Alex Funk

Feeling the thirst in Waterloo? There are a couple of traditional watering holes that are well worth a visit in the area, including pubs that have survived the centuries to old spots given a new lease of life and a shiny craft beer menu. If brutalist architecture is your bag, then there's a design gem to seek out, too. Get stuck in at Waterloo’s best pubs. RECOMMENDED: These are the best restaurants in Waterloo. 

Two of Soho's most well-loved and most iconic cafes have appeared in the top five of a list featuring the most beautiful coffee shops in the world.  According to The Telegraph's rankings, Soho’s long-standing Bar Italia is the third ‘most beautiful cafe on earth’. The neon-lit gem of a coffee shop opened in 1949, pre-empting the 1950s West End coffee craze inspired by the area’s Italian expats. Bar Italia is authentically cluttered and serves Italian-style coffee from a vintage Gaggia Coffee machine from 7am until 4am on 22 Frith Street. It’s not hard to see why it’s become a hub for London’s Italian community (and post-service hospitality workers).   This coffee bar is both a symbol of London’s multiculturality and British pop culture history. Bar Italia inspired a stage musical written partly by Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart; rock band Pulp wrote a song about the cafe and film producer Jeremy Thomas had a portrait painted of him standing in front of it.   As well as coffee, the old Italian cafe offers sandwiches, pastries, booze, and a bit of escapism.  Algerian Coffee Stores earned fourth place out of 50 cafes on the list and like Bar Italia, it is beloved for its atmosphere. Upon entering this tiny takeaway coffee store, you’ll feel as though you’ve just stepped inside a coffee bean. It smells great. The ‘intensely aromatic’ shop is bursting with beans, teas, confectionaries, and accessories and sells freshly roasted bags of 96 different coffee blends. There’s no seating in th

Regularly drive an electric vehicle (EV) through central London? Get ready for it to get quite a bit more expensive. From December 25 2025, TfL says EVs will no longer be able to drive through the city for free and will be subject to the same £15-a-day congestion charge currently incurred by other drivers.  Zero-emission vehicles haven’t had to cough up the hefty fee since October 2021, instead paying just £10 a year to cruise through Congestion Charge Zone areas including Westminster, Holborn, Farringdon, Marylebone and the City. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan introduced the exemption for battery-powered motors hoping that more road users would make the switch to EVs, and the incentive worked: thousands of motorists were convinced to trade their fuel-hungry cars for cleaner alternatives.  TfL’s decision could potentially impact up to 100,000 e-car owners in London. It claims that extending the fee to all vehicles will improve traffic flow on roads in the centre of the capital. A TfL spokesperson defended the decision and said: ‘Ending the Cleaner Vehicle Discount from 25 December 2025 will maintain the effectiveness of the Congestion Charge, which is in place to manage traffic and congestion in the heart of London.’  Predictably, TfL’s change in policy has drawn criticism. The AA described the new policy as ‘a turkey bone in the throat for EV owners who heeded his call to switch to green vehicles and improve air quality in the capital’.   TfL stands by its eco-friendly policies

Let’s face it, there’s only so many yoghurt pots you can rinse and recycle before starting to wonder if big companies are doing their bit to help the planet’s cause. But some corps are attempting to go green – and leading by example on England’s south coast are two maritime industry giants, which are teaming up to bring the Solent its first zero-emissions commercial ferry service. Red Funnel Ferries is collaborating with Artemis Technologies (ATL) to introduce a new high-performance passenger ferry. Artemis EF-24 Passenger models will sail smoothly into the Red Funnel fleet to serve the Southampton to West Cowes (on the Isle of Wight) route alongside the current Red Jets 6 and 7.   The sleek ‘industry-first’ ferry will rely on electricity from renewable sources and is forecast to save up to 3700 tonnes of CO2e per year.  Dr Iain Percy OBE, double Olympic and multiple world champion sailor and ATL CEO said: ‘The EF-24 Passenger ferry represents a major leap forward in our mission to transform the maritime industry and future-proof our oceans and waterways.   ‘Air pollution impacts our health, damages quality of life, and harms our environment and oceans.  ‘This partnership with Red Funnel underscores our commitment to international maritime standards and paves the way to a healthier planet for all.’  You can leave the travel sickness tablets at home because the EF-24 will also use pioneering electric propulsion technology to lift itself out of the water and skim over waves, p

Lizzie line phone addicts, listen up! From today, you can scroll to your heart’s content as the tunnels between some Elizabeth line stations now have high-speed 4G and 5G phone coverage. This exciting news comes not long after eight of the newest line’s underground stations received 4G connectivity earlier this year.  TfL, in partnership with Boldyn Networks, has introduced around five miles of underground mobile coverage on the Lizzy line, extending from the Royal Oak (to the west of Paddington) to Liverpool Street station. This perfectly timed development will help you maximise the summer ahead: never miss a Euros match, keep an eye on the general election and stay up to date with Wimbledon and the Olympics. Don’t worry if you don’t frequent these specific tunnels; this section is just the start. Network coverage will eventually extend to Whitechapel, Canary Wharf and Woolwich over the next few weeks. By the end of summer, the entire Elizabeth line will be kitted out with high-speed 4G and 5G for all.  London’s Transport Commissioner Andy Lord said: ‘It’s wonderful to see our programme to introduce high-speed mobile coverage now benefitting customers on the Elizabeth line, the newest part of London’s historic underground network of stations and tunnels. ‘This key step in bringing better connectivity to London’s underground stations and tunnels will allow more people travelling around the capital to keep in touch, share photos and make the most of the city, especially as we

The British Museum is every history buff’s dream, but there’s likely still one part of the Bloomsbury museum that even its most avid fans are yet to see. After a long period of being off limits to the public, the famous domed Reading Room has reopened to both guided tours and the general public.  Don’t remember the last time you picked up a book? Even for non-book-lovers, the Reading Room is truly a sight to behold. Powder blue papier-mâché covers the dome, with a gold and cream colour scheme framing the windows that encircle its perimeter. A whopping five million books line bookshelves that total 25 miles in length.  The museum trialled tours last year, hoping to make them a regular event so long as they didn’t disturb the researchers who currently peruse the room’s archives. As of yesterday (July 2), London guru IanVisits says that the room is open for anyone to walk in and have a look. What’s more is that from July 23, groups of visitors (up to 20 per slot) will be welcome to marvel at the beautiful space with 20-minute tours. Tickets will be first-come, first-served and the great part is that they’re free. Completed in 1857, the British Museum’s Reading Room became a world-famous learning hub where only the cool kids of academia and literature were allowed to work on their craft. Karl Marx, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Bram Stoker, and even Jacob Richter – Lenin's chosen pseudonym – were among the VIPs. Between 1997 and 2000, the dome had a touch-up and opened to the public fo

St Pancras International Station, London’s portal to the land of croissants, only has four more ‘turn-up-and-go’ tours this year and the next two are already fully booked. Like a UK train service being on time, these 90-minute tours only happen once every blue moon. Although you can pre-book large group tours starting at £120 for any time and date, the £10 ‘turn-up-and-go’ showings are designed for individuals and smaller groups. The limited 11am viewings are spread across five Saturdays of 2024 with a special promotion coming up this Saturday (July 6) featuring a bonus slot at 2pm. Unfortunately, these two upcoming events are sold out but the good news is that you can get on board for the final two tours on September 7 and November 2. If you’ve ever confused St Pancras for King’s Cross, you may feel like you’ve already seen everything the station has to offer after walking its perimeter looking for your platform. However, the company that runs the tour – City Highlights – promises ‘informed and entertaining tours of the station’s principal features set in a historical context, with up-to-date knowledge of current works and future plans’. The company is the only official guide endorsed by High Speed 1, the owner of the high-speed railway connecting St Pancras International Station and the Channel Tunnel. You can find more information about the St Pancras International Station guided tours here. Did you know that the V&A is launching a pop-up trail dedicated to Taylor Swift th

There are plenty of great little places kicking about on Brixton Road, and for a while, Café Van Gogh was one of them. Known for serving tasty vegan food from breakfast through dinner, sweet treats and cheeky 2-4-1 margaritas on Thursday nights, this place was at the heart of the community. However, the café has sadly just closed it’s doors.  And the saddest part is that it wasn’t just a great place to go for a bite to eat or a cocktail. Café Van Gogh was a fully-fledged social enterprise which worked hard to transform the lives of 60 adults and young people with learning disabilities by training them in hospitality roles. In 2020, only seven percent of south London adults with a learning disability were employed, according to Mencap. The cafe’s hard work meant that learning-disabled adults and young people gained some independence through it’s training programme and the mentorship of job coaches. While Café Van Gogh was seeking charitable status at the time of closing, the team has just shared an Instagram post detailing that the decision to shut permanently. The reason? It can no longer afford to run. The post cites rising costs due to Brexit and the pandemic; high energy prices and the effects of home working on the lunchtime economy as contributing factors. The post reads: ‘We’ve been compelled to take the incredibly tough decision to close Café Van Gogh, after nine years of trading as a unique vegan social enterprise, which always placed kindness and ethics at the heart

Already seen Buckingham Palace and been on the London Eye? If you’re stuck for ideas on how to spend your time in the city, look no further than this quintessentially British walking tour of London’s pubs, which has been crowned TripAdvisor’s best thing to do in the UK for two years on the trot. The Historical Pub Walking Tour of London came out on top in TripAdvisor’s 2023 and 2024 Travellers’ Choice Awards as the best UK experience in the category. It was also ranked as the 19th overall top experience in the world, as well as coming in fourth place for ‘cultural and historic experiences’. One reviewer who booked the tour this year wrote: ‘The tour guide was absolutely amazing! We had the best time, perfectly paced, not a big history buff but found every fact interesting! One of my favourite things I did in London.’ High praise indeed. If you fancy trying out the (alleged) best experience the UK has to offer, you’ll be in a small guided group hopping between at least four locally loved alehouses for half a day. You’ll sip on local brews, get some sightseeing in, and hear tales of the historical figures who were partial to a pint or two in the very same pubs. The £25 per person pub crawl is run by Liquid History Tours and has earned 3814 five-star reviews on the TripAdvisor website. For the annual Best of the Best awards, reviews and ratings over the past year are analysed to determine which hotels, beaches, attractions and other travel points were of the highest quality, lea