Its colours are drawn directly from the famous embroidery, particularly a scene depicting the dying King Edward the Confessor apparently promising the English throne to Earl Harold in January 1066. The shades have been matched as closely as possible to the original unfaded colours used in the tapestry itself.

There is a modest irony about a Scottish tartan honouring the conquest of England, because in 1072, William the Conqueror also invaded Scotland. In this case, it was more a matter of tidying up his “harrying of the north” and stopping King Malcom III from attempting to invade northern England (again), and was settled quickly at the Treaty of Abernethy.

The tartan’s credentials are suitably official. It has been registered with the Scottish Register of Tartans, while permission to use the Bayeux Tapestry name was granted by the Mayor of Bayeux on behalf of the city.

So it comes with both Scottish and French approval.

And for anyone keen to embrace the theme fully, you could commission clothing made from the Bayeux Tapestry tartan ahead of a visit to the British Museum’s exhibition this summer.

The exhibition will open on 10th September 2026 and run until 11th July 2027.

Tickets for the 40-minute experience will go on sale on 1st July 2026 on the British Museum website, with prices ranging from £25 to £33, depending on the day and time of the visit.

Membership, available from £82, includes two free visits to the Bayeux Tapestry during its run (with discounts for further visits), as well as free entry to the museum’s other paid exhibitions.

Members’ booking opens on Tuesday 16th June.

The first phase of works will run from Monday 22nd June to Monday 6th July, when the Essex-bound platform (Platform 2) will remain closed throughout.

During this phase, customers using the Essex-bound Platform 2 at Limehouse Station are advised that there will be no station entrance or exit access for Essex-bound services, and no interchange with the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) for trains arriving from London.

c2c’s Asset & Property Director, Donna Thorpe, said: “Over the coming months, we will be working with our partners at Aureos to fully replace the existing timber platform decking on platforms 1 and 2 at Limehouse station.

“These works include the extension of Platform 1 by approximately 28 metres, providing additional capacity and creating a safer and more comfortable waiting environment for customers.

“In addition to the platform re-decking works, we will also be renewing and upgrading the existing platform lighting.”

The existing timber platforms will be replaced with a modern Glass Reinforced Plastic (GRP) composite decking system, which will enhance the durability and resilience of the station infrastructure.

Work on Platform 1 will follow later and is expected to last until November 2026.

Unveiled by Ian McKellen, the plaque at Olivier’s childhood home on Lupus Street marks the London address where Olivier first discovered a passion for acting and where the foundations of his stage and screen career were laid.

Olivier lived in the house between the ages of six and 11 while his father served as curate at nearby St Saviour’s Church, where the young Laurence was a choirboy. Family recollections describe how “Larry” turned a wooden box and blue curtains into a makeshift theatre, entertaining audiences with songs, dances and dramatic sketches. During this time, he attended All Saints School in Margaret Street, where his talent caught the attention of the actress Ellen Terry, who is said to have declared that the ten-year-old was “already a great actor”.

Olivier later trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama before rising to prominence through acclaimed Shakespearean performances, including Hamlet, Macbeth, Richard III and Henry V. He later achieved international fame on screen with roles in Rebecca, Wuthering Heights, Marathon Man and Sleuth. His film adaptation of Henry V also established him as a major director.

And delivered the famously censored (and later restored) speech about oysters and snails in the movie Spartacus.

Beyond his performances, Olivier played a pivotal role in shaping modern British theatre. As the founding director of the National Theatre, he helped nurture a new generation of actors and playwrights. Honoured with a knighthood, a life peerage and the Order of Merit, his legacy endures through the prestigious Laurence Olivier Awards, which bear his name.

The blue plaque is at 22 Lupus Street, about a 5-minute walk from Pimlico tube station.

Filling two floors of the Saatchi Gallery and spread out over nine rooms, from ancient mythologies and early cosmologies to contemporary art and popular culture, the exhibition explores the influence these celestial bodies continue to have on human imagination.

And what they’ve brought together is a huge collection that is as varied as it is substantial. From theatre costumes to Chairman Mao’s book, to monumental sculptures, it’s a heady mix of an exhibition.

The sort of display that’s so wide-ranging that it’ll be difficult not to find something of interest. And what makes it work is not just the variety of art, but also how historical documents and religious antiquities are dotted throughout the contemporary art.

The giant pink hat is a bit odd admittedly – as if the Harry Potter sorting hat has been given a Pride month makeover.

Much better is the steel sun by Sam Riley, made from square sheets of steel, each left outside for a month to age naturally, then assembled to form the sun.

A wall of pop art – in the form of music album covers offers an alternative view of how the sun has featured in art, leading into Tarot and the esoteric. And then filling an entire room is the sun itself – well, Luke Jerram’s version. Take a seat if you want.

Eventually, the sun sets and the exhibition moves into the darkness, lit by the moon, the time of witches and demons, but also decorative moonlight and romance.

However, it does end with a bit of an odd display, a bulb hanging in space, that is umm, what? They should have ended with the sun from the Teletubbies. That would have left everyone smiling.

The last bit aside, it’s one of those large-scale eclectic exhibitions that simply delights for the sheer variety of what’s been brought together. It’s the sort of exhibition I’d put at the top of anyone’s recommended viewing for this summer.

The exhibition, The Sun and the Moon: Art inspired by the celestial, is at the Saatchi Gallery until 8th September 2026.

• Standard Ticket: £20
• Concession: £13
• Family (Two adults + two children): £45
• Child under 6: Free

Details and tickets here.

This is Chequers, the country estate gifted to the nation in 1921, and ever since it has served as the rural retreat for Prime Ministers in need of fresh air, discreet meetings, or simply a weekend away from journalists shouting at them from the sidelines.

The estate takes its name from the medieval Checker family, who owned the land in the 12th and 13th centuries, before it passed to the Hawtreys, who built the Tudor manor house in the 1560s. Although its timbered appearance looks delightfully ancient today, that’s partly thanks to a 20th-century restoration which wisely undid a Victorian attempt to make the house look more Gothic.

In 1912, the estate was bought by Sir Arthur Lee and his wife Ruth, an American heiress who already happened to be living there anyway — the Edwardian equivalent of buying the house you’re renting because moving sounds exhausting.

Well connected politically, they were aware that a new breed of working-class people was moving into government, and soon a Prime Minister could be elected who lacked a country estate of their own to retreat to. As the Lee’s were childless, they took the remarkable decision to gift the entire estate to the nation to be used as a residence of the Prime Minister.

The Chequers Estate Act 1917, which enabled it, was also the first piece of legislation to formally recognise the role of a Prime Minister, even though the head of government had been referred to unofficially as “Prime Minister” since the early 18th century.

If the Prime Minister doesn’t want to use the house, then it passes down the line to the Chancellor, the Foreign Secretary, the US Ambassador, the Secretary of State for Environment, the First Lord of the Admiralty, the Defence Minister, the Speaker of the House of Commons, and finally, the Lord Chief Justice. Sadly for the above-mentioned folk, the Prime Minister of the day has always used Chequers for themselves.

What makes Chequers particularly gloriously English, however, is that despite being a heavily protected government estate with armed police, security cameras and legal warnings about trespassing under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act, there is also a public footpath running right through it. Not discreetly tucked into some distant woodland corner either, but straight across the main driveway.

So while VIPs arriving at the main gates will be met by armed police officers and credentials checked carefully, the rest of us can quite simply walk through the estate.

This splendid absurdity came about after the government moved the estate’s entrance road in the 1920s, and in doing so, plonked it across an ancient right of way. Attempts to remove the footpath were met with the sort of fury normally reserved for village bypass proposals and cancelled pub quizzes. Ramblers, locals and assorted defenders of England’s sacred footpath network dug in their heels, and remarkably, they won.

And it’s still there – defiantly clinging on, and if you fancy, you can take a walk along it.

My trip was to walk from Wendover to Little Kimble, via Chequers.

Leaving Wendover and crossing the busy and very noisy A413, you get to cross over the future HS2 railway.

Despite the scar in the landscape today, come back in a few years’ time, and all you will see is fields, as the railway is being buried in tunnels. Expensive tunnels to protect the outraged locals from the occasional noise of the fast trains. And yet it runs right next to the A413, whose unending roar fills the air for miles around. Oh well.

Head into the woods and up the steep slopes to Bacombe Hill, with views of the landscape for miles around. But what you want to do is go to the Coombe Hill Monument.

This is the highest viewpoint in the Chilterns, offering stunning views, and it also has a memorial to the British dead in the Boer War. A sign on the other side says that it was erected in 1904, but was almost totally destroyed by lightning in January 1938, and then rebuilt. It’s very much a place to linger for a while and take in the expansive views across the landscape, while hopefully dodging the cow pats that scatter the ground.

My visit was accompanied by a Red Kite swirling around looking for lunch.

But turn your gaze away from the rolling valleys if you can, and over there you can see a red-brick house. That’s the back of the Chequers manor.

From here, fortunately,  it’s largely downhill as you head to Lodge Hill road and then down to the junction with Missenden Road. And it’s here that you’re on the border of the Chequers estate, and yes, that Tudor-style gatehouse is the original entrance that lords and ladies down the centuries would have passed through to their grand home behind it.

And it’s now that you might spy your first Section 128 warning sign and notice the first of many security cameras that will follow your route. A short walk along the road until you get to Buckmoorend farm shop – and opposite is the incongruous site of security cameras watching a gate with warning signs not to trespass, and next to it, the footpath gate inviting you to do just that.

And so you shall. It’s a nice walk through a field, not fenced off at all now, although you can still see the poles that once held wires to stop people and their dogs from wandering off. And more signs, older now, reminding you this is a protected site, so no wandering off. You’re not alone, as apart from the ever-present sense of security cameras watching you, this is a popular footpath to walk along. Some people are out walking alone, but most are out walking dogs.

Just a few minutes later, you come to a pedestrian gate in the fence, and just past is a road. And this is that famous driveway added in the 1920s that tried to slice through a footpath, and the walkers won.

So, step gingerly onto that road, and look left to see the secure gates that would have stopped you passing had you tried. But here on this narrow band of tarmac, you have the right of way to stand there. Yes, take some photos and enjoy the moment. But don’t linger too long, as sometimes that results in a visit from stern folk carrying guns and kindly asking you to move along now, thank you very much.

The trees were planted after the road was laid out, apparently to conceal it from enemy planes during WWII.

You can’t see the house itself from this location, but you can glimpse it through the woods on either side of the driveway. Cross over, and then I followed the footpath up the hill and eventually down to Little Kimble for the train home, or not much further, and you can get to Princes Risborough for more frequent trains.

It’s a decent and very pleasant two-hour(ish) walk, plus the few fleeting moments standing on that driveway. While utterly bonkers, it’s still the sort of thing that goes down well over the proverbial dinner party chatter.

Not many of us can go to Downing Street for a photo, but anyone can go to Chequers. And all thanks to a stubborn footpath that refused to budge.

Hurrah for the footpath.

However, there have been attempts to close the footpath.

In 1972, the estate tried to close the footpath, but was beaten back by the army of ramblers and locals outraged at losing their useful, and very cool, path between Kimble and Dunsmore.

In 1975, it looked as if the footpath would be closed on national security grounds, but in the end, a compromise was reached. The footpath used to cross the driveway about halfway along it, offering a much better view of the house. But after a court battle, it was agreed to move the footpath about 150 metres southwards, putting it closer to the main security gate.

That does mean you can’t see the house from the driveway, but at least the principle that a right of way existed, and shall remain existing.

In 1989, the Daily Star ran a scare story about how an IRA sniper could shoot the Prime Minister, and they were able to walk along the footpath for an hour without being stopped. All I can say is that the newspaper’s reporter walked exceptionally slowly, as the footpath is barely a couple of hundred yards long.

So, if you want to do something very silly, just to say you have done it, now you know how to.

There are also other government-owned estates for ministerial use.

Chevning House near Sevenoaks has a garden open day once a year, and although the house is not open, the gardens are worth a visit. Also, Dorneywood House in Buckinghamshire is open to the public for a couple of weeks a year.

In recent weeks, coverage has been introduced in the tunnelled sections on the Bakerloo line between Queen’s Park and Edgware Road, plus on the Metropolitan line between Euston Square and King’s Cross St Pancras, as well as between Barbican and Moorgate.

The Circle and District lines have also gained coverage between Cannon Street and Monument, Sloane Square and Victoria, and Bayswater and Paddington.

As well as tunnelled sections, busy stations including Vauxhall, Temple, Nine Elms and Gloucester Road have all now gone live. Mobile coverage has also begun to be introduced at major stations like King’s Cross St Pancras, Victoria and Paddington, which will go live in phases due to their size and complexity, focusing initially on ticket halls and platforms.

The vast majority of the Northern, Bakerloo and Metropolitan lines will have coverage in the tunnels by the end of summer this year.

All four major mobile network operators (Three UK, EE, Vodafone, and Virgin Media O2 (VMO2)) are taking part in the rollout, which is delivered to TfL at no cost under a concession agreement with Boldyn Networks.

The expanding coverage will also host the new Emergency Services Network (ESN), which, when fully operational, will provide first responders with immediate access to life-saving data, images, and information in real-time during emergencies on the frontline.

As well as delivering coverage on the Tube, TfL and Boldyn are also working to introduce coverage to sections of the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) that are underground, as well as the Windrush line between Highbury & Islington and New Cross.

Seb Dance, Deputy Mayor of London for Transport, said: “It’s brilliant to see this continued progress on the Mayor’s promise of delivering 4G and 5G across the London Underground, with more mobile coverage for passengers across an ever-growing network of lines and stations. In an increasingly digital world, we’re committed to ensuring that all Londoners and visitors have the connections they need – even whilst on the move – as we build a better London for everyone.”

Alongside the transport rollout, the partners are installing small-cell technology on TfL assets such as lighting columns to improve mobile capacity in busy parts of the capital. Areas already benefiting include King’s Cross, Waterloo, London Bridge, Old Street, The Shard and Hyde Park Corner.

List of below-ground London Underground and Elizabeth line stations where mobile coverage is now available

Bakerloo line:  Warwick Avenue, Paddington (Bakerloo line only), Edgware Road, Piccadilly Circus, Charing Cross, Embankment,

Central line: Shepherds Bush, Holland Park, Notting Hill Gate, Queensway, Lancaster Gate, Marble Arch, Bond Street (Central and Elizabeth line only), Oxford Circus (Central line only), Tottenham Court Road, Holborn, Chancery Lane, St Paul’s, Bank (Central line only)

Circle line: Bayswater, Notting Hill Gate, Gloucester Road, Temple, Blackfriars, Mansion House, Cannon Street, Barbican, Euston Square

Elizabeth line: Paddington, Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Farringdon, Liverpool Street (Elizabeth line only), Whitechapel, Canary Wharf, Woolwich

Jubilee line: Swiss Cottage, Westminster, Waterloo (Jubilee line only), Southwark, London Bridge (Jubilee line only), Bermondsey, Canada Water, Canary Wharf, North Greenwich

Northern line: Hampstead, Belsize Park, Chalk Farm, Highgate, Archway, Tufnell Park, Kentish Town, Camden Town, Mornington Crescent, Euston (Charing Cross Branch), Angel, Warren Street, Goodge Street, Tottenham Court Road, Leicester Square, Charing Cross, Embankment, Kennington, Nine Elms, Battersea Power Station, Oval, Stockwell, Clapham North, Clapham Common, Clapham South, Balham, Tooting Bec, Tooting Broadway, Colliers Wood, South Wimbledon

Piccadilly line: Holloway Road, Caledonian Road, King’s Cross St Pancras (Piccadilly line only), Russell Square, Holborn, Covent Garden, Piccadilly Circus, Green Park (Victoria and Piccadilly line only), Hyde Park Corner, Gloucester Road

Victoria line: Warren Street, Green Park (Victoria and Piccadilly line only), Victoria (Victoria line only), Pimlico, Vauxhall, Stockwell, Brixton

Today’s London news round-up:

Ombudsman reveals failings behind Ealing Council housing investigation Ealing News

A company has been ordered to fork out more than £26,000 after illegally destroying 13 mature trees at a listed building in Chorleywood.  Watford Observer

The mobile phone signal in the heart of London is deteriorating with “bottlenecks” on the network, Standard

London’s oldest working espresso machine is in Putney Bridge. Her name is Rebecca. Putney News

“Misleading commentary” has been criticised amid plans for a mosque and community facility in Borehamwood. Watford Observer

Woman leaps from window of burning London flat as e-bike fire blocks escape Mirrror

A Dagenham man has been ordered to pay around £1,500 in fines and costs after being caught on CCTV fly-tipping waste into residential bins. Barking Star

Soho Theatre Walthamstow has welcomed more than 130,000 audience members in its first year, as the restored former Granada cinema emerges as a key cultural venue in East London. Waltham Forest Echo

Police hunting a man who escaped from a prison van in southeast London have released an image as part of their search. Sky News

“Vulnerable families” have reportedly been shipped to Bolton from London where they have been considered “too expensive a problem”.  Bolton News

And from ianVisits:

First taste of Trent Park’s secret spy museum

Parakeet peeking from tree wins London wildlife photo contest

Japan House’s first photography exhibition is… nice, but?

TfL issues 69,000 penalty fares as fare evasion crackdown intensifies

New immersive exhibition lets visitors walk through the ancient world

London’s Pocket Parks: Wick Woodland, Hackney, E9

Things to do in London tomorrow

London Concours luxury car exhibition
Moorgate
Around 80 of the world’s most expensive cars will be displayed on the cricket lawn and practice grounds of the territorial army just around the corner from Old Street.

The Unnatural History of Extinction
Picadilly
You are a survivor of many great dyings. How did we come to think of ourselves as survivors in a world where species can vanish forever?

The Long Play Sessions : Samira Ahmed with ‘A Hard Day’s Night’
Kilburn
An in‑conversation event with journalist, writer, and broadcaster Samira Ahmed, as she discusses her brand‑new book and deep dive into the Beatles’ groundbreaking 1964 film.

Designed to Belong: Modernism, Industry and Community
Kensington
Panel discussion exploring modernism, industry, and architecture’s role in shaping belonging through the Bata village at East Tilbury in Essex.

This free news roundup is delivered at 5pm daily via Substack – sign up for free here.

The museum, the Trent Park House of Secrets, will be dedicated to Britain’s secret wartime spy operations and will open sometime this summer. However, ahead of the museum opening, they’ve already opened the café.

In a way, it’s not that surprising, as the museum is inside a country park estate and next to new housing, so the café will have customers even when the museum is closed.

But undeniably, a story about a museum café opening before the museum is ready is hard to overlook.

The Trent Park House of Secrets Café will be open Tuesday to Sunday from 9am to 5pm.

Locally based Blends & Beyond have been appointed to run the museum café following a competitive selection process. Local Enfield residents may already be familiar with the team behind the café at Oakwood station.

The café is situated in the House’s ‘Blue Room’ – a grand, historically significant space featuring restored 1930s murals painted by renowned artist Rex Whistler. The room served as a cherished painting spot for Sir Winston Churchill and has been preserved as part of the restoration project.

The museum is due to open sometime later this summer on a date to be confirmed.

During the war, Trent Park House was transformed into a covert interrogation centre, where captured senior German officers — including dozens of generals — were held in comfortable surroundings. Unknown to them, their conversations were secretly recorded using an extensive network of hidden microphones embedded throughout the house, from light fittings to garden benches.

The intelligence gathered at Trent Park has often been compared in significance to that produced at Bletchley Park, but with a very different method: rather than codebreaking, this was human intelligence gathered through eavesdropping.

In a concealed basement, teams of “Secret Listeners” — many of them German-speaking Jewish refugees — worked on transcribing conversations and extracting valuable information that would aid the Allied war effort.

When it opens, visitors will be able to explore reconstructed listening rooms and hidden workspaces, alongside displays that explain the bugging techniques and intelligence-gathering methods used within the house. Original transcripts of recorded conversations will also form part of the exhibits, offering an insight into what the prisoners revealed when they thought no one was listening.

The museum will be about a 20-minute walk from Cockfosters tube station.

The overall winning photograph, taken by Celeste Katz from Richmond, shows a ring-necked parakeet tucked inside a tree trunk. Judges praised the image for its creativity and technical skill.

The photo will now be displayed at South Kensington tube station.

Londoners were invited to photograph wildlife they encountered while exploring the city on Santander Cycles’ two nature-themed Side Quest cycling routes. The competition attracted a wide range of entries showcasing animals thriving across London’s parks, waterways and streets.

A judging panel from Transport for London (TfL), Santander Cycles and the Natural History Museum selected five winning photographers.

The other winners were Faujdar Vipul, Erika Keenlyside, Olivia Nicolaou and Jon Pitman. Their photographs included a deer silhouetted at dusk, a fox basking in the sunshine in West Hampstead, a dramatic portrait of a pigeon at Boxpark Wembley, and a charming image of a mouse travelling on the London Underground.

Not a bad exhibition or particularly amazing, just sort of unmemorably acceptable.

That’s Japan House London’s first-ever photography exhibition, which shows off works by two Japanese photographers: Kawada Kikuji and Iwane Ai. It’s mainly a mix of fairly abstract work by Kawada Kikuji and portraiture by Iwane Ai.

If you’ve been to Japan House before, the exhibition space is usually a large white box, but this time they’ve broken it up into dark rooms to show off the photography, which is either wall-mounted or towards the end, free hanging.

The conceptual abstract photography is arguably more interesting as it’s somewhat more artistic in style, even if accompanied by some maddeningly unfocused quotations that probably mean something to the photos, but what?

Japan House exhibitions are usually really interesting insights into local culture, but this exhibition lacks an overtly Japanese sense to it. They could be any two artist photographers from anywhere.

It’s a nice exhibition to visit, but it just lacks a bit of spice to make it memorable.

The exhibition, Kyotographie, is at Japan House London on Kensington High Street until 18th October 2026 and is free to visit.

Details here.