Each event will also include an opportunity to explore the Conservatory, learn more about its plant collection, and hear about its future plans. The Barbican says additional free openings, tours and special events will be announced in the coming months.

Note that the propagated cuttings vary in size depending on the host plant, and you will not be adopting a fully mature plant from the Conservatory. They will be given to you free of charge, in good health, so you can continue to grow them at home.

Although tickets are free, visitors will be encouraged to make a donation when booking and collecting their plant, with proceeds supporting the conservatory’s restoration.

The first adoption event takes place on Wednesday 19th August, from 12pm to 5pm, and free tickets are available to book here.

Further public adoption events are planned for 13th September and 2nd December.

The Conservatory, created in the 1980s on the roof of the Barbican Theatre around its 100-foot fly tower, is home to around 800 plant species and, after Kew Gardens, is the second-largest heated conservatory in London. It now needs extensive work, with ageing waterproofing, heating, glazing and irrigation systems all due for replacement. The refurbishment will also address long-standing accessibility issues, as only around 30% of the Conservatory is currently fully accessible because of its narrow paths and stairways.

When it reopens in 2030, the Conservatory will become a free, daily attraction rather than only open on selected dates. Plans include step-free access throughout, widened pathways, a new lift and more sustainable environmental systems to protect the collection for decades to come.

The work forms part of the wider Barbican Renewal programme, which will also see improvements to the Centre’s foyers and Lakeside Terrace between 2025 and 2030.

Today’s London news round-up:

A west London council has called for a rethink from City Hall, after being told it could have to build thousands of new homes on greenfield sites. BBC News

Two weeks without electricity in 30-degree heat: a Loughborough Estate family speaks out Beixton Buzz

The London borough boundaries with fewest crossings Diamond Geezer

Westminster council has recommended not allowing “vertical drinking” or ordering at the bar in its new draft licensing policy. The Guardian — although the council denies it Press statement

With the Anthony Bourdain biopic, Tony, about to be released in the UK — we raise a few glasses to the late cook/presenter, with a bar crawl of the drinking dens he visited/endorsed. Londonist

Johnson Banks reimagines the green toy soldier for IWM London’s Childhood in War Creative Bloom

London bus drivers ‘break down’ from tiredness after working 13 days in a row Standard

Time Out Market will open its first UK location at The Crown Estate’s landmark 10 Piccadilly development in London’s West End, with the venue set to launch in the first half of 2028. Restaurant Online

A bus service to Watford General Hospital is set to have its frequency cut in half Watford Observer

The iconic Blue Note Jazz Club is set to open its first UK location in London next month NME

The architecture firm founded by Norman Foster has been cleared over the death of a man killed by a window that fell 90 metres from a newly constructed London penthouse. The Guardian

London submits final bid for 2029 World Athletics Championships British Athletics

And from ianVisits:

Tower of London to start letting people attend its private “opening ceremony”

Leicester Square car park could make way for homes, hotel and rooftop bar

Horse Guards mounted guard suspended for two weeks this August

Contemporary artists take over Hogarth’s historic home

Behind the scenes of the engineering takeover at Charing Cross station

Things to do in London tomorrow

Sorry, nothing found, have a day off.

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It’s the ceremonial opening of the Tower each morning, and takes place very early, long before the tourists arrive. Each morning, a Yeoman Warder is joined by an escort of soldiers to unlock the gates of the Middle Tower, also known as the Byward Tower.

This is the same gate that is locked at night in the Ceremony of the Keys — and where tourists will arrive later that morning.

You’ll be able to attend the opening ceremony and, afterwards, be at the front for the Crown Jewels exhibition when it opens. Public tickets for the opening ceremony will be available daily from 10th August through to 30th September 2026.

Tickets aren’t cheap, but it’s a chance to queue-jump the crowds as well as see something that’s not often seen by the public. The ceremony starts at 08:45am, and you need to be at the Middle Drawbridge entrance on the riverside wharf by 8:30am to be let inside.

Photos can be taken of the Opening Ceremony, but filming is not permitted. No photography or filming is allowed in the Crown Jewels.

50 tickets per day will be available with a limit of 6 tickets per booking.  Each individual will receive one ticket, for access to the Opening Ceremony and admission to the Tower of London and the Crown Jewels.

Prices:

• Adult: £62.00
• Child age 5+ / Young Person age 16-17: £33.50.
• Concession: 49.50
• Under 5s: Free

Book tickets here.

The site is owned by Westminster Council, which has been working on redevelopment plans since 2017, with consultations in 2017 and 2021, and a contract finally awarded to Altius Real Estate in 2025.

Their plans, designed by Foster + Partners, will replace the entire block of 35 flats with around 50 homes, half of which will be affordable housing. Westminster Council has previously said that secure tenants and resident leaseholders will have the right to return to the new development.

Alongside new homes, the proposals include a hotel of approximately 550 rooms with a publicly accessible rooftop bar, and a replacement cinema in the basement.

The street areas could be improved by replacing the blank frontages around the car park and the underground cinema with shops – and obviously, coffee shops. The road along the north side of the building, where there is currently a narrow pavement, would also be partially pedestrianised, extending the pavement from neighbouring Leicester Square towards Haymarket.

A full planning application is expected in the next few months.

The pre-planning consultation is here.

The development site sits opposite the planned National Gallery extension.

The 18th-century stables next to Horseguards Parade are getting a substantial deep clean and other infrastructure-related works, and that means the horses have to decamp to another temporary home and get a break from biting tourists.

In a statement, the British Army’s London District HQ said that daily Ceremonial operations will not take place between 17th and 28th August.

That will be the first time there hasn’t been a mounted guard outside the Horse Guards since December 2023, although there will still be soldiers on duty inside providing security operations as usual. The army also confirmed that ceremonial operations will continue as usual at Buckingham Palace, St James’s Palace and HM Tower of London.

During the works inside the stables, the public will still be able to walk through the archway between Whitehall and Horse Guards Parade, which incidentally is coming up to its 30th anniversary as a public space – having been opened in March 1997 after spending most of the 20th century as a car park.

The Household Cavalry Museum at Horse Guards will also remain open – where they have a window that lets you look into the stables.

Guard Mounts will commence again at 11am on 29th August on Horse Guards Parade Square.

And tourists ignoring the warning sign not to get too close because the horses might bite or kick can once again get their moment of fame in compilation films of tourists who learn the hard way why you shouldn’t annoy horses.

—

*obviously, they don’t (usually) aim to get bitten, I am being silly.

The new prize celebrates artists who combine traditional techniques with original thinking. Inspired by Hogarth’s “rebellious ideals of invention and challenge”, it recognises work that engages with contemporary culture while demonstrating strong technical skill. With no set theme, the result is an eclectic exhibition ranging from sharp social commentary to abstract exploration.

Spread across two rooms of Hogarth’s former home, the exhibition features a broad mix of styles and subjects. Portraits dominate, but there are also landscapes, abstract works and several pieces that move beyond the flat canvas into three dimensions. A number of paintings depict familiar London buildings, adding a local touch.

A personal favourite was the mid-century style collage painting by Louise Bristol, and Sally Richardson’s artist’s kitchen may appeal to cat lovers. When they spot it.

You might agree, or not, with the judges’ choice about the winner, and if you don’t, there’s also a people’s choice to pick.

It’s a small exhibition, just two packed rooms, but you do also have an excuse to visit Hogarth’s House if you’ve never been before.

The exhibition, The Hogarth Prize, is at Hogarth’s House until 6th September 2026, and is free to visit.

The house is open Tues to Sun (closed Mon) from 12pm to 5pm.

Hogarth’s House is about a 20-minute walk from Turnham Green tube station, or the 190 and 533 bus routes pass close by.

Although Charing Cross has only six platforms, around 600 trains normally use them every day, making it one of the capital’s most intensively used stations. And all that traffic puts a heavy load on the railway tracks just outside the station.

The closure, which began on 26th July, is allowing engineers to replace every section of track between Charing Cross and neighbouring Waterloo East, install new junctions and switches, rebuild parts of the platforms, and carry out a range of improvements at both stations.

Closing a central London terminus isn’t done on a whim, but a long blockade allows far more work to be done in less time as there’s no need to reset the worksite after each batch of work to allow passengers to use it the next day.

The alternative to a 22-day closure would have been four 9-day closures, or every single weekend for the next two years.

The last time the station saw such a major change was in August 1990, when the platforms were lengthened, and the tracks realigned to allow for new  Network SouthEast Networker trains to start using the station.

And 36 years later, they’re back.

Rebuilding the railway 

Although the line between Blackfriars Junction and Charing Cross has been closed, the worksite is far from straightforward. Much of the railway sits above Victorian brick arches that impose strict weight limits, preventing the use of the largest cranes and engineering equipment.

Instead, the replacement junctions were assembled off-site at Network Rail’s Hoo yard in north Kent before being delivered overnight and hauled slowly into position by road-rail vehicles. In total, 111 track panels were built and transported to site.

Although largely a like-for-like replacement, there are some improvements to the junctions that allow trains to switch between lines as they approach or leave the station, making them more reliable and reducing future maintenance needs.

Even something as routine as bringing in new ballast requires careful planning, as freight trains delivering materials have to arrive in precisely the right sequence so that engineers can lay the new railway without blocking later deliveries.

Rebuilding the platforms 

With the railway closed, Network Rail has also taken the opportunity to tackle long-overdue repairs to the platforms themselves.

Charing Cross’s platforms have been extended twice — once during the 1950s and again in 1990. The older extension, which sits beyond the main trainshed roof, has suffered decades of exposure to the weather and repeated winter salting.

Once work began, engineers discovered the deterioration was worse than expected. Much of the steel supporting the platforms had to be completely replaced, while other sections could be repaired and strengthened.

The steelwork installed during the 1990 extension remains in much better condition, although the platform surface across the entire outdoor section is still being renewed.

To outsiders, it might look superficially bad, but they’re not worried about the corroding ridged floor as that’s not structural, and all the weight is borne by good steels underneath. Removing the corroded steel would have added so much time to the project that it’s best to just leave it there.

The contractors, VolkerFitzpatrick, are also taking the opportunity to carry out repainting work on the Hungerford Bridge, which is also undergoing its own refurbishment project.

Improvements at Waterloo East 

The toilets on platforms B and C are being refurbished, but the most noticeable change will be on the station footbridge.

All 300 windows are being replaced with a new design that is easier to keep clean and, more importantly, allows fresh air into the enclosed walkway. Most of the windows above the railway cannot be opened because of the risk of objects falling onto the tracks, so the replacements incorporate ventilation gaps at the top to improve airflow.

The exterior of the bridge is also being repainted, while engineers have taken the opportunity to repair the bearings that support the structure — work that would have been much harder to carry out without a prolonged closure.

Many of these station improvements were planned following the merger of Network Rail’s Kent route with Southeastern, allowing the infrastructure and train operating teams to coordinate engineering work more closely. The blockade has also provided opportunities for Southeastern staff to visit the site and gain a better understanding of the infrastructure work that normally happens behind the scenes.

For the railways, August is usually the least bad time to carry out a large closure of this type as, other than Christmas, it’s the quietest time of the year. However, you can’t predict the weather, and it will not have helped to have all this work being carried out during a heatwave. Whatever the thermometer says, add a good 5 degrees Celsius to that for working on a railway – and even more in heavy protective clothing. Large quantities of bottled water, consumed as fast as they could be chilled, have been needed to keep the project on time.

More than just replacing track

The primary reason for the closure is simple: the railway outside Charing Cross had reached the end of its working life and needed to be replaced to reduce future delays and improve reliability.

However, unsurprisingly, we rarely notice infrastructure when it is working properly — only when it fails.

By combining the track renewal with platform repairs, station improvements and a thorough clean-up, passengers should also see visible benefits when trains return, alongside the less obvious but much more substantial improvements to the rails.

The railway and stations will reopen on Monday 17th August.

Historic Royal Palaces (HRP) charges for entry to its venues across London (and one in Northern Ireland), but if you buy an annual membership, then you get unlimited free access to all of them except Kew Palace as well as a host of other member benefits.

Those often include private tours, early openings and occasionally, a chance to walk on the roof at Hampton Court Palace.

If you were minded to spend a year visiting each of HRP’s London buildings, then it would cost around £96 per adult.

• Tower of London: 37.00
• Hampton Court Palace: £29.00
• Banqueting House: £10.00
• Kensington Palace: £24.70
• Kew Palace: £19.66 (included in the price to visit Kew Gardens)

The annual membership would usually set you back £65, which is about a third of the full cost of visiting each venue in turn.

But at the moment, there’s 20% off, so unlimited visits for a year costs just £52 for a single adult, £84 for two adults, £64 for one adult plus children, and £100 for two adults plus children.

To claim the discount when buying a membership from here, select your membership option, then click on “Add promo or voucher code” and enter MEM20 before 28th August 2026.

If you’ve visited any of the HRP venues within the past two weeks, you can also upgrade your single visit tickets to an annual membership here.

Incidentally, if you’re young enough and rich enough, then the Individual life membership (which actually includes 2 people) works out cheaper than an annual membership — over a 22-year period.

With beers, ciders, wines, spirits and soft drinks available from our onboard bar, there’s no ticket required – just go aboard and buy a drink.

Once you step aboard, you can wander through deck levels, peer down into the ship’s hold, explore quarters such as Drake’s cabin, and imagine the cramped life of an Elizabethan sailor.

The onboard pub takes place on Thursdays 6th, 20th & 27th August 2026 from 6pm to 9pm.

Drinks will be served on the Main Deck, and there’s free access to explore the ship.

No booking required, and the ship can be found around the corner from Southwark Cathedral, a few minutes walk from London Bridge station.

Details here.

The feasibility study is one of the early stages in the long-planned Bakerloo Line Upgrade programme to order a new fleet of trains. The current trains, introduced in 1972, are now the oldest passenger trains in daily service anywhere on the UK rail network.

AECOM will lead the study, supported by Arcadis, examining the changes needed at Stonebridge Park Depot, the Queen’s Park area and the London Road sidings at Elephant & Castle to accommodate the new trains.

It was previously reported that TfL wants to build reversing capability and stabling roads at Queen’s Park, including the realignment of National Rail tracks and the demolition of the existing North Shed. At Stonebridge Park, TfL expects to need to demolish and rebuild the existing depot building, while acquiring land next to the north-west of the depot for new stabling roads

The new feasibility study will include planning, systems engineering, railway design, environmental assessments and the production of an initial coordinated design for the infrastructure changes.

Although the contract does not cover the new trains themselves, it is a necessary step in preparing the railway for their introduction.

Shadi Shekarrizi, AECOM’s Rail Director for London and the South East, described the appointment as “a significant milestone” for the programme. He said the company would use its planning, engineering and digital expertise to develop “future-ready solutions for depots and sidings that are essential to enabling new rolling stock and improving long-term performance on the line”.

Previously, AECOM was selected, alongside WW+P Architects, to provide design services for four new London Underground stations as part of the proposed Bakerloo Line Extension (BLE), which aims to extend the line further into South East London. AECOM was also appointed as lead designer on the first stage of TfL’s Elephant & Castle Station Capacity Upgrade last year.