Boris Johnson welcomes £141m transformation of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park into “Olympicopolis” December 2, 2014 Boris Johnson has welcomed the government's commitment to create a £141m education and culture hub on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The transformation will include two new campuses for University College London (UCL) and University of the Arts, new locations for the Victoria and Albert Museum and Sadler's Wells. It will create 3,000 jobs, 1.5m additional visitors [...]
London Bridge travel disruption: Everything Thameslink, Southeastern, Overground and Southern service commuters need to know December 2, 2014 Most commuters who travel to London Bridge are already used to stuffy train carriages, infuriating delays, slow trawls through crowded platforms and queues for ticket machines. Yet it could all be about to get even more stressful due to the next phase of a massive Network Rail rebuilding project at London Bridge mainline station [...]
London Underground has busiest day in history for second time in three weeks December 1, 2014 Last Friday was the busiest day in history for London Underground, which smashed through a record it had set just three weeks earlier. The tube network carried 4.725m passengers on Friday the 28 November, according to figures released by Transport for London (TfL). It beat the last record, set on 14 November, where 4.576m journeys [...]
BMW taps into London’s sharing economy: Who else is there? Airbnb, Uber and Zipcar December 1, 2014 Earlier this month, it was revealed the sharing economy could net up to £9bn a year for the UK by 2025. The independent review, commissioned by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, also laid out a road-map to ensure the UK becomes a center for this growing scene. Big businesses are eager to capitalise [...]
Northern Line Tube strike: “90 per cent service is running”, says Transport for London December 1, 2014 The Northern Line is running a good service, with 90 per cent of trains running on time – despite a 24-hour strike by Northern Line drivers, Transport for London (TfL) said today. Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union are on strike over the sacking of a driver who failed a breath test, but [...]
London can’t build a robust UK economy alone: We must unlock the regions November 30, 2014 In my first official engagement as lord mayor outside the M25, visits to Liverpool and Manchester were ideal places to kick-start my programme for the year. While my time in each northern powerhouse city was limited, it helped to set my agenda for the forthcoming year. Politicians love the term “rebalancing the economy”. It’s kept [...]
Boris Johnson suggests car-free Sundays for central London November 30, 2014 Car-free Sundays could become a fixture in central London, Boris Johnson suggested today after enjoying a cycle through a pedestrianised part of the Indonesian capital Jakarta. As part of a six-day regional tour through South-East Asia, the Mayor of London took part in a mass cycle with new Indonesian president Joko Widodo on Sunday. [...]
Focus on Victoria: Grab a prime bargain in SW1 November 27, 2014 Victoria has long been a place of work, but it’s been a while since it’s been a place to live. Dominated by a mixture of grey government office blocks and its various transport hubs, it certainly doesn’t fit the desirable London village trend. But that may be about to change. Developer Land Securities [...]
78 Carlton Hill: Eric Idle’s old St John’s Wood home where Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher partied with the Rolling Stones November 27, 2014 Eric Idle used to let movie stars stay in his home in St John’s Wood while filming. Now, anyone can stay, for the right price. Tucked away in a quiet corner of north west London, a magnificent townhouse once hosted an unusual evening of frivolity between some of the biggest icons of 1980s pop [...]
Further devolution is great news for Scotland: Now it’s London’s turn November 27, 2014 THE AGREED conclusion of the Smith Commission into further devolution for Scotland is excellent news – real power to tax and spend, including responsibility over income tax rates and bands, is now set to be wielded by the Scottish Parliament. Now it’s London’s turn. The capital is the UK’s economic powerhouse, providing a staggering £34bn [...]