Revealed: Protected ancient woodland in London to become wedding venue
Plus: the battle for Brockwell Park, the Spy gets the Met in trouble, and the most embarrassing place to sit on a London bus
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.
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 '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 £)
Morley's blows its advertising budget to celebrate its 40th birthday (TikTok)
A Q&A with London's youngest cabbie (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)
Good spot on the weddings… I guess the Covid-era law change allowing the legal ceremony to take place outside is going to lead to anyone with a nice bit of land in central London having a go!