The Time Out London blog team

Drivers, beware. More parts of central London could be pedestrianised under proposals from Westminster Council and the Crown Estate.  The road between Piccadilly Circus and St James’s Park could be transformed into a massive public plaza and vehicles could be banned from Regent Street St James’s, Waterloo Place and the south side of Piccadilly Circus. If the proposals are enacted, the pedestrianisation of certain roads would lead to more than 35,000 square metres of new public space, equivalent to more than five football pitches, created in the West End.  Currently, Regent Street St James’s is for northbound road traffic, while its neighbour, Haymarket, is for southbound road traffic. The plans would see vehicles banned from Regent Street St James and Haymarket converted into two-way traffic. Waterloo Place, just south of Pall Mall, could also be pedestrianised. The plaza is home to a number of statues and memorials, including the Florence Nightingale statue, the Guards Crimean War Memorial and the Duke of York column.  Image: Westminster Council Regent Street would have its pavements widened and see cycle lanes installed, made possible by the removal of the island in the middle of the road.  The grand plan was first announced in 2025, but at the end of January 2026 the Crown Estate announced it would continue with the proposals following a positive public response. The final designs by Allies and Morrison architects are due to be revealed in summer 2026, with work...

Back in the day, Manston Airport near Margate used to fly Brits to their holidays in Europe, with destinations including Italy, Portugal and Amsterdam. The airport closed its doors in 2014, but in 2025 it announced it was going to make a comeback. Now there’s been an update, as owners said the airport could reopen in 2029.  Originally built in 1916 as an RAF base, Manston also operated as a commercial terminal until shutting down more than a decade ago. In recent years it’s operated as a car park, hosted aviation events and was even the set for the 2022 film Empire of Light.  Originally tipped to open in 2028, the return of Manston Airport has been pushed back by a year due to the ‘complexity of planning work, changes to the cost of the works and turbulence within the financial markets’, Tony Freudman from airport owners RiverOak Strategic Partners (RSP) said. Freudman told Kent Online that Manston could reopen as a cargo airport in 2029, but it could still be a few years until passenger flights return to the terminal. The £750 million project is reportedly in its final stages, with the airport in final discussions with a European funding partner.  No airlines have expressed an interest in operating from Manston yet, but Freudman said that airlines like Jet2 and TUI prefer ‘regional airports like this one’. RSP hopes that a consultation on proposed airspace will begin in March 2026.  Photograph: Shutterstock ‘Manston represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to...

You know what they say about buses. You wait ages for a bus, and it’s raining, and windy, and there is nowhere to sit down apart from the weird plastic ledge thing, and then three buses come along at once. Or something like that? Anyway, because of this top-class experience, TfL has decided it’s time for the capital’s bus stops to glow up. The transport authority is running a 12-month trial at 27 bus shelters across the city as it looks to improve accessibility, safety and all-round customer experience.  New bus shelters will be introduced in London boroughs Barking & Dagenham, Bexley, Camden, Croydon, Hackney, Havering, Hillingdon, Kingston-upon-Thames, Lambeth, Southwark, Wandsworth and City of Westminster. Locations were selected based on the condition of existing shelters and the number of customers using each bus stop, as well as high crime locations. The first ones were installed at the end of January, with the trial running for the next year. We know you’re on the edge of your seat to find out more – and not just perched on one of the current stops’ weird seat-rest hybrids. So, how will the bus shelters actually be different? Well, TfL’s new designs have a number of enhanced features: lighting will be improved to help customers feel safer and provide better visibility; seats will be introduced for comfort and accessibility; a reflective red vinyl roof will make bus stops more recognisable in darkness and from a distance, while new materials will make the shelters...