The Time Out London blog team

When Wetherspoons announced that it would be closing its Hackney pub Baxter’s Court last month, some locals weren’t pleased. But, rejoice! Baxter’s Court is making a return (just not as a Spoons). According to the Sun, regulars were ‘heartbroken’ and slammed the decision to close Baxter’s Court as ‘utterly ridiculous’. Facebook group 'Dead Pubs of London’ mourned the boozer as a ‘lifeline’ to ‘the elderly, disabled, impoverished, generally disadvantaged, and just plain working-class’. A customer notice announcing the news said customers could visit their next nearest Wetherspoons instead – The Rochester Castle in Stoke Newington, a 35-minute walk away. Just over a month later though, the freehouse has come under new management. It now belongs to pub and hotel operator The DC Lion and looks set to reopen in the coming weeks. New signage has already been put up but there’s no confirmed date for its reopening date yet.  Spoons has said farewell to a number of its London pubs over the past few years, but it’s been busy opening brand new ones too. A new Wetherspoons arrived in Fulham in the summer, another two landed in Paddington and London Bridge at the end of September and there could be one on its way to Charing Cross.  Fancy a pint? Take a look at Time Out’s guide to the 50 best pubs in London for 2025.  ICYMI: 11 great London restaurants that closed this autumn.  Plus: The 13 poshest pubs in London have been named by the Times.  Get the latest and greatest from the Big...

Like it or not, our taxes go up every single year. Normally, there’s a nationwide cap on how much councils can raise their taxes, but every so often authorities are given an exception. And this week, the government has given permission to five London local authorities to raise council tax by more than anywhere else in the UK over the next two years.  Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster, Wandsworth, City of London and Hammersmith and Fulham will all be allowed to increase their rates by more than the normal five percent cap in 2026 and 2027.  These five areas have been given special permission as they’re currently the councils with the lowest tax rates in the city (Band D households currently pay £450 and £1,280 less than the average in England) and will all face cuts in funding next year, with the government shifting more focus onto deprived areas. Alison McGovern, local government and homelessness minister, told the Commons this week that the exemption for these areas will ‘improve fairness’. She said: ‘It will enable the government to allocate more than £250m of funding in the system more fairly, instead of subsidising bills for the half a million households in those council areas. ‘It will also provide greater flexibility for those authorities in deciding how to manage their finances following our reforms. The councils will decide on the level of council tax increase to set and whether to draw on the relatively high alternative sources of income from which a number of...

You may have spotted the uproar over Rowan’s Tenpin Bowl being ‘under threat’ over the last few days. The outcry is in response to the publication of Haringey Council’s Draft Local Plan, which has suggested that the Rowans site is ‘potentially suitable for tall buildings’ and could be used for a ‘high-density, mixed-use development’. The good news is that nothing’s set in stone, and the council wants your opinion.  Haringey’s draft plan lays out a vision for how the borough could change and grow over the next 15 years. It proposes that the land that Rowans sits on could be used to build 190 new homes in the future. The final decision is down to the owner of the land, but the council says that any plans must ensure ‘an appropriate leisure/community facility use to replace the existing Rowans bowling alley must be provided at the foot of the new buildings’. Like we said, nothing is set in stone but locals are not pleased at the prospect of losing such a beloved institution. Ed McIlroy, owner of Finsbury Park’s The Plimsoll, wrote in an Instagram post: ‘To say that Rowan’s is a jewel in the crown is an understatement. It is the entire crown, potentially the entire head and torso of the beast. It is the perfect cross section of London and the most incredible balance of the best and worst night out you have ever had.’ Given the uproar, Rowan’s released a statement to assure people that it’s not going anywhere for now. Its post read: ‘Firstly we have no short term plans to...