The Time Out London blog team

Slap bang in the middle of Crystal Palace Park, the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre has been a hub of health and wellbeing for south Londoners for over six decades.  From its diving pool and climbing wall to its athletics track, the place has a huge range of sporting facilities – but the CPNSC is also historically significant. Since it opened in 1964, it’s hosted renowned athletes and sporting competitions (like the first-ever Women’s FA Cup final in 1971 and a whopping 28 track and field stadium world records). The Grade II-listed building is also something of an architectural marvel, designed by Norman Engleback – the architect behind the recently Grade II-listed Southbank Centre. Crystal Palace National Sports Centre is a legendary place, but in recent years it’s been in urgent need of some TLC. Notably, the main 50m pool closed in 2020 after large cracks were found at its base. It’s stayed shut ever since.  The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan announced plans to revamp the centre way back in 2023, but now further details have been revealed – the plans were finally officially submitted this week. The revamped venue will feature stuff like a basketball court, football pitches, and shiny (and crack-free) pools. The £130 million redevelopment will be overseen by Morgan Sindall Construction, the company behind Lambeth Town Hall’s 2018 renovation.  Image: GLA The 15-hectare sport facility revamp will boast not just the aforementioned places to play basketball and football...

Walking is one of the best ways to get to know a city. If you spend all your time hopping on and off public transport, you’ll miss so many treasures and hidden gems that a place has to offer. Stroll down a random street in London (such as the coolest of them all, Blackstock Road), and you’ll likely come across a parade of beloved institutions, trendsetting restaurants and pioneering cultural centres. Often, those streets are landmarks in themselves.  With all of that in mind, travel writers at the Telegraph put together a list of 20 streets around the world that ‘you must walk in your lifetime’. The list isn’t in any particular order, but right at the top is Strand, here in London.  The Telegraph’s destination expert (and former Time Out staffer) Chris Moss said: ‘This classy Monopoly mid-price street (£220 to Park Lane’s £350) invites pedestrians to dance through old London history.’ As it happens, the central London street was also among Time Out’s top places in the UK to visit this year. Photograph: Shutterstock The Strand is one of the capital’s most ancient and historic streets, connecting Trafalgar Square to Fleet Street. Along its 1.3 kilometres, walkers will find leading West End theatres, historical landmarks, major art institutions and a slew of fantastic pubs, cafes and restaurants. Its most historic monuments include one of the city’s oldest shops, Twinings, which has been around since 1696; the church of St Clement Danes, thought to date back to...

London is jam packed with fantastic attractions – from its world-leading cuisine to its spectacular museums and endless activities for kids. It’s hardly surprising that more people lineup for its venues that any other city in the UK. But which of those London venues welcomed in the most visitors last year? In 2025, London’s Natural History Museum was Britain’s most popular attraction. More than 7.1 million people explored the iconic landmark last year – knocking The British Museum, the long-reigning winner, down to second. According to the Associate of Leading Visitor Attractions (AVLA), this makes it England’s most visited museum or gallery ever.  Only a five minute walk from South Kensington tube station, the crown jewel of British museums holds everything from fossils and gemstones to a VR experience. In the build up to its 150th birthday in 2031, the museum is opening (and reopening) a new permanent gallery every year. Later this year, it’s reopening a gallery which has been closed for almost 80 years, while Fixing Our Broken Planet – which opened in April 2025 – has been visited by more than two million people.  Beyond its main collection, the museum regularly puts on impressive (and sometimes quirky) exhibitions. Currently, you can catch David Attenborough's immersive documentary and wander through the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025. There’s even a sold-out Pokémon pop-up shop. Not so long ago, it hosted an intergalactic exhibition for the first time in its...