Free coffee on the Tube > WFH?
Plus: hope for Smithfield traders, defeat for opponents of ‘the Slab’, and pigeons stealing a massive croissant
Morning — we hope everyone’s back-to-work blues aren’t hitting too hard. Likely you managed to avoid going into the office every day this past week — to the slight annoyance of TfL bosses. Last year the transport authority trialled cheaper fares on Fridays, in an attempt to get more people using the Tube again in the WFH era. Well the results of that trial are now in, and they’re not great, so City Hall is having to go back to the drawing board. What TfL might try next to lure us all back Underground leads your round-up below.
Plus: hope for Smithfield traders, defeat for opponents of ‘the Slab’, and pigeons stealing a massive croissant.
In case you missed it: is it still possible to live ‘off-grid’ in London these days? To find out, writer Josh Taylor recently visited Regent’s Canal to sit down with Nicola Kutler, a boat-based tarot card reader. She’s “demystified destinies” on the water for years — but now a new threat has emerged. You can read Josh’s brush with the occult here.
What we’ve spied
☕ TfL is now considering offering free coffee to Tube commuters, after finding the recent trial of cheaper fares on Friday failed to lure WFHers back to the office. Last year TfL and the London mayor announced that for 13 weeks starting March 8, Friday fares would be off-peak at all times of the day, in a bid to recover the fall in Tube ridership seen since the pandemic and rise of working-from-home. Someone travelling between zones 1 and 2 in the morning and afternoon would have saved £1.20 on a Friday during the trial. But just before Christmas, TfL quietly published its analysis of the trial data, finding that: "There was no noticeable difference in the number of pay-as-you-go journeys made at peak times during the trial compared to pre-trial". The mayor was grilled over the trial's lacklustre results at a City Hall meeting on Wednesday, in which he hinted at what TfL might try next:
One of the challenges I have given to TfL is to be innovative about what we can do to not just attract those public transport users who, post pandemic, haven’t come back, but what more we can do to supporting the business community, hospitality and so forth.
They are working on a number of options, which will come to me at some stage. I have also encouraged them to speak to the private sector, without naming names, like: could TfL do a deal with somebody who provides coffees, in relation to an incentive?
Sort of like: the kind of scheme you have when you go to a supermarket in relation to points.
Tube ridership has been consistently lower on Fridays since Covid, as fewer London workers head to the office at the end of the week — passenger numbers are at roughly 75% of pre-pandemic levels, versus 85% on other weekdays. This has in turn taken a chunk out of TfL's fare revenues, which is probably why it was willing to burn £24m to pay for the Friday fare trial. City Hall Conservatives have leapt on this price tag, with Keith Prince, their transport spokesperson, telling the Telegraph: "It’s no surprise that this trial started just before the election and ended just after. £24m could have funded more than 300 police officers". We've done our own maths though — £24m could have paid for 5.9m Pret lattes, 8m espresso shots or 24.2m filter coffees. And roughly 17m Friday trips were made during the trial. Sorted.
Elsewhere in London transport: TfL has announced the Silvertown tunnel will open on April 7, with tolls also coming into force in the Blackwall tunnel that day; black-cab drivers have been criticising a new cab rank that's opened at Euston station; London beat the likes of Paris and Dublin to become Europe's most congested city; and an investigation has been launched after a man got his hand trapped in the door of an Elizabeth line train on Christmas Eve, and had to run along the platform as it departed before being freed.
🚨 The mother of a boy who was fatally stabbed on a bus in Woolwich this week has said authorities failed to heed her warnings that her son was being groomed by gangs. On Tuesday 14-year-old Kelyan Bokassa died after being stabbed on the 472 bus. His mother, Mary Bokassa, gave a haunting interview to the BBC the following day, in which she said that Kelyan had been "groomed" by gangs since the age of six, and that she was not surprised by his death, having already informed authorities yet received no support. She said: "I feel hurt because I tried to prevent it. I've tried so many, so many times. I screamed it, I said 'my son is going to be killed'". Anti-knife crime charity Project Lifeline echoed the mother's remarks on Friday, claiming to the Guardian that Kelyan had been known to the charity and could have been saved if he had been helped to move out of central London. Mark Rodney, Project Lifeline's CEO, said that his charity had relocated three of Kelyan's friends after a previous fatal stabbing, and had gone on to warn Greenwich council more children needed to be moved, but was ignored. Rodney said: "More kids should have been moved after [the previous] killing. It is inhumane not to have the exit strategies there and then point fingers at young children." On Wednesday night a vigil was held for Kelyan outside St Mary Magdalene Church in Woolwich. No arrests have been made in the case — DCI Martin Thorpe, who is leading the Met's investigation, said:
The incident happened shortly before 14:30hrs on a route 472 bus on Woolwich Church Street, SE18 at the Woolwich Ferry bus stop. If anyone saw this horrific attack or was in the area then I urge them to come forward and speak to officers. We’re particularly interested in any mobile phone footage that captured this incident or any dash cam or doorbell footage from around the surrounding area at the time of this incident.
I know this is an incredibly worrying time for those in Woolwich, and there will continue to be an enhanced police presence in the area.
🥩 The meat traders of Smithfield say they intend to move to a new location "within the M25", following their eviction from the historic market by the City of London Corporation. The news came on December 23 within a joint statement issued by the Smithfield Market Tenants' Association (SMTA), the City of London Corporation, and the London Fish Merchants' Association (LFMA), which represents traders at the Billingsgate fish market, who are also being turfed out. The statement said that 70% of SMTA members "intend to come together to collectively move to a new facility within the M25" and that supply chains won't be affected by the move. Traders are set to move out of their current locations by 2029, in the wake of a City of London Corporation panel voting to withdraw support for the current meat and fish markets.
⚔️ Sadiq Khan did indeed get a knighthood in the New Year's honours list, despite efforts from petitioners to block it. Sir Sadiq was awarded the honour for his nearly 20 years of political service, having first entered office as Tooting MP in 2005. "Truly humbled to have received a knighthood in the King’s New Year’s Honours," he wrote on X in reaction to the news. "I couldn’t have dreamed when growing up on a council estate in south London that I'd one day be mayor of London. It’s the honour of my life to serve the city I love". While appearing on Grace Dent's Comfort Eating podcast, the mayor added: "My mum is chuffed to bits [but] my kids think it’s a joke. They think I’ve sold out, I’m part of the establishment, all that sort of stuff. My nephews and nieces think I’m elite". Some weren't chuffed — more than 200,000 people had signed a petition calling for the knighthood to be blocked over Khan's "polarizing politics" and the "marked increase" in crime in London under his watch. One more London politician got an honour — Islington MP Emily Thornberry, who has been made a dame.
🕺 London's biggest nightclub, Drumsheds, has avoided having its license revoked following suspected drug-related deaths and a stabbing at the venue. The Tottenham club, at the site of a former IKEA, was the subject of a licence review meeting at Enfield council on Tuesday over concerns raised by the Met Police. This came after the deaths of a 27-year-old man in October and a 29-year-old woman in December, which police suspect are drug-related, as well as a man being attacked with a weapon at the venue in November. Enfield councillors decided to permit the club to continue operating, though with "modified conditions" to allow for more scrutiny of its safety practices. Jim Waterson has an excellent in-depth report on the club's troubles here. Drumsheds recently announced it was partnering with charity The Loop to offer back-of-house drug testing — more on that in our own recent report here.
💥 A car was blown up by police in central London on Wednesday over a possible bomb threat. At around 1pm over 1,000 office workers, shoppers and lunchtime diners were evacuated from several streets around Regent Street, after a member of the public called in what they thought was a suspicious electrical device within a parked Audi on New Burlington Street. Panicked people could be seen fleeing the area. The Met Police would later confirm the car was safe, having sent in a bomb disposal robot to investigate its contents and conduct a controlled explosion. The Times spoke to waiters at a nearby high-end Italian restaurant, Sartoria, who claim the drama cost it £2,000 in cancelled reservations.
💸 The Office for National Statistics ended 2024 with some grim data for Londoners: rents in the city have risen by a record 11.6%. The ONS found that average rent in the city rose from £1,978 in November 2023 to £2,206 in November 2024, the biggest percentage rise since records began in 2006 and the first time the capital has surpassed £2,200. Brent saw the biggest rise of any borough, with the ONS clocking a whopping 28.1% rise in average rents in the 12 months to Nov 2024. From our work on our London rent Tube map, our guess would be it's partly due to the new expensive flats coming online around Wembley. But other outer London boroughs have also seen big rises: Sutton (14.9%), Ealing (14%) and Hounslow (13.4%). Within inner London, it's Hackney (13.0%) and Islington (12.4%) that are witnessing the biggest rent rises.
🏗️ PLANNING CORNER 🏗️ The campaign against the so-called 'Slab' on the South Bank received a big blow just before Christmas, when a judge dismissed a legal challenge to the 25-storey office block. The Save Our South Bank campaign had gone to court to argue that the redevelopment of the former ITV headquarters would harm several nearby landmarks, including the National Theatre and the Royal Festival Hall, and also pointed out the plans failed to provide any housing. But a judge was unconvinced, handing victory to the developers, Mitsubishi Estate, who want to turn the site into offices, shops and a cultural space. Campaigners have been fighting the plans ever since they were unveiled in 2021, and caused enough of a fuss to get then-housing secretary Michael Gove involved, but he approved the plans in February 2024. Save Our South Bank is now considering appealing the latest court decision.
More planning lawfare: earlier this week a group of local residents launched a legal challenge to stop the expansion of Wimbledon. Save Wimbledon Park have made submissions to the Greater London Authority calling for a judicial review into recently approved plans to turn Wimbledon Golf Club into a grand slam venue. Meanwhile West Ham United have been court over its Stratford stadium, which the club leases off the publicly-owned London Legacy Development Corporation. The club is contesting a £4m payment it had to make to its stadium landlord following Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky buying a 27 per cent stake in the club.
👮 LONDON'S FINEST 👮 With phone snatching continuing to plague the capital, the Met Police have acquired a novel weapon: a tagging spray that can be fired into the faces of thieves. Officers around Waterloo and the South Bank have been equipped with a spray developed by the company SelectaDNA, which in theory stains criminals and their personal effects with a solution that turns fluorescent blue under UV light. The company claims it can last for months and contains a 'synthetic DNA' that can be used to identify criminals after the fact. It's not just phone thefts that the Met are struggling to get to grips with — new Home Office figures show the force is failing to solve 90% of car thefts in London. The figures were analysed by the Liberal Democrats, which found the Met had the worst solving rate of any police force in England and Wales. Meanwhile, the force has started 2025 with more high-profile cases of internal bad behaviour — on Friday, an inspector who's head of the Met's Black Police Association was sacked for being part of a WhatsApp group containing offensive messages. And on January 3, a senior Met officer appeared in court charged with attempted rape and two counts of sexual assault. Also: the Met has courted some controversy for its decision to block a pro-Palestine march in London from taking place next weekend.
🗺️ FROM THE BOROUGHS 🗺️ A recent win for Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman, after he beat local residents in court over a traffic scheme. On December 17 a judge ruled that Rahman was within his rights to remove three low-traffic neighbourhoods in Bethnal Green in 2023, despite objections from residents that the council had botched the consultation process. The case sets a pretty significant London-wide precedent — the challenge was brought by a local campaign group, Save Our Safer Streets, but their case was also backed by TfL, which claimed removing the LTN's went against the local plan agreed between the council and the London mayor. So the judge's ruling suggests City Hall doesn't in fact have the power to overrule borough councils ditching LTNs. Since the win, Rahman has moved on to another big policy idea: school uniform payments. If the plans go ahead, Tower Hamlets will be the first in England to offer up to £150 to families with less than £50,350 in income to pay for their kids' school uniforms. It comes on top of the borough council's policy of free school meals for all secondary school students.
Elsewhere, in Hackney, the council has revealed it’s still feeling the pain from the 2020 cyber attack that paralysed its digital infrastructure. Local budget chiefs said on December 21 that the council will have to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds this coming year to further fix its tech in the wake of the hack — which is particularly poor timing, given the council is projecting a £37m overspend this accounting year. Down in Greenwich, the council has been rebuffed by a planning inspector over tower blocks that it had ordered a developer to demolish. Back in September 2023, the council had told developer Comer Homes it would have to knock down the Mast Quay development in Woolwich due to deviations from its planning application, but a planning inspector has now ruled the towers can stay for now, provided the developer fulfils new conditions. And finally, in Southwark, the council was the subject of a protest march on Saturday over its housing policy. Tensions are high in the borough due to the proposed redevelopment of the Aylesham Shopping Centre in Peckham, which campaigners say will fail to provide enough affordable housing.
🔍 And finally, we leave you with:
Evidence mating season has begun for London’s foxes (TikTok)
The south London school experimenting with a four-day week (Guardian)
‘London has the highest birth rates among over-40s. But what's driving the shift?’ (FT £)
Ranking London stations on how easy the barriers are to bump (TikTok)
Overground moquette nail paint (TikTok)
The return of the no-trousers Tube ride (Time Out)
Dissatisfaction with the Lambeth mayor’s clothing choice for Mass (TikTok)
Another London pie shop closes (Southwark News)
TfL at 3am (TikTok)
‘The DLR is so unserious’ (TikTok)
Waterloo station in the 1980s (TikTok)
Luigi Mangione graffiti in Camberwell and in Deptford (Reddit)
Skate culture in London (TikTok) and another (TikTok)
The curious alleys of Borough High Street (Londonist)
Signs you’re in a gentrified London area, corporate edition (TikTok)
‘On the buses: glimpses of passing commuters in rainy London – in pictures’ (Guardian)
POV you’re arrested in London (TikTok)