#thames-lido

#thames-lido

The plans call for beams of light right up into the night sky, which means they're directly affecting the night sky and, by design, the skyline view for anyone looking in that direction.

Fusion Lifestyle announced on 1 April that it had appointed administrators after a prolonged period of financial difficulty. The charity cited rising operational costs, reduced government funding, and post-pandemic recovery challenges as the causes of its financial struggles.

Brockwell Lido was crowned London's best swimming spot by Time Out last year and was even named the best in the entire country just a month later.

The Exchange is a community hub powered by North Paddington Foodbank who are the UK's first and only cash-first foodbank. Instead of offering food parcels, the foodbank gives out cash and vouchers instead, creating real routes out of crisis. This in turn helps foodbanks evolve into hubs of culture, care and community.

The museum, which displays Walthamstow's colourful cultural history - not to mention Britain's first ever petrol-fuelled car - closed for renovation in December 2023.

The artwork, called We Move Through Scales of Blue, will comprise four photographic pieces installed alongside the escalators at both stations. As people go up and down, the images appear to shift and change.

The plans would affect an area known as Royal Victoria Dock West, which is the end closest to London City Hall and the Cable Car. If carried out, the two biggest changes will be a range of floating walkways reaching into the dock, lined with water plants. The other change will be the introduction of walkways on the south side of the dock for long-term residential boat moorings.

The revamped venue will feature a basketball court, football pitches, and shiny (and crack-free) pools, as part of a £130 million redevelopment overseen by Morgan Sindall Construction.

The national rail bridge that spans Balham High Road, next to Balham station, has been given a deep clean and a new lighting scheme to improve its appearance. The bridge is the latest to benefit from Wandsworth Council's £2m schedule of improvements to rail bridges and underpasses, which is being funded by its contributions from local property developers.

But at the end of this month, there's a brand new festival arriving to inject some colour into the financial district. 'Vibrance' will light up Roman ruins, medieval churches and secret gardens across the Square Mile on Thursday January 29 and Friday January 30 from 5.30pm until 8.30pm. Created by Guildhall Production Studio, it brings together more than a dozen artworks and live performances by emerging artists from Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

I am delighted that the once-in-a-generation redevelopment of the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre has reached another key milestone with the submission of the planning application for its transformation. The 15hectare site, opened in 1964, is set for a revamp of its athletics stadium, indoor arena, and swimming and diving facilities.

The world's oldest surviving gasholder is to be restored and repurposed as part of a housing development in west London. Hammersmith & Fulham Council has approved plans that will see the Grade II* listed Gasholder No.2 at King's Road Park restored, securing the future of a structure that will soon reach its 200th birthday. Built between 1829 and 1830, Gasholder No.2 is believed to be the oldest surviving gasholder in the world.

Every time a boat passes through a canal lock, thousands of litres of water are released and must be replaced, usually from other sources. To reduce water loss, engineers sometimes build side ponds next to canals with several locks in succession. These side ponds allowed water to be "put aside" rather than lost. When a lock chamber was emptied to lower a boat to the next level, paddles were opened to divert the water into an adjacent side pond.

If you had told us five years ago that London's population would be dunking themselves in ice baths and sweating it out in scorching boxes for fun, instead of going to the pub, we wouldn't have believed you. But in 2026, dear reader, that is very much the case, because Londoners have gone absolutely bonkers for saunas. A new map, created by Sauna\\Wave, has revealed all the best locations in south London to take part in the Finnish tradition.

Battersea Power Station is a former coal-fired power station located on the south bank of the River Thames in London, originally designed by architects J. Theo Halliday and Giles Gilbert Scott. Notable for its appearance on the cover of Pink Floyd's 1977 studio album Animals and in Alfred Hitchcock's 1936 film Sabotage, the station is one of the world's largest brick buildings and is known for its Art Deco interior fittings and décor.

A Victorian drinking fountain has been restored to its original location following conservation, but it is not fully functional and cannot dispense drinking water. The Princes Circus fountain was installed in 1879 to commemorate Queen Victoria's 60th year on the throne, but was originally in a different location. It used to be a bit further north, on the junction of New Oxford Street and Shaftesbury Avenue, opposite Coptic Street. In 2003, it was moved to sit in a fenced-off island space outside the Shaftesbury Theatre.