The Time Out London blog team

A £72.7 million heat network is going to start heating several landmarks in London’s city centre, including the National Theatre and King’s College London, developers have revealed.  Plans have been unveiled for a water source heat pump to take warmth from the River Thames and transport it through a network of underground pipes, providing low carbon heating for several iconic landmarks. Officially called the Waterloo and Southbank Heat Network, the plan is part of a wider goal to decarbonise heating in central London without every building having to have its own heat pump.  It’s not been confirmed exactly which buildings will connect to the heat network, but organisations exploring the opportunity include the National Theatre, King’s College London, BFI Southbank and Southbank Centre, the developers said. Photograph: Shutterstock It’s thought that once the core infrastructure is built, the network will serve an initial cluster of buildings in central London. There are then hopes to expand the network to more buildings and homes on a neighbourhood by neighbourhood basis, with local engagement surveys conducted along the way.  Developers Hemiko said the new network would be British-built and locally operated. It said that the first cluster of buildings to join the network could save 22,000 tonnes of carbon annually, which is equivalent to taking 10,000 cars off the road. Toby Heysham, Hemiko’s chief executive, said: ‘There are few things that say “London” quite like the...

It may, famously, be the most important meal of the day, but breakfast is often severely underrated – overlooked in favour of a trendier brunch or simply skipped altogether. Not by us. London is stuffed with places serving fry-ups, pancakes, pastries and porridge and more worth rising early for. And Time Out has put together a new list of the very best.  Number one in our ranking of London’s greatest spots for breakfast is The Wolseley. There are few places that take the first meal of the day quite as seriously as this Piccadilly restaurant. It’s been famed for its breakfast spread for decades – one of the UK’s most renowned food critics, the late AA Gill, even wrote an entire book dedicated to it.  Time Out’s food editor Leonie Cooper called the Wolseley an ‘always-fun and always-busy art deco-styled grand café - and still a celeb-spotting paradise’. She added: ‘If you like to start your day with a sense of occasion, it doesn’t get much better than The Wolseley. From a just-baked pastry or an omelette Arnold Bennett, to a decadent kedgeree or the creamed porridge with fruit compote.’ Photograph: The Wolseley   Alongside every breakfast classic you could wish for, the Wolseley’s has a selection of specialities that include grilled kipper with mustard butter, fired haggis and duck eggs with whiskey sauce and fishcakes with poached eggs and hollandaise.  This is a rather posh venue, so prices aren’t low. But, Leonie says, ‘at a place of this exceptional quality you...

It’s no secret that London’s rental market is in a very poor state right now. As much as we’d all love to have a place all to ourselves, eye-watering prices force many – particularly young – Londoners to make do with a flat share. But how much would you need to earn in order to afford renting an apartment of your own? And how does that compare to other major cities across Europe? The Economist has revealed how affordable flats are in 28 European cities, in what it calls the ‘Carrie Bradshaw Index’ – named, of course, after the Sex in the City protagonist who rents her rather nice New York flat on a single person’s salary.  It couldn’t help but wonder: can the average Londoner, like Carrie, afford to live in a decent apartment on their own while still having cash to spare for designer shoes and endless Cosmos? The answer, you won’t be surprised to find out, is no.  The publication goes by the general rule of thumb that rent is affordable when it costs no more than 30 percent of the tenant’s monthly income. So, each city’s ‘Bradshaw score’ is calculated by dividing the average local wage by the wage that would be needed to keep rent within budget. Any place with a score less than one is branded unaffordable. Photograph: Abdul_Shakoor / Shutterstock.com The Big Smoke got a ‘Bradshaw score’ of just 0.68 percent. In London, the average wage is £55,530 and the average one-bed flat sits at £2,000 a month. That means anyone on an average salary would have to say goodbye to 44...