The Time Out London blog team

The London Underground uses an absolutely humungous amount of electricity. Ferrying Londoners across the city 24/7 almost every day of the year requires roughly 1.6 terawatt hours (TWh) per year – roughly the same amount used to annually power around 592,600 homes. Unsurprisingly, TfL is the single largest electricity consumer in the city.  Right now, the tube relies on fossil fuels to generate all of its power, but that’s set to change. TfL has big ambitions to be 100 percent reliant on renewable energy sources by 2030. And in some very good news for the planet, the tube will soon be partly powered by the sun. The solar installations to power the network will be provided by SSE Energy Solutions. It’ll harvest the energy from newly-installed solar farms and supply it directly to the TfL network, bypassing the National Grid.  Photograph: TfL Once the solar farm is constructed, it’s hoped that the installations will deliver up to 65,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of renewable energy – around two-thirds of the estimated annual consumption of the Victoria line. Over the next 25 years, TfL says there’s potential to save 27,000 tonnes of carbon. That’s equivalent to  almost 32,900 flights between London and New York City.  As part of its mission to be carbon-free, TfL is also converting lighting within its stations, bus shelters and on trains to LEDs, reducing carbon in major construction projects and working towards a fully zero-emission bus fleet (it already has the largest...

Endo Kazutoshi is kind of a big deal. The Yokohama-born sushi master has been based in London for a while now, launching Endo at the Rotunda in White City in 2019. However, due to a fire last year, the restaurant remains closed. But Endo isn’t sitting still, and is currently in residence at Mayfair private members club Annabel’s on Berkeley Square.  The club is allowing non-members to make reservations at its new exclusive sushi pop-up from the Michelin-starred chef. He’s taking over the restaurant for five months and will be offering a £245-a-head menu. The menu also has the option to add a £120-per-person sake pairing. Commenting on the opening, Kazutoshi said: ‘I have an opportunity to make the food I love and reconnect with guests outside of the Rotunda, and to meet new friends along the way too. ‘My team and I are ready to welcome you all and we hope you enjoy this demonstration of my sushi and hospitality in a different setting.’ Annabel’s usually charges an annual fee of £3,250, but non-members will be allowed to eat at the pop-up. However, strict house rules will be maintained. As usual, diners will not be allowed to use their phones, submit dietary requests or even wear perfume. There’s a strict dress code too, which requires ‘polished, occasion and time-of-day appropriate attire … smart, tasteful and refined, rather than casual or sporty’. Endo will be cheffing at the member’s club from now until July 2026. It’s already booked up until the end of May. For future...

London’s biggest and glitziest theatre awards ceremony the Oliviers are barely a month away – and the nominations have just dropped. It will come as no surprise to anybody that Paddington the Musical is out in front of the nomination pack, with 11 in total, including the prestigious Best New Musical award – if ever there was a show expected to ratchet up nominations it’s this one, and expect it to win big, including (probably) its slightly confusing nomination for best lead (male) actor in a musical – the role (and nomination) is shared by James Hameed and Arti Shah (who is female). Whatever: the remarkable live Paddington deserves to win awards, and this is about as good a fit for a category as you’re likely to get. The expected usual host of celebrities are nominated for their stage roles, including Cate Blanchett, Tom Hiddleston, Rachel Zegler, Bryan Cranston and Rosamund Pike, with some very deserving non-slebs mixed in there including Rosie Sheehy for this year’s Guess How Much I Love You? and Jack Holden for his excellent true crime monologue KENREX.  Other shows to have done well include All My Sons, Stereophonic and KENREX again with six nominations apiece, and joint with Paddington on 11 the Bridge Theatre’s luxuriant revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods. This does lead us onto an interesting point: Into the Woods was great, but it feels somewhat wacky that it scored six more nominations than Jamie Lloyd’s revival of Evita – probably the most talked about...