The resurrection of Oxford Street pedestrianisation
The resurrection of Oxford Street pedestrianisation
Plus: a Lime bike ultimatum, cancelling Buying London, and rating AI images of London buses
Morning — we’re back! Thanks very much for bearing with us during our much-needed Spy holiday. To get us back in the groove of things, we’ve put together a mega Sunday round-up of the biggest London news we missed while away. Sadiq Khan’s second attempt to pedestrianise Oxford Street leads your stories.
Plus: a Lime bike ultimatum, cancelling Buying London, and rating AI images of London buses.
In case you missed it: we dropped our Tube map of London house prices just before we jetted off. It’s based on about 750,000 property sale records from across the capital since 2020, which we’ve then crunched down into averages for each station and displayed on an interactive map.
BTW: you may have heard the Evening Standard printed its final daily edition this week. It’s triggered a fair amount of concern about the future of local news coverage in the capital, especially since the Standard’s next incarnation — a weekly mag — is positioning itself as “an upmarket celebration of the city in all its glory … for a culturally savvy, desirable audience”. But, in our own small way, we hope the Spy is some proof all is not lost for some back-to-basics, London-focused journalism. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber using the button below so we can keep it up and grow.
What we've spied
🛍️ Sadiq Khan has resurrected plans to pedestrianise Oxford Street — but this time, the mayor is getting new powers from the government to push the £150m project through. Khan is proposing to ban all traffic from a stretch between Marble Arch and Oxford Circus — not just cars and buses but bikes too. Here are some mockups of how it could look. It's the mayor's second attempt at pedestrianising the famous shopping street, having had a previous plan blocked in 2018 by the then Conservative-run Westminster council. But Khan's plan now has the support of the new national Labour government, which is giving him special planning powers that will allow him to take control of the area and override any local opposition. Announcing the project on Tuesday from the rooftop of John Lewis, Khan said:
Oxford Street was once the jewel in the crown of Britain’s retail sector, but there’s no doubt that it has suffered hugely over the last decade. Urgent action is needed to give the nation’s most famous high street a new lease of life.
I am excited to be working with the new government, and local retailers and businesses, on these plans - that will help to restore this famous part of the capital to its former glory, while creating new jobs and economic prosperity for the capital and the country.
Khan’s old adversary, Westminster council, is now controlled by Labour, but so far it seems the new administration won’t be letting him off easy. Councillor Adam Hug, the council’s leader, wrote to Khan on Wednesday with ten key concerns he wants addressed, ranging from the impact of diverted traffic on locals to disability access to the possibility of Oxford Street becoming a terror target. At this stage there doesn't seem like there's much the council can do to fight pedestrianisation though, given local government secretary Angela Rayner is explicitly supporting the project. Worth reading: this piece in the Guardian, which compares Khan's plan to similar schemes in Paris, New York and Barcelona, and also this piece in the FT from last September exploring the reasons behind Oxford Street's recent decline.
💩 However, this week Khan and the Labour government appeared less aligned on another of the mayor’s big ambitions: cleaning up the Thames. Having pledged to make the river 'swimmable' within a decade during his recent re-election campaign, on Wednesday the Khan gave more details about his 10-year plan to reduce sewage pollution in London's rivers. That included publishing a new map of current open water swimming spots across the capital as well as several proposed spots City Hall is prioritising for clean-up: Hackney Marshes, Roding, Albany Reach and Teddington. However, just last week, the government's environment secretary, Steve Reed, approved a controversial scheme to allow Thames Water to pump 75m litres of treated sewage a day into the same spot in Teddington, which is in south west London. Environmental campaigners tell the Guardian that this fundamentally conflicts with City Hall’s hopes for clean swimming. "I cannot see how Thames Water’s planned abstraction plan can be approved, when it involves them pumping treated effluent full of chemical back into the river to replace river water taken out in times of drought," says one member of the Teddington Bluetits group. “The river would not be safe to swim in, and there could be devastating effects on river life.”. For his part, Khan stressed he's trying to bring together "key players" to draft an action plan to clean up the river, and that he’ll be talking to Thames Water about options for Teddington.
🚲 The Lime bike backlash just got real — a London borough is now poised to banish the e-rental company from its borders. Earlier this month Brent council issued an ultimatum to Lime: deal with bikes being "inconsiderately parked" and "abandoned" on pavements by October 31, or remove all of its 750 dockless bikes from the borough. The council wants Lime to create dedicated parking bays and to increase the £10 penalty for cyclists who abandon their bikes incorrectly. It follows growing frustration from some Brent residents about badly parked Lime bikes — like 61-year-old Junior Lancaster, a former decorator with reduced mobility due to sciatica who told the Telegraph: "They're making my life hell". Lime appears to be digging its heels in, with a spokesperson telling the Independent that parking bay rules just aren’t workable in Brent because the council hasn't built "a functional network of parking locations". Other London boroughs have managed to agree on a parking bay arrangement with Lime — Westminster, Camden, Hackney and Hammersmith & Fulham. Indeed, there aren’t any London-wide rules governing Lime bikes, with the company instead making deals on a borough-by-borough basis. This week Lambeth's deputy leader for sustainability also weighed in on the Lime issue, making a direct call to the government to bring in e-bike regulation "to ensure people are safe on our streets".
💻 The other big London transport story we missed while away: TfL was hit by a cyber attack. Last week a 17-year-old boy from Walsall in the west Midlands was arrested in connection to the hack, which TfL says may have led to about 5,000 customers' sort codes and bank account details being accessed by hackers. TfL has now written to those whose data was affected. In the meantime, all customers are still unable to apply for new concession cards, refunds or access their contactless data, while TfL staff have found themselves locked out of parts of the IT network. Third parties were also hit by the hack — in the immediate aftermath Citymapper went dark when TfL shut down access to live data feeds.
📺 Fame can be fickle, especially when it's built on the back of the luxury London property market — Netflix has cancelled its reality show Buying London after just one season. What was supposed to be the UK's answer to Selling Sunset debuted earlier this year and featured a team of estate agents flogging the most expensive homes the capital has to offer in neighbourhoods like Mayfair and Belgravia. It bombed with critics, earning the title of "probably the most hateable TV show ever made" from the Guardian and receiving just 14% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. While Netflix has declined to comment on the show's cancellation, it seems Daniel Daggers, the owner of the estate agents featured in the show, DDRE, is satisfied with his brief moment in the spotlight. "Buying London did exactly what we wanted it to do,” a DDRE spokesperson said. “It enabled us to put DDRE Global on an international stage, and as a result, generated record interest in our business". In fact DDRE claims it received £400m worth of enquiries and secured £185m in instructions because of the show. And yet, somehow we don't think Daggers' plans for a hustlers academy will be taking off any time soon.
🐜 More revelations about rogue landlord turned east London MP Jas Athwal, who's now in hot water for breaching child safety rules at his nurseries. The dire state of Athwal's rental properties in London came to light just as we went on holiday at the start of the month — his tenants told the BBC of their problems with black mould, ant infestations and threats of evictions if they complained. Athwal was elected as MP for Ilford South this year and in turn became the biggest landlord in the House of Commons, owning 15 flats. He said he was "shocked" and "profoundly sorry" to hear of his tenants' issues via the BBC, though he said he'd been unaware because the properties were managed by an agency. But Athwal did admit that his properties failed to comply with a local Redbridge licensing scheme that, er, he introduced while he led the council. Athwal has so far batted away calls to resign, but he's now under renewed pressure in relation to several nurseries he owns. The i reported on Wednesday that Athwal's company, Village Day Nurseries, has previously been criticised by education inspector Ofsted over child supervision and welfare failings. Some are also now digging into his company’s seemingly creative approach to tax.
🏗️ PLANNING CORNER 🏗️ A boost for the Wimbledon expansion's prospects, after officers at the Greater London Authority recommended granting conditional planning permission ahead of a showdown hearing next week. A while back, the All England Club submitted plans to build 39 new tennis courts on Wimbledon Park and got partial approval from Merton council, one of the local boroughs involved. But then Wandsworth council, the other borough, rejected the plans amid local opposition, so the GLA has had to step in. The final decision now rests with City Hall, which is holding a final hearing on Friday, September 27 and will make a call soon after. Another major sports project in London looms: Chelsea FC is considering leaving Stamford Bridge and building a new stadium at Earl's Court. The club has reportedly held talks with TfL and developer Delancey, which already have plans in the works to build a mixed-use development at the site. But, currently, they’ve made no provision for a football stadium. Chelsea has apparently drawn up its own plans though, which identify the Lillie Bridge depot as the one on which to build. The club may come to a deal, or make its own bid for the site.
Elsewhere in planning: the Times has been given an inside look at the £1.5bn White City development in west London, which has seen the former BBC Television Centre turned into a 950-home neighbourhood. In the City, the 36-storey Citypoint skyscraper has been put up for sale for £500m, in what's being seen as a major test of London's office market. Lastly, English Heritage has revealed that 50 of its blue plaques across London have gone missing. The main theory is that they disappeared during various external rendering works and construction.
👮 The steady drip drip of failings by the Met Police didn't relent while we were off. Most high profile of all has been the news this week that four Met officers are under investigation for misconduct after two women were murdered in south east London by a man they had complained about to the force. Carl Cooper, 66, was jailed for life in July for the murders of Naomi Hunte, 41, who was stabbed in the chest in February 2022, and Fiona Holm, 48, whose body has never been found but is believed to have been murdered by Cooper in June 2023. Both women had been in relationships with Cooper. Hunte made four separate complaints of stalking, violence and harassment about him; Holm made a complaint for assault but he was never charged. The litany of police failures around Cooper is laid out in a big Times investigation that was published this week. On top of all that for London’s finest, there was: a Met officer appearing in court at the start of September accused of rape and voyeurism; actor Reece Richards, who appeared in the show Sex Education, alleging last week that he was pepper sprayed during an "unlawful" arrest in Fulham; and the Met sacking a constable for using antisemitic language at work. Met commissioner Sir Mark Rowley hasn’t been silent though — this week he gave his first big speech since Labour took power, which he used to call for more cash to help fund his reform drive.
🎨 A sculpture featuring hundreds of casts of transgender and non-binary people has been unveiled as the latest installation on the Trafalgar Square Fourth Plinth. The piece, by Mexican artist Teresa Margolles and called Mil Veces un Instante (A Thousand Times in an Instant), features 726 casts that were created by applying plaster directly to the faces of people from both London and Mexico. The work is a tribute to Karla La Borrada, a 67-year-old trans singer and former sex worker who was murdered in Ciudad Juárez nine years ago. Margolles said: “We pay this tribute to her and all the other people who were killed for reasons of hate. But, above all, to those who live on, to the new generations who will defend the power to freely choose to live with dignity". The work is now the 15th artwork to appear on the fourth plinth, the previous one being Antelope by Samson Kambalu. Meanwhile, the campaign to get a permanent statute of Queen Elizabeth II on the plinth hasn’t gone away. Elsewhere in London sculpture: Oscar Wilde's grandson has condemned a new statue of the poet and playwright being installed in Chelsea as "absolutely hideous". Elsewhere in London culture: Sadler's Wells has unveiled the inaugural programme of the new theatre its opening in Stratford's East Bank next February.
🔍 And finally, we leave you with:
Rating London's new developments (TikTok)
The London school where pupils are being taught by AI (TikTok)
Harry Potter fans booing the end of the 'back to Hogwarts' tradition at Kings Cross (Guardian)
Research solving the mystery of how Crystal Palace was built in 190 days (South London Press)
In defence of London's Olympic legacy (Guardian)
In defence of London's pigeons (TikTok)
Film locations on the Underground (YouTube)
A Fabric nightclub sign going on display at the London Museum (BBC)
Azealia Banks performing 212 at the Brixton Academy (TikTok)
A dainty must visit bakery in London (TikTok)
The first ever Lunch with the FT featuring 'London's angriest chef' (FT £)
A commemorative paint job for bus operating 100 years in Bromley (Reddit)
More criticism of Old Street roundabout (Guardian)