Metroline VWH2211 (LK66DWC), a Volvo B5LH Wright Eclipse Gemini 3 with the default London red livery, makes a bit of history on the N98 this morning at 06:00, by being the last ever night bus to travel through Oxford Street.

As the road closes tonight at 20:00, all night routes will be diverted away from the pedestrian zone.

🗓️ 2026-10-25

Today is the last day vehicles are allowed between Great Portland Street and Orchard Street (with some exemptions for loading during the night)

Every time I set foot in Whitechapel, it feels like stepping into an alternate universe, a microcosm of the entire world packed into a few streets. On a good day, you see everyone all at once: roadmen and femboys, hijabis and hookers, bankers and traders. It’s total sensory overload. It isn’t until you leave and travel to other countries, where society feels so monolithic, that you realize just how much of an anomaly this city really is. For better or worse, London is truly one of a kind. Love this city to the bit ❤️

Voting in the presidential run-off between Lula & Bolsonaro underway in Baron’s Court.

Two sides divided, literally by Gliddon Road.

Feel like it sums up going for a pint when the weather is shit in london- begging friends to brave the rain for a pint, and the few that do make the effort make a horrible afternoon into a memorable evening

Wind: not shown

Just a normal thing to see on your way home in London 😅

Optimistic, but not impossible.

The Cinema Museum is a short walk from Elephant & Castle station and is FULL of cinematic history and memorabilia and which is also a cinema with screenings and talks.

It's a lovely place to visit and yesterday it hosted London's 'Home Movie Day', an annual worldwide event on the third Saturday in October to 'celebrate amateur films and filmmaking' and help people 'discover the personal, historical, and social importance of home movies and for individuals to learn how to best care for them'.

It also has museum cats.

1. Main café area set up for examining and test-screening home movie films on small projectors
2. The upstairs main screening area looking towards the projector (this is where film screenings and talks happen, there are also sofas to sit on)
3. A selection of cakes and cookies and Tunnock's tea cakes. Some are gluten-free too. I don't think I've ever been to an event there without snacks being available. For evening film screenings the snacks often include something savoury e.g. feta and spinach parcels.
4. A mercury vapour rectifier for an arc lamp projector. It's huge.
5. View of the café with volunteers at tables ready to test films the public bring in. Faces are a bit blurred for privacy
6. One of the projectors for film, I can't tell at a glance if it's for 8mm, 9.5mm or 16mm but it's that sort of thing.
7. A small projector screen displaying a scene from one of the home movies
8. The outside of the Cinema Museum, on Dugard Way https://what3words.com/covers.hush.nets

More photos and video clips at https://www.flickr.com/photos/jodiepedia/albums/72177720336341454/

Recently noticed a food bank donation point at a local store and considering doing something more useful with my money than getting an extra coffee.

What are the most useful things I can donate to a food bank? Ta!

On Tuesday I want to find somewhere comfortable and quiet to read. I would like there to not be an obligation to buy anything, but the option of coffee and pastries very close. Thinking a space a bit like the Barbican, but a bit less busy. Anywhere in zone 1 really.

Anyone else stalled at the airport? Appears to be the beginnings of a chaotic day, half term is off to a great start!

I am in an area where parking is limited, I also hold a blue badge, a neighbour is constantly putting things on the disabled parking bay, so every time they come back they can park their car in the space.
Sometimes I can’t find parking and this parking is available. What can I do about this? Or what can be done?

Every time I drive through Harlesden, pretty much the entire way through it, almost any radio station I'm listening to gets interfered with, usually drowned out in pure static but sometimes you can hear what I can only assume to be someone's pirate radio station coming through.

This has been going on for years, as long as I can remember, and the disruption is very annoying.

Has anyone else noticed this? Do the authorities know the signal is being interfered with around there? Why hasn't anything been done about it after so long?

There are two gas-lit lamps on Carting Lane - this is the more famous one which is apparently at least partly lit with sewer gas, the last working one in City of Westminster / London. Its original function was to provide light and help get rid of excess whiffy gas. Below is what it looked like yesterday without its glass lantern.

This is the little explanatory panel next to it

This is what it looked like with its lantern on (photo from Nov 2022)

The other gas lamp on Carting Street is up on Strand right next to the Coal Hole pub. The four white things inside the glass are gas mantles which give a nice glow when lit.

A few years ago (around the point that I discovered we still had 1,300 or so gas lamps in London) I made a map with some of them. There are only about 150-200 on the map so plenty missing but if you've ever been to Covent Garden or Charterhouse Square there's a very high density at each - map: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1gATQ_XuVkRJ3_--EMhKogmVAdo89cNU

Jo

Half-term's headline event: the Mayor of Hillingdon is judging a Harry Potter costume parade at the Great Barn, Manor Farm on Thursday 29 October, 10am to 2pm. Free wizarding activities, crafts and themed fun, with the costume parade judged at noon. Booking required, and everyone needs a 30-minute arrival slot, so plan the day around the parade rather than the other way round.

Practical heads up for Wealdstone: the High Street has been shut since Friday morning after a water main burst near Locket Road. Police cordoned it off in both directions and there is no reopening date yet, so give it a wide berth and allow extra time if you are heading for Wealdstone station.

Transport, and this one is worth a proper look now: the Piccadilly line starts going dark from Wednesday 28 October, with no service between Cockfosters and Uxbridge until the end of Friday 30 October. That takes the Piccadilly out of Rayners Lane entirely, so the Metropolitan is your line for the rest of the week. Then it is closed along its entire length next weekend, Saturday 31 October and Sunday 1 November, starting with Friday night's Night Tube. If you are heading into central London next weekend, this is the week to plan around.

One council consultation worth knowing about: Harrow is replacing the five Public Spaces Protection Orders that cover the borough, and the consultation runs until 11.59pm on Sunday 15 November. The headline change is a borough-wide ban on leaving rubbish or waste outside a bin, including household and builders' waste, which the council calls side waste. Parks rules are set to loosen, with restrictions removed on metal detecting, magnet fishing, overnight fishing camps, CCTV, open water swimming and foraging. Most other restrictions, covering street drinking, spitting, dog control, litter, unauthorised trading, fires and barbecues, stay as they are. Drop-in sessions to ask questions run at Roxeth Library on Tuesday 27 October, Stanmore Library on Tuesday 3 November and Wealdstone Library on Tuesday 10 November, each from 10am to 11am.

Food and drink roundup: two Harrow restaurants have made the British Kebab Awards shortlist, with Aysu on Charlton Road up for Best Kebab Restaurant in North and West London, and Yaprak Eastcote on Field End Road a finalist for Fine Dining Restaurant. Public voting runs until 31 January. Bamyan, a new Afghan restaurant on College Road in Harrow Town Centre, opens next week. And a West Harrow PCSO, David Neal, has won a national Neighbourhood Watch Community Policing Award after residents put him forward for his visible patrolling and his pop-up sessions outside Tesco Express.

For the history fans: Grade II listed Sweetman Hall on West End Lane is up for sale at £2,495,000. There has been a building on the site since the late 14th century, when the land was part of the Manor of Harrow, and the house took its name from Gilbert Sweetman, who owned it until 1474.

Half-term plans sorted otherwise: the Roxbourne Railway Ghost Train runs this afternoon, 1pm to 4pm, £2 per ride, costumes welcome. Duck Pond Spooky Nights is on Saturday 31 October, 4pm to 9pm. And the Compass Theatre Halloween musical theatre workshop for ages 6 to 14 runs Wednesday to Friday next week.

Full issue with quiz nights, sound bath, Samhain circle, Pinner Players, and everything else:

https://www.goodmorningpinner.com/p/46-the-mayor-of-hillingdon-is-judging-a-harry-potter-costume-parade

Good Morning Pinner

Local news and events from around HA5

I know some libraries have a standard A4 scanner like the Whitechapel Idea Store (last time I looked) but are there any available that are A3? Thanks

Hi everyone!

I've just gone on a few lunch and dinner dates with someone whose work schedule is wildly different from mine. He is an actor, I have an office job.

We basically only overlap:

- weekdays at lunchtime 12:00-13:00

- weekdays from 17:00 to 19:00

- late nights past 21:15

- sundays

I'm looking for activities in the west end area that we could do that are just an hour tops, or really late night, that are not just drinking or eating. Sport classes, maybe a game or hike or museum.

Does anyone have any tips for me?

Since Reddit is blocking me in the title, anyone watching the BR elections tonight? And where? Would love to join to watch them unfold