Ed Cunningham

Television has been around for 70 years, but only in the last two decades has it earned true respect as an artistic medium. Up to that point, elitists referred to TV as ‘the idiot box’ or ‘the boob tube,’ and if you worked in it, you were either a hack or an upstart hoping to make the leap into the more dignified world of movies. Was its poor reputation deserved? Sure, there were blips of brilliance between The Ed Sullivan Show and The Sopranos, but by and large, the garbage outweighed the gold. Maybe it’s unfair, but the fact that it was all being beamed directly into our living rooms made the dreck more noticeable.  That’s all changed. Television has nudged film out from the center of popular culture, to the point that some of cinema’s truest believers – Martin Scorsese, David Fincher, Steven Soderbergh – are making movies specifically for the small screen. The shift may have started with HBO and The Sopranos, but the advent of streaming has made it so that hundreds of new shows are now continually flipping the script every few years, if not months. But that doesn’t mean everything before 1999 is pure dross. While this list is dominated by 21st century programs, there are hundreds of shows that deserve credit for pushing TV forward into its current golden age, and chiseling them down to a neat top 100 is difficult. So we elected to leave off talk shows, variety shows and sketch comedy, focusing on scripted, episodic dramas, comedies and miniseries. Even then, it proved to b

The humble brunch is perhaps one of the greatest inventions of the modern age. Breakfast is too early to really get stuck into, while eating eggs and downing buckets of coffee at lunchtime seems odd. Brunch, then, is the one true morning-ish meal, especially if it incorporates pancakes, bacon and those aforementioned eggs. Or you can enjoy a totally vegan take on proceedings at LD's at The Black Heart. London is particularly well stocked with places to indulge in the famous breakfast/lunch hybrid – one of the latest additions to this list is FKA Black Axe Mangal in Highbury, which has finally started serving weekend brunch (don’t forgot to order a pig cheek and prune donut). Let us guide you to the best restaurants for a fabulous brunch, from a traditional full English to innovative twists on the majestic meal, such as a bacon bao brunch. And it’s not just a weekend treat; some of these spots serve brunch every single day.  RECOMMENDED: Like unlimited fizz with your fry-up? Here are the best bottomless brunches in London.  Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines. Want to brunch for less? Check out the awesome selection at Time Out Offers.

Every week, a frankly silly amount of brilliant new restaurants, cafés and street food joints arrive in London. Which makes whittling down a shortlist of the best newbies a serious challenge. But here it is. The 20 very best new restaurants in the capital, ranked in order of greatness and deliciousness. All of them have opened in the past year and been visited by our hungry critics. So go forth and take inspo from this list, which features everything from modern Korean cookery at Miga in Hackney, bistro-pub delights at The Brave in Islington, deft dosas at Tamila in King’s Cross, bawdy British fare at Rake in Highbury, Brit/Thai mashups at AngloThai in Marylebone, vegan Michelin star goodness at Shoreditch’s Plates, hip fish bar Tollington’s in Finsbury Park, and towpath dining at Inis in Hackney Wick. This list is updated regularly, so check in often to find out what we really rate on the London restaurant scene.  Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines. RECOMMENDED: The 50 best restaurants in London. The hottest new openings, the tastiest tips, the spiciest reviews: we’re serving it all on our London restaurants WhatsApp channel. Follow us now to tuck in.

There’s a lot of talk about the state of London nightlife right now. Naysayers lament the fact that venues are closing at an alarming rate, blame Gen Zs for not going out and claim that it’s impossible to get a drink in central after 1am (it’s really not). With all that negativity and uncertainty, it’s tempting to just stick to what you know – or worse, stay in – rather than get out there and experience what this vast city has to offer after dark.  There are new nights popping up all the time. Heart of Soul, Jungyals and Gays, Club Stamina and Joyride are all relatively new (and totally brilliant) additions to London’s club scene. There’s also the nights that have remained classics for good reason – Rowans, the Palm Tree fridays, K-Hole – as well as more wholesome late-evening activities like life drawing, spoken word nights and supper clubs.  There’s nights out for everyone in this city. Nights for foodies, film buffs, audiophiles. Nights for marathon ravers, old-school movers and for when you need a proper good singalong. Even nights out for when you just want a nice sit down.  We curated this list by asking Time Out staff members for their favourite nights out in the city – and trust us, we know our stuff. Our list features nights in central London, east London, west London, north London and in south London. They all take place frequently, or semi-frequently, throughout the year and each offers something unique. So what are you waiting for? Start planning your next night o

Ahh, NYC. Street-style mecca. Home of Broadway. All hustle and bustle (hence the coffee). Truth is, there’s never a dull moment here, and that’s why we love it. Even some of the bodegas are in on the nightlife. Travel upstate and it’s a completely different vibe (a bit like NYC’s introverted cousin) – we’re talking no neon lights, only the amber glow of a wood-burning stove. And when it’s time to escape the inner-city chaos, there’s no place quite like Hudson Valley. While New Yorkers can always catch their breath in one of NYC’s many (admittedly excellent) spas, a temporary escape from the traffic doesn’t always cut it. Sometimes what you really need – read: the only remedy – is a long weekend in a cozy cabin to help you fully decompress. Without further ado, we’ve rounded up the best places the stay in Hudson Valley, many of which boast breathtaking views, cracking amenities, and scenic hiking trails – all within a few hours’ drive of Manhattan. Time to embrace the calm. RECOMMENDED:🏔See our list of the best Airbnbs in the Catskills🏨Check out the top hotels and B&Bs in Hudson, NY🌲Pay a visit to the best upstate New York resorts Who makes the cut? While we might not stay in and review every Airbnb featured, we've based our list on our expert knowledge of the destination covered, editorial reviews, user reviews, hotel amenities and in-depth research to find you the best stays. This article includes affiliate links. These links have no influence on our editorial content.

Want a drink? You've come to the right place. This is Time Out’s list of best bars in London, our curated guide to London’s drinking scene, featuring the buzziest booze dens in the capital right now. If it’s on this list, it’s excellent. These are the 50 places we'd recommend to a friend, because we love drinking in them and have done many times over. From classy cocktail joints to delightful dives, hotel bars, speakeasys, bottle shops, rooftops and wine bars, London's got them all. But what makes a truly good bar? Well, our critieria for inclusion on this list is simple; a menu of genius drinks is important, but so is overall vibe – there’s no point having the perfect paloma if you have to drink it in a bar that smells of bins. To make the Top 50 a bar has to be fun, full of lovely folk, be inclusive and also look the part.  The latest additions to our list include rowdy sports bar meets 80s horror movie set Bloodsports in Covent Garden, whisky wonderland Dram Bar on Denmark Street, the hypnotic Bar Lotus in Dalston, Below Stone Nest in Chinatown, Rasputin’s by London Fields, and Bar Lina, an Italian aperitivo spot underneath a famous Soho deli. Now go forth and drink. RECOMMENDED: Like bars? Then you'll love London's best pubs.  Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor, and she'll have a dirty gin martini if you're buying. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

London is full of perfect pizza. The finest of fast foods, this delicious staple has been elevated far beyond its humble roots by great Italian restaurants in London, pop-ups, street food vendors and pub residencies, and we know just where to find these world-class wonders, because we’ve been eating our way across London in order to discover the best. Whether it’s delivered in a cardboard box or served in a swish restaurant, excellent pizza is hard to beat. Browse our list of the best pizza places in town and try not to drool on your screen. Recent additions to the Top 20 include some nifty kitchen residencies; Dough Hands at the Spurstowe Arms and Old Nun’s Head, Bing Bong Pizza at You Call The Shots in Hackney and Little Earthquakes at the Railway Tavern in Dalston.  RECOMMENDED: The finest fish and chips in London.  Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

Europe is incredible for festivals, make no mistake about it. And what could be better? Travelling to festivals abroad means getting to explore somewhere new and see a bunch of cracking artists, as well as maybe – just maybe – enjoy better weather and cheaper beer. Europe is certainly not in short supply of some really brilliant places to party, from tiny, lesser-known spots in the Azores to your classic, mega, headliner-packed fests in France and Netherlands and Alpine jazz weekends. So, here’s a roundup of our top picks for 2025.  What is the largest festival in Europe? Glastonbury festival in the UK is normally thought of as the biggest festival in Europe (if not the world). But though it’s certainly the most well known, in terms of numbers, it’s not even the the biggest in the UK! The biggest in Europe is actually Donauinselfest in Vienna, Austria, which sees upwards of two million visitors a year. After that, it’s probably joint between Glasto and Tomorrowland in Belgium.  RECOMMENDED: 🎪 The best UK music festivals🎤 The best music festivals in the world🌃 The most underrated destinations in Europe🌤️ The best European city breaks At Time Out, all of our travel guides are written by local writers who know their cities inside out. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines. This guide includes affiliate links, which have no influence on our editorial content. For more information, see our affiliate guidelines. 

Has movie music ever been better? With legends like John Williams and Howard Shore still at work, Hans Zimmer at the peaks of his powers, and the likes of Jonny Greenwood, AR Rahman, Mica Levi, and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross knocking it out of the park, the modern film score is a Dolby Atmos-enhancing feast of modernist compositions, lush orchestral classicism and atmospheric soundscapes.What better time, then, to celebrate this art form within an art form – with a few iconic soundtracks thrown in – and pay tribute to the musicians who’ve given our favourite movies (and, to be fair, some stinkers) earworm-laden accompaniment? Of course, narrowing it all down to a mere 100 is tough. We’ve prioritised music written for the screen, but worthy contenders still missed out, including Dimitri Tiomkin’s era-defining score for It’s a Wonderful Life and Elton John’s hummable tunes for The Lion King.To help do the narrowing down, we’ve recruited iconic movie composers, directors and broadcasters like Philip Glass, Carter Burwell, Max Richter, Anne Dudley, AR Rahman, Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch, Edgar Wright and Mark Kermode to pick their favourites. Happy listening!Recommended: 🔥 The 100 best movies of all time.🪩 The 50 best uses of songs in movies.💃 The greatest musical movies ever made.

It’s official: London is experiencing a fast-mushrooming plant-based restaurant boom. Across the city, creative chefs are showing off their prowess with plants, creating pitch-perfect imitations of meaty comfort food classics, or dreaming up new vegetable-based delights. Whether you’re after a lavish night of culinary theatre, a delicate Middle Eastern spread, a Michelin-star winning tasting menu, or brisket at a vegan smokehouse, you’ll find it in our list of London’s best vegan restaurants. Read on to plan your next plant-free feast. RECOMMENDED: London’s best restaurants for vegetarian food. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

Whether you’ve got the voice of an angel or you’re totally tone deaf, karaoke unites us all. But heed our warning: choosing the right song is crucial (aka, don’t opt for that Whitney Houston tune if you haven’t the range. And if you don't have good enough flow, steer clear of rapping. Kapeesh?) So we thought we’d help out a little bit. In our list of the best karaoke songs ever, we’ve got everyone from Adele to Toto, and from Frank Sinatra to Ricky Martin. There's even recent singalongs from Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan. Something for everyone. So down that shot, grab that mic and take to the stage. Your audience awaits you. Here are the best karaoke songs ever.  RECOMMENDED:❤️ The best love songs☀️ The best summer songs🎉 The best party songs🕺 The best albums of 2025 so far  

We’re only a few months through the year and our auditory canals have already been graced with some absolutely cracking new music. We have had the long-awaited Gaga comeback (complete with a slickly choreographed, suitably weird music vid), FKA Twigs’s ethereal vocals taking on the club, high energy rap from Bad Bunny and much more.  Time Out writers and editors have rounded up our favourite music releases of the year so far, and we’ll continue adding to the list as more excellent records inevitably come in (we’re anticipating new releases from Lana Del Rey, A$AP Rocky and Harry Styles – as well as Addison Rae’s album debut, finally). So dig in, and keep coming back to this list throughout the year to refresh your listening with more fresh finds.   Chiara Wilkinson is Time Out’s Deputy UK Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines. RECOMMENDED:🎥 The best movies of 2025 (so far)📺 The best TV of 2025 (so far)

Prince Durairaj and Glen Leeson are good at this by now. Excellent, in fact. The pair have put together a small chain of top Indian eateries; Islington’s Tamil Prince and Tamil Crown, and the first Tamila in Clapham. Fourth time around with Tamila King’s Cross, the experience is more refined than ever. London’s second Tamila is at the other end of Caledonian Road from the Tamil Prince, and, like the Clapham edition, isn’t a ‘desi pub’ but a curry house for fast, casual dining and with an all-day menu. Without the loveable musk of an ex-pub, the space is much airier and restaurant-y, while the service is sharper and more attentive. Food-over-booze indicators don’t get much more obvious than Tamila’s massive interior window directly into the kitchen.  The dhal flashed all sorts of vegetables across your tongue, while paneer butter masala was creamy and mightily generous Our drinks flew out at an impressive pace. A bold harbinger of the strong, spiced flavours to come, the gunpowder margarita, boasting masala dust for salt and earthy smokiness, was sumptuous. The paloma had grapefruity sweetness but a proper, heaped dash of ginger that lingered powerfully.  Tamila’s dishes verge on the more generous side of ‘small plates’. On platters so spotless and shiny they’re genuinely mirrors, come miraculously un-greasy onion bhajis, each one just more than a mouthful of prickly, salty crackle. Retaining integral crispiness beneath dollops of mint chutney, one gets the impression that th

If you’re a history buff (particularly a pottery history buff), the surroundings of this DoubleTree alone will be enough to have you in awe. The hotel is attached to Etruria Hall, a neo-classical Grade II-listed structure once home to Josiah Wedgwood – renowned industrialist and the founder of Wedgwood, one of the world’s most famous pottery companies.  Etruria Hall is no longer a stately home but an events venue, and since the 1980s it’s been attached to a hotel. In 2020 that hotel opened as a Hilton, specifically of the DoubleTree brand – yet despite being part of an all-conquering global chain, it’s maintained plenty of character. Beyond the obvious (the in-house restaurant is called Josiah), the corridors and rooms come lined with nods to local heritage; bottle oven skylines, Stoke dialect phrases, that sort of stuff.  Stoke-on-Trent’s DoubleTree, therefore, not only occupies a special historical site but makes sure you fully aware just how special it is. But it’s also a comfortable, well-kitted-out place to stay. I stayed in a king guest room that was extraordinarily spacious and flawlessly clean, with a sprawling, comfortable bed, fast wi-fi, effective blackout curtains and a practical bathroom.  The staff couldn’t have been friendlier or more helpful, the common areas were bright and welcoming, and there was a very sleek indoor pool and leisure centre. There’s on-site parking, too.  Given the building’s age, some of Stoke’s DoubleTree is understandably rough around the

When Stoke’s Hilton Garden Inn opened in 2020 it was the city’s first and only Hilton. Admittedly it didn’t hold that title for long (the DoubleTree in Etruria was rebranded a month or so later) but you get the sense that this was a statement opening. A terracotta titan towering over Hanley, this Hilton Garden Inn cost £20 million and is part of the wider redevelopment of Smithfield – a mixed-use quarter named after the area’s old bottle works. Given it’s getting on for half a decade old, Stoke’s Hilton Garden Inn still looks and feels shimmeringly new. Sure, stepping into the lobby feels very much like stepping into any new-ish Hilton, anywhere, but this one is exceptionally well-kempt, making it very much a slick, shiny beacon of modern comfort.  I stayed in a ‘king room’ up on the sixth floor, a tidy and well-proportioned space with plenty of light and a bunch of amenities tidily packed in. The décor was pared back, minimalist(ish) and very much of-this-decade, and the room’s simplicity made it feel bigger. Stoke touches on the walls (images of pottery ovens and so on) reminded you where you were – as did my view, stretching out westwards towards Etruria, Burslem and Shelton. The rest was very much as one might expect of a somewhat new Hilton. The mattress was supple, the pillows and duvet ideally sink-in-able; the shower worked as required, accompanied by fragrant Crabtree & Evelyn toiletries and the flashy touch of an anti-steam mirror. The room was well insulated for so

Down the cavernous halls of Whitehall’s Old War Offices, surrounded by opulent Michelin-starred restaurants and the supremely swish Raffles hotel, lies Kioku Sake Bar – less blindingly flashy, sure, but just as high-calibre. The street-level accompaniment to Kioku’s top-floor, five-star sushi restaurant has the effortless style and homely hideaway calm of a Japanese listening bar, prim décor and lines of hundreds of sake bottles sitting beneath immaculately balanced light. And Kioku’s substance more than matches its style. There are over 140 sakes on offer, each affectionately described, plus a trim list of sake cocktails and a refined menu of innovative, Japanese-infused small plates. The drinks and food are entirely different to those of the upstairs restaurant Kioku By Endo, making the bar very much worth a separate visit.  Order this The Daikon Gibson suspends itself entirely on the front of your tongue, with silky and potent Ginjo sake ‘vermouth’ and tangy pickled daikon combining with clean Roku gin and yuzu tang. Kioku’s cocktails all exude a sense of craft – and this does even more so. Time Out tip Make the most of Kioku’s formidable sake collection and the bar’s in-house sake sommelier to explore the tipple. Discover how the vessel material affects each sake, get a taste of the many, many different styles and regional varieties – and find a new favourite.

Stepping into the atrium of The Conservatorium, it’s immediately obvious that this is a very special hotel indeed. Rich red brickwork meets sharp glass angles, heritage details fit snugly among silky modern luxury; from the fittings and furniture to the architecture, wherever you look something catches your eye. The Conservatorium’s sense of occasion is tied to the building’s history. Many of its cavernous halls date back to 1897, when it was built as a bank. In the 1980s it became a conservatoire, then it was reconfigured into a hotel by starchitect Piero Lissoni in the 2000s. It opened as a founding member of the luxurious Set Collection in 2011. The Conservatorium’s rooms, appropriately for a hotel inhabiting a building of many previous lives, vary massively – yet they share plenty of common ground. Whether one is in the basic ‘deluxe room’ or the three-floor, roof terrace-boasting ‘I Love Amsterdam’ suite, well-proportioned rooms boast plush beds, spacious bathrooms, bountiful storage and thoughtful, refined décor. My room was a ‘royal duplex suite’, with elegant double-height windows looking out onto the humming trams and cafés of Van Baerlestraat. The essentials – bed, space, storage, bathroom, toiletries – were all faultless. Little touches of Dutch-ness (decorative clogs, a Van Gogh coffee table book, Delftware ceramic plates) were unsubtle but still tasteful, restrained. Beyond the room, breakfast (served in the Lounge) was high-calibre and the staff were as helpful

What comes to mind when you think of a treehouse? Woodlice, splinters, cold – yes, probably all those things. But treehouses are also secluded and peaceful, dwellings a few feet up in the air that feel that bit away from the rabble below and closer to nature. And a treehouse, crucially, is all yours.  The treehouses of TreeDwellers in Cornbury, northeast Cotswolds, are treehouses in a spiritual sense. No, they aren’t up trees (nor do they even touch them), but they’re surrounded by them, sitting an impressive height above the forest floor. TreeDwellers takes the idea of a treehouse – as something special, private, embedded in nature – and turns it into a luxurious experience genuinely unlike anything, anywhere else. Pulling up to a TreeDwellers dwelling (a TreeDwelling?) has a supreme sense of occasion. This is the sort of architectural magnificence you thumb through in glossy mags, lustfully dreaming of one day giving it all up for. Handsomely curved tubes are perched atop stilts; inside is all sleek, clean wood and floor-to-ceiling windows, each and every convenience slotted in with impossible neatness. It’s all so stunning that you could easily be satisfied with the design and that alone, left gawping at it for days on end. But these treehouses aren’t just flashy façades: they’re comfortable and practical, too. You check-in with slick door-code entry, the heating is underfloor and toasty on your toes, everything you could possibly need is on a tablet (or on hand from delig

On the face of it, Portobello’s neat, proper Holy Carrot and Dalston’s fire-worshipping feast ACME Fire Cult share little common ground. ACME is roaring and showy, as much a swaggering religion as a restaurant; Carrot is prim as a perfume shop, soft clay surroundings fronting a menu that is plant-forward, ‘root to peel’ and sustainable.  But there’s a clear link between the two – namely Daniel Watkins. The ex-ACME founder is now executive chef at the first permanent home of Holy Carrot (previously known for its supper clubs and Knightsbridge residency), and brings his ‘fire and ferment’ ethos across the capital from one neighbourhood of cool to another.  More than just Holy Carrot’s first proper restaurant, it’s also a Watkins-helmed reboot – and it has plenty of his signature punch. From the off, the pre-starter ‘snacks’ offer a studied but unshowy sort of tastiness. Pillowy insides dramatically burst out of crisp ‘honey’ drenched Jerusalem artichokes; one couldn’t help but mop up the warming chilli ragu with ultralight koji bread. Two cold ‘smalls’ followed suit, both intricately flavoured: each mouthful of the smoked beetroot breathing freshness, each spoonful of the stracciatella with persimmon and bitter leaves with deftly measured amount of creamy tang and gentle crunch. This is innovation of a dependable, not reckless, sort Imprinted upon my memory the most, however, was one of Holy Carrot’s ‘larges’: the crispy celeriac with pickle butter. I know what you’re thinking

The Nobu brand, in a word? Dependable. Nobu Matsuhisa’s Japan-via-USA restaurant empire both draws celebrities and is a celebrity itself, but it’s best regarded for its high-quality dining: nearly 30 years after it opened, Nobu’s Park Lane spot remains one of London’s best places for sushi. These days Nobu isn’t just a restaurant chain but a hotel brand too, with two outposts in London. The Shoreditch one, which opened in 2017, was the first of these – not just London’s first Nobu hotel (since followed by Nobu Portman Square in Marylebone) but the first in all of Europe. The greatest compliment one can pay to this place is that the dependability of the Nobu name transfers seamlessly from restaurant to hotel. This is a sleek and comfortable choice, a beacon of minimalist taste in the midst of Shoreditch’s gaudy pick-me bars and tech-bro co-working spaces. Nobu as a chain is Nippon-by-’Murica, and its hotels are too – Japanese style meets American comfort and convenience. From the front Nobu Shoreditch resembles a Pacific battleship, from the side it’s a hillside Kyoto villa. And inside the hotel offers plenty of that same cultural middle ground: polished black wood, sleek furniture and a tea set in every room, but also huge plasma TVs, delightful staff and an in-house spa.  All aided, of course, by housing a Nobu restaurant, the chain’s third in London. You know exactly the deal here: a spoiled-rich clientele, sure, but also generous portions, attentive service (I did exceptio

If you plonked a point on a map denoting Stuttgart’s absolute centre, I’m fairly certain it’d be directly right on top of the EmiLu. Or it may as well be. Dead opposite the city’s Rathaus (town hall) and a few steps from Königstrasse (Stuttgart’s main shopping street), EmiLu is within easy walking distance of most city-centre sights. Just a couple of years old (it opened in 2022), EmiLu occupies an old mid-century city government building and gets its name by combining the names of its co-owner (Petra Luise Bräutigam) and her daughter (Emilia). A self-professed ‘design hotel’, it boasts 90 ‘unique and special’ rooms that range reasonably in price per night from €85 to €200 (£72 to £170). So, the good: EmiLu, with its focus on individual, tasteful design, is a handsome and neat establishment. The chic reception is kitted out with dark wooden furnishings, while the rooms are airy and uncluttered. Cuboid furniture and crisply-shaped décor work well with bare-material walls; an open shower-room (with a curtain) and a mini-bar cut into the corner wall fit the minimal, trendy vibe. In another positive, my room looked out over the atmospheric street below (with floor-to-ceiling windows and a balcony) but also boasted exceptional sound insulation – an entire crowd of football fans in the space outside were reduced to noiseless silhouettes. Elsewhere, EmiLu’s staff are delightful, the rooftop space is great for taking in Stuttgart’s skyline and the ‘fitness area’ is remarkably well-eq

Over the years, London has done a fabulous job of finding new uses for its many, many historically fascinating buildings. The Bankside Power Station is now the Tate Modern. Churchill’s Old War Office is a hotel and apartments. County Hall houses restaurants, an aquarium and That Shrek Thing. Another of those retrofits is the Great Scotland Yard Hotel, a Grade II-listed building which dates back to the 1820s and was once the Ministry of Defence’s old library. Sitting at an address best known for also housing the original headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the building has been a hotel for a while – though was spruced up a few years ago with a £75 million revamp.  Admittedly, the words ‘Scotland Yard’ do not exactly scream ‘mega-luxe five-star hotel stay’, but… maybe they could? This 151-room Hyatt is as deeply, thoroughly refined as hotels in this city get.  Each step of a stay at Great Scotland Yard is virtually faultless. The neat rooms are full of light, with floor-to-ceiling windows and balconies looking out over the turrets, towers and courtyards of the Palace of Whitehall. Full of modestly luxurious conveniences (like Chromecast TVs and fancy Japanese Toto loos), the rooms are also of a satisfyingly comfortable size: neither small and cluttered nor massive and awkwardly empty.  Beyond the rooms, Great Scotland Yard is far from a copy-paste Hyatt. Playing into the history of the building and address, the doors are slathered in a deep and polished police blue. The fo

If you’ve ever spent time in Leeds, you’ll know the Queens Hotel. Quite literally on top of (part of) the Yorkshire city’s train station, it’s an art deco concrete titan and inarguably the city’s most famous hotel. Dating back to the 1930s, the Queens was the first British hotel to have air con and ensuite bathrooms in every room, and over the years it’s welcomed the likes of Cary Grant and Nelson Mandela. While the Queens could easily rest on its historical prestige, in recent years it’s attempted to keep with the times and undergone a vast refurb. A whopping £16 million has been pumped into bringing the place back up to snuff, glamming it up with communal areas, a huge new dining venue and more rooms. How does all that sprucing up actually feel? In short, pretty damn good. The moment you step into the Queens’ lobby, with its endearingly gauche décor and genially raucous ambiance, you get a proper sense of occasion that feels appropriate for somewhere so stacked with history. The Queens might have been hauled into the 21st century, but it embraces its historical glamour – and the refurb certainly hasn’t sucked out any of its soul. The Queens is entirely decked out in stuff that harks back to the art deco 1930s – and what isn’t from the Queens’ original period (or directly linked to it, like the hallways’ historic photographs) is tastefully matched. The Queens balances modern polish and historical character in a caring, detailed sort of way, ensuring all additions – everythin

Few London hotels so boldly take inspiration from their surroundings as the Ampersand. Steps from Kensington’s Museums Quarter, this boutique riffs off the studies and research of nearby world-leading institutions like the Science Museum and Natural History Museum, combining it all with many of the bells and whistles of a luxury hotel. From ornithological wallpapers and artworks to complimentary galactically-themed macarons, everything at the Ampersand plays heavily into the hotel’s neighbours. Its ‘science’ afternoon tea spectacularly involves making your own lemonade (with wacky test tubes and all) plus dry-ice and space-themed treats. Sure, this sort of stuff will no doubt be naff to anyone wanting a frilly, snooty sort of posh hotel; but it also makes everything a bit more fun, much less stuffy, and a lot more memorable. Beyond that, lots of the rest is solid, occasionally a bit more. Rooms are decked out with nice stuff: vast, comfy beds, sizeable TVs, Malin + Goetz toiletries, a standalone bath (with full view of the telly), nifty, sleek desk and huge, glitzy headboard. You’d be hard-pressed to criticise the style or function of any individual pieces within the Ampersand’s rooms, while the first three floors of Victorian ceilings are spacious and fresh.  The staff are as helpful as you’d want them to be, everything is delightfully clean, there’s a gym and two restos (one, Apero, is Mediterranean-themed). There’s also a general sense of calm. Compared to the shoulder-to-

Historically speaking, airline food does not have a good rep. The butt of many a joke, nosh served on planes has often been derided as sloppy and tasteless – which can partly be blamed on it being (typically) so heavily processed, but also on the low-pressure, low-humidity environment you eat it in. But not all airline food is bad – and that’s shown by the results of a recent YouGov poll, which surveyed UK air travellers to reveal which carriers have the highest customer satisfaction rates for onboard meals, snacks and drinks. YouGov polled a total of 1,495 Brits to get its report. The highest ranking British airline in the list was Virgin Atlantic. The airline, which has hubs at London Heathrow and Manchester airports, saw an impressive 74 percent of those polled give a positive view of its snacks and drinks (with 24 percent saying ‘very good’ and 50 percent ‘somewhat good’). Virgin came third overall.  Next up from the UK was British Airways, which came fourth overall. A still-quite-impressive 61 percent of those polled had good things to say about BA’s food and drink offerings, though 12 percent had a negative reaction.  A UK airline didn’t top the poll. Crowned the best food and drinks option in the skies was Emirates, with a remarkable 84 percent having positive things to say about its culinary experience. Qatar Airways came a close second with 83 percent. Down the other end of the ranking, no British airlines placed bottom for food and drink. Ryanair was named the worst

Flying into London can be an exhilarating experience. Catch the city on a cloudless day (or night) and you’ll be picking out the capital’s countless identifiable landmarks through the plane’s mucky oval window, from the City of London’s skyscrapers and the River Thames to Wembley Stadium.  Any Londoner knows that the city’s approach in an airplane can be magical – and that fact has just been confirmed by a new list of the world’s most beautiful airport landings by travel insurance provider AllClear. The company apparently ranked the planet’s top airplane approaches with ‘eye-tracking’ technology – and no, we don’t really know what that means either.  However the list was calculated, the big news is that a London airport made the cut. None other than London City Airport featured in the top 15, coming fifth. AllClear described City as offering ‘one of the world’s most unique and exciting landings’, saying that ‘landing here is a memorable experience’.  And we wouldn’t disagree with any of that. In fact, this author landed at London City just last week, and can attest that the views are phenomenal. Swooping in from west to east, above the Thames, City’s approach boasted views of pretty much every central London landmark.  So, why exactly is London City’s landing so spectacular? For starters, it’s closer to the centre of town than any other London airport. That means planes come in low over much of the city centre and get particularly close-up views of City of London and Isle of

London has so many ornate, gorgeous historic buildings that you likely walk past plenty every day without giving them a second thought. Take Custom House in the City, for instance. A long, grandiose Georgian-era building on the Thames’ north bank, the Grade I-listed structure played an important role in London becoming a global trade hub.   Custom House was most recently occupied by HMRC, who vacated the building in 2021, and it was bought by real estate company Jastar Capital through a subsidiary in 2023. This week Jastar has formally submitted plans to turn the 200-plus-year-old structure into a luxury hotel.  The plans would see Custom House transformed into a 179-room hotel with a spa and areas for eating and drinking. Rooms will be in the building’s east and west wings, while a spa and health centre – with pool, sauna and steam room – are intended for the basement. Details on the hotel aspect of the redevelopment are currently a bit thin on the ground, but the plans also include lots of stuff for the general public. Current proposals include giving Londoners access to Custom House’s historic vaults, and a space that can be booked out by schools, charities and ‘arts/cultural/educational organisations’. There would also be a new café and a public quayside space, opening up more of the Thames Path. Photograph: Shutterstock It’s worth noting that these plans are far from a done deal. A previous planning application to turn Custom House into a hotel was rejected in 2022. Ja

If this recent spell of good weather has you in the mood to don a bucket hat and drink warm pints in flimsy cups, we’ve got exciting news: the 2025 Glastonbury resale date has been confirmed. Today (April 10) Glasto has confirmed exactly when resale tickets will go on sale, and how to get hold of one.  The coming resale follows the first lineup announcement, which took place back in early March. The 1975, Olivia Rodrigo, Neil Young and Rod Stewart will be headlining the Pyramid Stage this year, and there are plenty of other huge names on other stages like Charli XCX, Raye, Doechii, Ezra Collective, Rod Stewart, Snow Patrol and Loyle Carner, It sounds like 2025 will be as big a Glasto as any – which is all the more reason, if you didn’t get a ticket back in October, to try and get one now.   Bagging entry to Glasto is notoriously tricky. There’s dozens of tips and tricks which long-time festival-goers swear by (including, apparently, being from Liverpool), but when it comes down to it, it’s mostly a game of luck. If the odds weren’t in your favour back in November, they might be now, as ticket resale looms closer. Here’s everything you need to know to make sure you successfully get resale tickets for Glastonbury 2025. When do Glastonbury 2025 tickets go on resale? Mark your diaries, set your alarms: here’s when the Glasto 2025 resale will take place  Ticket and coach travel tickets – Thursday April 24 at 6pm BST.  General admission – Sunday April 27 at 9am BST.  The resale i

For nearly two weeks now, London has basked in delightful weather. Blue, cloudless skies and toasty afternoons have been the norm – it’s all more than made up for the thoroughly grey winter months.  Kids are already off from school, meaning many Londoners have been out exploring the city’s many thrilling Easter activities for the best part part of a week, from kids’ theatre shows to spring flower displays. For the rest of us, as we lead up to the Easter Bank Holiday weekend and (for most of us) four days off, the big question is… will the weather hold out? Will Londoners’ 2025 Easter egg hunts be rained off? Here’s what the forecasters are saying. London Easter Bank Holiday 2025 weather forecast Obviously it’s still a little early for forecasters to know for sure what the weather will be doing next weekend – and there’s currently a bit of diversity of opinion. At the mo the Met Office reckons that Good Friday (April 18) will see highs of 16C, but says that there’s a 30 percent change of rain in the middle of the day. For a wider period of April 15-24, the Met says Brits in general can expect ‘much more mixed weather conditions than of late’ and that ‘unsettled, wet, and occasionally windy conditions are most likely’. The BBC, meanwhile, currently predicts that Good Friday will see highs of 16C with ‘light rain and a gentle breeze’ and that Saturday (April 19) will hit 15C and also have light rain. The Beeb says Saturday will be a bit windier than Friday. BBC Weather’s forecas

A Welsh gin has made history this week as the UK’s first ever gin to receive protected status. On Monday (April 7) Dovey Native Botanical Gin, made by Dyfi Distillery in the village of Corris, Gwynedd, was given ‘protected geographical indication’ (PGI) status by the UK government.  The UK Geographical Indication (UKGI) status scheme is intended to recognise food and drink with ‘distinctive qualities and regional heritage’. UKGI status ensures that only authentic items that meet strict standards and geographical requirements can be marketed as the product.  And now Dovey Native Botanical Gin has that protected status. So, why is this gin made in a tiny distillery in Wales’ Dyfi Valley so special? Each bottle of Dovey Native Botanical Gin is produced from a minimum of 17 botanicals sourced from the nearby valley – which is designated a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve due to its biodiversity and rare plants and animals. Set up in 2015 by brothers Danny and Pete Cameron (the former is a master blender and the latter a master distiller), the distillery is currently the only one in the Dyfi Valley. And it makes full use of that environment – ‘we wanted to capture our surroundings in a bottle,’ said Pete. Photograph: Dyfi DistilleryPete and Danny Cameron Currently only one of the distillery’s gins meets the new UKGI criteria, the ‘Pollination’. Pollination apparently took three years’ worth of trials to create, and it’s won several awards including ‘best gin’ at the 2017 Great Bri

Is your local supermarket a Morrisons? Heads up – we’ve got important news. The chain has announced that it will be closing 17 of its Morrisons Daily convenience stores and 52 cafés across the UK.  The closures are part of an ongoing ‘renewal programme’ of Morrisons services, in which the brand is looking to reduce costs and boost growth. And it isn’t just stores and cafés being axed: dozens of Market Kitchens, florists, meat counters, fish counters and pharmacies are shutting, too. A total of 365 jobs are at risk.  Mozzies was recently named one of the worst supermarket brands in the UK by Which?, and it’s joined by Sainsbury’s in recently announcing cutbacks to in-store services. Back in January Sainsbury’s announced that it would be closing all its remaining in-store cafés. Commenting on the closures, Morrisons CEO Rami Baitiéh said: ‘The changes we are announcing today are a necessary part of our plans to renew and reinvigorate Morrisons and enable us to focus our investment into the areas that customers really value and that can play a full part in our growth. ‘In most locations the Morrisons Café has a bright future, but a minority have specific local challenges and in those locations, regrettably, closure and re-allocation of the space is the only sensible option.’ Worried you might be losing your local Morrisons store, café or counter? Here are all the closures you need to know about. RECOMMENDED: Full list of UK high street closures confirmed in 2025. Full list of Mo

The opening of London’s glitzy new Silvertown tunnel has seen its fair share of controversies, from concerns about air pollution and risk to the heritage of Tower Bridge to outcry over the tunnel’s toll charge. The capital’s first new cross-Thames road tunnel in 30 years, however, has also already had plenty of benefits (and we’re not talking about easing Blackwall tunnel traffic congestion, which the crossing was built to do).  The Silvertown tunnel officially opened this week, and with that three London bus routes are being made free for a year and a ‘bike bus’ through the tunnel is also operating free of charge. But there’s also yet another Silvertown-related freebie now on offer on the DLR. Two sections of the Docklands Light Railway are now free to ride, and will be for at least a year. Those sections are between Greenwich or Cutty Sark and Island Gardens, and between Woolwich Arsenal and King George V. Both DLR routes cross the river, with Greenwich/Cutty Sark to Island Gardens linking the Isle of Dogs and Greenwich, and Woolwich Arsenal-King George V serving Woolwich and London City Airport further east. TIME OUT’S GUIDE TO THE SILVERTOWN TUNNEL📍 Where is the Silvertown tunnel?💷 How much the Silvertown and Blackwall tunnel toll charges cost.🚗 Who’s eligible for discounts and exemptions from the toll. Photograph: Sampajano_Anizza / Shutterstock.com So, how does the refund work? You still need to tap in and out, but your journey will be refunded. TfL says the free D

It’s a tough time to be working in the aviation industry. Faced with staff shortages and huge levels of disruption, many workers at airlines and airports are facing long, stressful hours and poor working conditions. And, thanks to the cost of living crisis and the resounding impact of pandemic-era pay cuts, loads of them are doing it all for lower wages, too. Needless to say, it’s no wonder that so many staff at airports and airlines have been going on strike. From Italy and Belgium to Greece and France, airports across Europe have seen thousands of flights delayed and cancelled by industrial action. Strikes can, of course, have a serious impact on your holiday, so it’s best to be as informed about them as possible. Read on for our guide to who’s going on strike in Europe right now, where and when those strikes will happen – and whether you need to worry about them.   Pilot strikes in Italy Today, April 9, from 10.30 am to 2.30pm CET, easyJet flight attendants who are affiliated with Italian trade unions (FILT, CGIL and UIL) are striking, and it’s likely to affect some flights arriving and departing from Milan and Naples Airports.  ‘We would like to reassure customers that we are doing all possible to minimise any disruption as a result of the strike action and should any flights be impacted we will be contacting customers directly with their options to help rearrange their plans,’ easyJet told the Independent. Air traffic control strikes in Greece Alongside disruption in Ita

Yep, another one. Less than two weeks after Gemini Trains announced itself as the fourth major operator (after Evolyn, Virgin and Deutsche Bahn) planning to compete with the Eurostar for cross-Channel rail services, now Italian company FS Group has unveiled plans to launch a high-speed rail link between London and Paris. Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane Group’s (the firm’s full name – translated as ‘Italian State Railway’) announcement today (April 8) says the company will commit a whopping €1 billion (£857 million) towards ‘building a more integrated, competitive, and sustainable European rail network’. The company says it is aiming to launch its London-Paris service by 2029. FS Group’s route will be served by trainsets inspired by Italian-made Frecciarossa trains – which, for any rail geek readers, will no doubt be as exciting as news of the service itself. Frecciarossa have quite the rep for speed and convenience, with FS saying the new trains will offer ‘top-tier energy efficiency, comfort and service quality’. The initial announcement says FS Group has signed a ‘memorandum of understanding’ with Evolyn, indicating that FS Group may be working in partnership with the Spanish operator rather than be another competitor. Evolyn announced its plans to launch a Eurostar alternative way back in October 2023. FS Group’s announcement follows a decision by the Office of Rail and Road dictating that there is space at Eurostar’s maintenance depot for more trains – thus paving the way f

One of London’s biggest music tours of the year is still battling on. Usher’s Past Present Future tour will see the pop icon eventually play a whopping 10 shows in the capital at the O2 Arena in Greenwich across March, April and May – and if the first round of shows were anything to go by, this residency sounds like it will be one for the ages.  The first of Usher’s 10 shows took place on Saturday March 29, and the residency is currently nearing its halfway point. The Past Present Future tour is so named because Usher will be playing a career-spanning set celebrating 30 years in the record business. Expect hits like ‘Yeah!’ and ‘DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love’ as well as tunes from his most recent album Coming Home. Are you one of the 200,000 people heading to the O2 to see Usher? Here’s everything you need to know, from timings to any remaining ticket availability. RECOMMENDED: 🎸 The best gigs in London this month.  When is Usher playing at London’s O2?  Usher’s 10 London shows stretch from the weekend of March 29 all the way through to May. The remaining dates are April 8, 9 and 11 and May 6 and 7.  Usher’s previous shows were on March 29 and April 1, 2, 5 and 6. What are the timings? Doors for the majority of shows will open at 6.30pm, while curfew is at 11pm. Expect Usher himself to come on stage between 8pm and 8.30pm. Get down early to avoid disappointment. What’s the setlist? For an idea of what Usher could play, here’s the setlist from a Past Present Future tour stop ea

Way back in summer 2023, TfL announced that the Blackwall Tunnel would soon start charging a toll fee for drivers. The tunnel, which is one of London’s busiest and most important Thames crossings, apparently needs a charge in order to help pay for maintenance – as well as to encourage drivers to use the Silvertown Tunnel.  In November 2024 TfL confirmed exactly how much the toll fees for both the Blackwall and Silvertown tunnels would be. The fee will be the same for both tunnels, but it’ll vary in peak and off-peak times – and there will be exemptions.  Nearly two years on, the Blackwall and Silvertown tunnel fees are upon us. The Silvertown crossing has opened, and on the same day a toll fee came into effect for both tunnels. Here’s everything you need to know. When did the toll charge start for the Blackwall and Silvertown tunnels? Make sure you’re ready to pay – a fee to use the tunnels started on Monday, April 7. How much will the Blackwall and Silvertown tunnel toll? During peak hours, which are 6am to 10am northbound and 4pm to 7pm southbound on weekdays, car and small van drivers are charged £4 each way. During off-peak hours, which are at other times and weekends, these drivers are charged £1.50 each way. At night, between 10pm and 6am, there will be no toll fee.  These fees slightly change for motorbikes (£1.50 off-peak, £2.50 peak), large vans (£2.50 off-peak, £6.50 peak) and HGVs (£5 off-peak, £10 peak). How to pay the toll There are a few ways to pay the fee. Tf