The Cheesecake-Off 2026 will feature some of London's best restaurant and bakery teams, including Big Mamma Group and Cakes & Bubbles by Albert Adrià, competing for the ultimate cheesecake title.
The Victorian building is set to become a 2,300-capacity venue, which the company says will showcase 'a wide range of artists'. The building dates back to 1896, when it was used as a theatre and opera house, before closing its doors in 1933. After that, it became a cinema - though this, too, closed in 1969.
The Museum of Youth Culture is set to open in Camden, featuring a collection of 100,000 items that document Britain's hidden teen history, from rockers' leather jackets to modern school leavers' hoodies.
This part of London sits just outside the historic City walls, so it attracted traders who wanted to avoid the strict rules binding City merchants. The land was later acquired by Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Cleveland, who developed it, hence the main road being named Wentworth Street. If you're wondering about Ann's Place, that was probably after his wife, Anne Hopton.
Brick Lane is one of London's most beloved, and buzzing, areas. Home to the largest Bangladeshi community outside of Bangladesh, nowadays the cobbled street in the East End is known just as much for its curry houses and vintage shops as its ubiquity of fashionable young shoppers, TikTokkers and trendy coffee shops. At the centre of Brick Lane is the great Truman Brewery. Currently, the building that was once London's largest brewery is home to food and vintage markets, record stores, music venues and more.
Two men reportedly fired shots at an elite police unit during a car chase in southern Germany Tuesday evening, causing a road accident in which five people were lightly injured. Officers from the Spezialeinsatzkommando (special deployment unit, or SEK) had attempted to arrest three men, aged 23, 24 and 30, in the small town of Absberg near the city of Nuremberg on suspicion of illegal possession of weapons.
Bringing such a culturally and historically significant building back into public use has been a huge privilege for everyone involved. This restoration has taken years of considered collaboration and care, guided by a shared commitment to do justice to the Town Hall's heritage while giving it a new lease of life and protecting it for future generations to enjoy.
Officially known as Congregation Chaim Albert but known colloquially as the Kingsbrook Synagogue, the synagogue was part of a Jewish hospital founded in 1928 in response to antisemitism in nearby hospitals and to meet the needs of local Jewish patients. For nearly 100 years, the synagogue has served Jewish hospital patrons and residents in the surrounding neighborhood of East Flatbush and Crown Heights.
The Hackney Half is one of the most popular races in the city, which means getting a spot at the event is no easy feat. Good thing then that another half marathon will be hosted in east London this year. After the success of the Run Shoreditch 10K, the organisers (the very same behind the Hackney Half, the Oxford Half and the Saucony London 10K) are turning it onto a half distance race for 2026.
Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
Before Queer Britain launched in King's Cross in 2022, there wasn't a single museum in the whole of the UK that focused on LGBTQ+ history. Four years later, it's still the only space of its kind. The museum closed for redevelopment at the end of November, but this week it's back with six brand new displays and a rich lineup of special temporary exhibitions. Queer Britain will reopen its doors at 2 Granary Square in King's Cross on Wednesday February 4.
Great news, culture vultures; it's the start of a brand new year, and that means a host of new exhibitions to look forward to. January is pretty quiet for new openings - we're all too busy watching The Traitors and trying not to spend any money - but there's plenty of unmissable culture on the horizon in the capital, from flashy fashion and design retrospectives to deep-dives into ageing, fandom and the studio behind everyone's favourite claymation canine and inventor duo. Joyless health kicks got you feeling glum? Stop meal prepping and start planning an enriching cultural diet instead, with our guide to the biggest and best museum openings coming up over the next year.
London's Mosaic Rooms is reopening on 18 February after a year-long refurbishment, with new facilities, a new charitable status and a new director. But the organisation's focus, says its director Pip Day, remains the same: art and culture from the Arab world and beyond. Since the Mosaic Rooms launched in 2008 it has been a consistent platform in the UK for major artists from the Arab region, such as Heba Y. Amin, Sandi Hilal and Alessandro Petti, and Mohammed Omar Khalil.
The afternoon starts with a tour of the Old Bailey, including the courtrooms, the judges' dining room, and the cells below. If you've booked the afternoon tea, you're taken back up to the richly decorated Great Hall for an afternoon tea surrounded by all the pomp and grandeur that the hall can deliver.
Last month, plans were submitted for Whitechapel Healthcare and Research Campus, a £750m development that would provide homes for key workers and supposedly address needs for more green spaces and community facilities. The proposal for the campus comes from investment firm BGO in collaboration with PLP Architecture and Barts Health NHS Trust. It's part of the newly announced Barts Life Science Cluster.
The pavement along Barking Road in Plaistow is a blur through the front windows and deserted, and there are only two customers in the shop. Another sign this one on the counter says CASH ONLY. Card machine companies often tell proprietor Nathan Jacobi that he's missing out by not catering to customers who favour cashless transactions. They're the ones missing out, he says. Cos they ain't getting pie and mash.
For most of its life, the alley's main feature was the church of St Martin Orgar, possibly named after Ordgarus, a Dane who donated the church to the canons of St Paul's. Sadly, most of the church was destroyed during the Great Fire of London. The badly damaged remains were restored and used by French Protestants right up to 1820.