Annie McNamee

Sure, winter has its perks. Cosying up by the fire with a cup of hot chocolate in hand is lovely. Big woolen jumpers are ever-chic. But there’s no warm, fuzzy feeling that comes close to feeling actual warmth. In our eyes, you just can’t beat the sunshine: sitting on a rooftop terrace, ice-cold cocktail in hand… bonus points if everyone back home is stuck with endless grey drizzle. There are plenty of places across the world still basking in glorious sunshine from October to February. Our list of the best winter sun destinations this year spans six continents and five months, giving you 20 recommendations for the very best places you can visit during the winter months. Whether it’s Thai beaches, African safaris or sunny city breaks in Europe, we’ve got you covered. The best winter sun destinations at a glance: 🏖️ Best for beaches: Thailand 🏙️ Best for a city break: Cape Town, South Africa 🌡️ Warmest in Europe: Tenerife, Spain 🐘 Best for wildlife: Namibia 🎭 Best for an arty break: Cartagena, Colombia 🍜 Best for food: Vietnam At Time Out, all of our travel guides are written by local writers who know their cities inside out. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines and check out our latest travel guides written by local experts. RECOMMENDED:☀️ Europe’s 10 best winter sun destinations

This list is from 2024. Our latest ranking for 2025 is live here. In 2024, what exactly makes a neighbourhood cool? Craft breweries, natty wine bars and street art are well and good, but the world’s best, most exciting and downright fun neighbourhoods are much more than identikit ‘hipster hubs’. They’re places that reflect the very best of their cities – its culture, community spirit, nightlife, food and drink – all condensed in one vibey, walkable district. To create our annual ranking, we went straight to the experts – our global team of on-the-ground writers and editors – and asked them what the coolest neighbourhood in their city is right now, and why. Then we narrowed down the selection and ranked the list using the insight and expertise of Time Out’s global editors, who vetted each neighbourhood against criteria including food, drink, arts, culture, street life, community and one-of-a-kind local flavour. The result? A list that celebrates the most unique and exciting pockets of our cities – and all their quirks. Yes, you’ll find some of those international hallmarks of ‘cool’. But in every neighbourhood on this list there’s something you won’t find anywhere else. Ever been to a photography museum that moonlights as a jazz club? Or a brewery with a library of Russian literature? How about a festival dedicated to fluff? When communities fiercely support and rally around their local businesses, even the most eccentric ideas can become a reality. And that, in our eyes, is

On March 25, 1925, at London’s Selfridges department store in central London, Scottish inventor John Logie Baird made the first public demo of his latest creation: a way to broadcast visual information from a camera to a screen. A full century later, Baird’s discovery has led to perhaps the most vital, creative and popular mode of artistic expression in the entire world. But it’s only in the past 25 years that television has really fulfilled its artistic potential.  The result has been the so-called ‘Golden Age of Television’, a boom kickstarted roughly around the turn of the century with the rise of shows like The Sopranos and later Breaking Bad, and continuing with awards-winners from Succession to Shōgun to Slow Horses. So while our list of the 100 greatest TV shows may pay tribute to the unmissable programs of yesteryear, you’ll find that the majority hail from our own century – meaning there’s no excuse not to watch every single one. Paring the list down to only 100 was a painful process, so we decided to omit sketch shows, talk shows, news and non-fiction in order to focus on scripted drama and classic comedy. Time to go goggle-eyed. Recommended: 🔥 The best TV and streaming shows of 2025 (so far)🍎 The best shows to watch on Apple TV+ right now📺 The best Netflix original series to binge🎮 The best ‘90s TV shows

This bustling coastal city is absolutely steeped in history, maritime heritage, and of course, there's loads to see. It’s roots date back as far as the Stone Age, and its first ever museum (the Tudor House) remains a top attraction, with gorgeous gardens and guided tours on offer.  There’s plenty of modern-day action too, with a treasured football team, The Saints, and their fans bringing life to the city on match day. Southampton is also only a 20-minute drive away from the New Forest, or a ferry-ride away from the Isle of Wight, there's plenty going on that makes this city worth a visit. Check out our list of top picks for all the best things to do in Southampton.  RECOMMENDED:  🚆The best day trips from London⛰️ The best things to in the New Forest🏖️ The best seaside towns in the UK💕 The best things to do in the UK Annie McNamee is a writer at Time Out UK. At Time Out, all of our travel guides are written by local writers who know their cities inside out. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines. This guide includes affiliate links, which have no influence on our editorial content. For more information, see our affiliate guidelines. 

This is about the time when the January blues start to hit pretty hard. It’s dark at 4pm, you’ve got no money left after Christmas and winter feels like it’s dragging on forever. But we’re here to tell you that things are looking up, because 2025 is going to be a corker of a year for the UK.  It turns out that 2025 is going to be a bit of a big one, with a number of landmark occasions being celebrated across Britain. There’s Jane Austen’s 250th birthday in Southampton, as well as the art-packed Folkestone Triennial, a celebration of 200 years of the British railway in York and Bradford’s 2025 City of Culture festivities. Then, there are up-and-coming foodie towns in Cornwall, music scenes that are popping off in Cardiff and Belfast, and the reopening of grand cultural insitutions like the Tate Liverpool.  If there’s ever been a good time to book a trip, it’s now (it might even help keep some SAD at bay). There is so much fantastic stuff happening across the country this year, so read our list curated by local experts of the best places to visit in the UK in 2025, and get stuck in.  RECOMMENDED: 🇬🇧 The 25 best new things to do in the UK in 2025📍The 12 most underrated city breaks in the UK 🏨 The UK’s 13 best new hotels opening in 2025👨‍👩‍👧 6 amazing places to stay with Kids in the UK

If people make Glasgow, music is what fuels it. The city's music scene was thriving long before the rest of it had caught up, with places like the Barrowlands and the Old Fruit Market offering locals good, cheap live music when general attitudes of Glasgow were, let's just say, less than favourable.  But those days are behind us, and Scotland's biggest city is now known across the UK for its vibrant cultural heritage, nightlife, and, of course, its music scene. Whether you're looking for an arena of people to scream along your favourite songs with, or a small makeshift stage at the back of a bar to find your new favourite band, Glasgow's got you sorted. Fair warning though: crowds here are famously rowdy. They're a lot of fun, but don't be surprised if you end up beer-soaked. Oh, and brush up on our local chants. You don't want to be the only person not shouting along with 'here we, here we, here we f'ing go!'. 

History has it that Pollokshaws Road was once home to a merry band of Flemish weavers – known as the ‘Queer Folk’ – who were brought over to work in the city during the 19th century by local landowners. These days it’s still a thriving creative hub, threading down Glasgow’s Southside and linking up the districts of Govanhill, Strathbungo and Shawlands. Rows of sandstone tenements loom over traffic separated by wide pavements, behind which stand ornate townhouses designed by Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson. There’s a juicy chunk of Pollokshaws Road where bars, cafés and boutiques jostle for space; pick it up from Allison Street and wander down past Queen’s Park. Since it’s a largely residential area, there’s a distinct feel of community – something that’s enhanced by the indie businesses that have popped up over the past few years. In particular it’s a brunch haven, with queues leaking out of living-room-sized cafés come rain or shine. You can also expect to find organic fruit and veg at Stalks & Stems, a fresh produce emporium with a florist next door, and (almost) a different coffee shop for every day of the week. It’s not all hipster territory, though. Punters tired of mustachioed baristas and bar staff will be cheered by the decent selection of old man pubs complete with smoked-glass windows. Recommended: Full guide to the best things to do in Glasgow

How easily could you be persuaded to shave off an eyebrow, or take a shot for every stair you climbed? Perhaps you’d feel more compelled if you were half a bottle of ‘Chicken Wine’ deep, 18, and surrounded by new friends that you were trying to impress? If you attended university in the UK you might have an uncomfortable feeling of deja-vu, perhaps being whisked back to the time you were ‘hazed’ as a first year student. If you didn’t, you’ve likely heard the rumours about former prime ministers getting it on with pigs, or rugby teams shoving carrots in places vegetables should never go. Hazing, or ‘initiation’ as it more commonly goes by this side of the Atlantic, is a practice which usually consists of ritualistically embarrassing rookie members of a given group in order for them to prove themselves. It’s also nothing new. There’s evidence of rowdy schoolboys dating as far back as 420 BCE when Plato recounted ‘practical jokes played by unruly young men’ which left both spectators and haze-ees injured. Somehow, this bizarre custom has survived the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, the birth of Jesus Christ, several international plagues and found a home for itself in the modern age on university campuses. But for the past decade or so, hazing’s millenia-long reign has been threatened by a generation who supposedly care more about their physical and mental health than they do about banter and ritual humiliation. Today, hazing has met its match: Generation Z. So what do these

You might never want to leave Edinburgh, and we get it. The Scottish capital is loved the world over for its culture, restaurants and Fringe Festival (to name a few). But if you limit your time in Scotland to just Edinburgh, trust us, you’re missing out.  Scotland is full of gems, but the best part is a whole lot of them can be reached by train or car in just one day – with enough time left to get back in time for dinner. From hilly hikes to wide-open beaches and from pretty towns to full-blown city breaks, these day trips from Edinburgh are not to be missed. Here are our favourites.  RECOMMENDED:🌤️ The best things to do in Edinburgh 🎨 The best art galleries in Edinburgh🏰 The best attractions in Edinburgh🏘️ The best Airbnbs in Edinburgh This guide was updated by Edinburgh-based Arusa Quereshi, and Time Out editors. At Time Out, all of our travel guides are written by local writers who know their cities inside out. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines. This guide includes affiliate links, which have no influence on our editorial content. For more information, see our affiliate guidelines. 

What words come to mind when we mention the Olympics? Prestige? Excellence? Medals? Or is it: ‘Grom’?  The Olympic games have been around for nearly three millennia. As the entire planet tunes in to watch as the top sports people compete for those coveted gold medals, there’s some stuff you’ll probably want to get your head around to make the most of your viewing experience: jargon for you normies to weave into your vocab that will have you sounding like proper Olympic pros in no time.  RECOMMENDED:How to watch the Paris 2024 Olympics in the UK for freeHere’s the full schedule and timings for the Summer Games We’ve done some digging and unearthed some 100 percent real words and phrases that will almost certainly be used by professional Olympians and commentators across the next few weeks. What’s more, there’s something inherently funny about words which sound out of place to the average Joe. There’s nothing worth giggling about hearing the word ‘jaeger’ at a bar (especially as it’s usually followed by a friend trying to convince you to neck a shot of sweet battery acid and gone-off liquorice), but watching it earnestly come out of the mouth of a world-class gymnast? Now that’s entertainment. So what are you waiting for? Brush up on your sporty lingo and drop these into convo next time you’re watching the Games to impress your mates. Skateboarding  ‘Goofy stance’: Refers to when a skateboarder has their left foot on the back of the board. Also used in surfing and snowboarding

You remember the days. Assuring your friend that she definitely looks like her older cousin’s co-worker, especially with a ponytail in. Hovering awkwardly around the corner from the off-license as your one 18-year-old pal does God’s work for the rest of you. The pit in your tummy as you recite a fake birthday to the bouncer of a sticky-floored nightclub – remembering your star sign, memorising your imaginary postcode – and the elated relief when he lets you in with a raised eyebrow and a reluctant nod. Finding increasingly inventive ways to get around age-restrictions was half the fun of being 17, but today’s teens seem to be going off going out altogether. ‘You definitely see fake IDs less than you used to,’ says one bouncer at a popular student nightclub in Bristol. When he started working at the venue a decade ago, he’d encounter a load of fakes on any given night – but not so much anymore. ‘The worst one I ever saw had the back on upside down,’ he says. ‘The ones we do see are getting a lot better and it can be harder to catch them. But they’re definitely rarer now.’ Something has certainly shifted. A few weeks ago, as I walked through the Triangle, Bristol’s premier hotspot for stumbling freshers and lovers of three for two Jägerbombs, I noticed that the local Sainsbury’s was busier than all of the clubs combined. Two years ago, dancefloors would’ve been filling up at 11pm on a Monday. This wasn’t a fluke: since that night, two of the clubs in question have closed their

For all of the stick we give the UK – the grey skies, the pigeons, the Greggs sausage roll packets littering the pavements – it’s actually a pretty gorgeous country. In London alone, you can be goggling over the Barbican’s brutalist beauty one moment, the next, you might be basking in the tranquility of Hampstead Ponds. Add the turquoise coasts of Cornwall, the rugged mountains of Snowdonia and the fairytale wonder of Scotland’s highlands and islands to the mix, and you’ve got a country which is as good looking as they come.  When we set about curating this list of the most beautiful places in the UK, we called on our network of expert travel writers. These guys have have personally experienced the pinch-me moment of seeing every place on this list IRL – so we can guarantee you there is no catfishing going on here. Of course, you’ll find the usual suspects – you can’t argue with the magic of the Isle of Skye, after all – but you’ll also find some more surprising beauty spots to add to your travel bucket list. RECOMMENDED:🚂 The UK’s most beautiful train stations🇬🇧 The best things to do in the UK🏝 The most beautiful places in the world🏠 The best Airbnbs in the UK Chiara Wilkinson is Time Out’s UK features editor, based in London. At Time Out, all of our travel guides are written by local writers who know their cities inside out. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines. This guide includes affiliate links, which have no influence on our editorial content

You’ve been here before. Almost.  With a clientele which would be perfect for a Love Island spin-off featuring exclusively people with ‘entrepreneur’ in their bios and a healthy amount of exposed pipework, The Counter is what those in the know would probably call ‘trendy’. Its dim lights, small plate selection, and strategically chipped brick feature wall put it on the verge of parodically hip, but a glance at its menu and a quick chat with any member of its team reveal it to be much more down to Earth than some of its equally Instagrammable peers. If you close your eyes you can almost feel the Istanbuli breeze flowing through your hair The sense of deja-vu you feel may not be coming solely from its open-plan bar though. Chef Kemal Demirasal’s first UK venture, opened up two years ago in Notting Hill to much success. Originally from Turkey, he’s taken much of the charm of the original joint (as well as its most popular recipes and excellent cocktails) and transported it to Kingly Street – and combined it with a series of fresh ideas and a lot of seafood. Fresh is definitely the operative word. The cocktails are infused with real fruit. The tomatoes have been imported from Turkey. There’s sort-of-caviar sprinkled on avocado-topped fish. If you close your eyes and just bite, you can almost feel the Istanbuli breeze flowing through your hair. A series of enthusiastic staff members recommended a variety of dishes to us. Some, like the tomato salad or prawns, were familiar classi

CMAT has great taste. That might come as no surprise to her fans, but she’s proved herself to newcomers with the curation of her LIDO 2026 lineup. After its inaugural edition in 2025, LIDO is still the new kid on the block, but you’d never know it. Its experimental setup – asking headliners to handpick the rest of the artists for a given day – proved successful this past June, when it debuted at Victoria Park with an all-star lineup ranging from Jamie xx to the woman who pretty much owned the summer of 2024: Charli xcx. And now LIDO is back. A couple of weeks ago, the festival first 2026 headliner, Maribou State, was revealed. Now, the next batch of acts has been announced, with CMAT at the top of the bill. The Irish singer, songwriter and former Time Out cover star has had a brilliant year. A viral TikTok dance to her song ‘Take a Sexy Picture of Me’ brought new eyes to her and her music, and a standout performance on Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage bolstered that success ahead of the release of brand new album Euro-Country in September. At her LIDO day CMAT will be joined by a host of indie icons. Here’s everything you need to know about getting tickets for the festival. RECOMMENDED: 🎤 The best music festivals in London. When is CMAT playing at LIDO 2026 in London? CMAT is headlining LIDO at Victoria Park on Friday June 12 2026. When do tickets go on sale? General sale for tickets begins tomorrow, Thursday November 13 at 10am. You’ll be able to get tickets on Ticketmaster her

If you’ve been into town recently, you know what’s up. You’ve seen the boarded up windows, you’ve noticed your usual haunts disappearing, you’ve benefited from an ‘everything must go – half off!’ sale once or twice. You can see that it’s a shop-ageddon out there on UK high streets, and it’s showing no signs of slowing down. In 2023, we lost Wilko, and then in 2024 we got it back. Then we said goodbye to a bunch of Marks and Spencers, some Boots, a few Body Shops, and plenty more. In fact, some studies have estimated that Britain lost up to 37 shops a day in 2024. Although we all hoped that 2025 would bring good news for our high streets, it’s looking like this year is more of the same. It’s not all doom and gloom, but it’s useful to know exactly what’s coming and going so that you don’t plan an entire shopping day around a store which has closed its doors for the last time. Here’s an exhaustive list of all the big places shutting up shop this year across the country. All the UK high street closures in 2025 Morrisons Morrisons announced the closure of 17 convenience stores and 51 in-store cafés. Here are the locations closing.  Morrisons convenience stores Gorleston Lowestoft Road – Norfolk Peebles 3-5 Old Town – Scottish Borders, Scotland Shenfield 214 Hutton Road – Essex Poole Waterloo Estate – Dorset Tonbridge Higham Lane Est – Kent Romsey The Cornmarket – Hampshire Stewarton Lainshaw Street – East Ayrshire, Scotland Selsdon Featherbed Lane – Greater London Haxby Village

Thailand has long been a popular spot for young gap year travellers who – let’s face it – aren’t usually ones to turn down a drink. Despite its reputation, Thailand is actually pretty strict when it comes to alcohol, drugs, and general debauchery, and things are only getting stricter as a new law means that daytime drinking could become a thing of the past. Until very recently, most Thai businesses were prohibited from selling alcohol during restricted hours. However, there was nothing to stop you buying a pack of beers at 1.30pm and slowly sipping until the clock strikes five, then heading back for more – but all of that changed this week. Since Saturday (November 8), anyone selling, buying or drinking alcohol in an unlicensed premises is breaking the law. This is a pretty significant shift, sharing responsibility that was previously only held by businesses with consumers for the first time. The government hopes that the law will improve public safety. It comes with tightening of rules surrounding advertising – influencers and celebrities can’t endorse or appear in ads for alcohol anymore. It also comes after news that the country is cracking down on weed tourism. Here’s everything you need to know about Thailand’s strict new daytime drinking laws to ensure you stay out of trouble. When can I drink in Thailand? You’re permitted to drink between 11am and 2pm, and then from 5pm until midnight. Outside of those hours, unless you’re in a licensed building, a single sip could the

Trains can be magical. Sure, they might not feel it when they’re jam-packed during your morning commute, or when they end up being delayed for hours at a time, but when done right train journeys can feel properly luxurious. And there’s no better time to indulge a little than Christmas. Luckily, there are a few train routes specifically designed for festive getaways this time of year, two of which have been picked out by the luxury travel magazine Travel + Leisure as particularly worth your time. Both routes that T+L highlighted run gorgeous vintage train carriages between two major European Christmas markets, which it says gives punters the chance to ‘experience Europe's holiday traditions while evoking the romance of classic rail travel’. Sounds delightful. Recommended: The best Christmas train journeys in Europe First there’s the Espresso Monaco, a sleeper train that takes you from Rome to Munich. There, you’ll find the iconic Christkindlmarkt, one of Europe’s best Christmas markets, full of handmade gifts, hot mulled drinks, and, of course, tonnes of bratwurst. It only runs for two weekends this year (Dec 5 and 12), so space is pretty limited. We recently named the Espresso Monaco as the second-best winter train journey in Europe, selected by Time Out’s resident train-obsessed travel writer Clara Hogan. The views along the way are ridiculous, cruising through the Italian countryside and the Alps, as well as stops in cities like Verona and Trento. You can choose between a s

Big things are happening on Europe’s railways. There are ambitious plans to connect every major city with high-speed rails, the Orient Express is making a comeback, and new sleeper services are popping up all the time. Take the new nighttime between Switzerland and Scandinavia, for example, or this one between Barcelona and Brussels. And now we can add another sleeper to the mix: the Euronight EN Carpatiato.  Run by the Polish operator PKP Intercity, the sleeper service will begin in Przemyśl, in southeast Poland, and traverse the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, and Germany. The train will depart from Przemyśl at 5.51pm, then travel through Krakow to Bohumín in the Czech Republic. There, carriages will separate, with one half going through Bratislava and Budapest, and the other passing Vienna, Linz, and Salzburg, but both will end up back in Bavaria and terminate in Munich at around 10.24am. On the way back, you’ll leave Munich at 6.45pm and arrive in Poland at 10.10am. The route has been designed to make it possible to travel from Poland to three major capital cities without changing trains, and the complete journey will take 16 hours. Unlike some other recently announced services, there is a set start date for the EN Carpatia, which is due to launch on December 14, according to reports from TVP World. As with other EuroNight services, you’ll have to book ahead, and you’ll be able to choose between a regular seat, a ‘couchette’ (basically a smaller pull-out bed),

Foo Fighters fans, you’ve got it good. Some artists go decades without touring, only releasing music when they feel called to it. Not the Foo Fighters. There’s always some exciting news coming from Dave Grohl and his bandmates – a couple of weeks ago it was a brand new single, and now it’s another European tour. The band were last in Europe last year, but they only played a couple of dates, so a lot of fans were left disappointed. This time they’re covering a lot more ground, and playing a few festivals, so you’ll definitely have the chance to catch them. Tickets go on sale this week – here’s everything you need to know about the Foo Fighters’ 2026 European tour. What are the dates for the Foo Fighters’ European tour in 2026? The Foo Fighters 2026 world tour will include 12 nights in Europe, which are a mix of solo shows and festival appearances. There will also be two nights at Anfield Stadium in Liverpool – the only UK dates announced so far – which you can read more about here. Unity Arena, Oslo, Norway – June 10 Strawberry Arena, Stockholm, Sweden – June 12 PGE Narodowy, Warsaw, Poland – June 15 Allianz Arena, Munich, Germany – June 17 La Défense Arena, Paris, France – June 19 Anfield Stadium, Liverpool, UK – June 25 Anfield Stadium, Liverpool, UK – June 27 Olympiastadion, Berlin, Germany – July 1 Ernst-Happel-Stadium, Vienna, Austria – July 3 I-Days, Milan, Italy – July 5 Mad Cool Festival, Madrid, Spain – July 8 NOS Alive Festival, Oeiras, Portugal – July 10 When

Train stations don’t technically need to be attractive. As long as there are platforms, railways, and ticket machines, they do the job, but given that they are usually smack-bang in the city centre, and see millions of people passing through every year, it’s no surprise that city planners often like to go the extra mile to make them stand out. There are hundreds of gorgeous train stations around the world. Some were built way back in the nineteenth century with the advent of the railway, while others are brand new and incredibly ambitious. The impressive Gare de Mons in Belgium is a perfect example of the latter. Plans to upgrade Mons station were initially floated in 2004, so it’s taken a while for this project to get off the ground. A competition was held in order to decide who would get to design it, with the contract ultimately going to architecture firm Santiago Calatrava in 2006. Nearly 20 years of delays, going over budget, and general difficulties later, it finally opened this October, in all of its stunning, futuristic glory. Photograph: Shutterstock The new station has been described as ‘a bridge’ between Mons’ old and new towns, literally connecting the city’s residential north to the historic city in the south via a central walkway, which has platforms sprouting out from either side. The structure consists of white, angular pillars and wooden accents, with an interior that sits somewhere between dinosaur fossil and sci-fi spaceship. According to the architects,

What do you love best about your city? Maybe the people are super friendly, or you’re never short on brilliant places to eat. Sometimes it’s just a general good vibe. There’s so much that goes into making a place great – approximately 34 different factors, according to Resonance Consultancy. Resonance has been creating an annual list of the world’s 100 best cities for several years now, based on a ‘unique fusion of data-driven analysis and real-life perception’. In non-jargony terms, they take the results of a huge resident survey and combine them with statistics like how many places you can fly to from local airports, how many top universities there are, unemployment rates, and more. There are three central pillars that the firm is looking at: liveability (that’s stuff like transport and internet access); loveability (including the quality of the nightlife, museums, and the culture sector); and prosperity (aka all the business/economic stuff). London, New York and Paris top the ranking – again The 2025 report has just come out, and the same three cities as last year have triumphed once again. In fact, the top spot has gone to the same city for the past 11 years in a row. Clearly, it’s doing something right. Photograph: Pierre-Olivier / Shutterstock.com London is the world’s best city for 2026 So what is this near-perfect place? London is officially the best city in the world, once again. Described as the ‘Capital of Capitals’, the Big Smoke came first overall for prosperit

Every so often, you hear about an ambitious project to create a new town or neighbourhood. Sometimes they’re in the middle of disused fields, like this one near Bicester, and sometimes they’re in the middle of a city, for instance this one in west London. That’s impressive, but it’s nothing compared to what’s being planned for the ‘Ox-Cam corridor’. The scheme aims to connect two of the south’s major cities – Oxford and Cambridge – with a series of brand new towns, and an entire forest. Millions of trees will be planted in order to prove that mass-housebuilding can be eco-friendly, in response to backlash from activists who say that planning deregulations would be harmful to the environment. Mary Creagh, the nature minister, told the Guardian that these new corridor towns are an attempt at ‘creating places and spaces where generations of people are going to build a home’. She says that these will be spaces where people want to live and ‘where nature can thrive’. The homes will all be within a short walk of the forest, and within commuting distance of both Oxford and Cambridge. Creagh explained how nature is at the heart of the entire project, saying that developers will ‘use trees to essentially build communities’. The concept, she says, was inspired by post-WWII ambitions for planned towns like Welwyn Garden City and Letchworth Garden City.  Instead of gardens, the current administration hopes that forests will ‘bring nature closer to people, green jobs closer to these new c

Here’s some slightly intimidating news: you’ve only got seven weekends left before Christmas. That might sound like a lot, but we all know it’ll come around sooner than you think. Now’s the perfect time to start thinking about what you’ll have for your Christmas dinner, and how you can stock up on pigs in blankets without breaking the bank. Luckily, there’s good news for Londoners on the hunt for some budget-friendly groceries: two new Aldi stores will arrive in the capital by mid-December. It’s part of a huge investment from the company, which announced earlier this year that it would be opening one new store a week until the end of 2025, and we now know exactly where they’re going to be – discover the full list of upcoming UK locations here. Sixteen Aldis will open across the UK between today (November 7) and December 12, with two set for London. One new branch – Fulham Broadway – launched back in September, so these will be the second and third openings in the capital in the span of four months. That’s a pretty impressive ratio. Old Kent Road, the Southwark road and cheapest property in Monopoly, Kentish Town and Uxbridge will be the locations of the new stores. We don’t have exact dates for when they’ll open yet, but they will definitely be up and running in time to do your Christmas groceries. Once they are in business, there will be an impressive 52 branches of the low-cost supermarket in the Big Smoke. And more could be coming in 2026, as the company has plans to conti

Grab your popcorn: the British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) has just revealed its shortlist for the Cinema of the Year 2025, and one of the final five is only an hour away from London. BIFA was established in 1998 to celebrate all of the time and passion that goes into independent film in the UK, from concept to set to the editing suite, and now, for the first time ever, right to point of distribution. This year it has introduced an award for Cinema of the Year, as voted for by you. The organisation is particularly interested in breaking down barriers and creating a more inclusive industry, so all of the nominated cinemas have made substation commitments to their communities, sustainability, and accessibility. 130 indie movie theatres entered, but only five made it into the shortlist. One of the finalists, the Depot Cinema, is in Lewes, a cute East Sussex town which Time Out previously described as ‘the sleepier, quainter, more poetic neighbour to Brighton’. BIFA aren’t the first to recognise the cinema’s excellence – we also named attending one of Depot’s three annual film festivals as one of the best things to do in the town. Photograph: Depot Cinema, LewesArtwork lines the walls of Depot’s screens As well as screening all the blockbusters and must-see releases that every cinema does, Depot makes an effort to showcase smaller independent films, as well as opera, ballet, and theatre screenings. It also hosts frequent events, for instance the upcoming Phantom of the Opera

Back before there were affordable flights or holiday parks, most Brits went to the UK seaside for their summer holidays. People flocked from inland to enjoy the water and the sand, and, if they were lucky, a pier full of games and attractions. Only a few Victorian piers are still standing today, and most of them are in need of some serious TLC, including the Grade-II listed wooden promenade in Southport. It’s an uphill battle for any pier to access enough funding to save itself from rot and ruin, but luckily for Southport a £20 million pledge from the government has secured its future. Dating back the 1860s, Southport Pier is the second longest in the country at 1.1 kilometres, and brings an estimated £15 million to the local economy every year. Or it did, before it was shut down in 2022 due to safety concerns. Since then it’s sat completely untouched, except for a minor fire in August caused by faulty electrics. Photograph: Dave0 / Shutterstock.com Marion Atkinson, the leader of the local Sefton council, told the BBC that the pier is ‘a structure with a rich history’, but that a ‘poor refurbishment programme.. left [it] very vulnerable’. That scheme, which was carried out in 2002 for £7 million added a tram, but did not adequately future-proof the structure. But that was more than two decades ago, and things are looking more positive today. Improvement works are due to begin in 2026, with a view to reopen by mid 2027. The entire pier will be refurbished, including reinforc