Holly Munks

London, obviously, has a great many cafés, but how to choose? We've got normal ones and really posh ones. Massive ones and tiny ones. Ones with loads of cake, and ones with loads of sandwiches. All of them, thankfully, with coffee and tea. This list is our attempt to group together the best ones. Want to know the difference between this list and our ranking of London’s best coffee shops? Well at these spots you can get eggs (fried, poached or scrambled) or a sit-down meal with your flat white. RECOMMENDED: London's best breakfasts. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

It’s a hulking mass of brownish concrete. It splits opinion like it splits spaces; there’s one tower for utilities and one for living. As far as beauty goes, you can’t expect a final ruling. Eye of the beholder and all that.  But one thing has been decided: cash value, and it’s a lot. A minimum of £2025 a month, to be precise, if you were thinking of renting a flat here.  This is the Balfron Tower. It looms over you as you emerge from the Blackwall Tunnel, down the road from the old London Docks and the gleaming skyscrapers of Canary Wharf. The architect was Ernő Goldfinger, a proud socialist who also designed Kensal Town’s Trellick Tower (and who Ian Fleming named a Bond villain after). The east London tower block has been courting controversy since it was built in 1967. Now it’s the Grade II-listed poster child for a very specific kind of gentrification – or regeneration, depending on whose side you’re on. Balfron tells the story of the brutalist buy-out: what happens when concrete becomes certifiably cool, and purpose-built social housing becomes a status symbol.  Concrete en vogue To get our heads around this all, first, we need to backtrack. Balfron is not the only block to find itself between a rock and a hard place – it’s a dilemma facing several UK council estates belonging to the architectural school of brutalism. Photograph: ShutterstockBalfron tower According to Dr Kate Jordan, lecturer in architecture at the University of Westminster, brutalism is a vague label

The days are getting shorter, the leaves are falling and it’s that time of year again when students are making their final calls on where to head to university. And though many will already firmly know their unis of choice, students are still finalising where exactly they’re going to spend the next three (or more) years of their lives. Right on schedule, the Sunday Times has released its annual Good Universities Guide, a league table ranking universities based on different factors. The top picks are those that earn the most points across the following categories: student satisfaction, teaching excellence, heads’/ peer assessments, research quality, A-level/Higher points and unemployment. Obviously, that last one refers to which universities are estimated to have the fewest unemployed graduates.  This year, London’s London School of Economics (LSE) snagged first place. The Sunday Times said LSE ’champions free speech, with graduates that go on to change the world.’ You can read more about how London university ended up in the top spot here. The silver medal went to St Andrews, the only Scottish university in the top 10. Oxford came in third place – that’s probably going to put some extra fire into their next boat race against Cambridge, which failed to crack the Sunday Times’ top three.  Here’s the rest of the top 10.  The UK’s top 10 universities for 2025, according to the Sunday Times LSE St Andrews Oxford Cambridge Durham Imperial College London University College London B

Airports: can you imagine a time when they were the epitome of glamour? Jet-setting is now so easy now that air travel has become more mundane and less of the adventure – but if you’ve ever visited an posh airport lounge, you’ll know the thrill of opening a can of Coke you didn’t pay for (not counting the ticket price, of course).  At Heathrow and Gatwick, Emirates passengers have enjoyed luxurious lounges for nearly 20 years. One major London airport has been conspicuously left out (well, three if you count London City and Luton but no one really does). That is, until last Thursday, September 19, when Emirates unveiled its new lounge at Stansted Airport.  The new lounge is located in Satellite 1 of Stansted’s main terminal - a handy three minutes’ walk from the departure gates. Along with its sleek decor, the lounge offers ‘farm to table’ gourmet dining thanks to Full Circle Farms in Sussex.  Who is eligible for the Emirates lounge? There’s an important caveat though: the lounge is only for the airline’s ‘premium customers’. That means people who’ve coughed up for First and Business Class tickets, and Emirates Skywards members who’ve clocked enough miles to reach ‘Platinum’ or ‘Gold’ status. Can economy class use the Emirates lounge? Economy flyers can pay extra for one-time access to the lounge, subject to availability. How much does that cost? Well, you pay a flat rate, plus local taxes, for a four-hour jaunt in the lounge. If you add the estimated 20 percent tax payable

Favourite tube stations can be a sensitive subject. Londoners are passionate about their local lines, and people get protective over heritage classics like Baker Street and tiled masterpieces like Gloucester Road.  But it isn’t just London’s oldest tube stations that deserve fanbases – and now a campaign group is calling for some of the capital’s newer hubs to get official protected status. Save Britain’s Heritage wants 11 Jubilee line stations to be listed on Historic England’s conservation register: Westminster, Waterloo, London Bridge, Southwark, Bermondsey, Canada Water, Canary Wharf, North Greenwich, Canning Town, West Ham and Stratford. The campaign group asked Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy to grant special status to the stations. Historic England, which is in charge of protecting historic and noteworthy buildings, rejected a request to list Southwark Station in 2017 but is now reopening its assessment of it.  All 11 of the stations are part of the Jubilee line extension, which opened in 1999 to improve transport links to south and east London. At the time, it was the first direct connection between the West End and the Docklands. Award-winning architect Roland Paoletti commissioned top architects to design the stations, and these days they’re beloved for their space age style. If you’ve used the escalators at Westminster or Canary Wharf (pictured above), you’ll know what we mean. The massive concrete pillars, the moody lighting, the steel framework – it’s all delightful

Nothing puts a damper on the start of your holiday like paying triple the usual price for a pint. We’ve all been there – parched, exhausted, checking we haven’t lost our passports every five minutes. And in this weakened state, we give in to airport inflation and surrender a small fortune for nice cold lager. The state of affairs is not so sorry for Mancunians, though. In 2023, the average price of a pint in Manchester Airport was estimated at £6.33, making it one of the cheapest airport pints in the UK. And now, Wetherspoons has announced it plans to open its first ever branch inside the airport next summer – likely bringing that average pint price down even further.  The new pub will be located in Terminal 2, which is currently being expanded at a cost of £1.3 billion. When it opens next year the revamped T2 will feature the usual suspects (Chanel, LEGO, Greggs – all airport essentials) plus the Great Northern Market, which aims to bring the city’s street food airside. It’ll also be double the size it used to be and cater to 70 percent of Manchester Airport’s passengers.  In standard Spoons fashion, though, the new branch will pay homage to its location. In this case, the brand will include nods to ‘sporting greats of the North’ in the decor of the new pub. The jury is still out on what T2’s Spoons will be called.  Take flight with Time Out Need more travel news? Find out which are the UK’s 10 quietest airports and these are Britain’s worst airport terminals. In Manchester?

Better trains, and more of them. That’s the simple request of many in the northeast, and that call has been getting louder over the last few years thanks to ongoing issues with LNER’s Edinburgh-Newcastle-London line.  Things appear to have brightened up in recent months for the north in general, with plans to run high-speed trains between Manchester and Liverpool, plus more trains from Birmingham to Manchester. Now, it’s the northeast’s turn.  Railway company Grand Central wants to ramp up its services in the northeast with more frequent trains, but that isn’t all. Grand Central also intends to buy new trains to fit the souped up schedule, which it hopes to start running as early as May 2025.  So what could change, service-wise? Grand Central has said it’ll run up to two extra daily return services between London and West Yorkshire, as well as introduce a new direct route from London to Seaham four times a day. This would be the town’s first and only direct connection to the capital.  To make this happen, the railway company says it will order a new fleet of Bi-Mode trains - that means trains that can run on both electric and non-electric tracks. These would replace Grand Central’s existing Class 180 trains, which have been running since 2000. Before Grand Central does that, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), which regulates rail companies, would need to approve its application. In return for Grand Central providing more train options, the company wants the ORR to extend its

For a brief moment in February this year, London stood still, waiting to hear all the details of the new Overground line names and colours. Though regular users can be protective of the orange line, plenty of us welcomed the possibility that using it might become that bit easier to use. Responses to the renaming ranged from heartfelt to exasperated – we know because we collected all the best reactions here. TfL is keen for London to get to know the new lines though, and the history behind the snazzy new titles.  With that in mind, TfL has partnered with community walking app Go Jauntly, where you’ll find six routes inspired by the Overground line names: Lioness, Mildmay, Windrush, Weaver, Suffragette and Liberty. Each route takes you through areas that are served by that specific branch of the Overground, and they’re designed for people to stumble across historical locations related to the history of the line.  The new Overground line names all celebrate people who’ve helped make London the city it is. Going on these walks is a pretty wholesome way to connect with the history of the capital. The Lioness Walk focuses on Wembley Stadium, naturally, since the name references the English Women’s football team and includes a mural of Head Coach Sarina Wiegman. The Mildmay Walk honours London’s LGBTQIA+ community, guiding walkers to the Mildmay Hospital in Shoreditch, which played a key role in caring for AIDS patients in the 1980s.  The Weaver Walk through London’s East End highli

If you’re a regular user of London’s public transport, you’ll know how much difference the little things can make on a daily commute. Fresh upholstery, mobile phone signal, and that new train smell are just some of the things that Lizzy line users have been bragging about since the route opened two years ago.  That’s why we were pretty excited in June 2023, when we heard that the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) would be getting its own fancy new fleet, and even more thrilled when we had a sneak peek of the turquoise trains earlier this year. Sadly it hasn’t been smooth sailing. TfL announced yesterday (September 26) that the new trains, which were supposed to be in operation by the end of 2024, would be delayed once again.  The deadline was questioned earlier this year, when TfL explained there were some issues with the new trains, and instead of 30 new trains being ready to go in April 2024, they would be pushed back until the end of the year. At the time, Arran Rusling, who’s in charge of TfL’s plans to replace the DLR stock, said that all 54 new trains would be running by 2026. As of today, though, TfL has not confirmed a new date for their completion, simply saying the replacement trains will arrive later than they had planned. Why the delay? Well, TfL said the new trains had some problems during the testing phase. The latest explanation actually has more to do with the old DLR trains than the new ones: the transport authority has said that ‘signalling problems’ on the trac

How would you handle a run-in with Europe’s heaviest land mammal on your morning walk? Don’t worry – no need to answer that, because the mammals in question will soon have their own bridges, separated from the footpaths tramped by human riff-raff like you and I. In the wilds of Kent, construction is underway on four bison bridges, which will be the first of their kind in the UK. The bridges will allow Britain’s only free-roaming bison to traverse a nature reserve outside Canterbury, whilst pedestrians admire them from separate footpaths overhead. After all, this isn’t just any herd – we’re talking about local celebrities here.  Europe’s last wild bison was shot in 1927, but the species has been bred in captivity to prevent it from dying out. They play an important role in biodiversity and research suggests they help areas of nature to capture more carbon. In 2022, Kent Wildlife Trust and the Wildwood Trust released the herd into the West Blean and Thornden Woods. The herd has welcomed two calves since then.  Though some countries allow wild bison to roam freely, they’re classified as dangerous by UK law. Until now, this has limited the Kentish herd’s grazing area to 50 hectares, which avoid the many public footpaths zigzagging through the nature reserve.  The new bridges, however, will give the bison access to an extra 150 hectares of land. Footpaths will run on land above the bridges, allowing walkers to look from a safe distance.  National Highways, the National Lottery Her

There are plenty of benefits to cycling in London, from lowering your carbon footprint to improving your fitness. One major downside to travelling by two wheels in the city, however, is safety.  But now things might be looking up for cycling west Londoners, as construction has begun on a new cycle lane leading onto Putney Bridge. This is great news for the area’s accessibility to cyclists – the bridge is an important link between Wandsworth, Hammersmith and Fulham. ‘Segregated’ lanes usually involve physical barriers to make sure they remain bike-only and separated from the rest of the traffic. The makeover is aimed not only at protecting cyclists from larger vehicles, but also limiting the temptation for pedestrians to cross the road when they shouldn’t. The plan is to revamp this section of the street in three stages. First, Wandsworth Council will install traffic lights at the junction of Putney High Street, Putney Bridge and Lower Richmond Road. Then, the council will remove some of the pedestrian islands, saying that this will speed up crossing time, resulting in fewer people being tempted to cross when the pedestrian signal is red.  After that, a segregated cycle lane heading north towards Fulham from the Putney Bridge Road junction will be introduced. The bridge itself already has a cycle lane, but the upgrades will mean cyclists can approach it more safely.   The work is expected to continue until the end of the year. Some of the construction is scheduled to take pl

Anyone remember that time Queen Elizabeth (allegedly) stopped Kim Kardashian staying in the same hotel as her? We most certainly do, and have contemplated how fabulous the venue must be to inspire the Queen’s (unsubstantiated) territorial behaviour.  This week, the establishment in question has received more validation that it is the top place to stay in London. That’s right, the Dorchester Hotel, a veritable institution on Park Lane, has just been named the best hotel in the capital. The verdict was decided by the AA, an authority in the hospitality sector which has been reviewing hotels and restaurants for more than a century.  The AA announced the winners of the annual Hospitality Awards on Tuesday September 24, with the Dorchester claiming first place in a rather competitive category. Last year’s winner, the Lanesborough, was just one of the luxurious London hotels in the running, and three others have just been ranked among the top 50 hotels in the world. But Queen Liz’s choice proved a cut above the rest, with views over Hyde Park, two spas, three award-winning restaurants and the flawlessly elegant decor you’d expect from a royalty-approved venue. Think marble bathrooms and a foyer brimming with floral bouquets. The AA has previously awarded the Dorchester’s in-house dining options with its rosette rating system. The hotel’s fanciest restaurant is helmed by the world-renowned Alain Ducasse and boasts three Michelin stars.  Despite a location that’s about as central as

The cool breeze (and heavy downpours) of autumn have officially arrived in London. If you weren’t quite ready for the seasonal shift, you might be tempted to retreat indoors. Take heart, though – there’s a pretty stellar range of options for soothing cold-weather blues this weekend. From the new Monet exhibition and latest revival of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot to the Classic Car Boot Sale in King’s Cross, there’s no shortage of stuff to see and do in London this weekend. Plus, it’s the start of the capital’s Oktoberfest celebrations. Our transport system is pretty used to a bit of rain, but disruption is still planned for the network this weekend. Scheduled closures and changes will allow TfL to carry out vital works on the Piccadilly line, Overground, DLR and more.  Here’s everything you need to know about which lines will close on which days, and some alternative options for getting around if your route is affected.   District Line On Saturday September 28 and Sunday September 29, no trains will run between Turnham Green and Richmond. Be careful because the Overground won’t run from South Acton to Richmond either. Replacement bus service DL3 operates between Acton Central and Richmond via South Acton (Acton Lane), Turnham Green, Chiswick Park, Gunnersbury and Kew Gardens (Royal Botanic Gardens). Piccadilly Line On Friday September 27, anticipate minor delays between Acton Town and Heathrow Terminals / Uxbridge due to train cancellations.  On Saturday September 28

Stratford is one of the power players when it comes to London transport hubs. With three Underground lines, the DLR and mainline trains, the east London station is the sixth busiest in the entire UK. And soon Stratford might get even more services, as local politicians are calling for Eurostar trains to stop at Stratford International. Sir Stephen Timms, MP for East Ham, announced this week his vision for the area to have international rail links.  If you’re not familiar with the area, you might be asking: isn’t it already called Stratford International? Doesn’t it already have trains to other countries? Well, yes and no.  When the station opened in 2009, there was already a Stratford station. The new one was supposed to connect passengers to Eurostar trains from St Pancras to Paris. That never happened – even though the Eurostar whizzes through the station every time it goes to the continent. It’s not clear why, though part of the reason seems to be that Eurostar was unconvinced that stopping just seven minutes away from St Pancras was worthwhile.  Stratford International never gave up its moniker, despite the embarrassing lack of trains going anywhere outside the UK. This was partly to avoid people confusing it with the other Stratford station.  But if Timms gets his way, the name might actually make sense. He’s been angling for international connections to Newham since the 1980s and now argues that stopping at Stratford would take the pressure off St Pancras.  The platform