London

I've always felt that the black cabs were just full of sour grapes since Uber eats into their profits. Black cabs have always been overpriced.

I guess it's time to vote. I mourn the loss of STV.

The street, more famous for tailors than planes, will be taken over by the Concours on Savile Row, an event that will feature a variety of historic and interesting vehicles.

One of the more unusual vehicles will be a partially restored Supermarine Spitfire — and the only surviving aircraft linked to any of the airmen involved in the real-life Great Escape from Stalag Luft III in March 1944.

As one of only 240 Spitfire aeroplanes still in existence worldwide, AA810 also has a racing heritage fitting for the Concours display, as it was flown operationally by one of the most famous pre-war racing drivers of all time, AFP Fane.

The plane was shot down in March 1942, and the wreckage was rediscovered in July 2018. The aim is to restore the plane, using as much of the original as possible, and return it to the skies again.

During the Concours, to show off the restoration that’s been completed so far, the plane’s fuselage and replica engine will be on display inside the Gieves & Hawkes store on the corner of Savile Row.

A statue of Lord Byron, erected in what was part of Hyde Park at the time but is now marooned in a roundabout, should be moved to a better location, according to a campaign that aims to do just that.

The sculpture, officially the Byron Memorial Statue, was installed near Hyde Park Corner in 1880 in a tear-shaped slice of the park known as Hamilton Gardens.

However, in the late 1950s, the road layout around Hyde Park Corner was radically changed, with Hamilton Gardens substantially reduced to make space for more roads, and the Byron statue ended up isolated and alone on a roundabout.

Getting up close to the statue now requires a dash across three busy lanes without any pedestrian crossings.

It wasn’t supposed to be like that though, as the government had promised to relocate the statue during the road works. They didn’t.

On the bicentenary of his death, the Byron Society is trying to fulfil that promise with a fundraising campaign to restore and move the statue.

Just Giving page

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/9744222

The former actor Laurence Fox will not be a candidate at the London mayoral elections after failing to fill in the nomination forms correctly.

London Elects, which administers the mayoral and London Assembly elections, said the Reclaim party leader had submitted the papers shortly before the deadline on Wednesday, which were subsequently found to contain errors.

Fox, who last acted on screens in a 2022 film distributed by the far-right website Breitbart, is understood to have failed to provide enough signatures of support in two London boroughs, while three supporters from other boroughs could not be found in records.

Fox, who has been the leader of the rightwing populist Reclaim party since 2020, claimed on X in since-deleted posts that the actions were the result of “political corruption”. In response, London Elects issued a lengthy rebuttal.

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In his deleted posts, Fox claimed that his party had “checked, double checked and then triple checked our nominations” and would appeal against the decision, which he claimed was the result of “political corruption”. It is understood that there is no avenue for appealing against the decision by London Elects.

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The email said Fox would be refunded the £20,000 fee and deposit paid for the mayoral nomination, plus another £5,000 Reclaim had overpaid “in error”.

Newham council has managed to find some funds from somewhere to enable them to take over the lease of the market village, although there is a break clause after a year so if it's loss-making they can walk away.

As an aside, the amount of wasted space on the widget irks me.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/7824697

These local heroes are making a mark in their communities — through bringing green spaces back to life, creating a cultural hub in the shape of a cinema and turning a home into an artwork

"I don't think anyone is going to be able to nick this... how are you going to steal a tree?"
Tomorrows news will be a stolen tree, it seems...

I just found this out today by cycling it. You can now shoot straight through the section at Surrey Quays/Southwark Park making this route extremely quick and largely safe.

I don't like the crossover at Surrey Quays station OR that weird side road dip just before the McDonalds but all things considered this is a great route.

Apologies if this is off topic, I CBA to make London cycling

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/10939870

RSPCA take in abandoned rodent after Canning Town staff discover cage in alleyway

Archived version: https://archive.ph/A8Sap

Around 600 drivers seeking to overturn fines for speeding after a fake 50mph sign was placed on a dual carriageway in south east London will not have their penalties waived, the Metropolitan Police said.

Thousands of motorists were ticketed on the A20 near Sidcup on a stretch of the road where the speed limit had been temporarily dropped from 70mph to 40mph by Transport for London due to persistent flooding.

Police say the 50mph sign was installed by an “unauthorised third party” on January 24 after speed cameras were set to match the lowered limit.

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While the Met admits the sign should not have been there, it “would not have impacted the enforcement of the 40mph average speed limit”.

TfL have announced official names and colours for the Overground lines:

We’re giving the lines on the London Overground names that celebrate London’s wonderful and varied cultural heritage. In this blog post, we tell you all about the names, the stories behind them and when the changes will come into effect.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/7569028

Following the collapse of Roman Britain, Londoninium (London) fell to ruin and was abandoned during the 5th century AD.

Anglo-Saxons settled 1.6 km’s to the west of the former Roman capital, establishing a small town known as Lundenwic in the area of present-day Covent Garden.

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Archaeology South-East, which is part of the UCL Institute of Archaeology, has announced the discovery of Saxon material during excavations of the Sainsbury Wing at the National Gallery.

According to the researchers, the discovery now indicates that the town’s urban centre extended further west than previously thought. Excavations revealed a hearth, postholes, stokehole’s, pits, ditches, and levelling deposits from the western suburb of the town. Carbon dating of the hearth has returned a date range from between AD 659-774.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/11502130

ON FRIDAY, MAY 3, 1337, Chaplain John Ford was strolling down the bustling market street of London Cheapside during golden hour—when three men assaulted him. As one man stabbed Ford in the throat with an 11-inch-long dagger, the other two slashed his stomach open. Ford was left to die in a puddle of blood under the arches of what once was Greyfriars Church as the assailants escaped. Among the crowds, a hatter, a rosary-maker, and a third man called for help.

When local officials filed a report detailing the murder, a mysterious “longstanding dispute” was mentioned alongside one name: the rich and famous Ela FitzPayne.

But what could the churchman possibly have done for the noblewoman to order the man’s murder in broad daylight on a crowded London street?

These are the kinds of questions that Manuel Eisner, the deputy director of the Cambridge Institute of Criminology, asks himself daily. In 2018, Eisner founded the Medieval Murder Maps—an interactive medieval murder map plotting the sudden deaths of thousands across the medieval towns of London, York, and Oxford. For Eisner, cracking 700-year-old cold cases, like the murder of John Ford, can provide an invaluable snapshot into medieval life, helping us understand the origins of the modern criminal justice system, what life was like for the past’s everyday people, and how crime patterns have, or haven’t, changed.

“I call it a distant mirror,” says Eisner. “You don’t just read it as violence. You have these little stories that are taking you on a time travel [adventure].”