Category Archives: London

Abba reunite for Voyage, first new album in 40 years

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Swedish hitmakers to release album of brand new material in November, and digital avatars will appear in London concert residency in 2022

One of the most anticipated comebacks in pop culture has finally come to pass: the return of Abba.

Forty years after the bitter songs written in the wake of two band divorces for their last album, 1981’s The Visitors, the Swedish pop quartet have reunited for Voyage, an album of brand new songs that will be released on 5 November – including, they say, a Christmas song. Two tracks from it, the stately and epic ballad I Still Have Faith in You and the shimmying Don’t Shut Me Down, are out now.

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‘Imminent’ decision on future of Cressida Dick as Met commissioner

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Priti Patel and Dick discussed the commissioner’s future last week, it is understood

Ministers and the Metropolitan police commissioner, Cressida Dick, have begun discussions about whether her turbulent term in charge of Britain’s biggest force will be extended, with a decision said to be “imminent”.

Dick, the first woman in charge of the London force since it was established in 1829, is on a five-year contract that expires in April 2022. She could step down then or have the contract extended for a period.

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Scrawny trees, patchy grass, terrible view … why £6m Marble Arch Mound still falls flat

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After a summer of free entry, visitors will now have to pay up to £8 to climb the London project. But will they bother?

It has been called a “BTec Eiffel Tower” and a “slag heap”. It’s been compared to “a car-park Santa’s grotto, with dogs pretending to be reindeer”. The Marble Arch Mound, the temporary artificial hill commissioned by Westminster city council as an “ambitious” visitor attraction, has become, as a representative of the local community put it, “an international laughing stock”.

The council responded to criticism by allowing free entry during August, and a certain number of the curious and the ghoulishly fascinated have turned up. This week it will start charging again. Given fundamental flaws in the project’s conception, the question is whether people will want to pay £8 for a weekend fast-track ticket now, any more than they did when it first opened at the end of July.

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Air pollution linked to more severe mental illness – study

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Exclusive: research finds small rise in exposure to air pollution leads to higher risk of needing treatment

Exposure to air pollution is linked to an increased severity of mental illness, according to the most comprehensive study of its kind.

The research, involving 13,000 people in London, found that a relatively small increase in exposure to nitrogen dioxide led to a 32% increase in the risk of needing community-based treatment and an 18% increase in the risk of being admitted to hospital.

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Murder investigation launched after fatal stabbing in Kingston

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Met police arrest two men, aged 18 and 19, after 22-year-old man found stabbed in south-west London

A murder investigation has been launched after a man was stabbed to death in south-west London. The 22-year-old was found after police were called out at 3.45am on Saturday to reports of a disturbance in Clarence Street, Kingston.

The Metropolitan police said a 19-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of murder and possession of an offensive weapon, while an 18-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of murder. Both men are in custody at a south London police station.

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BHP to shift oil and gas assets into Woodside Petroleum as part of major overhaul

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Global miner declares a bumper profit due to high iron ore prices but slashes value of NSW coalmine to become a $200m liability

Global miner BHP is planning a major overhaul, simplifying its company structure and dumping its oil and gas assets into Woodside Petroleum, creating one of the biggest energy producers in the world.

BHP on Tuesday declared a bumper profit due to high iron ore prices, as it announced it will bring together its Australian and UK arms into one company and leave the London Stock Exchange, which could have ramifications for investors.

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London’s cafe culture has left a sour taste for stressed residents

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Licensing outdoor seats saved countless jobs but brings noise and antisocial behaviour

Continental Europe has come to the UK – at least when the sun shines. In towns and cities all over the country, alfresco dining has exploded, with thousands of extra outdoor seats being licensed.

Many in the hospitality industry say the move has saved their business from bankruptcy after catastrophic losses during the pandemic. Now, although Covid restrictions have been lifted, the government is considering making outdoor dining a permanent feature rather than a short-term response to a crisis.

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Disruption as Tower Bridge stuck open after ‘technical failure’

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Bridge opened on Monday to allow wooden ship through, before its arms got stuck in raised position

A technical fault has left Tower Bridge stuck open, causing major rush-hour traffic problems in the capital with pedestrians and vehicles unable to cross.

The London landmark, one of several bridges over the River Thames that connects central and southern parts of the city, was scheduled to open this afternoon to allow a large wooden tall ship to pass through. But City of London police said the 127-year-old bridge had been closed to traffic and pedestrians after a “technical failure” left it stuck in its raised position.

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Police review teen killings in search of catalyst for spike in murders

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Pilot scheme hopes to discover patterns that will help prevent more deaths

Measures are being introduced to try to identify what is driving rising murder rates in the wake of a spike in teenage deaths in some of the UK’s homicide hotspots.

All homicides in London, Birmingham and south Wales will be reviewed by the authorities in an attempt to learn from the chaotic sequences of events that often preempt a death.

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Lily Allen: from chart-topping handbag kid to the heart of London’s West End

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The singer is back in front of a live audience this week, playing ‘a woman with a real point of view’ in a spooky new play, 2:22 – A Ghost Story

There, in the background, wearing drop pearl earrings, is 13-year-old Lily Allen dressed up as a little lady-in-waiting. Cinema audiences watching Cate Blanchett as Elizabeth when the film of that name came out in 1998 might have been concentrating on the queen’s courtly dancing in the middle of the frame, but yes, it really was Allen playing a mini royal favourite in director Shekhar Kapur’s lavish production.

Now, more than two decades later, the 36-year-old singer-songwriter is taking centre stage as an actress in the West End, appearing in a spooky new play, 2:22 – A Ghost Story, which opens this week.

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Conditions that led to 2011 riots still exist today, experts warn

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Data analysis finds large-scale cuts to youth services and increase in racial disparity 10 years on

The conditions that led to riots across England 10 years ago still exist today, experts have warned, as data analysis showed significant cuts to youth services in affected areas and an increase in racial disparity in stop and search.

On 4 August 2011, police officers shot and killed Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old mixed-race man, in Tottenham, north London. His death sparked a wave of civil unrest that started the capital and spread to other cities, causing property damage to the value of £40m a day.

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‘Like hell’: what former Lambeth children’s home residents told abuse inquiry

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The report into sexual abuse in London council’s children’s homes heard from many who experienced it

Hundreds of vulnerable children aged two to 19 suffered sexual abuse, violence and intimidation in children’s homes run by Lambeth council in south London over several decades from the late 1960s, a report has found.

Here are three accounts from some of those who gave evidence to the inquiry of their experiences in the care of Lambeth council.

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Thunderstorms leave roads and tube stations flooded in London

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Environment Agency issues five flood warnings across southern England and 19 flood alerts including parts of Wales

Torrential rain has flooded roads and tube stations in London after thunderstorms hit the south of England on Sunday.

Barts Health NHS trust declared a major incident after the flooding led to problems at Whipps Cross hospital and Newham Hospital in the east of the city.

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Why the Marble Arch Mound is a slippery slope to nowhere

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The artificial hill in central London seems a great idea, but it would be better to have done something that genuinely helped the environment

The Torre Guinigi in Lucca, Italy, is a brick medieval tower – it’s handsome, but of a type common enough in historic Tuscan cities. What makes it special is a grove of holm oaks growing from its summit. Trees come with expectations, such that they are rooted in the ground, yet there they are, high in the air, apparently flourishing. The tower would be less interesting if it weren’t for the trees and the trees would be less interesting if it weren’t for the tower.

So there’s something compelling about trees in unexpected places. Hence at least part of the appeal of the High Line in New York, where gardens grow on an old elevated railway line, and of the ski slope on top of the Amager Bakke power plant in Copenhagen. There’s been a thing for wrapping towers in vegetation in recent years. Little Island, the micro-park recently created by Thomas Heatherwick over the Hudson, has a similar well-I-never, Instagram-able impact.

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Stonehenge may be next UK site to lose world heritage status

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Britain is eroding global reputation for conserving its historic assets, culture bodies are warning

The UK is eroding its global reputation for conserving its “unparalleled” historic assets, culture bodies have warned, with Stonehenge expected to be next in line to lose its coveted World Heritage status after Liverpool.

Related: Unesco strips Liverpool of its world heritage status

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Winnie-the-Pooh goes to Harrods in new authorised AA Milne prequel

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Once There Was a Bear by Jane Riordan and Mark Burgess will channel the original books’ voice and pictorial style using details from Christopher Robin’s real life

The story of how Winnie-the-Pooh went from a Harrods toy shelf to the home of Christopher Robin and the Hundred Acre Wood is set to be told for the first time, in an official prequel to AA Milne’s original stories.

Winnie-the-Pooh: Once There Was a Bear has been written in the style of Milne by children’s writer Jane Riordan, with illustrations by Mark Burgess emulating the original drawings of EH Shepard. It is the first prequel to Milne’s books and poetry about the bear, and has been authorised by the estates of both Milne and Shepard.

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Chinese tycoon gets go-ahead to build vast central London ‘palace’

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Westminster council unable to block Cheung Chung-kiu’s grand plans for Knightsbridge property despite ban on “Monopoly board-style” homes

A Chinese billionaire has been granted planning permission to construct an eight-storey, 5,760-sq metre (62,000-sq-ft) private palace overlooking Hyde Park, central London.

Westminster city council granted Cheung Chung-kiu, a Hong Kong-based property tycoon, permission to partly demolish and reconstruct 2-8A Rutland Gate, in Knightsbridge, in order to create his vast new home, which experts said could be worth up to £500m when completed.

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John Kerry: world leaders must step up to avoid worst impacts of climate crisis

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US envoy uses landmark speech in London to make impassioned plea for unified global effort

The world still has a chance of staving off the worst impacts of climate breakdown but only if governments step up in the next few months with stronger commitments on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, the US envoy for climate change has said.

John Kerry, appointed by Joe Biden to spearhead the US’s international efforts to tackle the crisis, urged all large economies to come forward with new plans to cut emissions before the Cop26 UN climate talks in Glasgow this November.

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London basement extensions as normal as loft conversions, study finds

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Most are built for middle-class professionals rather than oligarchs, with trend raising flood concerns

With their underground swimming pools, cinemas and art galleries, London’s luxury basement developments have long provoked envy and disgust as depositories for the hidden wealth of the super-rich.

But a study that has mapped all the 7,328 basements approved by 32 boroughs and the City of London between 2008 and 2019 has found that the majority of these developments were built for middle-class professionals rather than oligarchs, with the researchers saying they have become as normal as loft conversions.

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Revealed: Met police trainees’ violence and dishonesty

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Cressida Dick backs Hendon methods, despite leaked documents and internal sources revealing alarming incidents and poor applicants

The head of the Metropolitan police, Cressida Dick, has been forced to defend recruitment standards as leaked documents reveal cases of violent disorder, cheating and dishonesty among trainees at Britain’s biggest police force.

The incidents relate to recruits at the Met’s main training centre and will raise concerns about its ability to provide an effective service as sources within the force allege declining standards for trainees as recruitment has been ramped up.

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