Ed Cunningham

Every week, a frankly silly amount of brilliant new restaurants, cafés and street food joints arrive in London. Which makes whittling down a shortlist of the best newbies a serious challenge. But here it is. The 20 very best new restaurants in the capital, ranked in order of greatness and deliciousness. All of them have opened in the past year and been visited by our hungry critics. So go forth and take inspo from this list, which is updated regularly. Check in often to find out what we really rate on the London restaurant scene.  July 2025: New additions include plush Roman pasta at Lupa in Highbury, fun bistro action at Hello JoJo in Camberwell, Japanese-Italian fusion at Osteria Angelina in Spitalfields and a brand new home for Thai legend Singburi in Shoreditch. They join bawdy British fare at Rake in Highbury, Iberian inventiveness at Tasca in Bethnal Green and The Most Controversial Restaurant in London™, The Yellow Bittern in King’s Cross. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines. RECOMMENDED: The 50 best restaurants in London. The hottest new openings, the tastiest tips, the spiciest reviews: we’re serving it all on our London restaurants WhatsApp channel. Follow us now to tuck in.

Once upon a time, the only reason to grab a bite at King’s Cross was if you were waiting for your train. But this once-grimy post-industrial area has undergone an enormous regeneration, and these days it’s packed with fine restaurants. Be it the lofty, warehouse-sized joints around Granary Square, the trendy cafés in Coal Drops Yard or the hip little spots around lower Pentonville, and a selection of Cantonese cult classics, there’s something for all tastes (and budgets, high or low). Check out our list of the best. RECOMMENDED: These are the best pubs in King’s Cross. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines. 

Want a drink? You've come to the right place. This is Time Out’s list of best bars in London, our curated guide to London’s drinking scene, featuring the buzziest booze dens in the capital right now. If it’s on this list, it’s excellent. These are the 50 places we'd recommend to a friend, because we love drinking in them and have done many times over. From classy cocktail joints to delightful dives, hotel bars, speakeasys, bottle shops, rooftops and wine bars, London's got them all. But what makes a truly good bar? Well, our critieria for inclusion on this list is simple; a menu of genius drinks is important, but so is overall vibe – there’s no point having the perfect paloma if you have to drink it in a bar that smells of bins. To make the Top 50, a bar has to be fun, inclusive, and full of nice, friendly people as well as looking the part.  April 2025: A rash of great new bars have opened in London over the past year or so and many of them have made the immediate jump to our hallowed Top 50. The latest additions to our list include rowdy sports bar meets 80s horror movie set Bloodsports in Covent Garden, whisky wonderland Dram Bar on Denmark Street, the hypnotic Bar Lotus in Dalston, Below Stone Nest in Chinatown, Rasputin’s by London Fields, and Bar Lina, an Italian aperitivo spot underneath a famous Soho deli. Now go forth and drink. RECOMMENDED: Like bars? Then you'll love London's best pubs.  Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor, and she'll have a gi

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

London is full of perfect pizza. The finest of fast foods, this delicious staple has been elevated far beyond its humble roots by great Italian restaurants in London, pop-ups, street food vendors and pub residencies, and we know just where to find these world-class wonders, because we’ve been eating our way across London in order to discover the best. Whether it’s delivered in a cardboard box or served in a swish restaurant, excellent pizza is hard to beat. Browse our list of the best pizza places in town and try not to drool on your screen. Recent additions to the Top 20 include some nifty kitchen residencies; Dough Hands at the Spurstowe Arms and Old Nun’s Head, Bing Bong Pizza at You Call The Shots in Hackney, Little Earthquakes at the Railway Tavern in Dalston, Lenny’s Apizza at The Bedford Tavern in Finsbury Park and Short Road Pizza at the William The Fourth in Leyton and Three Colts in Bethnal Green. Try also, Spring Street Pizza in Borough for pizza with a Michelin-starred cheffy touch. RECOMMENDED: The finest fish and chips in London.  Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

Who doesn’t love sunflower? Those golden, spindly, great-vibe giants are always a real treat to see in people’s gardens come the summer months, but what about sunflowers on mass?  For those not so in the-know, sunflowers usually hit their custard-yellow peak from August to September. And while, sure, you can see sunflowers in countless gardens and parks throughout London, there are few things quite so joyous as seeing an entire field of ‘em – and, obvs, picking your own to take home. There are plenty of dazzling pick-your-own sunflower fields within very easy reach of London. Before you head off on a sunny adventure, make sure to check in with these sites in advance to be sure of fresh crops and full blooms – Mother Nature is an unruly and unpredictable force. RECOMMENDED: 🐝 The best lavender fields in and around London💐 The best day trips from London for flower lovers🌸 The best places to see cherry blossom in London

The humble brunch is perhaps one of the greatest inventions of the modern age. Breakfast is too early to really get stuck into, while eating eggs and downing buckets of coffee at lunchtime seems odd. Brunch, then, is the one true morning-ish meal, especially if it incorporates pancakes, bacon and those aforementioned eggs. Or you can enjoy a totally vegan take on proceedings at LD's at The Black Heart. London is particularly well stocked with places to indulge in the famous breakfast/lunch hybrid – one of the latest additions to this list is FKA Black Axe Mangal in Highbury, (don’t forgot to order a pig cheek and prune donut). Let us guide you to the best restaurants for a fabulous brunch, from a traditional full English to innovative twists on the majestic meal, such as a bacon bao brunch.  RECOMMENDED: Like unlimited fizz with your fry-up? Here are the best bottomless brunches in London.  Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines. July 2025: We've removed some of the staler options to give you only the finest brunches in London for this summer. Make the most of the warmer weather by bagging a table on the terrace at somewhere like The Laundry in Brixton, or get to the great outdoors at Pavilion Cafe in Victoria Park. Hate the heat and would rather sulk in the dark like a massive goth? Then it's off to LD's at The Black Heart in Camden for you. We've also included a few places that prove brunch isn't 

Of all the many things that have been upended since 2020, office life is one of the biggest. While some of us have settled into a half-office, half-home working hybrid set-up, others have taken the opportunity to untether themselves entirely from the workplace and copped themselves a visa that enables them to live and work remotely. While there are downsides to the digital nomad lifestyle, we’re still living in an era of profound  digital nomadism. Many destinations are selling themselves as idyllic remote-working spots, with visas that allow you to live and work there for up to a year – or sometimes even longer. Here’s a guide to the countries offering digital nomad visas right now, and how you can qualify. And here’s what it’s actually like to be a digital nomad – and how to become one yourself.

Need a place to stay in London? We’re here to make it easy for you. Every year, a wealth of new hotels open in the capital which is a testament to the fact that London remains one of the most desirable places to visit in the world. However, that can make it tricky to decide which hotel to choose. But worry not because we have slept our way across the city and hand-picked our favourites for the ultimate list of London hotels, which covers locations right across the city, and every category from blowout luxury (including having your own butler, might we add) to budget basic and brilliant. In this mega list, we've listed everything from our favourite five-star hotels in Mayfair to more affordable hotels outside of zone 1. Plus you’ll be able to check out one or two of the capital's many Michelin-starred restaurants because yep, loads of them call London hotels their home. But if spending a small fortune on food isn’t your bag? There’s also an ever-increasing number of good-value food options for budgeteers, too. Throw great design and architecture into the mix, plus superb bars, world-class hospitality and the opportunity to have a home-from-home in the best city in the world and, well, you’re laughing.  Which area is best to stay in London? It's not just the range of hotels that's so impressive – you're also spoilt for choice when it comes to picking a neighbourhood to stay in London. The city is made up of a sprawling network of dynamic neighbourhoods, all with their own uniqu

Europe is incredible for festivals, make no mistake about it. And what could be better? Travelling to festivals abroad means getting to explore somewhere new and see a bunch of cracking artists, as well as maybe – just maybe – enjoy better weather and cheaper beer. Europe is certainly not in short supply of some really brilliant places to party, from tiny, lesser-known spots in the Azores to your classic, mega, headliner-packed fests in France and Netherlands and Alpine jazz weekends. And don’t worry, if you haven’t booked yet, there’s a load of them still to come this summer. Here are the best music festivals in Europe for 2025.  What is the largest festival in Europe? Glastonbury festival in the UK is normally thought of as the biggest festival in Europe (if not the world). But though it’s certainly the most well known, in terms of numbers, it’s not even the the biggest in the UK! The biggest in Europe is actually Donauinselfest in Vienna, Austria, which sees upwards of two million visitors a year. After that, it’s probably joint between Glasto and Tomorrowland in Belgium.  RECOMMENDED: 🎪 The best UK music festivals🎤 The best music festivals in the world🌃 The most underrated destinations in Europe🌤️ The best European city breaks 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 conten

There’s more to Japanese movies than Kurosawa, Ozu and Miyazaki. That’s not to downplay their contributions to the country’s cinematic history – or cinema in general. All three are potential GOATs. It’s just that there’s much, much more where that exalted triumvirate came from.  Like the trailblazing silent works of Kenji Mizoguchi. Or the off-kilter pop-art crime thrillers of Seijun Suzuki. Or the bizarrely horrifying visions of Takashi Miike. On this list of the greatest Japanese movies of all time, you’ll find them all, alongside, of course, Kurosawa’s epics, Miyazaki’s soulful animations and Ozu’s powerful domestic dramas – oh, and Godzilla too. You’ll trace Japan’s unique filmmaking history, moving from the silent era to its post-war golden age to the 1960s New Wave to the anime explosion of the ’80s, all the way up to the current renaissance spearheaded by Hirokazu Kore-eda, Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Mamoru Hosoda. It’s a lot to take in. But with expert commentary from Junko Yamazaki – assistant professor of Japanese Media Studies at Princeton, whose focuses include post-war Japanese film music and the jidaigeki (period drama) genre – this cinephile’s bible is as authoritative as it is exhaustive. Consider it your travel guide to one of the world’s most creative movie cultures. RECOMMENDED: 🇰🇷 The greatest Korean films of all time🇫🇷 The 100 best French movies ever made🇯🇵 The best anime movies of all time, ranked🌏 The 50 best foreign films of all-time

The grand New York City is full of iconic, well-loved landmarks. People flock from all around the globe to spy on classic attractions like the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State, and Central Park all the way to the Yankee Stadium and Birdland. NYC is the hub for all things historical and of cultural importance, so naturally, you'll want to follow the experience to a hotel that matches the vibe. There are a lot of hotels that are considered attractions in themselves. From the architecturally breathtaking to the places that famous people venture to or even ones that were once the site of a historical event. Many are also exceptionally luxurious and considered among the top hotels in the entire country – but even if you're just looking, they're certainly worth a visit. And if you can afford to stay there? They're totally worth it, obviously.  RECOMMENDED: 🗽See our full guide to the best hotels in NYC🏨Check out best hotels with a view in NYC 💘Stay in the most romantic hotels in NYC Who makes the cut? While we might not stay in every hotel featured below, we've based our list on top reviews and amenities to find you the best stays. This article includes affiliate links. These links have no influence on our editorial content. For more information, see our affiliate guidelines.

A country home amid gargantuan piles of slate, Plas Weunydd sits atop a hill overlooking not just an old industrial town but the vast landscape of Snowdonia National Park. Needless to say, the hotel is all about its location: the location on a map, sure (it’s pretty much at the dead-centre of Snowdonia and surrounded by all manner of outdoorsy activities) but also its topographical location, with views galore.  For my visit to Plas Weunydd, the approach by car saw me wind my way past the hills and valleys of the national park, through old mining town Blaenau Ffestiniog and most of the way up a not-unsteep hill. The hotel is perched near the top, at the same turning as much-hyped adventure attraction Zip World and a mountain-biking course.  Why stay at Plas Weunydd? If you’re in Snowdonia for an adventure or outdoorsy holiday (and this is very much a region famous for that), Plas Weunydd is extraordinarily well-located. Hiking, cycling, mountain biking, zip-wiring and more is almost literally on your doorstep – as previously mentioned, Zip World is across the road – while countless mountains, waterfalls, lakes or rivers in Snowdonia National Park are no more than a half-hour drive away.  The building itself was built in 1870 as the home of John Whitehead Greaves, the founder of nearby Llechwed Quarry. It was turned into a hotel in 2021, and it relaunched in April 2025 following further refurbishment. Plas Weunydd prides itself on being an adventure holiday base, but also for b

Prince Durairaj and Glen Leeson are good at this by now. Excellent, in fact. The pair have put together a small chain of top Indian eateries; Islington’s Tamil Prince and Tamil Crown, and the first Tamila in Clapham. Fourth time around with Tamila King’s Cross, the experience is more refined than ever. London’s second Tamila is at the other end of Caledonian Road from the Tamil Prince, and, like the Clapham edition, isn’t a ‘desi pub’ but a curry house for fast, casual dining and with an all-day menu. Without the loveable musk of an ex-pub, the space is much airier and restaurant-y, while the service is sharper and more attentive. Food-over-booze indicators don’t get much more obvious than Tamila’s massive interior window directly into the kitchen.  The dhal flashed all sorts of vegetables across your tongue, while paneer butter masala was creamy and mightily generous Our drinks flew out at an impressive pace. A bold harbinger of the strong, spiced flavours to come, the gunpowder margarita, boasting masala dust for salt and earthy smokiness, was sumptuous. The paloma had grapefruity sweetness but a proper, heaped dash of ginger that lingered powerfully.  Tamila’s dishes verge on the more generous side of ‘small plates’. On platters so spotless and shiny they’re genuinely mirrors, come miraculously un-greasy onion bhajis, each one just more than a mouthful of prickly, salty crackle. Retaining integral crispiness beneath dollops of mint chutney, one gets the impression that th

If you’re a history buff (particularly a pottery history buff), the surroundings of this DoubleTree alone will be enough to have you in awe. The hotel is attached to Etruria Hall, a neo-classical Grade II-listed structure once home to Josiah Wedgwood – renowned industrialist and the founder of Wedgwood, one of the world’s most famous pottery companies.  Etruria Hall is no longer a stately home but an events venue, and since the 1980s it’s been attached to a hotel. In 2020 that hotel opened as a Hilton, specifically of the DoubleTree brand – yet despite being part of an all-conquering global chain, it’s maintained plenty of character. Beyond the obvious (the in-house restaurant is called Josiah), the corridors and rooms come lined with nods to local heritage; bottle oven skylines, Stoke dialect phrases, that sort of stuff.  Stoke-on-Trent’s DoubleTree, therefore, not only occupies a special historical site but makes sure you fully aware just how special it is. But it’s also a comfortable, well-kitted-out place to stay. I stayed in a king guest room that was extraordinarily spacious and flawlessly clean, with a sprawling, comfortable bed, fast wi-fi, effective blackout curtains and a practical bathroom.  The staff couldn’t have been friendlier or more helpful, the common areas were bright and welcoming, and there was a very sleek indoor pool and leisure centre. There’s on-site parking, too.  Given the building’s age, some of Stoke’s DoubleTree is understandably rough around the

When Stoke’s Hilton Garden Inn opened in 2020 it was the city’s first and only Hilton. Admittedly it didn’t hold that title for long (the DoubleTree in Etruria was rebranded a month or so later) but you get the sense that this was a statement opening. A terracotta titan towering over Hanley, this Hilton Garden Inn cost £20 million and is part of the wider redevelopment of Smithfield – a mixed-use quarter named after the area’s old bottle works. Given it’s getting on for half a decade old, Stoke’s Hilton Garden Inn still looks and feels shimmeringly new. Sure, stepping into the lobby feels very much like stepping into any new-ish Hilton, anywhere, but this one is exceptionally well-kempt, making it very much a slick, shiny beacon of modern comfort.  I stayed in a ‘king room’ up on the sixth floor, a tidy and well-proportioned space with plenty of light and a bunch of amenities tidily packed in. The décor was pared back, minimalist(ish) and very much of-this-decade, and the room’s simplicity made it feel bigger. Stoke touches on the walls (images of pottery ovens and so on) reminded you where you were – as did my view, stretching out westwards towards Etruria, Burslem and Shelton. The rest was very much as one might expect of a somewhat new Hilton. The mattress was supple, the pillows and duvet ideally sink-in-able; the shower worked as required, accompanied by fragrant Crabtree & Evelyn toiletries and the flashy touch of an anti-steam mirror. The room was well insulated for so

Down the cavernous halls of Whitehall’s Old War Offices, surrounded by opulent Michelin-starred restaurants and the supremely swish Raffles hotel, lies Kioku Sake Bar – less blindingly flashy, sure, but just as high-calibre. The street-level accompaniment to Kioku’s top-floor, five-star sushi restaurant has the effortless style and homely hideaway calm of a Japanese listening bar, prim décor and lines of hundreds of sake bottles sitting beneath immaculately balanced light. And Kioku’s substance more than matches its style. There are over 140 sakes on offer, each affectionately described, plus a trim list of sake cocktails and a refined menu of innovative, Japanese-infused small plates. The drinks and food are entirely different to those of the upstairs restaurant Kioku By Endo, making the bar very much worth a separate visit.  Order this The Daikon Gibson suspends itself entirely on the front of your tongue, with silky and potent Ginjo sake ‘vermouth’ and tangy pickled daikon combining with clean Roku gin and yuzu tang. Kioku’s cocktails all exude a sense of craft – and this does even more so. Time Out tip Make the most of Kioku’s formidable sake collection and the bar’s in-house sake sommelier to explore the tipple. Discover how the vessel material affects each sake, get a taste of the many, many different styles and regional varieties – and find a new favourite.

Stepping into the atrium of The Conservatorium, it’s immediately obvious that this is a very special hotel indeed. Rich red brickwork meets sharp glass angles, heritage details fit snugly among silky modern luxury; from the fittings and furniture to the architecture, wherever you look something catches your eye. The Conservatorium’s sense of occasion is tied to the building’s history. Many of its cavernous halls date back to 1897, when it was built as a bank. In the 1980s it became a conservatoire, then it was reconfigured into a hotel by starchitect Piero Lissoni in the 2000s. It opened as a founding member of the luxurious Set Collection in 2011. The Conservatorium’s rooms, appropriately for a hotel inhabiting a building of many previous lives, vary massively – yet they share plenty of common ground. Whether one is in the basic ‘deluxe room’ or the three-floor, roof terrace-boasting ‘I Love Amsterdam’ suite, well-proportioned rooms boast plush beds, spacious bathrooms, bountiful storage and thoughtful, refined décor. My room was a ‘royal duplex suite’, with elegant double-height windows looking out onto the humming trams and cafés of Van Baerlestraat. The essentials – bed, space, storage, bathroom, toiletries – were all faultless. Little touches of Dutch-ness (decorative clogs, a Van Gogh coffee table book, Delftware ceramic plates) were unsubtle but still tasteful, restrained. Beyond the room, breakfast (served in the Lounge) was high-calibre and the staff were as helpful

What comes to mind when you think of a treehouse? Woodlice, splinters, cold – yes, probably all those things. But treehouses are also secluded and peaceful, dwellings a few feet up in the air that feel that bit away from the rabble below and closer to nature. And a treehouse, crucially, is all yours.  The treehouses of TreeDwellers in Cornbury, northeast Cotswolds, are treehouses in a spiritual sense. No, they aren’t up trees (nor do they even touch them), but they’re surrounded by them, sitting an impressive height above the forest floor. TreeDwellers takes the idea of a treehouse – as something special, private, embedded in nature – and turns it into a luxurious experience genuinely unlike anything, anywhere else. Pulling up to a TreeDwellers dwelling (a TreeDwelling?) has a supreme sense of occasion. This is the sort of architectural magnificence you thumb through in glossy mags, lustfully dreaming of one day giving it all up for. Handsomely curved tubes are perched atop stilts; inside is all sleek, clean wood and floor-to-ceiling windows, each and every convenience slotted in with impossible neatness. It’s all so stunning that you could easily be satisfied with the design and that alone, left gawping at it for days on end. But these treehouses aren’t just flashy façades: they’re comfortable and practical, too. You check-in with slick door-code entry, the heating is underfloor and toasty on your toes, everything you could possibly need is on a tablet (or on hand from delig

On the face of it, Portobello’s neat, proper Holy Carrot and Dalston’s fire-worshipping feast ACME Fire Cult share little common ground. ACME is roaring and showy, as much a swaggering religion as a restaurant; Carrot is prim as a perfume shop, soft clay surroundings fronting a menu that is plant-forward, ‘root to peel’ and sustainable.  But there’s a clear link between the two – namely Daniel Watkins. The ex-ACME founder is now executive chef at the first permanent home of Holy Carrot (previously known for its supper clubs and Knightsbridge residency), and brings his ‘fire and ferment’ ethos across the capital from one neighbourhood of cool to another.  More than just Holy Carrot’s first proper restaurant, it’s also a Watkins-helmed reboot – and it has plenty of his signature punch. From the off, the pre-starter ‘snacks’ offer a studied but unshowy sort of tastiness. Pillowy insides dramatically burst out of crisp ‘honey’ drenched Jerusalem artichokes; one couldn’t help but mop up the warming chilli ragu with ultralight koji bread. Two cold ‘smalls’ followed suit, both intricately flavoured: each mouthful of the smoked beetroot breathing freshness, each spoonful of the stracciatella with persimmon and bitter leaves with deftly measured amount of creamy tang and gentle crunch. This is innovation of a dependable, not reckless, sort Imprinted upon my memory the most, however, was one of Holy Carrot’s ‘larges’: the crispy celeriac with pickle butter. I know what you’re thinking

The Nobu brand, in a word? Dependable. Nobu Matsuhisa’s Japan-via-USA restaurant empire both draws celebrities and is a celebrity itself, but it’s best regarded for its high-quality dining: nearly 30 years after it opened, Nobu’s Park Lane spot remains one of London’s best places for sushi. These days Nobu isn’t just a restaurant chain but a hotel brand too, with two outposts in London. The Shoreditch one, which opened in 2017, was the first of these – not just London’s first Nobu hotel (since followed by Nobu Portman Square in Marylebone) but the first in all of Europe. The greatest compliment one can pay to this place is that the dependability of the Nobu name transfers seamlessly from restaurant to hotel. This is a sleek and comfortable choice, a beacon of minimalist taste in the midst of Shoreditch’s gaudy pick-me bars and tech-bro co-working spaces. Nobu as a chain is Nippon-by-’Murica, and its hotels are too – Japanese style meets American comfort and convenience. From the front Nobu Shoreditch resembles a Pacific battleship, from the side it’s a hillside Kyoto villa. And inside the hotel offers plenty of that same cultural middle ground: polished black wood, sleek furniture and a tea set in every room, but also huge plasma TVs, delightful staff and an in-house spa.  All aided, of course, by housing a Nobu restaurant, the chain’s third in London. You know exactly the deal here: a spoiled-rich clientele, sure, but also generous portions, attentive service (I did exceptio

If you plonked a point on a map denoting Stuttgart’s absolute centre, I’m fairly certain it’d be directly right on top of the EmiLu. Or it may as well be. Dead opposite the city’s Rathaus (town hall) and a few steps from Königstrasse (Stuttgart’s main shopping street), EmiLu is within easy walking distance of most city-centre sights. Just a couple of years old (it opened in 2022), EmiLu occupies an old mid-century city government building and gets its name by combining the names of its co-owner (Petra Luise Bräutigam) and her daughter (Emilia). A self-professed ‘design hotel’, it boasts 90 ‘unique and special’ rooms that range reasonably in price per night from €85 to €200 (£72 to £170). So, the good: EmiLu, with its focus on individual, tasteful design, is a handsome and neat establishment. The chic reception is kitted out with dark wooden furnishings, while the rooms are airy and uncluttered. Cuboid furniture and crisply-shaped décor work well with bare-material walls; an open shower-room (with a curtain) and a mini-bar cut into the corner wall fit the minimal, trendy vibe. In another positive, my room looked out over the atmospheric street below (with floor-to-ceiling windows and a balcony) but also boasted exceptional sound insulation – an entire crowd of football fans in the space outside were reduced to noiseless silhouettes. Elsewhere, EmiLu’s staff are delightful, the rooftop space is great for taking in Stuttgart’s skyline and the ‘fitness area’ is remarkably well-eq

Over the years, London has done a fabulous job of finding new uses for its many, many historically fascinating buildings. The Bankside Power Station is now the Tate Modern. Churchill’s Old War Office is a hotel and apartments. County Hall houses restaurants, an aquarium and That Shrek Thing. Another of those retrofits is the Great Scotland Yard Hotel, a Grade II-listed building which dates back to the 1820s and was once the Ministry of Defence’s old library. Sitting at an address best known for also housing the original headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the building has been a hotel for a while – though was spruced up a few years ago with a £75 million revamp.  Admittedly, the words ‘Scotland Yard’ do not exactly scream ‘mega-luxe five-star hotel stay’, but… maybe they could? This 151-room Hyatt is as deeply, thoroughly refined as hotels in this city get.  Each step of a stay at Great Scotland Yard is virtually faultless. The neat rooms are full of light, with floor-to-ceiling windows and balconies looking out over the turrets, towers and courtyards of the Palace of Whitehall. Full of modestly luxurious conveniences (like Chromecast TVs and fancy Japanese Toto loos), the rooms are also of a satisfyingly comfortable size: neither small and cluttered nor massive and awkwardly empty.  Beyond the rooms, Great Scotland Yard is far from a copy-paste Hyatt. Playing into the history of the building and address, the doors are slathered in a deep and polished police blue. The fo

If you’ve ever spent time in Leeds, you’ll know the Queens Hotel. Quite literally on top of (part of) the Yorkshire city’s train station, it’s an art deco concrete titan and inarguably the city’s most famous hotel. Dating back to the 1930s, the Queens was the first British hotel to have air con and ensuite bathrooms in every room, and over the years it’s welcomed the likes of Cary Grant and Nelson Mandela. While the Queens could easily rest on its historical prestige, in recent years it’s attempted to keep with the times and undergone a vast refurb. A whopping £16 million has been pumped into bringing the place back up to snuff, glamming it up with communal areas, a huge new dining venue and more rooms. How does all that sprucing up actually feel? In short, pretty damn good. The moment you step into the Queens’ lobby, with its endearingly gauche décor and genially raucous ambiance, you get a proper sense of occasion that feels appropriate for somewhere so stacked with history. The Queens might have been hauled into the 21st century, but it embraces its historical glamour – and the refurb certainly hasn’t sucked out any of its soul. The Queens is entirely decked out in stuff that harks back to the art deco 1930s – and what isn’t from the Queens’ original period (or directly linked to it, like the hallways’ historic photographs) is tastefully matched. The Queens balances modern polish and historical character in a caring, detailed sort of way, ensuring all additions – everythin

It’s finally happening. Oasis’ reunion tour has officially kicked off, starting in Cardiff for the band’s first live shows since they broke up in 2009 and continuing over the past week in Manchester. There have been hits (obvs), there have been deep cuts not heard live since the early 2000s, there was even a bit of a hug. There’s been a wide consensus that the Gallaghers’ comeback has been a resounding success. Fans have been left satisfied and critics seem pleased – but what songs did Oasis actually play?  On both nights in Cardiff Oasis played the same setlist, kicking off with ‘Hello’ and following through with a truckload of smashes from ‘Roll With It’ and ‘Some Might Say’ to ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ and ‘Wonderwall’. Minor differences came in the lyrics, with ‘Wonderwall’ adapted to ‘there are many things that I would like to say to you... but I don't speak Welsh’. Song dedications differed, too, with the first night’s ‘Live Forever’ played for Liverpool FC player Diogo Jota, who had died the previous day.  In Manchester the band played the same setlist, with slightly different dedications. Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola got a shout-out, along with comedians Craig Cash and Caroline Aherne, Stone Roses bassist Mani, ‘the ladies’ and department store chain John Lewis. Man City fans and TV show The Royle Family received further dedications.  RECOMMENDED:📍The ultimate guide to Oasis’ Heaton Park shows: timings, last-minute tickets and everything you need to know.👕

Oasis’ reunion residency in Manchester is officially underway. The Gallagher brothers landed at Heaton Park for their opening two shows in Manchester last weekend (July 11 and 12) and put on a hell of a show, with Noel confirming ‘this is the place’ and Liam saying: ‘Oasis vibes in the area. Manchester vibes in the area’. The run continued on Wednesday (July 16), and it was just as epic – all that’s left are the band’s final two Manchester shows.  Oasis’ 2025 summer reunion tour is, for many Brits, the year’s most hotly anticipated event – and it’s already delivering on the hype. The reunion shows so far have delivered spectacular nights with top-notch performances and setlists packed with hits not heard by the band for decades. Over 900,000 tickets have been sold for the brothers’ UK shows in Cardiff, Manchester, London and Edinburgh, where they’ll play some of the country’s grandest, most legendary arenas.  Nowhere else, however, is the Oasis hype quite like it has been in Manchester. The Gallaghers’ shows at Heaton Park aren’t just more tour stops: these are homecoming dates at a venue that has a special place in the band’s history. Oasis played three nights at Heaton Park back in 2009 and this time they’ve upped the ante, lining up five dates. A total of 400,000 people will see Oasis in Manchester, with Heaton’s capacity boosted to 80,000 each night.  If you’re lucky enough to have nabbed a ticket for Oasis’ remaining Heaton Park gigs, here’s everything you need to know a

Yep, it’s hot. The UK is sweltering through the end of its third heatwave of summer 2025, having peaked at 34C last weekend (July 12-13) – and, after Britain’s driest spring since 1893, all that hot weather hasn’t been good for the country’s water levels. So, what comes with long periods of hot, dry weather? You guessed it – hosepipe bans. Water companies across England have already begun to implement hosepipe bans, impacting millions of Brits. Wondering if you’ve been hit (are about to be hit) by a hosepipe ban? Here’s what you need to know, including impacted areas, when restrictions are likely to end, and what the restrictions actually mean.  RECOMMENDED: The best open water swimming spots near London. Which parts of England have a hosepipe ban? Yorkshire Water started a hosepipe ban on July 11, impacting five million customers who get water from the company. Yorkshire Water supplies West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, the East Riding of Yorkshire, part of North Lincolnshire, most of North Yorkshire and part of Derbyshire. The ban only impacts those who get their mains water supply from Yorkshire Water, not those who only have waste water managed by the company.  South East Water announced last Friday (July 11) that some of its customers would come under a hosepipe ban. Those restrictions are in force from today (July 18). However, not all of those supplied by South East Water are included in the ban – only those in Kent and Sussex are restricted. Southern Water customers in

There’s a London hotel for every budget, purpose, mood and niche. The capital has countless fantastic places to stay, from affordable to five-star, family-friendly and business-appropriate to romantic. There’s a reason Time Out’s list of the best hotels in London stretches all the way to 100. And it isn’t just us that backs London’s hotel scene. Posh travel mag Travel + Leisure recently announced its World’s Best Awards for 2025, which included a ranking of Europe’s top hotels – and one of London’s swishest establishments made the cut. T+L’s World’s Best Awards are chosen by the publication’s readers, and the top hotel worldwide was a luxe Kenyan safari lodge (find out more about that here). First place in Europe went to Raffles Istanbul. The London hotel on the list was Shangri-La The Shard, which came ninth in T+L’s list of the best city hotels in Europe. The Shard’s Shangri-La is a five-star hotel occupying 18 floors of London’s tallest skyscraper, spanning the 34th to the 52nd levels. Back in 2023 Time Out reviewed Shangri-La The Shard, awarding the place five stars for its ‘jaw-dropping views’ and extraordinary luxury. This outpost of global hotel chain Shangri-La has prices to match its fanciness: the most affordable rooms still cost at least £500 per night. Here are a few more pics of Shangri-La The Shard, for a sneak peek at the luxury within. Photograph: Booking.com Photograph: Booking.com   Photograph: Booking.com Not bad, eh? You can find out more and book (i

Hip-hop and R&B megastars Kendrick Lamar and SZA are nearing the halfway point of their joint Grand National UK tour. They’ve hit Glasgow and Birmingham – now it’s Cardiff’s turn to witness two of this era’s greatest musicians in their prime. SZA and Kendrick’s Grand National tour stop in Cardiff is at the Principality Stadium, which this summer has already hosted huge gigs by Stereophonics, Oasis and Lana Del Rey. Both artists arrive fresh off the release of new albums: SZA’s SOS Deluxe: LANA and Kendrick’s GNX – one of Time Out’s albums of the year – both came out in 2024. Heading to the Principality to see Kendrick Lamar and SZA this weekend? Here’s what you need to know about the show, from timings and bag policy to any remaining tickets. When are Kendrick Lamar and SZA playing Principality Stadium? Kendrick and SZA are in the Welsh capital for one night only, on Saturday July 19 2025. What time do doors open? Gates open at 5pm, and curfew is 10.30pm. What time will Kendrick Lamar and SZA come on stage? Judging from previous dates on the tour with a similar curfew, expect Kendrick Lamar and SZA to come on stage between 7.45pm and 8pm. What’s the seating plan? Here’s the seating plan at the Principality for Saturday. Image: Principality Stadium Who’s supporting Kendrick Lamar and SZA at the Principality? Support will come from DJ Mustard – who’s supporting on all dates. He’ll warm up the crowd between doors and main act. Setlist According to Setlist.fm, here’s what Kend

Last weekend London said goodbye to an icon: Pryzm Kingston. After more than 20 glorious years of messy nights out and absurdly small gigs from stars like Stormzy, Billie Eilish, Rod Stewart and Billie Eilish, the Clarence Street club had its final party last Sunday (July 13). The shuttering of Pryzm Kingston marks the end of an era, no doubt – but it could also be the start of an entirely new one. Today (July 17) it’s been confirmed that the site will be converted into two new venues as part of a £3 million makeover. Plans for the building were unveiled by Pryzm Kingston’s then-new owners Neos Hospitality back in February, but we’ve since had further details. The two new venues will be named Circuit and Bonnie Rogues, and Circuit could open as soon as this summer. Two-room club Circuit will be on the first and second floors, and apparently be an ‘electrifying late-night experience’ that is ‘built for pure celebrations’, featuring ‘cutting edge sound’ and ‘immersive lighting’. This is the venue pencilled in for a summer 2025 opening. Bonnie Rogues, meanwhile, will be on the old Pryzm’s ground floor and sounds like more of a live music venue and pub than a club. In fact, Neos describes Bonnies as a modern British pub ‘with a rebellious twist’. It’s set for an autumn opening. Kingston’s Pryzm occupied the Grade II-listed former Granada Cinema on Clarence Road. The cinema opened in 1939 and shut in 1987, before opening as an Oceana nightclub in 2003. We will, of course, have to

If you’ve ever walked the stretch of the north bank of the Thames between Blackfriars and Waterloo bridges, you may well have passed a long, sleek, white military ship. You probably didn’t think much about it – but it’s actually one of London’s most famous ships and a one-of-a-kind floating piece of history. That ship is HMS Wellington and it’s best known for being a convoy escort during the Battle of the Atlantic in World War II. Built in 1934, the 81-metre, 1200-ton ship saved hundreds of lives in the Battle of the Atlantic (1939-1945), and it’s now the battle’s last surviving convoy escort in the UK. After the war HMS Wellington was bought by the Honourable Company of Master Mariners, and since 2005 it’s been looked after by the Wellington Trust. These days it can be found docked at Temple Stairs on Victoria Embankment, but it’s only opened to the public on a select few occasions.  HMS Wellington has been in the midst of a grand restoration since April 2023 – and now it’s finally ready to welcome visitors. The ship is set to open to the public this weekend, welcoming visitors from Saturday July 19.  From Saturday the ship will be open every Saturday, Sunday and Monday, through to Sunday August 31. The opening hours will be from 10am to 5pm, and tickets will be £20 for the 30-minute wartime VR experience and £32 for both the VR and a guided ship’s tour. You can book either on the official website here or onboard (subject to availability)  Back in January the Wellington Trus

Britain is an island nation and so, naturally, has no shortage of coastline. When it comes to seaside attractions the UK’s fabulously diverse array of coastal towns and excellent roster of beaches might first spring to mind, but our coasts are also packed with history. From the dramatic, fossil-laden Jurassic Coast to Victorian resort towns, Britain’s seaside history is seriously fascinating. It’s that side of the seaside that Historic England intends to highlight with a new interactive map. The map doesn’t go back as far as the Jurassic Period (which was just over 200 million years ago) but it does stretch back pretty far into the archives, celebrating nearly 300 years of England’s seaside history. Elegant Victorian piers, 20th century amusement parks, heritage-listed lifeboat houses, gorgeous lidos, mighty lighthouses and pretty beach huts – these are just some of the coastal landmarks you’ll find in Historic England’s map. Image; Historic England Better yet, Historic England is encouraging people to add to the map. If any of the landmarks hold personal significance to you, you can submit photographs, drawing, written info or audio recordings. It’s part of the organisation’s wider Missing Pieces Project, which is all about uncovering the hidden significance of places on the National Heritage List for England. Image; Historic England Commenting on the new map, heritage minister Baroness Twycross said: ‘Our seaside communities play a huge role in telling our national stor

Fans of Poundland will know all too well that it’s hardly even Poundland anymore. Gone are the days when you knew exactly how much everything costs – you’ve got to check the labels these days to make sure you’re not being charged a fiver. Despite that, there is still one thing it appears you can get for just a quid: the shop itself. That’s not a joke. Last month the entirety of Poundland was sold by its owners Pepco to a US investment company called Gordon Brothers (who used to own Laura Ashley) for a ‘nominal fee’ of a single pound. Following the sale a huge restructuring was announced, with 68 stores set to close. A further 70 Poundlands could shut as a result of the brand seeking rent reductions and lease expirations, and in total more than 1,000 jobs could be at risk.  Poundland currently employs over 16,000 people across 792 branches in the UK and Ireland. The chain hasn’t yet announced which shops will close.  The sale of Poundland didn’t come as a huge shock, as the company has been struggling from low profits for the past year. The low cost is not quite the deal that it appears at face value – it could cost the new owners up to £100 million to get the brand back on its feet. Pepco maintains that this does not mean that it’s the end of Poundland, stating that it ‘remains a key player in UK discount retail, with millions of customers annually and a well-loved brand and proposition’, and adding that this is simply a move to ‘[simplify] the group and [focus] on our succes

London boasts some of the planet’s most prestigious universities, from the London School of Economics (LSE) and Imperial to King’s College and UCL. In QS’s latest 2026 ranking of the best universities in the world, two of those unis cracked the top 10 – with Imperial impressively placing second overall. So, we know that the capital has some top-tier unis but academic prestige aside, how good is London for students? Pretty great, it turns out, as QS has just published its ranking of the best student cities in the world – and London ranks very highly indeed. QS (Quacquarelli Symonds, a higher education analytics firm) ranked its student cities according to a range of factors. Cities were judged based on metrics ranging from affordability, safety, pollution levels and inclusivity to youth employment levels, the number of international students and, of course, the number of high-performing educational institutions. Surveys of actual students also played an important part in the study.   London has dominated QS’s student cities ranking for years, having topped the list for six years between 2018 and 2024. This year our capital has slightly slipped down the ranking, but it’s still right up near the top. London placed third, behind Seoul and Tokyo but ahead of any other city in Europe. The Big Smoke thrived in most of QS’s major categories, receiving very high scores for its ‘student mix’, ‘employer activity’, ‘desirability’ and for the prestige of its universities. London also scor

Last year a London building won the Stirling Prize, which is the most prestigious award in UK architecture and one of the world’s most respected design prizes. None other than the Elizabeth line scooped the award, with the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) – which runs the award – praising the line as a ‘flawless, efficient, beautifully choreographed solution to inner-city transport’. The process of crowning the next Stirling Prize winner is already underway, with RIBA last week (on July 10) announcing its 2025 National Award winners. The National Awards, which have been held since 1966, are intended to both celebrate the best new pieces of British architecture and ‘provide insight into the country's design and social trends’. Of RIBA’s 20 National Award winners, a whopping eight are in London – and they feature some very familiar faces. The Elizabeth Tower – which is home to Big Ben – and Young V&A were among the award winners. The Elizabeth Tower picked up the gong for its conservation and refurbishment project, which started in 2015 and was undertaken by Purcell (architects which also revamped the National Portrait Gallery). Purcell didn’t just repair much of the tower; the firm also had to fix ‘detrimental previous interventions’. RIBA praised the project for its ‘extensive’ stone repairs, but also for the installation of a passenger lift. Photograph: House of Commons Young V&A (previously known at the V&A Museum of Childhood) reopened in 2023 to become ‘the

Back in April Marks and Spencer announced that it would be pumping a whopping £90 million into its London stores – and that the capital would soon receive six new M&S Food Halls. This week one of those supermarkets will officially open its doors in a prime east London location. Marks and Sparks’ new Food Hall will open on Leytonstone High Road this Thursday, July 17 at 9am. The store, which is spread over 12,000 feet and takes over the site of an old Matalan, will boast a bakery, coffee station and flower and wine shops – as well as, of course, M&S’ usual food offerings. A total of 55 new jobs have been created for the store, including 14 from M&S’s Marks and Starts youth training scheme. The scheme is run with The King's Trust and helps 16 to 30 year-olds gain retail experience. Commenting on the new opening, Councillor Ahsan Khan, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Housing at Waltham Forest Council, said: ‘Supporting our young residents into employment is a priority for us at the council, and I am delighted that Waltham Forest residents have secured new jobs through the Marks and Start programme. Our employment teams have worked closely with M&S in the past, so it’s great that we have been able to work together again to help even more young people gain employability skills. ‘This has been made possible by our regenerative work in the borough, looking at new opportunities for our town centres, attracting reputable retailers like M&S to expand locally.’ Mar