The London Marathon is famously tricky to get into without a promise to raise a small fortune for charity, but a whole lot more people will get to run through the capital next year.

London Marathon 2027 will take place across two days rather than the one, 24th and 25th April.

It will allow almost double the runners to take part compared to London Marathon 2026, which had 59,830 finishers.

100,000 people will take part next year according to the organisers, marking a new record for the event. However, this two-day version is planned to be a one-off, for now.

Want to get involved? It’s actually too late to take the standard route. The ballot for London Marathon 2027 entries closed on 1st May, with the results expected to be announced within the next couple of weeks.

“By expanding to 100,000 runners across two days, we’re opening the door for more people, more charities and more communities to take part in the world’s greatest marathon,” says Hugh Brasher, CEO of London Marathon Events.

Anyone who entered the ballot will get a chance for Saturday and Sunday. But you’ll still need some luck — 1.33 million people entered the ballot, so there’s a well under 10 per cent chance of getting the nod.

You won’t able to run both the Saturday and Sunday, which let’s be honest would be a bit mad anyway. But there is a “virtual” alternative called TCS London Marathon MyWay. This takes place on the same day, asking you to run wherever you like. But this too is sold out, and came with a £30 for UK runners, £40 for the international crowd.

London Marathon is one of the eight “major” marathons, with the Cape Town Marathon joining this esteemed crowd in 2027.

The London route sees runners start in Blackheath and snake their way across Woolwich and Greenwich, before ending up nearby Westminster.

2026’s London Marathon was won by Sebastian Sawe, who finished the course in a record-breaking one hour, 59 minutes and 30 seconds. It was the first time someone had cracked the two-hour barrier in a competitive race.

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As much as we all didn’t believe it, the heatwave came to London perfectly in time with the May bank holiday, leaving Londoners sprawled like scattered shrimps across every conceivable inch of green space, and every single corner store completely stripped of sun cream, disposable barbecues, and tinnies. In even more incredulous news, the gentle melting of Brits is set to continue as the sunny weather lives on.

Luckily, one engineer has created a new map which tracks the sunniest routes across London so you can keep the tan topped up as you stroll to your weekly shop. Or, you can *avoid* the sunshine by choosing the shadiest route, depending on your preference and burn-ability. Called Sun Paths, it's like the reversible top of cartography - it works both ways.

Cast your minds back to last summer and you may remember a map that shows you the pub gardens across the capital which were in the sunshine or shade in real time, keeping the post work plans solidly solar powered and help avoid the sudden panic of realising you definitely need a jumper now the sun has gone in, after not touching one in weeks. Well, the mastermind behind Sun Paths is Mo Dawod is the same sun obsessed saviour who created SunSeekr. Much like the modus operandi of the beer gardens map, the app tracks the sun in real time, making sure the information is accurate to the forecast for that day (minute), meaning you can avoid any nasty and chilly surprises whilst walking to work. Sun Paths is just the latest feature on Dawod’s game changing app, Sunseekr.

Whether you’re a stroller, a power walker, or just popping for a little mental health walk, you can now map out your journey on the app to find the sunniest, shadiest, and shortest routes to take. If you’re wondering how it *actually* works, the app uses shadow simulation, MapBox navigation software and OpenStreetMap data, the app does its extremely high tech thing to work out the position of the sun in real time. It then calculates the sunniest (and shadiest) ways to reach your destination. You can also alter the level of sunniness that you want to soak up, from light, to balanced, and sun-maxx for the Helios worshippers.

Speaking about the new feature on Insatgram, Dawod said: “8 months ago I started building something I wasn’t sure was possible. Every morning I’d walk along the river to work and somehow end up in the shade the whole way, while the opposite bank was glowing. It drove me mad. I wondered if I could fix it. Sun Paths is the answer. A walking route planner that finds the sunniest way to anywhere in London.”

From the whole of London, thank you sir. You can head to SunSeekr's website to find out more about both the maps.

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London has plenty of places to swim outdoors, but the best one is not always the longest, warmest, or most aggressively lane-disciplined.

Sometimes it’s the one with the nicest walk afterwards; sometimes it’s the one that makes you feel briefly heroic for getting into cold water before breakfast (or lunch); and sometimes it’s just the one near a decent pub.

So, as summer 2026 approaches, this is a lido ranking based on actual vibe: the setting, the crowd, the post-swim options, the faff level, and whether you leave feeling like you have made the most of London, rather than simply completing 40 lengths in municipal water.

As a keen swimmer, I love the option of heading to a well-managed and well-kept lido whilst remaining within the cocoon of the city. On top of the swim itself, visiting lidos is a good way to explore London and make its history real.

To help you get your swimming groove on, we’ve found the 10 best lidos spread across all four corners of London, including some options you might have overlooked. Without further ado, let’s dive in (with my apologies for the pun).

Brockwell Lido – Herne Hill

• Best for: The complete London lido experience

Brockwell Lido has the rare quality of feeling like a proper destination without trying too hard.

The art deco building does a lot of the work, obviously, but so does the setting: tucked into Brockwell Park, close enough to Herne Hill for coffee or even a post-swim pint, but still just removed enough from the road to feel like you have stepped out of ‘normal’ London.

It is not the quietest, cheapest, or most secret option in the city, and on a hot weekend it can feel like half of south London had the same idea. But we say that’s also part of the appeal.

Vibe: art deco, flat whites, wet hair, linen shirts, sunshine, and pretending you only came for a quick dip.

Parliament Hill Lido – Hampstead Heath

• Best for: Beautiful misery, in the best way

Parliament Hill Lido is for anyone who wants their outdoor swimming with a bit of grit.

The lido is not soft, spa-like, or especially interested in making things easy for you. The pool is unheated, the setting is open and exposed, and on the wrong day the whole experience can feel like a minor act of character-building.

That is also exactly why people love it. There is something brilliant about the scale and simplicity of the place; it feels more elemental than decorative, and far less performative than some of London’s trendier swim spots.

Vibe: cold water, clear heads, North London stoicism, and a towel carried with quiet purpose.

Tooting Bec Lido – Tooting

• Best for: Scale, spectacle, and some proper lido history

Tooting Bec Lido is the big one: a long, open stretch of blue water that makes most outdoor pools feel like they were built for people who enjoy queuing politely in shallow ends.

It feels like a proper public institution, used, defended, complained about, and returned to by generations of Londoners. The lido can be busy, and it is not the most intimate option on this list, but intimacy is not really the point.

Vibe: huge towels, bright changing cubicles, big groups, serious swimmers, and the faint sense you have joined a civic tradition rather than booked a swim.

London Fields Lido – Hackney

• Best for: The easy east London choice

London Fields Lido is popular for the most obvious reason: it is extremely good at being useful. It is heated, 50 metres long, open year-round, and close enough to Broadway Market that a swim can become lunch, coffee, a pint, or all three with almost no planning.

The downside is that everyone else has worked this out too. On a hot day, it can feel less like a secret and more like Hackney’s collective out-of-office reply. Still, the appeal holds.

London Fields is handsome, reliable, and easy to fold into a bigger day out, which makes it one of the city’s most useful outdoor swims.

Vibe: morning lengths, tote bags, pastries, pints by 2pm, and a towel that somehow smells faintly of sourdough.

Hampstead Heath Ponds – Hampstead Heath

• Best for: Wild swimming without leaving London

The Hampstead Heath Ponds are not lidos, but leaving them out of a London outdoor swimming list wouldn’t feel right. They are colder, muddier, and more ritualistic than most pool swims, with the added thrill of sharing the water with ducks, weeds, and people who seem to have been doing this every morning since the 1970s.

The appeal is the feeling of slipping out of London while still being very much in it. You get trees instead of tiles, birdsong instead of lane etiquette, and the strange post-swim glow of someone who has just done something faintly feral before lunch.

Vibe: cold water, serious regulars, improvised modesty, and someone nearby explaining that this is actually very good for your nervous system.

Oasis Sports Centre – Covent Garden

• Best for: the surreal central London swim

The main thing to know about Oasis is that it feels faintly improbable. One minute you are in central London dodging office workers, and the next, you are outside, in a pool, looking up at the sky.

Nobody comes here for grand lido romance; this is not Brockwell, and it is not trying to be. Its appeal is pure convenience with a little bit of weirdness attached: a proper outdoor swim in a part of London better known for theatres, shops, and sandwich queues.

Vibe: desk job escapism, chlorine hair, theatreland weirdness, and the quiet thrill of swimming outdoors.

Serpentine Lido – Hyde Park

• Best for: The London postcard moment

There are arguably better pools for lengths, facilities, and pretending you are the sort of person who wakes up naturally at 6am. The Serpentine Lido, though, wins on setting.

It’s Hyde Park, open water, deckchairs, grass, passing tourists, and the slightly odd pleasure of doing something that feels both very wholesome and mildly attention-seeking.

I’d recommend treating it as a summer outing rather than a training session. Go when the sun is out, give yourself time afterwards, and lean into the fact that this is closer to a London scene than a pure swim.

Vibe: deckchairs, damp hair, goose-adjacent bravery, and main-character energy in the middle of Hyde Park.

Charlton Lido – Greenwich

• Best for: South-east Londoners who know

Charlton Lido does not have the same myth-making machinery as Brockwell, Tooting, or London Fields, which is partly why it works. It is a proper 50m heated outdoor pool with a pleasantly unfussy feel: local, practical, and a little underrated. You go because you actually want a swim, not because someone has told you it is a personality.

Pair it with Greenwich, Blackheath, or a lazy south-east London afternoon and it starts to make even more sense.

Vibe: low-hype lengths, warm water, and the quiet satisfaction of not fighting half the city for a swim slot.

Park Road Lido – Crouch End

• Best for: The quieter family spot

Some lidos announce themselves with history, scale, or postcard good looks. Park Road is more of a slow-burner. It is the kind of place that makes most sense when you build a gentle north London afternoon around it: swim first, dry off properly, then wander towards Crouch End for coffee, lunch, or a pint you will insist is “basically rehydration”.

Vibe: families, regulars, leafy pavements, post-swim wandering, and the quiet pleasure of a lido that still feels mainly local.

Hampton Pool – Hampton

• Best for: The mini escape

Hampton Pool loosens the definition of London a little, but earns its place. An open-air, heated, and leafy lido, it is enough to feel like a proper summer plan without the admin of a full day trip. You are still in reach of the city, but the mood is softer, slower, and more suburban-holiday than commuter-rush.

Vibe: heated water, trees, relaxed regulars, and the kind of summer afternoon that accidentally turns into a full day.

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This summer, central London is getting taken over by giant lions. Not the terrifying escaped-zoo kind, but instead an art installation celebrating the National Team.

London Heritage Quarter has announced Pride in the Quarter, a new free public art trail that will scatter 17 lion and lioness sculptures across some of the capital’s biggest landmarks between June and August, all timed to coincide with a summer dominated by international football.

Inspired by England’s iconic Three Lions crest, the near life-size sculptures will stretch across a sizeable chunk of central London, running from Trafalgar Square through St James's Park and down towards Victoria Tower Gardens. The exact placements are still under wraps for now, but organisers have confirmed the installations will appear near major landmarks, including the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Cathedral and Buckingham Palace.

Which means there’s a very real possibility that your walk to Pret this summer will unexpectedly bring you face-to-face with a brightly painted six-foot lion.

The trail is being created by 17 artists, each giving their sculpture a distinct identity. Some are inspired by the global energy of international football tournaments, while others lean more heavily into London itself, pulling from the city’s architecture, parks and cultural mix. One sculpture is even set to celebrate Pride in London and will sit along the parade route, tying football culture into the wider identity of the city.

Artist Roshi Rouzbehani described her design as an attempt to capture London’s movement and diversity through colour and detail, which feels fitting for a trail that’s clearly aiming to be as much about the city itself as football.

International tournaments have increasingly turned central London into one massive outdoor viewing party, with fans spilling out of pubs, parks and giant screening areas every time England make it through another round on penalties. Pride in the Quarter feels like an extension of that atmosphere, just with slightly more public art and hopefully fewer shirtless men standing on traffic lights.

The trail is also designed to function as a proper summer wander around central London. Visitors will be able to unlock information about each sculpture and artist while moving through the route, alongside food recommendations, drink and nearby attractions throughout the area. Organisers have also confirmed opportunities to support partner charities connected to the project.

Importantly, it’s completely free, which already makes it one of the more appealing London activities this summer, given the current state of everyone’s bank account.

Pride in the Quarter launches in June and runs through August 2026, with the full list of sculpture locations expected to be announced closer to launch.

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If you’ve ever leafed through the hefty Guinness Book of World Records and scoffed at a couple of the entries, thinking that given a stopwatch and an official adjudicator, you could probably attempt one too then now might be your moment.

London’s self proclaimed Wildest World Record attempt is officially taking place at London Zoo this May. Hearing the words ‘London Zoo’ and a ‘World Record’ you might think it’s some kind of animal-involved spectacle – humans dressed as animals, largest ever human/animal pyramid, plenty of options. However, the record they’re attempting to break is a little less of a health and safety nightmare and a little more wholesome. The zoo is attempting to secure the title for the most contributions to a painting by numbers in the world.

In tandem with its sister site Whipsnade Zoo, the largest ever collaborative paint by numbers attempt will feature 200 animals to celebrate the 200th anniversary of ZSL – the conservation charity behind London Zoo.

The painting must be completed between Saturday 23rd and Sunday 31st May 2026, and more than 14,000 individuals are needed to paint their own section.

Artists and animal lovers of all ages are welcome to help bring the gigantic art piece to life, and thanks to the paint-by-numbers approach, you don’t even need to have any raw artistic talent – it’s the training wheels equivalent of art.

After painting your way into history (a fun claim to be able to make) visitors can learn more about ZSL’s history which has helped protect and conserve wildlife at some of the earth’s most critical points, working around the world to restore habitats, protect species, and get new animal advocates all fired up.

Running across May half term, the Guinness World Record title attempt is included with standard Zoo entry, so you will need to book a ticket to join in, which you can do in advance via the website.

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Sabastian Sawe made athletics history during London Marathon 2026. He not only won the event but came away with the first ever sub-2-hour result in an eligible race.

He ran the 42km distance in 1:59:30, smashing the previous course record of 2:01:25 set by Kelvin Kiptum in 2023. Kiptum sadly died in a car accident in February 2024.

Sawe is a runner from Kenya, and is currently 31 years old.

If your interest in competitive running and athletics tends to peak for about 24 hours around the time of London Marathon, you may not have heard much about him compared to, say, Eliud Kipchoge. But he has quite a history.

Sabastian Sawe's Marathon history

Sabastian Sawe won the London Marathon in 2025, with a time of 2:02:15. That was his first time running London’s marathon. But not his first marathon win.

Sawe followed up his 2025 London win with a first place position at the 2025 Berlin Marathon. He won Valencia’s Marathon in 2024 too. He has won all four of the major marathons we has raced in, and is the first to win London Marathon two years running since Kipchoge managed the same feat in 2018.

Before that, though, Sawe’s focus was more on the half marathon distance.

Who is Sabatian Sawe?

Sawe was born in 1994, son to a farmer father and a mother who was a sprinter as a child. However, he talks about his uncle Abraham Chepkirwok as a key influence and mentor-slash-coach.

Chepkirwok was an 800m runner during his running career, most notably representing Uganda in the 2008 Olympic Games, held in China.

Sawe’s own training kicked up a gear in 2017, while his World Athletics history of wins began in 2018 in Kampala — running the 1500 metre distance.

What running shoes does Sabastian Sawe use?

Throughout Sawe’s marathon career, and before it, he has been affiliated with Adidas and has used the brand’s shoes across his races.

The Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 pair he wore during his sub-2-hour marathon were officially announced just a couple of days before the race itself. Their key feature is a weight of under 100g (UK size 8.5), which is radically lighter than the 138g Adios Pro Evo 2 or the 148g Nike Vaporfly 4.

During his previous marathon wins, Sawe used the Adios Pro Evo 2, in London and Berlin’s 2025 races. And the year before he won Valencia in a pair of Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 1 shoes.

If you want to try a pair of these world record-setting shoes yourself, good luck. Not only do the Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 cost £450 a pair, but they’re likely to be in short supply once they get a wider release in time for (at least part of) the Autumn marathon season.

You can, however, easily pick up a pair of Adidas Pro Evo 2 trainers right now, also for an eye-watering £450.

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It’s not often a bit of kit drops and immediately rewrites the sport it’s built for. Usually, there’s a bedding-in period. A few quiet podiums. Maybe a record six months down the line. Not this time.

At the 2026 London Marathon, things escalated fast. Two men dipped under the two-hour barrier in the same race. The women’s field wasn’t far behind in making its own bit of history. Across all three headline performances, there was one very obvious common denominator: a brand-new, fresh-out-of-the-box Adidas racing shoe.

Enter the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3. It only launched days before the race. By Sunday afternoon, it already had a world record attached to it.

Kenya’s Sebastian Sawe led the charge, clocking an absurd 1:59:30 to take the win, pulling clear of Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha, who also snuck under two hours in 1:59:41. That alone would have been enough to dominate the headlines. Then Tigst Assefa went and won the women’s race in 2:15:41, improving on last year’s mark. All in the same shoe.

It’s ridiculously light

The headline stat is the one Adidas wants you to remember. Around 97 grams. That’s comfortably under 100g, which in running shoe terms is basically featherweight territory.

For context, most elite marathon shoes hover well above that. Dropping this much weight without sacrificing performance is the kind of marginal gain that stops being marginal over 26.2 miles.

It sounds gimmicky. Until it starts knocking chunks off world records and proving its value so quickly.

A completely new carbon setup

Previous versions leaned on carbon rods. The Evo 3 bins those off and replaces them with something called ENERGYRIM, which runs around the outside of the midsole.

The idea is simple enough. Keep the stiffness and propulsion you get from carbon, but free up more space for foam underfoot. More foam means more bounce. More bounce means less effort per stride.

The foam is doing a lot more work

Adidas has gone all-in on its next-gen Lightstrike Pro Evo foam here. It’s lighter, softer and, crucially, more responsive than what came before.

There’s a chunky 39mm stack at the heel, which is about as high as regulations allow. That gives runners maximum cushioning and energy return without tipping over into something unstable.

Adidas reckons it improves running economy by 1.6 percent. That might not sound like much, but at elite level it’s massive.

Everything else has been stripped back

When a shoe is this light, every gram matters. The upper is inspired by kitesurfing sails, which tells you everything about the vibe. Thin, strong, basically weightless.

Even the laces have been tweaked to shave off tiny amounts. The outsole only uses rubber where it absolutely needs to, mainly at the forefoot for grip. Plenty of shoes sound good on paper. This one turned up and immediately backed it up in the most public way possible.

Sawe didn’t just win. He went quicker than Eliud Kipchoge’s famous sub-two-hour run in Vienna, albeit that effort came in controlled conditions and didn’t count as an official record.

Here, there were no rotating pacers shielding the wind. Just two runners pushing each other deep into the race and holding on, breaking records in the process.

Admittedly, unless you're really into running, these £450 trainers may be overkill for a park run, but if you want to compete with the best, this is what they're wearing.

• How to sign up for the 2027 London Marathon: The ballot for next year's race is now open

Marathon madness has officially descended on the UK, with runners stretching and warming up for Sunday’s massive 26.2 mile race across London. As the starting klaxon is within sprinting distance, the Strava-mad public aren’t slowing down, with people looking at the 2027 Marathon ballot for a second run at the course.

London Marathon Events has now officially opened the ballot for the 2027 TCS London Marathon. The ballot remains open until 4pm on May 1st. It's a total lottery, so don't worry about a first come, first-served situation if you're on the fence for now. Click here to sign up.

Whether you missed out on a space this year, or you just really like running the event as a yearly tradition, you can now sign up to get your jog on.

Clearly, April is the month of the runner, as the 2027 ballot date comes just two days before the 2025 marathon date on Sunday 26th. The iconic race attracts around 60,000 runners a year, with the ballot entries going into millions. The race route itself is a fairly scenic trot around some of London’s most iconic landmarks and historic stretches, kicking off around Blackheath snaking past Tower Bridge, through Canary Wharf, and finishes in front of the gorgeous if impressive backdrop of Buckingham Palace.

If a very long plod with thousands of others sounds exactly like how you like to spend your Sunday, then you’ll want to set your alarm for 9am on Friday 24th April, so you can enter the ballot. It’s open for a week, closing at 4pm on Friday 1st May so you don’t have too much deliberating whether to enter or not, best just to enter anyway.

As well as a chance to get a lovely shiny medal (and scoop up some serious freebies), the marathon is a huge fundraising event – one of the largest in the world, racking up around £60-70 million on average, with a record breaking £87.3 million raised last year.

People who entered the ballot will hear back on whether they’ve been successful or not via email in early July – plenty of time to get that training plan sorted. There’s a chance your odds on actually getting a slot will be a lot better this year, as plans have been proposed to make the marathon a two day event, with races taking place across the Saturday and the Sunday.

If you want to enter the ballot, you can head over to the TCS London Marathon website.

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London is hands down adorable, and by adorable we do mean a-door-able – namely, stacked with hundreds of seriously prestigious, legendary and usually gated doors all keeping the secrets of some of the city's most stunning and historic homes and gardens. One of the most private and prestigious is that shiny black door on Downing Street – number 10, to be exact. And thanks to London Open Gardens Festival, the hallowed halls of the PM’s pied à terre will be swinging open its doors. And you could have a good old snoop.

A handful of lucky Londoners will be able to have a good old gander around the gorgeous gardens that get slightly less coverage than its front facing patio. As part of the London Open Gardens Festival, there will be two tours taking place in early June which will allow people to have a wander through the extensive garden. There will be 48 spaces in total, with 24 spots on each tour, both taking place on 6th June and allotted by ballot.

London Open Gardens (LOG) is an annual fundraising event which gives the general public the chance to gawp at some of the most gorgeous green spaces across the city which are usually firmly off limits. There are over 120 participating gardens this year scattered across each borough, including spaces like The Floating Garden in King’s Cross, Draper’s Hall Garden, William Morris Society, and Spurgeon Estate Secret Garden to name a smattering.

Number 10’s gardens were originally constructed back in 1736, spanning half an acre over an open lawn with rose-beds (commissioned by Margaret Thatcher), statues from artist and sculptor Barbara Hepworth, and dozens of different horticultural species which are kept in immaculate shape, putting your dead rosemary plant in your kitchen window-box to great shame.

You won’t be going it alone at the tours either with Wikipedia and a dream, as there will be gardeners on hand to answer any questions about the gardens, spilling the details on all the wildlife, botanicals, upkeep, and probably even some tips for your own sorry state of green affairs too.

You’ll have to enter the ballot if you want to get a space on the tour, which you can do via the festival’s website. The ballot closes on Tuesday 5th May and it’s free to enter – but there aren't that many spots left so you might want to apply sooner rather than later.

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There are two certainties in life. One, you will go into IKEA for “just one thing”. Two, you will emerge three hours later, emotionally changed and holding a plant you don't remember picking up.

Now imagine that, but with sports equipment thrown into the mix.

South London’s IKEA Croydon is about to become the first store of its kind, thanks to a new partnership with Decathlon. The result is a hybrid shop that basically lets you buy a wardrobe, a kayak and a plate of meatballs in one trip.

Opening on the 24th of April, the Decathlon space will take up more than 1,100 square metres inside the already massive IKEA site. It’ll stock over 5,000 items, covering everything from running and swimming to climbing, cycling, and sports you forgot existed, like pétanque.

Crucially, it also has its own entrance. This is big news for anyone who has ever stepped into IKEA and immediately lost all sense of direction and time. If you just want a pair of trainers or a yoga mat, you can now bypass the maze of identical kitchens and suspiciously calm living rooms.

For everyone else, it does raise some questions. Chief among them is whether adding more stuff to IKEA will make the experience better, or simply increase the odds of you getting trapped somewhere between lighting and soft furnishings.

Still, there are perks. The new space will include Decathlon’s buy-back scheme, meaning you can trade in old gear for store credit. So, you could declutter and accidentally reclutter in the same visit.

There’s also a bit of fanfare for opening weekend. The first 100 customers through the doors on both Friday and Saturday mornings will get a free Quechua backpack, and Friday shoppers will also receive a £20 voucher.

On Saturday, things get a bit more lively. The storefront is being turned into a mini playground, with a climbing wall, family activities, DJs and a “Spin to Win” setup offering prizes throughout the day. Which is not something you usually associate with buying a bedside table, but here we are.

The Croydon store is being treated as a test run for the partnership, so if it goes well, this kind of IKEA-Decathlon crossover could roll out elsewhere.

For now though, it’s a South London experiment. One where you can go in for a desk lamp and come out with hiking gear, a hot dog and the vague feeling you took a wrong turn somewhere around hour two.

The big day begins at 11am on Friday, the 24th of April at Ikea Croydon, Valley Retail Park, Purley Way, Croydon CR0 4UZ.

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If you’re looking to do something vaguely wholesome this weekend in Greater London, this is a decent shout.

A volunteer clean-up is taking place along the River Cray in Crayford, with locals invited to get stuck in and help tidy up a stretch of the river and surrounding green space.

The session will be based around Waterside Gardens (also known as Cray Gardens), right in the middle of town. From there, volunteers will head down to the river to tackle a mix of jobs aimed at improving the area and cutting down on litter and fly-tipping.

It’s a fairly hands-on gig. Some people will be getting into the water in waders to cut back overhanging branches and pull out rubbish, while others will stay on the banks clearing debris, collecting litter and moving cut vegetation to help keep the space manageable.

You don’t need to be an expert, but you do need to be reasonably steady on your feet. Expect uneven ground, a bit of mud and the occasional bramble. Strong shoes or boots are essential if you’re staying on land, and waders will be provided if you fancy getting into the river itself.

All the kit is sorted for you, including tools, gloves and equipment. There’ll also be tea, coffee and biscuits on hand, which, realistically, is half the reason people turn up to these things.

The plan is to meet at 9:45am near the gardens, get everyone set up, and then head over to the river. The session should wrap up around 1pm, with people heading off by roughly 1:30pm.

Getting there is straightforward. Crayford railway station is about a 10-minute walk away, and the 428 bus stops nearby along Crayford Way.

It’s being run by Thames21 in partnership with the Friends of River Cray, and it’s aimed at adults only, so you’ll need to be 18 or over to take part.

Bring water, dress for the weather and don’t wear anything you’re too attached to. You’ll probably end up muddy, but at least it’ll be for a good reason. Booking in is free, and you can do so here. Good luck.

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The London Marathon takes place this weekend on Sunday, April 26th. More than 1.1 million people entered the ballot to race, and upwards of 50,000 will pound the capital’s pavements in days.

It’s a massive event, but one that will also cause some headaches if you’ll just be looking to navigate around the city this weekend.

The route

The route sees the runners start in Greenwich, head through Woolwich and Deptford before crossing the river into Shadwell. Then they wind around the quays of Canary Wharf before heading back across the Thames, past Temple and down to St. Jame’s Park where the whole thing finishes.

Closed roads

To accommodate the sea of runners descending on London, many streets are closed for the event. Driving anywhere near the route will be a nightmare, so we'd suggest taking public transport if possible.

See the image above for a map of the affected roads.

The first of the road closures takes place from 4am, despite the race not starting for the elite pack until 8:50am. And the end point area of the marathon actually closes up shop from early doors on Friday April 24th.

You will be able to get around the mid chunk of the route until around 8am, although with all the fencing involved, you can’t expect it to feel remotely normal, even on foot. Expect your usual journey and walking route times to be extended greatly.

And while the earliest of the road closures will be unwound by 14:30pm, Tower Bridge through to Victoria Embankment will still be blocked off until the late evening between 20:30pm and 22:00pm.

The marathon organisers also raise a red flag about the tube stations situated closest to the route. These will be particularly busy:

• Cutty Sark
• Canada Water
• Bermondsey
• Tower Bridge
• Canary Wharf
• Heron Quays
• Limehouse
• Tower Hill
• Westminster

That last one, Westminster, will be exit-only pretty much all day, from 7:00am to 19:00pm.

Where to watch the London Marathon

The entire marathon route is going to be busy throughout. And if you’re tempted by the start at Greenwich Park, or the scenic area by Cutty Sark, you’ll have to contend with the massive crowds — Cutty Sark in particular becomes incredibly congested, being a big focal point near the start of the race.

So why not spread yourself out further along the route? Recommendations of areas from the marathon team include Poplar, Westferry, and Rotherhithe peninsula, and they're great areas to watch from.

The stretch from Poplar to Limehouse, which incorporates Westferry, is perhaps our favourite spot — there are several DLR stations to use, the amenities of Canary Wharf nearby, and a load of great pubs. For an on-route pint, try The Clement Attlee pub on Commercial Road, right next to Limehouse station. And a short walk from there is The Grapes, owned by Gandalf himself, Sir Ian McKellan.

How to track a London Marathon runner

Of course, if you’re actually cheering someone on, you may want to attempt to follow them around the course. For that eventuality, we recommend downloading the 2026 TCS London Marathon app. It uses smart checkpoints to estimate where they are on the route at all times — which should be accurate-ish at least until they hit the wall or need a pee, anyway.

Running yourself? Don’t miss our round-up of the freebies you can pick up across London afterwards as a participant...

• All the freebies 2026 London Marathon runners can get: Pints, pizzas and more!

Happy London Marathon Week. For those running it, this time should be about filling your body with carbs, trying to fight off those negative thoughts and making sure you’re banking enough rest time.

If you’re struggling to sit still because you're too filled with nerves and excitement about the weekend, you can channel that energy at one of the many events taking place across the capital over the coming days that you won’t have to spend a penny to get access to.

You already know about the post-race freebies to bag, so here’s the free running events and experiences celebrating the 2026 edition of the London Marathon you can head to before you step on that start line or go to show your support.

1. Run a speedy 1km to win limited edition running shoes at Puma’s London Nitro Lab

• When: Friday April 24-26th April, various times
• Location: Institute of Contemporary Arts, The Mall, London SW1Y 5AH

Puma’s The Nitro Lab opens from Friday, promising events over the course of the marathon weekend, including a shakeout run with Puma athlete Lucy Davis.

If you fancy giving your legs a quick speed test, you can tackle Puma’s 1km Energy Race. That involves jumping on a treadmill and running 1km (0.62 miles) while holding a 4.00/km (7 minutes per mile) pace. If you can do it, you’ll walk away with a pair of Puma's latest racing-focused Deviate Nitro Elite 4 running shoes in a limited edition London Marathon colourway. If you prefer to protect the race legs, you could always get one of your support crew to give it a go instead.

Run 5km to try to win £5k with SportsShoes

• When: Open now, any time
• Location Address: 133 Shoreditch High Street, Shoreditch, London, E1 6JE

SportsShoes.com is keeping its Couch to £5k challenge running throughout marathon week, giving you the chance to snag £5,000. All you need to do is run at least 5km (or longer if you want) to its HouseofSportsShoes store in Shoreditch over in East London. You don’t have to run that 5km in a specific time or pace, or necessarily have to be taking part in the marathon to enter.

Once you’ve shown confirmation of your run through an app like Strava, you’ll be entered into the prize draw to win that big stack of cash. As well as being entered into the draw, every runner that completes the challenge can grab a free coffee in store while you scout out your next running shoe purchase.

3. Test your sweat at the Hoka Hub

• When: Friday 17th April-25th April, various times
• Location Address: 4 Chance Street, Shoreditch, E1 6JT

Running shoe brand Hoka is giving its Hoka Hub in East London a marathon makeover, making it a place to get prepped for the race as well as hosting marathon-centric events throughout the week. That includes the opportunity to better understand what your sweat can tell you about your hydration needs during runs. Hoka has teamed up with major experts in the field of all things sweat, Precision Fuel and Hydration, to give runners the opportunity to conduct one of its insightful tests. The sessions run all week giving you plenty of time to pop in and check out your sweat profile.

4. Make your own race-day bandana at the On LightSpray Tour

• When: Friday 24th, 2pm
• Location: 3 Hanover Square, London, W1S 1HD

Swiss running brand On knows it’s going to get sweaty out on that course, so is putting on a workshop to show you how to make your own bandana that’s fit for the occasion. All the materials to make your marathon-fit headwear will be provided, so all you need to do is sign up here and get ready to get creative.

5. Get your head in the game at the New Balance London Run House

• When: Friday 24th, 2pm-5pm
• Location: New Balance London Run House, Embankment Galleries, Somerset House, WC2R 1LA

New Balance is opening its Run House at Somerset House. For those who have closely studied the marathon route, that’s around the 40km (mile 25) mark when you’re edging closer to the finish line.

The Run House opens from Friday, offering a spot to (among other things) grab a snack, watch film screenings or wander around a London Community Portrait Exhibition. On Friday, from 2pm until 5pm, there’s the opportunity to take part in a pre-race regulation session. That involves some breathwork and mobility work, along with the opportunity to get the all-important shakeout run ticked off. You can sign up for the session here.

6. Stretch the legs out at the Asics House

• When: Monday 20th April-26th April, various times
• Location: Kachette Annex, 347 Old St, EC1V 9LP

Asics has opened its Asics House pop-up in Shoreditch where you can join runs, create custom t-shirts and try out its latest shoes.

From Monday to Wednesday, you can book yourself in for a yoga session either from 1-2pm or 3pm-4pm. You will need to book to secure your spot (that can be done here). On Friday, yoga is swapped out for a guided breathing session with the Saturday slot the opportunity to give yourself a last good stretch before it’s time for another carb loading binge.

7. Grab an exclusive drop at Saucony’s RUSH Delivery Depot

• When: Thursday 23rd April-25th April, daily
• Location: Saucony RUSH Delivery Depot, 131 Bethnal Green Road, E2 7DG

Saucony has plenty to keep you occupied for race week with its RUSH Delivery Depot a hub for both marathon runners and non-runners. This is a spot to grab a coffee and create custom print-outs, as well as offering the first 50 people to drop into the depot a chance to get their hands on one of the daily merchandise drops. The depot opens from 11am if you want to be in with the chance of getting your hands on that merch.

• All the freebies 2026 London Marathon runners can get: Pints, pizzas and more!

Call it the Strava effect, but more and more people seem to be taking on London’s Marathon and with less than a week to go, it’s feeling less and less like something impulsively fun you signed up for after watching countless influencers jogging across a picturesque common, and more like a very frightening and very real event that is just around the corner.

Anyway, if you are one of the, erm, lucky (?) ones who managed to secure a ticket on the ballot, there are plenty of London jaunts that are offering freebies to any tired but euphoric runners.

Sort of like how savvy teens would have a list of places for Results Day or people who keep track of Birthday rewards, anyone running The London Marathon should make a roundup of all the places offering rewards because, let’s face it, after 26.2 miles, you really deserve it.

Redeeming the offers can vary depending on the venue, but generally, all you'll have to do is show your running bib or medal. It's worth checking out deals for volunteers too, as a couple of places offer the same discounts and treats to anyone who has given up their time as an official London Marathon volunteer.

The freebies are mainly drink orientated, with plenty of pints and glasses of fizz up for grabs (and alcohol free alternatives too). However, there are also a fair number of meatier options, specially created for The London Marathon – like atis, the cult London salad spot which has teamed up with Runna to create a brand new salad bowl – and it's not just for runners.

And of course, TFL should be back bringing the goods – aka. the free travel) for all medal-holders, Lush will be giving out some free products, and you might even be able to snag a free massage if you're quick.

The Afterparty

There's a big old wrap party courtesy of RUNNPAC taking place at 77 London from 5pm until late, bringing the old tired-legged community together for a well earned celebration. The night will feature a packed music lineup spanning Hip Hop, R&B, House, Afro House and Amapiano, with live DJs including Melvin Odoom and special guests. There will also be prize giveaways, and guests are encouraged to bring their marathon medals.

Free Drinks

• Aqua Shard – Complimentary glass of fizz or pint of beer
• Azzura – Complimentary glass of fizz or pint of beer
• Dim Sum Library – Complimentary glass of fizz or pint of beer
• Mr Fogg's, various locations* - Free pint
• Castle Pubs - Free pint of Camden Hells
• The Brush East London Grand Cafe - Free pint or glass of fizz
• The Lamb, Bloomsbury - Free pint or glass of house wine
• Prince Arthur Pub, Belgravia – Free pint or house bubbles
• Greene King - Free drink Aperol Spritz, Peroni Nastro Azzurro (draught or packaged), CleanCo Clean Blood Orange Spritz or soft drink.

*(St. Martin’s Lane original, Botantical Tavern, City Tavern, and Hat Tavern)

Health, Fitness and Transport Freebies

• TALA - Complimentary coffee, free TALA socks, plus free massages
• Lanes of London, Mayfair - Free Recovery Boost Smoothie
• TFL - Free transport
• Lush - Free recovery products, Ouchy magnesium massage balm and The Good Hour shower jelly (Oxford Street, Covent Garden, or Lush stores in Victoria or Paddington station stores)
• Brockwell Lido - Free pre- or post-race swims

Foodie freebies

• Bombolone – Free artisan brioche doughnut
• Little Italy, Leciester Square – Complimentary pizza or pasta
• Cutter and Squidge – Free chocolate brownie
• La Maritxu - Free Burnt Basque Cheesecake (limited to 100)
• Cinnamon Kitchen - Free Chaat Dish
• Atis - Free salad bowl of your choice

Last year's freebies that will probably be on offer again:

• Bill’s - Free burger and Peroni, Aperol Spritz or Lucky Saint – for volunteers too!
• Franco Manca - Free pizza (running until Monday 28th)
• The Ivy - Free glass of fizz
• Pastaio - Free pasta plate
• The Real Greek - Free Greek Plate meal
• Barry’s Bootcamp - London Marathon Afterparty
• Tonkotsu - Free ramen

• This London wine bar is serving up £5 glasses of Rosé every time the temperature hits 16 degrees

The Ideal Home Show has been an annual London institution for more than a century, showcasing home-improvement innovations from the conceptual to the every-day useful.

But despite its Central London home at Hammersmith’s Olympia, its wares can feel at odds with the needs of the modern Londoner.

What good’s a swimming pool if your garden’s the size of a postage stamp? Who needs a summer house when you can’t get your foot on the housing ladder in the first place?

As such, the show has quietly evolved over the years — yes, the big budget luxury installations and architectural projects still dominate, but there’s an increasing number of exhibitors focussed on space-saving ideas and green-friendly initiatives perfect for inner-city living.

Hitting up the 2026 Ideal Home Show over the weekend, here are our five favourite products that’d fit the bill even in the Big Smoke.

1. Eco-Spa

• Installed from £27,000, from Natural Craft

Londoner’s should consider themselves blessed if they have their own private outdoor space at all, so the chances of you having the room to dig your own natural pool to splash about in is a true luxury. However, even those with a modest-sized garden space (and, to be fair, a not so modest bank balance) can enjoy the wonders of a natural spa at home thanks to Natural Craft.

Its Eco-Spa is compact and self-contained, requiring no foundation digging, but offers the same benefits of a natural pool. Divided into two sections — one you can plunge into, and another plant-powered pond-like reservoir — it offers natural, chemical-free filtration, and all the mineral benefits that brings. Natural Craft claims using the pool for just 11 minutes a handful of times a week will see the stress hormone cortisol crash, dopamine surge, and inflammation levels drop, leading to better sleep and a better immune system. Not only that, but it looks cool too, with a porthole-like window letting you see the under-water metropolis of the wild-growing reservoir. Very cool.

2. Eglu Cube from Omlet

• Starting at £769 from Omlet

Aside from London’s excellent inner city farms, like the recently-saved Mudchute, there aren’t many opportunities for us city slickers to get up close and personal with our farmyard friends. We’re so far removed from the realities of our food chain that an Egg McMuffin might as well be laid by Ronald McDonald himself.

But for those wanting a little more interaction with what they eat — and fancy the challenge and rewards of raising their own inner-M25 livestock — the Eglu Cube from the adorably-named Omlet could be the answer. A chicken-coop with a difference, it’s compact and customisable for small London garden spaces, easy to clean, and well protected against intrusions from cats and foxes. Crucially for the UK, it’s adaptable to the changing weather conditions of the seasons, and even comes with automation tools to let your chickens in and out of the hen house for the day. You’ll never need to add eggs to the shopping list ever again.

3. SoleOasis Masseur from Arkay

• £359 from Arkay

Charity shops seem to be a graveyard for foot spas and massagers — once the novelty wears off, their bulk can be hard to store away, and if they do get relegated to a cupboard, they’re unlikely to see the light of day again, relaxed trotters be-damned.

If space is at a premium in your flat, but you still want the after-work zen of a robot foot massage, the SoleOasis Masseur solves the problem so elegantly we’re surprised we’ve not seen it before. When your massage is over, a flip-top lid turns the SoleOasis into a footstool — genius! Giving it a secondary purpose away from the massaging means you’re more likely to leave it out and make use of it — which is advised, as a regular foot massage can help with exercise recovery, relieve the symptoms of arthritis, improve circulation, and reduce the risk of deep vein thrombosis.

4. The StudyBed

• Starting at £1,995 from The StudyBed Company

We’ve all seen the estate agents listings for two bedroom flats where the second room is essentially a shoe box. But if you want to make smart, space-saving use of your spare room, the StudyBed might have been the star of the Ideal Home Show.

It’s a fantastic concept — using a cantilever mechanism, the StudyBed combines a desk and sleeping space in a piece of furniture that’d make Mary Poppins’s bottomless bag jealous. Its ingenious design means you can leave your complete working desk set up — monitor, computer, speakers and all — and fold them down to reveal a full size bed. Once bed time is over, lift the bed away, and your desk and all its components are exactly where you left them. That home office dream is a reality once more.

5. Marshall Rocket Vinyl Jukebox from Sound Leisure

• £12,995 from Sound Leisure

Want to add some vintage cool to your home, and find a way to store and play your vinyl at the same time? You still can’t beat a good old jukebox. This Marshall-branded Rockey jukebox from Sound Leisure can be outfitted to hold 70 7-inch singles and 10 12-inch records, while also including mod-cons like Bluetooth playback and low-power sleep modes. Prefer CD to vinyl? You can get a version ready for your disc collection for £12,495, too.

• Sounds on 45: How the jukebox is making a modern-day comeback

If you’re staring down the London Marathon and starting to wobble slightly, this might help. Paula Radcliffe, still the UK’s most iconic marathon runner, is hosting a free live event in London the day before the 2026 race, offering up a final dose of wisdom before 26.2 miles of reality hits.

The former world-record holder will be at Apple Brompton Road, London, on Saturday, the 25th of April, recording a live episode of her Paula’s Run Club podcast alongside two-time Olympian Chris Thompson. It’s part of Apple’s wider takeover of marathon week, but this is the one that’ll likely fill up quickest.

Thanks to her experience, you’ll no doubt get some savvy advice you actually want to hear, with her talk set to touch on topics like: how not to blow up halfway round, how to deal with the inevitable bad patch, and what’s going through your head when you hit the later miles and everything starts hurting. In other words, less glossy inspiration, more survival tactics.

They’ll also get into the role tech plays in modern running, pacing, tracking, staying locked in, with Apple, unsurprisingly, front and centre. The session is hosted by Apple Fitness+ trainer Cory Wharton-Malcolm, a key figure in London’s running scene, so it shouldn’t feel too corporate.

It’s free to attend, but space is limited, so you’ll need to be quick to get your name down. The event sits within a bigger push from Apple around the TCS London Marathon, which now pulls in over a million ballot applicants, a slightly absurd number that tells you how big this thing has become.

Earlier in the week, Joe Wicks is leading a 5K shakeout run from the same store, joined by a mix of trainers and athletes to help runners loosen up (and probably overthink everything a bit more). Then on race day itself, Apple Music will be dotted along the course with DJs and playlists aimed at dragging people through the tougher stretches.

All of which means marathon week is starting to feel less like a single event and more like a full-blown festival, just one where everyone’s slightly tired and obsessing over their pace. Still, if you’re going to take advice from anyone before doing something this daft, Radcliffe’s not a bad place to start. You can sign up here.

• From pints to pizzas: All the freebies you can get after running The 2026 London Marathon

It feels as though barely a day goes by without some kind of study revealing one area of London or of the UK is the busiest / most expensive / most creative / loudest / nicest – insert adjective here, and you’ll be one step away from a thesis of some kind. However, there’s a reason for this, and the reason is that we lowkey love them. And keep on reading them. Not to get all psychological, but we like feeling smug that where we live is simply better than somewhere else. Which is exactly how one London borough will be feeling, earning its most recent accolade.

Londoners themselves are undoubtedly entertaining – if you count sarcasm and find passive-aggressive pedestrian behaviour entertaining, that is. When it comes to the social scene - namely bars, pubs, restaurants, cinemas, comedy clubs, open mic and scratch nights, theatres, and experiential venues - the capital gets even better, boasting numerous venues and evenings that are bound to tickle your pickle.

Thanks to student accommodation provider Chapter, we have a brand new ranking of the best boroughs in the city for chuckles. The survey factored in the city’s social scene, looking at a range of lifestyle factors to determine the top spots.

Swooping into the top spot was Westminster – the borough that encompasses some of the city’s most hallowed and notorious ground like Soho, Covent Garden, and Mayfair. According to the new research, Westminster is home to a whopping 740 bars, 280 pubs, and more than 70 theatres and cinemas. For anyone calculating the whole bars-per–person, firstly, we are kindred spirits, and secondly, with 10,000 permanent residents, that comes out at 35.5 per person.

The runner-up was none other than North London’s Camden – legendary for its music and arts scene, as well as its brilliant bars and proper pubs, and not forgetting its numerous comedy clubs that are littered across the local area. Specifically, it’s home to 270 bars and 160 pubs. Coming in at the bronze spot was unsurprisingly Hackney, thanks to its broad range of eateries, boozers, and ways to spend a night out, which starts as an average, quiet one on a Tuesday but ends up being anything but.

The most entertaining boroughs in London (according to Chapter):

1. Westminster
2. Camden
3. Hackney
4. Southwark
5. Kingston upon Thames
6. Hammersmith and Fulham
7. Islington
8. Hounslow
9. Bromley
10. Enfield

• We officially have new music from The Rolling Stones – but not where you’d expect

Brockwell Lido has been saved from closure by no less than Lambeth council.

Heading to a lido in the summer months is one our top recommendations for Londoners, but in recent times the future of the iconic Brockwell Lido has looked entirely uncertain.

The South London lido was being run by Fusion Lifestyle, which went into administration on April 1st, causing Lambeth council to step in to secure the place’s future.

From July 1st the council will take over operations of Brockwell Lido. The site was already owned by the council, but it was run by Fusion Lifestyle, which entered administration after a “prolonged period of financial difficulty.”

Not all of the sites Fusion Lifestyle ran are quite as lucky as Brockwell Lido. The closure of Golden Lane Sports and Fitness Centre nearby Barbican has been confirmed for April 30th, while the fates some of Fusion Lifestyle’s other sites are as yet unknown.

While many of you may only consider a dip in Brockwell Lido during the warmer months, it actually stays open year-round. And you can get regular updates on the pool temperature in those less temperate times over at the lido’s Instagram page.

For now, the Fusion Lifestyle website is still the home of Brockwell Lido’s schedule, although at the time of writing the booking portal appears to be a dead link. You’ll have to rock up to the site itself to gain entry at present.

Recently, Brockwell Lido advertised its summer season pass, which for £265 grants you access daily from April 1st through to September 30th. At present it’s unclear exactly how you get hold of this pass, though.

If you have already stumped up for a lido membership, the council insists those will continue to remain valid, with further details due before the full operational switchover.

From 1st July, Brockwell Lido will be fully run under the council’s Active Lambeth organisation. This currently operates eight sites across South London, including Brixton Recreation Centre and Clapham Leisure Centre.

It offers a fistful of different membership options based on your home site, but a Borough-wide one costs up to £90.45 a month, or £45.10 for swimming facilities only.

Other notable lidos in London include those at Parliament Hill, Hampstead Heath and London Fields, should you want to mix it up as the weather gets warmer in 2026.

• This London site could be about to become The Thames' first public swimming spot

A new outdoor gym has landed in south London, and for once it actually feels like a community win rather than a box-ticking exercise.

Instead of being named after a sponsor or quietly dropped into a park with zero fanfare, this one’s been given a bit of thought, with the newly-christened David Prowse Gym (a nod to the man who physically embodied Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy) in Croydon's Addiscombe Recreation Ground.

The space is free to use and designed with actual people in mind. We’re talking a proper callisthenics setup — bars, frames, and enough variety to cover anything from beginner-level hangs to full-on workouts, rather than the token bit of kit you see gathering rust in the corner of most parks.

Crucially, it’s been shaped with input from locals too, including Croydon Callisthenics, who’ve helped make sure it’s accessible for all levels rather than just the already-gym-obsessed.

Prowse wasn’t just “the guy in the suit” either; a bodybuilder, he spent decades in the Croydon area promoting fitness, health, and community engagement. For a lot of people in the UK, he was just as recognisable as the Green Cross Code Man, as he was a sci-fi icon.

The timing is a nice touch as well. It officially opens on May the 4th, Star Wars Day, which could’ve felt a bit gimmicky, but here it lands quite well given the link.

This new space is also part of a broader investment into parks, funded in part by the government’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund, that’s already seen ten new playgrounds delivered in the past two years, with more on the way, plus plans for additional outdoor gyms across parks like South Norwood Lakes and Upper Norwood Recreation Ground.

The result is a useful addition to the area, and a tribute that feels earned rather than forced, which, let’s be honest, isn’t always the case with these things.

• 5 innovations sparking an arcade gaming revolution — and where in London to find them

Swipe enough, match enough, and something might stick; that’s been the basic pitch since Tinder first took off in the early 2010s and changed dating forever. However, that model’s starting to wear thin, especially with younger users who’ve grown tired of endless scrolling and not much to show for it. Now, Tinder is doing what it feels like every tech company is doing in 2026: turning to AI to fix it.

The main event here is an opt-in AI tool that takes a proper look at who you are, not just what you say in your bio, but what’s actually on your phone. Feels intimate, doesn't it?

That means scanning your camera roll to pick up on patterns, interests and lifestyle cues, then using that data to suggest daily matches that (in theory) feel more relevant. It’ll also ask you a few questions to build a clearer picture, all in the name of cutting through the noise and getting you to people you might actually get on with.

It’s part of a wider shake-up of the app. Tinder is also rolling out things like a revamped music mode to match people based on taste, plus an astrology mode for anyone who’s still letting the stars call the shots.

There are more social features in the mix, too, including video speed dating and real-world events designed to get people off the app and into actual conversations, which, reading between the lines, is exactly what a lot of users have been asking for.

According to the company, around 60% of its user base now falls into Gen Z territory, and that group is pushing for something different. Less volume, more substance. Less swiping, more actual connection.

The AI push is meant to support that shift, surfacing matches that feel more tailored rather than just more frequent.

Still, the idea of an app digging through your camera roll isn’t exactly going to land softly with everyone. Even if it’s optional, it’s a step further into personal data than plenty of users will be comfortable with. Tinder says it’s about authenticity and better matchmaking, but there’s a fine line between helpful and intrusive, and this definitely edges towards the latter — though it is an optional feature.

Whether it actually improves your chances or just adds another layer of tech to an already crowded space remains to be seen. One thing’s clear: the swipe era might not quite be over, but Tinder’s already looking for what comes next.

• Height, age, and date spots: London's biggest dating trends revealed

One of the great things about the blue sky is that it heralds the return of Spring and along with the lovely arrival of new flowers shooting up all over your favourite green spaces. Along with the fresh air, pub gardens, and the welcome goodbye of seasonal depression is the return of London’s largest free flower festival, Chelsea in Bloom.

Bringing some of the most stunning floral displays to the city, the festival runs for a limited time every year, bringing colour to the capital. Multiple venues and spaces around the city will be transformed with giant and beautiful floral arrangements – including hotels, pubs, restaurants, and public areas in and around Chelsea.

The festival will be running from 18th to 24th May, and the theme for this year is ‘out of this world’, so we should be in for some pretty special displays. More than 125 brands will be taking part in the festival with their own displays, including RIXO, Trinny London, and Ralph Lauren.

Key spots include Sloane Square, which is set to feature a zodiac constellation installation, a UFO landing display on Pavilion Road, and an immersive lunar landscape on Duke of York Square, to name a few.

Guests in and around the city can experience free walking tours so they don’t miss any of the floral spectacles across London. Plus, visitors can vote for their favourite display for the coveted People’s Champion title. Online voting kicks off on 18th May when the festival begins and will close on 21st May. Other awards are also up for grabs, including Best Floral Display, Highly Commended, as well as Gold and Silver accolades. The deciding panel is made up of lifestyle judges and RHS leaders.

• This London wine bar is serving up £5 glasses of Rosé every time the temperature hits 16 degrees

The London Marathon is a UK institution and famously more difficult to get tickets to than an Oasis reunion tour at Wembley. To remedy the number of active hopefuls who miss out on a slot, plans have been unveiled to extend the famous race to run over two days in 2027.

This change would allow the elite men’s and women’s races to take place on separate days, whilst also raising double the amount of moolah for different charities. And presumably, significantly increase the amount of money the London Marathon Foundation receives too. If the plans are approved, the race would welcome around 100,000 runners across the weekend, with 50,000 per day. Last year, more than 1.1 million people entered the public ballot for a spot so you can see why the officials are considering doubling the event.

The 2027 race would happen on both the Saturday and the Sunday, meaning the road closures would stay in place across the whole weekend, closing off areas across Greenwich and all the way up to Buckingham Palace.

Unlike the hype for flared jeans, cowboy boots, and mullets, the demand for the marathon never ceases, actually increasing year on year. Around 56,640 runners finished last year’s event which according to the organisers was a world record. A whopping £87.3 million was raised last year which was also a record for the charity event.

Speaking to The Guardian, a spokesperson for The Mayor of London said: “London is the sporting capital of the world and the Mayor looks forward to working with London Marathon and partners to consider if it might be possible to host an event that will run across two days next year.”

So watch this space, and maybe start up that training plan, again…

• Jon Bernthal’s Punisher returns in a new Disney+ special this May — before taking on Spider-Man in the summer

It’s no secret that Gen Z is known for swapping boozy nights out for an early night and an exercise class the next morning, and the latest announcement from The London Marathon team is only further proof. Teaming up with Friday Night Lights, The London Marathon is putting on a new 5k run across Battersea Park – and this time, there’s no ballot to enter.

Between the bright outfits, thrumming music, and sweaty people, it might not actually be too dissimilar from a club night.

In the same way people go hard on Christmas Eve before the big day, the 5k run through Battersea Park is an amuse bouche for the actual marathon, taking place on Friday 24th April, before the full-monty marathon the next day. It's sort of like a launch party for the capital’s biggest running event, but with less booze and more gels.

It’s not your average park run, kicking off at 7.45pm as the evening falls and is set to be a proper party-style activity with proper lighting, pumping music and even laser tunnels which will lead runners to the finish line. The path is all-tarmac, so you probably won't encounter any accidental tough-mudders. The event will be chip-timed with a bag drop, medals, food and drinks stands, and proper live music from a series of DJs.

Friday Night Lights are experts in party-style run clubs, having put on “big energy running festivals and events” across the country, in London, Liverpool, Southsea and Manchester. It started out in 2023 on a mission to change night outs, an actual fun run for people fed up of being hungover on Saturday mornings and reigns as the UK’s healthiest and only guilt-free night out.

Tickets are already on sale for the pre-Mara 5k, and they’re going fast, with 300 already sold. The tickets are currently retailing at £45 and can be bought online here.

Our team's favourite race-approved running gear

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London has a lot of lovely green spaces, from the giant likes of Hyde Park and Victoria Park to the little pockets of nature like the Wetlands Centre to the leafy grounds of Hampstead's stunning Heath. And if there’s one thing Londoners are good at – apart from running to the nearest pub garden as soon as it gets over 12 degrees – is preserving those spaces. Now, there’s even more good news as Tower Hamlets Council is set to approve a new proposal.

The proposal would grant a new 30 year lease for Mudchute Park and Farm – one of London’s largest and most cherished urban green spaces. If approved, the agreement would provide proper long term security for the 32 acre site keeping it preserved until 2055.

The space is a vital community asset for the area, welcoming around 250,000 visitors each year, offering rare slice of countryside in the city. The area does plenty of good too, providing award-winning conservation work, a local nature reserve, and outdoor education for more than 10,000 local children annually. They offer volunteering opportunities, year round childcare, and its door are always open for free public access year round.

This opportunity wasn’t a spontaneous affair, coming after significant public engagement (read: outrage) with a record-breaking petition which amassed over 6,000 signatures – the largest in the borough’s history, proving just how important the space is.

Sue Mortimer, Chair of the Mudchute Association Board of Trustees, said:

“We are grateful to see this 30 year lease proposal progressing to Cabinet and for the recognition of Mudchute’s enormous value to the community. The strength of public support—thousands of signatures, donations and messages—has shown how deeply loved this space is.

“A longterm lease would give us the foundation we need to protect our animals, our green space, and our education programmes for the next generation."

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Every year, one of the big gossipy topics of the marathon running season is which runners are wearing which pairs of shoes. An unlikely contender has entered the field: Lidl.

Lidl’s Crivit brand has been printed on countless shoes to date, from basic runners to walking shoes and casual pairs. But this one’s a little different, a carbon plated running shoe called the Crivit CarbonLite 1.0.

It could, potentially, be ideal for performance marathon-running.

Pro-style running shoes use carbon plates to increase the stiffness of the shoe structure, allowing them to use super-soft and responsive foam layers without the whole thing turning into a marshmallow.

Among the most famous carbon plated pairs are the Nike Vaporfly 4, the Puma Fast-R Nitro Elite 3 and Asics Metaspeed Sky Tokyo. They all cost well upwards of £200 at RRP, and yet tend to sell out instantly at launch.

The Crivit CarbonLite 1.0? Just £39.99.

We initially thought these shoes would only go on sale in Ireland, where they reached the “middle of Lidl” on Friday. But we’ve now heard they’ll arrive across the UK on March 29th, a Sunday. They may not last much longer than that either, given how much attention these pairs have already picked up online.

But are they any good? We’re hoping someone like Shortlist contributor Mike Sawh — one of the run-shoe-reviewing legends The Run Testers over on YouTube — but we do have a few vital statistics.

The Crivit CarbonLite 1.0 have an EVA midsole, a familiar 8mm drop and a 38mm stack height. They are listed as 250g in weight, although that will of course vary by size.

What these shoes don’t appear to have are the multiple layers of foam of differing densities, used in real high-performance plated shoes to provide a pliant but responsive feel. Also unlike those pairs, where the carbon insert is usually sandwiched between foam layers, the Crivit CarbonLite 1.0’s appears to sit just under the insole.

Not turned off? Put March 29th in your calendar as that’s when these trainers are due on Llidl shelves. The Crivit CarbonLite 1.0 will come in black and white, with red highlights, colour styles.

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Lime bikes are a staple in the city – in fact, you’re barely a certified Londoner unless you’ve been running horrendously late to something and hopped on (and probably later crashed) a bright green e-bike. The only thing that stops people from routinely pushing the pedals is the cost. But now that could be about to change.

Usually, on top of a fee to unlock the bike, you can be paying up to 30p per minute, which quickly adds up to the point where a 20 minute cycle could cost over £7 – meaning that bizarrely, taking Lime bikes sometimes fall into the category of a luxury or splurge. Thanks to LimePrime (10/10 naming), the new subscription service introduced by the e-bike company, prices will be locked in at a flat rate instead.

LimePrime is a monthly subscription, currently costing £6.99, which allows riders to bike for up to 20 minutes at a flat rate of £1.70. That makes it cheaper than both the tube and London buses, with a single journey on each costing £2.20 for the former, and £1.75 for the latter.

After 20 minutes, journeys will be charged per minute again but at a discounted rate. The subscription also gives you free unlimited locks (usually £1), and extended 30 minute vehicle reservations. Also, if you’re party-waving your journey (aka. doing a group ride with friends or family), your mates can access your flat-rate pricing too.

Wayne Ting, Lime’s CEO said: ‘This new pricing model will offer an easy and more affordable travel option for people to get around, whether it is commuting to work, visiting friends or running errands. With more people choosing e-bikes everyday, we want to build on that momentum and support the Department for Transport’s ambitions to make sure active travel is not only cleaner, but affordable and accessible too.’ According to Lime, the new deal will ‘support the department for transport’s aims to make more active travel options affordable and easily accessible for all amid rising costs of living.’

The subscription will likely come as good news to Londoners who are amenable to a green-wheeler, especially with warmer weather and lighter days on the way which makes outdoor cruising slightly more appealing. However, the news comes just after yet another London borough sets to introduce a ban on Lime Bikes, with Richmond Upon Thames looking to follow in Hounslow’s footsteps tire treads and outlaw them.

• London’s Oxford Street is officially getting pedestrianised – and we won’t have long to wait

I’ll bet that getting a ticket for The National Lottery at your local corner shop is a core memory for most Brits – the thrill of a scratchcard quickly replaced by the thin red receipt-like ticket which you usually forgot to actually check on a Sunday morning. Lovely stuff, eh? The National Lottery really is the gift that keeps on giving whether you have actually ever won something or not, as their annual Open Week is back for 2026.

The National Lottery Open Week takes the form of seven days of free or heftily discounted tickets to dozens of attractions across the country. Running from 7th March until 15th, the week allows National Lottery funded venues to show their thanks to all participants for their role in helping raise money which keeps charitable causes running. The annual, week-long woohoo offers up free or discounted entry to visitors across the UK, and all they need to do is show a lottery ticket upon entry. Venues include plenty of classic historical sites, galleries, museums, protected nature spots, and even some stunning indie cinemas.

London has plenty of attractions included in National Lottery Open Week this year, including The Tower of London, Kensington Palace, Hampton Court Palace, Tate Modern, RAF Museum. HMS Belfast, The Design Museum, The Science Museum, The Charles Dickens Museum, Greenwich Observatory, Cutty Sark all of which are offering discounts across tickets, including plenty of 2-4-1s.

Osterly Park and House, The Brunel Museum, Eltham Palace and Gardens, Dulwich Picture Gallery, Ham House & Garden, Fenton House, Rainham Hall, 2 Willow Road, Belsay Hall Castle, are all offering free entry as part of the celebrations.

You can also do free tours of Marble Hill, BBC Studios, and the Royal Geographical Society.Kentish Town City Farm is also offering a free tour, and it’s open on Mother’s Day which you can take how you wish.

Cult classic Amelie is having a moment with plenty of free tickets available for showings at a number of beloved London cinemas. Most of the included cinemas are showing the film on 10th March but timing vary. Forest Cinemas in Walthamstow is offering two free tickets for 10th at 7.30pm, Battersea Power Station’s cinema is offering the same (5.30 showing), as is The Phoenix Cinema in east Finchley, and Clapton’s Castle Cinema has the showing at 9pm. Rich Mix Cinema is the only odd one out, running the two free ticket offer on March 9th at 6pm.

As well as free entry and discounts, there are a range of workshops and classes running for free like watercolour sketching, lunchtime yoga, and an ecotherapy taster.

Basically, if you’ve ever wanted to up the culture without downing the ol’ bank balance, this is a perfect opportunity. You can check out all the offers and the details of each discount at National Lottery’s website, here.

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The only thing that can detract from the magic of wandering around London’s iconic Oxford Street is the barrage of beeps and swerves from the onslaught of buses, cabs, bikers, and pedicabs that are all vying for travel across the same small area. Added to that, at times (we’re looking at you, Christmas) it can feel like a downright battle trying to navigate your way through the multiple lanes of pedestrian traffic all heading in different directions across the narrow pavements. Now, that could all be about to change.

A car-free Oxford Street has been on the cards since 2017, when Mayor Sadiq Khan unveiled official plans for the project.

If it’s giving you flashbacks that you can’t quite place, that might be because there was a mini trial run in 2024. Back in September, the area went totally car-free for the day to give everyone a taste of what it could be like – complete with food trucks, live music, and other festivities.

Now approved (following two rounds of consultations), works are set to begin in the next few months, running until late 2027. According to the BBC, vehicles could be persona non grata on the central streets as soon as September 2026.

Obviously, Oxford Street is a core stop on many travel routes, meaning sixteen buses will get rerouted as a result of the change, including 7, 94, and 98. All double-deckers which currently detour through Oxford Street are set to be redirected through Wigmore Street and Henrietta Palace. According to TFL, this will add just one minute’s difference to the existing journey times. Which, in finance bro speak, is about half an hour and £20.

Currently, about 63% of Londoners support the pedestrianisation of Oxford Street, according to a consultation from June 2025.

Speaking about the plan’s developments, London Mayor Sadiq Khan said: ‘I am delighted to be moving forward with my bold vision to transform Oxford Street into a world-leading urban space for shopping, leisure and outdoor events.’

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There are many things you expect to see at the TCS London Marathon; elite athletes gliding past Tower Bridge, someone in a rhino costume overheating by mile 18, your mate from uni suddenly becoming insufferable about gels.

What you probably didn’t expect is Daddy Pig lining up on the start line. Yet, here we are.

The father of Peppa Pig will run the full 26.2 miles on 26 April to raise £54,000 for the National Deaf Children's Society. The target mirrors the sobering statistic that more than 54,000 children in the UK are affected by hearing loss.

The storyline will unfold both in the show and in London, following the revelation that George Pig is moderately deaf. It’s a smart bit of storytelling, blending something that resonates with families watching at home with tangible fundraising support beyond the screen.

On race day, Daddy Pig will be sporting a specially designed running outfit and his progress will be trackable via the official marathon app, meaning you can follow his splits like he’s your overly ambitious colleague attempting their first-ever marathon.

There’ll also be a direct way to donate, should you feel moved by a cartoon pig grinding through the final 10K.

Ahead of the main event, the whole Peppa crew will appear at the TCS Mini London Marathon on 25 April. Expect themed warm-ups, meet-and-greets and a fan zone, offering a Peppa takeover with medals at the end.

It will be Daddy Pig’s first marathon, which feels correct. He’s always had “enthusiastic amateur” energy rather than “carbon-plated supershoes”. But that’s kind of the point. The London Marathon has always been as much about everyday people doing something slightly mad for a good cause as it is about podium finishes.

Hearing loss and deafness often go unseen, and this campaign puts it right at the front of one of the biggest sporting events in the country. It’s playful, yes. But it’s also purposeful.

From muddy puddles to the Mall finish line. You can’t knock the commitment.

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Nike has announced the Pegasus 42, the latest version of what was for years the most popular running shoe of them all.

It’s out on April 9th, and while UK pricing is yet to be announced a pair is likely to set you back somewhere in the region of £130.

Sounds like a lot? For the non sneaker-heads out there, it’s low enough to tell you the Nike Pegasus 42 isn’t one of Nike’s super-shoes destined to be seen on the feet of big-league London Marathon runners.

This is instead an all-purpose pair for everyday runners — ideal if you just recently started the hobby or are on your way to finishing a couch-to-5K programme.

“We’ve taken what runners have always loved about the Pegasus franchise and turned it into the best version yet with the Pegasus 42,” says Elliott Heath, Nike Running senior footwear expert.

There are some key changes in this generation, which lead to Nike’s claim of a 15 per cent improvement to energy return.

The Air Zoom midsole element now runs through the entire length of the shoe, rather than employing separate sections for the forefoot and heel. Plenty of the Pegasus vital statistics remain the same, though.

This is a 10mm drop shoe with a 37mm stack height, but it gains some extra padding in the toe box area. And the series continues to use Nike’s ReactX foam.

Nike Pegasus was the most popular running shoe range in 2024 according to Strava data, but was apparently pipped by the Asics Novablast in 2025.

One difficulty for super-established shoe lines like Nike Pegasus at present is the sheer amount of competition nipping at their heels. Last year the Adidas Evo SL picked up loads of heat for their sheer value, while also packing a nylon shank at a similar price to the Pegasus 41 — for extra rigidity without going all the way to a carbon plate.

Nike also unveiled a trail running alternative to the Pegasus 42, dubbed the ACG Pegasus Trail. It has far more pronounced outsole lugs and a shallower 8mm drop, but also uses ReactX foam in its midsole.

The ACG Pegasus Trail will cost slightly more than the Pegasus 42 — UK pricing TBC — when it arrives in April.

NIke’s Pegasus range has been around since 1982 and, yep, the “42” name is not a ruse. This series really has been updated most years since its inception.

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There’s a new lease in the east, thanks to Sadiq Khan and his £2bn investment that’s been giving London’s Royal Docks the ultimate glow up. The most recent addition that will form part of the renovation is a new floating hub on the docks themselves.

The plans include new floating homes, a floating park, and a floating wellness centre complete with a lido, sauna and spa experiences alongside free water access and open water swimming. According to the Royal Docks Waterways who are in charge of the plans, it will be a new distinctive water-based destination.

The space is currently 12-hectares of water which according to current plans would surround the IFS Cloud Cable Car on the Royal Docks. The space would be able to accommodate event programmes, art trails, pop-ups, as well as cafes and kiosks.

The focal point of the floating wellness hub will be a lido, which looks to be a 25m-long pool (heated, before you worry), or potentially two pools, a smaller one heated at a higher temp, and a secondary one at a lower temperature designed for lane swimmers who are there for more, er, precise and intense exercise. And not to get everyone all excited but it looks as though a spa and sauna is on the cards.

The residential part of the plans would mean residential moorings and floating homes opposite the park. Despite all London feeling, ahem, ridiculously expensive, the plans hope that the new waterside community (their words) will make the waterside more accessible. Plus the whole glow up is aiming to boost tourism and bring a little more life to the area.

If everything is approved, the plans could get underway in the next four years, with construction starting in 2030.

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The old laws of supply and demand have never been put to the test more than by Londoners with their running obsession, and the (surprisingly low) amount of actual races there are across the capital. Which is probably why it will come as a shock to absolutely nobody that London is getting a brand new half marathon, to keep up with the amount of people signing up for them. New Year's Resolutions have a lot to answer for

Cue the onslaught of even more lycra, smart watches, and those weird gels that — I have since found out — are absolutely not Frubes. Not even Frube adjacent.

Anyway, despite the amount of runners you’ll see frequenting Clapham Common, Tooting Common, Brockwell Park, Battersea Park – hey, any remotely green space, South London actually doesn’t have that many marathons. Until now, runners have been forced to trek over to East London for a good (officially timed and certified) jog.

The good news is that South London is getting a brand new half marathon, and the 13.1 mile race is heading to Wimbledon. The race is set to kick off in spring 2027.

The event is a collaboration between Merton Council and the Great Run Company – you know, the people behind the Great North Run aka the biggest half marathon in the world. The Wimbledon one probably won’t be quite as big as the famed GNR which sees 600,000 Strava-strollers (okay, incredibly fast amateur runners) take to the Newcastle streets every year. The Wimbledon iteration will have around 9,000 runners in its inaugural race.

Currently, there is no word on what the route will look like, but we do know it will be spanning across the borough in a closed-road race.

The race isn’t just great news for running-devotees, as the local council has estimated the race will bring around a £1.7million boost to local businesses. Better get those running trainers out from the back of the wardrobe where they’ve been since last summer’s optimistic fitness push.

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The actor George Hamilton lived large. A paid-up member of the Hollywood school of high glamour, he had the Rolls-Royces, the Beverly Hills mansion and the debonair wardrobe. And yet he became best known for his permanent tan — so much so that the cartoonist Garry Trudeau concocted the ‘George Hamilton Pro-Am Celebrity Cocoa Butter Open’. Hamilton even launched a chain of tanning salons.

But then this was when a deep sun-tan spoke of success. It was a visual short-hand for expensive vacations in sunny climes, for rude health and, in a way, for money itself. Yet this favour towards what is, in effect, skin damage was, in the 1960s and 70s, still a relatively new idea. As late as the 1920s tans were considered decidedly unwelcome by the well-to-do, since having one suggested one worked outside. Pale skin — protected with hats, parasols and staying inside — suggested leisure.

Arguably we’re now more than ever back in the bronze age. There are now almost 5,000 tanning salons in the UK (most of them seemingly in Blackpool, according to a 2024 study) with some 10% of the population regulars. The winter top-up/year-round glow has become a grooming standard. According to Dr. Fabiola Creed, health historian at the University of Glasgow and author of The Rise and Fall of the Sunbed in Britain, we’re seeing perfect storm of persuasive forces.

“There’s the beautifying of dark skin in culture now, because it’s slimming, because it gives better muscle definition,” she explains.

“We see tans in popular culture, in pornography, in its close association with heath and fitness. And while everyone knows the connection between tanning [under the sun or UV light] and skin cancer there’s an element of denial. It doesn’t help that the tanning industry still pushes the supposed positive health effects of tanning. I still hear people even claim that tanning creates a barrier that protects you from skin cancer”.

From sallow to suntanned

In a neat flip-side to today’s self-tanning products, for centuries people forced to face the sun’s rays took some drastic steps to whiten their skin.

Blanc de Ceruse did the job. It was also lead-based, so you likely died as pale as you lived. It was only quacks, out for a fast buck, who at the turn of the 20th century started touting the very opposite: John Harvey Kellogg, of Cornflakes fame, argued, without evidence, that sunlight was therapeutic.

In a way he was right. In 1928 the Nobel prize for chemistry went to Adolf Windaus for his work on vitamin D — essential for healthy bones because it allows the body to absorb calcium from our diet. It was soon widely understood that the best way to get this vitamin is through sunlight exposure. Indeed, we get most of our body’s annual requirement between late spring and early autumn. In other words, you really do need to get outside when the weather is nice. And so the temptation may be to top up artificially when it isn’t as bright out.

Ultraviolet dangers

It was one Auguste Rollier, a Swiss physician, who built solaria in which people could maximise their exposure, a spin-off of the use of medical UV lamps in the 1890s to treat conditions like rickets. As Creed stresses, ever since then it’s proven impossible to separate the positive medical uses of UV and the not-so-positive commercial ones. To put it bluntly, the tanning bed industry deliberately obfuscates — governments are constantly catching up to crack down on the latest usually effective but harmful method of darkening our skin, from nasal sprays to melanoma injections. She reckons we’re even on the path to the development of cosmetic surgery/pharmaceutical interventions to give those who want it a permanent darkening of their skin.

But you can get vitamin D from oily fish, meat, eggs and some dairy products, too. And even if you get yours from summer sunlight alone, you only need to expose your hands, forearms or lower legs to soak up all you need.

Rather, the tan became an early example of an aspect of the body’s presentation coming to attain the desirability and show-offiness of, say, a hard-to-get accessory, much as perfect white teeth or a six pack later did. Coco Chanel, after a spell in the Med over 1923, is reputed to have first made the tan fashionable. “I can’t see that changing back to pale either, at least not over the next few decades,” reckons Creed.

Within a decade, exotic travel and sun lamps were giving movie stars the likes of Cary Grant or Errol Flynn a decided glow, if not the full satsuma. Peaky was more for seven stone weaklings. The tan, in contrast — strong contrast — was macho.

A tan came to be seen as “exotic and so more attractive,” as Creed notes.

“I went to the beach and, although I was a gangly guy, all of a sudden girls started to hit on me and after that I thought it must have been the tan,” as Hamilton himself noted.

Every class under the sun

There’s also a social code to tanning. There’s no getting around it but, as Creed points out, tanning, and attitudes to tanning, are class-oriented. Middle-class people will claim their tan is down to having gone abroad, when actually they’re embarrassed to say they’ve gone to a salon. Certainly the use of fake tan, she argues, is explicitly working class: that’s the Love Island/Towie Effect.

But they’re onto something. Fashion, after all, can’t change the facts: ultraviolet radiation is carcinogenic. There are no safe levels of UV tanning. And tanning beds, according to various studies, not only age their users’ skin even faster than exposure to sunlight, but, depending on age in particular, also make for between a 29 and 75 percent increase in the likelihood that they will get one or other type of skin cancer. The fake tan — however excessively or messily applied, however unconvincing — is, at least, the safe tan. Self-tan products are, in fact, the fastest growing area in cosmetics, according to one study.

“It’s hard to escape the idea that a tan gives you what is perceived as being a ‘healthy look’ and that’s likely why we’re seeing a boom in self tanning products,” argues Steven O’Neill, founder of The Grooming Clinic.

“And so much has changed to improve them over recent years. There are none of those strange, biscuity smells and — with everything from products that allow a tan to be buildable drop by drop, to glow pads — they’re much easier to use without ending up orange”.

And O’Neill acts on that finding: he even uses fake tanning products over the summer. Why? Precisely because even then he still wants to avoid the sun.

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It’s hard to think about London without thinking about people cycling – Lime Bikes, Forest Bikes, those little foldable bikes finance-dads hold in one hand as they sprint for a tube, still fully clad in lycra, helmet on. Whether you’re a die-hard freewheeler or firmly stick to TFL, chances are you’ve hopped on a bike at least once in the city. Now, the capital’s cycling routes are about to get even bigger.

Currently, London’s network of cycle paths and lanes spans a whopping 431km, which is actually longer than the London Underground. It’s a series of easy-to-navigate paths across the city which links everything from quiet boroughs all the way to major London landmarks.

The most recent (pending) upgrade is Cycleway 4, which runs between Tower Bridge and Greenwich. The cycle lane is set to be extended all the way to Woolwich, meaning anyone living in the area will have easy access to the lane. It will be a 12.5km stretch of continuous bike lane that will connect Deptford and Rotherhithe by 2027.

Cycling is definitely on the rise in the Big Smoke, as more and more Londoners are choosing to push the pedals. In fact, Londoners’ love for a cheeky cycle has seen a dramatic 43% increase in daily bike journeys in the last six years, according to the 2025 Travel for London report. This is partly thanks to the investment in TFL’s cycle network, which has jumped from 90km to 431km since 2019.

As well as the boost to the Tower Bridge – Greenwich cycleway, TFL is currently planning a further 95km of extensions and improvements across its networks, helping London reach its (rather ambitious) goal of achieving 1.6 million daily cycle journeys by 2030.

• This London site could be about to become The Thames' first public swimming spot

If it feels like there has been a never-ending rise of all things wild swimming recently – community saunas, new Lidos, leisure centres, surfing lakes, giant potholes, then you’re not making it up. There has been a (tidal) wave of new initiatives proposed to create more wild swimming spots across the UK, and one in London is looking very promising.

Cast your minds back a couple of months ago and 13 sites across the UK were shortlisted for ‘swimming status’, which does not include a pink Kellogg’s 50m swim badge, but in fact is about creating sites which are safe, designated spaces suitable for public swimming. The government proposed to designate Riverside at Ham and Kingston as one of the latest official bathing sites, which was welcomed by Richmond Council and now is officially greenlit. The site has been put forward and championed by locals, including the Teddington Bluetits swimming group who believe it would be transformative for the community.

Despite the fact that most people associate the waters of the Thames with rusty shopping trollies, floating wet wipes, and other unsavoury detritus, the area has been deemed officially (and scientifically) clean, and is fit for public dipping. The first (and brave) dippers were welcomed into the bathing site on May 15th, and it will stay open throughout the summer season until September.

The site has been used as a bathing site before, having been a popular Victorian swimming location. The designation originally proved challenging for Thames Water as the body attempts to drive through a water recycling scheme to draw off tens of millions of litres of water a day from the Thames near the proposed bathing water area and replace it with treated effluent from the nearby Mogden sewage works. Local campaigners have been fighting for bathing-pond status for years, and after being declared biologically dead in 1950s, the reopening of the waterway is a landmark achievement.

Speaking to the Standard, Water minister Emma Hardy said: “The Thames is the vital artery at the heart of London’s cultural and sporting life.

“Plans for the very first bathing site in Ham and Kingston would mark a dramatic step towards a river fit for the world’s greatest capital city, making it a place people can confidently swim and take pride in.”

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Coming as a surprise to absolutely nobody on the entire planet – or at least, those who have visited London at least once in the last couple of years – London has been officially revealed as the most unaffordable city in the UK. Get ready to start searching Rightmove for spots in the north east…

The research comes after global payment service takepaymentsanalysed 34 major UK cities, using 16 different factors to determine the priciest postcodes to live in. The affordability factors looked at everything from the big hitters like public transport and property to pints and petrol, also factoring in average salaries. The aim was to highlight the difference in affordability across the UK, and help businesses understand where costs may be squeezing. You know, other than everywhere.

Each city was given an affordability score based on its ranking within each of the 16 categories. As much as we’d love to say there were some surprises, there really, really weren’t…

The big smoke is home to big bucks, ranking as the most unaffordable city of them all (yup, definitely starting to sound like some kind of modern fairy tale where London is the baddie), with a scarily low score of 3.12 (out of 10). Whilst the capital had the highest annual wages, it also ranked the highest for property. And everything else, come to that.

London’s average property price is £516,710, with rental prices also being equally horrific, costing the average Joe just under £2k per month. In comparison with the rest of the UK, that’s four times more expensive than the most affordable city, which, according to the research, was Middlesbrough.

If you’ve ever felt like just existing in the capital is pretty (aka cripplingly) expensive, then you’re not making things up, with London’s living costs like coffee, pints, going out, and gym memberships costing far more than the rest of the UK. Turns out, all the culture – art, pubs, bars, restaurants, theatre, to name a few, don’t come cheap.

If you’re thinking this is a sign to up sticks and head to the coast or a different city, then don’t get too ahead of yourself, as Brighton and Bristol were right behind in second and third place, respectively. Whilst Middlesbrough topped the list in terms of affordability (getting 6.51 out of 10), Sunderland, Newcastle, Lisburn, Aberdeen, Norwich, and Glasgow also all made the top 10 list.

If you fancy making yourself crazy and rethinking where you live, you can look at the full report survey here.

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It often feels like you’re always being watched these days, between the development of technology and the sheer volume of crime dramas you’re probably consuming on Netflix, Disney, HBO – actually, on all streaming services. Now, it’s getting a real-life upgrade, as live facial recognition is being deployed at London Bridge station.

The rollout is part of a six-month pilot launched by British Transport Police, which the force has said will test how the technology operates in a railway setting. It comes after months of planning and research, all designed to improve public safety.

The trial has already kicked off this week, with the technology in operation as of Tuesday afternoon. Chief Superintendent Chris Casey, BTP’s senior officer overseeing the project, said: “The project team have spent a significant amount of time working closely with partners including Network Rail, the Department for Transport and the Rail Delivery Group to get us to this stage.

“I want to reiterate that this is a trial of the technology to assess how it performs in a railway setting.”

According to the Chief Super, the cameras work by scanning faces and comparing them to a watchlist of offenders wanted for serious offences. If there’s a match – very Tinderesque – then the system generates an alert (again, not dissimilar from a dating app). Then, an officer will review it and carry out further checks to determine if the person is a suspect and if further action is needed. This scanning and comparison system has already been used by the police on London streets, with the Metropolitan Police confirming over 1,400 arrests have been made since the technology was introduced.

LFR (live facial recognition) has an exceptionally low false alert rate with current statistics showing false alerts occurring in 0.0003% of cases out of three million facial scans. According to the Met Police, the technology has proven to be both effective and accurate.

Chief Superintendent Casey reiterated that passengers who do not wish to be scanned by live facial recognition will be able to use alternative routes. If you’re a tech-averse, under the radar kinda person, then you’ll be glad to know that images of anyone not on the authorised database will be deleted immediately and permanently.

• A new map shows the London pubs which are at the highest risk of closure

On Saturday 28 March 2026, from 8.30pm to 9.30pm, London will join the rest of the planet in WWF’s Earth Hour, an annual event that asks a simple thing: switch off your lights for one hour to show you care about the planet. Easy to do, and yet somehow still powerful.

This year marks the 20th edition of Earth Hour, two decades of cities, homes, and landmarks going dark in solidarity. London has been a particularly eye-catching participant over the years. Tower Bridge, the Gherkin, St Paul’s, the Royal Opera House, Mansion House, the BT Tower, Harrods, Southwark Cathedral, the list goes on, have all switched off their non-essential lights in past editions, leaving the skyline looking weird, beautiful, and slightly spooky all at once.

Before you start imagining a city in total blackout, don’t get too carried away. Street lights stay on for safety, so it’s not like the capital is plunging into an apocalypse. But even with lights on, the difference is noticeable, especially when you wander past famous buildings and notice the usual glow replaced by shadows and silhouettes. If you want to know exactly which landmarks will be taking part in 2026, the Earth Hour website and individual venues are your go-to sources.

The WWF is also challenging Londoners, and the rest of the world, to take it one step further. Their Give an Hour for Earth initiative suggests that you spend 60 minutes doing something genuinely positive for the planet. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Plant a tree in your local park, go litter-picking, cook a sustainable meal, or just switch off and take a proper look at the night sky for a change. Small acts, big impact.

And there’s a nice little bonus this year: the clocks go forward early the next morning, so even if an hour of darkness has you twitching for light, spring will officially be on its way.

Earth Hour is more than just a symbolic gesture. It’s a reminder that the choices we make matter, even the small ones. It’s a chance to pause, reflect, and reconnect with the planet we often take for granted. For Londoners, it’s also an opportunity to see the familiar in a totally new way, the skyline you pass every day, now quiet, dark, and temporarily transformed.

• The BIG London gig list 2026: Your guide to this year's very best shows, festivals and concerts

London is often in the news for winning – the best food destination, the happiest boroughs to live, the best place to live. And it’s not surprising when you think about all the glorious culture – pubs, restaurants, theatre, nightlife, celeb spotting. Some would say it’s got it all… Apart, perhaps, from a top city ranking.

Data Analytics company Euromonitor International has released its 2026 Top 100 City Destinations Index, and London slipped even further down the rankings than before. Gone are the days of the big smoke hitting the big time on the top three podium. This year, London is firmly in 18th place. That’s a fairly substantial five places further down the list than 2025, when it landed at number 13.

The criteria used by Euromonitor International are based on a series of categories, including tourism policy, tourism infrastructure, economic performance, sustainability, and health and safety.

The good news is that London came in fourth place globally for tourism infrastructure, however, when it comes to the rest of the categories it’s probably best to skirt over… Despite our apparent lagging in most categories, it hasn’t put people off taking a visit to Old Blighty, as London landed in third place for the most-visited city in the world, snatching up a lovely (metaphorical) bronze medal.

At least we lost out to very worthy opponents, with the cool, Euro vibes sweeping the top spots. Paris came in first place for the fifth year running, thanks in part to its tourism infrastructure, cultural influence, and leading the charge in terms of sustainability. Other highly rated spots included New York, Milan, Rome, and Barcelona which to be honest, we really can’t fault.

The winners were:

1. Paris, France
2. Madrid, Spain
3. Tokyo, Japan
4. Rome, Italy
5. Milan, Italy
6. New York, USA
7. Amsterdam, Netherlands
8. Barcelona, Spain
9. Singapore
10. Seoul, South Korea

• London gets a sweeping new exhibition on the real history of the samurai

If you thought you knew London transport like the back of a map, think again. Fully embracing the retro style wave sweeping everything from films to catwalks, London is hopping on the trend, with a fleet of vintage hop-on buses.

Not content with your old trains, trams, taxis, bikes, and boats, the old-school buses will be turning to the capital this weekend. Courtesy of the London Bus Museum, the throwback comes as part of the Museum’s beloved heritage days. The first of 2026’s series lands on 14th March, with the buses pounding the city’s pavements (okay, streets) for one day only. The best part? You can hop on one without having to pay a thing – and not because they can’t accept contactless.

Perhaps the only bad news is that it will be a single bus route that takes the time machine back to the 50s. Route 38, which runs between Victoria and Hackney, is this year’s chosen bus, running fare-free from 10am until 5pm.

First running in June 1912, the route has carted literal billions of people across the city in, er, style. The open-platform buses will come with a real-life conductor and run every 10 minutes between Victoria and Hackney station.

In true traditional style, you don’t need to book to get a spot; simply flag down the iconic red rectangle when you see one passing. If you’re lucky, you might even get an old-school bus ticket.

Most of the vehicles taking part will be the iconic Routemaster, the classic red double-decker that once dominated London’s streets during the 1950s and 1960s. The event will also feature RT-type buses, the Routemaster’s predecessor. In the 1950s, these vehicles collectively formed the world's largest standardised bus fleet.

There’s no need to book tickets or reserve a seat in advance. Instead, passengers can simply wait at any regular Route 38 bus stop, stick out a hand as the bus approaches and hop aboard, just like Londoners would have done back in the day. Passengers should note that the vintage vehicles were built long before modern accessibility standards. As a result, they can't accommodate wheelchairs, and most modern buggies are too large to fit under the stairs. However, conductors will do their best to assist passengers where possible. Well-behaved dogs are welcome, provided they are kept on a lead and do not occupy seats.

If you want to learn more about the history of the route itself, you can read more about the bus route on the London Bus Museum website.

• London gets a sweeping new exhibition on the real history of the samurai

Many people have considered what they would do if they knew they were about to die. For André Ricciardi, an advertising creative director from San Francisco, he planned to spend his last years in front of a camera, creating a documentary he never got to see in its entirety.

Ricciardi died in 2023, a few years after he had been diagnosed with stage four colon cancer. His funny, imaginative spirit lives on in “André Is An Idiot,” a comedy documentary that offers an intimate portrait of Ricciardi’s life before and after his diagnosis.

Tony Benna, an old friend and colleague of Ricciardi, directed the film at the request of Ricciardi. Last year, he took the film to the Sundance Film Festival, the largest festival for independent films in the US, where it won two awards. The film arrives in UK cinemas on February 6th, sharing Ricciardi’s story with a wider audience and reminding the world to get their colonoscopies and other important health checks.

Benna sat down with Shortlist to discuss four lessons he learned about living life to the fullest documentary about his ailing friend.

1. Advocate for your health

“André Is An Idiot” began when Ricciardi reached out to Benna after five years of no contact with an idea for a project.

“He goes, ‘Guess what? I've got a stage four cancer, and I want to make a comedy documentary with you about this,’” Benna recalled of their Zoom call.

Benna said he was at first taken aback and wasn’t sure how to handle such a project.

“Cancer is not funny, but André is,” Benna said. “I've never met anyone as brilliant and hilarious as André. I figured if anyone could make a subject as dark as cancer funny or light-hearted in any way, it would be André.”

According to Benna, Ricciardi came up with the film’s title, “André Is An Idiot,” because he wanted to tell the audience to take their health seriously.

“He wanted to say, ‘I'm not making fun of cancer. I'm making fun of my own mistake. And don't be an idiot like I was. Please get your colonoscopy. Please advocate for your health. Don't brush those things aside,’” Benna said.

As highlighted in “André Is An Idiot,” colon cancer is more common over the age of 50. In England, Wales and Scotland, the NHS invites people aged between 50 and 74 to get free colonoscopy screening tests every two years. If you show symptoms at any age, such as blood in your stool or unexplained loss of weight, you can speak to your GP and ask for the test.

2. It’s OK to talk about death

Talking about death is often a topic people avoid until they can’t anymore. Benna said his relationship with death had changed after interviewing oncologists and nurses for the film. They offered the perspective that humans should talk about and even celebrate death.

“The more that you consider your mortality, the more you talk about it — like André allows us to do — the more you joke about it even, it allows us to realise we're not going to be here forever,” Benna said.

“Death is a part of life, and it's okay.”

Benna added that accepting death as a part of life reminds humans to “live large” while you are living.

“A lot of us get caught up in a cycle of living that ignores death. I think if we could practice what they call ‘Memento Mori’ a bit more often, where we consider our death daily, that we live a richer life.”

3. Vulnerability is your strength

At the beginning of “André Is An Idiot,” Ricciardi tries to hide his struggles with his illness from his family and friends with humour.

“It's a great communication tool to talk about pain in your life, but sometimes humour can also be a mask for pretending to be vulnerable by putting it all out there, but not really, internally, being vulnerable,” Benna said.

As the film continues, those walls start to come down. During a deep discussion about his fears with his best friend, Lee Einhorn, Ricciardi admits he is more afraid of hurting his loved ones than dying.

“The real vulnerability that André came to is ‘It's okay if I go, but I don't want to hurt my kids. I don't want to hurt my wife, but it's inevitable. And I can't stop this. And humour is not going to fix it,’” Benna said.

“He had to come to that realisation that he had to be truly vulnerable, be truly honest about what's going on.”

After witnessing this, Benna believes that vulnerability is actually a strength rather than a weakness.

“What André's journey was during this process was learning how to be vulnerable in areas that he was actually afraid of,” Benna said.

“The lesson there is that we don't have to wait until something bad in our life happens to create change in ourselves.”

4. Live life unapologetically

Benna’s final lesson he learned from Ricciardi came from his friend’s attitude in life.

“André was so unapologetically himself, and he had been his entire life,” Benna said.

“How do I live being less afraid of what people think about me and being just who I am unapologetically, like André, because that's truly living.”

To Benna, living life your way is the best legacy you could leave behind after your death.

“I would say that the key advice in the film that I get from André, and I hope audiences do, is you don't have to follow convention in life. You don't have to follow convention in death. You can be you, you can do things your way, and it's okay.”

André Is An Idiot is in UK cinemas from 6th February, 2026

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Doran Binder has grown used to people responding to his Instagram posts to call him all sorts of names. “Seriously, people get in touch to call me a prick and the like, as though I’m trying to con people,” he says.

“I don’t mind because it means they’re thinking about the subject. They wouldn’t bother otherwise”. Binder’s outrageous claim? That natural waters all taste differently to each other. And certainly to bog standard tap water.

“There’s something triggering about the topic for some people,” laughs Binder, the founder of Crag Spring Water. He reckons that’s because, in the UK at least, we’ve grown used to the idea of water coming out of a tap, on demand, for free (kind of).

“Then it’s true that a lot of bottled water is borderline scamming - it’s refined, processed tap water sold back to people at a huge mark-up. And we do need to get beyond natural waters sold in crystal bottles or with gold flake in them. Gimmicks like that. So there are challenges. But there’s also a whole world of amazing natural waters out there to try”.

Binder is one of a growing number of ‘water sommeliers’ around the world trying to get us to take water seriously, “because waters are so very different,” he insists. A water may be low in salinity or high in minerality, for example. If distilled water has a zero rating for TDS (or Total Dissolved Solids) a natural water might be rated at anything up to 30,000 parts per million. It may have a naturally high oxygen content or notably fine bubbles, for extra ‘mouthfeel’. A high level of calcium will give a water the feel of creamy richness, a high level of silica smoothness.

A tap-water terroir

Indeed, according to Michael Mascha (founder of the Fine Water Academy, an international training organisation on natural waters), there’s a creeping acceptance that, of course, water has terroir, as wine buffs refer to how a product, and its taste, reflect a connection to the land. And that it needs explaining as much as it does for a wine.

Look for the origin information on the label, he suggests first. Then look for mineral content — generally the longer the water has in been the ground the higher the content. But also pH level — the higher the acidity, the more sourness; and carbonation, which is often very subtle. All play a part in determining a water’s particular taste.

He compares the best of the natural waters available as something akin to a product provided by local farmers attuned to the earth, to seasonality, while volume waters are pumped out — literally and figuratively — by agri-business giants happy to over-extend aquifers for profit.

Are the former worth paying for? Is the hype around some waters — taken from icebergs frozen for millennia, or from sacred springs deep within the Amazon — just BS? No, he says. If they’re more expensive that tends to reflect the cost of shipping. They will nonetheless have their own flavours unique to the land from which they come, but also something that goes to make a great wine as well — story-telling.

“The wine industry speaks of where its product is from all the time. It’s a way to connect us emotionally to the product, from source to glass,” says Masha. “

Tell people their water is 4000 year old rain that’s been locked in ice and is now on their table and that’s really interesting”.

Big Water vs the independents

That’s important too because most high-end natural water companies, like most vineyards, are small, independent companies that don’t have huge marketing budgets to get across to the public quite why their water is worth a try.

“That’s especially not easy online,” says entrepreneur Jamal Quereshi, founder of Svalbardi Polar Iceberg Water.

“You can’t just make claims to be the purest and stick a picture of a mountain on your label. It’s a slow process of education that’s going on. But the fact is that if you sit down with someone one-to-one to try various waters, it’s incredibly easy to convert people to understanding their different qualities.”

According to Timo Bausch, also a water sommelier and founder of Germany’s Sommcademy, the growing interest in health and wellness may provide the spark that ignites enough curiosity to get people to try just that. Younger generations are drinking less alcohol; we better understand the importance of hydration; and, as had been understood since Roman times, natural waters also provide a critical mineral content you might otherwise have to be more conscious about getting through diet or supplements.

Different waters' different mineral properties have proven - if often slight - medicinal advantages for certain conditions the likes of heartburn, constipation and muscle cramp. But what he’d like to see is more restaurants pairing water with food, or with coffee, or with wine.

He suggests, for example, that red wine works better with a still water because carbonation tends to increase bitterness; whereas light carbonation will underscore the flavours of a white wine. A water high in calcium will have a distinctive saltiness to it that can cut through sweetness; the opposite is true of a water high in magnesium.

“But just having more options for water in hotels and restaurants - not just tap water, not just something you could buy in the local supermarket - opens people up to that idea, which really isn’t such a strange idea,” he says.

It’s not a strange idea, Mascha adds, when we’re seen this process happen before with other goods that we once considered basic and not worth much thought.

“It wasn’t that long ago when you’d go to a restaurant and the wine option was ‘red or white’,” he says. “Now we have specialists there telling you about a long list of wines”.

Much as some once very expensive products have become commodities - the likes of sugar, tobacco, spices, tea - so other products once considered to be commodities have undergone a process of artisanal reappraisal. That's not just wine, but also olive oil, salt, chocolate, bread, and so on. Now it’s natural water’s turn. The challenge is getting the hospitality industries to grasp the idea.

“Don’t get me wrong - chlorinated tap water was one of the great health interventions, but its place is in giving hydration, not in giving an experience, and that’s what a natural water can do, much as we now understand that a great olive oil makes a difference too,” says Mascha.

“Unfortunately, getting that distinction across is taking time, not least because beverage managers [in bars and restaurants] are lazy. They’re making money with wine so thinking ‘why bother expanding the offer?’

"And that’s even as we drink less and less of the stuff they want to sell us. But it will happen for water. I give it five years - and then this conversation won’t seem so strange to a lot of people”.

• "Alcohol is doomed": How ‘synthenol’ science is making booze obsolete, according to an expert

February in London is rarely kind. Grey skies, damp pavements, the slow realisation that spring is still a rumour. Which is precisely why Kew Gardens’ Orchid Festival has become such a reliable midwinter escape, and in 2026, it’s back with extra firepower.

Returning to the Princess of Wales Conservatory, this year’s festival marks its 30th anniversary and takes its inspiration from China, filling Kew’s tropical glasshouse with thousands of orchids, oversized floral sculptures and just enough spectacle to make you forget you’re still in Zone 4.

At the centre of it all is a coiled Chinese dragon stretching across the conservatory’s main pond, built from lotus seed heads, dried leaves and, of course, orchids. Elsewhere, nine koi carp crafted from gingko leaves glide through a smaller pool, nodding to luck and prosperity, while pandas and other animal motifs are worked into the surrounding displays. It’s maximalist, immersive and unashamedly Instagrammable.

The plant life does plenty of the heavy lifting, too. Native Chinese orchids blanket the space, turning the already steamy conservatory into a full sensory reset. And as you leave, you’ll pass beneath an archway topped with a horse, a quiet salute to 2026 being the Chinese Year of the Horse.

For those who prefer their florals with a side of nightlife, Orchids After Hours returns on selected Friday and Saturday evenings in February. These adults-only sessions keep the conservatory open late, with dramatic lighting, live performances, DJs and Chinese-inspired food and cocktails.

This year’s programme leans further into cultural storytelling too. Yi Crafts, a London-based studio working with artisan communities in southwest China, brings a Yunnan Cultural Fashion Walk through the conservatory, showcasing traditional handwoven garments and embroidery.

There’s also a Bai JiaMa woodblock printing workshop, where visitors can make their own New Year prints, plus live music from Yijia and British–Hong Kong artist Mui Zyu across multiple dates.

The Orchid Festival runs at the Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery, Princess of Wales Conservatory at Kew Gardens from 7 February to 8 March 2026, with Orchids After Hours taking place on selected dates throughout February. Entry is included with a standard Kew Gardens ticket, while evening events are ticketed separately.

Adults can expect to pay from £24, with members and under-16s going free, making this one of London’s most effective cures for the winter blues.

• You could spend your Valentine’s dining under one of London’s most picturesque and historic buildings

Sportswear is everywhere. Not just in gyms or on the backs of the running clubs taking over the city streets after work and at weekends. If you care about what you throw on to work up a sweat, an exhibition that’s just opened in London might just make you care a bit more about how it’s being made.

Performance without Toxicity is being hosted at the Fabrica X innovation gallery, which is just a few minutes walk (or an even quicker run) from Kings Cross station. It’s presented by The Mills Fabrica, a workspace hub dedicated to bringing together likeminded folk that care about creating and investing in sustainable innovations.

Running over the next five months, the exhibition showcases the technologies and solutions that can go into — and is already going into — making everything from hiking boots, padel rackets and wetsuits healthier for you and the planet. It’s all about keeping toxic petroleum-based materials out of your wardrobe and away from your body, which can only be a good thing.

“At The Mills Fabrica, a key part of our mission is to shine a light on the industry players that are taking the more responsible path, " says Amy Tsang, Head of Europe at The Mills Fabrica.

“Whether that’s at the design stage, production of a garment’s end-of-life.

"For performance wear, it’s becoming a part of our daily lives — and is no longer only worn for working out at the gym. This increased popularity of performance apparel and accessories makes it even more crucial that these products are made in ways that protect both people and the planet.”

A global effort

This is The Mills Fabrica’s largest exhibition yet, with 37 exhibitors included from all across the globe as well those that are much closer to home. That includes more established names like Vivobarefoot, best known for its minimalist footwear, and running shoe brand Allbirds. You’ll also discover names you’ll hopefully become more familiar with in the not too distant future.

Like Goldwin, a Japanese performance brand and lead innovation partner for the exhibition that’s also launching its first UK flagship store in Soho this month. You can take a closer look at a jacket built for outdoor adventures that’s been created using a pattern system called SYN-GRID. This uses 3D technology and machine learning to reduce fabric waste during manufacturing.

Circle Sportswear, is a French running apparel brand that’s already launched a running shoe made from bio-based materials like castor beans and wood pulp. Cornwall-based outdoor brand Finisterre is showing off a wetsuit that uses rubber from forests to reduce the reliance on the neoprene mainly used in wetsuits. Football fans can also wonder what it could be like to lace up a boot made from non-toxic graphene. That’s been demonstrated through a pilot project from London-based startup Nanoloom.

Hyosung TNC is a global leader in elastane production. That’s a fibre found in clothing like leggings and compression wear. It’s now developed a bio-based elastane that uses sugar cane to reduce the carbon footprint for brands that want to add some stretch to their performance garments. Amphico is a startup that’s already produced PFAS-free waterproof breathable membranes and waterless colours for fabrics that can be incorporated into jackets. That’s all while reducing toxic chemicals and water usage compared to other textiles used in performance gear.

"Progress over perfection"

“The size of this exhibition reflects the wave of innovation happening right now in performance apparel, " says Tsang.

“This demonstrates the huge potential for the industry to do better. It’s about highlighting progress over perfection and demonstrating that now is the time for brands to act if we want to protect the future of our planet.”

You’re free to get a feel of most of the gear on show, with each clearly labelled to indicate the stage of development. Whether they’re still at the early startup or research project stage or already being put to good use. You'll also find out if garments have compostable qualities or include additional features like moisture-wicking for added comfort or staying dry when you start to sweat.

“I hope people will leave the exhibition feeling inspired and motivated to take action,” says Tsang.

“We want to show that these innovations and technologies aren’t some distant future. They’re happening today and there’s much more on the horizon.”

The Performance without Toxicity exhibition is open now and runs until the 29th June 2026. It’s free to pop in, with a spot to grab a coffee, and a concept store so you can even walk away with some more toxic-free performance wear or pick up a book to learn more about the work explored.

• New Balance serves up its 2026 London Marathon training range inside London’s oldest pie and mash shop

You hear a lot of things about London – prices going up, space going down, resources struggling, the list goes on. One thing it’s not famous for is getting bigger. But for the first time in decades, London’s Square Mile has just got bigger, and the River Fleet (Fleet Street’s namesake) just got a smidge longer.

Without any big ribbon-cutting ceremonies or unveilings, London’s Bazalgette Embankment just got quietly reopened after years of renovation. The space itself is a fairly sizeable walkway and plaza, running adjacent to the existing Victoria Embankment and Blackfriars Bridge.

Part of the Tideway project, it's named after the Victorian engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette, who thought up the subterranean sewer system solution back in the day, which was instrumental in solving the Great Stink. To this day, his ‘super sewer’ has stopped raw waste from flowing into the streets and the river, keeping the city clean. The Tideway project is officially the Thames Tideway Tunnel – a 25km long sewer that runs under London.

The space is predominantly open, giving Londoners the opportunity to admire the Thames and South Bank, with the quiet (or as quiet as you can get in the city) views of London’s scenery. Dotted along the walkway are also a series of sculptures by artist Nathan Coley. As well as the open space, there are also pockets of green scattered across the embankment; a small woody area contains over 70 saplings and 3,000 plants, which will hopefully grow up to be the perfect shady spots come summer.

For the first time in an age, pedestrians will be able to wander by the riverside, right up to, under, and beyond Blackfriars bridges. Plus, it makes navigating your way around Temple so much easier.

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There are many things that feel difficult to conquer in the big city – the tube (particularly the Circle & District), the exits at Bank, and most of all, the dating scene. As we said in an interview with Domhnall Gleeson, some people get mis-sold PPI, we feel like we’ve been mis-sold the London dating scene by Richard Curtis.

As it turns out there isn’t a bespectacled, bumbling gent loitering charmingly on picturesque London streets, no blonde haired LA movie maker in our local country pub, and barely any decent likes on our dating apps. But thanks to dating app Breeze’s 2025 Dating Report we have some brand new data which explains some of Londoner’s bizarre dating habits. From height, to age, to London pubs, this is where and what Londoners are up to.

Height doesn't matter, but age does

In a more shocking twist than the whole secret traitor debacle, it turns out that single Brits are refreshingly open-minded when it comes to dating – more so than Europeans and Americans.

When it comes to height, only 32% of Brits use a height filter, versus nearly 39% of Dutch daters. Plus, users also have the biggest range when using height preferences, with 50% of daters allowing more than a 40cm range.

Age on the other hand is a stricter affair, with the average singleton opting for six years younger to eight years older.

Londoners are willing to go the distance

If you’ve ever felt like you’ve schlepped for a date – venturing out of the cosy (and probably mouldy) confines of your zone 5 bedsit into the hectic and trendy bright lines of central London – then you’re probably not wrong.

It turns out that UK singles will travel further than anyone else for a first date, with the longest recorded journey clocking up a staggering 424km from Carlisle to London. In the capital, the average travel distance for dates was just 10.76km.

It's firmly a drinks-on-a-first-date kind of city

London is also overwhelmingly the number one destination for first date drinks, hosting 90% of all UK drinks at Bar dates – but which spots came out on top.

Popular spots included Oblix in London Bridge – a statement of an option, perched in The Shard at level 32, meaning you’ll get some pretty stunning views over a night-lit London, meaning that at least any silences will be picturesque as well as awkward.

Also popular were The Boat House in Canary Wharf and The Half Moon in Herne Hill, proving that Londoners really are all about the aesthetics. Canary Wharf’s Boat House is - as it sounds - a bar in a barge, offering up cocktails on the river, and even live music evenings, it’s definitely somewhere interesting enough to spark a conversation, in case the prompts you half remember from their profile just aren’t doing the trick. Herne Hill’s chilled Half Moon pub tucked behind the station is a winner for summer with its sprawling beer garden and wooden pergolas that are perfectly tucked away so you can avoid your friends / housemates / previous first-date that you forgot to text back.

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It’s no secret that the UK goes through a lot of energy – just to power the number of cups of tea we get through (or, at least make if not get round to actually drinking), let alone our new surging use of AI. To address the increasing need for more energy (you and me both, England), plans have been proposed for a brand new tidal power station – and they’ve recruited the top dogs to plan it out. The very team behind one of London’s most eye-conic landmarks…

Suggested as the West Somerset Lagoon, the infrastructure would be a new renewable (and reliable) energy source, constructed as a semi-circular lagoon stretching between Minehead and Watchet.

To hit its energy targets, the site would be complete with a proposed 125 turbines that would generate enough energy to power 2 million UK homes (on average). Thanks to its funnel shape, the Bristol Channel - the proposed site for the lagoon - experiences the largest tidal range in the UK, and the second largest in the whole world, being pipped by Canada’s Bay of Fundy.

Architects over at Marks Barfield are the design-brains behind the Lagoon, aiming to utilise the high tides to produce clean, renewable energy by incorporating turbines, wind turbines, and floating solar power alongside transport links, ferry and paddle steamer terminals, and a marina, amongst other amenities. Some of the amenities proposed are part of a plan for the Lagoon to be a public space, with features like a lido, a visitor’s centre, shops, restaurants, an oyster farm, and an observation tower.

As with almost everything these days, the building plans definitely don’t come cheap, with an expected £11 billion stated for the project’s development. That’s a fair step up from The London Eye, which cost reportedly £75 million – although that was in 2000, so given the inflation rate, it’s probably around the same cost now… Despite the cost, the team behind it believe it would be a long-term investment which would ultimately create a cheaper power source in the long-run. Whilst there hasn’t been any word from politicians on the plans either way, if it *does* get approved, the project could be up and running by 2037 and fully operational by 2038 – although anyone who has watched Grand Designs knows that means 2040 at least...

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Probably one of the very last things on your mind right now, as Storm Goretti wields its icy fist, is jumping into some ice-sheeted wild water. However, open water antics as an everyday activity have seriously surged in popularity in London, over the last few years, with a new floating Lido announced for Canary Wharf’s Eden Dock, and a potential Hackney beach in the works. Joining the love for water-based lounging is Hampstead’s beloved mixed pond, which could soon be open all year round for the first time ever.

Usually open from April to October for public swimming, the team behind Hampstead’s mixed pond - City of London’s Corporation Committee - is assessing the pond’s seasonal use. Currently, the single-sex ponds - the Kenwood Ladies’ and the Men’s ponds - are open all year round.

The plans state that opening the mixed pond throughout the year would contribute to the Corporation’s priority of improving physical health and emotional well-being for its visitors. Whilst we don’t currently have a date set for the review, judging by the draft five-year business plan, it looks as though this change-up could happen in the 2026/7 financial year.

As well as extending the time period that the mixed pond is open, the wider plan also includes propositions to re-landscape the area around the mixed pond itself, and improve accessibility at the Kenwood Ladies’ pond. This would include an expansion of the accessible changing space, a provision of additional outdoor showers, and improving the outdoor space, which could mean a review of the meadow area which lies adjacent to the Ladies' ponds.

Continuing the UK’s obsession with saunas, there is also a section in the plans to review saunas at Parliament Hill Lido, potentially adding additional saunas to other spaces within the Committee’s portfolio, like the Heath ponds.

Gregory Jones, chair of the committee, said: "Given the increasing popularity of open water swimming, we will be reviewing the current arrangements at the Mixed Pond. This will include looking at access, facilities and opening hours, to bring it into line with Parliament Hill Lido, Kenwood Ladies’ Pond and Highgate Men’s Pond."

• Stripping off, keeping a straight face and riding the Tube in your pants: One of London’s strangest traditions returns this January

During this cold snap, the weather can play havoc with your skin, causing everything from chapped lips to dryness on the face. To help you have a glowing complexion and keep skin feeling hydrated and smooth, we’ve got you covered with our guide to some of the best products to use, aesthetic treatments to consider and advice from the experts on how to follow the perfect grooming routine.

With recent UK temperatures dropping well below zero and more wintry conditions on the way, it is no surprise that our skin is significantly impacted by the cold. Whilst skin is skin, the difference for men is that yours is about 25 per cent thicker on the face than women’s, tends to be oilier because you naturally produce more sebum (skin oil) due to higher testosterone levels, and there's the added stress on the skin from shaving that can cause ingrown hairs. It’s no wonder that damage to the skin barrier can cause havoc for men.

Why winter hits men’s skin harder

So what to do about it? We go skin deep with numerous experts, including Dr. Vishnu Nathan from the London Aesthetic Taktouk Clinic, to help you know how to face off any unwanted skin problems.

"The combination of a razor blade and freezing wind is a recipe for barrier destruction,” explained Dr Nathan.

“Shaving exfoliates the skin, removing the top protective layer, so in the winter, my advice is that men must replace alcohol-based aftershaves (which sting and dry) with barrier-repairing balms containing Ceramides or Niacinamide (ingredients that help strengthen the skin barrier) to reduce inflammation immediately."

He also advises using a broad-spectrum SPF 30, adding: “It is a non-negotiable as even on a grey and windy day, UVA rays (ageing rays) penetrate clouds and glass.”

Shaving, moisturising and the winter grooming basics

With the grooming market saturated with products, it can often feel overwhelming, so it’s nice to know that good old Vaseline can help when it comes to keeping your skin hydrated.

“Regular moisturiser isn't enough during these colder months,” explained skincare specialist Simon Driscoll, founder of natural skincare brand uxbskincare.com.

“Apply dots of Vaseline around the eyes and forehead to lock in that moisture, and when it comes to shaving, make sure you have a pre-shave soak. In colder weather, your skin will be more dehydrated, and hairs may be more prominent, so soak your face with warm water before shaving to prevent nicks and razor burn.”

Whilst it may be obvious, he encourages men to ensure they wash their faces every night.

“It probably won't feel dirty in these colder months, but tiny particles of pollution will be sitting on that skin, releasing free radicals and damaging it.”

Cleansing, hydration and circulation

One thing not to miss out in your skincare routine is cleansing, an essential step that washes away impurities without stripping the skin of its natural moisture. Men can cleanse after they have washed their skin or just stick to cleansing if short on time.

According to a dermatologist and founder of Dr. Derme Skin Clinic, Dr Thuva Amuthan, cold, dry air strips the skin of moisture and weakens its barrier, so men often experience dryness, irritation, redness and cracking during winter months.

“The simplest way to protect skin is to boost hydration and barrier support: use a gentle, fragrance-free cleanser, followed by a rich moisturiser containing ceramides or hyaluronic acid twice daily.”

When it comes to shaving, she adds, “Doing it in cold weather can increase irritation, so a cream or gel with added emollients helps reduce razor burn. Avoid hot showers, which further dry the skin — lukewarm is kinder. Drinking plenty of water and maintaining good sleep also supports skin health from within.”

Massaging the face can also help men suffering from sore skin, a process encouraged by celebrity facialist Ada Ooi.

“In traditional Chinese medicine, when we are cold, our Qi (energy) and blood stagnate, leading to a dull, greyish complexion — common in men during winter. To fix this, you need to stimulate circulation physically. Don't just rely on cream; massage the face or use a cryo-tool to wake up the blood vessels."

She also suggests using a serum-moisturiser hybrid that creates a ‘seal’ against the wind without feeling heavy.

Hair, neck and the often-forgotten areas

As well as the face, men’s hair can be affected by cold weather. “During cold snaps, barriers on skin and the surrounding areas, including the scalp and along the hairline, can become compromised,” explained Aneta Mortlock, founder of Megi Wellness.

Another area easily overlooked is the neck. A top tip from beauty expert Annabelle Taurua, who works at wellness platform Fresha, is to keep an eye on your scarf.

“Scarves are a great way to keep warm in winter, but if you’re noticing breakouts along your neck or jawline, your scarf might be the culprit. Wash it as often as your clothes and opt for breathable fabrics like cotton.”

Lips, finishing touches and the winter checklist

And finally, when it comes to lips, it’s common for them to become dry and cracked.

“During colder weather, we are more prone to dry or painful lips because the skin on the lips is particularly thin,” explained David Connor, founder of Kanzen Skincare.

So to summarise, if you want a no-fuss skincare routine checklist, Debbie Thomas, skin and laser expert and founder of The D.Thomas London clinic, has it spot on:

• Gentle cleansing gel (no tight feeling after)
• Lightweight moisturiser with ceramides, fatty acids and glycerin/squalane
• SPF daily (UVA still ages skin in winter)
• Salicylic acid a few nights a week for breakouts or ingrown hairs
• Post-shave: skip alcohol-heavy aftershaves and use a soothing barrier moisturiser

Face facts: the best aesthetic treatments for men

Thermage FLX

“Men definitely want to look tweaked instead of tucked,” explained plastic surgeon, Dr Angelica Kavouni, who works at the London aesthetics clinic.

“Radiofrequency skin tightening treatments like Thermage FLX are incredibly effective. Using radiofrequency, the newest Thermage FLX generation heats the skin and boosts collagen and elasticity levels to smooth, lift and tighten skin on the upper and lower eyelids, and is the go-to treatment for those wanting to tighten the skin around the eyes. It's perfect for men who want an incredibly natural result.

“It’s designed to address age-related skin issues, particularly those that are primarily caused by sun and wind damage, such as crepiness, loose skin and texture changes. There’s no downtime, and results continue for up to a year.”

Profhilo

According to Dr Vishnu Nathan from the Taktouk Clinic, he likes to refer to this treatment as “the lazy man’s fix.

“This is perfect for men who hate applying creams. It’s essentially injectable hyaluronic acid. It doesn’t freeze the face or add volume (no 'puffy' look); it simply hydrates the skin from the inside out, preventing that cracked, wintery-skin look."

CACI’s Gentleman’s Facial

This non-surgical, non-invasive treatment delivers great results. Using a combination of advanced CACI technologies, this facial treatment is designed to specifically address male skincare concerns. It works by deep cleansing and skin exfoliation techniques that help tackle razor bumps and ingrown hairs, whilst working to tighten and redefine the jawline, and uses LED Light Therapy to help hydrate, calm and smooth skin. Results are seen immediately after one treatment.

Top buys: our guide to some uplifting products to help soothe skin and keep it protected from the cold.

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For most people, accidentally leaving the house without trousers would trigger an immediate panic, shame and a frantic dash back through the front door. For a small but fearless group of Londoners, it’s the highlight of the social calendar.

The No Trousers Tube Ride is back, returning to the Underground this January and once again inviting the capital’s most confident commuters to do one thing and one thing only: get on the Tube wearing nothing below the waist except their underwear (and shoes). No slogans. No protest. No charity bucket. Just legs, vibes and a very British commitment to pretending everything is completely normal.

If you’ve never heard of it before, the premise is that simple. Participants meet fully clothed, head into the Tube as a group, remove their trousers once inside the station, ride for a few stops, then get off, get dressed again and usually head to the pub. That’s it.

The event traces its roots back to 2002, when New York staged the original No Pants Subway Ride (note: “pants” refers to trousers). London soon followed, and the tradition has quietly become one of the city’s most peculiar annual fixtures. After the original organising group stepped away in 2024, the event was rescued by personal trainer Dave Selkirk, ensuring the tradition lived on.

In 2026, the No Trousers Tube Ride will take place on Sunday 11 January, with participants meeting at the Old Pagoda in Soho’s Chinatown at 2.45pm, before heading off at around 3pm. Trousers must be worn to the meeting point, and attendees are divided into smaller groups and led to nearby Tube stations, where the trousers are removed, and the fun begins. Bringing a bag to carry your discarded bottoms is strongly advised.

There are, naturally, a few rules. Underwear is mandatory, and organisers ask that it’s kept as “normal” and low-key as possible: no thongs, novelty pants or anything that would draw more attention than the absence of trousers already does. The aim is to look as though you’ve simply forgotten something crucial, not staged a fashion statement.

As for the reason behind it all? There isn’t one. It’s not a protest, a fundraiser or a statement about public transport. It’s just a harmless bit of silliness designed to give fellow passengers a moment of surprise, confusion and, ideally, a laugh. Participants are encouraged to act completely unfazed: read a book, scroll your phone, listen to music and absolutely do not acknowledge the fact you’re missing half an outfit. So if you're travelling on Sunday, you may see a lot more flesh than you bargained for.

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