Anna Mahtani

With stunning white chalk cliffs and waving green hills, the Seven Sisters in East Sussex has long been a day-trip favourite. And now, its natural beauty is officially protected. On March 19, the landscape was officially declared England's newest National Nature Reserve.   Sitting within South Downs National Park (only two hours from London by rail), the freshly inaugurated National Nature Reserve is about 1,500 hectares large – almost five times as big as Hampstead Heath. Walking through Seven Sisters, bird lovers will be able to spot skylarks and yellowhammers flitting between the skyline, while those with a keen eye might catch a chalkhill blue butterfly or see bee orchid flowers.  Alongside its thriving wildlife and rare meadows, the landscape boasts chalk grasslands which hide one of Britain’s largest aquifers, which provides fresh water to local towns.  The white cliffs themselves have been immortalised in films like Atonement, Wicked and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire as well as in Rudyard Kipling’s poem ‘Sussex’, where he describes a ‘half-wild and wholly tame’ turf which ‘cloaks the white cliff-edge’.  The announcement also marks a British milestone, as it’s the 13th park in the King’s Series of National Nature Reserves – of which he hopes to create 25 by 2028. Midway to being finished, this project is led by Natural England. Chair of Natural England, Tony Juniper, said: ‘The Seven Sisters National Nature Reserve creates a bigger, better and more joined-up space

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 145

As commitment to New Year's Resolutions start to dwindle, why not kick yourself back into gear and swap a dingy nightclub for a runner’s high sprinting through Battersea Park? With lasers, thumping bass and a sweaty crowd, at a brand new event happening next month, you’ll hardly be able to tell the difference.  This year, TCS London Marathon is teaming up with Friday Night Lights for the first time to offer an evening 5k run and get people hyped for the main event. And unlike the London Marathon, there’s no ballot.  Kicking off the marathon weekend, the event will take place in Battersea Park on Friday April 24 from 7.45pm. The party will be buzzing with sick lighting, pumping music and even a laser tunnel leading runners to the finish line.  Blending running and music, Friday Night Lights is an events company which promises ‘the UK’s healthiest night out’ – without cramping your style. Since 2023 it’s been organising runs in Brighton, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Southsea in Portsmouth. It isn’t the only new event for London runners launching this year. Soon, South London will also be getting a new half marathon, weaving through Wimbledon Village and some of the best parks the capital has to offer and there’ll be a new half mara through Shoreditch from the same people behind the Hackney Half. In the meanwhile, the Big Smoke already has some great (and free) runs across its boroughs – in fact, we got some pros to walk us through them.  In response to the recent boom in r

If Liverpool is a little too lively for you, there’s a quieter spot right across the River Mersey – and it’s about to benefit from a major waterfront redevelopment project. That’s right, Birkenhead on the west bank is getting a riverside revamp, including a children’s play area and walking paths overlooking the Pool of Life. The peaceful Cheshire town has produced the likes of war poet Wilfred Owen and actor Taron Egerton, and has a host of historical architectural sights – its town square, Hamilton Square boasts the largest collection of Grade I-listed buildings outside London.  On March 10, Wirral Council recommended approval for the updated plans for its latest project. The plans were unanimously approved back in 2025, but due to rising costs had to be revisited. Mostly covered by government grants, it’ll cost £25.6 million, with Liverpool City Region Combined Authority providing £12.7 million to build ‘a dynamic creative quarter’ on Argylle Street. The plans are also getting boosted by a £12.9 million regeneration grant. Only a few steps away from Hamilton Square Station, the project will help bridge Birkenhead town centre and the River Mersey. The historic port town will get a brand new play area, cycle lanes and walking spots, aimed at improving transport links for pedestrians, cyclists and public transport users.  To minimise traffic, a signalised junction will replace the Conway Street roundabout near Argylle Street. Alongside it, there will be a new cycle lane, a zeb

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 but

You know the unexplainable joy of getting a freshly upholstered seat on the tube during rush hour? Now you can experience it every day in the comfort of your own home, thanks to a new TfL-inspired fabric collection. Taking its cues from London Transport seats from the 1910s all the way through to the 1990s, the collection is by Kirkby, a design studio based in the capital. The collaboration with TfL – titled ‘Underground Vol. III’ – recreates eight archival designs on velvet moquette (a thick carpet-like type of fabric used for upholstery – as well as tube seats). If you’ve always looked at the seating patterns of London’s transport services and thought ‘wow, that’s art’, well, you wouldn’t be wrong. In the 1930s Christian Barman – the Publicity Officer for London Transport – commissioned a range of contemporary artists to transform the capital’s commute. With hand-drawn designs woven from two-tone cut and uncut velvet, ‘Underground Vol. III’ celebrates some of the best-known patterns from TfL history . Inspired by Enid Marx’s 1936 designs, ‘Brent’ features the diamond pattern of the old District line. Meanwhile, ‘Northern’ takes on Marianne Straub’s 1965 artwork which once decked out multiple tube lines and double-decker buses. Photograph: Kirkby Design x TfL Other patterns include ‘Chalfont’, a floral fabric which once lined the first-class carriages of the Metropolitan Railway’s steam locomotives; ‘Caledonian’, an art deco inspired tartan; ‘Bromley’, a striped moquette f

2026 is proving to be a great year for Blackpool. Alongside getting a brand new theme park ride for Pleasure Beach and possibly a new direct link to London, the northwestern seaside resort town is one of Time Out’s best places to visit in 2026. Better yet, Blackpool’s art fans will soon have easy access to a masterpiece. Grundy Art Gallery will put a new Claude Monet work on show later this month.  Monet’s ‘The Petit Bras of the Seine at Argenteuil’ (1872) will be on display in the Grundy as part of The National Gallery Masterpiece Tour. The initiative seeks to share the London institution’s collection with galleries and museums across the UK, having previously brought Rembrandt to Belfast, Manet to Canterbury, and Degas to Pembrokeshire.  The artwork (above) shows a calming scene of the Seine on the outskirts of Paris, with two figures playing by the foggy water. Painted in Argenteuil, where Monet lived from 1871 to 1878, the image shows a quiet landscape on the cusp of industrialisation.  This marks only the second time the painting has left The National Gallery in the past 20 years, and the Grundy is one of just four galleries chosen to exhibit it. Guests will be able to see the Monet piece in Blackpool from March 28 until June 13.  For those less in-the-know about the northwest’s art scene, the Grundy is set in a beautiful Grade II-listed Edwardian building that is less than a 10-minute walk from Blackpool North train station. The Lancashire gallery is no stranger to big-

If you’ve been on the motorway into or out of central London (on the M4, to be specific) you’ve likely seen GlaxoSmithKline’s imposing old Brentford HQ. Massive and grey, the former biopharma headquarters has been sitting empty since 2024.  But GSK’s behemoth won’t be uninhabited much longer. This month the local council approved plans to turn the place into an entire new neighbourhood, complete with its own cinema, bar and dancehall.  The project is led by Haworth Tompkins and involves Studio Egret West, Metropolitan Workshop, and dRMM. The architecture practice, Studio Egret West, was also behind the plans for Brent Cross West and Earl’s Court, as well as Mayfield Park in Manchester. Once completed, GSK’s old haunts will have a whopping 2,324 homes. Most of the headquarters will be demolished, with basements remaining and the main office tower being redesigned with ‘oversized balconies’ and a rooftop conservatory.   Image: Studio Egret West Given that this is a proper ‘neighbourhood’, it’ll have more than just housing. In fact, west London could be getting a new cultural destination. In total, 30,000 square metres is being reserved for commercial use, including a bar, cinema, theatre, dance hall, immersive VR space and even an escape room. Studio Egret West’s plans will see 60 percent of the space remain open to the public with stuff like communal gardens, play areas and riverside access.  Not everyone has been in favour of the plans. Kew Gardens and Historic England rai

Whether you’re stocking up on picky bits, treating yourself to posh groceries or only there for Colin the Caterpillar, M&S is an absolute British staple. In fact, this February Marks and Spencer was voted Brits’ favourite supermarket for an impressive fifth year in a row (though, somewhat predictably, with only a two-star rating for ‘value for money’).  Winning over people’s hearts clearly isn’t enough for M&S – now, the chain wants to open more stores and bring its fancy goods to even more Brits. Last December Marks and Sparks opened a massive new store in London, while the company has wider plans to open 200 new locations in the capital alone.  Soon, the famous supermarket will be building a brand new two-storey store in Harlow, a London commuter town in Essex. Plans were announced for the new M&S on March 6. The 50,000 square foot shop – which will be built over the driving training centre site on Edinburgh Way – will include an MS Foodhall as well as fashion and household goods.  We’re light on further details at the mo, but we do know that the new store will have a car park with 380 spaces built next to it. Over the past few years, Harlow has been sprucing itself up, from opening a brand new Ikea store to planning a new town from scratch right next door.  Dan Swords, Leader of Harlow Council, said the new M&S was a ‘real vote of confidence in Harlow’s future’ and added: ‘We promised the people of Harlow we would bring a full-line M&S back to our town - and today we have

Always wanted to step right into Heathcliff and Cathy’s sort-of-love story? Clearly, you’re not alone. Since it was released on February 13 one thing Emerald Fennel’s somewhat controversial adaptation of ‘Wuthering Heights’ has done is show just how beautiful Yorkshire can be. As a result, Haworth, a tiny hilltop village in God’s Own County, has been swept up in ‘Brontëmania’. Local businesses and guides have apparently reported a major uptake in bookings since the film’s release. Not only was the Margot Robbie movie filmed nearby (find all the filming locations here), but source text author Emily Brontë also lived in the local parsonage. While none of the film was set in Haworth, it’s easy to see how Brontë’s 1847 gothic romance – which explores cycles of vengeance and the cost of unfulfilled desire – may have been inspired by its howling landscape. Fans of the book have been visiting Haworth for hundreds of years. Since the 19th century, fans have been making pilgrimages to the Brontë sisters’ home in Haworth. At the time, their father Reverend Patrick Brontë – who outlived them – used to cut out his daughters’ signatures from letters to give out as souvenirs.  These days visitors can still wander the winding cobbled streets or ramble along the windy moors of South Pennines. Photograph: Sergii Figurnyi / Shutterstock.com One of the village’s most visited locations is the Brontë Parsonage Museum, where Emily, Charlotte and Anne Brontë lived. The museum is currently hosting

If the tantalising arrival of spring has you itching to get out and explore London wildlife, here’s some exciting news. The capital just got another designated nature reserve. This month Ealing Council named Warren Farm in Southall a Local Nature Reserve. The meadow, which was once a sports ground, has been mostly empty for 15 years. Gradually, the park has been rewilded into a grassland habitat for wildflowers, birds, butterflies and bees.  Warren Farm is most notable for its skylarks – in fact, almost a quarter of London’s entire skylark breeding population calls the space home. Other local critters include hairstreak butterflies, barn owls, little owls, and kestrels.  Photograph: Richard Carter Photography London’s newest nature reserve is part of a wider project called Brent River Park: a 50-year-old string of green-spaces connected by the River Brent, which runs from Barnet into the Thames via Southall. Warren Farm will also form part of West London Regional Park, a series of connected leafy spots between Ealing and Hounslow.  At 24.8 hectares, Warren Farm Nature Reserve is only slightly bigger than St James Park (about the size of three football fields). Alongside the Local Nature Reserve declaration, the council is building a cricket and football field on Imperial College London land to replace the sports grounds.  Leader of Ealing Council Cllr Peter Mason said that nature reserve designation will provide ‘a much-needed green lung for this part of the borough.’ Local

Always wanted to ride the London Eye, with all its views of the Thames and central London, but always found the pods a bit... grey? Here’s just the thing. The iconic London attraction is launching a floral installation to celebrate spring. With flowers framing the pod windows and colourful decals on the glass, a limited-time experience will let you peer through petals out towards the Big Smoke’s loveliest sights.  For those hoping to add some extra flourish to their trip, the Eye is also offering a limited-edition spring afternoon tea and a Lego Botanicals experience. In the former, the high-tea menu will serve floral treats, lemon and lavender mini cupcakes and fruit tarts. The brick-themed latter, which has been made in collaboration with Lego Designers, will see guests building their own Lego Botanicals Daisies Posy to take home.  The flowery makeover will be perfectly suited to the season: it’ll feature throughout much of April and over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend. If you want a colourful Eye experience, it’s running from March 27 to May 4.  Stripecom You can book tickets for a flowery Eye capsule for only £29 – the same price as regular (non-blooming) trips. The spring afternoon tea will start from £75, while the Lego activity will cost £59. You can pre-book on the London Eye website here.  London Eye is just one of several London attractions doing big things for Easter 2026. For little ones, Hampton Court Palace is hiding Lindt Gold Bunnies across the estate while