sole justification for police stop-and-search

• Enhancing public health services and education related to cannabis use

Lord Charlie Falconer, a former Labour cabinet member who Khan appointed to lead the commission, said the current law around cannabis “doesn’t work” and that cannabis-related stop-and-search “is disproportionately used against young black men”.

However, Khan doesn’t have the power to decriminalise cannabis as London mayor, and later in the week deputy prime minister Angela Rayner said the UK government had no plans to change drug policy. Khan’s idea also failed to get the backing of Met Police chief Sir Mark Rowley, who said a change in law is “not something we’re calling for”. Former Met detective Dominic Adler went further in an article for UnHerd, writing: “The politics behind this review are typical of London’s mayor: performative, headline-grabbing, problematic for policing and designed to garner support from Labour’s base, especially younger voters.” Khan’s ideas did get the backing of Brian Paddick though, a senior Met officer who in 2001 trialled cannabis decriminalisation in Lambeth. He told the Guardian that the scheme helped ease community tensions and gave officers more time to tackle more serious criminals.

🏃 TfL has told its staff not to risk stopping fare dodgers, after a video of shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick stopping fare dodgers went viral. On Thursday Jenrick posted a video to X of him confronting people who had gone through the barriers at Stratford station without paying, captioning his post with: “Sadiq Khan is driving a proud city into the ground …. He’s not acting. So, I did.” Now viewed 12.5m times, the montage sees Jenrick following the dodgers, faces blurred, and asking: “Do you think it’s all right not to pay?”. And in one seemingly tense encounter, Jenrick asks: “You’re carrying a knife, did you say?” Jenrick later claims in the video that nearly one in 25 passengers fare dodge on London transport — which is basically true, with the latest data from TfL showing a fare evasion rate of 3.4% last year. The official TfL account responded directly to Jenrick’s video on X, saying: “Fare evasion is unacceptable. That is why we are strengthening our capability to deter and detect fare evaders, including expanding our team of professional investigators to target the most prolific fare evaders across the network.” The Telegraph has followed up with a report claiming that TfL has been telling staff they don’t have to confront fare dodgers if they don’t believe it’s safe to do so.

💰 There’s been lots more London transport news this week, like: TfL has proposed increasing the capital’s congestion charge by 20% to £18 from January 2026, the first rise since June 2020. TfL is also scrapping the exemption for electric vehicles, though it’s offering a general 25% discount and a specific 50% discount for HGVs and vans, amid concern about disincentivising companies from transitioning to cleaner vehicles. A public consultation on the charge proposals is now live until August 4. Meanwhile: TfL has published data showing road casualties in London have fallen significantly, while a restructuring of some bus routes in central London has been confirmed. Lastly: a group of anti-ULEZ protestors found guilty of harassing Sir Sadiq Khan have had their convictions quashed, after the Crown Prosecution Service received “new information” which undermined evidence in its case.

🗺️ The MP for Romford has called for the borough of Havering to secede from London. Andrew Rosindell has been campaigning for the outer London borough to become part of Essex instead, as part of wider government plans currently underway to reorganise local government in England. Rosindell made a speech in the House of Commons earlier this month outlining his case: “Romford is geographically Essex. We are historically Essex. We are culturally Essex and our social, sporting and commercial connections have always looked towards the county of Essex.” He also reeled off some gripes about being part of Greater London, including a lack of police, ULEZ and what he called “planning interference” from the London mayor. A minister for local government, Jim McMahon, gave an open-ended reply to the idea: "It is currently not envisaged that the boundaries of Greater London will be changed, or that the proposed Greater Essex mayoral combined county authority will be expanded, although the latter would be possible at a later date should it be locally desired and should statutory tests be met."

🪦 Families with relatives buried in Highgate cemetery have hit out at a plan to exhume remains in order to build a toilet block. As reported by the Guardian, the bereaved families, including those of the actor Tim Pigott-Smith and sociologist Stuart Hall, say they’re outraged by the plans, which are part of an £18m redevelopment of the cemetery. Highgate has been getting all sorts of bad press lately — last year, proposals to sell graves near its most famous resident, Karl Marx, for £25,000 to fund upgrades got quite a lot of attention.

💩 Thames Water has been fined a record £122.7m in relation to sewage spills in London and beyond. It’s the biggest ever fine issued by the water regulator, Ofwat, and it’s also intended as punishment for the company’s shareholder payouts. Thames Water has overseen close to 10,000 hours of sewage spilling annually around London’s waterways in recent years. On the plus side, London’s new super sewer, Thames Tideway, which will divert sewage spills from the Thames, is close to being fully online. Speaking of, here’s a series of photoshops on TikTok imagining if the Thames was clean.

🎨 The much-hyped new V&A museum in Stratford opens this weekend. More than 250,000 artefacts are going on display in the V&A East Storehouse, which the Financial Times has described as “a genuinely radical new museum” on account of its striking glass casing. It opens today (Saturday) — and later in the year the building will also see the opening of the David Bowie Centre, a collection of objects related to the musician.

🗞️ After 160 years of covering the capital, we’re sad to report that the South London Press is closing down. The paper’s final edition was last Friday — on Tuesday its website went offline and staff were told their contracts had been terminated. The loss of SLP will be particularly felt by south London’s football fans, who till the end had valued its sports pages, despite the years of wider cutbacks. It’s rough out there for local news, folks.

🔍 And finally, we leave you with:

• The sex parties coming to a stately home in Dulwich (Telegraph £)

• A Whitechapel vape shop planning a goodbye party for disposable vapes (www)

• Police attending to a man in a tree in Whitechapel (TikTok)

• Spinning around on the Tube (TikTok)

• The re-opening of the Square Mile’s largest open green space (Londonist)

• The Santa Maria arriving at Tower Bridge on Wednesday (Reddit)

• Meeting the London Overground final boss (TikTok)

• Spotting Charli xcx in London Fields (TikTok)

• Stockwell Bus garage, a modernist masterpiece (TikTok)

• The ghost bus of west London (TikTok)

• What festival-goers think of the Brockwell Park backlash (TikTok)

• The drawing of London that will take 1,000 hours to finish (YouTube)

• A ranking of the best sausage rolls in London (New York Times)

• A montage of north London set to the walking Putin meme music (TikTok)

• The ice cream van that cost Greenwich council £47,000 (The Londoner)

• POV the London pollen is still hitting (TikTok)

• Finding out your London room shouldn’t legally be inhabited (TikTok)

• Wild scenes of Spurs supporters celebrating in north London (TikTok)

London Fire Brigade tells City Hall: Raising diversity targets is ‘unrealistic’

London Fire Brigade has rejected calls from City Hall to increase its targets for hiring women and ethnic minorities, in a rebuff of efforts to clean up the brigade’s “toxic culture” unearthed by a damning review.

The Spy can reveal that political leaders at City Hall — including Sadiq Khan’s deputy for fire services — have been pressing the LFB to raise its diversity targets to better reflect the capital’s population. The brigade has currently set itself the goal of having 20% women on staff (compared to half of Londoners) and 19% ethnic minorities (compared to 46%). But in a letter sent to City Hall on May 5, the brigade’s head of HR shot down a more ambitious DEI drive, describing the current targets as “realistically achievable” given limitations “outside of direct control”.

The pressure from City Hall follows an independent culture review into the LFB in 2022, which found evidence the organisation was “institutionally misogynist and racist”. The review was triggered by the suicide of a young Black firefighter, 21-year-old Jaden Francois-Esprit, whose family claimed he had been bullied by his LFB colleagues because of his race. Women and ethnic minorities within the LFB went on to tell the review’s chair, the lawyer Nazir Afzal OBE, that they experienced poor treatment and barriers to career progression. In the years since, City Hall and the national fire service regulator have heightened scrutiny of the LFB, in an attempt to enact reforms and root out rogue firefighters.

But whether the LFB’s diversity targets need an overhaul has now become a sticking point. In April, the London Assembly’s fire committee published a report investigating the LFB’s progress since the culture review. It raised concerns about delays in handling staff complaints and revealed that in 2024 the LFB had paid out a total of £888,000 to those accused of misconduct while they were suspended on full pay. But, concerned that casual racism and misogyny were still present at the LFB, the committee also called for “immediate actions” on “attracting and retaining more diverse candidates into the service”.

That is partly because the LFB is nearly achieving its relatively low targets — the brigade most recently reported it employs 19.0% women and 18.5% ethnic minorities. “As we are getting close to hitting these targets, it is probably about time we review realistically what they should be set at,” said Jules Pipe, London’s deputy mayor for fire during a meeting with Sally Hopper, the LFB’s head of HR, in March. "I do not think the targets that the LFB has set itself are very stretching here and they are nothing like the background population of London," said assembly member Leonie Cooper at the same meeting. Hopper told the meeting the challenge was “fair” and “something we should take away and consider”, but her May 5 letter has since snubbed higher targets. She claimed “demographic changes are likely to be gradual” and pointed to a wider lack of diversity in fire services nationally in the UK.

Still, it’s a seeming change in the position for the LFB, given previous comments from the outgoing London fire commissioner, Andy Roe. In December he told City Hall: "We may never get there but you have to set yourself a target to represent the London population if we are truly a public sector organisation representing our city."

When we contacted the mayor of London’s office about the LFB’s refusal to raise targets, a spokesperson said:

The Mayor is committed to working with LFB leaders to reform the Brigade’s culture and systems, improve standards, rebuild trust and confidence and deliver a fire service that is representative of all the communities it serves.

A new Professional Standards Unit is now in place to investigate complaints, there is a renewed emphasis on community engagement and the Commissioner has taken a zero-tolerance approach to racism, misogyny, and homophobia.

But there is more to do and the Mayor will work closely with the new Commissioner, Jonathan Smith, to build on this work and ensure the Brigade is a workplace where people from all backgrounds can thrive.

Morning — picture this: you've just landed back in London after a holiday. But instead of slogging your luggage onto the Heathrow Express, or getting stuck in traffic on the M25, you're whisked away by helicopter. A short ride later, you've touched down on a helipad by the Thames in Battersea. And would you look at that: there's a garage with supercars for rent down the road.

Well, for a lucky few, such a shuttle service is a reality, courtesy of London Heliport. "For business or pleasure, travel in luxury, anywhere, any time," is its motto. While air ambulances and police occasionally use the heliport, the vast majority of fliers are private users. Demand is apparently high during Wimbledon, Royal Ascot and the F1 at Silverstone. It's also a hit with paparazzi, given its celebrity clientele. Like Tom Cruise, who landed at the heliport with Ana de Armas earlier this month for the UK premiere of the new Mission Impossible film.

The heliport is less of a hit with another group, though: the neighbours. London Heliport first opened in 1959, back when Battersea was industrial. But in the decades since, thousands of residents have moved in. The heliport is now encircled by flats.

And with the complaints piling up, London Heliport has had enough.

Our look at the row over helicopters in central London is below.

'We're fed waffle and bullshit': The row over London Heliport

By the Spy

The bosses of London Heliport have finally snapped. After years of complaints and council meetings, they’ve walked out of the public oversight group meant to hold them accountable.

But the move isn't just business — it's personal. London Heliport’s gripes centre around one man: Fulham resident Tom Farrand.

"The management are really unhappy with me," says Farrand, who lives in a riverside flat opposite the heliport. "They've labelled me as a 'vexatious complainant'."

The Spy is talking to Farrand a week before what would turn out to be an explosive meeting between London Heliport's management, borough councillors and resident representatives on May 14.

Farrand is one of those representatives, having been tipped for the role by his local councillor two years ago.

He doesn't think much of the heliport's clientele.

"It's moneyed people who don't want to sit in traffic, basically," Farrand says. "They don't want to get normal transport in London. They fly their private jets, then get a helicopter here, then they get a chauffeur into Knightsbridge or wherever they reside."

But Will Curtis, the managing director of London Heliport, doesn't think much of Farrand either. "He makes countless completely pointless objections," said Curtis at the May 14 meeting.

"I don't want a residents' representative who phones the airport 30 times in a day to complain about aircraft. It's not helpful."

The London Heliport Consultative Group, as it’s known officially, was set up in 2015 to address a problem: increasing tensions between a heliport in Battersea serving the super-rich, and its neighbours on the ground.

The group is run by Wandsworth council — where the heliport is based — but councillors from Hammersmith & Fulham and Kensington & Chelsea also turn up, as they have residents who live under helicopter flight paths.

For ten years these councillors have been caught in the middle of two warring sides.

On the one hand is London Heliport, which first opened in 1959, back when the surrounding area was light-industrial. "We were here first," is a common refrain from its management.

On the other are residents, who've been moving into the redeveloped power stations and glassy towers that have been popping up around Battersea in recent years.

But in 2025, it's clear the arrangement has failed to calm things down.

"It's become quite heated," says Jenny Scott-Thompson, another resident representative on the group who spoke with the Spy. "There's some history and resentment on both sides."

"There's quite a lot of — what I would call — waffle and bullshit coming from the management and from the operators," says Farrand.

"The way these meetings have been run I'm afraid is just not acceptable to us. It doesn't work for us," said Curtis at the May 14 meeting.

And now, tensions have really boiled over — the May 14 meeting of the group will be its last.

Or, at least, the last where London Heliport management actually turns up.

They’ve decided they’re going to start their own group — one held behind closed doors, with restrictions on who can come.

Farrand is banned, for now.

And there's one specific moment where the relationship seems to have unravelled.

The events and aftermath of a sunny weekend in 2023.

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Morning — there’s been much debate this week about the commercialisation of London’s green spaces, following the court ruling over Brockwell Park festivals. Money-making schemes are popping up across the city at the moment, raising questions about public versus private use of parks. But today we’ve uncovered a particularly unusual case: an ancient woodland in Highgate being lined up for wedding ceremonies and private events. Weddings in the woods lead your round-up below.

Plus: the battle for Brockwell Park, the Spy gets the Met in trouble, and the most embarrassing place to sit on a London bus.

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What we’ve spied

💍 A protected ancient woodland in north London is being lined up for weddings, as the City of London Corporation looks to cash in on its portfolio of green spaces with commercial events. Highgate Wood, a 28-hectare woodland lying between East Finchley, Highgate and Muswell Hill, is prized by ecologists for its wildlife, having continuously remained woodland for over 500 years. It's classed as a Metropolitan Site of Importance for Nature Conservation, one of London's highest wildlife designations, and is a remnant of the ancient forest of Middlesex. It's also valued by archaeologists, who've found Stone Age and Roman relics there.

But Highgate Wood could soon be available for private hire — the Spy can reveal that the site’s owner, the City of London Corporation, is planning to permit weddings in the woods for the first time, in a bid to “generate additional income”. The Corporation is also working on a “marketing document to highlight potential event sites at Highgate Wood for community and commercial use,” according to a new five-year business plan drawn up by City officials for the woods.

Ecologists have recorded a wide variety of species in the woods — more than 900 invertebrates, 400 moths, 350 fungi and 70 birds — and there will now be concern about how extra noise and footfall from wedding ceremonies impacts the wildlife. The possibility of the woods being partially cordoned off for marquees or seating could also come into conflict with City of London’s historic legal obligations over the site. The Corporation acquired the woods in the 1880s, as part of a deal with the Church of England to save the woods from plans to build housing. It was given to the Corporation on the condition that the site was preserved “in perpetuity” as a public open space, which was set in stone by the 1886 Highgate and Kilburn Open Spaces Act. That aim is safeguarded today by one of the Corporation’s charities, the Highgate Wood Trust.

When asked for more detail on the plans, a spokesperson for the City of London Corporation told us it was “starting to explore the potential to accommodate increasing demand for weddings”. The spokesperson said this would “help the charity generate additional income to support the vital conservation work of our open spaces”. They also stressed the Corporation was committed to protecting its “ecologically sensitive sites”.

Weddings at Highgate Wood come amid the Corporation’s wider plans to make money from its other open spaces in north London. That includes Hampstead Heath, which has recently seen fee hikes for its swimming ponds and plans for more ticketed events.

🌳 More battling over London's green spaces: campaigners have won their court challenge against large-scale festivals in Brockwell Park, but organisers and Lambeth council say the events will still go ahead this summer. On Friday the High Court handed victory to the group Protect Brockwell Park, which had argued Lambeth had been failing to get the right permissions when it allowed events like Mighty Hoopla and Field Day at the south London park. The campaigners, who are backed by the actor Sir Mark Rylance, have said they’re not “anti-festival”, but fear that the extent and scale of recent events are damaging the park and excessively restricting public access. But in the wake of the court ruling, the organisers of the festivals, Brockwell Live, said “no event will be cancelled” this summer and lodged an amended application with Lambeth council, which in turn backed the organisers and said it was “urgently considering” the application. Campaigners then reacted with fury, daubing graffiti on security walls currently up in the park reading “scumbag council” and “fuck Lambeth”, and have threatened further legal action. The debacle has led to an avalanche of hot takes online: “joyless Nimbys are killing our music industry,” writes Jimmy Nicholls for CapX, while journalist Moya Lothian-McLean wonders if locals have a point when it comes to privatisation of public parks.

☕ The Spy has got the Met Police in a bit of hot water, following our report last week on a campaign to buy a coffee for every firearms officer in London. The Met wasn't exactly over the moon last Tuesday when we asked what it was planning to do about Operation Coffee Break, a crowdfunder for armed officers set up by a group called the Public Safety Foundation (PSF). The campaign launched not long after it was announced misconduct proceedings against the firearms officer who shot and killed Chris Kaba in 2022, and it’s received the backing of figures like Nigel Farage and Suella Braverman. Aside from telling us it wanted the public to stop donating to the campaign, a Met spokesperson also told us the force had "not received any contact from the organisers". This was, apparently, false. After reading our report, the PSF quickly took to X to post screenshots of emails it had sent to Met commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, and wrote: "New Scotland Yard is briefing journalists that we have not been in contact. This is wholly inaccurate and we require a public apology.” The Met’s X account then replied saying sorry: “This was incorrect and we’re happy to correct the record”. Whoopsy.

It also seems the Met may be open to the free coffee after all. Last week a spokesperson told us that it wouldn’t be accepting any cash donations from Operation Coffee Break, which at this stage has raised £10,700. They’ve now told us they’re “considering” the campaign’s other offer: organising a truck to park near armed officers and hand out coffees directly.

🧗‍♂️London has dominated a national league table for social mobility, leading some to ask: should growing up in the capital be recognised 'as a specific form of privilege'? On Thursday education charity the Sutton Trust published a ranking of social mobility across all English constituencies — an 'opportunity index', which looks at how many children in poverty in a local area pass GCSE maths and English, complete a degree, or become high earners. All of the top 20 constituencies are in London, and so are 42 out of the top 50. Number one was East Ham, followed by Stratford & Bow and Brent West. Researchers wrote in the report: "while 18% of free-school meal pupils from London are in the top 20% of earners at age 28, only 7% of those from the North East [of England] are, as are 7% from the North West and 7% from the Yorkshire and the Humber". The research has led to reactions like this one from TikToker Dani Payne, who asks: "Should having grown up in London be recognised as its own form of specific privilege?". She points out: "If you grow up outside of London, even if you work just as hard, you're far less likely to go to university and get a high paying job later in life." The Sutton Trust have published an interactive map showing their results here, if you want to see how your part of London fares.

🏘️ 500 new homes will be given to the homeless as part of Sir Sadiq Khan’s plans “to end rough sleeping in London for good by 2030”. On Tuesday the mayor announced a series of measures for achieving his 2024 election promise to end rough sleeping in the capital, which includes the announcement he’s secured £17m in government funding to refurbish 500 empty homes that will be ringfenced “for people at greatest risk of rough sleeping”. Khan also announced a new rough sleeping prevention phone line as well as a new network of ‘Ending Homelessness Hubs’, which will offer 24/7 support. Time will tell if it really does eliminate rough sleeping in London, which soared to 12,000 people in 2023/24. In the meantime, the announcements have been a good way to bury the headline last week that Khan has agreed a 22% cut to London’s affordable housing target with the government, amid a huge downturn in construction.

🏛️ The Barbican Centre has released new design images of its upcoming £240m revamp. We've included the three new mock-ups below — one of the foyer, which is being 'decluttered', one of the conservatory, which is getting a new water feature, and one of the Barbican's lakeside area, which is getting a new shaded restaurant area. The release of the images comes alongside the launch of a public consultation on the Barbican Centre's revamp, which will be open until June 2. The actual construction is expected to begin in 2027, with an estimated completion year of 2030. More cultural upgrades: the Tate Britain has unveiled designs for a new garden.

🔔 TfL is considering bringing back the old 'ding ding' sound on London buses in an attempt to reduce injuries. The sound used to play on original Routemasters when a bus was about to depart until it was phased out in 2005. But TfL has now launched a small-scale trial on the route 183 bus, which travels between Golders Green and Pinner, as well as the route 84 bus between Piccadilly Circus and Acton Green. The hope is the sound may be a way to prompt more Londoners to hold on to handrails or stay seated to reduce the number of slips, trips and falls. More buses: two central services, the 30 and the 205, are being partially axed.

🔍 And finally, we leave you with:

• The most embarrassing place to sit on a London bus (TikTok)

• James Corden hinting at a bid for London mayor (LBC)

• The 'terracotta army' assembled for the Hackney half marathon (TikTok)

• A final look inside the BT Tower before it's turned into a hotel (Metro)

• A teaser trailer for the upcoming series of The Real Housewives of London (YouTube)

• An encounter with the new Central line trains in the wild (TikTok)

• The case for more al fresco in London (Guardian)

• How a train company tried to block out the sun at Waterloo (Times £)

• 'London propaganda I will not fall for' (TikTok)

• Morley's blows its advertising budget to celebrate its 40th birthday (TikTok)

• A Q&A with London's youngest cabbie (TikTok)

• Judgement about Lime bike saddle heights (TikTok)

• A request for help picking up litter on Regents Canal (TikTok)

• A Guinness 'micro-brewery' opening in Covent Garden (Time Out)

• Crystal Palace supporters celebrating their club's FA Cup win (Reddit)

Morning — it’s a fundraiser the Met Police seemingly won’t touch: Operation Coffee Break. An online campaign to “buy a coffee” for every armed officer in London has drawn thousands in donations over the past fortnight — but, we’ve learned, the Met isn’t biting. Perhaps it’s the backers — Nigel Farage, Suella Braverman and other right-wing figures. Or maybe it’s the timing, having launched just days after it emerged the firearms officer who shot Chris Kaba in Streatham is facing a misconduct hearing. A lukewarm response to Operation Coffee Break leads your round-up below.

Plus: City Hall pushes for al fresco, the Tube goes dark, and the exact spot with the most robberies on Oxford Street.

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What we’ve spied

☕️ The Met Police has said it will refuse cash donations from a fundraising drive for firearms officers in London that has been backed by high-profile right-wing figures, including Nigel Farage and Suella Braverman. The Met has also asked the public to "refrain from donating" to Operation Coffee Break, an online crowdfunding campaign that's so far raised £7,800 to "buy a coffee for every armed response officer in London". The campaign, organised by a group called the Public Safety Foundation, says it’s aiming to "give a moment of appreciation" to the officers who "perform one of the most demanding roles in public safety, often under intense pressure and scrutiny". It launched on May 4, just days after the announcement that the firearms officer who shot and killed Chris Kaba during a police stop in Streatham in 2022 will face a misconduct hearing. Sgt Martyn Blake had been acquitted of Kaba's murder at a criminal trial last year, but he now faces potential disciplinary action, which could include dismissal.

Several prominent right-wing politicians have publicly endorsed Operation Coffee Break, and while its organisers claim to be "community-led", they have links to the right. On Sunday the leader of Reform UK, Nigel Farage, featured in an endorsement video posted by the Public Safety Foundation on X. "We are behind all of you brave men and women in MO19 who put yourselves in harm's way every single day," he says in the video. "And you know what, the worst of it is, if anything goes wrong, you guys get the blame. You get no extra pay whatsoever". Another endorsement has come from Suella Braverman, who was sacked as home secretary by Rishi Sunak in 2023 for criticising the Met's handling of pro-Palestine protests in central London. "A very good cause," she said in a repost of the campaign on X on Wednesday. Former policing minister and Croydon MP Chris Philp and former MP and prominent Brexiteer Steve Baker have also backed the campaign, appearing in the online supporters list with donations of £40 and £20 respectively.

The Spy went to the Met Police for comment on the campaign, asking if it would be accepting the donations. A spokesperson told us that "while we appreciate the generous gesture set up for London's firearms officers, we have not received any contact from the organisers". They added:

We will have to politely decline any cash donation due to our policy, however we are able to accept small gestures, such as buying an on-duty officer a hot drink.

We ask that you refrain from donating to any third party as we will not be receiving the donation.

Thank you to all of those who donated, we appreciate the kind thought.

We followed up, asking if the force's ability to accept "small gestures" could include the possibility of working with the campaign to, for instance, park a coffee van near armed officers and hand out free coffees, as organisers have suggested. We did not hear back by the time of publication.

The director of the Public Safety Foundation is Oliver Laurence, a former police officer of 18 years who has become a podcaster and media commentator, once appearing on GB News to discuss tougher punishment for shoplifters. Meanwhile, the organisation’s founder is Rory Geoghegan, who worked as a special advisor to, er, Suella Braverman while she was home secretary. Go figure.

🍷 Sir Sadiq Khan has announced £300,000 in funding to encourage al fresco dining and later opening hours across London venues this summer. The mayor's Summer Streets Fund was announced on Monday, with applications open to all borough councils. Announcing the cash, Khan said: “London’s world-class range of restaurants, cafes and bars is part of what makes our city special, but too often they have found themselves restricted through bureaucracy and rules constraining their growth. This new £300,000 Summer Streets Fund will help to kickstart al fresco dining and extend opening hours this summer, allowing the industry to thrive.” From our round-robin of borough press offices, we got confirmation that Sutton, Ealing, Newham, Barking & Dagenham, Haringey and Enfield councils were considering applying. But among those staying quiet was Westminster council — not a great surprise, considering how tetchy things are locally over bringing back al fresco to Soho. The mayor's fund comes not long after he was granted new powers by the Labour government that will allow him to override borough council licensing decisions, just as he can with planning, in a bid to boost nightlife.

⚡ London's travel watchdog has criticised TfL for its handling of the power outage that caused hours of disruption on Monday. The outage hit at around 2.30pm and led to the suspension of the Bakerloo, Waterloo & City, Suffragette and Weaver lines, while stations including Marble Arch, Tottenham Court Road and Covent Garden were closed. The next day, London TravelWatch issued a statement that criticised "the lack of information and updates" on TfL's social media feeds, as well as the fact TfL's website crashed due to increased online traffic. "We accept that incidents like this can occur but do expect TfL to do much better when it comes to communicating with the millions of people who are reliant on their services," a spokesperson for London TravelWatch said. The cause of the fault has since been revealed as a fire at an electrical substation in southwest London. In a statement sent to the Spy, TfL customer services director Emma Strain said:

I apologise to our customers who were affected by the power issue caused by a failure of supply from National Grid on the network yesterday and who had any issues accessing our travel information.

All of the rail services that were affected were restored yesterday and have been operating as normal today.

We continue to look carefully at how we best notify customers about service issues in real time, this includes being able to use notifications in our TfL Go app to communicate with customers, and in future enabling more personalised notifications based on our customers’ individual journeys.

📽️ The iconic Prince Charles Cinema in central London has been listed as an asset of community value — a win for those defending it against potential eviction and redevelopment. Earlier this year the PCC revealed it was in a battle with its landlord — London property billionaire Asif Aziz and his company Criterion Capital. The cinema claimed it was facing an excessively high rent hike and a new clause in its contract that would allow it to be evicted at short notice. A huge outpouring of support for the cinema followed, and now it's got some form of official protection, after Westminster council granted it community asset status. The designation means that, in the event the landlord does sell up, the community will have a chance to buy first and save the cinema. Meanwhile, a petition in support of the PCC has now reached 164,000 signatures.

🟢 London's most prominent Green politician, Zack Polanski, has announced he's making a bid to become the party's leader. A London assembly member since 2021, Polanski has launched his campaign with a platform of "eco-populism", and perhaps his time at City Hall gives some insight into what he’s got in store. Climate and air quality issues have featured prominently in his contributions at mayoral question time — Polanski backed Khan's ULEZ expansion, but has called on the mayor to go further and implement pay-per-mile road charging in the capital. He's also introduced motions at the London Assembly declaring a climate emergency and calling for a city-wide programme to retrofit emission-leaking homes. His other big policy push has been universal basic income, and he's worked on getting Londoners involved in pilot schemes. But, unfortunately, we can’t restrain ourselves from sharing Polanski’s other career highlight: performing hypnotherapy to 'enlarge' a woman's breasts. More City Hall politics: Khan's deputy mayor for climate, former Hackney councillor Mete Coban, is being accused by the Times of “faking a football career on social media”.

🏗️ PLANNING CORNER 🏗️ Plans for a six-storey flat block on a well-to-do street in Camden have some objectors in high places — firstly the lawyer Justine Thornton, who's married to Labour's net zero minister and former leader Ed Miliband. According to the Camden New Journal, Thornton, who lives in Dartmouth Park in a £3m Victorian townhouse, has written to Camden council urging it to block the development, which will involve the demolition of a 1930s red-brick house on the street. She's quoted as saying: “No objection to the principle of redevelopment, particularly in the context of the need for more housing. However, the design appears to be too tall, too bulky and too dense". So much for her husband's boss's motto: build, build, build. Another famous objector to the plans is actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who apparently writes: "Approval would set a precedent. For example, could I now demolish my property and replace it with flats and not require the same extensive planning approval?" Heaven forbid.

Elsewhere in planning: a redevelopment project billed as Peckham's 'biggest in a generation' will be decided by the national planning inspectorate, after developer Berkley Homes decided to bypass the local process. Berkley Homes has proposed redeveloping the Aylesham shopping centre in the centre of Peckham into 850 homes, but the plans have proved controversial, given that only 12% will be affordable. Southwark's planning committee had been due to make a decision on Aylesham in the coming weeks. The council said it was "very disappointed" by Berkley Homes's decision.

Also: City Hall has overridden Tower Hamlets council and approved a 46-storey tower in Canary Wharf containing more than 900 student bedrooms. Deputy mayor Jules Pipe said the project would "play an important role in helping London meet its annual housing targets".

🔍 And finally, we leave you with:

• A map showing the density of robbery along Oxford Street (LinkedIn)

• Londoners treating IKEA Oxford Street like a free Airbnb (TikTok)

• John Lewis gunning for IKEA Oxford Street (Reddit)

• A Tube map of grassroots music venues — a low-res image on X here and a high-res one on Google Drive here

• A £3m upgrade to the Princess Diana playground in west London (BBC)

• 25 years of London's mayors, in pictures (BBC)

• Prince Harry at the wrong house in Fulham (Sun)

• London’s great chicken shop war (The Londoner)

• Upcoming visitor days at Twickenham’s Eel Pie Island (Londonist)

• The Young Vic announcing its first season under a new artistic director (Time Out)

• Lewisham’s first-ever community-owned music venue (TikTok)

• On London technically being a forest (TikTok)

• Tom Cruise standing on the roof of the BFI IMAX by Waterloo (TikTok)

• Clapton not being real (TikTok)

• London’s most underrated pizza spot (TikTok)

Morning — the UK and US may have struck a trade deal this week, but for one north London council, the damage is already done. Or at least, that’s Islington council’s explanation for cancelling a flagship — and controversial — affordable housing project. Years of local opposition is one thing; Trump tariffs and disrupted supply chains is another. The final chapter in a long-running saga over council homes and football pitches in Clerkenwell leads your round-up below.

Plus: a Brockwell Park conspiracy, a Tube Girl takedown, and a Nicholas Cage look-a-like contest.

In case you missed it: last Saturday we published Josh Taylor’s look at how an athlete turned developer brought controversy to London Fields. A stone’s throw from Broadway Market, plans drawn up by a British Paralympian have sparked 1,200 objections, pulled in the borough’s rooftop nightlife venues, and drawn sharp questions about transparency and trust.

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What we've spied

🏘️ Islington council has scrapped a controversial affordable housing project — and partly blamed Donald Trump's tariffs on US imports. Despite working on the project for over a decade, and despite already spending over £10m on it, the north London council has cancelled plans to build 100 council houses on the site of Finsbury Leisure Centre in Clerkenwell. Announcing the project's withdrawal at the end of last month, leader cllr Una O'Halloran pointed to "increasing risks from fast-changing global forces beyond our control" — a less-than-subtle nod to the economic turmoil caused by American trade policy in recent weeks. A report prepared for Islington's executive was more explicit: council officers warned the town hall's leadership of disruption to construction supply chains from "recent tariffs introduced by the USA on imported goods", and, in turn, inflationary pressures and borrowing cost volatility. The council had first earmarked the leisure centre for redevelopment in 2013, then unveiled outline proposals in 2022. But it's now back to square one, with local taxpayers set to foot the bill for writing off the £10.6m in spent funds.

That said, the council's statements do gloss over another likely factor behind the cancellation: a fierce campaign opposing the development pursued by locals in the Bunhill and Clerkenwell area. Though the leisure centre would have been rebuilt under the plans, four seven-a-side football pitches would have been paved over, prompting outrage over loss of open space and opportunities for grassroots sport for local young people. The group EC1VOICES led opposition against the redevelopment, which included getting backing from former Queen Park Rangers and Spurs striker Les Ferdinand and mounting a legal challenge. Opponents also criticised Islington for including 100 private flats in the plans, which the council said was needed to fund the other 100 affordable homes. Following the project's cancellation, EC1VOICES said: "We welcome the council's proposal to stop the Finsbury Leisure Centre redevelopment and protect the open space. It's a BIG step that reflects our community's voice."

The cancellation comes amid a wider downturn in affordable housing construction across London. Data for last year showed that the number of started affordable houses dropped by 88% annually, from 26,386 to 3,156.

🟢 It's against that backdrop that Sir Sadiq Khan made a major announcement on Friday: City Hall is planning to build housing on London's green belt. In a set piece speech in Greenwich, the mayor announced his team were exploring how to use the protected land that encircles the Greater London area to meet the "extraordinary challenge" of the capital's housing crisis. He cited the "pervasive and profound" damage a lack of affordable and high-quality homes was inflicting on Londoners, saying: "At stake is the fundamental promise of our city – the promise that if you work hard in London, London will work for you."

It's a change of position for Khan, who has previously "made no apologies for seeking to protect and enhance the green belt" and publicly hit out at borough councils that have attempted to build on it. But the new Labour government, which promised to unlock green belt land for housing in the 2024 general election, seems to have changed his mind — not least because London has been set a mandatory target of 88,000 new homes a year over the next decade.

Khan preempted some criticism for the U-turn in his speech, arguing that London's green belt isn't all "beautiful countryside" but often "low-quality land", and insisting that any approved development will be attached with the "right conditions" for the local environment. So far he's received the backing of London Councils, the umbrella organisation for the boroughs across the capital, as well as several London MPs and the campaign group Generation Rent. But others are livid. "You always promised you would protect the green belt," tweeted Susan Hall, the leader of the Conservatives at City Hall and Khan's rival in the 2024 mayoral election. "People believed you, even I believed you because you said it so often. No wonder people don’t trust politicians- you are a disgrace!" Nothing specific is planned on the green belt yet — Khan's speech coincided with him kicking off the process for drawing up the next London Plan, a citywide strategy document that's set to be finalised next year.

😶‍🌫️ A Lambeth councillor has been forced to deny masterminding an "astroturf" campaign in support of large-scale festivals in Brockwell Park. The past week has seen accusations of a PR conspiracy following the appearance of a new campaign group, SayYESLambeth, which has been set up to support music festivals like Mighty Hoopla and Wide Awake. The events are currently subject to a legal challenge brought against Labour-run Lambeth council by residents group Protect Brockwell Park, who argue the festivals are excessively damaging the park and shutting the public out. Enter SayYESLambeth, which appeared on several social media platforms on May 2 with a petition as well as an open letter that read:

For too long, a small but powerful group has dominated the debate about Lambeth's future — shouting down new homes, opposing events in our park, and trying to silence our vibrant night-time economy ...

We, the young people, the renters, the workers, the small business owners, the creatives — we are the majority. And now it's time to make ourselves heard.

The group's fightback was featured in the Standard, but local paper Brixton Buzz was more sceptical about the group's origins. "It feels like residents are being astro-turfed by someone from within the Town Hall," suggested Buzz writer Jason Cobb, who went on to note that Lambeth councillor and cabinet member for digital inclusion cllr Diogo Costa was among the group's first followers and reposted the open letter on the day SayYESLambeth was set up. Claims Lambeth Labour were behind the group were also circulating on local Facebook pages.

But in an email exchange with the Spy, cllr Costa denied having any involvement with the group. "I've never posted anything on SayYesLambeth social media accounts or created the online petition. I came across this group on my X/Twitter feed," he told us. He added: "I’m just glad to see a group being vocal in support of events in Lambeth — that in itself is a brave and constructive contribution. I can understand why some might prefer to stay anonymous, especially given how vocally aggressive the other side has been at times". Indeed, Jim Waterson of London Centric has since made contact with the organisers of SayYesLambeth, who denied having a connection to Lambeth council or festival promoters. Instead, they say they're just "five gays with a laptop trying to make our voices heard".

Anti-festival campaigners have been keeping busy in the meantime — they organised a protest at the park on Sunday with 150 people lying on the grass to spell out "No Walls".

🚗 More courtroom drama for Lambeth: a group of Dulwich residents have become the first in the country to defeat a council over a low-traffic neighbourhood (LTN) scheme. On Friday the High Court ruled that the controversial West Dulwich LTN was unlawful, with the judge saying Lambeth council had failed to consider the impact of the LTN before beginning a trial last September. The scheme had seen cameras, planters and bollards placed to block traffic between Rosendale and Norwood Road. It's a victory for the anti-LTN West Dulwich Action Group, which celebrated the ruling but also criticised the council's decision to fight them in court as "a shameful misuse of resources". The council says it will be keeping the scheme in place in the interim while it considers the judgement.

🕺 Some really shocking stats have been circulating this week on how the cost of a night out in London has skyrocketed, courtesy of Time Out's India Lawrence. Lawrence has looked at the cost of getting two pints at a pub, getting the Tube to the club, paying entry, getting two more pints, then a Maccies and then a 20 minute taxi home — in 1995 that would come to £22.03 when adjusted for inflation, compared to £44.41 today. Many more inflation-adjusted comparisons including specific club entry fees in her full piece, featuring nice graphics.

🚇 "They have finally come for me," says TikTok star Tube Girl, who's been told by TfL to delete all of her videos promoting her single that were filmed on the Underground. Tube Girl, aka Sabrina Bahsoon, went viral on the social media platform in 2023 for posting videos dancing on Tube carriages with wind blowing through her hair, and in the past few months she'd been posting similar TikToks to promote her new song, 'Not my kind'. But on Monday, Bahsoon revealed she'd be deleting them all, after receiving a takedown request from TfL. It's not the first time Bahsoon has fallen foul of TfL's rules on commercial videos on the Underground — late last year she was also told to remove paid partnerships with fashion brands, unless she shared some of the income she generated with TfL. A spokesperson for TfL told the Spy:

While we are pleased that our iconic brand and services provide inspiration for creatives to use as a backdrop, when they’re being used for commercial or promotional use, we need to ensure filming is done under the proper permit with our Film Office…

These terms have been explained to Ms Bahsoon and her agent both on this occasion and previously and we remain happy to engage with her on any commercial and promotional content she wishes to create in the future. Doing this helps to protect our intellectual property and provide additional revenue that is then reinvested in the transport network to benefit everyone.

Tube Girl isn't too cut up about it though, as the rules don’t stop others posting her song. "I'll be happy to see some baddie shake their ass to my song on the Tube, because I can't do it anymore," she says.

💸 Elsewhere from TfL: new figures have revealed that free travel for over 60s on the London transport network is set to soar significantly over the next few years. Specifically, the cost of Oyster 60+ cards — which grant free off-peak travel on trains and buses to Londoners turning 60 until they reach the state pension age at 66. In total the perk cost TfL £125m in 2024, but in the next three years that figure is set to rise by 48% to £185m. That compares to free travel for children in London, which is set to rise more slowly, from £115m in 2024 to £135m, or 17%. The Sunday Times has tucked into the figures — one of Joey D'Urso's charts is below, and the full piece here.

🦌 Deer have returned to Greenwich Park after a four year absence. The park's herd of fallow and red deer were relocated to Richmond Park in 2021 during renovations, but eight deer are now back in Greenwich. Royal Parks rangers say they’re “enjoying a renovated and extended deer paddock”, though they won’t be that visible to the public while they settle in.

🔍 And finally, we leave you with:

• The Nicholas Cage lookalike contest at the Prince Charles Cinema (YouTube)

• Appreciation for the Victoria line's punctuality (TikTok)

• Appreciation for the new sunroofs on London buses (TikTok)

• If you ever feel useless just remember the Waterloo & City line exists (TikTok)

• The return of open water swimming to Canary Wharf (Secret London)

• The pollen tsunami hitting Hyde Park last weekend (TikTok)

• And hitting London Fields too (TikTok)

• London's greatest graffiti mission (TikTok)

• The beginning of the Camden pedestrianisation trial (Reddit)

• Paying £400 a month to live in an abandoned hospital in central London (TikTok)

• POV as London's youngest cab driver (TikTok)

• Asking Boris Johnson if you can take a horse on a London bus (TikTok)

• Policing raiding an Oxford Street candy shop that charged £900 for sweets (BBC)

• The arrival of mango season in Tooting (TikTok)

Morning — walk a few minutes east of Broadway Market and you’ll find yourself on Bocking Street, one of those east London strips where rooftop saunas sit next to pizza ovens and cocktail bars. But just beyond the buzz is a quieter patch: a part-vacant brownfield site that's now become the centre of an unusually tense development battle.

At the heart of the story is Dervis Konuralp — a Paralympic swimming medallist turned property developer — and a proposal for 38 flats, half of which are earmarked as affordable housing. Despite overwhelming approval from Hackney’s planning committee, the plans have sparked 1,200 objections, pulled in the borough’s rooftop nightlife venues, and drawn sharp questions about transparency and trust.

Today we’re publishing an investigation by writer Josh Taylor, who’s been digging into what this fight tells us — not just about London Fields, but about the broader battle lines of development in the capital.

His piece is below.

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How an athlete turned developer sparked controversy in London Fields

By Josh Taylor

A stone’s throw East of Broadway Market sits Bocking Street, home to Netil Market, Netil360, Night Tales Loft, and Rooftop Saunas Hackney. On any given weekend (particularly if the sun is out), Bocking Street vibrates under the plods of hundreds of Tabi’s and Salomon’s as East Londoners flock like homing pigeons to the same few streets that orbit London Fields. Further to the eastern edge of Bocking Street, however, sits a brownfield site comprised of residential and commercial units, many of which are currently vacant. A far cry from the buzzy potential of its location.

Enter Dervis Konuralp. Konuralp is the director of Konebat Properties Ltd., the company which owns the majority of the brownfield site. The other partial owner is the London Borough of Hackney. Konuralp is an unlikely addition to an otherwise regular London story, insofar as he is a several time international swimming medallist in para-swimming classification S13. Born in 1980 to a Turkish Cypriot father and English mother who opened a corner shop on Mare Street, Konuralp is Hackney born-and-bred, his parents (after the success of their store) fast becoming Homes-Under-The-Hammer-style renovators of several properties on Mare Street.

After being diagnosed with Macular Dystrophy Stargardts, he took up competitive swimming, competing at the 1996 Paralympic Games aged only 15 years old. He achieved numerous international gold medals for GB and became, understandably, something of a poster boy for the 2012 Paralympic Games. A decade after those home games for which he was an official ambassador, Konuralp filed the aforementioned planning application for the aforementioned brownfield site on Bocking Street.

In the context of a London-wide housing crisis and high-rise, high-density - not to mention gentrifying - developments (such as the Aylesham Centre proposed by Berkeley Group in Peckham), Konuralp would have been forgiven for thinking this development would be relatively welcome. Add to this that, of the 38 residential units, 19 are proposed as affordable housing with 12 of these being social rent, and it is little surprise that councillors overwhelmingly approved the application at the planning sub-committee Meeting on March 5, 2025.

And yet, the plans were approved despite the submission of 1,200 objections to the council.

Read more

Morning — the City of London is reviewing its policy on trans access to the Hampstead Heath ladies’ pond, following the recent Supreme Court ruling on the legal definition of a woman. Trans women have been allowed to swim at the natural bathing spot under formal guidance since 2019, and the policy has been backed by votes from the local swimmers’ association. But long-time opponents believe the ruling has given them their strongest case yet. We’ve learnt they are preparing for protests — an “occupation”, in their words. The fresh fight looming over the ladies’ pond is after your round-up below.

Plus: another Olympic bid, more fallout from Toby Carvery's tree felling, and spending five years building London in Minecraft.

PS: Apologies for the recent lack of emails, but the Spy team has been on a much-needed holiday abroad. We're now back in sunny London and back to our usual schedule ☀️

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What we've spied

🏅 Sir Sadiq Khan wants London to bid for the 2040 Olympic and Paralympic Games. "My ambition has always been for London to be the sporting capital of the world," the mayor told the Times earlier this week, after City Hall published a report showing sports events last year including the Champions League final and NFL games generated £230m for the capital's economy. While a formal bid for the 2040 Olympics hasn't been submitted, Khan has said he is now actively seeking support from the UK government and the British Olympic Association, which includes lobbying for London to host the 2029 World Athletics Championships as a stepping stone towards the Olympics. We're some way off from a formal decision — the host city for 2040 is due to be selected in 2027 — and quite a few other capitals have put their name in the ring, including Berlin and Warsaw. But if Khan's efforts pay off it would mean London becoming the first city to host the Summer Olympics four times. The mayor faces a challenge in persuading some parts of London though, given the controversial legacy of the 2012 Olympics and lingering concerns about gentrification, displacement and value for money. But Khan’s pitch is “the greenest Games ever," given that 2040 could rely on existing facilities from 2012, rather than constructing stuff anew.

Elsewhere for Khan: the mayor has been accused of a "power grab" over his plans to pedestrianise Oxford Street, which will involve him wrangling control of the area off of Westminster council. Both figures within City Hall and Westminster have been speaking to the BBC's Tom Edwards about Khan's proposals, which are subject to a public consultation ending tomorrow (May 2). "I am deeply concerned this is a power grab from the mayor to take away power from local residents," says Andrew Boff, who chairs the London Assembly's planning committee. But on Wednesday the mayor's plans got a vote of confidence from one notable retailer — the UK boss of IKEA backed pedestrianisation, on the same day the company opened its new flagship Oxford Street store. Time Out have published an inside look at the new shop here.

🏃 More sport: a tonne of records were set at this year's London Marathon at the weekend. For starters, the 2025 event set a new world record for the number of marathon finishers, with 56,640 runners crossing the line after completing the 26.2 mile route on Sunday. Another milestone was the number of entries — a record 840,000 people applied to the race this year, up from 578,000. In terms of individual competitors, the autistic athlete Angus Leckonby became the fastest man with an intellectual disability to complete a marathon, clocking a time of three hours, 36 minutes and 38 seconds. Meanwhile, Zoe Cowell-Jones became the fastest woman to complete a marathon as a mascot, with a time of three hours, 19 minutes and 18 seconds while dressed as Bernie the Lion, a mascot for the children's cancer charity Dear Toby Trust. On that, the Guardian had a fun piece getting into the sweaty details of what it's like to run the marathon in a novelty outfit — "The costume develops its own microclimate," says one runner. The other big headline of the event was pro-Palestine protesters getting arrested after throwing red paint on Tower Bridge during the marathon.

🌳 The fallout from the felling of a 500-year-old oak tree in north London by the Toby Carvery restaurant chain continues — an official investigation has been launched. Last Thursday junior environment minister Sue Hayman announced that the Forestry Commission, the UK's public woodland manager, had started an investigation into the felling — specifically, to investigate the claim by Toby Carvery that the Enfield oak had been cut down for safety reasons, because it was dead or diseased. The Commission has the power to impose fines or launch a private prosecution over the incident. Announcing the investigation in the House of Lords, Lady Hayman said the felling "has opened up a nerve in the country about how important it is that our really ancient trees are properly protected." The chopped-down tree, in Whitewebbs Park, was discovered earlier in April, with local newspaper Enfield Dispatch being the first to break the story. Toby Carvery fessed up to the felling, after initial speculation that Tottenham Hotspur FC could have been involved, given it's building a training ground on part of the park. The Dispatch now reports that Enfield council is considering issuing tree preservation orders for the whole of Whitewebbs park in response to a petition that's garnered 40,000 signatures from locals calling for "justice" for the oak.

🥾 Elsewhere for London's parks: local residents in Lambeth have launched a legal challenge against the borough council over music festivals and private events in Brockwell Park. The group, called Protect Brockwell Park and publicly backed by the actor Sir Mark Rylance, is launching the action in the High Court in response to large-scale festivals in the park like Mighty Hoopla, Wide Awake and Field Day. Locals claim the events are "damaging our trees, disturbing wildlife, compacting the soil, and fencing off huge areas of the park for weeks at a time," according to their crowdfunding page for the legal challenge, which has so far raised £34,000. If the campaigners win, commercial events in Brockwell Park will start needing full planning permission before going ahead — a process with more input from residents that could in turn lead to smaller or less frequent events. A spokesperson for Lambeth council has reacted to the challenge by stressing the economic and cultural benefit of the festivals, while the company Brockwell Live, which organises the festivals, emphasised the remedial work it undertakes after festivals.

💰 Just while we're on Lambeth council: it's come to light that the borough's disgraced former chief exec left with quite the golden goodbye. Bayo Dosunmu resigned from his £190,000-a-year job at the Labour-run council last year after being arrested for drink-driving and fleeing the scene of a collision during an incident in central London. The Telegraph now reports that Dosunmu received a payout of £87,879 after stepping down from the role. "It's an absolute disgrace that a council boss on a six-figure salary was handed nearly £90,000 of taxpayers' cash after being convicted," a spokesperson for the TaxPayers' Alliance told the paper. A spokesperson for Lambeth council said Dosunmu "received payment in respect of his notice period, untaken annual leave and for his work as acting returning officer for the general election and a by-election. These were paid in line with his contract and for work already completed."

👮 The UK's policing watchdog has ordered the Met Police to hold a misconduct hearing for the firearms officer who shot Chris Kaba in south London. Sgt Marytn Blake, 41, was last year cleared of the murder of Kaba, a 24-year-old Black man who was shot in the head in his car in Streatham in 2022 when he attempted to drive out of a police roadblock. The jury's acquittal of Blake was followed by protests and a national debate over police use of force and racism, amid revelations about Kaba's violent past. While legal proceedings are finished for Blake, on Wednesday the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) directed the Met to hold a gross misconduct hearing that could result in disciplinary sanctions against Blake, including dismissal. However, the Met had been arguing against further action with the IOPC. "We recognise the significant impact of Mr Kaba's death on his family who continue to grieve the loss of a loved one," began a statement issued by assistant Met commissioner Laurence Taylor in response to the IOPC's directive. It continued: "We made strong representations that he should not face any further action due to the extensive evidence tried and tested at court and the not guilty verdict returned by the jury". The Met also said that a chief officer from another UK police force will be chairing the hearing, to ensure independence.

📖 Free book exchanges have returned to some Tube stations, after the schemes were controversially suspended over fire safety concerns. TfL has announced that 15 surface-level stations including Hammersmith, Morden and Willesden Green will be getting book swaps back, but this time in special cabinets that represent "suitable fire-proof storage solution". A few weeks ago it came to light that the London Fire Brigade had ordered TfL to remove many book swaps across the Underground given the risks posed by "combustible material". And indeed, while TfL has announced the new compliant cabinets for surface-level stations, it says it's still working on a solution for sub-surface stations, where restrictions are more stringent. If you want to track their return, the Londonist have put together a nice detailed map of every London book swap, in Tube stations and beyond, here.

🔍 And finally, we leave you with:

• Spending five years building London in Minecraft (BBC)

• Spending two years trapped in a central London car park (BBC)

• On nepo babies ruining/reviving London clubbing (Guardian)

• Graham Norton selling his £4.95m Wapping home (Daily Mail)

• A deal to save the Crystal Palace dinosaurs (Standard)

• Ex-Scientologists striking back over Tube adverts (Reddit)

• Foraging for food in London with a top chef (FT £)

• Greenwich council insisting it's 'not anti-ice cream' (BBC)

• What where you sit in London Fields says about you (TikTok)

• The difference between upper class Clapham and the hood (TikTok)

• Four tinnies, no dinner and a Lime bike in the sun (TikTok)

• A new Morley's opening in Balham (Instagram)

• Overhearing London creatives on the Tube (TikTok)

• Admiration for graffiti on the Bakerloo line (TikTok)

• Ceramic tiles made from Tube dust (www)

• Nan tries to get a bagel on Brick Lane (TikTok)

• 'I lost £200,000 on my Peckham cafe's failure. Here's what I learnt' (TikTok)

After trans ruling, fresh fight looms over Hampstead Heath ladies’ pond

Just when it seemed settled, the debate over trans women swimming in the ladies' pond at Hampstead Heath looks to be reignited by the recent Supreme Court ruling.

Last week the organisation that owns and operates Kenwood Ladies' Pond, the City of London Corporation, issued a statement saying it was "carefully considering" the court ruling, which found that the legal definition of a woman in the 2010 Equality Act refers to biological sex rather than gender identity.

Compliance with the Equality Act was cited by the Corporation in 2019 when it issued formal guidance stating that trans women could swim in the 100-year-old pond, and the policy has remained in place despite minority efforts to overturn it.

Trans rights groups tell the Spy they do not believe the latest ruling requires barring trans people from the ponds. They also question how a ban could be enforced humanely, pointing to the prospect of hiring security guards or involving the police to intervene.

But the Spy has learnt that long-time opponents of trans inclusivity at the ponds are now gearing up for a fight if the Corporation continues to permit trans women in the wake of the ruling.

They expect further protests to take place at the pond and are floating the possibility of a legal challenge, depending on how the City of London Corporation changes its guidance.

That includes Venice Allan, who last year became the first woman to be banned from membership of the Kenwood Ladies' Pond Association (KLPA), a historic community group that represents the views of pond swimmers to the City.

Allan was filmed in a viral video in March 2024 standing on a chair at KLPA's annual general meeting and shouting criticism at members for voting against a motion to exclude trans women from the pond.

On Sunday, in a post viewed 100,000 times on X, Allan wrote: "This is a public message to the @cityoflondon, if you continue to break the law by allowing men into our Ladies’ Pond, women will take it back by force."

The Spy contacted Allan to clarify her statement. She told us: "When I say 'force', I don't mean we're gonna have weapons, but, you know, occupations do happen.

"It's summer now, so it's perfect to have a swimming protest. Lovely weather — there's nothing we'd like to do more".

Allan, who has used the ponds for over 20 years, also added: "It's crystal clear what the Supreme Court ruling means: the City of London were always wrong to say that trans women, even with Gender Recognition Certificates, were legally women."

The Hampstead Heath swimming ponds have seen multiple protests ever since the Corporation began the process of formally recommending trans inclusion in 2017, though trans women had reportedly been swimming at the ladies' pond informally before the change in guidance.

In May 2018, a group of activists opposed to trans access jumped into the Heath's men's pond, some wearing fake beards, having bypassed staff by saying they "self-identify as men". They were escorted from the pond by police.

Then in August 2022, Allan organised a protest at the ladies' pond under the title "Let Women Swim" to launch a campaign aiming to restore the pond as a strictly single-sex space in time for the pond's centenary.

Their efforts culminated in the failed motion at KLPA's AGM last year, though a decision to exclude trans women ultimately rests with the City of London Corporation.

Throughout the debate the KLPA as a whole has supported trans inclusion at the pond, voting on multiple occasions to support the City's guidance. Trans women have also been allowed to join the KLPA as members.

But internal divisions within the KLPA remain. Among those against trans inclusion is Jan Williams, chair of the radical feminist group Object who has publicly claimed the KLPA has been "captured by gender ideology".

Williams has previously been elected to the KLPA's nine-person committee and, last year, unsuccessfully attempted to become chair of the KLPA, garnering 58 votes compared to the winner's 159.

In the wake of the Supreme Court ruling, the KLPA issued a cautious statement on trans access, suggesting they support the status quo while also stressing the decision was not up to them.

A KLPA spokesperson said: "The Ladies' Pond is open to all women and girls over the age of eight and, according to the lifeguards, trans women have been swimming there for many years without incident.

"The Ladies' Pond is well staffed by lifeguards and stewards who are there to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all users.

"As the KLPA is not responsible for managing the pond, including defining who is allowed to access the pond, it is unlikely that the Supreme Court ruling is relevant to the KLPA's existence or activities."

As for the Corporation, since the ruling it has added a new notice to the information page for Kenwood Ladies' Pond. It reads:

"The City of London Corporation has acknowledged last week’s UK Supreme Court ruling that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex. The Corporation is working through the implications of the ruling to clarify what this means in practice, for example access to our facilities, and are committed to providing a safe and respectful environment for all.

"The City Corporation’s existing policies remain in effect at this time."

Trans rights campaigners tell the Spy they expect the Corporation's decision to inevitably prove controversial, given the ponds have been a "flashpoint" for trans inclusivity for years.

A spokesperson for TransActual told us: "Any reinterpretation of the Equality Act does not directly bar trans people from any specific space. However, it might be considered to impose a duty on the body that governs/manages that space to exclude trans people.

"In the case of Hampstead Heath, this has been a flashpoint for so long that I am pretty sure that the City of London will face strong demands - from both sides - in respect of the rules they apply. Then... then it gets into the detail and nitty-gritty of enforcement."

Allan tells the Spy she believes the Corporation's statements indicate it will seek to maintain trans inclusion at the ponds — an outcome, she believes, that will likely lead to a legal challenge.

She points out that while there may technically be no legal definition of a 'lady', signs at the entrance of the ladies' pond read: 'Women Only. Men not allowed beyond this point'.

"It's an untenable position," she says of the signs in light of the court ruling.

The Spy contacted the City of London Corporation for this piece, asking for its reaction to Allan's statements and the possibility of further protest action.

A spokesperson replied with the Corporation’s original statement: “We are carefully considering the judgment and EHRC’s interim update. We remain committed to providing a safe and respectful environment for all.”

Morning — free school meals for every London primary pupil might be Sadiq Khan’s most popular policy — backed by more than 90% of parents, and billed as a lifeline during the cost of living crisis. But behind the scenes, there’s been a problem. Today we can reveal that a policy meant to help struggling families may have inadvertently drained crucial funding from school budgets in the capital. Now, City Hall is threatening to cut off boroughs that don’t act fast. The admin error that may have cost London schools millions is after your Saturday round-up below.

Plus: taking the Woolwich Ferry in protest, a boost for al fresco dining in London, and Eric Schmidt’s £42m mansion in Holland Park.

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What we’ve spied

🚗 The Silvertown tunnel opened on Monday with opinions divided about whether it was ultimately a good idea. The £2.2bn, 0.9-mile road tunnel connecting Newham and the Greenwich Peninsula has been welcomed by those who believe it will take pressure off the traffic-choked Blackwall tunnel to the east. Others say it will simply increase traffic overall, and with it air pollution. And then there is frustration with the tolls — it costs £4 to drive a car through the Silvertown tunnel at peak times, and through the Blackwall tunnel, which also introduced tolls on Monday. Both tunnels are £1.50 off-peak and free overnight. BBC London’s transport correspondent Tom Edwards has a good overview of the pros and cons here, and the Financial Times has looked at how Silvertown is fuelling a wider debate about road tolls in the UK. We’ll leave you with TikToks this week that seem to show drivers opting for the Woolwich Ferry in protest.

🚇 Elsewhere in London transport: Tube drivers have voted for their union to begin negotiating a four-day week. On Thursday, drivers who are members of the union ASLEF voted by 70% on an 80% turnout to back the four-day plan, which would see working hours reduced to 34 hours a week. Aslef says TfL offered a proposal for a four-day week as part of talks last year to avoid strikes over pay. “We will now be writing to the company to inform them of the result and to arrange a meeting to start detailed discussions on implementation,” said Finn Brennan, Aslef’s London organiser, following the vote. A TfL spokesperson said: “We have set out to our trade unions how a four-day working week might work. We will continue to engage with them about it and other points that would make London Underground better.”

🍸 Bans by boroughs on al fresco dining and venues opening late may soon be overturned by City Hall, after the government gave Sir Sadiq Khan new powers to intervene on local decisions. Under a pilot scheme announced by chancellor Rachel Reeves, the mayor will have the power to “call in” licensing applications being considered by London borough councils, just as he can call in planning applications — overruling earlier decisions to approve or block a development. In the case of licensing, it will be any application that is deemed to be of strategic importance to the night-time economy — like changes to opening hours or allowing tables and chairs outside. The move has been widely seen as a response to recent restrictive decisions by the boroughs — namely Westminster council, which has come under fire for its handling of noise in central London as well as its reluctance to bring back al fresco dining in Soho. Westminster has yet to issue a formal statement about the new powers. This week, Khan’s deputy mayor for culture, Justine Simons, wrote to all borough councils in the capital explaining City Hall would now be running a consultation “on the design of the pilot”.

💸 Millionaires are reportedly fleeing London at a rate faster than any other city in the world right now — except Moscow. According to the latest report by wealth migration consultancy Henley & Partners, over the past year London has lost around 11,300 people worth at least $1m, 18 people worth at least $100m, and two dollar billionaires. H&P says it’s partly down to the Labour government’s crackdown on tax non-doms, but there are also longer-term factors, like Brexit and the slow recovery from the 2008 financial crisis. In fact, unlike New York, Paris, Hong Kong and Sydney, London has seen a net decrease of millionaires since 2014. We’d shed a tear for the fallen, except H&P estimates there are still around 215,700 millionaires living in the capital. Plus, there’s our next story:

🏚️ At current rates, it’ll take over a century to clear the waiting lists for social rented homes in some parts of London, according to a new analysis. The National Housing Federation’s research found that it would take over 100 years for Merton, Enfield and Westminster councils to clear their waiting lists for homes with three or more bedrooms. Meanwhile, Camden and Wandsworth have waiting lists for family homes of 82 years. Reacting to the stats, a spokesperson for London Councils, the umbrella organisation representing boroughs, said: “The growing number of Londoners stuck on waiting lists for social housing is evidence of the capital's worsening housing and homelessness emergency.” Both LC and the NHF have called on the government to unlock more funding to build social housing. Related: our scoop last week on the east London council officer who tried to bump themselves up the waiting list.

🛥️ A pier on the Thames has been renamed after criticism by anti-racism campaigners. Plantation Wharf Pier on the south bank in Wandsworth will from now on be called St Mary’s Wandsworth, after critics pointed out the previous name was associated with colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade. Among campaigners is Battersea MP Marsha de Cordova, who welcomed Thames Clippers’ decion to rename the pier. She said: “The term ‘plantation’ carries highly offensive connotations, does not serve the wonderful diversity of Battersea’s residents and makes a mockery of the violent history of chattel enslavement. Having campaigned for Thames Clippers to change the pier’s name, I am pleased this has been achieved. It marks an important step forward in how we structure our public spaces.” No word yet though on the nearby Plantation Wharf housing estate, which de Cordova has also criticised.

🔍 And finally, we leave you with:

• Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s £42m mansion in Holland Park (City AM)

• Reform is coming for Dagenham (UnHerd)

• Finding the Lime bike spawn in Lewisham (TikTok)

• When London gets too much for a Lime bike (TikTok)

• A rare chrome Lime bike (TikTok)

• Parking a Lime bike in Clissold Park pond (TikTok)

• London’s phone theft hotspots marked with blue plaques (BBC)

• The 25 best pubs in London (The Fence)

• The Barbican in minature (TikTok)

• Ofsted vs Stamford Hill (The Londoner)

• Someone smoking crack on the Tube (Reddit)

• The UK transport secretary reacting to someone smoking crack on the Tube (LBC)

• Canary Wharf’s new whale sculpture (BBC)

• A real-time Tube map (www)

• Where to watch the Boat Race in London this Sunday (Time Out)

• Getting your hair stuck in the Tube doors (TikTok)

• A fox on a London bus (TikTok)

• Doubts Theydon Bois is a real station (TikTok)

• Places to WFH in London that don’t close at 5pm (TikTok)

• The most underrated estate in London (TikTok)

• The current location of the Elephant & Castle statue (TikTok)

• How mandem from the south propose (TikTok)

• 8am in Croydon (TikTok)

Free meals, at a cost: How London schools lost out on millions in crucial funding

By the Spy team

In February 2023, Sir Sadiq Khan paid a visit to his old Tooting primary school, Firecroft.

The mayor was there with media to bang the drum about his new £120m policy: free school meals for all primary school pupils in London, regardless of their family's income.

He sat with pupils in the canteen and recalled his own experience receiving free lunches, at a time when it was only offered to the most deprived children.

"One of the things I still remember four decades on is the shame and embarrassment I felt going to get my free school meals token, eating a bit later from my mates who weren't receiving free school meals," he told a reporter.

"That stigma stayed with me. I think there are some things that should be available universally."

Since that launch, Khan has pledged to keep free meals in place for "as long as I am mayor of this great city".

He's seen off attacks from critics, who've argued the cash is being used "to subsidise free school meals for middle class parents who can afford them".

Polling shows it's overwhelmingly popular. 92% of London parents said they supported the scheme in a YouGov poll commissioned by the mayor's office in 2024.

But behind the scenes, City Hall, borough councils and schools across the capital have been grappling with a problem.

They're facing an unintended consequence of the policy that may have cost millions in education funding.

The cause is an administrative oversight: because low-income households no longer need to register for free meals, it's become harder for London schools to report how many of their pupils need extra help.

In turn, it's slowed the flow of deprivation funding from central government into the capital, prompting alarm.

So much so that the Spy can reveal that City Hall is issuing London boroughs with a new ultimatum: get registrations back up, or the cash for free meals will be cut off.

The escalation comes after statistics for the current academic year revealed a fall in free school meal registrations in London.

Two years on from the introduction of Khan's policy, the number of pupils registered for a free school meal in London fell by 4,200, according to the Spy's look at Department for Education enrolment records.

Around 150 classes of deprived children disappeared from official school records across the capital between the 2023 and 2024 academic years.

The fall went beyond the broader decline in pupils in London happening right now. In 2024, the number registered for a free meal as a share of all primary pupils had sunk below where it had been in 2022.

There was also a concerning mismatch.

Separate figures, published by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), showed the number of children in absolute poverty in London had actually risen in the same period, as the cost of living crisis continued to bite.

The DWP figures, based on families' applications for key benefits like Universal Credit, estimated a rise of 27,600 children in absolute poverty in London between 2023 and 2024, when looking at all children aged 15 and under.

In other words: more children in the capital were falling into poverty, but fewer were being officially recognised by schools as needing help.

This growing gap — between child poverty registered with schools and child poverty registered with the government — emerged in London at the same time as City Hall's free school meals program entered full swing.

Parents and guardians had previously needed to fill out a form to acquire free school meals — an opt-in policy — but under the City Hall scheme, this was no longer required. Meals had been made universally available. Registrations began to fall.

This could have just been a paperwork blunder, except for a very real knock-on impact for schools — a loss of extra funding from Whitehall, to the tune of £1,000 per pupil.

Alongside City Hall's meals scheme, the UK government directly funds schools with higher rates of deprivation, in a policy known as pupil premium funding.

This cash is handed directly to headteachers to pay for extra educational support, such as tutoring, homework help, teaching assistants, school trips and mental health support.

The criteria for getting it: having high numbers of pupils registered for a free school meal, which is used as a proxy for deprivation by the Department for Education.

But in 2024, with meal registrations down, the flow of this Whitehall cash slowed to a drip in London.

Some boroughs saw large falls — in Lambeth, pupil premium funding across the borough's primary schools fell by £385,000 between the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years.

Free school meal registrations had dipped by 385 children in the borough. That was despite separate statistics published by the DWP, which showed the number of children living in absolute poverty in Lambeth had risen by 500 between 2023 and 2024.

Similarly, funding for Croydon schools fell by £279,000, while schools in Waltham Forest saw a £234,000 fall.

All in all, more than half of London boroughs saw a fall in pupil premium funding across their primary schools between 2023 and 2024. Yet only one, the City of London, had seen a fall in child poverty, according to the DWP.

The cumulative effect since 2022 is that London has started to lag behind the rest of the country on pupil premium funding.

While other primary schools in England had seen a 7.3% rise in pupil premium funding since 2022, the capital's saw only a 3.4% rise.

If funding in London had kept up with the rest of England, the capital's schools would have received an extra £9.1m in funding in 2024/25 — equivalent to £5,000 per primary school, our calculations show.

The potential shortfall wasn't going unnoticed on the ground.

Dr Katharine Vincent, director of a network of school leaders across the capital, Reconnect London, told a Greater London Authority committee investigating the issue last year that headteachers were concerned.

"What schools are saying to us is that the scheme is very welcomed by children and families in their school because many of them are facing very difficult financial circumstances," she told the GLA's economy committee.

But on the fall in pupil premium funding, she added: "Secondary heads are quite worried about this because if parents are not incentivised to apply for FSM [free school meals] while their children are at primary school, then it could be the case that they enter secondary school and there is a big drop."

Meanwhile, some have been attempting to take matters into their own hands — like councillors in south east London last month.

At a Bromley council meeting, Lib Dem councillor Julie Ireland proposed a motion to implement auto-enrolment for free school meals across the borough.

This would make sign-ups for free meals essentially 'opt-out' in Bromley — by compiling lists of eligible families from other data sources, like the DWP's benefit claims data.

"Current estimates are that if all the children in Bromley schools that are entitled to, but not formally signed up to FSM were auto-enrolled, Bromley schools would qualify for an additional £750,000 in pupil premiums," cllr Ireland wrote in her motion.

But the rest of the Conservative-run council voted the motion down, citing the hassle of implementing the system.

It's a frustration for City Hall, which has been pushing boroughs to maintain their registrations in the wake of the free school meals program.

"With the introduction of the Mayor of London’s expansion of universal free school meals, it is important to make sure that families continue to register for the government funded Free School Meals to maintain pupil premium funding," wrote City Hall in a guidance page that was produced for borough councils as part of the free meals roll out.

City Hall has been offering boroughs a £20,000 pot of cash to help pay for the switch to auto-enrolment. It also hired a private consultancy, Policy in Practice, to run workshops in 20 boroughs to encourage uptake.

At least three boroughs have been convinced — in the past year, Lambeth, Wandsworth and Lewisham have announced they are implementing auto-enrolment for free school meals. They estimate this will lead to an extra 1,000 deprived pupils being brought back onto the books, generating £3m more in funding.

City Hall had been using the carrot — but now it’s prepared to use the stick.

The Spy understands that next year, City Hall is making it mandatory for all boroughs councils to implement some form of "universal registration" of free school meal eligibility.

This may be auto-enrolment, or another system — in Islington, for instance, parents are required to complete a free school meal registration form whenever their child enters a new phase of education.

And crucially, implementing universal registration will now be one of the conditions for boroughs to receive City Hall's free school meals funding.

A spokesperson for the mayor's office told us: "As part of the funding agreement, boroughs will be required to bring in a process to ensure that all qualifying pupils are registered. The preference is that this is an auto-enrolment system, but where that is not feasible they should deliver an alternate approach to universal registration."

There are early signs City Hall's registration drive is beginning to work. Figures for the upcoming academic year, 2025/26, show that free school meal registrations have begun to rise again in London — up by 1.2% on the previous year.

Yet this is a smaller rise than the 1.4% increase for schools in the rest of England, and means the gap between London's and the rest of the country's deprivation funding has widened.

In response to this piece, a spokesperson for the mayor pointed us to the latest statistics for 2025, which show free school meal registrations have begun to rise again.

However, they did not address the fall in 2024/25, nor the fact pupil premium funding is now lagging behind the rest of England.

The spokesperson added:

"It has long been a challenge across the country to ensure that schools receive their full pupil premium funding due to the need for parents to apply, but the introduction of universal free school meals has enabled the wider implementation of auto enrolment in London.

"City Hall has been supporting every borough to ensure that schools secure the government funding they are entitled to and next year all boroughs are being required to introduce universal registration to make the process easier.

“Delivering free school meals for all state primary school children has been one of the mayor’s proudest moments and he is committed to providing the funding for as long as he is mayor.

"The unprecedented programme is delivering significant benefits to Londoners, with an independent evaluation finding that it is improving family finances, the health and wellbeing of children, and positively impacting school communities."

Morning — families, carers, and people in urgent need are now waiting an average of roughly seven years for a council home in London, as homelessness continues to rise. But that already high figure pales next to Barking & Dagenham’s, in the east of the city: 26 years. If only there were some way of cutting the queue... A Spy exclusive on one brazen bureaucrat's attempt to do just that leads your round-up below.

Plus: Idris Elba for mayor, blowing up Hammersmith Bridge, and the Peckham pimp aesthetic.

In case you missed it: on Tuesday we published an investigation into shady dealings over a building that was once the heart of a north London neighbourhood: Hornsey Town Hall. Just when hopes were rising that a new arts centre might finally reopen in the building after years of being shuttered, a secret £47m deal has thrown everything up in the air again.

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What we've spied

🏚️ An east London bureaucrat has been fired for misconduct after allegedly allocating themselves a council house — skipping a local waiting time of 26 years. The Spy can reveal that an officer working in the housing department of Barking & Dagenham council has been dismissed following an internal investigation, after they were alleged to have bumped themselves up the waiting list for social housing in the borough. The brazen attempt reportedly took place sometime in the last year, but it was spotted early enough by management that the officer never moved into the council property. The case triggered a "full review of systems and processes" and the council concluded "there was no evidence of further misconduct," according to a spokesperson.

What's less clear is whether the ex-officer will be facing further consequences. Councillors on Barking's audit and standards committee attempted to quiz the council's head of fraud, Chris Martin, about the case earlier last month, but they were shut down, after Martin said the matter was subject to an "ongoing criminal investigation". He said he would provide a full report to councillors further down the line, "once criminal proceedings had been concluded", according to official minutes.

Yet when we approached the council for an update this week, we were told Martin had been "incorrect". A spokesperson said that there had, in fact, been no criminal investigation at all — because the council determined there wasn’t enough evidence to pursue one. In their own words: "There was no criminal investigation due to the higher threshold of proof required for prosecution".

In a follow-up, we asked if the council had consulted with the police or the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) before reaching that conclusion. A council spokesperson said the decision was made internally, by its Counter Fraud Team and legal department, using the evidential threshold in the CPS’s Code for Crown Prosecutors as a benchmark. The council has the legal power to carry out its own prosecutions, but in this case opted not to proceed further.

That leaves a few awkward questions hanging — not least why councillors were initially told the case was criminally active, and whether such serious allegations should have been handled entirely in-house. So far, the council has declined to explain how the miscommunication arose.

The case comes against the backdrop of Barking & Dagenham having the longest wait for social housing in not just London but the entire UK. An analysis by the Times in February found the average waiting time in the borough is 25.8 years, compared to a London-wide average of 6.6 years and a national figure of 2.9 years. Waiting times are even longer for large family homes in the borough — 67 years for a four-bed.

Barking & Dagenham council also has a complicated history with in-house fraud. In 2009, the council undertook a mass firing of more than 30 of its employees after an internal investigation found widespread fraud, including money laundering, false papers for early retirements and benefit fraud. And there we were thinking public service was its own reward.

🔴 A report in the Sun newspaper claims the actor Idris Elba is Labour's favourite to replace Sir Sadiq Khan as London mayor. The newspaper reports it has been told by a senior party source that Elba is "top of our wish list" to be the next Labour candidate for City Hall. "Idris has star appeal — but he is also a thoughtful political campaigner," the source explained, in reference to Elba's recent work campaigning on knife crime. They added: "We can pick a Labour insider and try to make them famous. Or we can pick someone famous aligned with Labour". No word from Elba himself on the high praise — but those on the right aren't impressed. "There is something depressing about the naked political cynicism on display," writes Jawad Iqbal in the Spectator. "Is this really what politics has come down to? A case of sticking the campaign rosette on the most famous person you can find, and hoping that celebrity status swings it with the voters."

🌉 A taskforce assessing what to do about Hammersmith Bridge has been presented with quite a drastic option: blowing it up. That proposal — demolition and replacement with a new crossing — is one of six new ideas recently put forward by the Department for Transport, which has renewed efforts to fix the partially closed bridge once and for all. Hammersmith has been closed to vehicles since April 2019 when cracks appeared in its pedestals, but pedestrians and dismounted cyclists have since been let back on. Indeed, permanently banning cars was one of the other proposals which were discussed at a January meeting involving DfT officials, local MPs, TfL and London's deputy mayor for transport, Seb Dance. The taskforce rejected the demolition idea though, along with another proposal to turn the bridge into an inaccessible "monument". The full repair option is still on the table, but with a hefty price tag: the most recent estimates put it at £250m.

🏳️‍🌈 The Met Police has been accused of "homophobic bias" in its investigation into the death of a drag artist in central London. Friends and supporters of Steven Gygelko aka Heklina, who was found dead at their Soho flat in 2023, held a rally outside Scotland Yard at the weekend, to draw attention to what they see as the force's mishandling of the case. Criticism of the Met includes a lack of a public appeal for witnesses and the fact it took two years for CCTV footage to be released. LGBTQ+ activist Peter Tatchell was at the rally — he told the BBC: "That is an abject betrayal of trust and confidence, and I think the police have to answer those questions and have to start getting serious about finding out how Heklina died". The criticism of London's police hasn't ended there: the Met raided a Quakers meeting house in Westminster last week and arrested six people connected to the protest group Youth Demand, a move that has been described as heavy-handed. Lastly on the Met: the force has announced it's cutting 1,700 staff in order to plug a £260m budget shortfall. That's despite Sir Sadiq Khan raising his mayoral share of council tax this to give police more funding.

🏗️ A controversial plan to replace a food hall in Elephant and Castle with skyscrapers has been approved by Southwark council. Last week councillors on the planning committee narrowly voted to permit the Borough Triangle development, which will see 900 homes in towers up to 44 storeys high built on a site which is currently home to the Mercato Metropolitano food court. More than 40 traders with stalls will now be moved out, which locals say is gutting the "heart of our community". But developer Berkeley Homes has pledged to include a community centre in the development. Meanwhile, 35% of the new flats will be affordable.

💸 A group of London tenants have been awarded a £263,000 payout after taking their billionaire landlord to a tribunal. For the past three years residents of 15 flats from across two blocks in Hackney have been in a legal battle with John Christodoulou, their landlord worth an estimated £2.5bn by last year's Sunday Times Rich List, over unsafe conditions. A judge has now sided with the tenants, saying that "the landlord’s business practices involved a systematic or institutional neglect of regulatory requirements". There's now concern about whether the tenants will actually see any of the cash, though, given Christodoulou has a history of ignoring rent repayment orders.

😅 Here's some of the London-related April Fools pranks we spotted:

• TfL announcing Santander sidecars for dogs

• The announcement of a 50ft high statue of Sadiq Khan in Greenwich Park

• The London Eye announcing a 'world tour' in 2026

• Abbey Road studios announcing the removal of the Abbey Road crossing

• Ealing and Hillingdon merging to form the London Borough of Ealingdon

• Perfume that smells like the Thames

• The Heathrow Express rebranding as the Henry Express

🔍 And finally — we leave you with:

• The Peckham pimp aesthetic (TikTok)

• "They will have flying cars in 2025" (TikTok)

• Wayne Rooney caught weeing in public in Marylebone (Daily Mail)

• Another day another slay for the London bus auntie (TikTok)

• North Korea's man in London (The Londoner)

• When my boyfriend sees me in central London with my phone out (TikTok)

• Soho's Mildreds through the years (TikTok)

• The Thames at very high tide (TikTok)

• An anti-Musk protest outside a Tesla showroom in west London (Guardian)

• Accidental holy imagery in Snow Hill (Reddit)

• Is a triad gang war underway in London? (London Centric)

• Photos inside the Silvertown tunnel ahead of its opening next week (IanVisits)

• Should the Waterloo & City line be extended? (YouTube)

• London's secret midnight treasure hunts (Londonist)

• The re-opening of London's joint-oldest spa (Time Out)

Morning — in the heart of Crouch End sits a landmark many locals once saw as the soul of their neighbourhood: Hornsey Town Hall.

The Grade II* listed building has been closed for years, undergoing a complex — and controversial — restoration. The community was promised it would reopen as an arts centre. But a £47m behind-the-scenes deal has thrown those plans into doubt.

The developer originally handed the town hall has now decided to sell. The buyer? A Cayman Islands-registered conglomerate few in the area have heard of. There’s been confusion, resignations, and a growing sense that public control has slipped away.

Today, we’re publishing a deep dive into how one of north London’s most iconic buildings was quietly sold off — and what that means for the future of Crouch End’s “creative village”.

The full story is below.

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‘It's our own fault. We weren’t clever enough to defeat them’: How a London town hall slipped through the community’s hands

By the Spy team

Some locals now call Hornsey Town Hall the "dead centre" of Crouch End.

Once the heart of cultural life in the north London neighbourhood, the striking modernist building has been shuttered to the public for seven years.

A leaking roof and rampant asbestos forced the community out in the 2010s. The local council, Haringey, had struck a deal: a private redevelopment of the site in exchange for repairs and a revived arts venue.

Locals have been waiting to return since 2018, with growing impatience.

Then, in November 2024, there was a flicker of hope.

Historic England announced it was removing the town hall from its at-risk register of buildings, having been impressed by recent restoration work.

It was a win for Haringey council, which has long faced criticism for handing off the public building to a global real estate conglomerate with deeper pockets.

But how quickly things can change when money is involved.

In the past few weeks, it's come to light that the developer has agreed to sell the building for £47m, a move which has caught not just locals but also the council off guard.

There's been fallout — an executive has resigned and a proposed operator of the town hall arts centre has been unceremoniously dumped.

And despite reassurances from the council's leadership, there's a lingering sense no one knows what's truly gone on. Most now expect the overdue project to be delayed further.

It's been a stark reminder for Crouch End's community: they've lost control of Hornsey Town Hall.

*

Chris Setz remembers the old Hornsey Town Hall fondly.

Read more

Morning — City Hall is getting a glow-up, 1980s style. Pictured above is the old coat of arms for the Greater London Council, which used to be the capital’s city hall back in the days of Margaret Thatcher. But, according to documents we’ve uncovered, it’s going to be dusted off for the first time in 38 years — for a price. The story behind London’s ‘new’ logo leads your round-up below.

Plus: TfL's e-bike ban, permanent facial recognition cameras, and David Bowie's childhood home for sale.

In case you missed it: for years, Westminster council and local residents have been trying to quieten down central London. Now, they’ve got a powerful new tool at their disposal: artificial intelligence. On Saturday, we published an investigation into new AI noise cameras that are being installed around central London.

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What we've spied

⚔️ City Hall is spending £13,000 on a new logo — or, more accurately, on reclaiming an old logo lost to time. Documents published by the Greater London Authority (GLA) reveal that it has authorised the purchase of the right to a coat of arms once used by the Greater London Council (GLC), the old top-tier political body for the capital. The coat of arms (pictured above) features blue waves at its bottom, meant to represent the Thames and the Port of London, while the crown up top is Saxon and represents the historic Middlesex counties that were incorporated into Greater London in the 1960s. It was used as the logo for the GLC until 1986, at which point the council, then led by Ken Livingstone, was abolished by the Thatcher government after a series of political run-ins. Since then, it’s lain dormant in the archives.

London Assembly members have been planning the logo-grab for a while, having voted unanimously to get the coat of arms in 2020 for the GLA’s 20th anniversary. Mayor Sadiq Khan had initially pushed back against the plans over concerns about the costs, but the cash has now been approved in time for the 25th anniversary. £5,000 is being spent on a transfer fee to the College of Arms, a royal corporation dating back to the 1400s that deals with coats of arms and other heraldic matters in England on behalf of His Maj. Another £3,000 is being put aside to create versions of the coat of arms that can appear at the top of GLA letters and documents, while £4,900 has been allocated for architects' fees, so a physical version can be put up somewhere in City Hall at the Royal Docks.

As to why, GLA documents state the coat of arms will "further entrench the identity of the GLA within London, and amongst the public, and will help to build the fabric of new City Hall as a civic space for London with strong roots and connections to London's proud devolved history". Nothing like a nostalgic rebrand.

💸 A west London council claims it's saved over £10m this year through a crackdown on fraud, begging the question: how did it get duped out of that much cash in the first place? The Spy has discovered that, at a recent meeting of Hillingdon council's cabinet, officers reported that the borough’s newly beefed up counter fraud team "had achieved savings of £10.1m in the current financial year, with notable success in areas such as housing tenancy, temporary accommodation, business rates and social care". That figure jumped out as high to us — £10.1m would be enough to fund the borough's library services for three years, or its waste and recycling service for one year. And just three years ago, the Conservative-run council was handed a £25m bailout by central government to stave off bankruptcy. When we got in touch to ask how the £10m-a-year budget leak had only now been discovered, a spokesperson gave us some more examples of the crackdown:

“The type of fraud uncovered by the team includes tenancy fraud, such as subletting and non-occupation of council housing, homelessness fraud which includes non-occupation of B&B accommodation, revenues fraud which covers discounts and exemptions, and social care which covers financial assessments and direct payments.

“Uncovering cases of tenancy fraud can result in savings of around £72,000 per property, while homelessness fraud can save £19,000 per case. Others vary on a case-by-case basis.

Take those figures, apply some back-of-the-envelope maths, and it turns out that Hillingdon had been paying for up to 138 empty council properties or 526 empty B&B rooms until this year’s crackdown. As to how the fraud was finally spotted — “tireless commitment and stakeholder engagement, along with a proactive and reactive risk-based approach to fraud,” said the spokesperson. Better late than never, we suppose.

📹 Police facial recognition cameras are being permanently installed at a location in south London, in a UK first for the technology. Until now, the Met Police have been using live facial recognition (LFR) on an ad hoc basis, deploying camera-mounted vans that check faces of passers-by against a watchlist, but the Times reports that the force is now installing permanent cameras on two roads in the centre of Croydon. In a letter to local community figures, Mitch Carr, the Met's neighbourhood policing superintendent for south London, reportedly wrote:

“I am currently working with the central team to install fixed LFR cameras in Croydon town centre. This will mean our use of LFR technology will be far more embedded as a ‘business as usual’ approach rather than relying on the availability of the LFR vans that are in high demand across London.

“It will remain the case that the cameras are only switched on when officers are deployed on the ground ready to respond to alerts. The end result will see cameras covering a defined area and will give us much more flexibility around the days and times we can run the operations.”

We can't say we're surprised — as we reported last year, the Met has been significantly ramping up its use of LFR recently, seeing the tech as a cost-effective way to catch criminals on the run, people wanted for arrest or even witnesses sought for questioning. That's despite concerns from privacy campaigners that the tech and associated stops by officers are invasive and prone to error. Data compiled by City Hall Greens shows that the Met have now scanned more than 1.9 million faces using LFR across London since 2020, and made 804 arrests after stopping potential matches. Westminster has seen the most LFR deployments at 42, but Croydon is a close second with 39. Every other London borough has seen 14 or fewer deployments since 2020.

In the view of City Hall Greens and some locals, the Met’s focus on using LFR in Croydon represents a high-tech form of racial profiling, given the area's high non-white population. Indeed, this week, the London Greens produced an analysis that found most LFR deployments in the capital last year took place in areas with a higher-than-average share of Black residents. Zoë Garbett, Green London Assembly member, said: "The Met’s decision to roll out facial recognition in areas of London with higher Black populations reinforces the troubling assumption that certain communities, such as those in Croydon, Lewisham and Haringey, are more likely to be criminals". Meanwhile, the group Big Brother Watch described the permanent LFR cameras as a "steady slide into a dystopian nightmare". The Croydon cameras are expected to come online this summer, according to the Times.

A Met spokesperson said: "We continue to engage with our communities to build understanding about how this technology works, providing reassurances that there are rigorous checks and balances in place to protect people’s rights and privacy."

👀 While we're on Croydon: Zodiac House, the flat block featured in the Channel 4 comedy Peep Show, has been turned into homeless accommodation by the council. Last month, the first new residents moved into the 1960s Brutalist block, which had been purchased by Croydon council for £21m and converted into 73 units for those in need of temporary accommodation. The project was funded through Right to Buy receipts plus a grant from central government, and the council estimates it will knock £1m a year off its temporary accommodation bill. There are currently around 3,500 homeless families in the borough, many of which will be booked into expensive hotels due to a lack of more permanent options. Zodiac House was featured in Peep Show as the home of main characters Mark Corrigan and Jeremy Usborne, fictionalised as Apollo House.

🚲 TfL has announced a ban on most e-bikes on its services, amid concerns over exploding batteries. From March 31, non-foldable e-bikes will be banned from the Underground, Overground, Elizabeth line and DLR “to ensure the safety of customers and staff,” according to a TfL statement released on Wednesday. It comes after several cases of e-bikes igniting on London’s transport network, such as an incident last month where an e-bike caught on fire on a Tube platform at Rayners Lane. The ban covers purpose-built e-bikes plus any bike featuring a conversion kit — TfL says it has conducted analysis that suggests the latter “pose a greater fire risk”. That’s why foldable e-bikes are exempt from the ban, given that they’re harder to convert. The London Fire Brigade welcomed the move, with a spokesperson saying: "While we recognise the sustainable benefits e-bikes, and micromobility generally, bring to our city, the reality is that across London we have been seeing an e-bike or e-scooter fire every other day, on average, and we have particular concern about the risk posed by conversion kits or modified e-bikes". More transport news: the government has approved the Lower Thames Crossing linking Essex and Kent, which some say will alleviate traffic in east London.

🎨 As the Tate Modern gears up for its 25th birthday in May, new data has somewhat soured the celebratory mood: the Bankside gallery has seen visitor numbers plunge by 1.5m over the past five years. The 25% fall was revealed by figures published by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (Alva) last week, which reported 4.6m visitors to the Tate Modern in 2024, down from around 6m in 2019. It comes as Tate prepares to cut 7% of its workforce across the UK, citing the fall in visitor numbers as well as “real-terms decline” in public funds. Tate says the footfall drop is almost entirely down to “a shortfall in international visitors” since the pandemic — though other London attractions haven’t suffered a similar fate. The Alva data also shows that both the British Museum and the Natural History Museum have seen visitor numbers rebound since 2019, with a 4% rise to 6.4m and a 16% rise to 6.3m respectively.

👶 A maternity unit is shutting in north London, with NHS managers blaming a dramatic fall in the local birth rate. On Wednesday, NHS North Central London announced it will be closing Royal Free Hospital’s maternity unit in Hampstead, despite campaigners’ efforts to save its specialist services. The number of women having a baby in the area has fallen by around 30% in the past five years — you can read more in our feature piece on the closures published last year.

🏗️ PLANNING CORNER 🏗️ The 55-year-old Euston Tower near Regent’s Park is set to be partially demolished to make way for a 36-storey laboratory and office block. The revamped building is being developed by British Land, which said it was “delighted” to have received planning permission from Camden council this week. But locals had attempted to argue the new building would spoil views from nearby Kensington Gardens and Primrose Hill.

Elsewhere in Camden: the local council has had to issue an apology after windows were installed inside-out on two tower blocks in Swiss Cottage during works to remove Grenfell-style cladding. And elsewhere in planning: a £73m plan to turn an abandoned gasworks site into 2,100 homes and green space in Bromley-By-Bow have been approved, and plans for a £1bn data centre in Park Royal have been unveiled. Also, at the time of writing, a controversial plan to demolish a food hall in Elephant & Castle and replace it with skyscrapers was due before Southwark planning committee. We’ll have an update on the decision in our next issue.

🍞 The founder of bougie east London bakery Dusty Knuckle has spoken out against recent anti-gentrification vandalism. Max Tobias, one of the bakery’s three founders, spoke with the Guardian at the weekend, giving his take on the graffiti that targeted Dusty Knuckle Haringey earlier in the month. “GENTRIFRYERS-EW-SHIT BREAD,” the graffiti read. "We're in an impossible situation," was the reaction of Tobias, who said the gentrification accusation was “complicated” given the bakery’s efforts to employ local people.

🚨 One of the killers in the 1993 racist murder of Stephen Lawrence reportedly now admits he was involved. David Norris, who was part of a gang who murdered Lawrence while he was waiting for a bus in Eltham, south east London, now accepts “he was present at the scene and punched the victim”, according to a report by the Parole Board. Norris was jailed for life along with Gary Dobson in 2012 for Lawrence’s murder, but Norris denied his involvement at the trial. Others suspected of involvement were never charged after a bungled police investigation.

🇳🇴 Norway's sovereign wealth fund has bought a quarter of Covent Garden real estate. In the deal, valued at some £570m, Norges Bank Investment Management has bought a 25% stake in the Covent Garden real estate portfolio of Shaftesbury Capital. Some aren’t too happy — Andrew O’Brien in UnHerd says the sale of London’s “proverbial family silver” to foreign investors is “another sign of Britain’s declining power”.

🔍 And finally, we leave you with:

• David Bowie’s childhood home in south London is up for sale (Time Out)

• 'Help, my historic London pub has turned into a brasserie' (Telegraph £)

• The rejected London Overground line names (London Centric)

• A highly detailed cycling route map of London (Londonist)

• A new warehouse gig and club venue opening in east London this week (www)

• An ‘illegal party’ at the Ministry of Sound turning out to be a publicity stunt (TikTok)

• A gang of magpies fighting on a London street (Reddit)

• The rise of the London plub (TikTok)

• The cast of Severance appearing at a pop-up near Tower Bridge (TikTok)

• How an iPad dug up from the Thames solved museum thieves' murder plot (BBC)

• The spaceship aesthetic of the new 358 buses (TikTok)

• How Gen-Z Londoners helped save an Italian social club in Clerkenwell (Times £)

• What you find when you drain a London canal (YouTube)

• The oldest man-made object on the streets of London (TikTok)

• On Aussies in London (TikTok)

• On the removal of graffiti around Brick Lane and Shoreditch (TikTok)

• Wishing for Tube Girl’s confidence (TikTok)

• ‘God didn’t give me balls for decoration mate’ (TikTok)

• A vigil for the student killed on the Strand last week (Standard)

• Putting a telly in different places in London until someone steals it (TikTok)

A correction: In a story about the Blackhorse Beer Mile in last Thursday’s email, we incorrectly reported that Beerblefish brewery was among the venues closing as part of a council crackdown on rent arrears. In fact, Beerblefish were not council tenants, and their owners say the closure was taken as a personal decision.