The London Minute ⏰ Wednesday 9 July 2025
Lewisham flat fire, low-traffic zones 'cut deaths', tennis court battle begins, thousands raised for Windrush art + the history of Tube heat hacks
🌤️ Good morning London. Here’s Wednesday’s London Minute.
🔥 A block of flats was ‘destroyed’ in a fire overnight in Lewisham. Three people were evacuated while around 70 firefighters with ten fire engines tackled the blaze through the night. - London Fire Bridge posted this update + Brooke Davies filed this report in the Metro this morning.
🚔 The family of a cyclist who died in hospital five days after being hit by a car in Wanstead Flats have called for speed cameras to be installed in an area ‘notorious for the lack of road safety’, reports Ross Lydall in The Standard.
⮑ Barry Shonibare was 71. There have been no arrests and police are appealing for witnesses to the creash.
🚦 Low-traffic neighbourhoods reduced road injuries and deaths by more than a third, with no apparent negative safety effect on nearby roads, a new study has found. But of the 113 London LTNs examined, 27 have already been taken out. - Peter Walker, The Guardian.
🚔 A group of men have been convicted for their roles in an arson attack ordered by the Wagner terroris group on Leyton warehouse linked to Ukraine. - Jamie Grierson, The Guardian.
💰 British Transport Police have released CCTV images of three women after £10,000 in cash was stolen from a man’s bag at Paddington station. - Lucy Williamson, MyLondon.
⮑ Police have named more than 30 London locations as anti-social behaviour hotspots where they are stepping up patrols this summer. - Jess Warren, BBC London News.
🎾 Dozens of ‘Save Wimbledon Park’ campaigners were at the High Court yesterday for the first of a two-day review into whether or not land previously approved for the expansion of the Wimbledon tennis site is legally protected from being built on. The hearing continues today. - BBC News + a video report by Rags Martel on ITV News.
🗳️ Sarah King has been elected the next leader of Southwark Labour, and therefore effectively the council, in a re-run of last Monday’s vote. - Issy Clarke, Southwark News.
⚽️ A non-league football team partly owned by footballer Wilfried Zaha and musician Stormzy has had to cancel games after a group broke into Mayfield Sports Arena to drive caravans onto the pitch. - Harrison Galliven, Local Democracy Reporter, This Is Local London.
🔭 The observatory overlooking Greenwich Park is getting a £77 million renovation. - India Lawrence, Time Out.
🖼️ A campaign has raised more than £4,500 to replace large portraits at Brixton’s Windrush Untold Stories exhibition that were vandalised at the weekend. - It’s on GoFundMe here.
🖼️ The Bayeux Tapestry will go on display at the British Museum next year, on loan from France. - Will Noble, Londonist.
🎭 “Art is serious business, but that doesn’t mean viewers have to keep a stiff upper lip. Hopefully one of the dozen shows listed below has something that makes you smile!” - The city's latest galleries and exhibitions are reviewed by Darren from London Art Roundup.
🚇 Ventilating the Tube has been a problem for more than 100 years. A lot of effort has gone in to trying to keep the trains cool and there have been a lot of failed ideas. - Jago Hazzard looks at the history of heat hacks.
✌️ Better news
This section aims to include better news from all over London. It’s a wide range of things, and as always you’re welcome to submit yours here. My hope is that it inspires more civic pride and community spirit, new plans in your calendar and a few smiles or laughs along the way.
👀 Two huge disused spaces in the Barbican Arts Centre could be reopened as part of the wider Barbican Renewal project. - Ian Mansfield of IanVisits. Also:
🍸 ‘London’s nighttime economy is crumbling. Yet the show must go on’, writes writes Evelina Girling, CEO and co-founder of The London Cabaret Club in today’s City AM Notebook.
🌊 Volunteers are invited to help at a beach cleaning event on Friday morning along the River Thames in Battersea, starting by St Mary’s Church. - More details via Battersea Beat.
📌 The London Minute Community Noticeboard:
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📌 “Chan's Chinese (East Ham) is closing after almost 80 years. Local institution that was a favourite of photographer David Bailey. Last day on 23 July. Gutting.” - Thanks to subscriber Jared for sharing this.
⮑ Sure enough, Bailey described it as ‘The only place I ever ate out in the East End’.
📌 “A statue of the UK's first professional female landscape gardener, who laid out more than 75 London parks and gardens, has been unveiled in south-west London. The bronze statue of Fanny Wilkinson, who was born 170 years ago, has been installed on a renovated Edwardian drinking fountain in Coronation Gardens in Wandsworth.” - Thanks to the Heritage of London Trust for sharing this.
📈 The most-viewed links from the last newsletter:
🤠 Dress and cowboy boots are ‘London’s outfit of the moment’ says Vogue.
🌡️ ‘London homes at "acute risk" of overheating - can we adapt fast enough?’
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London… Oh, London! How I love her … https://substack.com/home/post/p-167930273?source=queue
I never realised how many fires happen every day in London until I started reading The London Minute! 🔥🧯🧑🚒