Society
‘Small mercies’: north London cafe evictions paused after legal challenge
January 31, 2026A couple who run three cafes at north London beauty spots including Hampstead Heath and Queen’s Park have claimed a small victory in their battle to overturn the decision by their landlord, the City of London Corporation, to evict them. Patrick Matthews and Emma Fernandez have run the cafes at Parliament Hill Lido, Queen’s Park […]
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On £100k and feeling hard-done-by? It seems absurd – but a cold truth lies beneath | Jason Okundaye
January 26, 2026When I was younger, I was always hearing about “yuppies” (young, urban professionals), a prosperous class of upwardly mobile, status-chasing people working in major cities. It was already a vintage term by the time I was conscious of it, it having been forged in the 1980s, when these people were viewed as the major beneficiaries […]
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New City & Guilds owners tripled bosses’ pay amid £22m cost-cutting drive
January 20, 2026The new owners of the vocational training body City & Guilds appear to have more than tripled the pay of its top six executives right at the moment the company is cutting £22m of costs and shrinking its UK workforce. The large increases to salary and bonuses have emerged during a scandal over the sale […]
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A long-running battle between family-run cafes and the chains | Letters
January 16, 2026I can’t help being disappointed by the current controversy over the Hampstead Heath cafes, as highlighted by Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett (I’m sick of avocado toast – I just want to keep my local, untrendy cafe, 12 January), as it’s all happened before. In 2016, as chair of the Hampstead Heath management committee, I voted against […]
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I’m sick of avocado toast – I just want to keep my local, untrendy cafe | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett
January 12, 2026What do James McAvoy and my three-year-old son have in common? Very little, you might think, notwithstanding their shared awareness of the book The Dinosaur That Pooped a Planet. Yet their lives overlap in a more tangible way, because they, along with Benedict Cumberbatch, patronise the same cafes on Hampstead Heath. Both actors have signed […]
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Coroner calls for circumcision safety measures after baby’s death in London
January 2, 2026A coroner has warned that more babies could die from infected circumcisions in the UK after the death of a six-month-old boy exposed a lack of infection control training and accreditation for circumcisers. Mohamed Abdisamad died in February 2023 of a streptococcus infection. He had a cardiorespiratory arrest on his way to hospital a week […]
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Plymouth had UK’s steepest rise in house prices in 2025
December 30, 2025UK house prices rose fastest in Plymouth this year as investment in shopping and amenities lured buyers to the south-west city, a survey of 2025 housing hotspots shows, as the central London market struggled with weaker demand. The average property price rose by 12.6% in Plymouth during 2025, the steepest rise anywhere in the country, […]
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Gambling firms spent nearly £5m to advertise on TfL since London mayor’s ban pledge
December 29, 2025Gambling companies have spent nearly £5m to advertise on the London transport network since Sadiq Khan pledged to stop them from doing so, amid a prolonged impasse between the mayor’s office and the government. Khan said during his 2021 mayoral election campaign that he would order Transport for London (TfL) to extend a ban on […]
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Cycling is changing at speed – but is Britain keeping pace?
December 21, 2025Ever since Team GB’s velodrome successes at the 2008 Olympics, campaigners and government ministers have confidently predicted that Britain is about to become a nation of cyclists. There is just one problem: for the most part, it has not happened. Apart from a very concentrated spike in bike use during Covid, the level of cycle […]
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‘Bills keep going higher’: community ‘warm spaces’ on the rise in the UK
December 21, 2025When Fatma Mustafa began attending Walworth Living Room, a community project in south London, a few years ago, she began to feel like it was her second home. The registered “warm space” is designed to feel like a living room: comfy sofas, a communal table, activities and food in a warm environment. Mustafa, 48, says […]
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